Chapter Twelve
Wilder
The fogginess of sleep clung to my mind, making my thoughts feel slow and sluggish.
I opened my eyes and blinked away the sleep. The ceiling above me wasn’t mine. Where the hell was I?
I swallowed, and my mouth was drier than the desert. How much did I drink last night? And why was my throat so sore? I couldn’t quite grasp the memories. It was like chasing smoke that kept disappearing on the breeze.
“Good morning, Starshine. Merry Christmas.”
Reality came flooding back in horrific waves.
Byron.
The ring.
The kiss.
The fucking needle.
I turned my head and found Byron staring at me with a dopey grin on his face. Did he even sleep?
I went to sit up but found that I couldn’t move. I glanced down at my feet and discovered that my clothes had disappeared. I still had my boxers on, but I was spread eagle with cuffs around my ankles and wrists.
“What the fuck, Byron?” I growled out. “Untie me. Now.”
“But it’s Christmas, and I have a gift for you,” he said as he rolled over, lying on top of me and tangling his legs with mine. Fuck, he was only in his boxers and the feel of his skin brushing against mine was…intoxicating.
I took a deep breath.
Don’t get hard. Don’t get hard. Don’t get hard.
If I said it enough, it’d work, right?
“I don’t want any more gifts from you,” I said, trying to ignore how sexy he looked with his hair all mussed up from sleep. Worryingly, he had another bandage on his shoulder and a large bruise along his side. Was that from the vampires he’d been chasing?
Byron pouted, and nope, I was not going to enjoy that.
“But I think you’ll like this one.” He braced his hands on my chest and pushed himself up to a sitting position.
Directly over my cock.
“Mmm, baby. Are you enjoying this?” he purred.
“No,” I gritted out.
He laughed and rocked his hips over mine. My traitorous cock hardened beneath him, and there was no denying the effect he was having on me.
“Don’t lie to me, Wilder,” he said as he brushed his thumb over my bottom lip.
“Let me go.” My magic spluttered and died out in my veins, like an engine ticking over. I could feel it but couldn’t quite reach it.
He leant down and swirled his tongue around my nipple. I gasped as my back arched towards him, chasing his touch. My fingers clenched and unclenched, trying to grip something but only found air.
“Byron,” I moaned, his name passing my lips before I could swallow it down.
“Yes, baby?”
“Stop calling me that,” I said breathlessly as he swiped his tongue over my carotid artery. Then he sank his teeth into the side of my neck and bit down.
I hissed at the sharp pain, and my hips bucked.
Holy hell.
Byron was going to devour me. And part of my brain was absolutely on board with that.
“But you like the way I call you ‘baby’,” he rasped, looking down at me with a coolness in his eyes that felt at odds with the way his hard dick pressed against mine. He looked so calm, but I could sense the fire lurking beneath the surface. “Are you afraid of me?”
I swallowed and winced at the pain in my throat. It felt like sunburn. What the fuck was that about?
Was I afraid of him? A nervous laugh escaped my lips. “Maybe a little.”
His dark brows shot up. “Really? Well, I’ll only hurt you in the best way, and you’ll still be alive tomorrow. If that’s what you’re worried about.”
A modicum of relief ran through me. “Why am I here, Byron?”
“It’s Christmas,” he said, as if that was answer enough.
“And?”
“I thought I deserved a gift for all my hard work this year, and the only thing I want is you.”
“You can’t just kidnap someone, though.”
His grin was wide and feral as he stared down at me. Like he found my terror adorable. “No one will believe that. You walked into my suite willingly.”
Fuck. I had done that. “What about me? What about what I want?”
“You’re telling me you don’t want me to fuck you so hard you forget your own name?”
My lips parted and my dick twitched.
Which he definitely felt.
“Besides,” he continued, his voice a deliciously low rasp. “You called me ‘kitten’, and now I’m yours for life.”
Byron tapped his left pec, just above his heart. There was a line of script, but beneath that, looking like it had been carved into his chest, was my fucking name.
“Wilder’s kitten?”
He nodded, his eyes wide and full of danger. “That’s right, baby. I had it tattooed just for you.”
“You’re insane.”
“I know. I have a diagnosis that agrees with you.”
My thoughts stuttered and waned, and my mouth bobbed open with the sheer fucking madness of what I was seeing. “You branded yourself? With my name?”
“Congratulations, you’ve won yourself a psychopath for life.”
“Fan-fucking-tastic. Lucky me. Now let me go, you lunatic.”
Byron shook his head, a manic grin on his face. “No. You want to be here, baby.”
“Now you’re being ridiculous.”
Byron trailed his hands down the sides of my ribcage until they were splayed across my lower abdomen. God, how were his hands so warm?
“If it makes you feel any better,” Byron rasped. “You’d have ended up in my bed in chains one way or the other.”
“Right, of course” I huffed in disbelief. There was no way I’d willingly be here.
Byron smiled again, and a shiver danced down my spine settling low in my belly.
“It’s true,” he said as he brushed a lock of hair from my face. “I can’t help it. There’s something about seeing you helpless that fires me up in a way that’s impossible to ignore. I like seeing you completely at my mercy.”
He rolled his hard dick against mine and a moan slipped past my lips. Byron leant forwards and brought his lips close to my ear, dropping his voice to a whisper that I felt brush against my skin. “And I think you like it too.”
“Never,” I hissed.
“And that’s what pisses you off the most,” Byron crooned as he sat back up, those blue eyes seeing far more than I’d like.
“It’s okay, baby. You don’t have to admit it yet.
You can stay in denial if that’s where you’re comfortable, but we both know you’ll eventually stop fighting.
You’ll give in, and then you’ll choose to put yourself in the cuffs for me. ”
“Fuck you,” I sputtered, unwilling to admit that he might be right.
His hand shot out, and he wrapped it around my throat, a soft chuckle falling from his mouth.
“I know what’s going through your mind. You’re thinking that I’ve forced you to stay in my bed, so you don’t have a choice to be here.
If you were free, you’re convinced that you’d leave.
” He reached for one of the cuffs around my wrists.
“But I think, if you were free, you’d want to stay here. Shall we put it to the test?”
His fingers wrapped around the buckle on the cuff and my heart rate spiked, fear pumping through my veins. “Don’t.”
Byron’s grin was wide and smug as he pulled his hand away from the leather.
“Don’t worry, baby. You’ll admit it to yourself soon enough.
But until then, if you want to believe that I’ve taken your choice away from you, that I’m the bad guy, then that’s fine.
I’ll be the bad guy, but we both know that you like this.
You like being the focus of my attention. ”
He was right. I did like having his attention, but I wasn’t ready to surrender. I couldn’t. My pride was too great.
“Byron,” I whimpered, my mind a mess of panic, lust, and fear.
“Hush, baby. I know.” He buried his face in my neck, inhaling deeply. “The things I’m going to do to you.”
Pain, sharp and intense, exploded in my neck as Byron bit down. My hips arched upwards and a sound like a wounded animal flew from my mouth. It quickly turned to a moan as Byron licked over the mark he left in my skin.
“Fuck,” he rumbled. “I can’t wait to hear all the sounds you’ll make.”
Byron kissed, licked and bit his way down my torso and I tried not to like it. I tried really hard, but the thought of wearing Byron’s marks tomorrow was making my dick leak like crazy.
There was the sound of material ripping and then my dick was surrounded by wet heat as Byron sucked me deep into this throat.
“Fuck,” I hissed, my body spasming beneath his touch. It was too much and not enough. “Byron.”
“Yes, baby?” he said with a chuckle as he popped off my dick.
I whimpered at the loss of his touch and pulled at the restraints.
Byron’s eyes were wild and almost black as he stared down at me, his pupils fully dilated. “I’m uncuffing your feet, then I’m going to devour your ass.”
Fuck. Yes. That. I wanted that.
The cuffs were ripped away from my ankles, and then Byron’s hands were pushing my knees upwards, exposing me to him.
He growled as he stared at my hole and I suddenly felt vulnerable. “Byron?”
“I just… need a minute.” He inhaled deeply through his nose. “I’m trying not to cum in my fucking pants.”
Oh.
That was hot.
Then he buried his face against my entrance. There was no preamble. No tentative lick. He fucked his tongue straight into my ass, licking and probing me until I could barely think straight.
Sounds flew out of my mouth with every swipe or roll of his tongue and I practically screamed as his hand wrapped around my cock. He worked me slowly, giving me just enough pressure to keep me on the edge but not letting me go over it.
Fuck. Fuck.
Byron raked his teeth over my hole and my entire body jerked.
“I can’t go slow, Wilder,” he muttered. “I can’t.”
He stretched over me and grabbed the lube, kneeling between my thighs and looking down at me like I was his whole fucking world.
My breath punched from my body as he forced two fingers into my body.
“Did that hurt?”
“Yes,” I hissed.
“Good,” he chuckled as he twisted his fingers deep inside me. “Fuck, you’re so tight, baby.”
Byron leant closer until his mouth was on mine, his tongue forcing my mouth wide as his fingers worked me open with a brutal efficiency.
There should have been more pain, but it wasn’t even registering.
There was so much dopamine flooding my brain that all I could do was moan and writhe beneath him.