WHAT AM I doing? The thought keeps coming and going. When he isn’t touching me, I know I need to get dressed and away from this man. But each time he touches me, I lose myself in his arms.
I kissed him when he told me he had a lead. Now that we’re closer to getting them back, I need Lucca on my side so he will let them go free.
It’s a big ask, and at first, I thought of giving him my virginity. But now, being here under him, I know I need to stop this.
His tongue swirls around my nipple, and the dampness is heavy between my legs. His manhood looks so much bigger than I expected it to be. That would hurt. I’m sure of it.
Lucca’s lips find me, and his kiss is quick and sharp. His kisses are bruising, and I should stop this, but I’m kissing him back, following what he does.
His erection is pressed against my thigh. I keep considering touching it to please him, but fear keeps my hands on his shoulders. I want to be brave enough to tease him, but I’m not.
Not that he needs me to entice him. His fingers fall lower, closer to my opening, and my legs open slightly on their own accord. Lucca stops and looks at me.
The silver of his eyes is a dark, stormy gray. All his muscles seem more prominent, and he climbs off the bed.
“Don’t move.” The warning is quick, but as he leaves me lying naked on the bed, I’m tempted to reach down and get my clothes. I sit up.
“Don’t move,” he repeats, reappearing with a jar in his hand.
“What is that?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer but climbs back on the bed, leaving the jar on the bed beside us. I’m trying to read the label when he kisses me again and pushes me back down. This time, his manhood is positioned right at my opening. It’s terrifying, but right now, I’ve never felt more alive.
Reaching down, Lucca takes his erection in his hand and rubs it against me. It causes a ripple that grows and amplifies through my body, and when he nips my nipple, I cry out at all the different sensations.
“I want to fuck you,” Lucca whispers in my ear before biting my earlobe, and he spins me around. His body is hard against me, and he reaches around to my front and grips my breasts.
I’m aware of every single place our flesh touches. The dampness between my legs is growing as he pushes himself against my back opening.
I glance to my left as he picks up the jar.
A warm, oily substance is rubbed into my back passage, and I’m trying to pull away.
“It’s okay. It will be nice,” Lucca says, and his fingers move in circles around my opening. I don’t want to like it, but it’s sending electricity throughout my whole body. It feels like too much. All of it feels like too much, but I don’t want him to stop.
He presses a finger against my back opening, and it sinks in. I look at him over my shoulder. He’s gripping his large penis in his hand, moving it back and forth as he pushes his finger deeper into my ass.
When he removes his finger, I can’t look away as he covers his manhood in the oily substance and strokes it a few more times. I’m on all fours and facing forward as he moves in behind me. My body tenses with fear, waiting for pain, but he only rests his erection at my back passage as he reaches around and touches me.
The dampness that had been drying up comes back again, and when his other hand grips my breasts, my body relaxes. I feel him push into me.
“Lucca.” I want this, but I don’t know what’s happening.
“Enjoy it.” He pushes deeper, and when he grows, my body tightens and relaxes over and over again.
I stop fighting this and close my eyes as he goes deeper into my back passage. He’s moving slowly, but his hand is working at my front, and I’m panting as my body tightens and relaxes, the sensations growing more and more intense. I want more, but I don’t know if I can take it.
Without uttering a word, Lucca pushes himself deeper inside me, and I can’t stop the instant pleasure that takes over me, and I call out his name again as I come.
He removes himself from my ass, and I’m trying to catch myself as I turn to see him touching his manhood. A creamy white substance pours from the head and all over my ass. It’s warm and thick, and I’m awed by the look on his face. Power roars through my veins as we stare at each other. I never thought it would feel this way to have someone touch me and make me come. I most certainly never thought watching someone else come could be so rewarding.
Lucca stops stroking himself and grins at me. My heart starts to rise again as his grin turns into a smile I’ve never seen before, and I’m smiling back at him.
He climbs off the bed, then leans in and scoops me up. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I study his face as he carries me into the bathroom. It’s not as grand as the penthouse, but it’s his. Bottles of shower gel and hair products are on a stand in the shower he puts my feet down into. He turns on the water, and I take a moment to check him out. Even his bum is solid. Warm water flicks close to me.
“Take your time,” Lucca says before stepping out of the shower. I step into the spray of water and start to wash.
I feel like a woman. I remember the first time I bled. It was terrifying and painful, but afterward, I felt like a real woman. That’s exactly how this feels now, like I’m a fully-fledged woman.
I take my time and wash my body. I touch my ass, expecting it to be sore, but it’s just sensitive to the touch. They didn’t teach us that on the ship.
I finish washing, and when I return to the bedroom, Lucca isn’t there. I feel disappointed until I see fresh clothes have been laid out on the bed for me.
A pair of dark jeans and a purple top lie on the bed. My bra is on the floor, and I pick it up and start to get dressed. I’m tempted to look around the room to learn more about Lucca, but he enters the room with wet hair from a recent shower. He is redressed in black trousers and a white shirt. His silver eyes look stark.
I know my intentions for kissing him were so I could convince him to free my sisters, but at his first touch, something shifted, and now I want to know more about Lucca. I want to know the man I wanted.
“I’m from Ireland.”
Lucca runs his hand through his dark hair but pauses at my words.
“I had this weird obsession with swimming at night. My parents warned me about the current, but…” I shrug and sit down on the bed. “I didn’t listen to them.”
Lucca steps into the room.
“This one night, I found a girl. She was about my age.”
I want Lucca to ask me questions. I want him to become invested in me. If I can make him see me as a person and not a thing, I might have a chance at saving my sisters.
“Her boat had washed up on our shoreline. I tried to help her, but I got dragged into the water and was knocked unconscious.” I swallow the pain that feels like it was only inflicted yesterday.
“I was ten. I was stolen from the shores of County Clare, from my parents.” Pain burns my chest and tightens around my heart. Lucca is watching me, but he isn’t reacting.
“The girl I tried to save was recaptured by the men who had stolen her from her home. They made an example of her, a warning to the rest of us not to run. She died at my feet.” I blink from the tears and let them fall. The pain is still so raw. “I died there, too,” I whisper.
“I’m sorry.” Lucca isn’t sorry. His words are empty.
“I was a child.” I’m standing now, trying to connect with the humanity that is in us all.
He doesn’t speak, and I can see I’m losing any sympathy I had.
“You asked me who I was trying to ring. You still want to know?”
He doesn’t. I can see it in his eyes.
“My parents, in Ireland. Who, to this day, I’m sure are still looking for their ten-year-old daughter.”
My lip trembles, and I bite down on it. “They could drain the sea, and they won’t find me, Lucca.” I move closer to him. “Can you understand that kind of pain?”
He doesn’t answer.
“Times that by seven. Six more of my sisters were taken. Sold. And you have the power to set us all free.”
I wipe falling tears off my face.
“I’m sorry that you suffered, Evie. But my job is to return you all to Igor.”
His voice is emotionless.
“You don’t care that they steal children?”
“It happens. It’s life. You should really count yourself lucky that you didn’t end up somewhere far worse.”
His words are like a slap in the face.
“You must have had a very cushy life. It’s fine for people like you that lost nothing.”
Lucca takes a step toward me. “I have lost plenty, Evie. But my loss won’t make me see yours any differently than what it is.”
“What is your loss?” I’m clenching my fists with frustration. I’m trying to find a connection with him. He’s reacting to everything with only indifference and calm. “You’re full of lies,” I spit.
His head tilts, and the warning is there to be very careful.
I swallow my anger and close my eyes while nodding my head.
“I grew up in a camp from the age of six.”
I open my eyes, and my heart sinks. Six. Too young. “I’m so sorry.” I don’t hold back my horror at the thoughts of a young Lucca in some camp.
“Most of the boys there were also stolen.”
I sink back onto the bed. “You were stolen, too.”
His indifference makes sense now. He doesn’t want to feel.
He moves for the first time. “No. I volunteered. I’m not like you, Evie. I wasn’t stolen or taken. I was there because that’s where I wanted to be. I enjoyed the training and being the best. I watched plenty of boys die for their weakness. It is what it is.”
I can’t believe that. I can’t believe that someone could be that cold about a life.
“And Anita? Was she raised at this camp?”
Lucca runs his hands through his hair again. “No. It was only for boys. She was with my parents.”
“They didn’t mind you going to a training camp?”
“No.” His answer is abrupt. “Did you really think that by allowing me to fuck your ass I would do as you wish?”
The grin that graces his stunning face is cold and chills me to the bone.
“You don’t have to be so crude.”
His laughter is like hailstones against my flesh. I just want him to stop.
“You think that’s crude? They really sheltered you. You’re naïve to the point that it’s dangerous.”
I stand up. “I kissed you so you might help me,” I admit.
His grin turns into a snarl.
“But then you touched me, and my intentions became something very different. I wanted you to touch me. So, I didn’t allow you to have me”—I refused to repeat his words—“just to get you to do my bidding. I just hoped by telling you what happened to me that you would see me as a human and not a thing.”
My honesty has the grin slipping from his face. “I do see you, Evie. But it changes nothing.”
For the first time, I detect a lie. It’s small, but it’s there. He does see me as something more than a job, and that will change everything.