CHAPTER 1

It has been a terrible day. April barely can remember the last day she was happy at work, at home, with her life. And it's actually ironic, because she has just been promoted, she has a beautiful 6 months old daughter, and she is co-parenting with his ex-husband, best friend and love of her life Jackson, therefore she should be the happiest person in the world. Sadly, the promotion it's only temporal, her coworkers don't speak to her unless they have to, her relationship with Jackson has been reduced to fight after fight after fight, and April has had enough, she can't keep going on with a fake smile and a mask to hide how much she is hurting.

Sometimes she feels like she is at high school again instead of working at one of the best hospitals in Seattle. And April wasn't happy at high school. Her coworkers remind her of those days when everybody laughed at her and hardly anybody wanted to be her friend. But even on those days she has had at least one good, loyal best friend. Now, she only has a bunch of former companions that treat her like if she has a contagious disease, colleagues who have proved her worst suspicion, that they were only friendly towards her because she was Jackson's friend and wife and Jackson is their own version of the popular football team captain. Now that Jackson is treating her badly, the rest of his group feel like they can do the same and even her so called best friend Arizona turned her back on April.

She isn't happy at the hospital and she isn't happy at home. Working used to be one of her happy places, now she counts the hours remaining until her shift ends, and when it finishes she doesn't want to go back to her house. It's not her home anymore because her relationship with Jackson has reached the point of non-return. Their relationship has become a cold war and their house is the battlefield where they fight passive-aggressively with each other, although sometimes the shit hits the fan, the fights get real and they are just aggressive with each other. Today has been one of those days, and the worst thing is that April doesn't remember the what, the why and the how.

So here she is, after a terrible day at work and a worse day at home, drinking alone in some cheap, random bar. It's not her style and it's not her scene, but today she needs to break with everything, she needs to forget and she needs to yell a big fuck you to everyone

She's on her second rock in the ice when it happens. At the beginning she thinks it's just noises. When it talks again she listens to the whispers and understands the words. It's a masculine, rough, whisky, chilling voice that commands she to obey

"Look at me"

It says, and she does, even if the voice it's inside her head, she does and she looks directly at one man sat at the bar.

She thinks he looks like the voice. He has short brown hair, bristle of a few days and he has a scar running across his right eye. He is handsome and the epitome of tall, dark, mysterious and dangerous in his old-fashioned long black coat that makes him look like a Mr. Darcy or a Heathcliff wannabe. He is looking at her without smiling, with a challenge in his eyes, and April wants to take that challenge. She isn't that kind of woman though so she walks out the bar and heads to her car. She is almost there when the same voice says the same darn thing inside her head. He is standing near a light street, but as the light is too dull, April can't see what he is doing there. However she is equally scared and pissed off, and yes, intrigued. She can't ignore the fact that he is attractive and compelling, there is something there moreover she can't put her finger on it. There are more voices in her head, however this time she can't distinguish what they are saying, it's just gibberish and she doubts her own sanity. She is not even sure he is there

"What do you want?" Asks April after a few minutes of unbearable silence "i have a gun" lies she.

He starts to walk towards her until he is at a mere centimeters from her. She can study him now, she could scape too. She doesn't do any of those things though, because she can't tear her gaze away from his eyes. He is looking at her with unquestionable desire, and nothing else. Nobody has looked at her with that kind of lust, and she thinks she is going to burn with it and because of it

"No you don't" answers he with that voice that has April's body quivering with anticipation "I have a room in the hotel across the street"

"I'm not..."

"You want to go with me... I don't want to know your name and you don't want to know mine, I just want you to go with me"

"I don't... I don't want to, I don't do that kind of things, I'm not that kind of girl, woman, I'm not that kind of woman, I'm a Christian, I..." and just when April was starting to ramble on he silenced her with a kiss.

She has been kissed a lot of times by a very few men, and there have always been some kind of feeling there, sometimes love, sometimes tenderness, sometimes just the fondness born from a friendship. There is nothing like that in this kiss, it's just lust and hunger, and April can't believe how much she does like this lack of feelings. The smartest part within her it it's yelling at her that she should push the guy, slap him for good measure and get into the car. However she doesn't do any of those things, she kiss him back with the same hunger, demanding and needy.

She doesn't know how they got to the shabby, cheap hotel. Her memories regarding the journey are reduced to kisses, teeth, his hands under her skirt, his neck under her lips, his calloused finger inside her panties, her body trapped between him and walls and trees.

They only stop when the get to the bedroom. It's an ordinary room, but April doesn't pay attention to it, the only thing she cares about it's the bed.

He is looking at her with that expression she has learned to read too fast, it makes her feel uncomfortable and when she is uncomfortable she starts rambling, but he has already learned that she does that, so he speaks before she does.

"Take the dress off" April wide her eyes too shocked and turned on by his demands "take the fucking dress off" he repeats more forceful and demanding after a few seconds.

Not even when Jackson and she started to have sex, not even when he made love to her at their wedding night, has Jackson looked at her with that kind of urgency, as if he couldn't wait one more second for her. It makes her feel special in a way that Jackson has never made her feel. This stranger is looking at her as if she is the sexiest woman he has ever seen and that is something April never gets. His words are at the same time a command and a challenge, and she decides to do what he says. It's not obedience though, it's the answer to his challenge. She takes her dress off with ease, with the same kind of movements she uses at home. She guesses that he doesn't need her to make an spectacle of it, which isn't her style

She stands there, at his side of the bed, still and uncomfortable, she wants to cover his nudeness, but she senses that it isn't allowed. He doesn't said anything, he just begins taking his clothes off without averting his gaze from her, and she can feel it on her skin, something almost physical and magical that has her quivering in anticipation

His body is covert by multiple huge, tribal tattoos and more scars, all kind of scars, burn scars and stabbing scars like a map that she wants to draw with her mouth and her tongue. His member is long, thick and it's hard. She wants to taste it, but she doesn't dare to move, not until he finish taking his clothes off, so she bites her low lip instead, which has an instant effect on his erect cock

"Come here" he says with husky voice at the same time he gets onto the bed. She has the same kind of urgency he has, she wants him in a way she has never allowed herself to want.

They meet at the center of the bed with a passionate kiss. And they start to fuck, for the first time in her life April feel she is fucking instead of making love... And she likes it

He is rough and brutal, his hands roam her skin fast, looking for something. He finds her breast and stop to devour her nipples with hungry hands, mouth and tongue. He is brutal and she loves it. After a few seconds of delicious torture he finds what he was looking for. Callouses fingers find the center and start to caress her. She is close, it has been too long since the last time she had sex and this stranger is pushing buttons she didn't know she had. When he finally enters her she is a wild creature seeking her release. She doesn't recognize her own voice when she starts to demand him to go faster and harder. He obeys and soon his path becomes urgent and brutal, and her orgasm takes her by surprise. He ends with an animalistic growl only a few minutes later.

He isn't done though. She is still trying to catch her breath when he kiss her brutally and start to fuck her with his finger. He is touching her just like she wants to be touched. And then he starts to whisper in his ear. She doesn't recognize the language, although she thinks is probably African. At the beginning it's sweet and melodic, his voice is low and rough and his fingers move at the same pace as his words. The pace increase, his voice become louder, his words sound harsher, yet there is rhythm to it like the sound of tambours, like the beating of their hearts.

"Kom na my toe nou" repeats him again and again

His voice, his fingers and his words have an effect on her and when she finally orgasm his voice is almost a scream as loud as the scream that escapes from his mouth. Her orgasm is so intense that she sees stars before her eyes, and then everything goes black

When she wakes up he isn't there. In the room only remain April, her shame and her guilt.