“Fuck!” Caleb shouted, squeezing Livvie until she whimpered.

“Caleb, my ribs,” she said softly and without halting her movements against him.

“Sorry.” Caleb lessened his hold slightly. Only enough to stop hurting her.

“What’s happening?” Livvie moaned and rocked against him, “I thought I was going to suck your dick.”

Caleb’s cock throbbed and leapt between Livvie’s ass cheeks. If he waited any longer, he was going to demand to get in her ass. The thought was enough to get more sounds out of him, but damn it, he wanted a blowjob. Abruptly, he set Livvie on her feet and gave her a moment to gain her balance before he put his hand on her shoulder and urged her to her knees in front of him.

“You are. Right now,” he said.

There was no discussion, no hesitation, and Caleb’s chest seemed to expand with pride as Livvie licked her lips and put her mouth on him. Caleb’s knees buckled slightly and he could not resist thrusting into her mouth, forcing her to regain her balance. He grunted low, as if he didn’t want her to hear, thrusting as much as he could without holding her head in his hands and having his way.

Her mouth was warm and caressingly tender despite her obvious inexperience. She held him in her hands, licking the head of his cock slowly, and then putting it in her mouth. Caleb fought every impulse to force himself deeper. He wanted her to do it on her own.

“Mmm,” she moaned.

Caleb echoed her sounds, loving the vibration of her mouth against his dick. He wanted more. More. More. More. Her touch and her mouth were all over the place in their intention. Pain and pleasure mingled every time she accidentally grazed him with her teeth, but then caressed the spot with her tongue.

“Deeper, Livvie. Please, deeper,” he found himself saying. He couldn’t think straight and didn’t realize what he’d said.

Livvie whimpered as she endeavored to take him deeper, her mouth stretching over his shaft. Teeth scraped him, but he didn’t care, he knew it would be impossible to get even half of it into her mouth.

Caleb refused to take control. He was getting off on the fact this was her fantasy and not his own. He wondered how long she’d wanted to do suck him off and lamented the time wasted. Livvie went deep and Caleb felt her throat contract around the head of his cock before she pulled away to take air into her lungs.

Caleb clenched his hands into fists at his sides, determined to let her breathe before he demanded to be let back into her warm, wet mouth. He sighed when she rested one hand against his thigh for balance and with the other, held his cock in place as she took him back in.

She increased her pace, keeping her eyes closed and focusing on her rhythm. It was almost more than Caleb could stand. Unable to resist, he reached down for his cock and wrapped his hand around hers, guiding it up and down with the rhythm of her mouth.

She slowed, and Caleb fought not to thrust. Harder. Faster. Deeper. Caleb held her hand firmly, moving it up and down the length of him. With his other hand he caressed her face, coaxing her mouth to continue its maddening suckling, relieved when it began anew. Caleb removed his hand, letting Livvie have her way once more. His hand was covered in Livvie’s saliva, much like his cock.

Livvie mewled and moaned around his cock, sucking him deeper as her lust grew and her instincts took over. Her hand pumped him and she moved her lips with growing speed and firm pressure over the tip of his cock.

Caleb was nearing his crisis, his body tense as a drawn bow. He breathed heavily and his hands kneaded Livvie’s shoulders, encouraging her. Suddenly, he grabbed fists of her hair and pulled his cock out of her wet mouth.

“Open your mouth,” he demanded.

Livvie was powerless as he pushed himself almost violently back into her mouth and pumped only a few times before coming long and hard into Livvie’s mouth. She moaned, but her hands pushed against his thighs.

Caleb couldn’t stop himself, couldn’t help the way he held her still, emptying himself. He felt her trying to swallow the salty fluid overwhelming her mouth, but there was too much. It trickled down her chin and down her neck. Caleb growled from deep in his throat and his knees gave way under him until he straddled her. He kissed her over and over, sucking on her lips and searching for her tongue. His taste in her mouth felt like a claim, a brand.

“God,” he whispered to no one at all, kissing her neck.

Livvie panted hard into Caleb’s ear, gripping him close and returning his fervent kisses. She grabbed Caleb’s hand and pressed his fingers to her clit, whimpering for attention.

“Only fair,” Caleb whispered. He circled her clit hard and fast with his fingertips, and within seconds, he felt the hot rush of Livvie’s juices rushing out of her pussy, as she came apart in his arms for the second time.

“Oh, oh, oh,” she moaned against his ear, “I love you. Oh, god, I love you.”

Caleb was too sated to care she’d said it again.

Slowly, the world began to come into focus and Caleb peeled himself away from Livvie to help her onto her shaky feet. Their eyes met briefly before Livvie turned her face toward the spray of water over head. Caleb felt a twinge of anger as he watched her rinse her mouth out, but realized it had to be done. He tried not to take it personally.

She’d given him so much, opened herself so fully and exposed a part of her Caleb had never seen or touched in another human being. He felt he should offer something in return. He longed to offer something in return and unable to think of anything else, he said, “I was almost beaten to death when I was a teenager.” Livvie jolted to attention, her gaze fixed on Caleb. He reached for the soap and began to lather it in his hands, before he turned Livvie toward the wall and began soaping her skin.

“I was younger than you. I know that much. A man named, Narweh, used a bullwhip on me. There was a lot of blood. The beating left scars, but I would have died if…if Rafiq hadn’t saved my life.” Caleb cleared his throat and focused on soaping.

Livvie tried to turn and face him, but Caleb wouldn’t allow it. He simply moved her body in the direction he wanted and continued to wash her.

Her deadened voice broke the silence, “Why would someone do that to you?”

“I was….” He couldn’t tell her. He couldn’t tell her about the person he’d been, or the things he’d done. She was the one person who deserved to know, but he refused to say. “I was too weak to defend myself. Instead, I went back later and killed him.” He chuckled, lost in thought. “With the gun you pulled on me, in fact.”

Livvie was tense under his hands, her shoulders knotted. “Is that…? Is that the reason you feel like you owe Rafiq? Because he saved your life?”

Caleb’s hands inadvertently clenched and Livvie hissed in pain. He immediately let her go and reached for more soap. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

Livvie didn’t face him. She simply stared at the wall. “What about me, Caleb? Don’t you think you owe me anything?”

Caleb regretted having said anything at all. What had he been thinking to say anything so personal? And to Livvie of all people – whom he planned to subjugate for his own ends to repay a twelve year debt? It was reckless and stupid beyond anything he’d done so far.

“No,” he said. It felt like a lie. It was a lie. He owed her plenty. He’d been naïve to think he’d ever be free of his debt. He’d always owe someone. “But if you ever want your revenge against me, you let me know.”

Livvie said nothing for several minutes before she turned to look at Caleb, “I don’t want revenge, Caleb. I don’t want to end up like you, letting some fucking vendetta run my life. I just want my freedom. I want to be free, Caleb. Not someone’s whore…not even yours.”

Caleb’s throat felt like it was on fire as he acknowledged the sincerity in Livvie’s words. This had been her game the entire time. He’d known it, reminded himself repeatedly, even begrudgingly respected her attempts – but he’d still fallen for it. He deserved every bit of what he was getting. He knew it and didn’t care.

He stepped forward, prodding Kitten out of the way and rinsed his body beneath the cooling spray of the water. He could feel Kitten’s stare on his body, but refused to acknowledge her. Once he was done rinsing, he opened the glass shower door, grabbed a towel and headed for the bedroom.

“You’re leaving!” Kitten cried, busting out of the shower and gripping his arm.

Caleb pushed her away somewhat forcefully and continued into the bedroom. “I have a lot of things to do today. You’ve taken up too much of my time lately as it is,” he said coldly. For a moment he looked about the room for his pants, then realized he hadn’t come in wearing any because he’d come to address her late-night ranting some time after he’d gone to bed. He glanced at her face and saw the hurt in her eyes, tears stood at the ready. She swallowed hard to keep them at bay as her hands covered her breasts.

“You’re going to go now, after everything? I thought…” her voice trailed off, teetering somewhere between anger and hurt. Something twisted inside Caleb’s stomach at the sight of her. He wanted to kiss her and tell her things that would make her stop crying; but then just the thought he’d considered such a thing solidified his anger and resolve.

“You thought what? You thought offering me a little pussy was going to make some kind of a difference? You thought you’d suck my dick and I’d just give you whatever the fuck you wanted?!”

His words cut her deeply, as he intended. He wanted to make sure there was absolutely no confusion. He walked toward her and tilted her chin upward and she instinctively recoiled, trying to get away from his hand. He gripped her harder, holding her in place.

“I did think it was really cute when you said you loved me though.” He visibly saw her shoulders slump then and her eyes closed slowly. He let her face go and without hysterics she walked toward the bed and put her head down onto her pillow and crawled into a ball.

For a few moments, he waited for her to retaliate, but she said nothing. He walked calmly toward the door, opened it, and walked through without a glance in her direction. He closed the door behind him gently, and awkwardly wondered why he suddenly felt hollow. Wrapped in nothing but a towel, he made his way toward his room.

Once inside his room, Caleb stood for a moment, staring into nothingness as water dripped off of him. Livvie had said she loved him and he’d made her feel stupid. Something in his gut twisted at the thought and at the memory of her tears. He often thought she looked beautiful when she cried, because she was nervous, or afraid, or embarrassed, but these weren’t the same; he’d really hurt her. She’d hurt, him, too. Caleb couldn’t change who he was.

He hadn’t thought about Rafiq in a very long time. He’d been too busy playing house with Livvie. Too busy to think about the debt he owed and why he owed it. It was probably the reason Rafiq had been in his dreams as of late. It was his subconscious’ way of reminding him not to lose focus. He’d ignored it. He couldn’t do it anymore.

The night before, he’d had a dream about speaking with Rafiq about the murder of his mother and sister. Caleb had been in Rafiq’s study, learning the English alphabet and the sound each letter made. He’d been proud to discover he could use the sounds of the letters to make sense of words. They had begun to look less like a collection of squiggly lines and slowly, but surely, he could read some words without sounding them out.

Rafiq had been teaching him English and Spanish at the same time, because they used the same letters. It had been confusing at first, because they didn’t make the same sounds, but Caleb was learning. The Arabic and Urdu were much harder to read, but easier to speak because he’d grown up with them. His Russian was a mess on both counts, but Rafiq insisted he learn it.

Caleb knew he had to learn the Russian because it was Vladek’s native tongue. Caleb had become hungry for information about Vladek after Narweh’s death, but Rafiq often refused to give too much detail when it came to the murders of this mother and sister.