Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
KAT
Fucking hell.
Heart Eyes drops me on the bed, his breath as ragged as mine as he settles himself back between my thighs.
If what he says is true, he’s learned remarkably fast. My whole body feels like it’s turned to jelly.
He tears off the scarf, and I blink him into focus, a little annoyed that his mask is firmly back in place.
The annoyance disappears when I notice he’s got his thick, pierced cock in his fist, only an inch away from my still throbbing pussy.
Oh, god. I want it.
I arch my back, trying to get him to fuck me.
The throaty laugh he gives has me weak. He presses his still-gloved hand over my lower stomach and pins me roughly to the bed.
‘It’s not for you. Not tonight.’
We’ll see.
I spread my thighs wide and feel smug when his eyes darken.
‘Think how good it would feel to come inside me? I’d take every drop.’
‘Fuck, Kat. You brat.’
‘You could tame me with that thing. You’d feel every moan.’
He leans forward and wraps a hand around my throat, his fingers pressing lightly against the sides, just enough to make me melt.
‘You think I don’t want to fuck you, Kat?
You think it’s not painful for me to see you spread out like this and not sink into that hot, wet cunt?
It’s taking everything to hold back. But you have me on the edge already, and when I fuck you, I’m going to fuck you hard enough that you forget your own name.
I’ve never craved a single human on this goddamned planet like I want you. ’
He strokes his hard cock furiously as he talks, applying more pressure to my throat. I’m lost in the way he looks at me like I’m the most precious thing in the world. I grip his arm with both hands as he cuts off my air, my pussy twitching at his rough handling.
‘And look at you. A masked man’s got you by the throat, and you’re still begging to be fucked. I don’t deserve you.’
‘Yes,’ I stutter, trying to take a breath. ‘You do.’
This is what I’ve been searching for.
A man tainted with darkness, who needs me. I’ve never been so turned on.
He lets out a deep, guttural moan that sets me off. Between the cut off air and the way his hot cum splashes over my spread pussy, along with the intensity of his stare, I come again, shuddering beneath him as he coats me with his need.
He falls down on top of me, pressing his forehead against mine as I pant against his mask.
‘I’m sorry,’ he says, ‘I should have asked before choking you.’
‘I’m yours, I trust you not to hurt me.’
‘What if I don’t know where the line is?’ he asks.
‘I’ll make sure you do. That’s never happened to me before.’
‘What?’ he asks.
‘Coming without anyone touching me.’
He lets out a pleased little groan and kisses me through his mask. ‘So I didn’t suck?’
I laugh. ‘Only in the good way. You are, however, getting your clothes covered in cum.’
‘I don’t care.’
He slides over, letting me breathe, and I look at this masked face, wishing I could see more of him.
‘Okay?’ I ask.
He laughs. ‘I think so.’
I tuck my face against his hoodie and hide my grin there for a moment, loving that he looks as spaced out as I feel.
We lie there for a while in satisfied quiet, watching the patterns the candles trace on the ceiling. He traces slow circles against my spine.
‘We need to talk about the notes,’ he says eventually.
I sigh as the real world infects my bliss.
Disentangling myself, I go to the desk and pull them out from under the notebook. He examines them with a cold focus that has me nervous.
He takes out his phone and turns the screen toward me.
Grainy and wide-angled security footage from the university car park, with the timestamp in the corner. A figure in dark clothes moves along the row of cars with a purpose that makes my stomach tighten. He stops at mine, pulling out a short knife and puncturing the wheels of my car.
‘How did you get this?’ I ask.
He shrugs. ‘I’m pretty good at convincing people to do things when I have to be.’
I make myself keep watching.
‘Do you see how his hood comes down for a second when he crouches to start scratching the words? That’s all we get. Dark hair, but nothing of his face.’
I stare at the screen. It could be anyone.
‘Has anyone made you feel uncomfortable?’ he asks. ‘Anything at all?’
‘My professor’s teaching assistant does. But I think he’s just an average creep. Doesn’t know how to take a no. He stands too close and stares too long. Makes my skin crawl a bit when I’m alone with him. I try not to be the last out of the class, as last time he penned me in.’
‘He makes you feel unsafe?’
‘Uncomfortable. It might be nothing, though.’
‘It’s not nothing.’ Anger threads through his voice. ‘No one makes you feel like that while I’m around. And I’m sorry if I did before you knew it was me.’
‘I forgive you. Completely. Can’t hold a grudge when you make me come that hard.’
He swallows hard, heat flaring in those deep brown eyes.
‘We need to make a list,’ he says.
‘A list?’
‘Everyone who’s made you feel off. Anyone from back then. Anyone who could have been near that cottage, or known what happened. We write it down, then start eliminating.’
‘By eliminating, you don’t mean killing them, right?’
The way he looks at me doesn’t persuade me that it’s not what he means.
‘It might be shorter than you’re expecting,’ I say.
‘That’s fine.’ He picks up the notebook on the desk. ‘Start with whoever comes to mind. We’ll work through it.’
I snuggle beside him on the bed in the lamplight, and we start building a list of everyone who might want me to pay for what I did in the woods fourteen years ago.