Chapter 20
E verly
My first awareness was of strong arms around me, swiftly followed by a familiar scent. Something woodsy, faintly metallic, and reminiscent of the night. Connor . My eyes refused to open, but instant safety relaxed me enough to try to surface my memories.
It didn’t take much. Last night tormented the edge of my mind. My father had sent me on a date with an awful specimen of a man. Piers had attacked me.
Somehow, Connor had been there.
I tried to move to bring his arm more snuggly around me, but my body wouldn’t oblige. Maybe it was the lingering effects of the drug he’d knocked me out with, or perhaps I just didn’t want to wake properly and face the morning.
From behind, Connor squeezed me. “Awake?”
I mumbled something, and he chuckled. Kissed my neck.
Then sank under the covers.
Connor rolled me to my back and lifted my leg onto his shoulder. I whimpered in anticipation, my arm lolling uselessly to the side, but my pulse speeding up at the touch of his tongue to my centre. I was naked, I realised, and from what I could feel, so was he. He lapped my clit with the flat of his tongue, then drove it down, spearing inside me with a groan of pleasure and both his hands under my ass to lift me.
His touch brought awareness of a raw ache at my pussy, the delicious low-level pain of thorough use and the light sting of abraded skin. Exactly what I’d wanted to feel yesterday, but which had clearly taken place overnight.
A thrill shot through me and woke my slumbering nervous system, desire pooling inside me.
He’d fucked me after knocking me out. There was no other man and no other circumstance in which that would be okay, but with him, I was… relieved . Ecstatic. I tried to form words to ask him details, but my lips weren’t fully functional yet, so instead, I just let myself feel. His tongue thrust into me, two fingers entering after, and then hot, hard suction at my clit.
Pleasure zipped through my body. Because I couldn’t do it for myself, Connor ground my pussy against his face, working me until I panted, a fast climax approaching. Somehow, he seemed to know. A third finger eased into me, stretching me wide, and his fingertips hit a spot inside me that he found again and again. The combination of that rhythmic touch and the perfect pressure on my clit, and I splintered.
A silent moan echoed in my head, and I clamped down on his hand, my body taken over by endless pleasure, and my brain empty of anything else. Abruptly, Connor threw back the covers and rolled me to my side, covering my body with his from behind. He thrust between my ass cheeks until his dick slid over my throbbing core, then pushed inside.
A whimper finally came from me. For years, I’d dreamt of this. Now I was living it. Feeling him work his hips until he was in as deep as he could go. There was something new, too. The cold smoothness of his piercing.
Connor ran his arm around me and between my breasts, his big hand splayed across my chest. His other went under the curve of my waist to palm me between the legs.
“Look,” he ordered.
I forced my eyes open. The room was bright with day, though we faced away from the window, and it took me a moment to focus on the tall mirror on Connor’s wall. Our joined bodies reflected back at us. The image of his heavily inked skin against my creamy white branded in my brain.
His hand buried between my thighs had the Scottish flag tattooed on the back. The other, at my chest, shifted up until he gripped my throat, then higher still to cover my mouth. It had the skeleton jaw inked on it, so in the mirror’s reflection, I was half skeleton.
It made me look like I was his.
All the while, he kept on fucking me, sliding in and out, and his thick cock spreading me open. Never had I felt anything like this. So completely owned.
His lips found my ear. “All night, I fucked ye, out on the living room floor so the night and the city would see.”
I moaned at the scorching-hot image, but he wasn’t done.
“Ye need to know that you’re mine now. I won’t let ye go, ever. This pussy,” he slapped me between the legs, “this body, every piece of your soul, all mine. Nod if ye understand.”
I managed a quick jerk of my head in agreement. It was impossible, but at the same time, all I’d ever wanted. That claim, his ownership, spoke to a deep need inside me, and I was powerless to refuse.
“Good lass. Nothing else matters but us now.”
Connor stroked my clit and thrust inside me, setting off fireworks, a detonation of need that had me barrelling in the direction of another orgasm. He growled encouragement, and when I clamped down on him again, his thrusts turned jerky, and he stilled and pulsed into me.
God, he’d come.
No condom either, though I could hardly care about that. The feeling of his cum in me broke my brain. Connor pulled out, his fingers taking the place of his dick, feeling over the slick combination of us.
“House rules. Ye live here now. With me. You’ll be full of my cum all the time. These,” he groped my breasts, the image lewd in the mirror’s reflection, “are to be bare whenever we’re alone here.”
I gave a soft laugh, realising I’d got my voice back. “You want me to strip half naked when you come into the apartment.”
He nodded and pinched my nipple. “Tits out. Mandatory. I need to see them.”
“Anything else?”
“You’ll obey me in all decisions related to your safety.”
My smile died. Last night, I’d been so scared. If I’d stayed in that house, I knew what would’ve happened. At best, Piers would’ve forced me into a sex act I didn’t want. At worst, he’d have raped and beaten me. My cries would’ve fallen on deaf ears.
I didn’t want responsibility for myself anymore. Just to be safe in this hideaway with Connor.
Slowly, I nodded.
Connor kissed my neck. “I expected more of a battle.”
I couldn’t answer, any element of fight in me broken. I rolled my shoulders then flexed my arms, the power returning. Connor helped me to sit up, and I glanced across the bed to the window.
“What time is it?”
“About three in the afternoon.”
I whipped my head around. “I’ve missed work.”
“I reported ye in sick. You’re not going back all week.”
His gaze held mine, that same challenge there for me to push back. I didn’t. Fuck my father, and fuck work. For a few days, they’d have to cope. I couldn’t walk into Town Hall even if I wanted to. Something powerful in me warned me off, let alone Connor’s edict about managing my life.
As if understanding, Connor touched our foreheads together, then pressed a soft kiss to my lips. My heart ached at the tenderness.
“I packed your bag, again, so ye have most things you’ll need, I hope.” He tilted his head at my holdall on the floor. “Your phone’s in there, too.”
“Thank you,” I said, and I meant it in every way. For being there last night, for keeping me safe, for us waking up together like this.
Connor climbed from the bed and picked up my bag for me, setting it down by my feet. “Hungry, thirsty?”
I unzipped it and examined the choices he’d made this time. Comfortable clothes and pretty dresses, nothing appropriate for work. I spied my contraceptive packet and fished it out. It looked a little crumpled, but presumably that was from being in the bag. “A glass of water would be lovely.”
Connor’s gaze lingered on the packet, and he disappeared into the kitchen, followed by the sound of the fridge opening. Once, I’d dreamt of getting pregnant by him. It was a stupid teenage solution to keeping him. For a millisecond, I considered stashing the contraceptives back in my bag—I’d never loved using them anyway—but it was an errant thought.
He returned with my water. I took the pill.
The cold drink woke me a little more, then another startling memory returned. Slowly, I lifted my head, puzzling over the loose thread. “Did you hear a scream last night when you were in my room?”
Regret passed over Connor’s features, and he sat at the bottom of the bed. “Your neighbours’ house-sitter was killed. They came home to find her dead.”
My mouth fell open in shock. I’d seen the house-sitter a few times, though hadn’t spoken to her. She’d been so young. “God, that’s awful. Another woman murdered? Was it by the same person?”
“I don’t know any more details yet, but Arran’s going to sound out his police contact and debrief us all later.”
“Us?”
“Genevieve and Cassie called the meeting. Cassie seems to have moved in, and she said she wants ye on her team.”
A short burst of warmth crept up against my sorrow. “I like them both. I feel so bad for that poor house-sitter, though. What she must have gone through, oh, and my neighbours who found her. For that to happen in their home, and them unable to do anything to help her.”
Connor collected my hand in his and kissed my fingers. “All the more reason to let me keep ye safe. I might be acting gentle but I don’t feel it. I’m half inclined to chain ye to this bed so I know where ye are at all times. Consider that a warning in case ye decide to test me.”
I shivered, not hating the idea.
He grinned. “Now get up.”
“What are we doing?”
“Showering. Then I’m going to fuck ye again so you’re wearing my cum, as per the rules, when we’re ready to go downstairs. When we’re outside of this apartment?—”
“I can wear clothes?” I joked.
His gaze dropped to a glower, so instantly menacing my insides tightened in lust and need.
“You’ll stay close to me at all times or be escorted by a guard. Do anything else and I’ll lead ye by the scruff of your neck to the brothel where you’ll pick out your restraints yourself.”
That shouldn’t have been hot. He’d always been gentle and sweet with me. I had the impression I was getting to know another side of Connor, and against all common sense, I was pretty certain I was going to like it.
We showered together, Connor taking his time over washing me thoroughly. His dick was hard again, that piercing glinting at the end, though he wouldn’t let me touch him. His fingertips lingered on my chest. Over the marks left by Piers. There were also love bites on my breasts which were clearly Connor’s doing, a fact I liked all too much.
“He came after ye down the garden,” Connor said. “The man you’d gone on a date with then barricaded your door against. Who the fuck was he to think he could behave like that?”
“I hardly know. I think my father offered me to him. What happened, did he find us?”
But Connor stared. “Your father pimped ye out?”
Shame pierced me. I managed a nod.
“I hit him a couple of times,” he finally said. “Wish I’d done more, but we’d run out of time. That fucker needs to go down, and so does your da. I should’ve handled him a long time ago.”
“Listen, about my father?—”
Abruptly, Connor stepped away. “No. I don’t want to hear it. That’s another rule, but for my sanity. Spare me any excuses or justification over your da, please. He’s your past, and I’m your future. We’re never talking about him again.”
He swung open the shower door and grabbed a towel. “Take as long as ye need,” he threw back.
Then he left me to stare after him, half in agreement, half knowing this was all so, so wrong.