Chapter 20 Skylar
SKYLAR
“Skylar.” His voice pulls me out of my floaty space, back into his captivating darkness.
The man I lost my virginity to.
Prying my eyes open, I blink until I’m fully aware of my surroundings.
The first thing that filters in is warmth.
Knox’s warmth.
Next, I notice where I am in all of this. Still on my hands and knees, I’m weak, unstable. But I’m not afraid. He’s here to hold me up, to take care of me.
While he’s on his knees, still curled around me.
He’s not just strong. He’s powerful for holding me up.
His palms are another anchor. His body is my haven as he cradles me through the soft, broken sounds slipping past my gag.
When I bite down and whimper around the gag, Knox shushes me, peppering kisses over my shoulder.
It’s as if he’s praising me for clinging to the rope he’s tied around me, for being into the same things as him.
And he, as a reward, lets me have him, the one thing I’ve been missing my entire life.
A shudder ripples through me. A feeling that’s too close to love shakes me to my core.
He sees through me. His actions drown me in care, affection, protectiveness.
“You’ve done so well.” His fingers caress my stomach. Back and forth in a soothing rhythm. His lips brush my shoulder as he speaks, while his cum slips from between us, dripping down my thigh. “So well. My girl. Mine.”
I nod, letting out a relieved sigh.
“Yeah, you are.” A final squeeze of my body to his, and he pulls out, easing me onto my back against the cool cement.
His hands guide instead of handle, his gaze sweeping over me as if to make sure I’m still whole.
After nodding to himself, he sits back on his shins.
Oh God, he’s staring down at his cock. At the blood coating it.
Heat floods my cheeks while I wait for him to say something.
He’s quiet for a few long minutes, a storm flashing over his features.
Knox’s feral eyes cut to mine, expression darkening, lips pressed into a hard line.
“What’s this?” His hands clench and unclench at his sides, a restless, helpless gesture. “Skylar, did I hurt you?”
I bite down harder on the gag, grateful it seals my words in.
For all my medical knowledge, I can’t retreat into facts right now. I don’t want to reduce what happened between us to a scientific explanation.
He’s the first man I’ve ever let inside me. I’m fragile. Shaky. Sore. His warmth is everything I need, him and nothing else.
“Answer me.” His face twists in anguish as he leans over me, big hands hovering like he’s afraid to touch me. “Did I hurt you?”
I look at him, praying he hears my thoughts.
I just want you. I’m trembling, not from pain but from the rush of too much all at once. From needing you close.
No. He doesn’t hear me. Or maybe he does, but he’s too freaked out. Locked in full protective mode, his eyes scan me as if he can find the damage.
My poor man is convinced the blood is his fault. That he wounded me.
“Where are the cuts?” When he decides to finally touch me, his fingers are gentle as he spreads my pussy, searching for lacerations. “What did I break?”
My heart swells at his attentiveness. At how right I was about him.
He’s no monster. A monster wouldn’t pour its care into anything, let alone show such devotion to anyone.
“Skylar, I can’t find a tear.” Lines crease his forehead as he turns his intense gaze to mine. “Where is it? Tell me.”
“No,” I murmur, swatting weakly at his hands.
“Stop it.” His huff is rough, impatient.
He returns to watching my pussy with my wrists in his hand, pinning them to my stomach.
“Are you…” His pupils are blown wide. A few strands of hair fall over his forehead. My God, he’s gorgeous when he’s baffled. “Fuck, what’s it called?” His brows pull together, frustration twisting his features. “The blood that means you’re ready to have babies?”
When I say nothing, he leans in and carefully relieves me of my gag. His scent makes me heady, the weight of his cock on my navel pinning me to the moment.
I don’t mind the stickiness of our cum and my blood on my stomach. Having him crowd my space, his gaze fixed on me, it speaks to the darkest, loneliest parts of me.
“Tell me.” He licks my spit from my lips, my chin. His primal way of tending to me. “It’s okay, if that’s what it is. Better than okay. Perfect.”
Staying silent suddenly feels selfish when he’s offering me his care. His attention. The gentlest, most tender parts of him.
Deep breath. “No, this isn’t my period.”
“Then?” What others would hear as a rough demand, I perceive as intimacy. There’s reverence in how he cups my cheeks, despite the tension in his jaw. “I need to be a good husband. Need to know everything about you.”
“A husband?” My voice is raw. From the gag. From the shock. “My husband?”
“Yes.” No hesitation. No second-guessing or offering me a way out. It’s a yes that cuts as deep as his knife. “What do you think mine means? What do you think filling you up with babies means?”
“You kind of need to ask that before you make someone your wife,” I say without a shred of reproach. Maybe…maybe I want him to ask me?
“No.” Resolve hardens his expression. “When we get out of here, I’ll make you my wife.”
My stomach twists as I let out the question that scares me the most. “Are you sure?”
“I don’t want anyone else.” A low growl rumbles from his chest, vibrating through me. “You don’t either.”
That earlier hope of clinging to my sanity is a distant, laughable dream. Because when he repeats his wish to marry me, the words make sense. They don’t strike me as madness at all.
They land softly inside me, a lock clicking into place.
My soul breathes easier as I absorb them.
Yes, our bond is unnatural. Wild. Forged in blood.
A connection that sparks while my sister lies paralyzed. While her boyfriend’s skin is going to be dropped at Knox’s doorstep sometime later today.
Despite everything, I’ve fallen for him, this savage, this stranger.
He was inside you. Takes care of you. Not a stranger anymore, is he?
He isn’t. Against all odds, in less than forty-eight hours, I’ve caught feelings for Knox.
“Is it crazy that I don’t?” I ground myself through our connection with my fingertips on his cheeks.
“Crazy? No.” Knox’s lips tug in the tiniest smirk. “My family and I…we were called crazy. Many times. By the living-hides. And—”
“The people, Knox. We’re people.”
“Living-hides.” His smirk fades, jaw tightening.
I don’t argue, leaving it at that. This moment is too precious to ruin. We’ll talk later. I hope.
“I was saying…” The tension in him eases a little. “You’re different. Smart. Beautiful. Even when you fight me, it’s sweet. There’s nothing crazy about you.” His voice drops. “Now tell me what happened. Tell me how not to hurt you next time.”
Right. He needs answers only I can give him. “You didn’t hurt me. There was nothing you could’ve done to avoid, uh, my hymen.”
He frowns, confusion darkening his eyes.
I clear my throat. “The blood, it was just a sign you were my first.”
“What?” His fingers clamp around my jaw, tight and demanding. “So when you said I’d be your first, was that some code I missed? Did it mean I should’ve been more careful? Because—fuck—I didn’t know. I—fuck. How do I fix it?”
How can someone so brutal and murderous look so adorable?
“It wasn’t a code. You’ve done nothing wrong.” As his frown deepens, I rush to add, “I would’ve bled either way, gentle or not. I’m built this way, but it doesn’t mean I’m hurt. Just means I’m not a virgin anymore. That’s all.”
“Well, I’m not bleeding.” The more confused he seems, the more ruthless his hold on me is, and I let him be rough with me. I’m growing addicted to his care. “I was a virgin too.”
“There’s no barrier on your cock. Nothing to show you were a virgin.”
“Okay. If my body doesn’t show it, then I’ll say it again so you’ll know.” He presses in closer, his body caging mine as if to block out the rest of the world. “I hadn’t been with anyone else. I won’t lie to you, Trouble. Ever.”
“I trust you.” A soft smile teases my lips because this is another first for me. Believing in someone who isn’t my parents or my best friend so deeply.
“Good.” He moves to sit back on his shins.
His chest expands, shoulders squaring. His chin dips, hazel eyes darting between me and his dick. This time, he’s far less confused, and his expression grows a lot darker.
“Okay, then,” he rasps, rough with pride. “If you’re mine, then I’ll seal it. Your first blood stays with me. No one else gets that.”
“How?” I ask, impatient and so very curious.
His gaze holds me captive, fierce and unyielding. He sweeps his finger over the length of his cock, coats it with blood, and brings it to his mouth.
More feral than ever, Knox’s lips close around his finger, sucking slow.
A base, old need rattles my bones as I watch him. As I hear him moan in pleasure.
I act on it, settling on my knees in front of him.
Before I can take what I want, his hands are already there, snapping to my waist.
“Don’t. Go.”
“I won’t.” Even if I could, I wouldn’t. He’s all I can think of. “Can I taste it? Us?”
Knox draws in a breath, then nods and gets up.
His hand fists my hair, the other one curled around the base of his cock, aiming it at my mouth.
“Take it.” He’s already hard again, the veins tracing the length of him. “Lick it clean.”
I don’t think twice. I simply let myself be, placing my hands on his legs for balance. Parting my lips for him, offering myself up.
Asking for it. “Please.”
Knox groans, pulling me forward. Filling me with himself. He’s thick and heavy on my tongue, tasting of my blood and our arousal.
His thighs flex beneath my fingers. His body works not to fuck my mouth.
This isn’t a conquest. This is a gift.
I’m sick and all wrong in the head to so eagerly swipe my tongue over him.
I’m too grateful and needy to care.
“Yes.” He strokes my hair, a gesture of praise and encouragement. “It’s yours, isn’t it? I’m yours. Your first. Your last. Good girl. Perfect girl. My only fucking girl. Sweet, sweet Skylar. I’ll do anything for you.”