Page 47 of Pain and Pleasure

I look over to him and see that he too is staring at the wall, but he's also unbuttoning his shirt. My eyebrows knit in confusion as he strips from his shirt.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"You're angry at me, pequeña. I feel it dripping from every pore in your body. You want to make me pay. And I'm telling you that I'm willing to oblige."

"And why would I want to make you pay?" I ask him.

"For not trusting you to handle your own. For not being there the way a man should be for his woman. For not treating you like the empowered woman that you are," he says earnestly and tears form in my eyes once more.

He sees this. He finally sees me.

He grabs my hand and I resist for a moment but look into his animal eyes that show nothing but earnest and genuine emotion. I let him guide me to the wall and he grabs the whip that lays on the floor. I pull back and he shushes me, rubbing my hand with his thumb in gentle caresses.

"Trust me, Esmeralda. Let me bare myself to you the way you've always bared yourself to me," he says, pushing the whip into my hand.

I stare at him with large, confused eyes. My tears are pouring over. This is how he views vulnerability? What the fuck has this man been through? He kneels before me and bows his head, awaiting an expected blow. I stand there, shocked and staring at him.

I drop the whip to the ground, and he looks up at me as I go to my knees, pressing my forehead against him.

"I will not do this to you, Dante. You don't need to bare yourself to me this way. I just want to see your heart, I want what's inside here." I tap on his chest, and he catches my fingers in his hand.

"And isn't that the most painful of all? This black and bleeding heart that beats only for you," he whispers against my lips, making more tears escape from my eyes.

"It's okay. Because mine beats for you too," I say earnestly, pulling him into a long embrace on the cold, cement floor.

This dark and damaged man has no idea what healthy, reciprocated love feels like, and I can honestly say that I really don't either. And if our love will always be this dark and twisted, then I guess I really don't care. Because this love is the only love I want. This love exceeds every dream and hope I've ever had. This love that's so deep and all consuming.

I pull back from him and caress his face, his stubble longer than it has been yet. He looks so beautiful, even when he's like this. I lean forward and whisper against his lips.

"Let's go to bed."

After some silence, he nods, his lips moving against mine. He stands with me in his arms and carries me up the stairs as if I weigh nothing. I burrow my face into his neck and breathe away the stress of tonight as I get lost in him.

He walks us to his bedroom and closes the door behind him before carrying me to his bed. He sets me down gently and begins stripping me slowly, peeling off my bloody and ruined dress before lifting me and carrying me to the bathroom.

We both catch our reflection in the mirror, his eyes landing on the red handprint that is slowly fading away from my face. I see his eyes darken as he stares and I reach up to touch his cheek, pulling his gaze away from the mirror and to my eyes.

"It's okay. I'm here and I'm with you," I whisper to him.

He nods slowly and sets me down to turn on the shower before stripping from his pants and removing my bra and underwear. We walk into the shower together and stand under the warm spray, our bodies close and hands roaming.

His hands skim down to my ass, and he grabs a handful before smashing his lips against mine, kissing me fiercely and stealing my breath as he consumes me with his mouth and hands. He lifts me up and wraps my legs around him, the heat of my sex touching his newly hardened cock.

I kiss him hard and slip my tongue inside of his mouth, molding his tongue with mine. He groans into me as I start to grind against his cock, the tip kissing the inside of my pussy. He slides in slowly and we both sigh in relief, like an itch that's been dying to get scratched.

He moves slowly at first, sliding me up and down the length of his cock all the while staring into my eyes. The feeling he gives me is almost overwhelming, taking over my heart and soul the more I stare at him. I start to cry again, my lips trembling as he turns to press me into the wall so he can move one hand from supporting me to touch my face.

"Do not cry anymore, mi ciela. We're here. We're right here." He whispers against my lips and I nod profusely.

"Always," I say before his lips descend on me once more.

He picks up his pace inside me, fucking me with an urgency I've not known before, pounding up and into me, hitting my cervix each time. I cry out against his lips, my climax creeping up on me like a freight train. I come around him and he roars out against my mouth.

"Emmie, fuck!" he yells out, pressing me harder against the wall as he fucks me deeper than he ever has before.

I feel his hand move to my clitoris, rubbing me slowly as I come around him once more. I whimper against his mouth, and he fucks me harder, my legs shaking around him. His hand moves from my sex to my thigh, trailing slowly back to my ass, his fingers toying with the forbidden place that no one has ever touched.

My eyes widen and I gasp against his mouth. His fingers spread my ass cheeks, one slipping slowly past the ring of muscle, breaching me and making me cry out.

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