Chapter 38
Dominic
Mercer had finally gone silent. The last sound he’d made still echoed in Dominic’s head even though it had stopped a full minute ago. His body hung limp against the wall, blood dripping from dozens of cuts, hitting the floor in a steady rhythm.
Dominic hadn’t lifted a hand. He’d stood back and watched while Knox handled it—never once flinching. Every time the knife opened new skin, Dominic had felt the heat coil tighter in his gut: worry, pride, and hunger braided together so tight he could barely breathe around them.
Now it was over.
Knox wiped the blade on his thigh, a careless swipe that added to the blood already there. He took a deep breath and turned around.
And met Dominic’s eyes.
Oh fuck.
What Dominic saw knocked the air out of him. Knox’s eyes were blown wide, bright with adrenaline and something hotter. Blood spotted his face and streaked his chest, his hands stained dark. He stood there, strong and alive, lit from within by something dangerous and devastatingly beautiful.
Dominic’s body reacted before his brain caught up. Instinct overriding everything—every rule, every rational thought—heat hitting low and hard, his pulse slamming into his throat. He tore his gaze away just long enough to find Cassian. “Leave us.”
Cassian opened his mouth, maybe to ask if Dominic was sure, then saw whatever was living in Dominic’s stare and thought better of it. The door clicked shut behind him.
All that was left was the drip-drip of Mercer’s blood and the sound of two men breathing too hard.
Dominic stepped forward. Knox did the same. They met halfway, inches apart, the smell of blood and sweat and madness thick between them. Dominic’s thoughts tumbled—you’re perfect, you’re terrifying, you’re mine—but none of it made it to his tongue because his tongue had better things to do.
He grabbed a fistful of Knox’s hair and hauled him in. Their mouths crashed together, copper flooding Dominic’s senses as Knox’s tongue pushed past his lips. Knox moaned into it, the sound vibrating through Dominic’s chest and straight down to his cock.
Clothes became obstacles. Dominic’s hands tore at Knox’s shirt, buttons scattering across the floor.
Knox’s zipper snagged, then gave way under an impatient tug.
Knox wasn’t waiting either. His hands clawed Dominic’s shirt open and shoved it off his shoulders.
Pants followed, kicked away in a frenzy until they both stood bare, skin slick with sweat and traces of blood.
Dominic couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t do anything except get closer. He caught Knox’s jaw, forcing eye contact. “Tell me you want this.”
Knox’s chest heaved against his. His pupils were huge, lips swollen and stained. “I need you,” he breathed. “God, I need you so bad.”
Dominic’s cock throbbed hard enough to hurt. “Here?” he rasped against Knox’s mouth.
Knox’s hips thrust forward—grinding their cocks together, both of them groaning at the contact. “Here,” Knox said.
Dominic dropped to his knees in front of Knox, gripping his hips hard enough to bruise.
He swallowed Knox’s cock in one slide, taking every inch until his nose pressed against skin and his throat clenched tight around the thick length.
Knox’s hips bucked wildly, a raw, broken sound tearing from him as his hands fisted in Dominic’s hair, yanking hard.
Dominic held him there, before dragging back with a filthy, wet pull that left Knox’s cock glistening.
He did it again and again, deeper, faster, sucking with brutal intent until Knox was shaking, his balls drawn up tight, and his cock throbbing against Dominic’s tongue.
Only then did Dominic pull off, leaving Knox gasping and desperate, precum dripping from the swollen head.
Dominic stood and grabbed the edge of the nearby table and tipped it, metal instruments clattering to the floor, before dropping it back into place.
He lifted Knox and laid him down on the cold surface.
Knox’s back arched at the chill, a sharp hiss escaping him, but his legs fell open and his eyes stayed locked on Dominic’s face.
He looked like something Dominic would set the world on fire for.
Dominic dropped back to his knees. His hands gripped Knox’s thighs as he spread them wider, before he leaned in and dragged his tongue flat over Knox’s hole in one slow stroke.
Knox jolted like he’d been shocked. A choked, broken cry tore out of him—“Oh f-fuck, Dom”—as Dominic sealed his mouth over him, tongue pressing firm, circling the rim with a patience he did not feel.
Knox’s hands fisted in his hair, his body writhing on the table, hips rolling against Dominic’s mouth in desperate movements.
This boy is driving me insane, he thought, and pushed his tongue inside.
Knox made a high, helpless sound, his thighs clamping against Dominic’s head, fingers pulling his hair hard enough to sting.
Dominic growled against him. He kept going until every breath out of Knox was a moan, until the sounds bouncing off the concrete walls were so wrecked that Dominic’s self-control snapped clean in half.
He pulled back with a rough exhale, spat onto Knox’s hole, and pressed two fingers in at once. Knox gasped, his cock leaking across his stomach in a wet streak.
“Enough,” Knox choked after barely a minute, his voice completely gone. “Need to feel you. Now. Please—”
Dominic withdrew his fingers and rose over him, hands braced on either side of Knox’s head. He paused, the realization hitting him even through the haze of want. “No condom,” he said, voice rough.
“Don’t care,” Knox breathed, hips tilting up, needy and shameless. “I trust you. I’m clean. Please, Dom—"
“I’m clean too. I get tested regularly. And I’ve never fucked anyone without a condom.”
Their eyes locked, intimate in a way that felt almost more dangerous than everything that had come before.
He lined up and pushed in. Slowly at first, watching Knox’s face—the way his expression twisted, the sharp intake of breath, the moment the stretch hit and his mouth fell open. Nothing had ever felt like this, no barrier, just tight heat gripping him with nothing between them.
Knox’s eyes went glassy but never left Dominic’s. “More,” he demanded between gasps.
Dominic stopped holding back. His hips snapped forward, burying himself over and over. He set a relentless pace, driving into Knox with a force that rocked the table beneath them. “That’s it,” Dominic growled. “Every fucking inch. You take me so well—look at you, so perfect.”
Knox whimpered, back arching off the table, and Dominic felt that sound everywhere.
Their eyes held through all of it and Dominic drank in every expression. Knox’s nails raked down his back, the pain sharp and bright. Dominic snarled, angled his hips and hit that spot that made Knox’s eyes roll back in his head. “You’re mine,” he growled.
Knox gasped, head thrown back. “Yes—Fuck, yes—” His walls clenched tight around Dominic, pulling him deeper, as he shattered handsfree.
His cock pulsed between them, cum spilling across his stomach as his body locked up.
The sound that tore out of him was something Dominic would hear in his sleep for the rest of his life.
He buried himself deep one last time and broke.
The sensation hit like a drug—possessive, filthy, overwhelming—his seed claiming Knox from the inside, the intimacy of it making his balls draw up tighter as more cum pumped out in heavy pulses.
He buried his face against Knox’s neck, groaning his name like a prayer.
They stayed like that, both of them shaking through it until there was nothing left.
Dominic lifted his head and searched his face. Knox’s eyes were half-lidded, the adrenaline had burned off, leaving behind something soft and unguarded. “You still with me?” Dominic asked, brushing a thumb across Knox’s cheek.
Knox’s lips curved. “Never been better.” He reached up, grazing the corner of Dominic’s mouth. “You let me deal with Mercer alone.”
“He was yours to finish,” Dominic said.
A simple truth.
He leaned in, capturing Knox’s mouth in a slow kiss—tasting iron, sweat, and the underlying sweetness that was purely Knox.
* * *
Knox’s breathing was slow and even beside him, body warm against the sheets, hair still damp from the shower. Dominic shifted, closing the space until there was none left. His chest pressed to Knox’s back, one arm sliding around his waist, hand settling against his stomach.
He fit there too easily. Like the shape of him had been made for this exact position.
Dominic could still smell the soap on his skin.
He’d washed him in the shower—standing behind him under the water, hands moving over Knox’s body with a care that he didn’t recognize in himself.
Knox had gone quiet under his hands, head tipping back against Dominic’s shoulder, letting himself be held upright by someone else for once.
Dominic’s gaze followed the line of Knox’s body to where the sheets had slipped, exposing skin marked by everything he’d been through. The cuts would heal, but most would scar. His eyes lingered at Knox’s neck. The burn sat just below his ear, the shape clearly defined.
A clover. Impossible to ignore.
His fingers tightened against Knox’s stomach. That mark would likely never fade. Darkness moved under his skin, but Knox stirred before it could take hold. “That was kind of fucked up,” he whispered.
Dominic blinked. Then huffed a short laugh against the back of his neck. “Yeah. It was.”
There was no point softening it or pretending it had been anything else.
Knox turned enough to glance back over his shoulder. He looked uncertain, as if he was still trying to place what had happened between them. “We’re not… normal,” he said. “Are we?”
Dominic’s mouth twitched. “No. We’re not.”
Knox turned a little more, enough that Dominic could see most of his face. “That doesn’t bother you?”
“No.”
Knox blinked, clearly not expecting it to be that simple. “At all?”
Dominic’s thumb moved absently against Knox’s stomach. “I don’t build my life around what’s considered normal. Never have.”
Knox’s lips pressed together. “You’re telling me none of what just happened feels wrong to you?”
“It is wrong.”
It would’ve been easier for Knox if he’d denied it. But Dominic had never been interested in easy.
Knox exhaled, frustration creeping in. “People don’t just—”
“Don’t just what?”
A shake of his head, like the words wouldn’t line up right. “People don’t kill someone and then start fucking still covered in blood. It’s not normal.”
“You keep coming back to that word,” Dominic murmured, “like it matters.”
“It does matter,” Knox shot back. “It’s not right.”
“No,” Dominic agreed. “It’s not right. But it is real.”
Knox went completely still in his arms.
“You felt something intense,” Dominic said. “Violence. Adrenaline. Control—and the loss of it. Instead of shutting down, your instinct was to chase something that matched it. Something just as consuming.”
The silence stretched. He could feel the words settling into Knox, whether he liked them or not.
Knox shook his head, but the sharp denial from before was gone. “That’s not how people are supposed to work.”
Dominic’s gaze didn’t waver. “According to who?”
Knox didn’t answer. Didn’t even try.
Dominic let his eyes drift over him again, the tension sitting in his body, the uncertainty in his expression, the fact that through all of this he hadn’t once tried to put distance between them.
“Have you ever done anything like that before?” Knox asked quietly.
Dominic didn’t need to think. “No.”
Knox waited, so Dominic gave him the rest. “Never found anyone as unhinged as me.”
Knox didn’t breathe for three full seconds. Dominic counted. He leaned forward, lips brushing the shell of Knox’s ear. “Get some sleep.”
Knox exhaled, tension slipping away as his body eased back into Dominic’s chest with unquestioning trust. Dominic’s arms tightened around him, anchoring Knox against him like the world itself might try to take him back.
There had been a time—not long ago—when he would have let this slip through his fingers. He would have convinced himself it was temporary, easier to walk away before it could root too deep. He pressed his face into Knox’s hair and breathed him in.
I’m not letting this boy go.
He closed his eyes and felt the certainty settle deep in his bones: he’d found the one thing in this world he would never willingly give up.