Chapter 37
ADRIEL
My bloody little princess holds the knife as she stares at her kill. She’s glorious, her eyes shining, her grin deepening. I gave her that.
My queen.
My world.
I am but her servant. I’d do anything to make her look this happy.
She turns to me, and something in her eyes calls to my depravity. I start to slip off my mask, intending to drop it beside hers on the floor, but she shakes her head.
“Keep it on.” Her chest rises as she struts closer while my cock grows hard at the sensuality flitting through her features.
I crook a finger, beckoning her to me. “Strip.”
I lower myself onto the black leather sofa, waiting for her to start.
She doesn’t hesitate. Dropping the knife, she tugs up on the hem of her t-shirt, exposing her perfect tits before she throws the blood-soaked cotton on the floor. She continues to remove her pants and then her panties until she’s bare and bloody, her crimson fingers drawing up her abdomen.
She kneels and gathers the knife back in her palm before she starts for me. But when I shake a finger, she pauses, her mouth curling, bottom lip tucked behind her teeth.
“Crawl to me and keep the knife.”
Her brow arches, right before she falls to her knees, crawling slowly, her eyes trapped with mine.
My cock grows harder the closer she gets. I grab a fistful, stroking myself through my sweats, hissing when she stares up at me from between my thighs.
“Now what?” She’s all doe-eyed, innocence and danger tucked within her gaze.
“Take it out…” I lift my shirt off and toss it.
She stares at my chest, a tattoo of a crow sitting on top of a headstone with the letters RIP on it. A grave to myself. Because I’ve always been dead inside, and I wanted to honor that. But now, with her, I’m not so sure.
Her soft fingertips skate across my abdomen as she slowly brings my sweats down and reveals my cock.
With her hunger smoldering, she closes her palm around my length, her fingers barely able to connect, and she moves it up and down.
“Fuuuuck,” I grit, my hand sinking into the back of her head, wrapping all that silky hair around my knuckles. I yank her head back. “I can’t stand the thought of you not in my life, Kayla.”
“I’m right here…” She pushes her mouth toward the head of my dick, her tongue swirling around it until I mutter a curse and jerk my hips.
“This feels too fucking good,” I groan.
“I think this will feel a lot better…” Then her mouth is sucking me hard.
I push her deeper until she gags, until she takes every painstaking inch of me.
She works me like a pro, and I hate that it’s because she’s done this unwillingly. Been hurt and used. The fucking thought puts me into a homicidal state.
But I refuse to ruin this. She doesn’t deserve for them to destroy what we share.
With me, with us, it’ll always be different. Because I’d never hurt her, and I’ll kill anyone who tries.
She continues to suck me whole, moaning around me as her head bobs, and that heated tingle in my spine comes roaring.
I can’t come like this. I need inside her. I need to fuck her until we’re both bloody and spent, our hearts beating as one.
With a quick snap of my hand, I tug her head back. “On your feet, little wolf. Come sit on my lap. I need to feel my cock slowly sink inside you before I fuck you like the animal I’ve always been.”
Her eyes narrow. “Promise to make it hurt?”
I grab her hips and settle her on top of me, staring into her eyes while my knuckles draw down her cheek. “Promise to give you what you need.”
The crown of my hard-on gradually enters her as our gazes stay locked, our souls twined into something unexplainable. Inch by inch, I sink inside her, never letting go of those eyes.
Her mouth parts, that knife in her grasp, her wrist on my shoulder, while she swallows me all the way into her warm and pretty cunt.
“Fuck me,” she whimpers while I slowly circle my hips.
“You’re on top, babe.” I smirk. “I want you to fuck me.”
“I—I never…”
She has never been in control. I get it now.
“You can with me. See if you like it. If not, I’ll take over.”
She nods, swallowing harshly before she starts to move. And the faster she moves, the more my chest burns with the passion I feel for her.
Her palms press into my chest as she moans, those sounds of hers sending me over the edge. Her free hand fastens around my throat and squeezes.
“That’s it, baby bird. Squeeze harder.”
She does, crying out as I fuck her deeper, giving her what she gives me. The blade knicks my shoulder, and I groan in pleasure, the pain only fueling my desire.
An audible breath escapes her as she sees the blood pool.
With gritted teeth, I raise her wrist and place the knife against my throat. “Cut me. I want your blade on my skin. I want your fury. Want to devour it. I want to feel it.”
When she doesn’t do it, I take her hand and use the blade to pierce the skin on my chest.
Her eyes go there even as her hips move faster, making us both groan in unison.
“Cut me.” I draw her head back with a fistful of her hair. “Hurt me. Give me what I know you wanna give me.”
When her nostrils flare and the edge of her mouth curls, she unleashes her fury and lets the blade sink into my chest. Deeper and deeper until she’s drawn a K beside the gravestone of my tattoo.
I chuckle as I flip her beneath me and take over. Her back on the sofa, I grab both of her ankles and throw them on my chest, raising her hips until I’m back inside.
The knife slips onto the floor as I increase my pace, unable to stop myself from giving her all of me. She cries out and begs for more, her body shaking, eyelids fastening.
“Eyes on me. I wanna watch as you come. As my blood drips onto those perfect nipples.”
“Yes! Don’t stop,” she gasps.
“Fuuuuck!” I moan, unable to stop myself. “You’re gonna come on my cock when I let you, and then you’ll come on my tongue before I fuck you again.”
“Oh my God, yes, that’s it!” Her nails dig into the leather as she maintains our eye contact, obeying me.
I’ve never looked into a woman’s eyes as I fucked her. But with her, everything is heightened. Everything is raw. This connection between us has sunk so deep into me, I feel it embedded in my marrow. I’m one with her. And no one will dare take her from me.
“Adriel!” My name is nothing but a choking scream, her release bursting out, her body writhing, while I stare at her incredulously.
“How can someone this perfect want to be mine?” I whisper, sure she hasn’t heard me.
Throwing my mask to the floor, I fall to my knees, spread her thighs open with my palms, and feast on my queen before I take her again.
With every passing day, I grow more attached, afraid that it’ll all vanish. Because someone like me will never truly have someone like her.
KAYLA
“What are you surprising me with now?” I ask A as he slips on a Rolex while I try hard not to stare at his ass in those black dress pants.
The dove-gray button-down he has on leaves nothing to the imagination. Every sinew, every muscle traceable, lickable.
My mind instantly goes to yesterday when he took me the way he did, when he let me do what I did.
I was nervous. At first. But then something in me liked it.
To draw his blood, to know I did that. The power.
I think I’m hungry for it. My therapist would say I’m overcompensating.
But if I can have it, why wouldn’t I take it?
He strides over to me and places his palms on my shoulders from behind, watching me through the full-length mirror. His languid gaze strokes down my body, taking in my black pencil dress, hitting right above my knees.
His jaw flexes. “I wanted us to go out. Like a…you know…” He grimaces.
“A couple?” I giggle. “You’re so adorable.”
He snaps his teeth, yanking my head back by my hair. “Don’t call me adorable.”
He fights a smirk, but it only causes me to laugh even more.
“But you are, especially when you get all uncomfortable with everything relationshipy.”
He snickers. “I’m not uncomfortable. And that’s not even a real word.”
I continue to laugh, and he grabs a handful of my ass. With a growl, his mouth falls to my neck as he kisses me, his eyes on mine through the mirror.
“You look beautiful.” His heated words leave a trail of waking desire across my flesh.
“Are you trying to distract me from teasing you some more?” I groan, fighting a grin when his fingers stroke between my thighs, yanking my panties to the side.
“Is it working?”
“Quite effectively.”
He pinches my clit, and my eyes roll back.
“Fucking hell, babe. You’re so gorgeous. But if we don’t go now, we may never leave this house.” He removes his hand and straightens my dress. “You ready?”
“Yep. Let’s go.”
As soon as we’re out the door, he grabs my wrist and yanks my body to his. His palm snaps to my nape, and his gaze darkens. With his frame, he throws me up against the door and cages me between his palms.
His chest sways to the beat of his rapid exhales, his eyes lingering on my eyes, my lips, before they drag down my body as though unwrapping the dress from my limbs.
“It does make me uncomfortable. To talk about relationships and everything they entail. I’m not…” His voice trails, and he slants his forehead to mine. “I’m not made to care about another person, yet somehow I’ve come to care deeply about you. So much it hurts, Kayla.”
I clutch the back of his head, my heart aching so much for him. “I wish I could go back in time and give you all that you deserve.”
“No.” He perches to stare back at me. “I wouldn’t trade a moment of my life for what I have with you.
I don’t know if we’d be who we are if we hadn’t gone through what we did.
” He holds my face in both hands. “For once in my life, I believe in something. I believe in us.” His eyes grow beautifully sad. “I will never give you up.”
My hand wraps around his wrist. “I’ll never let you.”
But a part of me fears that maybe people like us don’t get the kind of life we finally have. Maybe this is merely an illusion, and soon we’ll wake up.
We arrive at a fancy steakhouse, the lights dimmed, people dressed up and occupying every table while a server leads us to ours.
“A waiter will return to take your drink orders.” She nods politely, giving A a sheepish glance before she scurries away.
“I think she liked you,” I say as he pulls out a chair for me and allows me to sit.
His face is stoic as he takes his own seat across from me, grabbing my hand and holding it in his large one. “I don’t care who likes me, because I only like you.”
His smirk appears as he winks, just as our waitress arrives. She eyes him too, her cheeks flushing. Great, another one who has obvious eyes for my…
The rest of the words are trapped in my head. Because I don’t know what he is. We never even talked about titles. Is he my boyfriend? What else would he be?
She takes our orders before she goes, and my mind is still on what to call him. I can’t decide whether I should ask him. I don’t want him to think I’m childish. But at the same time, I’ve never had a boyfriend. I kinda want one.
“What is it?” Concern fits his features.
“It’s nothing.” I force a tight smile and try to pry my hand away from his, but he holds it tighter.
“Kayla.” His brow bends.
With a roll of my eyes, I huff out, “You’re gonna think it’s stupid.”
“Try me.”
“Can you maybe not look at me as I say it?”
“Absolutely not.” A half-grin dons his face.
“You’re an ass.” I shake my head with a laugh. “Fine. I was just wondering what we were exactly. Are you my boyfriend? Am I your girlfriend? I don’t know, I—”
“Kayla.” His face hardens.
“See, told you it was stupid.”
He gets to his feet, towering closer as he drags my chair right beside him before he settles down again.
“I’ll be whatever you want me to be.” He tucks my chin into his palm.
“But just know there is not a word in the dictionary that is adequate to describe what you are to me, Kayla Jenkins. So if you prefer it, you can be my girlfriend. Hell, you can be my wife. An extension of my fucking heart. Use any words you deem necessary. I want to make you happy.”
My heartbeats quake in my chest, emotions warring within me.
“I clearly can’t be your wife,” I scoff. “Uh, girlfriend is fine.”
Wife.
That one word made my gut sink with something foreign and exciting. Would he want to marry me? Or is that him just telling me I mean a lot to him?
The answer may scare me. Because as soon as that word left his mouth, I knew I wanted that. I want to be his wife, and I want this man to be my husband.
Once we return home, my mind is still on his words and the earth-shattering way he confessed his feelings to me. I know how much that meant to him. For someone who has never had this, saying all of that took a lot of courage.
I wonder where we will be years from now. Will we have the kind of life we both deserve? Will I be an oncologist? Will we be married? Kids?
No… I don’t want them.
“Can I ask you something?” I raise my head and look over at him, while his fingers lazily trace up and down my back.
“Anything.” His eyes fill with warmth, and I burrow closer, seeking more of it.
“Do you want kids?”
His eyes widen. “Wow, we’re going there, aren’t we?”
“Sorry.” I grimace. “I figured we should discuss this stuff. It’s what normal couples do, I read.”
He chuckles. “We’re not normal, babe.”
“I know.” My heart tightens in my ribs. “It’s why I wanted to see if we were on the same page.”
“Do you want them?”
“I don’t think so? I can’t see myself as a mother. I don’t want to bring a child into this world.”
“Neither do I.” He sighs. “I don’t know what a parent should be like. I’d never subject a child to the likes of me.”
“Don’t say that.” I place a hand over the stubble of his jaw. “You’re an amazing person. Just look how you are with me.”
“It’s different with you.”
“No, it isn’t. You have never been with anyone and look how well you treat me.”
“Are you trying to convince me to have kids, or…”
“I’m just saying that isn’t a reason for you not to. Even if one day you’re with someone—”
“Don’t you fucking finish that sentence.” He lifts his head and kisses me. “There’s no one else for me in this universe. No one but you. No one will be enough. No one will matter the way you do.”
“I just worry that this will come to an end.” My heart shatters at the thought.
“Not if I can help it.”
“I hope you’re right…”
With a groan, he flips himself on top of me, and his emerald gaze sinks into mine. “How about I give you a little something to hold on to?”
Then he’s inside me, kissing me raw, reminding me why we have to live in the present even when the future may be a scary place.