CHAPTER TWENTY
Raina
C onnor settles into the chair like a king on his throne, legs spread wide, belt hanging from his hand. His gaze rakes over me, dark and knowing, waiting to see if I’ll bolt or play.
“Keep going,” he says huskily. “I should install a pole in here.”
“You don’t have enough dollar bills.” I pull my favorite knife from my thigh sheath. I flip it and catch it by the hilt. The black, ridged handle is made from elk antlers and was very expensive.
“Impressive. Now drop it,” he says in a lethal tone.
I let it slip from my fingers, like it means nothing. Psychos and predators study their victims’ weaknesses. If he knows how much that knife means to me, he’ll take it. Or worse, destroy it.
“Anything else? Surely, you came armed with more than two guns and one knife? I’d be personally offended if you didn’t.” Connor exhales slowly as he savors each second of my surrender.
I reach into my boot and drop a few throwing knives to the floor.
His eyes darken with every piece of steel that clatters to his hardwood floors.
“Damn, woman.” He watches me, his grip tightening on the belt still coiled in his hand. “How the hell were you walking around with all that on you?”
I slow blink, reaching for the last weapon. “I’m no fucking amateur.” I pull the taser from a side pocket and drop it.
His eyes trail over me with a slow, possessive gaze that I feel slither across my skin. “Now lose the threads.”
Heat licks up my spine, but I do as he says. My tank top comes off in one smooth motion, and I toss it aside.
“No bra.” He swipes a tongue across his lower lip. “Nice.”
“They’re so damn uncomfortable.” My nipples harden underneath his salacious stare.
“Those tits are as gorgeous as I remembered.” His voice is thick with lust. “Now take off those damn pants.”
I pop the top button, peel them down, and kick them to the side.
Connor’s eyes drag over me, taking in every inch of exposed skin as he slaps the belt against his hand. The sound of leather on flesh has me soaked. My chest rises and falls just a little too fast.
“No thong?” He tilts his head to get a side view of my ass.
“I’m not that kind of girl.” I glare at him. “What you see is what you get.”
“Good,” he bites out and licks his lips. “I don’t want a woman who won’t look me in the eyes when she strikes. I want a venomous snake who can poison my fucking heart.”
“And you think calling me a snake is a compliment?” I bow out my hips as I meet his stare.
“You’re not just any snake.” Connor leans forward, his eyes dark and steady. “You’re a diamondback rattlesnake.”
“I’m not a snake connoisseur.” I smirk, a chill curling low in my stomach.
“They’re gorgeous and deadly.” Connor’s hungry eyes focus on my nipples unapologetically. “They strike fast and they kill fast.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” I swing my arms like I’m bored, even though my pulse is picking up speed.
“Their beauty draws suckers in.”
“You’re no sucker, Connor.” I keep my eyes on that belt.
“I’m not. I’m a hunter. But I like to play with fire, the same as you. Take off those granny panties and get on my lap.” He slaps a thick thigh with a possessive grin.
He thinks he’ll own me after tonight.
After sliding off the cotton panties, I stalk toward him, slow and deliberate, feeling the air between us tighten.
“No, you fucking crawl to me.”
I hesitate for just a second as a surge of heat reaches my clit with a thundering pulse. I lower to my knees and here I am, fucking crawling to Connor Quinlan.
Despite the scorching temperature outside, the wooden floor planks are cool against my hands and knees.
“Just a few more inches for all ten of my inches,” Connor taunts me. “I don’t bite.”
“But that belt will.” I get close enough to smell the leather.
“Good girl. Stand up, Venom,” he orders, low and silkily. “Give me that juicy ass to spank and teach you a lesson.”
“Yes, sir.” I bow my head.
“No,” he replies harshly. “I don’t want a weak submissive. I want the fight. I want your fire. Now, come here.”
Standing stark naked, I settle between his spread thighs, heat rolling through me.
“Good, Venom.” He drags the belt across my stomach, watching me with those piercing blue eyes. “You came back just for this, didn’t you?”
“Maybe.” I grip my breasts and thumb the hardened nipples to tease him.
“You couldn’t stop thinking about me either, admit it.” He slides the flat end of the belt between my legs and threads it into my sex.
“Oh, God,” I blurt from the gritty texture and rest my hands on his shoulders.
“Fuck, you like things other than my cock in your cunt, don’t you?” He rubs the belt back and forth.
“Maybe,” I groan, trying to hold it together.
“You’re nothing but a cat in heat who wanted to be caged.” He leans in and licks my nipples while driving me crazy with the belt. “And punished.”
Air stalls in my lungs. “What if I did?”
The belt rubs against my clit with mind-bending and delicious friction. Connor keeps his eyes on me as I practically come.
“Oh no, Venom.” He slides the belt out from between my legs. Grinning, he licks my juices off the leather. “Fuck, I can’t wait to fucking kill someone wearing this belt or using it to choke the life from a man smelling your cunt while the light leaves his eyes.”
“Holy shit,” I mutter, gobsmacked that he just admitted to being a killer.
Lightning fast, Connor grips my wrist and drapes me across his knee.
“Bastard.”
“What I did to you in June is just a taste of the bastard I am, Venom,” he murmurs, voice dripping with danger. “Now be a good girl and take your punishment.”
The first strike with the belt comes fast. A sharp and stinging blow cracks against the curve of my ass. His fingers dig into my fleshy halves as he grinds me against his erection. Every inch suggests how much he enjoys punishing me.
I jerk, a breathy moan slipping free before I can stop it.
“That little whimper tells me everything I need to know about you,” he rasps. “I knew you’d like this, Venom. It’s in your blood. Who the fuck are you ?”
I’m the daughter of an Albanian kyre who is a murderer just like him. But I don’t answer. I’d rather keep him guessing.
But I now understand why I can relate to a man like Connor. And why I’m not afraid of him.
“You don’t want a man in a suit drinking champagne at a gala,” he says, voice thick and full of wicked amusement. “You want a psycho who wants to fuck you with every object in his apartment.”
“What?” That lifts my head.
“You heard me. You came in here to take my life. Now I get to take your sanity from you.” He lays a few more blows on my ass, all while pressing my back down so his thickening cock rubs right along my clit.
I whimper from the pleasure.
“Hmmm.” Connor’s voice drags slow and hot across my skin. “Let’s see just how depraved you are.”
He gives a sharp whistle, and a giant of a man with a shaved head and a full, thick beard appears at the edge of the shadow.
“Um, no,” I whine.
Connor laughs. “If you think I’d let anyone else fuck you, you’re even more insane than I thought.” He whacks my ass again. “Blade, pick up that knife and give it to me. But you keep your eyes on my face. If I catch you looking at her, they will be the last things your eyes see.”
Connor speaks so low and menacing that it takes a back seat to the fact that he just threatened to maim his own guard if he looked at me.
I keep my head down, unable to bear if this giant can’t help looking at me, only to lose his eyes. I’ve seen a lot of crap, but I don’t think I can stomach watching a man get his eyes gouged out.
Connor says two words in Gaelic that might be ‘thank you.’ I relax, seeing the ogre’s shadow and his heavy footsteps break away. When the door closes, we’re alone again.
“What are you doing with my knife?” I ask.
He gives a low chuckle and nudges the ridged hilt against my clit. “This. I’m going to make you come on your own damn knife. A knife you brought into my home to slit my throat .”
With my legs spread, he tilts my hips so I’m completely exposed to him. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes. Good choice of color handles. I can see your sticky arousal already coating the black tip.” He teases me, rubbing the ridged side of the handle up and down.
My hips curl from the pleasure, and it’s so decadent I shudder. But I stiffen when it’s clear I’m enjoying this a little too much.
“Don’t you dare fight it. I want you to come.” He gently slides the oval tip of the knife handle into my entrance as another blow lands against my ass.
This one is harder. The sting melts into heat, curling between my thighs, setting my nerves on fire.
“Fuck,” he mutters, penetrating me with the hilt.
Those ridges tease my core like the veins of his big cock. He pushes it further inside me, and I see fucking stars. “God, yeah.”
“You’re soaked and I’m hard as fuck.” He edges the handle out and runs one side along my entrance.
I roll my hips and moan, “You bastard.”
“That’s me, and I want to be your bastard.” He drops the knife and slides a finger inside me. “I want to be the man who breaks you piece by piece until all you know is me and my cock.”
When another crack of his palm comes down on my ass while he’s finger-fucking me, I lose it and start climaxing all over his hand.
Yeah, he didn’t want me coming on the knife handle. He wanted to feel my womb clench around him as I gushed all over his fingers.
Connor’s control snaps. “Fuck!”
He flips me over until I’m straddling his thighs. My sex is not only exposed, I’m dripping on his pants. Pulling me in by the nape of my neck, his mouth crashes against mine in a bruising, claiming kiss. There’s no pretense anymore. No pretending this isn’t exactly what we both need.
“You should be running from me,” he says, his voice barely a whisper.
I bite his bottom lip, tasting blood. “Maybe I like playing with fire.”
He growls from the pain, but it sounds more like pleasure. “Then you’ll burn for me.”