Heart Recaptured (Hades Hangmen, #2)(15)

Her breath stuttered, but she managed to reply, “I am scared… I am so scared of everything… of your world… of you… I do not want to be taken against my will again… I am so afraid…”

Closing my eyes at her words, feeling an ache in my chest. Sympathy? I took a deep breath and looked down again. Her timid blue eyes were fixed on mine, only to drop briefly to my lips and back again. She blushed even more as her thighs squeezed together and her legs squirmed beneath me.

Then I felt it. Like some electric current zapping through my body, my cock wanted in her… bad.

Before I knew it, my thumbs began caressing the soft damp skin on her wrists and I drank in the sight of her lying underneath me. The pilgrim blonde… the f*cked-up pilgrim blonde that I had to fix and make normal for Styx… I was beginning to think it was an impossible task. The bitch was almost as tapped in the head as Flame.

How the f*ck did you get through to this level of crazy?

Lilah’s head slowly tipped back to our hands and she frowned at the movement of my thumbs. I took the opportunity to lean down and place my lips at her ear.

Christ, she smelled good, some sweet vanilla scent pouring from her wet skin. It made me want to lick her, wrap my hands in her long blond hair, and kiss the f*ck out of her pouting lips.

A sharp inhale of breath told me she’d noticed where my mouth was, and I could feel her pounding heart against my chest.

“Ky…” she whispered, and I gritted my teeth at her breathy voice. Hell, she was a f*ckin’ temptress. I’d never been so turned on in my life.

Yup, I was in hell.

“I ain’t gonna hurt you, bitch, yeah? There’s no punishment for what happened in the bar. You said no. That’s all there is to it. No need to be flashing me that tight ass,” I answered in a raspy voice. I quickly cleared my throat. “Ain’t no one gonna rape you either, so get that f*ckin’ fear outta your messed-up mind.”

Her breath blew past my ear. “I… I don’t understand… what is… rape?”

“What is rape?” I asked, now confused as f*ck. “It’s when someone forces themselves on you when you say no. When you have no choice. When you don’t want f*cking but they do it anyway. Fuck, bitch, you should know the meaning of that word.”

Her eyes went huge. “That has never been done to me…”

“Yeah, in that cult, it was.”

“No. It was not… rape. It was the elders doing as commanded by the prophet and God.”

I closed my eyes and shook my head. The bitch had been raped for years, but had no f*cking clue. “One day, Lilah, you’ll get what I’m talking about and realize how f*cked up that excuse sounds.”

She didn’t say shit in response.

I pulled back slightly so my face hovered just above her. Lilah’s skin was golden and smooth, her nose small and cute; those lips… yeah, they were unreal too. Jesus, it was like she was dreamed up just for me; I’d never seen a bitch so perfect in all my life. Hadn’t ever thought such a woman existed until Lilah crawled out of that prison cell a few short weeks ago, only to begin torturing me and my highly exercised cock.

“So I am not in trouble?” she asked.

“Here at the Hangmen, if a bitch says no to f*cking, then it means no f*cking. Got it?”

Two blond eyebrows knitted together, pink lips pursed in confusion. Lilah shook her head, telling me she didn’t get it.

I sighed at how hard this caretaker shit was fast becoming. I straightened, freeing her hands, but kept straddling her waist. I needed her to listen and listen good.

“This is why you need me, sweet cheeks. You have no f*ckin’ idea how to live out here or be any kind of normal outside of that brainwashing cult you lived in all your damn life, believing you were evil ‘cause you’re the hottest bitch to ever walk the earth.”

Lilah gasped at that; it made me smirk. Her face was all screwed up and pissed. Even then she wasn’t a scrap of ugly.

Damn.

“What… what is brainwashing?” she asked shyly.

I couldn’t help but grin.

Leaning down until our noses almost met, she froze and I laughed. “We’re gonna leave that discussion until later. Baby steps, sweet cheeks, baby steps.”

Her mouth opened to speak again, so I pressed my index finger across her lips to seal them shut. “Shut it. You’re gonna listen. Then you’re gonna comply, and I don’t want any backchat or any freaky Jesus shit from you in response. Yeah? The sooner we get you acting like a good little everyday bitch, the sooner I can get back to drinking Jack and f*cking my line of sluts.”

There was no response, so I kept going. “I’m gonna lay it all out for you. You’re stuck here with us, with the Hangmen. The crazy little-hippy-wanna-marry-Jesus-pilgrim shit is done with—”

She tried to speak again, but a firm nod and a hard stare were all that were needed to shut her up. She was compliant, naturally submissive; I’d give her that much.

“Your commune is gone, done with, ground to dust. Do you get that, sweet cheeks? There’s no one left. The women that were spared have all disappeared with their spawn without a trace, the land abandoned. We’ve been back and checked. All the men were killed: the guards, the elders… that f*ckin’ crypt keeper fake-ass prophet you all liked to worship so goddamn much. That cunt took a slug right between his eyes, his brain worm food on your sacred commune’s ground.”