viii

J O L I E N

I lay helplessly on the cold stone arch of the cellar. I clumsily lifted my head to silently watch as a pair of dark slippers moved toward the door.

But I didn't have the courage to stop him, didn't have the audacity to say anything. I didn't even have the strength to sit up.

The paralyzing feeling that was constantly spreading through me instead seemed to overturn my body completely. I desperately gasped for air - but my lungs also refused to absorb the necessary oxygen. A rattle escaped my lips. "HH-Ha....stop," I reached out for the shoes and, with the last of my strength, lifted my head a little further. With a sneaky smile, Lynn looked down at me before he approached the door and she with a jerk.

As if through cotton wool, I perceived the short fight that took place in the basement. Rash was completely taken aback not by me but by Lynn coming out of the room. All it took was a well-aimed stab in the stomach to incapacitate him.

Finally a scream escaped my lips and the vital air flowed into my lungs in unbearable waves. Gathering the last of my strength, I crawled toward Rash, who was reaching for his pistol, his face contorted in pain. The knife was buried inches deep in his abdomen.

The gun fell from his hand as he slowly slid down the wall. "Rash!" I reached him and fumbled awkwardly for the knife. "Don't..." Rash put his hands over mine, already gripping the hilt. "..it'll get worse if you pull it out," he finished.

Concerned, I eyed his olive-colored skin, which was increasingly losing color. The fact that his breathing was getting shallow and his eyes were half-closed certainly didn't bode well. "Hold major..."

With a single violent jerk, I was yanked to my feet and pinned chest first against the basement wall. The stones of the porous wall pressed into my cheek like small, pointed nails and I cried out in pain. "What have you done!" My eyes widened in horror and the fear and horror gave way to a single new and horrible emotion. Fear of death.

I recognized the cold, cutting voice. The voice cutting through my body like an invisible axe. Mr. Dakarias.

His grip tightened and I felt him press something on the back of my head. My heart was racing. "Please..." Rash's pleading mingled with my heartbeat pounding in my ears. "You released my prisoner, you little bitch!" He spun me around and seconds later I was looking straight down the barrel of a gun.

"Samael, please.." I knew Rash was begging for my life. Knowing that I was facing death. "Do you even know what you did with it?" Mr. Dakarias rumbled outraged. His thumb cocked the gun while a mad look formed in his eyes. Tears of fear rolled down my cheeks as the cold metal of the barrel pressed hard against my forehead.

"It was my fault..." I heard Rash's pathetic attempt to save my life. There was a note of panic in his voice, causing the invisible rope around my throat to tighten even more. "Don't lie to me, Rash! Even you aren't that stupid! Girl, you have no idea what you started with that. They're going to kill him!" he increased the pressure on my forehead.

"Please..." I tried to find the necessary words to explain everything to him - but not a single syllable would come out of my mouth. All the words were lost on the way to my mouth.

Seconds, minutes or hours passed and in that timeless eternity the world seemed to have come to a standstill. When it finally started spinning again - he threw the gun to the ground. I exhaled in relief - but the anger was still in his eyes. Went there like a tornado. With only one goal. Me.

Mr. Dakaria's hand shot out and gripped my neck in an iron grip. It lingered there for a millisecond before he squeezed firmly. I gasped for air, startled.

"Please..." This time, it wasn't Rash's pleading, this time it was me. "BBB-Please..." The air deflated from my lungs, a familiar darkness veiled my eyes and I tugged with his hands on his grip. Tried to loosen it somehow but the harder I tried the harder he squeezed. Squeezed my larynx mercilessly.

"Let her go!" His voice pulled me out of the darkness like a lifeline. The grip around my neck didn't relax, quite the opposite. He seemed to turn his head to the side after a brief pause, during which Mr. Dakarias was surprised had to get even stronger.

"I told you to let her go! And now!" Malio's voice was even colder than his father's. It seemed as if the temperature in the basement had dropped to freezing point with his appearance.

I was shaking and gasping for air. When the fainting announced itself again, I forced myself to reason. Tried to fight the panic that had taken over every inch of my body.

A shot nearly ruptured my eardrum. The grip around my neck loosened. I blinked against fainting, coughing and panting. Strong arms cushioned the fall as my legs buckled under the weight of my body.

It took my foggy mind a few seconds to realize that I had slumped against Malio's chest. Until he realized what had just happened here.

Malio had shot his father...

M A L I O

What have you done, Malio?", my father's words echoed like a whisper in my head. He was leaning against the wall and was holding his left blood-soaked leg, his face contorted with pain. Although no sound escaped his lips, I knew the point of entry had to be very painful, the bullet had entered below the knee and most likely shattered his shin.

For my raging anger, which only seemed to subside very slowly, the passage was still relatively humane. I breathed against the feeling that was still raging inside me, trying to calm the storm inside me before it could take full control of me.

"You deserve it!" I yelled angrily as I tried to haul Jolien to her feet. But each time, in the midst of the effort, her strength drained and she collapsed back onto the stone floor, tears streaming down her cheeks and lower lip trembled.

I knew she was struggling for the necessary composure to get through the next few minutes. Even if the previous events crashed down on her again and again with unspeakable brutality and made it almost impossible to think clearly.

"Jolien, pull yourself together!" I snapped at her harshly. With a sigh, I pulled her to her feet again, grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently – but this attempt also had no effect.

"You dare draw your gun on me?" my father interrupted his pathetic attempts to calm Jolien. I glanced at the prone man and grimaced in disgust Don't! You would have killed her if I hadn't acted." I pointed dispassionately to the gunshot wound and said, "It didn't hit a vital artery. However, if you happen to look at her the wrong way again, that could change in the future."

My father snorted, unimpressed. "You're betraying your family for a bitch?" His cold laughter filled the aisle. "Look at Rash, it's all her fault. Lynn escaped, that's her fault too and you're still protecting her? Are you like that blinded by love?" He got to his feet and braced himself against the walls. His pained face never took his eyes off me.

I glanced at Rash, who had since passed out. However much I'd like to turn my back on my father and give him my opinion, Rash's well-being came first. I didn't want to lose anyone else close to me. "Rash?" I leaned down to him.

I gently slapped his cheek and finally his lids fluttered open and he looked at me with exhausted eyes. "Malio?" I nodded and he clasped my shoulders in an amazingly firm grip. "I couldn't do anything, I'm so sorry!" He coughed and my fears that important organs might have been injured were confirmed when first drops of blood soiled my white shirt.

"Hold on my friend!" I carefully helped him to his feet as he struggled to regain consciousness. A fight he won for the moment, which made me breathe a sigh of relief. "Jolien!" I yelled impatiently. She looked at me with red, swollen eyes and still made no move to get up.

"Get up and come!", I shifted Rash's weight and grabbed her arm. She reluctantly let me pull her to her feet. But at least she didn't buckle again, but clung to my arm with trembling hands.

I had no idea how I was going to manage to get them both out of here.

"Malio, what are you up to? He needs treatment!" my dad cried in disbelief. I could tell his gunshot wound wasn't bad enough to need treatment outside of this house, but Rash's was different. He needed to get to the nearest one immediately hospital - and I didn't trust my father about that.

"He needs to go to the hospital!" I shouted angrily. "It's not your job, boy! We'll take care of it!" I snorted. "I won't leave him with you." "Malio!" his voice was a cold growl and for a moment I thought he was going to reach for the gun that still lay on the floor beside him.

"What?" I glared at him aggressively. "If you go now, you don't have to come back! We won't help you if they come and get you, because they will. That's how it is with us. That's how it always is . So make up your mind if your little outburst is worth it all. Apologize, forget her and come to your senses! We are your family, Soela is your fiancee." I noticed the threat in his voice. Heard the underlying violence that made it clear that he would not accept any other choice. If I left now, I was on my own.

But if I didn't go, Jolien would be on her own. And with the information Lynn had managed to manipulate her into untying her, I couldn't leave her alone.

Everything that had happened tonight wasn't her fault, it was mine. It was my idea to bring her here and it was me who left her alone.

I would pay the price, even if it meant banishment.

J O L I E N

Completely exhausted from the last few hours, I sat on the bed in the hotel room and felt more exhausted than ever. A feeling of deep sadness overshadowed my heart and ate into every corner of my broken soul.

My gaze was fixed on the door of the room, hoping that Malio would come back any minute and announce that Rash was feeling better. That he would survive.

After somehow managing to get Rash and me out of the basement, he'd gone straight to the hospital. When we finally got there after a miserably long drive, one minute Rash was being rushed into the operating room and the next, Malio had already dragged me out of the hospital and put me in a taxi.

"Go to the hotel -- and get some sleep!" he'd said after handing the cab driver a hundred dollars, and before I could protest, he motioned to the driver and took me back without another word sent to the hotel.

I had already expected that after everything that had happened he would not be on the best of terms with me - after all, he feared for his friend's life - but that he would rather wait for the outcome of the operation alone than comforting me with his Knowing the side gave me a little pang. The fear of being rejected by him again came back quietly.

Malio had chosen me in the basement, but I didn't want to stand between him and his family. Because the fear that both Mr. Dakarias and Lynn's words had inspired in me was more palpable than ever. She seemed to continually choke me whenever I thought about it. The Chinese wanted revenge, there was no doubt about it. And if Malio turned against his family, how safe would he be? I couldn't protect him well if I couldn't even protect myself. And malio? He was busy protecting me.

So many times I'd believed that Malio had brought all the trouble into my life. All the pain and suffering - but really, I was the problem. I was quite obviously the person who had brought all of this into his life.

I sighed dejectedly and grabbed my phone. Three hours had already passed, during which I stared at the display every five minutes. Just hoping Malio would reply to one of my countless messages - which he didn't do. When the display didn't show a message from him this time either, I threw the phone against the couch in frustration, where it bounced and landed on the floor.

I ignored the messages from Bekka and Brandon for now. I didn't know what to tell them anyway. The truth was out of the question. Because I couldn't even say it out loud myself. I couldn't even think of the words Lynn revealed to me a few hours ago. No, I would have to tell them some lie tomorrow.

The first rays of sun were already fighting their way through the thick, dark clouds that covered the sky when Malio entered the room. "There you are at last!", I crawled to the foot of the bed and looked at him expectantly. Exhausted, he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. Unfortunately, I couldn't give him this short breather. The fear was too great that Rash might not have made it. "How is he?" I prompted cautiously.

"He's coming through." I let out a relieved breath and patted the bed next to me, but he just shook his head and pointed to the bathroom. "I'm going to take a shower first!"

"Malio..", my heart was beating uncomfortably hard against my chest. His dismissive manner not only unsettled me, it also scared me. "What?" He looked at me challengingly. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm sorry for what exactly, Jolien?" But he didn't give me the opportunity to think about it, nor the chance to answer his question.

"That you freed Lynn, or that I had to take my best friend to the hospital because of you? Or the fact that I shot my father because he seemed to want to kill you? I'm sorry about any of this, Jolien?" He had come to the center of the room and was squinting at me. I swallowed. His words were harsh and cold. Although I had expected them, they caught me so unprepared that I unintentionally gasping for air.

"You'll tell me later what happened in that fucking half hour. And woe betide you lie to me. I'm warning you, Jolien. I will know when you do. he yelled angrily. I nodded and started to get out of bed when he spoke again, "Don't." "But..." "No! No, don't say anything more. All I want now is a shower and sleep. I don't want to talk to you anymore!" He turned away and walked towards the bathroom - just before the door he stopped again.

"And don't come behind me." Without another word he disappeared into the bathroom and I was glad that he couldn't see the tears that were running down my face at that moment.

I wiped the tears from my cheeks and got out of bed. I knew what Malio had said, but I just didn't care. I didn't care that he might reject me.

i needed him his closeness. His body. Everything about him was so calming, so intoxicating, so healing that I would happily take the risk of rejection.

I padded carefully to the bathroom door and slipped my sleep shirt over my head. I heard the roar of the water and a gush of steam hit me as I opened the door.

The shower stall was completely steamed up and the intense, smoky scent of his shower gel was in the air. I swallowed hard when I saw Malio's broad shoulders and toned body only dimly behind the pane.

Timidly I stroked the last thin fabric from my body and opened the door of the shower cubicle.

Surprised, he turned his head and a dark shadow fell over his eyes as he recognized me. Cold and dismissive, he studied my face for a few seconds. "What are you doing here? I told you not to fuckin' after me!" His ice blue eyes rested menacingly on mine.

I reached out for him, but he pulled away from my grasp and turned off the water. "I don't want to see you," he said dismissively, roughly pushing past me. "Please don't be like that!" "How?" "So cold!" I finally got hold of his hand and he swore softly as our skin touched.

"I need you Malio. I need you to forget all this. The pain, the anger, the guilt and I know you want it too. That you need it too.” He snorted, effortlessly freeing himself from my grip. “I don't need you to forget, Jolien.”

He slowly turned around and his gaze wandered over my naked body. Agitated, he bit his lower lip and whispered, "I need your little pussy to calm me down from the frenzy you've gotten me into." For a moment, there was an ominous silence in the bathroom. A desire, that's all around us hovering around, but unwilling to take the final step to discharge itself over us.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally came up to me and grabbed a strand of my damp hair and twirled it between his fingers. "I'm afraid of hurting you. I want to be there for you, stand by your side and comfort you. And at the same time, my god Jolien, at the same time I want to punish you for your stupidity." I bit my lower lip nervously because for some reason his dominating manner aroused me.

Malio's hands grabbed my hips roughly and he shoved me back into the shower stall. He pinned me against the tiles, chest first, making me groan loudly.

His sudden rudeness was supposed to frighten me, but it didn't. She aroused me. I wanted him to use me today, now, the way I used him. Wanting him to do whatever it was he needed and wanted.

I didn't know really hard sex. Sex that was driven by the darkest feelings man could have. But I was sure that today was the time to get to know him. I saw it in Malio's eyes. The darkness he had tried to hide from me for so long.

I felt his hard cock stroking my butt as he leaned heavily against me and whispered in my ear, "Last chance to pull the ripcord. I will not be considerate, but will fuck you hard and mercilessly. Just the way I need it right now, you hear?!" I swallowed and finally nodded, because I wanted it just as much.

"Say it!" he commanded. "I want it!" "What? Say it!", his voice had become even colder, even deeper and even more menacing. "I want you to take me!" Without warning, he slipped his knee between my legs, spread them roughly apart, and gasped, sank himself lengthwise into me. I groaned out loud. From excitement and pain.

He briefly positioned my pelvis, allowing him to penetrate me a little deeper. I felt his forearm on the back of my neck and his wet, warm breath on my ear. "Fuck – you're so damn tight, you're going to be in pain." "It doesn't matter, I want it, show me that I can still feel something. Something other than this emptiness, this deep sadness. Please!"

With a jerk, he pulled himself out of me almost completely, only to then sink deep and hard into me again. The pain it caused was pleasant. lusty. arousing.

Every thought, every doubt, every worry went up in smoke and all that remained was the pain and ensuing pleasure that completely numbed my senses. I moaned, screamed and begged for more. Missing for the redemption only he could give me.

The pressure on my neck eased and seconds later, Malio wrapped his fist around my hair and pulled me to his chest. "Say you need me!" Malio whispered in my ear. "I need you!" "Say you're only mine." He sounded almost desperate. "I'm yours. Only yours, Malio. Oh god.."

I gasped his name as he got even harder inside me, taking me almost to the point of being unconscious. His deep moans grew louder, his thrusts more precise, deeper and even harder. "You feel so damn good!" he whispered, licking my neck up to my temple.

Malio grabbed my wrists, put them over my head to fix them there on the wall with his right hand.

My body was now completely in his power - he had power over me.

"I love you, Jolien!" he kept whispering in my ear, like a personal mantra. Something that had manifested in his mind.

The hot wave spread unstoppably inside me until it climaxed with another hard thrust. My orgasm, hitting me with such force, catapulted my senses into a different atmosphere. "Oh, Malio!" I yelled out of breath.

He released his hands from my wrists, pulled me by the hips to his chest and hugged me from behind. "I love you..." I whisper hoarsely, my muscles clenching around his jerking cock. He moaned loudly as he came deep inside me.

My legs were shaking so badly from the overwhelmed feeling that didn't seem to subside and I feared they were about to collapse under the weight of my body. "Everything okay?" Malio asked worried.

I nodded and desperately clung to his arms, which he still wrapped around my stomach. "It was..." "Incredible," he gasped, finishing my sentence and kissing my head lightly.

"I'm sorry I hurt you, you're probably going to have some problems for the next few hours or even days." I nodded, already feeling the uncomfortable burning sensation between my legs. It must have been the price of hard sex.

With me in his arms, Malio turned the shower back on. The warm water flowed over our trembling bodies and I gave a woolly sigh as the warmth enveloped me. He carefully reached for the shower gel that was on the small shelf - always careful not to let me away from him for a second.

Malio spread the cold, jelly-like liquid over my shoulders before lathering me gently. Even now, when I was completely exhausted, his tender touch awakened the desire in me again and I suppressed a yearning moan. Unfortunately I didn't do very well.

He chuckled and said, "Not today, babe. You have enough."