“I don’t think he’s lying, honey. Hendrix doesn’t say things unless he knows.”

“It can’t be true, Jess,” I whisper, feeling my lip quiver.

“It might not be how you think it is. Maybe your dad isn’t so bad.”

“He was going to sell me to him as a sex slave,” I cry, shaking. “It doesn’t get much worse.”

“Maybe he doesn’t sell them, or…”

“Jess, just stop. I love you for caring, but you can’t take away the reality of this situation.”

“I know, honey…”

“I just don’t want to see it, even if he is right. My dad was everything to me, and even after he left me I still loved him so much. I don’t want that image shattered, I don’t want to see him the way Hendrix has described him. I can’t…”

“Until you do see him, you’re not going to know what is real and what isn’t.”

“I know,” I whisper. “I just feel numb right now. This is all too much to take in. My life has never been easy, but I dealt with it, and I made the most of it…then I came here, and everything I believed in has been stomped on. I killed someone, Jess…”

She lifts her gaze to mine, and nods. “I know honey.”

“I’m a murderer,” I whisper.

“No, you’re a woman protecting herself.”

A tear slides down my cheek, and I struggle to keep my composure. “I love him, Jess.”

“I know you do, baby.”

“I don’t know what to do…”

“I know what you have to do,” she murmurs. “You have to keep on surviving, and take each day as it comes.”

If only it were that easy.

Jack Ketch

A warm hard body slides into the bed beside me and I shudder before pressing myself into it. I’m hurt by what Hendrix told me earlier, but my need for him is so strong. I feel him run his big hand up my side and then he grips the back of my head, pulling my lips down on his.

I wonder if kissing him will ever get old? The feeling that’s flooding my body right now seems like it couldn’t possibly fade. It gets stronger each time he lays his hands on me.

His lips are warm, and he tastes like rum. The burn of the alcohol as I open my mouth and let our tongues dance is quite enjoyable. I lift my hands, wrapping them in his hair, and tugging him closer. He makes a growling sound, and his hand slides back down my body until he grips my backside, pulling me to him. I throw one leg over his hips, and our bodies touch. His cock presses against my pussy, and the friction of his jeans does wonderful things to me.

I never thought it possible to want someone so much, until him. I can’t get enough of what he has to offer. He gives it, and I can’t stop taking. He pulls his lips from mine, and I can feel his warm breath tickling my cheek as he moves down to my ear. “I’ve fucked you, inocencia, and I’ve made your body come alive, but I haven’t given you the one thing I know you need.”

What do I need?

“And that is?” I pant.

“I haven’t made love to you.”

Oh.

Sweet.

Jesus.

I’ve seen Hendrix’s tough side, I’ve seen him kill in cold blood, I’ve seen the monster that lies within, but the other side to him almost easily outweighs it. He has this gentle side, a side that is so sweet, and yet he makes it so damned masculine.

“Y…y…you…want to make love to me?”

“I want nothing more,” he murmurs, and then moves his lips down my neck.

No one has ever made love to me.

They say it’s different, that when someone makes love to you it truly defines sex and what it’s about. I’ve been fucked by Hendrix, and it was mind-blowing—I really couldn’t imagine it getting any better. Yet something inside me is telling me that I’m about to find out I’m very wrong about that. When Hendrix runs his fingers up the side of my body, so slowly, so gently, I know for a fact that I’m wrong. I know without a doubt in my heart…

That this will change something inside me.

Hendrix removes my clothes so slowly, so gently, that I can barely feel his hands on me. When I’m naked, he strips out of his clothes and then flicks the dim lamp on beside the bed. My heart begins to hammer. When he’s looking down at me like that, with those eyes, and that damned stunning face, it’s hard to think of anything else. He leans down, and presses a tiny kiss to my nose. I smile and for the first time since I’ve been here, he smiles too. It’s not a grin, or a smirk; it’s a genuine, heart wrenchingly beautiful smile.

It just confirms what I’m sure I already figured out.

Hendrix is everything I need.

I reach up and cup his face before murmuring, “I need to kiss you again. You starved me for too long.”

His smile turns lopsided and I nearly sigh with want. “Kiss away, sweetheart.”

He lowers his mouth, and I capture his lips with mine, kissing him softly. Our lips move in the most sensual way, and every now and then he nips at my bottom lip. I let him push me back into the mattress and press his body over mine. He gently pulls away from my lips and moves his mouth down, sliding his body down mine until he finds my breasts. He captures his nipple in my mouth, and he sucks, drawing it in and out of his mouth and flicking it with his tongue.

“More,” I whimper, arching up, pushing my nipples further into his mouth.