Fingers singed her hips. The cold, hard tip of Traquero’s dick pressed against her rectum. Her muscles tensed on the verge of springing. He shoved.

The burn ripped through her and cut her breath. Pinpricks seared the backs of her eyes. He didn’t give her time to adjust, pounding her in a relentless beating. Oh God, this wasn’t how Van fucked her. Not even close.

Dots blurred her vision. Her fingers cramped around the chair back. “Slow down, goddammit.” Her command was thick with saliva and cracked with tears.

The vicious gouging in her ass sped up. Cruel, motherfucking prick. She shook with so much hate, her thoughts swarmed toward rash decisions, all of them involving Traquero’s insides splattered over the room. As his dick punched a fist of fire inside her over and over, she tucked all those images into the harsh, broken chambers of her soul and soothed herself with a promise. The son of a bitch would die. Her throat burned, her eyes smearing. Maybe not tonight but very fucking soon.

His punishing stabs punctured and branded. Fire and ice. Stretch and rip. Fuck, it hurt so much. She was sure her skin was tearing. She wanted to die.

Eventually, her mind recoiled, pulling her into that lonely corner inside herself where it was just her and her songs and numb paralysis.

She searched for the right tune, a calming verse, fumbling, arms outstretched. But instead of her voice, she found Josh’s waist, hugged it, pressed her forehead against the chains on his abs, the velvet skin on his back warming her fingertips.

The hurt in her rectum was a dull burn, rising through her. She cleaved to Josh with her hands and her heart. He was all around her, his breaths singing for her, his shackled arms floating above her, his tensile muscles absorbing her pain.

Traquero’s grunts punctuated each forceful jab. “Come with me, slave.”

Josh’s cock remained unresponsive beneath her chin. He wouldn’t be able to come, not like this.

A hand fisted the scarf on her head, tangled with her hair. He used it to angle her to the side, exposing Josh’s flaccid state. “Damn you.” He panted, slowing his thrusts. “Make him come. Use your mouth, whore.” He released her head with a shove.

A shiver swept through her. He was either mindless in his methods or he was testing her. Did this violate the first requirement prohibiting sexual intimacy with women? No, she’d jerked him off countless times in training. Blow jobs were allowed, and Mr. E expected her to do anything to seal the deal.

“Do it,” he bellowed and slammed into her so hard the chair screeched backward.

She balled her hand until the trembling subsided then tugged the scarf from her nose to her neck.

Josh would hate her for doing this. In this place. While her ass was getting fucked. Guilt gnarled in her chest as she gripped the base of his soft cock. The merest lift of his hips nudged her hand.

She glanced up at his face, hoping to find acceptance there. But his eyes were on Traquero, his features heartbreakingly blank. He flexed again, the clench of his ass and thigh muscles urging her.

It wasn’t consent, but it was enough to lower her head. She kissed the tip of his cock, closed her eyes, and drew him into her mouth.

Chapter 30

Oh, sweet God in heaven. Josh’s boiling anger shuddered off his body the moment Liv’s lips wrapped around him. Every molecule of thought descended into the wet clasp of her mouth. He swelled against her tongue in a violent surge of blood, his balls alive with electric shocks.

Nothing compared to the unfathomable suction of her lips, and he would’ve been lost in the pleasure if Traquero weren’t brutalizing her backside. It required a double-backboned power of will to stare into Traquero’s eyes of soulless black and regather his brain cells.

Maybe if he hadn’t lived such a sheltered life, he could’ve predicted this, would’ve been able to stop it. Now all he could do was trust that she’d made the best decision for her loved ones without destroying herself in the process. No matter what happened, he intended to be there to help her heal.

He squeezed his fists so tight the wires broke skin, grounding him in a way his prayers hadn’t. Why didn’t she just let Traquero force him instead? Didn’t she know watching her suffer was a torture worse than experiencing it firsthand? Perhaps the same rang true for her. She’d promised to protect him, and he hadn’t realized what it would cost her.

What could he do? He didn’t have his arms, but if he stood, kicked high and hard in that vile face, he might— Might what? Buy them time to run? That wouldn’t save her family.

Her trembling fingers clutched at his waist, and he was thankful for the cage of chains and the command that held his eyes hostage. One downward look at the savage motion of hips, or worse, if he found a haunted expression on her face while she sucked him, his obedient slave routine would shatter.

“Come now.” Traquero’s voice was an abrasive rasp, bred by a hundred stolen thrusts.

She responded by accelerating the speed and intensity of her sucking, pumping her fist in sync with her mouth, urging him to comply. And he would. He would end this for her.

He kept his eyes on Traquero but didn’t see him, his mind chasing every beautiful and painful thing he loved about this girl. Her guarded brown eyes, her rare smile, the purity of her voice, the cut of her whip, her lips sliding over his length. The grip she held on his heart and her control over his body made him ache, sped his pulse, tightened his groin, gathering, reaching.

Traquero grunted. “Come.”

Only for her. He held it, let it coil, until she pinched his backside. His climax barreled through him, strangled his breath. He gave it to her, all of him, raw and willing, his release in her mouth so intimate, the room melted away. He was on her tongue, dripping down her throat, fusing with her body. Just the two of them. He was hers.

The horrors around him snapped back with Traquero’s gasp. “Unnngh.” The bastard’s body doubled over her arched spine, trapping her chest against Josh’s thigh. The wife wailed a pitiful moan, and he laughed. Then he stood, stuffed the used condom in his pocket, and tucked himself into his slacks. “Get up.” He jerked his bald head at Liv.

She replaced the scarf over her nose and mouth. Josh ached for her, and that ache erupted into a burning rage. He wanted her to remind Traquero she wasn’t a slave, even as he knew she wouldn’t be able to reason with a man whose evil bled from his skin to his bones.

She adjusted her skirt and rose with shoulders stiff, hands fisted, and eyes smoldering like embers of a dying fire. “Boy, go stand by the door.”

Dammit, Liv. He knew she was sending him out of harm’s way, but what about her safety? If he disobeyed, the deal would fall through and her family would suffer.

He fixed his gaze on the floor and crossed the room, sweat dripping down his back in his effort to obey. Every step away from her killed him.

“Give me the referral, and we have a deal.” She wielded her voice like a blade slashing the air, but there was a slight hitch in the inhale that followed. Pain from the brutality she’d endured? Fear of what might happen next?

Traquero paced a circuit around the room, gathering his suit jacket and straightening his tie. “I don’t like what I see.”

Her laugh was a cold shiver. “What, his cock’s too big for you? His face is too pretty? What the fuck do you not like?”

“He comes for you, not me.”

The man just did unspeakable things to her and had the balls to sound petulant. Josh was a hairsbreadth from body slamming him. He locked his legs. To stand there and do absolutely nothing flung his nervous system into a havoc of messed-up signals. His muscles pumped to use physical force while his brain bellowed the consequences.