“You want it or not? Or maybe I’ll just let you watch. Not you I want anyway, but that don’t mean I won’t have some fun with you. Mateo should be last. Not sure that will work out but you and him can watch me kill that little queer he had in New York with him. Maybe the other guy next. Maybe I’ll fuck him with this stick instead of you. It’ll kill Mateo, then I’ll let you both watch me rip him open before I do the same to Mateo.”

“Ben!”

Darkness went to light at the sound of a voice calling his name. Ben fought off Javier, tried to force the rank man off of him.

“Ben, stop. Don’t move. Look at me. Now.”

Ben’s eyes found the source of the voice. Dante straddled him, his hands on Ben’s wrists as he held him down.

“It’s Dante. I’m going to let you go now. Don’t try to fight me again.”

Dante moved slowly as Ben still fought to breathe. His chest hurt, not because of the man on top of him but because it felt like it was getting compressed from the inside.

Shit, he’d lost it. When Dante tried to tie him to the bed, it had taken him back to that fucking house with Javier.

“Get off me.” Ben tried to push Dante but the man didn’t budge. It didn’t help that Ben’s arms were weak the way they were after he spent hours in the gym.

“You were hurt?” Dante asked.

“Fuck you.”

“You were tied up?” Dante probed. Ben didn’t have to answer for Dante to curse. “Shit. You should have told me. We have our secrets. I’m not asking for your past but things that can affect this, I need to know. I never would have tried to tie you up if I’d known someone used that to hurt you.” Dante ran a hand through his hair. His ass moved against Ben’s crotch and he realized he was still hard. How the fuck did he still have an erection?

Dante pushed off of him and Ben was to his feet.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it, Benny? The blood.”

Ben swung, his fist landing in Dante’s wall. Pain shot through his hand but he didn’t care. Hell, maybe he wanted more of it.

“That’s your weakness. You are a fuckin’ maricone and you want one of the fags giving it to Mateo.” Javier bent closer to him. “Yeah, I’ll definitely make you watch then. You can watch him get fucked. Watch him bleed and know you’re too much of a fuckin’ pussy to save him.”

Ben dropped to his knees. He fisted his hands in his hair, needing the voices to stop.

It was then that Dante kneeled too, taking Ben’s face in his hands. “Come back to me. You’re safe. You’re here with me.”

Dante’s voice tethered him to the now, hushed the voices in Ben’s head. “Okay.”

“Do you want me to take care of you?”

There was no question in Ben’s mind what he meant by that. He felt like a shaken up can, the lid too tight for him to explode.  Yes, he wanted Dante to take care of him. God help him, he did.

Ben nodded.

Dante rose, and then walked toward the bed. “Stand up. Stand up and come here.”

Ben’s brain shut off as he forced himself to his feet. He turned. Walked over to Dante. Dante said he would be good at this. The only way for that to be true was for Ben to obey.

“I won’t tie you up but the blindfold has to stay. Can you do it if you can’t see?”

“Yes.” The answer came automatically. He didn’t let himself consider another option.

Dante grabbed his face so Ben couldn’t look away. “It’s me. If you start to forget that for a second, we have to stop. But I believe you can do this.” He let go of Ben’s face. “Now go to the bed again.”

Ben did, and things moved faster this time. Dante kept the blindfold off as he stretched Ben, getting him ready. He spoke to him the whole time, telling Ben how good he was doing and how much Dante wanted to fuck him.

He wouldn’t have said as much before.

“You will do this for me, Ben,” Dante told him as he went to wrap the blindfold around Ben’s eyes again, and Ben wanted to. Not just for himself, he thought maybe he wanted to do it for Dante as well.

Then Ben’s world went black.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“Inhale a deep breath, Ben. Tell me what you smell.”

It was like a reflex now, to do exactly as Dante said. Ben inhaled, and the scent was familiar. “Coffee...and spice. Some kind of spice.” It was the scent of Dante. He drank a lot of coffee and smelled like it. The rest was just him, the strong, masculine scent of Dante.