Page 52 of Velvet Cruelty

Adrenaline pulses through me like rusty nails. Is this what executioners make you do? I push myself into a kneeling position and try not to stare at his heavy canvas pants. There is something besides killing me that could be done while I’m on my knees. Is that what he wants? I don’t know what to hope for.

“Open your mouth.”

My jaw drops before my soul can protest.

Adriano’s lips twist. “You little whore.” His tattooed hand moves to his zipper and my heart thumps so hard I taste blood. I’m going to see a man for the first time. Taste him. Unless I pass out before it even starts and then he shoots me.

Cold drops into my cleavage. Adriano is rubbing the gun barrel against my breasts.

“The others think you’re innocent.” His voice rumbles in the dark, deep and inhuman. What was the bull-man from Greek Mythology called?

The gun comes back up my collarbone, the metal warmed from my body heat. My jaw is aching from being open and my tongue feels furry with fear. I don’t want to give him a blowjob, but I wish anything else was happening.

“Are you a good little whore?”

Should I agree? Disagree? I decide to go with the truth. “No?”

He presses the barrel hard against my temple. “Did I tell you to close your mouth?”

I’m petrified, but I still know that was a dirty trick. My breath catches and though I want to beg I know it won’t work. Nothing will. I let my jaw hang.

He grips the side of my neck. “That’s it, little whore. Now suck.”

A split second of panic before he slides his gun into my mouth. I try to pull away, but his big hand claps the back of my head, holding me in place.

“I said ‘suck.’”

Whimpering, I close my lips around the barrel tasting the now familiar oil and metal. I move back and forth, tears leaking from my eyes. I feel a hot surge of unreality and know I’m going to pass out. Maybe Adriano knows it too because he fists my hair. “Suck harder. Tight and fast.”

It isn’t like last time. Last time I was in a chair with Adriano above me. He was shoving the gun into my mouth while I tried to keep my teeth out of the way. It was violent. Forced. Almost staged. This is different. I’m on my knees and Adriano’s pumping the gun slowly, working it in and out of my mouth. It feels more like doing that than sucking a gun. My eyes lock on his canvas pants. The front is thick and distorted. He has a… but he’s making me suck his gun instead. Doc was right. He is a big freak. I sputter a laugh against the barrel. Adriano’s hand tightens in my hair. “Something funny?”

My insides swoop. I suck the gun deeper making myself gag.

He smiles, his lips twisting to reveal his gold tooth. “Use your tongue on the underside.”

I flick my tongue against the metal and his smile grows wider. “Good girl.”

How does he know? He can’t feel it. Or maybe he can. Maybe he’s some kind of cyborg.

He moves his free hand from my head and rubs a palm across his zipper. I imagine him hard and thick as a python and an unwelcome burr goes through me like static.

Some girls like that, Doc whispers in my mind. Some girls want to be fucked by a big freak.

But not me. I can’t want that. Because if I did want to sleep with Adriano, it would mean I’m broken inside. A shattered doll.

He grips my chin through the bars. “I want you gone, little whore.”

I choke, accidentally biting down on the gun. Adriano glares at me. “Do better.”

I open my mouth wide and try to suck softly.

“That’s it.” He smooths a hand through my sweaty hair. “Did you already know I want to kill you?”

Yes. I knew it when he first pushed Eli’s gun into my throat. The hatred in his eyes said he was dying to shoot me and pile my body on top of Kurt’s.

“All those times you thought I was watching you dance, I was wishing I could choke you to death.”

I sputter. Spit spills from my lips, down my chin.

---