Epilogue #2
“Well, that’s no fun.” I looked between Loche’s hands and the ropes, smiling.
“I don’t like that look on your face, Nevermore.”
“Shh.” I placed my finger over his masked mouth.
“Stay put.” Loche’s duffel bag was still open and in arms reach.
Fingers finding the strap, I pulled it over to us, rifling through it until I found his bandage wrap.
“Take your shirt off,” I ordered him, pulling a strip of the bandage from the spool.
“Are you going to ask your attacker to strip for you, too?”
“Depends on how hot they are.” Even though I couldn’t see his face, I could feel him scowling at me through his mask.
Despite that, he sat up and stripped off his t-shirt as I grabbed his wrist and proceeded to tie it to one of the ropes lining the perimeter of the ring, repeating the same with the other wrist.
“There.” I tossed the bandages back inside the duffel bag and dusted off my hands. “The threat has been neutralized.”
“Effective if your threat was really no threat to you at all.”
I moved my hips over the bulge of Loche’s erection, drawing out a gasp from him. “I don’t know, I think you may be packing some serious heat.”
“Ever.” His voice came out as a hybrid between a croak and a moan.
To add fuel to the fire, I stripped off my tank top, exposing my breasts.
Between my legs, Loche’s cock twitched. Eyes never leaving his face, I stood up, teasing him with my hands by trailing down my abdomen and to my waist, where they reached for my skirt and pulled both it and my thong down.
Now completely nude, aside from the holster wrapped around my leg that housed my thigh knife, I kicked my clothes to the side and straddled Loche on my knees while reaching for the waistband of his jeans, undoing the fly and tugging both his jeans and boxers off.
“It would be kind of funny if I just left you here.” I leaned into him, licking and nipping my way from his neck down his body.
“You wouldn’t.” He whimpered. It was always a turn-on to render the strong, manly Loche a whimpering puddle in my hands. His wrists strained against the restraints, which would probably snap in two if he were to try it again.
“You’re probably right. Besides, I don’t have a humiliation kink.”
“Speaking of kinks, I could think of a few things to do with that knife.”
“Oh, yeah? Like what?” I reached down my thigh, unholstering the knife and spinning it between my fingers.
“Use it like your toy.”
My eyes drifted down to the knife in my hand, in particular, the blade.
“You look horrified, little bird.”
Shit. Leave it to my face to betray the thoughts going through my head.
“Maybe we’ve finally found your hard line.”
“You know, one wrong move right now and this knife could slip from my fingers.” I looked down directly below the knife at Loche’s penis, standing at attention, making it a point to look back up.
“On second thought, maybe we’ve found my hard line.”
I moved further up Loche’s body, positioning myself over his torso.
“I have no hard line.” Gripping the flat ends of the blade, I moved my fingertips down to the base of the hilt as I brought the steel down to my labia, peeling back the folds.
The cold, metal handle sent a shiver through my body when it rubbed against my clit.
Fuck. Why hadn’t I done this before? The contrast between being turned on and terrified was an aphrodisiac in and of itself.
It was danger, an adrenaline rush, a wrong move that would send me to the emergency room with a story I’m sure would make it onto an episode of Untold Stories of the E.R.
A breath with the hint of a moan fell out of my lips as I slid the handle down further, bringing it back up again right at the brink of danger.
This was what had drawn me to V, to the masked man who refused to speak, who broke into my house and chased me down the hall, who’d spent months watching me.
And now, it was what was drawing me to Loche.
To a man who was willing to enact all my fantasies, a man who would go toe-to-toe with a psychopath, wielding a knife without batting an eye—a man who could break my heart, which made him the most dangerous man of all.
“Ever, stop.”
I arched my back, drawing the knife down again as a tingling sensation traveled up my legs. “Tell me why you want me to stop.”
“Because I want you,” Loche answered, his tone of voice, feral. He wanted so badly to rip the knife from my hands, throw me down on the mat and have his way with me, but with his wrists bound and the very real possibility of me cutting myself if he moved a muscle, he knew he was at my mercy.
“Try again.”
“Because you and I both know my dick could do things to you that knife can’t.” He was so tormented it almost made me feel sorry for him.
“Tempting, but not quite there.”
“Because I want to own all of your orgasms as long as we both draw breath. Every time your pussy comes, I want my name to be on your lips.”
“There we go.” I pulled the knife away from my body, tossing it aside. He would get me back for this somehow; punish me; make me ask for forgiveness, and I would relish in his sweet torture.
“God, yes,” he moaned, throwing his head back when he entered me. I rocked my hips, taking in his full length.
I gasped when he met my rocks with his hips as he thrusted into me. I’d wanted my vagina destroyed and rebuilt brick by brick, and I’ll be fucked from here to eternity if I didn’t get it. “Loche.” I moaned, reaching for his mask.
“Don’t you want me to keep it on for old time’s sake?” he asked, driving himself into me and forcing my body into his.
“No,” I answered him, pulling it off. “The only eyes I want to look into when I finish are yours.”
“That’s my little bird.”
His smug smile was enough to make me come undone right then and there, and I grabbed onto his shoulders to steady myself as I rode his cock like I stole it, feeling his body stiffen inside of me.
“I’m going to need that tight, little cunt of yours to come for me.” He growled in my ear.
“Why? Can’t hang any longer?” I asked, fully knowing that I was a handful of thrusts or a single moan of my name away from giving him exactly what he wanted.
“If I couldn’t hang, I would have come inside of you already.” He bucked his hips, driving himself deeper into me, a feat I didn’t know was possible. “With the way your pussy is gripping my cock, I think we’re both in trouble.”
Damnit, I hated it when he was right. Pressure continued to build between my legs, growing more intense each time his cock plunged further inside of me.
“Let go for me, baby. Show me how much your pussy likes fucking my cock.”
That filthy mouth of his made my body react in ways it never had before. I was done for. Positively cooked. And no amount of willpower could prevent the violent wave of pleasure that tore through me, sending shockwaves of pleasure through my system.
“Ever.” Loche’s body grew tense. Satiated, his erratic thrusts grew more even until he collapsed against the ropes, bringing me with him. He pulled his wrists free one by one, placing his arms around me.
“That seemed way easier than I thought it would be.”
“Yeah, I could have freed myself at any time, but I was having fun, and I didn’t want to disappoint you. You seemed so proud of yourself when you tied me up.”
“Well, next time I’ll use handcuffs.”
“Looking forward to it.” He kissed my forehead. “We need to get up and get dressed before the janitorial staff gets here to clean the gym.”
“Gyms have janitorial staff?”
Loche chuckled. “This isn’t the rundown buildings I’m used to fighting in, Nevermore.”
Reluctantly, I pulled myself away from Loche, standing up to fetch my clothes and putting them on as I found them. I’d just pulled my tank top over my breasts when a voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Christ, Nix,” Loche said, obviously having been startled, too.
“Sorry, man. I just forgot my phone.” He picked up his cell phone, where he’d left it on a bench near the ring, holding it up. Loche had thankfully been able to dress his lower half, but it was still obvious something had gone down in the ring. “I’ll see you both back at the apartment later?”
“Actually, I think I may spend the night at Ever’s tonight,” Loche answered. “I don’t want Vinny to think her dad went AWOL on her.”
I rolled my eyes, grinning to myself when Loche turned back around.
Nix nodded. “Sounds good, man.” He turned to walk away, stopping after a few steps and peering over his shoulder. “Oh, and Ever, you’re more than welcome to move in with us.” Bomb dropped, he walked out of the gym without uttering a single word further.
“How the hell long had he been here, and how much did he hear?” I asked, meeting Loche’s eyes.
“I think we should be more concerned with how much he saw.” Loche bent down and retrieved his shirt while I secured my knife in its holster, lifted my skirt, and fastened the belt around my thigh.
“Why knives?”
“Why not knives?”
“I mean, as opposed to a gun. A gun would dispatch your attacker a lot more quickly.”
“Yeah, but a gun is far less intimate, and it’s impossible to fire a shot by accident at someone with a knife. Pepper spray, on the other hand…”
“You didn’t.” Loche laughed, waiting for me to whip out a “Just kidding”, complete with jazz hands for effect.
“I wish I could say I didn’t, but Jasper could unfortunately refute that remark.”
“Jasper, as in the attendant for the parking ramp used by the law firm? That Jasper?”
“That Jasper,” I confirmed.
“What the hell did Jasper do?”
“He ran up behind me a little too quietly, and when he said, ‘Ma’am, you dropped your badge,’ a few feet away from my ear, I whipped around and let him have it. He won’t be doing that again.”
“I’ve never been prouder of you, Nevermore.”
Loche bent down to retrieve his duffel bag as I moved to exit the ring, stopped short by him calling my name.
“Ever, wait. I have something I’ve been meaning to give to you.”
I turned around, eyes widening when I saw Loche on his knees, holding a small box.
Loche looked between my eyes and the box in his hands, realization dawning on him. “Oh, no. No. No.” He stood up. “I know how that looked, but that’s not what I’m doing.”
“Oh, thank god.” I exhaled as the room around me stopped spinning.
“I’m not sure whether I should be offended by your relief.”
“Did you want me to want you to propose to me?”
“When I propose to you, it won’t be an afterthought.”
“When?”
His lips curled into a devilish smile that made my toes curl and wish we had the time to go another round in the ring. “When.”
“If it’s not a ring, then what is it?”
“Why don’t you open it and see?”
Eyes searching his to see whether I could catch a hint of what may be in the small square box, I took it from his hand and lifted the lid. “Loche!” I gasped, pulling out the silver necklace. Dangling from it was a pendant, which I promptly turned around.
“A peacock feather,” I said to no one in particular. Tears burned my eyes.
“Do you like it?”
“Oh my god, yes.” I threw my arms around Loche’s neck, hugging him while also drying my eyes on his shirt.
“There’s something else about that necklace that you may like, or think is completely crossing the line. I wasn’t quite sure how it would go over, but I figured it was worth the gamble.”
Confused, I let loose of him, taking a step back to inspect the necklace. “What is it? I don’t see anything unusual.”
“It’s made from the blade of the knife that set you free.”
My mouth fell open, and for a moment, my brain seemed to malfunction as I fought to find the words I wanted to use. “Loche—you—holy shit. That’s diabolical.”
“You like it?”
“Like it? I love it.” I flung my arms around Loche’s neck again, kissing his cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” He leaned down and lightly kissed my lips, his thumb brushing over the swallow tattoo above my collarbone. “But if you ever want to fly away, little bird, just know that you’re free. You’ll never be in a cage with me.”
The stubble from his five o’clock shadow scraped against the palm of my hand like sandpaper as I reached up to cup his cheek. “I know, but the cage you built feels more like a home when we’re together.”