Chapter 45
ASHA
Rook’s kiss was hard. Possessive. Devastating.
There was no slow exploration. Just lips and teeth and tongues colliding with an intensity that burned hotter than the sun.
My back slammed into the wall. He crowded me in, thigh shoved between my legs, hands everywhere. My hair, my face, my ass. Tugging, gripping, claiming.
“Say it again,” he rasped against my lips.
“I’m yours.”
A savage growl tore from his throat, and his hips ground against mine.
And…oh God, he was hard.
So hard it made me dizzy.
So hard it made me ache.
The next moment, he tugged off my sweats and tore away my panties.
Then he lifted me, and my legs wrapped around his waist automatically.
“I approve of this.” He hooked a finger into the neck of my hoodie. His hoodie. “It can stay.”
I glimpsed a smear of blood on the back of Rook’s hand. “His?” I asked, and he followed my gaze.
He nodded. “Want to take this to the shower?”
I should’ve said yes. I should’ve been repulsed by those smudges.
But there was something darkly satisfying about the idea of being taken against this wall with my abuser’s blood still staining the man who’d avenged me.
Like it was one last kick in the teeth for that asshole.
I clutched Rook’s shirt. “No. Don’t stop.”
I heard the clink of Rook’s belt buckle, the sound of a zipper, then felt the heavy press of his cock at my entrance.
His eyes locked with mine. “Forgive me,” he said, and slammed into me with one brutal thrust.
I cried out, clawing at his shoulders. I felt too full, stretched to my limit.
But the burn was sharp and exquisite. I needed this. Needed to feel him. Not just now, but tomorrow when I woke sore, marked, and used by Rook in the best possible way.
He gave me a single breath to adjust before drawing back and slamming in again.
“I’ve waited too fucking long for this,” he snarled. “For you to stop running. To admit you want me.”
“I’m not running.” I buried my face in his neck, my lips brushing the pulse that hammered beneath his skin. “Not anymore.”
“Good.” His voice was feral. “Because I’m done pretending like I don’t want to fuck you every time I walk through the door.”
He drove into me again and again.
Hard. Ruthless.
Perfect.
The wall shook with every thrust. The slap of skin filled the room, mingling with Rook’s throaty grunts and my breathy gasps.
“Take it, Wildfire. Take every fucking inch of me in your tight little cunt and know that no other man will have you like this. They won’t hear your sweet moans, feel your nails in their skin, or know what it’s like to be milked dry by this greedy pussy. Those belong to me. Do you understand?”
I nodded, too far gone for words.
“Say it,” he growled.
“Yes, Rook. I understand.”
“No, love. I don’t think you do.” He slowed, just enough to leave me panting for more. “I’d lie for you. Steal for you. Kill for you. I’d slice through my own flesh and bleed out to prove my devotion. I’d betray my most loyal ally, spit on any god, and raze this city if it meant keeping you safe.”
My lips parted, and my breath caught.
Were we still pretending? Was this real?
I didn’t know anymore.
“You’re my queen,” he murmured, skimming his mouth over mine. “The only one I’d kneel for. Because as much as I own you, you own me, too. Body and soul.”
His words tore through me like fire.
This wasn’t a man claiming me for power. This was a man offering submission in the only way he knew how.
And for all Rook’s dominance, his violence, his absolute control of every situation, the power between us wasn’t unequal.
He was the one with money, formidable connections, and the strength of a warrior.
But I was the one who could break him.
I took his face in my hands and gripped firmly. “Rook,” I said, my voice cracking along with the last thread of my resistance.
“Aye, Wife.” He pressed his lips to mine briefly, soft and reverent. “I think you’re finally starting to understand what you mean to me.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. The feelings whirling inside me were too overwhelming. Too real. Too goddamn dangerous to put into words.
So I did the only safe thing I could before my foolish heart got carried away.
My expression turned fierce. “Husband?”
“Love?”
That one little word threatened to undo me. “Shut up and fuck me harder.”
Rook smirked as though he knew exactly why I needed him to ruin me. “As you wish.”
He turned relentless then, giving me everything I’d asked for by pounding into me with brutal force. Callused hands gripped my thighs, digging into flesh and bruising.
“Touch yourself,” he ordered. “Wanna feel you come on my cock while I’m buried deep inside you.”
I dropped my hand between us, first feeling the place where we were joined and Rook’s thick cock sliding in and out of me.
He leaned back to see, eyes wild, breath ragged, chest heaving like he was moments from losing control. “Fuck. Look at you. Hot and wet and stretched around me.”
I shifted two fingers to my clit, circling it just right.
A low moan slipped from my lips as my head fell back.
“That’s it, love. Lose yourself, but I want your eyes on mine when you do it.”
With his gaze fixed on me, Rook quickened his movements. My thighs shook. A warm pressure built inside me, swelling with every stroke of my fingers and every rough snap of Rook’s hips.
“I’m close,” I muttered.
“Come apart for me, Wildfire.”
And I did.
I shattered with a cry, my body clenching around him as waves of pleasure surged through me. Every nerve lit up. Every thought disintegrated.
Rook drove into me one last time, hard and deep, following me over the edge with a sound that was pure devastation and bliss. “Fuck, Asha.”
We clung to each other, breathless, trembling, and wrecked.
My back was still pressed against the wall, and my jelly legs still wrapped around Rook. He held me like I was precious. Like he didn’t want to let me go.
And honestly, I didn’t want him to.
This moment marked the end of something broken and the beginning of something I wasn’t ready for.
Not love. Not yet.
But something close. Something that could break me in a thousand different ways.
And I’d never wanted anything more.