Fighting Fate (8 page)

But she could only judge the situation on what she witnessed, Dax didn’t get off on demeaning her like Bruno did. In fact, Dax seemed happier to leave the room when Bruno was exerting control over her. As long as Bruno did his work in a place where Dax didn’t have to see it then Dax could ignore it.

Whatever Bruno’s game with her was, Dax felt the need to play along with it when they were all together, because he never corrected or questioned the older man. However, when Bruno wasn’t around Dax let the shield fall, it could mean that he cared, or it could just mean that he didn’t care about Bruno when Bruno wasn’t around.

Except one thing kept nipping on the periphery of her mind, she was keeping a secret for Dax. He let her question him and talk to him as an equal in private, if she did that with Bruno he’d send her to the basement. So by not revealing Dax’s indifference to Bruno’s rules, Ivy was keeping Dax’s secret. She played along with the rules in front of Bruno and Dax didn’t get her into trouble for what she said to him, so he was keeping her secret too. In each other, they already had an ally.

‘If I call you stranger it’s like we’re not connected,’ she said, reluctantly prying herself away from his kiss. ‘It’s like we’re still in that alley.’

‘I wanted to fuck you then,’ he said, kissing his way to her throat then down in a triangle to her other breast. His arm around her shifted to whip the lower half of her suit away. Casting them aside, he ran a finger between the cheeks of her ass.

‘You said that you didn’t.’

‘I lied,’ he admitted, confirming that her assumption that he’d always been honest was incorrect. ‘Your body is hot, and you’ve got these fuck me eyes, like the only way a guy will ever get your respect is to fill that smart mouth with cock every time you step out of line.’

‘I’m entitled to my opinions, why should I shy from voicing them?’ she whispered, aroused by the idea that he’d even considered earning her respect. The speed of her heart was making it difficult to talk. Her lungs weren’t taking in enough air and she knew there was only one cure.

‘You should know your place,’ he muttered.

‘Beneath you.’

‘That’s right.’

Her fingers found their way into his shorts and when she touched his solid dick, she sighed out, making the appendage jump in her grip. The heat of her breath must have affected him because he dug his teeth into her bosom until she squeaked.

‘Sex is all you ever want from me,’ she said. Squeezing his member in her clenched hand, she removed it from his shorts and elevated her hips to prod his dribbling head onto her clit. Undulating, she merged their juices, stimulating herself with him, letting her wetness lap and lick the bulb, which was eager to conquer her. ‘Is Bruno your boss?’

‘We work for the same man,’ he said, licking her breast and rolling the peak between his warm fingers.

The bench was narrow and her feet were hooked up behind her over his thighs, it was the only thing giving her leverage, but the chance of cramp in this position was high. ‘I need…’ she inhaled, not really sure how to make the best of this position.

‘What?’ he asked, stroking up to her shoulders and down her spine with the very tips of his fingers, making her quiver. ‘What does my babygirl need?’

The pet name made her lose all cohesion and her torso fell against his, her breasts heated against his damp chest, and he swept her hair out of the way to suck and nibble on her ear and neck. Words were gone from her brain, so all she could do was take hold of his wrists and guide his hands down to her ass, where he could take some of her weight.

‘Like that?’ he grumbled and she nodded, nuzzling against his throat. Pushing her weight to her shins she rose and lined him up so that when she released the tension in her legs she sank down onto him. ‘Oh yeah, like that.’

Moving up and down, her pace was fast instantly, she didn’t want to take her time here. What he had started to burn in her made her so wet for him that their bodies wouldn’t rest or relax until they had sought completion with each other.

‘You feel amazing inside me,’ she breathed into his mouth on another kiss. ‘Dax, this, your dick…’

‘Yeah?’ he asked, gripping onto her ass and using his own strength to raise her body faster until it became a fight, he pulled up and she pushed down at the same time his body fought to remain in her.

‘I’ve never…’ Maybe it was the position, her legs were stretched so far apart that her thighs burned, and she was entirely at his mercy because his body was the only thing holding her up on this narrow bench.

‘Say it,’ he demanded.

‘Don’t ever take it away from me,’ she screamed out at the first ember of orgasm that burst in her crotch.

His roar wasn’t one of climax, but his arms clamped around her and she yelped when he stood up and slammed her onto her back on the bench, then he was pumping into her with such fierce single-mindedness that she couldn’t see man, only animal.

‘Look at me!’

Grabbing a handful of her hair, he wrenched her eyes to his and that cool iceberg in his eyes was aflame with a determined possession that fired through her like a missile aimed for her core. Shrieking out his name, she cared not about volume or about Bruno, and Dax didn’t appear too either because at the same time she arched up, her body locked in spasm around his, the boom of his orgasm shook through her and they growled together, their eyes matched in their epiphany.

One huff followed another. After they were both done and she was riding out the aftershocks, they stayed right there, her on her back, him above her, inside her, staring down into her eyes.

‘Shit,’ he whispered and she had no time to ask why he cursed because his mouth came to hers in a slow, but punishing kiss that pinned her skull to the bench and allowed him to pour the truth of his curse into her. He did care about her, and her admission in the midst of their passion that she wanted this, wanted him, was enough for him to release that truth to himself.

Jerking his mouth away, he dismounted the bench and pulled his shorts back up. ‘No more bikinis,’ he said, picking up his hand wraps from the floor to begin wrapping his hands again.

‘Ok,’ she said, retrieving her bikini from the floor because it was all she had to wear now.

‘I can’t stop him from touching you. If I tried it would… raise too many questions.’

‘What kind of questions?’ she asked.

He looked up from his task, and she saw anger in him now, she definitely recognised it. ‘You don’t understand what’s going on here and how we all fit into the bigger picture.’

‘What is the bigger picture?’ She tied her bikini back on.

‘I can’t tell you that,’ he said. ‘It’s not my decision when you’re told about your purpose. You don’t belong to me.’

Finishing the knot behind her neck, she crossed to him, resting her hands on his hips. ‘I… I think I want to.’

‘That’s what they want,’ he said, his timbre low and quiet. ‘They want you to think that.’

‘What do you want me to think? You don’t want to own me?’

Grinding his teeth, emotions washed over his face. ‘I want you to go upstairs, get showered and changed, then get back to work.’

‘That’s it?’ she asked. ‘You tell me that you don’t want me to wear a bikini anymore and that I don’t belong to you then you just dismiss me?’

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘That’s it. Get to it, or you’ll get more than a spanking.’

Lowering her chin, she slid her arms around him. ‘Now I’m curious.’

‘This time not from me,’ he said, unlocking her arms from around him. ‘If Bruno catches you not where he left you, then you’ll be going back in there.’

His eyes moved behind her and she turned to see the door to the place she’d been kept captive. ‘You’d let him put me back in there?’

‘Yeah I would,’ he said, without hesitating. ‘Though I’m not sure I’d be able to leave you alone at night.’

The idea of being back in that hovel made her feel sick, but knowing that Dax might come down to join her because he was compelled beyond logic or reason to do so, made her smile. ‘I’ll do what you say.’

‘I know that you will. You were told that was the only thing you had to do, what you were told.’

‘I’m not doing it because it’s Bruno’s rule. I’m doing it because… because I want you to trust me. I’ll have your back, Dax, if anything goes down. I’m going to be on your side.’

‘Talking like that could get you hurt,’ he said with a frown. ‘You worry about yourself, Minx. Nobody else.’

‘Are you doing the same thing?’ she asked.

Leaving him to consider that, she headed for the stairs. She didn’t want him to answer because she didn’t want to push him into saying something that neither of them wanted to hear. If he admitted to caring for her then he would be in trouble. But if he denied it then he would be lying, and she didn’t want him doing that. So she went upstairs and did as he had requested, then went back to work.

Keeping up appearances for Bruno was important and doing so would show Dax that he could trust her. But when they were alone, she’d keep pushing on the buttons that she had found, only now she wasn’t so clear on her motivation. Was she manipulating him to ensure her safety or escape? Or were her own buttons on show as well? Meaning that maybe she too felt more than she’d anticipated for the street fighter with the sinister eyes and the rock hard body that made her weak.

It was a few nights later when she was lying in their bed in the dark that she decided to push for more. He had connected her ankle to the bedpost, as he always did, while he went into the bathroom. The burst of light from the side of the room told her that he was coming back. He extinguished the light, closed the door, and came back to bed.

Because it was so dark there was no way for him to know that she was still awake. Snatching her hand he hauled her body to his, turning his back on her, he pulled her to mould against him, signalling that he was ready to sleep, except she wasn’t.

‘Why do you let me do it?’ she whispered against the smooth skin in front of her lips.

‘Do what?’ he grumbled.

Dax was a man who enjoyed his sleep and when he decided it was time for it, he wasn’t long delayed in achieving it.

‘You let me be me here, in this room, when we’re alone. Why don’t you tell Bruno that I’m playing him?’

‘You’re not,’ he said. ‘He wants you to do what you’re told and you do. You let him do whatever he wants with you.’

‘So you think that if I keep taking his orders it will eventually become automatic?’’

‘What do you want from me, Minx?’ he asked. ‘Do you want me to beat you and lock you up?’

‘No.’

‘Bruno is here to teach you to take orders and I’m here to fuck you into line.’

She was compliant in bed with him – for the most part. So he was right, in a way, he did his job just by sharing a bed with her. But that didn’t explain why he let her sass him in a way that Bruno would never tolerate.

‘Do you have family?’

‘No blood,’ he said.

‘I haven’t seen my mother in years,’ she said. ‘My sister stays with my aunt, least she did the last I heard—‘

‘I don’t need your life story, just access to your pussy.’

‘What about your parents?’ she asked, bending her elbow to curl a hand under her pillow, the other was still confined in his. On nights like this, after she was tied to the foot post, they often slept further down the bed, but her face was still buried in his back.

‘Never knew my mom, dad started me fighting at eight to make us some money, he sold me to the circuit when I was about ten. I ran away a few times, got picked up by the cops a few times, then I met Mauri.’

‘That’s so sad,’ she said, kissing his spine.

‘No sadder than your step-dad molesting you.’

‘He didn’t actually… you know… he just tried it one too many times, and I knew I could only fight him off for so long. My mother didn’t give a damn and so I left. I stayed with my aunt sometimes, then she moved to Florida and—‘

‘Minx,’ he mumbled. ‘I don’t care. Unless your mouth is filled with cock it should stay shut.’

She wasn’t deterred, she knew that she was getting through. As much as he didn’t want her to believe it, he had taken a liking to her. Ivy had seen the way he tensed when Bruno touched her. Dax’s touch had changed too, not all the time, most of the time he still treated her like a piece of meat, but sometimes he’d brush a lock of hair from her face, or slip his fingertips down her spine, and something different passed between them.

‘Sex is better when you know who you’re doing it with,’ she said.

‘Not in my experience. Now shut up or I’ll gag you too.’

That wasn’t completely beyond him, and it was already uncomfortable enough to sleep with her leg connected to the bed, so she didn’t want another tether. Though she imagined she would always find peace sleeping next to Dax because as soon as he started snoring she fell into her own satisfied slumber.

For the next month things carried on in the same way, Bruno ordered her around all day, she cooked and cleaned and did everything that she was told to. At night, and in daylight when the whim took him, she became Dax’s.

During the day Dax came and went, she’d heard talk of Brad and Mauri, and murmurs of some other names. But one name that she never heard was Trystan, the name of the man who had gotten her into this predicament in the first place.

On this morning, Bruno had come into their bedroom early to speak to Dax, then he left without addressing her. She tried to ask Dax about what was going on, but as always he ignored her questions and goaded her into fucking him instead. Morning sex was unusual for them as was the nap that followed.

He still tagged her ankle to the bedpost but now they slept in a spoon position with her behind him. He liked to hold her arm around his waist and over his abs, so that his body coated hers, providing a barrier to separate her from the rest of the world.

The words he used when addressing her were no less harsh, and in front of Bruno he spent most of his time ignoring her. Yet, when they were alone there had been a subtle shift. She still showed contempt for him, and he belittled and objectified her, but that glimmer of respect they’d garnered for each other hung on, only showing its face in private.

Unsure if he was still sleeping or not, she rubbed her lips on his back, and sealed her lips in a puckered O, to leave a vertical line of kisses on his shoulder blade. She was about to move onto the V of her name, when he spoke.

‘I’ve got plans, Minx,’ he grumbled. ‘You’re not getting any more of me now.’

Sex hadn’t been on her mind – though it was because it always seemed to be around him – but the kisses weren’t a prelude to it.

‘Do you miss the east coast?’ she asked him, he’d revealed that he’d done his growing up in New York.

‘Nope,’ he said, releasing her hand to stretch out his muscles. She stayed against him just to experience the tactile motion of it.

‘You never ask about me,’ she said when he nudged her onto her back and rolled off the bed.

‘Why would I?’

‘We’ve been having sex for a while, Dax. A month. You’re not curious about the woman who has been in your bed every night?’

‘What is there to know?’ he asked, going into the bathroom to turn on the shower, then returning to her in the bedroom. ‘You grew up somewhere, had parents, maybe siblings. I don’t give a fuck.’

She sat up and wrapped herself in the sheet that had been kicked to the end of the bed. ‘I was born in Chicago, we only lived there for a few years, and then we kicked around Ohio where my grandfather lived, that’s where my mom met Ted, in Cleveland. He took us to Detroit, we lived in a shitty trailer park—‘

‘I don’t care,’ he said, standing in full naked glory beside the bed.

‘You cared enough to make sure your cohorts took blood from me before we left LA,’ she said.

‘They had to check that you weren’t diseased.’

‘So you could get your groove on without wearing a raincoat, I know, we had that conversation two weeks ago.’

‘I know, but you’re still bitching about it.’

She bitched about it to remind him of everything they had gone through to get them here. Sometimes when they were alone in this bedroom it was easy to forget that they weren’t a “normal” couple. ‘I hate needles,’ she said.

‘You’ve told me that too, babygirl. Maybe I don’t need to ask questions because you volunteer every damn thing.’

Getting under his skin was as easy for her as ever. ‘Are you going to let me free from here?’ she asked, bending her knee to flash her thigh through the sheet.

He came around the bed with a flick-knife he’d retrieved from the drawer. When she was loose, she grabbed his arms and tugged him forward, bringing him down onto the bed on top of her. Latching onto him, she hooked her arms and legs around his body.

‘I said no more sex,’ he said.

‘Why is getting to know me so dangerous for you? You answer eighty percent of my questions, I know you’re an only child, from New York and you grew up with your dad, until he left you with the circus and took off on you.’ His father had left him with a group of fight organisers, but calling it the circus irked him, so she did it for that reason. ‘Every foster or group home they put you into, you ran away from, and you’ve been on the street since you were ten. You answer all of my questions about the past and none about the present.’

‘I don’t have to answer your questions at all,’ he said, slanting his mouth on hers he parted her lips with his tongue and began to grind his hardening dick against her sensitive inner thigh.

‘No sex,’ she said, taking hold of his arms again. ‘Why is it so wrong for you to talk to me?’

‘Why do you need answers? Why do you need me to care?’

‘Why won’t you admit how you feel? You hate it when Bruno touches me.’ He tensed, sort of proving her point. 'All of the rules I have to follow out there go out the window in here.’

‘In here you open your legs for me on command and that’s all I care about.’

‘And you let me fidget with your dick anytime I want.’ 

‘Do I?’

‘Case and point,’ she said, squeezing her hands between them to take hold of him with both of them.

‘You can play with my dick later, Minx,’ he said, rolling off her and stretching again. ‘I have stuff to do today.’

‘Stuff like what?’ she asked but he was already on his way to the shower.

Joining him in the bathroom might allow her to goad him into sex, but she wasn’t in the mood to speed her journey down the stairs to join Bruno. The only time she got to shower without a witness was when she was doing it with Dax.

So she left the bed to join him, but by the time she got there he was already rinsing off. He handed her the loofah then squeezed past her in the exit. When they co-occupied the narrow doorway she crowded him, flattening her breasts on him.

‘Where are you going in such a hurry, stranger?’

‘The clingy thing isn’t attractive.’

‘Neither is the distant brooder.’

‘Who are you kidding? Every time I snap my fingers your panties melt.’

And with that statement her arousal cooled. ‘Jerk,’ she said, shoving her way past him to get under the spray.

The draft from the door told her he hadn’t closed the sliding door. When she opened her eyes she could make out the outline of his figure. Stepping out of the engulfing water, her eye was immediately drawn down to his intimidating erection, but the idea of using it faded when she recognised his aloof expression that made her think of the night they met.

‘There’s a guy that owes Mauri money,’ he said, all cool like. ‘A lot of money, Mauri trusted him with some product and didn’t get his return.’

‘So?’

‘So I’m going to get that money back for him today.’

‘If you’re just a thug for hire then what am I?’ she asked.

‘A massive pain in my ass. You’ll be alone with Bruno today, wear the denim cut-offs.’

She’d found them on her side of the closet and worn them two days ago. He’d been unable to keep his eyes, or his hands off her ass. Since their union in the gym when he’d told her to stop wearing bikinis he had given her wardrobe instructions every day and Bruno had never questioned or refuted Dax’s authority in this area.

‘Ok.’

‘Are you comfortable here at the beach house?’ he asked.

‘I’m comfortable with you.’

‘What would you do for me?’ His question came quietly, but determination bled through him. ‘Would you do anything I asked?’

‘I’d give you shit for it first but yeah, I’d probably agree to try most things. I’m not ready for the ass thing yet though, so don’t even go there.’

‘How did they get you?’ he asked as though carrying on a conversation here, like this, was a normal occurrence. ‘How did you end up at the Stark mansion?’

‘I answered an advert for a live-in housekeeper in Vegas,’ she said. ‘Three days after getting the job I couldn’t get out of the house. From there they took me to LA. I had no idea what was going on or who they were until I saw you, downstairs in the living room.’ The story was entirely true, but he didn’t respond. ‘What is it?’

‘Have your shower. I’ll be back this afternoon.’

He slid the door shut and the confined space quickly gathered steam. The scent of his shower gel that lingered brought back her arousal with the subtlety of a freight train. If he was dressing and leaving then all she had waiting for her was Bruno.

Letting her fingers glide down her abdomen she shifted back under the spray and began to imagine that Dax was still with her. He’d asked her a question, of his own accord, whether he liked it or not their intimacy was growing deeper.

Doing Mauri’s bidding gave Dax a chance to clear his head and be reminded of what he did best. Going through the motions, and expelling some of his tension in the process, was overdue.

This was his life, running errands for Mauri, doing for the old man what he couldn’t do for himself. Being relied upon made Dax feel important and he’d always believed himself valuable to the Stark organisation.

But while Trystan sunned himself and fucked his way through Europe, Brad was handing out orders, taking care of business for management, and preparing to take over the reins for Mauri. Dax was beating up lowlifes and threatening them with physical harm so that they’d pay their debts, which they always did after he came around.

The truth was cold. Although he was held in esteem by Mauri, the Stark sons had no real regard for Dax, they made no secret of it, and that meant that his future was uncertain. The perplexing thing was that he’d never cared about the future before and he couldn’t figure out why he suddenly did now.

Bruno would be expecting him back at the beach house and he didn’t want to leave the pervert alone with the Minx for longer than he had to, so Dax sped up the car. The shipment of sex toys that Bruno ordered online had arrived, and Bruno had stowed them in Dax’s closet, but Dax had refused to look through the package. He used his indifference as a shield over the fury that built when he thought about any man penetrating his property, either with his own anatomy or with a foreign object.

The Minx drove him barmy, the way she strutted around in those too high heels and pushed out that tight butt as though presenting it to him – even when it was red raw, still glowing from his hand print – she teased him with it as though daring him to spank her again. She fought with him and questioned him, but never stepped out of line in public. He didn’t get it.

As far as Bruno knew he was doing his job because the Minx was always obedient when it counted. But if he was being truthful with himself he would have to admit that he hadn’t been fulfilling the role expected of him.

She didn’t fear him, she respected him. She didn’t submit to his sexual will, she enhanced it with her own craving for his domination. As unconventional as it was, they’d forged a sort of private relationship and by her actions she’d proved to him he could trust her. But he could never confide in her and he couldn’t tell her the truth.

One day soon he’d have to hand her over to Trystan. Either she would fight the youngest Stark and get herself killed, or she would comply with his depraved requests and marry him in order to be spared.

Dax didn’t like either of those options but he had no claim on the girl. Even if she did stand beside him, not that he was sure she would, it would mean nothing. If Trystan found out that Dax had even considered keeping the girl for himself it would only increase Trystan’s want for her. He was a man who wouldn’t be beaten and their fates would be sealed.

The trap that had been set up to snare her was the type he’d usually be in charge of. This time he couldn’t be part of it because she knew his face, but he couldn’t blame her for falling for it. No doubt the Stark’s had paid off a friend or acquaintance of the Minx’s to recommend the post. After losing her job at GoldSpring she’d be in the need of money, he knew what living that kind of breadline existence was like.

Yet, she was a woman of class who carried herself with grace – even when she was being demeaned by Bruno. Class that went as far as the bedroom threshold at least.

This morning he had already been late to meet his contact when she’d pulled him back into bed, but he’d been tempted to screw her anyway, hard and fast, then punish her with a thorough spanking for delaying him. Refusing her was getting harder, resisting her was a chore. And when he’d heard her moaning in the shower, that breathy desperate sound usually followed by a curse, he’d been tempted to join in or to wrap his fist around himself.

Being with her had taught him things about himself that he didn’t know. The most dangerous of which was that he liked mouthy brunettes who weren’t shy about their bodies.

Switching off the car engine after he stopped in the driveway, Dax slammed out of the car to alert those inside the beach house to his arrival. Except when he got through the front door, the living room was empty. Knowing that Bruno would never be downstairs in the gym, and that he couldn't fulfil his wants with the Minx upstairs in the bedroom, Dax thought the kitchen or back deck were the most likely location for the pair he expected to be here.