“Do you mean it? You’re my pretty little killer, and I don’t require you to give me pretend apologies.” I dragged his head back with a tight grip on his hair until I could stare into his eyes.
His mouth moved and nothing came out for a second, as if he was rehearsing what he wanted to say. “I’m sorry because I missed you, but I wanted to kill her and I knew you would say no. I wanted you. I wanted to be here.” His lips trembled and he bared his teeth, showing me the most emotion I’d ever seen from him.
Something turned over in my chest, a good sensation, and I smashed my lips to his. Our bodies slamming together were vicious, but I kept the kiss gentle and made love to his mouth with my tongue until he tensed underneath the brutal pounding I’d unleashed on him. He cried out, and by the way he tensed, I knew he was spilling his cum.
All the fears that had eaten away at me over the last few days made me merciless. I fucked faster, using his body to destroy all the bad feelings I’d had swirling in my head, until pleasure rushed up and made the blood in my veins spark with lust as I forced my load deep in his ass, exactly where it belonged.
“You are mine.” I slammed my body hard into his again.
He nodded and sobbed, and I thought maybe I was hurting him too much but couldn’t stop.
“You will never disappear on me again.”
He shook his head. “No, Master.”
I kissed him and had no plans to let him out of the bed for the rest of the night. He would have to learn he was mine, and I would fuck him until the lesson stuck, even if it took till sunrise.
* * *
Several days went by before I could find a gift for Ari. I counted what had happened last weekend as our first fight, and I didn’t feel like we could officially make up until I found him the perfect present. Even though a lot of people knew about Derek Uhlig’s underground fights, it was much harder to find any info about when they were taking place or who ran them. It was Saturday again, and I’d had to beat a man bloody who was working outside the shitty little casino Uhlig ran, before I found out the name of a guy who helped train Uhlig’s favorite fighter—the Knockout Boy.
The small beach house he lived in on Lake Ontario looked more like an unpainted log shack, but the location alone—parked so close to the water he must worry his home would get swept out when the waves were bad—probably made the price tag astronomical.
Ari held my hand and scowled, glancing between the battered front door and me. “Why are we here? I don’t like surprises anymore,” he murmured.
“Yes, you do,” I fired back.
He shrugged, giving me the silent treatment. He was always quiet, but there was something about what he’d been doing for the last couple of days that was different. There was a distinct “fuck you” in the way he stared at me. We still weren’t quite over what had happened last weekend, and that was exactly why we were here.
“You deserve a gift from me after all the bullshit with my mom. I never meant for anything like that to go down.”
“A gift? Parents like her deserve to die,” he said quietly, in a snotty little tone that actually made me want to laugh.
“I would let you, but, my beautiful killer, we have to be careful, don’t we?” I brought his hand up to my lips and kissed across his knuckles.
He shrugged, and I’d never wanted to indulge anyone before, but I had a singular desire to make Ari happy. It was strange to feel this way, but I pecked a kiss on his cheek and did it again until the frown softened from his lips.
“Knock on the door,” I told him, and he eyed me up but did as I said.
When the door opened a man with white-blond hair stood there blinking. He was nicely muscled and dressed in black swim trunks. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on his body.
“Are you Janus?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said, but his dark eyebrows shot toward his hairline. “Do I know you? Can I help you, man?”
“You work for Derek Uhlig. My boyfriend wants to fight.”
Ari gasped and spun toward me, his brown eyes lighting up with joy. I knew the very second he’d decided to forgive me for not allowing him to kill my mother because he flung his arms around me. Janus tilted his head, looking at us like we were crazy, but I didn’t care.
He laughed and took a step back. “You want to fight? If I had a dollar for how many times I’ve heard that. Uhlig don’t take just anyone. I’ll be honest, you don’t want to do it.” He smiled at Ari like he thought it was cute he wanted to beat people bloody in the ring, rather than acknowledging that it was his right, and I instantly decided I didn’t like him. Ari tensed in my arms. “You would have to prove you were able to fight, and not—”
Ari spun out of my embrace and sank his fist against the man’s jaw. He stumbled backward and held up a hand, but Ari advanced. I wanted to tell him to stop, but he hadn’t been acting like himself for days and I loved seeing the bounce in his step.
“Just hurt him a little,” I said, and Janus stared at me for a split second before lunging toward a gun on an end table next to a small couch I hadn’t noticed. He made a mad dash toward it. Ari was fast and slammed into Janus’s back, sending them both to the floor. Janus clawed forward and drove a kick into Ari’s stomach, but Ari smashed his fist against the back of the man’s head, and when Janus’s face thudded against the wooden floor he howled. Blood sprayed.
Ari crawled onto his back and punched his shoulders and ribs, and he didn’t stop until Janus had gone limp underneath him. When he sat back, he glanced up at me—sweat made him gleam like an angel and blood flecked his beautiful face. He flashed me a brilliant smile.
“Shit.” I raced over and crouched down to feel for a pulse on Janus, and the steady thump let me breathe out a sigh of relief.
