Chapter 24
Two weeks had passed since the run-in with Darius, and Kael still hadn’t said a word about it.
I didn’t push. I didn’t want to. I liked living in his world where Darius didn’t exist. I was surprised the incident didn’t send me spiraling straight back toward a pipe or a needle, or whatever else might numb the static that day had left in my brain—especially when the police got involved.
But I could see the anger simmering under his skin, the kind he tried to hide.
He wasn’t over it. Not even close. He was the type of man who held grudges.
I overheard him on the phone with Malachai earlier, something about tracking where Brook was hiding. Darius and Brook had gone underground the second they learned who Malachai really was.
I felt like he had been avoiding me—leaving early, coming home late.
Tonight, I was done. He had come home earlier. We ate, and when he went into the shower, I rushed to change.
I dressed in the black lace lingerie he’d bought me—the sheer babydoll that made me feel exposed, the tiny thong with a razor-thin string of fabric that left almost nothing to the imagination. My hands shook a little as I knelt in the middle of the bed, posing for him.
The bathroom door opened. Kael stepped out, a towel low on his hips, water beads dragging down the dark contours of his chest. The second his eyes caught mine, his pupils blew wide, swallowing the iris until his gaze looked almost black.
“Fuck, Bria.” His eyes devoured me. Good—he wanted me. That gave me the nerve I needed.
I slid off the edge of the bed, the hardwood cold against the balls of my feet, and dropped to my hands and knees.
He had a look of awe on his face mixed with confusion, but before he could react, I pulled the towel away.
He was already thick and heavy. I took him into my mouth—eager and desperate—trying to prove I could handle him.
For a moment, he let me. His hips jerked. His fingers fisted in my hair almost painfully as he pushed deeper. He groaned and lost himself completely, fucking my mouth like he hated how much he needed it. It terrified me. It also made my mouth water and my thighs ache.
Then the control snapped back into place. He yanked me off, breathing hard, eyes feral.
“No, no, no. Stop. Not yet,” he growled.
I sat back on my heels, looking up at him from the floor. My lips were swollen and bruised, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. “I’m ready, Kael. I want this. All of it.”
He stared at me like he was deciding whether to ruin me or protect me.
"Are you sure, Bria?" His voice dropped an octave, his words sounding like a boundary he was giving me one last second to step back across. "Because if we do this…" He let the rest hang in the air.
I nodded.
He shook his head. “Your words, Bunny. Say it.”
“I’m sure.”
Before I could even draw my next breath, Kael reached down, hauling me up off the floor by the bend of my arm. The sheer lace strained against my skin as he hauled me to my feet, barely giving my knees time to lock beneath me.
His fingers locked around my wrist like an iron cuff, and he dragged me straight out of the bedroom, my bare feet slapping against the cold floorboards as he marched me down the dark hallway toward his office.
When he opened the hidden panel in the wall, my stomach dropped. Ropes, cuffs, paddles, floggers, a heavy black cross bolted to the wall—tools made for breaking someone down.
Kael stood behind me, hands heavy on my shoulders.
“This is what I like, rabbit. I like control. I like pain. In our bedroom, I need to own you so completely you forget where you end and I begin. I want to tie you up, mark you, push you until you’re crying and begging.
This part of me is not soft. It’s not sweet.
You’ve seen the man who holds you at night. This is the other one.”
“How much pain, Kael?” My voice shook.
“I want your thighs aching when you walk, reminding you who you belong to.”
I swallowed hard, my heart hammering. “And tying me up?”
His hand slid around the front of my neck, holding me still. “You’ll be helpless,” he said. “I’ll use rope, leather, steel. Bound so tight you couldn't run if you tried. Every touch, every breath, completely at my mercy. You don't move unless I say so. You don't cum unless I let you.”
My breathing picked up, an ache forming in the bottom of my belly. It had more to do with how he sounded and looked—as if on the verge of losing himself—rather than what he said.
“What if it’s too much?” I asked, my voice trembling.
He tilted my head back, forcing me to meet his dark, cold eyes. “You can say no. But you won't break, rabbit,” he murmured, his thumb dragging rough over my lower lip. “I’ll push you right to the edge, and I’ll hold you there until you like it.”
Surprised and a little afraid, I stared at him. This was the same man who brought me coffee in bed and stroked my hair when I had nightmares. How could he be both?
“I… I wouldn’t have imagined you and this,” I whispered.
“Monsters have duality, Bria. I told you that months ago,” he said, his voice firm, as if trying to make me understand. “This won’t be part of us every time, but this is what I need sometimes.”
I dragged my eyes down his body, landing on his still-hard length. There was fear, but it had twisted with something hotter as I looked at him. My eyes drifted between his gaze and his length.
He cleared his throat.
I licked my lips. “I’m curious,” I said, my voice shaking but honest. “It scares me a bit… but I trust you. I’d do anything for you, Kael. Anything.”
His eyes burned. “Good, rabbit.”
Hand still wrapped firmly around the back of my neck, he guided me back into the bedroom, his grip possessive. He let me go as he sat on the edge of the mattress, spreading his knees wide, and pointed directly to the floor between his thighs.
“Kneel.”
The way he said it and the way he was looking at me made me obey instantly, the cold hardwood biting into my knees.
“Let’s pick up where we started before. Open your mouth, Bria.”
He gripped my short hair and shoved me down, pushing all eight inches into my mouth.
“Breathe through your nose,” he ordered. “Relax your throat. You’re going to take every inch tonight like a good little slut.”
He didn’t wait. He started fucking my face with short thrusts—deep and demanding from the very first stroke. Tears streamed down my cheeks as he used my mouth, growling instructions between grunts.
“Swirl your tongue underneath—yes, fuck, just like that. Deeper. Don’t you dare pull away. This is what you wanted, rabbit. This is me.”
His control was fraying fast. He held my head in both hands and drove deeper, losing himself in the wetness of my throat. He gave several hard thrusts and then held my head in place. I had to swallow to keep from gagging.
Low, vicious sounds tore from his chest as he started fucking my face again. It was rougher than anything I’d ever imagined from him. Terrifying. Addictive.
When I thought I couldn’t take any more, he yanked me off, strings of spit connecting my swollen lips to his glistening length. I gasped for air, coughing, my chin wet.
He reached down and clamped his hand around my jaw, his long fingers biting deep into my cheeks, tilting my head back until I was forced to look up into his stormy eyes.
His mouth twitched into a smirk. “Look at you,” he growled, his thumb dragging across my wet chin, smearing it over my bottom lip. “Fucking wrecked. Wet, trembling, taking every inch like it's your salvation. Look at what you let me do to you.”
He shoved his index and middle fingers past my swollen lips, hooking them into the corner of my mouth to stretch it wide while using his other hand to stroke himself slowly right in front of my face, precum leaking from the head.
I knew it tasted slightly salty, but other than that, like nothing.
The friction of his fist made a slick sound.
“Suck them like you sucked my dick, rabbit,” he commanded, watching my throat work as I tried to swallow. “Let me see it.”
He pumped his fist a few final, hard times over his length, coating his palm, before dragging his fingers out of my mouth.
A thread of spit trailed between his hand and my chin.
Without breaking eye contact, he leaned over me, reaching down to drag his slick, wet fingers over my bare breasts.
He circled my nipples with heavy pressure, smearing the wetness across my sensitive skin until they hardened into tight, aching points under the cool air.
I shuddered, my hips rolling helplessly off the floor.
“Look at that,” he murmured, his voice thick and dark. “Every inch of you reacting to me. I need to fuck you.”
He dragged me up, bent me over the bed, and ripped the thong aside. His hand came down hard—sharp, punishing spanks that left my ass burning and throbbing. I moaned into the sheets, shocked by how much my body craved the pain.
“I’m going to fuck you hard, and you’re going to take what I give you tonight,” he snarled, fingers plunging roughly into my soaked pussy. “Every fucking thing.”
“Yes,” I gasped, my voice hoarse.
He fucked me hard from behind—deep, brutal strokes, one hand fisted in my hair, the other bruising my hip.
When his fingers found my clit, I shattered, screaming, clenching around him as he kept pounding through my orgasm.
He came with a vicious groan, flooding me, claiming me so completely I felt ruined.
Afterward, the switch flipped again.
He carried me to the bathroom like I was made of glass, cleaned me gently with a warm cloth, then tucked me into bed and pulled me against his chest. He rubbed lotion into the angry red handprints on my ass, kissed every bruise tenderly, and held me like I was the only thing keeping the monster at bay.
“You did so good, rabbit,” he murmured against my hair, his voice soft now. “So fucking good.”
I curled into him, my mind spinning. The sweet Kael and the brutal one were the same man.
God help me… I wanted more.