Chapter 32 Skylar
SKYLAR
There’s something wrong with Knox.
On the inside, that is.
On the outside, I’ve never seen anyone more right.
I mean it. No one’s ever looked this hot, ever.
The morning sun slides across his unshaven jaw, catching on his hazel eyes until they glow almost golden. Every time he shifts gears, his pecs ripple under his T-shirt.
My stomach does a slow, traitorous flip whenever he squeezes the wheel and his forearms flex. His veins stand out like a map I want to trace. Or bite. Or lick.
Fire shoots through me at the sight of him raking a hand through his damp hair.
He’s raw, rugged.
Mine.
But these cracks in him…they break my heart.
The dip of his brows. That relentless clench and unclench of his jaw.
He’s locked inside his head, alone with dark thoughts he won’t share with me.
If I had to guess, he’s buckling beneath the weight of everything we’ve done. Of watching his brother’s assault, then his grandfather choking me.
Despite all that, he kept moving. Kept going straight to work.
After Reese died, he and I rolled the spare tires to the front of the house with me, changed the flats on the truck, and tossed the duffel in the backseat.
We grabbed my scalpel and the green charm from the farmhouse. After showering and changing, with his mask already in the duffel, we doused Colbert with gasoline and set it on fire.
The whole time, he was sweet. Silent and sweet. But even that sweetness is gone now, vanished somewhere I can’t reach.
He’s suffering.
The more I think about it, the more I ache for him.
My chest twists, lungs flatten. The heaviness presses down on me until I feel like I’ll collapse too.
Poor Knox. My poor, resilient man.
I’ve given him space on this drive, tried to let him breathe. Let him settle into this new reality.
But we’ve been on the road for over an hour.
How can I help him?
Words won’t get through to him. Knox isn’t a big talker. But…maybe my touch would bring him back to me.
Tentatively, I slide my hand over the gearshift.
My pulse quickens at his low growl. At the threat.
He’s a wounded animal, warning me to back off. Not now. Not when I’m at my most feral.
Resolve sinks its cold, demanding teeth into me.
Yes, yes, now.
Nothing can stop me from helping him. Nothing and no one, him included.
I don’t ask, don’t hesitate. I clamp my hand over his thigh.
It strains beneath my palm.
“Skylar.” He whips me with this one word.
I chance a glance up at his face despite the warning.
He cuts his gaze to mine.
Oh. Oh fuck.
His jaw is pulled tight. He snarls at me, scaring me.
I should’ve listened to him. Should’ve let him really cool off, then come back to me on his own.
My hand leaves his thigh, trembling and—
Too late.
His calloused fingers snap around my wrist. The unforgiving hold steals my breath and holds me in place.
While he grips me the tightest he ever has, he veers off the road.
“Knox,” I whisper, praying the sound can calm him.
It doesn’t.
The truck lurches, dirt and dust rising like smoke as he pushes deeper into the open fields.
We’re in the middle of nowhere.
What if he snaps?
What if he truly loses it and kills me?
“I’m sorry.” The apology tumbles out, useless. My hand lies limp in his lap. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” His gaze slices through me. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”
“Then why are you hurting me?”
That question softens him immediately. His grip on me loosens, his fingers curling instead of locking my wrist in his large hand.
His thumb strokes along my pulse point, cherishing me.
“Didn’t mean to.” His voice is nothing more than a hushed grunt. “But Christ, I can’t drive like this. With you here, smelling like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you want to fuck.” His eyes lower to my pussy, his teeth biting into his lip as he drives deeper into the middle of nowhere. Far from the road. “I’m trying to control myself. To breathe. But I have to taste you.” He shoves my hand to the bulge in his jeans. “Need you. Now.”
“Here?” Goosebumps prickle my skin. My nipples are pulled tight in anticipation. No one’s around for miles and miles, but still, this is a flat, open plain. “Really?”
The truck jerks to a stop, brakes screaming.
He gets out of the car and goes around the hood. In a matter of seconds, he’s here at the passenger door, wrenching at my seatbelt.
I gasp, my body tensing.
“Trouble, don’t you trust me?” He yanks me out of the cab like I don’t belong anywhere but in his arms. “I said I’d keep you safe. Promised you’d be mine. Mine alone. No one will see.”
“They will.”
Most of me trusts him. Every part of me wants him, right fucking now. Then again, other people have blindsided us. Hurt us.
“No. This truck, it’s enough to hide you.” He slams my back against it. My spine hits metal, the truck rattling. My bones too, as his lips trail a hot, sinister path along my throat. “Enough for me to be the only one to see you. To have you.”
Without a shred of teasing, with no build-up whatsoever, Knox toes my shoes off. My sweatpants are gone.
His ruthless touch should terrify me.
Instead, it reaches deep into my soul. Into a side of me that’s been sealed shut for years.
A hollow space that’s been waiting for him.
“When I lick you, when I take what’s mine”—he drops to his knees, still every bit the predator—“no one else will ever see you naked, fucked, owned. No one but me.”
His palms brand me, fingers digging into my hips as he buries his face between my thighs. His tongue flicks and flattens over my clit, then plunges lower.
One groan and he hooks my right leg over his shoulder.
Knox devours me.
Pleasures me.
But even through the haze of lust, a memory slams into me. Me panicked, crying. Him with his hand forcing me down on his cock.
He calmed me down by filling my mouth.
This has to be the same, right? What he’s doing here. It’s more than sex for him. More than power. It’s survival.
Every open-mouthed kiss he plants on my pussy is him taking his comfort from me. Clinging to me until the edge inside him blunts.
I’m dying to give him more. To feed him. To be the thing that quiets his demons.
I want that more than anything.
Becoming a surgeon had been my lifelong dream.
But belonging to Knox, this is my one true calling.
Legs spread wider, I arch my back. My toes curl at the sounds he’s making. His growls, the lap of his tongue.
Heat tears through me until I’m sure I’m soaking his chin. Filling his mouth.
His hunger deepens the longer he’s down there, on his knees.
His groans vibrate against my clit. Teeth scrape, tongue worships, fingers bruise my flesh.
I bury my hands in his thick hair, tugging him to where I want him most. His answering growl rattles through me, leaving my whole body shuddering.
“That’s it.” My voice is raw. It hurts to speak, think, or do anything other than be an offering for him. “Take what you need.”
God, his mouth is everywhere. He alternates between licking my lips, sucking my clit, and fucking me with his tongue.
What turns me on the most is when he snaps his eyes open.
Darkness stares at me from below. Obsession. Adoration.
Possession.
“Skylar,” he grunts, his breath hot against my sensitive, wet pussy.
My fingers are already threaded in his hair as I yank him closer. A few more licks, and I break down, coming, pulsing, exploding all over his mouth.
I don’t know what I’m saying, but I can feel it. Him.
He stays there, helping me down with slow, sweet kisses to my pussy.
“Thank you,” he murmurs. “Good girl. My good girl.”
Then he rips himself from me, standing up.
An indignant groan leaves my lips, and I reach up to search for him. For his damp, swollen lips and tongue that belong to me.
“Don’t stop.” My voice is rough. “You need it. I need it. Knox.”
“You’re bossing me around?” Before I can protest or say anything else, Knox manhandles me like the beast he is. He flips me, pushing my cheek up against the truck. My hips are tilted up. “Cute, little one.”
“You felt so good.” Hot metal sears my cheek. My gaze finds his narrowed eyes. “So good.”
“Don’t care.”
There’s no reprieve between the sound of his zipper lowering and his cock slamming into me. His hand is on my hip as he pounds my pussy from behind. As he claims me mercilessly.
“When I was on my knees, I—fuck—almost came. Wasn’t about to waste my seed on the dirt, Trouble. Every fucking drop’s going where it belongs. Deep inside you. So”—thrust—“fucking”—thrust—“deep.”
His hand curls tighter around the nape of my neck, his hips rutting into me.
When he thickens inside me, I know he’s not going to last.
I’m right there with him, moaning, gasping, coming harder than ever before.
“Fuck, you’re milking me.” His voice is strained as he impales me on his cock over and over. “This pussy is begging for my babies, isn’t she?”
I tell him yes about a million times. Or is it one? I have no idea.
I doubt Knox hears me as he growls and comes deep inside me. Hot cum fills me to the brim, trickling down the insides of my thighs while Knox is still buried in my pussy.
For what feels like minutes, he keeps bucking, still murmuring my name.
My man slides his hand to the front of my throat, lifting me to him.
The look in his eyes isn’t that of a beast anymore. Love rolls off him, maybe even softness.
Our bodies are flush against each other, joined. Bound together forever.
Tears prickle the corners of my eyes, and I raise my hand to cover his.
“You’re my favorite person.” His thumb brushes along my jaw, rough and smooth at the same time. “Only you. No one’s ever come close.”
“Wrong, I’m your favorite everything.” My smile is watery and full of love.
“That’s true.” He pulls out, turning me around. My breath hitches because he’s being so sweet by kissing my temple and so dirty by shoving his cum into my sore pussy. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Let’s.”
A crow caws somewhere above us, as if locking in our vows.
We both smile.
Then we get into the truck and drive toward our bright, perfect future.