Chapter 20 Lexi
Lexi
“How fucking beautiful you are.”
He’s everywhere at once. His hands, rubbing, squeezing, and gripping. His other finds my clit and rubs. I relax into him, feeling a third orgasm on the brink.
“That’s it,” he praises, and I relax further. “Oh, fuck.”
I can’t believe I’m breaking him down like this and vice versa. I lean into his touch and move my hips.
“Ride me like a good fucking girl.”
I start moving faster with him. I’ve never been talked to like this during sex, and it’s fucking hot.
“Come for me,” he groans, pinching the hell out of my ass cheek with his other hand.
He moves his fingers slightly to the right and that undoes me. But this time it’s different, I’m lightheaded, trembling as I sing.
“So fucking pretty.”
I can’t explain what happens to my body, but that compliment unleashes something deep in my body and I fucking explode. Liquid spews between us and he fucks me harder.
“Fuck, that’s so hot, baby. Don’t fucking stop.”
I don’t.
I can’t.
I squirt all over him and ride out my orgasm. I feel the moment he comes inside of me. He doesn’t stop moving, drawing out my pleasure with his.
I fall onto the bed, exhausted and floating on cloud nine.
He lays beside me and his wet dick rests against my ass.
“I soaked your bed,” I say, my voice muffled into the pillow.
“I came in you twice.”
We stare at each other in the dim light of his dorm room.
My body is still humming, skin flushed and sensitive. The sheets beneath me are damp, twisted.
He grabs my chin gently and kisses me. Soft this time. Almost tender.
I stare at him while he kisses me, and I can’t help but wonder why he is the way that he is. How someone who deals drugs, who threatens people, who tied me to a tree in the woods—how that same person can kiss me like this.
“Penny for your thoughts?” he murmurs against my lips.
I pull back slightly to look at him. “Mm?”
I smirk. “Why sell something you don’t even believe in?”
He raises an eyebrow. “What makes you think I don’t believe in it?”
I can’t help the words that tumble out. We just had amazing sex, but I’m overflowing with questions.
I start off slow. “You cut my brother off… You threaten to cut Thea off if she buys for him… And then you save his life. Then you put him in rehab?” I search his face. “That’s not the behavior of someone who believes drugs are good.”
“That’s different.” His thumb traces my jawline. “I’m doing it for you.”
I laugh, but it sounds hollow. “Me? Why?”
“Tiger. Lexi.” His eyes darken with the memory. “You squirted all over my sheets. You fucked me on my drum set. And you let me come in you. Twice in one night?” He whistles low. “A man would do much, much more for that.”
Heat floods my face. “Oh yeah? What else are you willing to do?”
“Anything.”
The word hangs between us, heavy with promise and threat.
I smile, tugging him closer by the neck. “Then cuddle me and pretend to like it.”
“I don’t have to pretend,” he says, pulling me against his chest.
His heart beats steady under my ear. Strong. Alive.
I shrug my shoulders against him, feeling the wet sheets. “Okay. Maybe we should shower.”
He releases me and stands in one fluid motion. I turn to check him out—can’t help myself. His body is ridiculous. All hard muscle and ink. And his dick swings between his legs, still semi-hard even after everything we just did.
“I can’t believe you,” I say.
“What?”
I sit up on my elbows. “You play hockey?”
This makes him smirk. “I do.”
“You play the drums?”
He nods, reaching for a shirt on the floor.
“So how can you do something so evil?”
The question stops him. His back is to me, muscles tensing under his skin. He throws on a shirt and a pair of shorts, then hands me my clothes without turning around.
He ignores what I just said completely.
I take my clothes.
He checks his phone, reading something on the screen I can’t see. His jaw tightens.
I quickly dress.
“Something came up.” He finally looks at me. “Do you want to come or go back to your dorm?”
“What is it?”
He shrugs. “It’ll be quick.”
“Okay.”
On the drive, I watch him.
His hands on the steering wheel. The set of his jaw. The way his eyes scan the road like he’s calculating something I can’t see.
He grabs my hand suddenly and holds it. The gesture feels intimate in a way that makes my chest tight.
“Trust me?” he asks.
I nod. “Do you?”
He nods back.
We drive in silence for another ten minutes. Then he pulls off onto a side road I don’t recognize. Trees close in on both sides.
My heart starts racing. “What are we doing here?”
“You said you trust me, right?” He puts the car in park. “I’m testing that right now. Get out.”
My hands shake as I unbuckle my seatbelt. I look at the trees surrounding us—dark, dense, swallowing all the light.
“Koa—”
“Get out.”
I open the door and step into the cold. My breath fogs in the air.
He’s already at the trunk, pulling out rope.
“What are you doing?” I ask, trembling. Not from cold. From fear.
He walks toward me with the rope in one hand and a blindfold in the other.
“You are not to say my name,” he says, voice flat. Commanding. “And don’t cry.”
“What?”
He approaches me, lifts the blindfold.
“Koa—”
“Tiger, I said no names.” He pauses, holding the blindfold but not putting it on yet. “We’re going to be in there for a few hours tops, but you need to listen to my rules.”
“What’s happening right now?” I plead, hating how small my voice sounds. “Tell me and I’ll do everything you say.”
He shakes his head. “If you want to walk out alive, you’re going to listen to me.”
Walk out alive.
The words hit me like ice water.
He puts the blindfold over my eyes, and my world goes black.
He pulls me close to his body. I can feel his heart beating against my chest—steady, calm. How is he so calm?
“You trust me?” he whispers.
I shake my head. “I don’t like this.”
“Come on.”
He takes my hand and leads me into the trees. I stumble over roots I can’t see, catch myself on his arm. We walk in silence. Five minutes. Ten. I lose track.
The forest sounds surround me—wind through leaves, distant bird calls, the crunch of our footsteps on dead branches.
Finally, we stop.
“Stand here,” he says.
He positions me against a tree. The bark digs into my back through my shirt.
Then he starts tying the rope around me.
“Please,” I say as he tightens it. “Why are you doing this?”
He leans in close, lips brushing my ear. “When you hear other voices, don’t speak. Let me deal with them.”
Other voices.
Oh god.
He kisses me. “I protect what’s mine.”
I bite his lip. Hard enough to break skin. Afraid if I let go, he’ll walk away and never come back.
“Don’t do this,” I whisper. I taste copper—his blood on my tongue.
“Fuck,” he breathes. “Tiger, baby.” He grabs my cheeks, thumb stroking my skin. “Don’t do that. I’m getting hard.”
He kisses me hard. Desperate.
“Be a good tiger, and I’ll treat you after.”
Then he pulls away.
My heart plummets. “Wait!”
But he’s gone.
I don’t know how long I stand there tied to this tree.
Time stretches. Contracts. Every sound makes me flinch—the wind, a snapping twig, rustling leaves.
Don’t speak. Don’t cry. Don’t say his name.
I repeat it like a prayer.
Then I hear footsteps.
Multiple sets. Coming closer.
Voices. Male. Deep. I can’t make out the words, but the tone is aggressive.
“Where are you?” I whisper. “Wait.”
Fuck.
I shouldn’t have said anything.
The footsteps stop. Silence stretches so long I think I imagined them.
Then they start again. Closer this time.
I try to loosen the restraints, twisting my wrists, pulling against the rope. It doesn’t budge. My breathing comes faster, shallower.
I can’t believe I let him lure me out here. After we just had sex. After he took Axel to rehab. After everything.
I’m getting my priorities mixed up.
I hear Koa’s voice now. Low. Calm. Talking to someone.
Then another voice. Angry. Shouting something in the distance. I can’t hear.
My mouth is dry. I’m fighting the urge to scream his name, to beg him to come back, to get me out of here.
But I obey. No names. No sound.
The voices continue. Back and forth. Sometimes overlapping. Sometimes just Koa speaking in that steady, dangerous tone he uses when he’s threatening someone.
Then nothing.
Silence so complete it makes my ears ring.
I count. One. Two. Three. Up to sixty. Then start again.
Where is he?
Finally—finally—I hear footsteps again. Single set. Moving fast.
Hands on the rope. The blindfold ripped off.
Koa.
He doesn’t speak. Just unties me quickly, efficiently, and hauls me over his shoulder like a sack of flour.
“Koa, what—”
“Quiet.”
He carries me out of the woods. I don’t fight. Just hang over his shoulder, watching the ground pass beneath me in the dim light.
When we reach the car, he throws me into the passenger seat. Not gently.
Then he gets in, starts the engine, and drives off.
I sit feeling small next to him. His jaw is clenched so tight I can see the muscle jumping. He appears to be mad.
At me? At whoever he met? At the situation?
“Are you going to tell me what the hell that was?” I ask.
He shakes his head.
“What the fuck was that, Koa?”
“It’s better if we just not talk.”
“I swear to fucking god—”
He ignores me. Keeps speeding, going thirty over the limit, weaving through traffic.
We pull up to the trailer park eventually.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I cross my arms. “I want to go home and shower and get as far away from you as I can.”
He parks in front of the same trailer as before. “Come on.”
“No.”
He sighs, frustration bleeding through. “I’m going to explain everything to you once we’re inside. Come on.”
I stare at him. At the hard set of his mouth, the tension in his shoulders.
I uncross my arms and step out of the car.
An eerie feeling takes over as I watch him approach the front door. My gut is screaming at me not to trust him. To leave. To run. Protect myself.
But when he turns around and looks at me, I follow him inside.
Before I can even sit, his phone rings.
I glare at him as he answers.
A man’s voice comes through—loud, angry. I can’t make out the words.
Koa puts up a finger at me and walks outside, closing the door behind him.
I sit on the couch and wait.
Five minutes. Then ten.
Then I hear a car engine.
I stand, walk to the window.
The Charger is pulling away.
No.
I run outside. “Hey!”
He’s already gone, dust kicking up from his tires.
“Fucking asshole!” I scream into the empty lot.
I walk back into the trailer and pace. My hands shake. My chest heaves.
I try to put pieces of the puzzle together. The rope. The blindfold. The voices. The way he tied me to a tree and left me.
I protect what’s mine.
But from what?
From who?
And why did he just abandon me here?
I pull out my phone. No service.
Shit.
I sink onto the couch and stare at the door, waiting.
Waiting for him to come back.
Waiting for an explanation.
Waiting to decide if I should run the second he shows up.
Or if I should stay and demand answers.
My hand goes to my lip where I bit him. I can still taste his blood.
Be a good tiger, and I’ll treat you after.
Fucking liar.