27. Ivy
Chapter 27
Ivy
Thorne took me to Amherst.
We got in his car—a Ferrari. It was the first time I’d seen it and had him drive me anywhere.
When we drove off campus it felt like we were leaving all our troubles behind and venturing off to a new world. And when I spotted the Welcome to Amherst sign excitement overwhelmed me.
Weeks ago, when I missed out on the trip, I was so disappointed.
I’ve always wanted to visit Amherst to learn more about Emily Dickinson’s life and the inspiration behind her work. She’s always been one of those writers from the past who left a mark on me. She loved to use nature and landscapes, too, to spark her creativity.
What she did with words, I try to do with music.
Thorne booked us at the Inn on Boltwood, a stylish boutique inn with the ambiance of the old world.
We got their best room and Thorne had me in bed the moment we stepped through the door.
We woke up early today and started the day off with a gourmet breakfast, then we spent the day at the Emily Dickinson Museum and sightseeing.
I could tell Thorne was bored for most of the time but he didn’t show it.
Today was the best day I’ve had in a long time, and I experienced it with him.
Now we’re at dinner, eating a fine meal of Wagyu beef tagliolini. We can’t have wine in here, so we're drinking mocktails, but we have some wine back in our hotel room we saved for later.
I feel like we’ve exited time and space today, but there are moments when I’m pulled back to think of reality. The reality where we’re not really what we appear to be, and I’m still the daughter of a disgraced Knight.
A Knight who sits in prison for something I know in my heart he didn’t do.
Thorne and I don’t talk about my father at all. Sometimes my answers verge on the truth to him, but I have to think fast to be mindful of his feelings.
And then there’s that little voice in the back of my mind telling me I still need to be careful because Thorne knows my secret.
He stares at me while I allow my pasta to dangle from my fork.
“What’s going on in that head of yours, little deer?” He takes a sip of his drink.
“Just stuff.”
“What stuff?” He gives me a toothy grin and rolls his sleeves up his thick forearms, exposing his tattoos and muscle. I swear he’s gotten bigger over the last few weeks.
“Everything,” I confess. I guess my answer could mean every and anything.
“Thinking of music? There were a few times today when I thought you were going to burst into song.”
I laugh and he smiles at me the way he does whenever I find myself laughing around him. Sometimes I think he says things just to hear me laugh.
“I can’t sing. At least not well. I hum when I need to sound out my notes but I promise you’ll never hear me bursting into song.”
“I suppose your music isn’t exactly the like burst-into-song kind, is it?”
“Not really.”
“It’s darker.”
“Yes.”
Thorne is the first person to truly notice that aspect of my music. He once said that it sounded like death. There’s a reason for that. The answer lies with the nine-year-old girl I was who saw the hallways littered with the bodies of the people she once knew. Losing my father—even though he’s still alive—felt like death. So did losing who I used to be.
“Why is it so dark?” he asks, keeping his gaze on me.
“My…past.”
He nods, understanding. “Would you ever consider creating something lighter?”
“Maybe. There’s a lot of lightness here. Thank you for this trip. It meant a lot to me.”
“You’re welcome. I’m sure you had a better time with me than Aiden .”
“Of course. Also I wouldn’t have been hanging out with Aiden on the trip. Isabelle and Mackenzie were there. So were Sawyer and Eilish.”
“Believe me that asshole would have found a way to hang out with you. Just remember what I said about him.”
“I remember.”
“I’m trying to get you a different tutor.”
I blink at him several times. “That’s not necessary.”
“Yes, it fucking well is.”
“We’re always in the library or around people.”
“I would feel better if he weren't anywhere near you.”
There’s that protectiveness again. It makes me crazy, but he also makes me feel safe.
His expression turns more pensive and I think of what he told me weeks ago about his uncle and Aiden. I haven’t asked about that since because the time wasn’t right, but I’ve wanted to. Now that we’re talking about it, I feel I have an opening.
“How are things with your uncle and Aiden?”
Thorne tilts his head and chews briefly on the inside of his lip before he straightens again.
“Absolute shit. I’ll be lucky to get my legacy after graduation. Aiden has basically replaced me.”
“Can your uncle do that?”
He sighs with the frustration of a man who's thought of every idea and failed. “Yes, he can.”
“Why would he do that to you? That makes no sense.”
“Because he can. Because… he thinks I’m just like my father, and that means I’ll be a threat to him.”
This is the most Thorne has ever said to me about himself and the things that worry him. He doesn’t talk about his father either, or his family for that matter. Like me when I talk about my father, I know he’s being mindful of my feelings.
“Why would your uncle think that?”
“He’s right. A man like my uncle has secrets he wants to keep close to his heart. I have a penchant for finding out things like that. I take after my father in every way. That makes me as dangerous to my uncle as he considered my father to be.” He pauses for a moment. “Aiden can’t do what I can do. He has skill, but I’m something else. He’ll also be the mindless automaton my uncle wants him to be. Aiden and his family want to climb the ladder of power so he’ll do whatever he’s told. I won’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You know what I’m sorry about?”
“What?”
“Wasting my breath on those fuckers when I could be tasting you.” The salacious look he gives me sends streaks of liquid heat flowing through my body from my head and down into my core. “Come, let’s go back to the room. Time to play with you again, little deer.”
His voice is like a dirty lullaby. Soothing and tantalizing in the most decadent of ways. It makes me feel sexy and excited that this seriously hot guy wants me.
I take his hand when he extends it to me and allow him to lead me back to our room.
He pulls me to his hard body when we’re inside, pressing his erection into my belly as he crushes his lips to mine.
“Feel me, Annika .” The use of my real name speaks to that part of me deep inside who longs to be her—Annika. The part of me I had to suppress to live.
He takes my hand and guides it to his cock. I grip his steel-hard length through his pants, and he returns to my lips.
“See what you do to me, little deer. Only you.”
I pull away to stare into his bright blue eyes, my mind fragmenting from his words. “Me?”
“Fucking always.”
He kisses me again, giving me a glorious, breathless kiss that makes the world blur around us and my nerves sizzle with pleasure.
Our bodies crash into the wall and he consumes my mouth. It feels like I’ve been waiting for this moment forever.
He kisses me until my lips feel like they’re on fire. Then he drags his mouth away from mine to pull my top over my head and tugs on my skirt. “Clothes off. Now.”
We pause for a few seconds to take off our clothes. I squeal, laughing when he scoops me up and throws me on the bed.
A breath later he’s covering me with his gorgeous, muscular body, kissing me again.
Leaving my lips, he kisses his way across my face and down to my neck, then he lifts me so that I’m on top of him. But he doesn’t stop there. He flips me around so my pussy is in his face and his cock is in mine.
“You know what to do. Don’t you?” He takes his cock and strokes the side of my breast.
“I do.”
“Then please me with your hot little mouth, and I’ll please you, too.”
I take his cock into my mouth and suck.
“Good girl.” His voice is low and warm on my skin.
Running his tongue across my pussy lips, he leaves a streak of hot fire.
The juxtaposition is maddening, leaving me wetter than I’ve ever been in my life. When he starts licking into my pussy I moan, wanting to come.
While I suck him, taking him into my mouth as deeply as I can, he does the same to me.
He laps at my clit, knowing exactly what to do to make me grind against his face.
It feels so good that soon my orgasm takes me and I come in shivering gasps.
Thorne drinks me, allowing me to climb down from the sexual high before he slides out from under me and positions me on my hands and knees so he can slam into my pussy from behind. Then he’s moving, his hard cock owning me again in a wild animalistic way.
My entire body is tight with arousal and filled with him forcing more and more pleasure into me.
My pussy spasms around his cock and he squeezes my ass cheeks in response.
“You like when I fuck you, don’t you, little deer?”
“Yes,” I cry out.
“Do you want me to fuck you harder?”
“Yesss. Fuck me harder, Thorne.”
He does and I come instantly. Waves of red-hot pleasure ripple through me like wild electrical currents.
He fucks me into the mattress, every thrust of his cock sending me deeper into the realms of wild pleasure, and I’m utterly lost in the sensation because this is sheer possession.
Thorne drives into my G-spot and it feels like I don’t stop coming.
He, on the other hand, is still rock hard.
He pulls out of me, slides off the bed, and retrieves a set of chains from his bag. I gasp when I see them.
They look like something you’d see in a BDSM club. Of course, the closest I’ve ever been to a club like that is watching TV, so seeing this toy in real life has my head spinning.
The only time Thorne had me bound was the night he discovered who I really was.
“Don’t be scared, malen'kiy olen' .” He smiles. “I just want you like this.”
“You want me chained up?”
“Yes. Captive and bound to my mercy.”
I almost ask him if I’m not already like that, but I don’t. Instead I allow him to guide me to the top of the bed where he secures the chains around my wrists then around the rails on the headboard. The metal feels cool and tight around my wrists.
I won’t be able to escape these without him.
“I won’t hurt you. Unless you want me to. Pain can be pleasurable sometimes.” He speaks in a sing-song voice and grins, then he nibbles on my breasts. “Do you want me to hurt you, Annika?”
“No. Don’t hurt me. Not yet.”
“Not yet. I like that answer. Okay, I won’t hurt you yet, baby.” That’s the first time he’s ever called me that. My body liked it. “Let’s do this first. I need to come inside you.”
He spreads my legs wide and plunges back into my body.
The restraints somehow amplify the pleasure coursing through me. I don’t know how it’s possible, but it is.
Maybe it’s because I feel more like I’m giving myself to him. Whatever it is, it’s unreal.
He pounds into me and the rush of energy devours me. It’s so potent that I scream.
Thorne gives me a victor’s smile. The kind you’d see on a conqueror when they’ve taken everything and left nothing behind.
With that smile set on his face, he pulls out of me. Then he flips me again so that I’m on my hands and knees. My restrained hands are crisscrossed, but the chains are just long enough for me to place my hands on the mattress to balance myself.
I glance over my shoulder, trying to see what Thorne is up to.
“This ass is mine,” he speaks in a low growl, pressing his thumb over the tight rosette of my asshole. “Mine to fuck.”
I gasp and clench. He promised he would fuck my ass one day. I’d forgotten. I’d gotten lost in everything else and got comfortable with our routine. I should have known better than to make that mistake.
The chains around my wrist should have told me things would be changing tonight.
“Will it hurt?” My voice trembles.
“It will sting at first, but then it will feel just as amazing as everything else we do. Maybe even better. It depends on how freaky you want to be with me. Ready?”
“Yes… I’m ready.” I’m not, but I’m wrapped around Thorne’s fingers again.
The conqueror's smile returns to his face and he grabs my hips. I turn to face the headboard and my hair falls over my face like a veil.
Thorne smears my juices into my asshole, then I feel the head of his cock pressing into me. It’s the weirdest sensation ever.
He pushes his cock into me, stretching me to take him. And that’s when it hurts and my ass feels like it’s burning from the outside in.
I grab at the sheets as if they can help me and try to steady my breathing. That doesn’t work. “It hurts Thorne.”
“Stay with me. You’ll feel good soon.”
I listen and quickly find that he’s right. Once he’s stretched me and he’s sliding in and out of my asshole, it feels good.
It actually feels good. Too good.
I lose my mind to pleasure again. And so does he. Thorne speeds up, pounding into my body hard and fast. Then we both move against each other until his climax fills me.
I can barely breathe by the time he’s done with me. Feeling like the life has drained from my body, I slump down into the mattress.
Thorne pulls out and gently eases me on to my back again, then he stares at me, watching me catch my breath.
He lowers his head to plant kisses on my lips, then all along my thighs.
When he lifts his head, we gaze at each other for a long tender moment before he gets off the bed and pulls his boxers and pants back on.
Thorne returns to me and brushes another kiss along my lips. “Do you feel good, little deer?”
“Yes… that was unreal.”
“We’ll do it again soon.” He tugs on my wrists and I think he’s going to undo my chains, but he doesn’t. “Next time will be even better. Now let’s play another game.”
“What are we doing this time?” We’ve done everything now. He’s had me everywhere. There are no more virgin parts left on me.
“A game of truth. You’re going to tell me what you wanted to find on the Knights’ database.”