Page 23 of The Queen's Serpent

The image of a pair of crystal blue eyes tries to enter my mind, offering with it a moment of respite against what is happening here to me, but I force it away. I cannot hide inside thoughts of him when I am in trouble. He is not my savior, the white knight coming to save the princess. I burnt that bridge long ago, and I must learn to stand on my own two feet, even if it means I tremble and fall.There is no going back to the past, and after this, there will be no looking to the future either. Death and retribution will be what I crave.

A warm, rough hand slides up the outside of my thigh underneath the edge of the towel, and has my breath hitching. Ino longer try to move my head away from him, instead pressing my forehead as hard as I can against the coarse texture of the tree. The pain it causes helps me to distance myself from the here and now.

Focus on the feeling of the bark, Issy. Ignore what is happening. You will survive. You must survive.

His rough fingers reach the apex of my thighs, and brush against the swollen flesh of my pussy lips, causing my breath to stutter in my chest, and the mantra I am repeating in my head about surviving to stall momentarily.

“Such a pretty pussy you have, baby. How I enjoy filling it. My men are going to enjoy filling it, too. Maybe I’ll let them take your ass too. Would you enjoy that, my whore?” His words slide against my skin with a hint of malice in their tone. A shudder runs through my frame, even as I implore my body not to betray me.

“Beg me, Issy.” His teeth meet the delicate skin where my neck and collarbone meet, as he bites down, and a pained cry escapes me. The sting is harsh, but I know it could be so much worse. I know what violence he is truly capable of. He’s a ruthless killer, a cold machine when he needs to end others’ lives.

Yet he never used it against me until he stole me from my family, and brought me to this ill-forsaken place. There has always been pleasure between us, even when there was pain. Even when I questioned my sanity for wanting him. He introduced me to my greatest desires, unleashing them, and opening the door to my need for pain mixed with pleasure, to be degraded and used. I should have known with those introductions, he was chaining me to him.

I believed I was special to him, that I was the woman he wanted, more than he coveted my sister, our empire, or to live without me. Back in Casbury, he treated me as if I was a piece of fragile glass, giving me pleasure while ensuring I becameaddicted to him as he bided his time, all the while knowing that he was going to shatter me.

His hand trails down my back, as my breath puffs out in the cold air surrounding us. Every noise has us on alert that we could be discovered by one of my grandmother’s guards, or by my sister. I’m not sure which would be worse, but my guess is that Mia might actually try to kill him.

Would they tear him away from me? Would they remove him from the compound, from my life, if they knew their precious Isabella was sleeping with the son of the leader of one of the most dangerous cartels in the world? I can’t imagine that my proud and dignified grandmother would not order his death for thinking to touch me. After all, it makes me soiled goods. The Stratford heir tarnished beneath the filth of the Cabano name.

What she doesn’t understand, and probably never will, is that I crave the danger. I want Diego Cabano to soil and use me up, until I become something other than what I am. I want to be his in all the ways that matter, and I am willing to sacrifice everything I am to make that happen.

Does that make me naive or perhaps insane? Probably, but I have never felt this intensity with anyone else, not even with the man who haunts my dreams, and fills me with regrets.

Light blond hair, blue eyes, and a gentle smile fill my mind. No, don’t think about him now, Issy, don’t allow your mind to return to the past. Diego is your future, and there is nogoing back. I shake my head, trying desperately to stay in the moment and clear my thoughts.

This insanity between Diego and I is a burning inferno that neither of us is willing to put out. We are consumed by each other, in a way that I have never been with anything or anyone else. In a short period of time, he has taken over all of my thoughts and desires. He has become a drug that I can’t, and don’t wish to, breathe without.

“Your skin is velvet, my pretty, broken doll.” His warm breath skates across my shivering flesh, and my core tightens with the obvious need in his tone.

“Why do you call me that?” I whisper.

“Because it’s what you are, beautifully broken and precious to me, and what you are is mine, Issy. You are mine.”

I push back against his tall, firm frame, his long hard cock slipping between my asscheeks, and making a whimper leave my lips as he nudges my back hole. I’m so wet already that it’s dripping down my thighs. The need to have him fill and stretch me is almost painful. I should be embarrassed with my wanton reaction to him, but he makes me feel beautiful and desired. My forehead presses against the metal wall, its coolness a balm to my overheated flesh.

“What a good girl you are, my slut. Look at how you crave my cock inside of you. You want me to fill you up, baby? Does this sweet pussy need a good fucking, or shall I take this tight ass tonight?” His dirty words are whispered in my ear, and cause my whole body to tremble against him.

My legs threaten to give out and prevent me from standing, as he presses me further into the wall of the gardener’s shed. His arm cradles around my middle while his hand grips my hip in a tight clasp, forcing me to keep standing.

“You are mine, Issy, this cunt is mine, and only I will ever fill it. Do you hear me, baby?” The crown of his cock nudges myback hole again, and has my core tightening in anticipation. Fuck. I need him to take me, to use me, and leave me filled with his cum.

His hand wraps around my neck and tightens firmly, preventing my next breath from entering my lungs. “Tell me that you want me, Princesa. Tell me that you belong to me.”

The crown of his cock pushes forward through the tight ring of muscle, and an instant sharp pain assaults me. He hasn’t prepared me enough to take him in that hole. My body tries to fight the intrusion, my asscheeks tightening even as my vision starts to spot as he constricts his hold further. He pulls back and lines up with my pussy, not even giving me a moment to adjust from one hole to the other, before he slams inside of my wet core with a feral growl.

“So fucking wet, always ready to be used,” he grunts as he starts a forceful rhythm inside of my pussy, the sound of flesh hitting flesh loud in our quiet, hidden spot. He releases his grip enough for me to drag much-needed air into my lungs. His hand rises and grabs a fistful of my hair, using the grip to drag my neck back, so he can see my face clearly as I pant like an animal out of breath.

“Tell me, Issy, or Iswear to you, I will fucking tear you in half and fill all your holes with my cum, before I send you back to your Abuela.”

His rough words, and the menacing look across his features, don’t have me doubting that he would, in fact, send me back to my grandmother, tarnished, and dripping from all my holes. If there is one thing Diego enjoys above all, it’s watching his cum drip out of me, while I squirm as I’m forced to interact with others. He gets a perverse satisfaction in knowing he has dirtied me up, the Manhattan princess in waiting.

“Yoooouuurrrs,” the word escapes my lips with a ragged moan, and my core tightens around his thick girth, as he hitsthe spot inside of me that has my eyes wanting to roll to the back of my head. I can feel the electric current racing across my skin, the orgasm ready to burst inside of me, promising to take me to heaven in mere seconds. Just as it’s cresting and my chest is trying to force more oxygen into my lungs, he pulls out of me, leaving me empty and spasming.

“NOOOOOOOOO!” I scream, fighting against his hold.

A harsh chuckle leaves his lips before he bites down on my shoulder, his teeth breaking the surface of my soft skin with a sting. “FUCK!” I scream with the pain, before he pushes his stiff cock between my asscheeks once more. Before I can even utter another word or plead for him to be gentle with me, he’s pushing inside of my back hole. Burning and pain assault me instantly, and my whole body locks up tight.

“You will always be mine, Isabella Stratford. My slut, my whore, and one day I might even make you my wife.” His words are an aphrodisiac to my heart. I want all that he’s promising. I want to be his in every way.

---