27. Chapter 26
Chapter 26
Rayne
I don’t know what’s come over me. I can’t blame it on the alcohol—that had burned out of my system before I crawled into bed and long before I put the book aside and fell asleep again. But something deep and electric has taken hold of me this past week. Maybe it’s knowing how closely they are following me like a predator stalking prey. Or maybe it’s the book I couldn’t resist reading before falling asleep, the one now open in his hands that whispers promises of dark, forbidden urges.
But the moment Knox’s tattooed body loomed over me, that burn—the one I’d tried to ignore—flared back to life. A molten heat that started in my chest and spiraled down between my thighs. His voice, low and gravelly, ignited every nerve ending, making me feel like I was standing too close to an open flame. I’m thirsty, desperate... and somehow, I know he can quench this ache.
The room feels too small, the space between us suffocating. I try to answer, but the words stick in my throat.
I’ve never wanted children—I’ve always been sure of that. I love my friend’s daughter, dote on her endlessly, but I’ve never felt the pull myself. And yet... the way Knox looks at me now, savage and unrelenting, makes my stomach twist with longing I don’t fully understand. Not for the reality of it, no. But for this fantasy, this raw, carnal desire. For him.
My skin flushes hot, mortified and aroused all at once. I jerk my head in protest. "I—I have an implant," I stammer, the words tumbling out before I can stop them. "I’m not looking to get pregnant."
"Good," he growls, closing the book with a snap and setting it back on the nightstand. The sound makes me jump slightly, but his attention never wavers. "Because I don’t give a damn about the reality of it. What I care about is the way you look at me when I say it. Like you want it anyway, like you want me to ruin you."
It’s true. God, it’s so painfully true.
"Well?" he murmurs. His voice is low, rough-edged, as though dragged over gravel, and it vibrates through the small space between us. His face is so close now, I can feel the heat radiating from him. His breath fans across my lips, intoxicating and maddening all at once. But he doesn’t close the distance. He hovers, waiting, teasing.
I lift my head instinctively, desperate for contact, but he matches my movement perfectly, keeping that unbearable sliver of air between us. The corner of his mouth twitches, and I realize this is exactly what he wants—to watch me squirm, to make me chase something he’s not ready to give.
"Well?" he repeats, his tone sharper now, more commanding. The question lingers in the haze clouding my brain. What was he asking? My thoughts stumble over themselves, tripping as I try to gather them. I want him to kiss me. I want him to do everything I’ve only ever imagined before. Every instinct in me screams to just throw myself into the fire he’s ignited, but…
"River," I blurt out, my frown deepening as the name tumbles unbidden from my lips. "Does he even know you’re here?"
Knox chuckles—a dark, rasping sound that scrapes against my nerves and sets me alight all over again. His grip tightens ever so slightly, a warning, though his thumb skims my jaw in a way that feels almost tender.
"Ohh little Rayne," he drawls, leaning closer until his lips hover near my ear. "He knows exactly where I am, and he wishes he were here too. Not being here is his punishment… for teasing me with the thought of fucking him while his cock is buried deep inside your delicious pussy." The confession hits me like a lightning strike, and I swear I feel it all the way down to my core. My thighs clench involuntarily, need coiling tighter and tighter inside me.
I shudder at his words, my breath hitching. There’s something wickedly intimate about the way he says it—as though there’s no room for shame or hesitation. Before I can stop myself, a vivid image of Knox and River together flashes through my mind, their bodies entwined, all raw power and unrelenting heat. A broken sound escapes me—a whimper—and Knox hears it, of course. His smirk sharpens, predatory.
"Now," he says, pulling back just enough to lock eyes with me again. His gaze burns, fierce and unyielding, pinning me in place. "Answer me. Tell me you love the idea of me taking you, owning you, ruining you..."
Yes. God, yes. That’s what I want. All of it. Every dark, depraved thing I’ve only ever read about in secret and never dared to dream of experiencing. My heart races as I force myself to meet his gaze, drowning in the molten promise behind it.
"Yes," I whisper, the word slipping out before I can second-guess it. My voice is barely audible, but it feels deafening in the charged silence between us.
A slow smirk curls at the corner of his mouth, wicked and knowing. He tilts his head slightly, his lips still hovering achingly close to mine, but making no move to bridge the gap. "Beg me," he says, his tone calm, controlled, yet laced with a challenge that sends a fresh wave of heat pooling low in my belly.
My breath catches. He doesn’t move, doesn’t push further. He simply waits, his gaze locked onto mine, daring me to take the next step.
I blink up at him, my breath caught somewhere between my lungs and throat. The word reverberates in the charged air between us, a challenge that has been thrown at my feet.
"Wh-what?" My voice cracks slightly, and I hate how small it sounds.
Knox doesn’t answer immediately. His piercing eyes—predatory and unwavering—remain locked on mine, his fingers tightening ever so slightly around my throat. My pulse hammers against his palm, betraying the storm inside me.
"Beg me," he repeats, his tone deliberate, gravel rough, each syllable dragged out as if savoring them. "Beg me to ruin you."
The heat of his body is suffocating, every part of him pressing into me without apology. His hard length digs into my stomach, nothing separating us. It sets my nerves alight, makes coherent thought impossible.
"Please," I blurt before I can stop myself, my voice trembling, but there's no hiding the need behind it. The sharp edge of amusement glints in his eyes, daring me to continue.
"Use your words, Rayne," he challenges, lowering his face until his lips are so close I can feel the ghost of his breath brushing mine. "Tell me exactly what you want."
The command sends a shiver down my spine, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake. My mind spins, torn between defiance and surrender, but my body has already made its choice. Everything in me aches for him—for the kind of destruction only he can offer.
"Ruin me," I whisper finally, the words tumbling from my lips unbidden, raw and desperate. "Please."
Knox's eyes darken at my words, molten gold flecks dancing in their hazel depths. A low growl rumbles in his chest, vibrating against me. But he doesn't move, doesn't give me what I crave. Instead, his grip on my throat tightens just a fraction more, his thumb pressing against my thundering pulse.
"Oh, sweetheart," he murmurs. "You can do better than that."
His free hand trails down my side, fingertips barely grazing my skin. The feather-light touch leaves goosebumps in its wake, my body arching instinctively into his caress. He chuckles darkly, clearly pleased by my responsiveness.
"Beg harder," Knox commands, his tone brooking no argument. "Make me believe you want this as badly as I do."
The weight of his body pins me to the mattress, every inch of his skin searing against mine. I can feel the coarse hair on his chest brushing my nipples, already painfully tight and sensitive. His cock, hard and insistent, presses into my stomach, a reminder of what awaits me if I can just find the right words.
I squirm beneath him, desperate for friction, for relief from the aching need building inside me. But Knox doesn't budge. His muscular thighs bracket my hips, holding me in place with effortless strength. The moonlight filtering through the curtains casts shadows across his face, highlighting the sharp planes of his cheekbones and the hungry glint in his eyes.
"Use that pretty mouth," he coaxes, his lips curling into a wicked smirk. "Tell me exactly how badly you want me to destroy you."
When he reaches my hip, his grip suddenly tightens, fingers digging into my flesh hard enough to bruise.
The pain mingles with pleasure, drawing a gasp from my lips. It's like a dam breaking, unleashing a torrent of words I didn't know I had in me.
"Please, Knox," I whimper, my inhibitions crumbling under the weight of his gaze. "I need you. I need you to ruin me, to break me apart and put me back together. I want your marks all over my body, inside and out. I want to feel you for days, to ache in places I didn't know could ache."
My cheeks burn with each confession, but I can't stop now. The words pour out of me, raw and unfiltered.
"I want both of you to use me, to take everything I have to give and demand more. I want to be yours and River’s, completely and utterly. Please, Knox. Please ruin me. Make me yours."
His smirk deepens, and the hand around my throat flexes again, possessive and unrelenting. The control fraying at the edges now, tightening like a coiled spring, moments from snapping.
"Good girl," he growls, and the sound alone nearly undoes me.
Without warning, his lips crash into mine in a ferocious, devouring kiss. There's no gentleness, no restraint—only the raw, primal need to possess, to dominate. His tongue thrusts deep, tangling with mine as he swallows my moans.
I'm drowning in the scent of him, the taste, the overwhelming physicality that pins me in place. His hand tightens on my throat. The lack of air is dizzying, disorienting, but his lips are even more intoxicating.
I'm lost to everything but the feeling of him consuming me.
His free hand finds my breast, squeezing firmly, fingers kneading the soft flesh with delicious pressure. My back arches instinctively into his touch as he palms the generous curve, thumbing over the taut peak. A white-hot jolt of arousal lances through me at the rough caress.
His fingers twist at my aching nipple, the sharp pinch going straight to my throbbing core. A desperate whimper escapes me, my hips rocking uselessly against empty air in search of any friction. He chuckles darkly, the vibration sending tremors through my very bones.
I've never felt smaller or more deliciously overwhelmed by his sheer size and intensity. Every nerve is alight and hyper-aware of the hard planes of his body blanketing mine.
He lavishes the same rough attention on my other breast, squeezing and plucking until I'm writhing beneath him. I'm not a small woman by any means, but he makes me feel delicate and desired, as though I'm made to be devoured
When his mouth leaves mine again, he sits back, releasing my throat. Both of his large hands engulf the swell of my breasts, fingers sinking into the supple flesh as he watches me arch helplessly into his touch.
With a growl that vibrates in my very core, he pinches both hard nipples simultaneously, pulling hard. A strangled cry tears from my throat at the exquisite sting, the pain only amplifying the dizzying arousal swirling through me and I feel like he is pulling directly on my clit.
The rough sound seems to snap the taut leash on his control. In one fluid motion, he rises up on his knees and maneuvers me onto my stomach with an arm banded around my waist. I have no chance to even think before his big hands grasp my hips, wrenching me up onto my knees.
My trembling thighs are forced wide, and I start to push up on my hands, craving what I know is coming. But his palms are there in an instant, shoving my upper body back down to the mattress, bowing my spine into a delicious arch.
I'm utterly at his mercy, splayed out and aching for him.
A sharp tug at my hair wrenches a gasp from me. His fist knots in the long strands, the stinging bites across my scalp sending jolts of lighting straight to my molten center when he forces my head back. My back arches further as he bends my pliant form to his will.
Through the haze of need, I feel him then—the thick, hard head of his cock rubbing against my wet entrance. I clench around nothing, my walls fluttering hungrily. I'm so worked up and drenched for him, wanting desperately to feel him stretching me open again.
His harsh groan is like a caress against my flushed skin as he pushes just the tip into me...only to pull it back in slow, maddening torment.
"You sure, baby girl?" His gravelly words fan the flames burning through me. "Because I will fucking ruin you. I will give you everything you want, every dark and twisted fantasy."
A desperate, keening moan is torn from me. "Please..."
There's a beat of heated stillness, and then he slams home with brutal force.
The punishing thrust knocks the air from my lungs, choking me on the shocked, guttural "Fuck!" that bursts out. I don't get a chance to recover—he doesn't let up, doesn't show an ounce of mercy. He's primal, savage, pounding into me again and again with claiming strokes that rattle the bed and shake my very soul.
I'm mindless, overwhelmed by the loud, obscene noises of skin smacking wetly, the animalistic grunts being torn from him, and the high-pitched, desperate whimpers spilling shamelessly from my lips. I can hear how soaked I am for this rough treatment, the lewd sounds of his thick cock plunging relentlessly into me.
"I'm going to paint your womb with my cum," he growls, the filthy promise sending molten lava coursing through my body. "Fill you up until you can't take anymore and it drips from your pussy."
My fingers clutch painfully at the sheets beneath me as I keen again, higher and louder, the sounds coming from me seeming inhuman to my own ears. I'm undone, well on my way to shattering into a million pieces under his ruthless onslaught.
"I'll bury my cock so fucking deep inside you and just keep fucking you." He accentuates his crude vow with a series of short, sharp snaps of his hips that drive me closer to the edge. "And when I can't, River can...we can take turns until you know nothing but us. Our bodies, our scents, our cum. No one else."
His filthy words and ravenous pace ignite an inferno inside me. I'm keening, begging him in incoherent, barely audible rambling as he fucks me hard, violently. His fingers grip my hair tightly, pulling sharp and painfully as his other hand grips my hip, dragging my body back to meet his with each brutal thrust.
The dull ache lingering from the last two encounters only fuels the whirlwind of pleasure and pain that threatens to drown me in its chaotic storm. I can feel myself tightening around him, fluttering as my orgasm builds inside me like a coiled spring winding tighter with each punishing slam of his cock.
He releases his grip on my hip abruptly, and seconds later I feel the sharp sting of his palm landing hard across one ass cheek. Then the other. Fire rips through me, the burning ache of tender flesh only heightening the overwhelming sensations spiraling through my body. My walls clench impossibly tight and through the haze of lust and desperation, I hear his guttural command, "Come for me."
It's as if my body has been silently begging for permission. My orgasm slams into me with staggering force, the crest of ecstasy dragging me under its crashing wave. I cry out his name, uninhibited and shamelessly loud, as the pulses wrack through me. His pace stutters as I drag him over the edge with me, and I can feel the scorching heat of his cum flooding me. The sensation reminds me of his crude words, my hypersensitive pussy pulsing and fluttering around his twitching cock as he groans, "That's it, baby girl."
I can't move, utterly spent and limp against the mattress as I lose track of time, I'm only vaguely aware that he hasn't pulled out of me as he wraps himself around my body, rolling us onto our sides, but sleep is already dragging me under. The world feels hazy and distant, my body boneless and heavy in the aftermath of such intense pleasure. Knox's solid warmth envelops me completely, his chest pressed flush against my back, one muscular arm draped possessively over my waist.
His breath fans across the nape of my neck in slow, steady exhales, stirring the fine hairs there and sending little shivers down my spine. I can feel the steady thrum of his heartbeat against my shoulder blade, gradually slowing as we both come down from our shared high. The weight of his body anchors me, grounding me in this moment of utter contentment.
My eyelids grow heavier with each passing second, the soft cotton sheets beneath us feeling impossibly luxurious against my oversensitized skin. Knox's fingers trace lazy, abstract patterns along my hip and stomach, the calluses on his fingertips catching slightly on my sweat-dampened skin. It's soothing, hypnotic, lulling me further towards the edge of consciousness.
My last coherent thought before succumbing to slumber is how right this feels. How perfectly I fit against Knox's body, as if we were two pieces of a puzzle finally slotting into place. But there is still one piece missing. As darkness creeps in at the edges of my vision, I let out a contented sigh, sinking deeper into his embrace, wishing River was there too.