Chapter 17 #2
He gritted his teeth as though his patience was thin. As if he has any. “The scum who ransacked your place? What did they take?”
“Well, I’d just started trying to clean it up when they came back.” I hedged.
“You didn’t notice anything missing?” he persisted.
The empty yellow envelope flashed into my thoughts, sending more discomfort right through my middle.
I tore off another hunk of nail and swiped it on the corner of a napkin.
I hadn’t really had time to think of it, of anything that happened last night, because I’d passed out and then woken up to Kieran.
And well, Kieran and his dick were very good distractions.
However, this suspicious inquisition brought it all rushing back. One intrusive thought after another. The sound of bullets firing at close range. The way my teeth chewed through flesh and how gross it was when warm, metallic blood oozed over my tongue.
For shit’s sake, just shoot him, Cross!
A firm hand gripped my wrist, and reality crashed into memory, making me flinch aggressively. Ripping my arm free with so much force it flew back and hit the tray, I knocked over the glass of juice.
Cold, citrusy liquid splashed onto a plate and flooded the tray around it, cascading over the edge onto the blanket covering me. Gasping, I grabbed the fabric and lifted as if that would somehow stop it from soaking through.
“Fuck,” Kieran growled, quickly moving the tray aside and flipping the wet blanket off my lap.
A weird clattering sound filled the room, and I realized it was my teeth chattering violently. I tried to stop them but ended up biting down on my tongue. I whimpered, my hand flying up to my mouth as the sharp tang of blood brought back the memory that started this in the first place.
Gagging, I tried to rid myself of the stupid flavor, but it was everywhere, and I felt like I was going to choke.
Abruptly, I was enclosed by warmth, the shaking in my limbs no match for the firm strength encompassing me. “Easy.” Kieran’s husky voice penetrated the panic tearing me up from the inside. “I’ve got you,” he soothed, rocking me gently.
I shuddered, teeth clacking a few more times, and grappled for his shirt to cling to.
“Shhh,” he hushed. “Settle down, now.”
I wanted to scoff. I mean, in the history of forever, when did telling someone to settle down ever actually work?
Erm, now.
Hi. It’s me, making history with my lowering heart rate and deep breaths.
“That’s it,” he praised, still rocking while his gentle fingers stroked through my tangled hair. “Good boy.”
Whimpering, I realized I was sitting in his lap, a seat he’d created just for me by crossing his legs beneath him. How such a large man folded himself in, I didn’t know, but it felt so nice.
I fit perfectly in the intimate space he’d created, my own legs folded in and my chest plastered against his. Yeah, the stitches in my knee stung from the way I bent my leg, but that pain was well worth the comfort of this embrace.
The memories that seemed so vivid only moments ago faded into the background, disguised by the steady rhythm of his pulse.
Those memories couldn’t hurt me here. Not with Kieran wrapped so tight around me.
I exhaled. The last of the clinging anxiety drained away, leaving me no better than a limp, wet noodle.
Kieran’s breath brushed against the top of my head when he quietly asked, “What happened?”
“I remembered a name,” I answered, not bothering to lift my face.
The instant tightening of his muscles was irrefutable proof that he wanted that name. Instead of demanding it as I was sure he wanted to do, he rubbed his chin in my hair, beard catching on the tangled strands, and asked, “What did they do to you, baby doll?”
Surprised, my eyes shot open, lashes brushing against his skin. “You don’t want the name?”
“Having his name won’t change his fate. It was sealed the moment he laid his eyes on you. But how brutally I send him there depends on how badly they hurt you.”
Maybe it was wrong, but, to me, his vengeance was sexy. No one ever defended me before. No one ever cared enough.
“I heard them coming through the stairwell,” I explained. “My door was already broken from when they were there before, but I slid the chain across anyway, hoping it would buy me time.”
“That’s exactly what you should have done,” he commended.
“They burst through it in a second flat. I picked up a broom and swung it at him. He c-caught the h-handle and used it to pull me in,” I recalled, thinking of how scared I’d been.
The hand that had been rubbing up and down my back curled into a fist against my spine. His anger was pungent but didn’t incite panic. Perhaps because Kieran was angry for me when I was used to anger being directed at me.
“Then what?” he asked, voice stiff.
“I bit him. I bit him so hard I got a mouthful of blood.” I shuddered at the memory and tried to push it away. “He threw me into the fridge, and they started to shoot. I crawled out the busted window and went down the fire escape to get away.”
“They didn’t chase?”
I nodded against his throat. “Yeah. I slid through an opening in the fence at the end of the alley. They didn’t fit through. You can run, but you can’t hide,” I repeated. “That’s what they yelled as I ran away.”
He made a sound and leaned back to grasp my face and meet my eyes. “You did well.”
“I did?”
“So well.” He leaned in to kiss me. My lips parted on a sigh. and my lashes swept down, letting him take over my senses. He pulled away too soon, kissing my cheek and then my temple before hugging me back into his chest.
“You should have told me.” The severity in his voice did not match the soft way he kissed.
I started to pull back, but he tightened his grip.
“The second you saw your apartment, you should have come and gotten me from the car.”
“I’m not your responsibility,” I rebuked.
He jerked back, narrowed eyes inciting challenge. “Is that what you believe?”
“This morning, I did,” I muttered, trying to avoid his stare.
“And now?”
“Now, maybe not so much.”
“Not so much,” he spat as though the three words tasted like diarrhea.
He moved swiftly, tossing me onto my back before I even knew I was out of his arms. The shirt I was wearing bunched around my waist. The boxers ripped down my legs.
His glittering eyes appeared above me, a predator about to conquer its prey.
I stared, stunned, the only sound in the room my hammering heartbeat as blood surged through my veins.
His hands slammed on either side of me and then—
“Ughn.” The groan punched out of my lungs with his powerful penetration. No hesitation, no warning. One moment, I was in his lap, and the next, I was on my back, stuffed full of his cock.
My lips hung open. Sparks of pain shot through my lower half as my body stretched and burned around the intrusion. I was still pliant from earlier, but this time there was no lube. This was a raw claim. Nothing but skin on skin, a full-on invasion.
“You feel that, baby doll?” he growled above me, the look in his eyes absolutely feral. “That’s all of me inside you. You’re mine. Mine to protect. To mate, love, and to own.”
To love?
He pulled out and slammed home again, turning my thoughts hazy. Pleasure and pain swirled together, creating something much more vivid and alive.
“Use your safe word,” he reminded me through gritted teeth.
“Never,” I panted. I would rather die.
He thrust again, this time grinding his hips against my pelvis, making me cry out.
“Who owns you?”
I whimpered.
“Who.” Thrust. “Owns.” Thrust. “You?” Grind.
“You.”
Satisfaction filled the room, literally bleeding from his pores. Grabbing the lube from under the pillow, he retreated until his crown rested against my entrance. The cap on the bottle flipped open, but he spit on his dick and shoved it inside me before adding copious amounts of lube.
Once everything was dripping, he fell to one elbow and grabbed my chin with his free hand. “Look at me.”
I looked. He was literally all I saw.
“What’s your safe word?” he asked again.
I knew I could use it. I knew he would stop. This man was feral and possessive and likely a little unhinged… but I could see it right there in the bluest part of his stare. He’d never hurt me.
“Don’t stop,” I said.
His lips fused to mine, hand so tight on my face my lips were already puckered for him. He started fucking me, his dick so hard it felt like steel. Lube squelched loudly between us as he set an ardent pace.
It was so good, and I started to float, but he made a sound, pulling me back.
“Look at me while I fuck you. Know without a doubt exactly where you belong. With whom you belong. It doesn’t matter if I’ve known you for two hours or a lifetime,” he said, still hammering into my body, driving every word home. “This will not change.”
Sweat dripped off his forehead and splashed onto my cheek, and then I was coming, an orgasm barreling out of me and splattering us both. It was powerful and short, and when I was empty, I collapsed onto the bed like a rag doll as he arched his neck.
“Kieran,” I beckoned, voice hoarse, making him drop his chin. “Look at me while you claim me. So you know exactly where you belong.”
The intensity of his orgasm drilled through his stare and into mine, rearranging the circuits in my brain.
His low and drawn-out moan filled the room while the warm rush of his release filled me.
He shuddered and shook, slapping both hands on the mattress to keep his quivering weight from crushing me.
Not once did he look away, even when his body sagged and the black in his eyes faded back to brilliant blue.
“I want everything. Please give it to me.” His voice was hoarse with rare vulnerability.
My heart levitated, turning itself inside out. He could ask anything of me in that moment, and it would never occur to me to refuse.
“Pretty sure you just took it,” I mused, still out of breath.
A serious note came over his face, the stoic man I was well acquainted with coming back to the surface. “It means nothing unless you give it.”
Is that why he wanted me to use my safe word? As a way of reminding me of my power, of letting me know I was in control.
“I trust you,” I whispered. “This will not change.”