Chapter 22 #2
Maybe he could alleviate my Logan problem.
He had helped the last time my deranged ex left me a present.
But the weight of my duty to find out what happened to my family still made me wary about whether I should trust him.
Could one night of vulnerability make up for slaughtering everyone that I loved?
No, it couldn’t. But if I left Lovelen, I wouldn’t be able to find out why Kaius and the Knights had done what they had.
Turning in place, I set one hand on his chest and lightly pushed him back. He stepped an inch away and watched as I reached into my back pocket to grab the two Polaroids. Holding them up like a pair of playing cards, I let him pluck them from my grasp and examine them. “They are from Logan.”
“Fuck,” he hissed out, eyes trained on the very intimate photograph of the two of us.
One thumb came up, stroking the image lightly before he shuffled to the next image of Oscar’s execution.
Kaius’s eyes darkened as he stared at the scene, a flash of regret coming and going quickly, but then he was moving on to the words at the bottom.
“Venom,” I breathed out. “The letters spell out venom. He is reminding me that he could hurt me if he wanted to and do worse than just leave a poisonous snake in the middle of my bed.”
“I won’t let him touch you.” Kaius met my eyes, anger for the male responsible shining in them. His words were sharp and clipped, laced with a protectiveness I had never experienced before. I wanted to bathe in that protectiveness. To let it wrap me in its embrace and keep me safe from the world.
I stepped forward into him, and without even a second thought, his hands found my hips. I shivered at the contact, trying to remind myself that I could not fall in love with Kaius. But he had to fall in love with me. It was the only way I could get answers from him.
“I’m not scared of getting myself hurt, Kaius.” I rested my hands on his chest, tilting my head back to see him. His grip on my hips tightened, but I continued, “I don’t want to get Astoria or any of the Knights killed. I don’t think I could live with myself if that happened.”
“Logan isn’t going to get anywhere near Astoria or you,” Kaius assured me.
I scoffed at him and pushed out of his hold.
My hands gripped the roots of my hair as I walked away from the overly confident man and toward the welcome sign.
Logan was dangerous, and he had just proven he could slip in and out of places he was not supposed to be able to.
I turned in a circle, taking in a deep breath.
Kaius inched forward but kept a good amount of distance between the two of us.
“Acelynn, you need to trust me. Astoria has someone with her at all times right now. She is protected, and you will be as well.”
“He got into your room,” I snapped at him.
“I guess we should have done a better job of checking for the monster in the closet before you told me your deepest secrets. Don’t worry, I’ll remember that for next time so that if I don’t pull away and you fuck me, it won’t be all over the internet the next day. ”
“Next time?” Kaius’s voice was pure sex, and it went straight to my throbbing cunt.
I shot him a look that told him to tread lightly, but this was Kaius, and he never bowed out of a challenge.
“If I wanted to, I could fuck you over the hood of this car where anyone driving by could see. Then we wouldn’t have to check the closet for monsters, and I could let everyone in Lovelen know that you’re now mine. ”
“I would like to see you try,” I scoffed at him, my eyes rolling to the back of my head, missing as he prowled forward.
His hand latched around my throat, pulling me back toward him.
With his other hand, he reached up and unlatched the hood from its suspended state, letting it slam shut.
Kaius’s hand released my throat only for him to replace it on the left side of my head, tangling his fingers between the strands and roughly pulling.
My body spun around before my back was slammed down against the dirty hood of the car.
He shoved my head harder into the metal, causing a strangled cry to come from me.
“Kaius—”
“Shhh, kitten.” Kaius’s voice cooed from above me, a single finger ghosting across the edge of my shorts. “You asked for this, challenged me for it. Now let me show you what happens when you provoke the King of Lovelen.”
My throat bobbed as I swallowed at the silent threat that laced his words.
I was already panting, the excitement of getting caught by anyone who drove by making the slickness between my legs grow.
He reached down my body, using his free hand to trace the soft skin between my cropped tee and the edge of my shorts, sending electricity shooting through me, my clit tingling with anticipation.
Ever so slowly, he dipped his hand beneath the hem of my shorts, popping the button open.
My breathing became heavy at his torturous actions.
Him. I needed him. Consequences be damned.
Kaius watched me with a hungry gaze that made the heat growing between my legs build to an almost unbearable fire.
I groaned out, eyes rolling to the back of my head as his fingers traced the inner part of my thigh.
Dear god, this man hadn’t even taken my clothes off, and he already had me in the palm of his hand.
Without warning, he ripped my shorts down my legs, the sound of tearing fabric mixing with my heavy pants. My body immediately tried to squirm away at the sudden exposure, but he had me pinned against the car. My hips bucked upward as the pad of his thumb ghosted over my clit.
A dark chuckle pooled from his lips as he continued to tease me. “Come on, kitten. I want to hear you beg for it.”