Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
EVERLY
B raum grabs the front of my shirt and shakes me.
Since his arrival, his dark brown eyes have been wild. His pupils are blown wide, and there’s a frenzied energy rolling off him in waves. His whole body is shaking. Sweat beads down the side of his face, and his throat convulses hard.
“Come back!” he snarls. His eyes search my face frantically, but as I stare back, I find he’s not really looking at me but… around me? “Come on, get back here!”
I don’t understand this whole universe thing.
But judging by the unfocused way he gets at times before he speaks, or the way he will occasionally stare through someone or something, I’m pretty sure that means he’s probably not all here.
Is it a voice? Another personality? Either way, it’s clear Braum is struggling with this.
If I can talk him down or help him in some way, I should at least try.
Especially if I don’t want to be cut open.
“Are you sure I even have it?” I ask him carefully. “I don’t feel the, ah, universe.”
“Yes! I can see It all around you!”
I lift my arm to look at it. “I don’t.”
“How can you not? It’s streaming across your skin, screaming for you to listen !” Braum demands, his voice growing louder and more agitated. Abruptly, he lets go of the front of my shirt to grab my face. “And I can… I can hear it when I touch you.”
“Braum…?”
His grip on my face tightens. “Why isn’t It returning?”
Despite my fear of the man before me, I almost feel bad for him.
Confusion is thick in his voice and his expression is pinched as if he’s in pain.
But it’s the underlying fear that captures my attention the most. Whatever The Universe is to Braum, it gave him a sense of security. Without it, he’s lost and uncertain.
I know that feeling.
Maverick was my sense of security. Just being in his presence was like there was a wall between me and the rest of life—like my father—and nothing could get to me.
When he died, my security was ripped away.
Since I learned he wasn’t dead, I’ve felt like Braum does now—desperate to get back the one thing that brought me peace.
“What if I…” Braum’s voice trails off as he swoops down and kisses me.
The motion is unexpected, and I freeze in response. This isn’t passion—it’s a claim. I yelp as his teeth nip at my bottom lip. The moment my lips part, Braum’s tongue slips into my mouth, and he begins to devour me.
My initial reaction is to pull away. The exploratory nature of this strange kiss is unfeeling and harsh.
The only reason I don’t jerk back is because of Braum’s hold on my face.
There’s no fighting his grip. After a few seconds of this, I attempt to relax.
If allowing Braum to seek out The Universe this way is how he’ll calm down, then so be it.
But just as I accept the uncomfortable, gross kiss, something in Braum’s demeanor shifts.
His lips soften against mine first. I notice almost at once because suddenly our teeth aren’t clashing and the pressure against my lips isn’t bruising. His tongue stops digging and probing only to begin to caress mine. It’s so sweet, sudden, and unbidden that I’m taken by surprise.
I don’t mean to kiss him back.
But my body has a mind of its own. Incrementally, I relax and lean into the kiss.
Not sure what I’m doing, I attempt to mimic the motion of Braum’s tongue.
The moment I give in to his tasting and coaxing, his body shudders and he groans.
The sound is deep and strangely arousing.
Beneath the shirt I’d borrowed from Rowan, my nipples tighten.
Braum makes the sound again before he pulls away. When his hands drop from my face, I feel like I can breathe again.
“I can hear It louder when I’m inside you.” He reaches up to touch his lips. “But it sounded all wrong.”
“What did it, um, sound like?”
Braum scowls at me. “It’s loud and noisy. But I could hear The Universe just like before, when It was mine. Maybe… maybe I just need to…”
His eyes dart to my mouth, then his hands are fumbling with the front of his pants.
I rear back in alarm. “What are you doing?!”
“Get on your knees,” he orders. “You took it from me this way. I’ll get it back the same way.”
I want to object. But one look into his face, and I can see there’s going to be no reasoning with him.
The thing is, I can almost see the logic behind this.
And, deep down, I don’t necessarily hate the idea of taking Braum into my mouth again.
There’s a heady power knowing I can bring someone pleasure.
Swallowing my nerves down, I do as I’m told.
Braum’s dick, hard and long, springs free just as my knees hit the wood floor. He nods in approval as he gives his dick several hard strokes.
“Open wide,” he says.
My hesitation is brief. Slowly, I part my lips and lean forward to take Braum into my mouth. The soft spongy feel of his tip slides over my tongue first. The rest of him follows in a surprisingly hard thrust of his hips. He hisses as I gag around his dick when he forces it down my throat.
“ Fuck ,” he hisses. “I can hear you! I can hear you !”
I slap at his legs before trying to pull back as tears spring to my eyes.
Braum reaches down with a roar and grabs my face to hold me still.
All the fighting in the world wouldn’t break the hold he has on me.
My stomach heaves, and for a second I’m terrified Braum’s going to cause me to throw up then drown in my own mess.
But then he pulls back. It’s just enough to let me inhale, and I sob as snot and tears rush down my face.
“It’s still all wrong!” Braum slams into the back of my throat again, and he hisses as if he’s the one in pain.
“I can feel you all around me, but you’re not coming back.
You’re. Not. Coming. Back!” Each word is punctuated with a hard thrust of his hips.
Each one drives him into the back of my throat in a harsh, unyielding thrust.
I gag and sputter as he quickly picks up the pace. I manage short, shallow gasps, but they’re not satisfying in any way. My lungs burn, my throat grows raw and swollen, and my stomach continues its threat to empty itself.
Just when I think Braum’s going to find his release, he yanks his dick from my mouth.
I gasp and cough, falling to my hands as I drag in long, deep breaths of air. Tears spill onto the floor as I let out rough, raspy sobs. Each one causes my throat to feel as if it’s on fire.
“It wasn’t working,” Braum snaps. “I need to go deeper. But how the hell am I supposed to do that?”
There’s no point answering him. He’s not talking to me anyway. Too bad ignoring him isn’t an option. Braum grabs hold of my arm with a biting grip and yanks me up to my feet.
“Ouch!” I hiss.
I look up into his face just in time to catch a glimpse of the wild gleam in his eyes—eyes that are so wide I can see the whites of them—before he lunges forward.
I cry out in surprise as he begins ripping at my clothes.
I briefly wonder if Rowan will bother being mad at Braum for ruining this outfit, or if Braum gets a pass because of who his family is.
The thought comes and goes as Braum throws me down onto the couch and rips Rowan’s pants down my legs.
“I can hear you,” Braum says while I attempt to scramble back against the cushions. “I’m coming for you!”
“What do you think you’re doing?” I screech as he stalks toward me.
“I just need to go deeper!”
I don’t wait to learn what deeper means.
I have a feeling I’m not going to like it.
Scrambling back, away from Braum and down the couch, I begin to panic.
I throw myself off the side, but before I even hit the floor, Braum’s hands wrap around my ankles and he roughly pulls me back up onto the couch.
“Braum! Stop!”
I scream when he flips me around and I find him kneeling over me with his hard dick fisted in his hand.
“Open your legs, Everly.”
“ What ? No! Braum?—”
The agonized cry that erupts past his lips makes me cringe.
“You don’t understand!” he shouts. “It’s what makes me a Milligan, okay? Without it, I’m nothing. Now just fucking hold still and we can get this over with.”
Get this over with? This as in…?
My stomach revolts as understanding dawns on me.
“No!” I shout and start to fight him.
Braum must not have expected me to object because he looks startled as my nails rake across his face. My leg comes up, and I manage to knee him in the gut. He grunts in pain then jerks away to avoid another swipe of my nails.
“Cut it out!” he snarls. “Remember your deal.”
“Fuck your deal!” I scream back as I try to get out from under him.
Braum roars as he reaches for me. I fight with all I have, terrified of what’s to come.
There’s no reasoning with him. I can see in his eyes as he struggles to control me that he’s too far gone.
No matter how much I scream or beg, it doesn’t affect him.
But fighting is all I have, so I’m going to give it my all.
My teeth, nails, feet, and knees catch Braum at different places all over his body.
I half expect him to slug me across the face to get me to stop.
I keep myself braced for that, but Braum’s intent isn’t to hurt me.
Well, not this way at least. The pain he’s seeking is not just physical, it is psychological, and I won’t let that happen, not if I can help it.
When I nearly take a chunk out of his palm, Braum rears back. I don’t get a reprieve. Almost immediately, Braum jerks forward a second later with a hand outstretched. I don’t have time to move before his fingers are wrapping around my throat.
“If you could just relax so I can take The Universe back—” he bites out between clenched teeth as his grip becomes tighter, cutting off my airway. When his second hand joins his first, I know I’m in trouble. “—this could all be over quickly and then we can go down to dinner.”