Chapter 28
Sloane
Knox held me for long moments, so much fear and heaviness on our hearts and shoulders. But only one thing came continuously back to mind.
“What happens when this is over?” I asked.
He raised his head to look at me, stroking hair behind my ear. “What?”
“I’m terrified, because I don’t know what happens to us. Are we supposed to just go our separate ways? Back to our pre-serial killer lives? As if we never met?”
Shock flashed in Knox’s careful eyes, then pain. “No. Of course not.”
“I don’t want you to go,” I said, tears strangling my words. “It’s selfish of me, and you have to do the right thing for you, no matter what that is, but I thought you should know that I’d really like it if you stay.”
Knox drew me closer, heartbreak on his handsome face. “Sloane, all I want is you.”
A wave of hope and joy hit so strong that it lifted me onto my toes.
Then Knox was kissing me. And it felt like coming home. As if we’d done this a thousand times in another lifetime and finally found our way back to one another. I reveled in the purity of it. The raw sincerity. But the initial sweetness burned away fast this time. And we were tinder catching fire.
I fisted my hands in the fabric of his shirt, pulling him closer and demanding more. My heart thundered as I let myself feel everything I’d been holding back. I poured it all into that kiss. Every emotion running through me, all the fear and hope and desperate need.
Knox responded in kind, his restraint slipping away as his hands moved from my back and hair to my thighs.
A guttural sound escaped me, half gasp, half moan, and Knox devoured it. Heat burned through my system as his strong hands gripped my ass, needy and rough. Then he bent and lifted me in one strong swoop, bringing our bodies flush.
I wrapped my legs around him, hungry for more. “Bedroom,” I gasped between kisses. There were cameras downstairs now, and I didn’t want the things I planned to do to him caught on film.
Knox pulled back, breathing hard.
I could see him trying to think clearly.
Trying desperately to be a gentleman while his body clearly wanted otherwise.
I slid my hands under his shirt, palms flat against the hard planes of his stomach, exploring while I pressed my mouth against any inch of bare skin I could reach.
His jaw. His neck. His earlobe. “Please,” I whispered, tasting the sensitive flesh beneath his ear. “I want you.”
His responding groan said I was winning the battle against his rock-hard restraint.
I wriggled against him, unlatching my ankles and pressing away, until he set me down. Back on my feet before him, I met his tortured gaze as I peeled away my shirt and dropped it on the floor between us.
Knox cursed, stepped forward, and kissed me like a man marking what was his.
And I was his.
When we finally broke apart, both breathing hard, I saw the moment of his complete surrender. Then, I took his hand and led him to my room.
We stood together in the moonlight streaming through my bedroom windows, trading kisses and caresses. Removing clothing and reveling in the intimacy of revealing ourselves fully to one another this way.
Knox skimmed his big hands over my shoulders and down my arms. He traced the curve of my waist and gripped my hips.
Exploring me. Mapping me. Melting me with hot kisses that followed his hands.
He curled his fingers into the hair at the nape of my neck and tugged, angling me for better access as I listed against him, unsure how my legs continued to hold me upright.
I moved to the bed, inching onto it for support before he laid me back and took a long moment to scan every inch with his hungry gaze.
Knox brushed the backs of his knuckles against my hair. “So fucking beautiful.”
He unfastened his dog tags with practiced ease and set them on the nightstand.
Then his mouth was back on mine and his hands were on my body.
He stroked and cupped my breasts, dragging the pads of his thumbs across my nipples until they stiffened with goosebumps and arousal.
He lowered his head to lave and suckle each tight bud, drawing moans of pleasure that bent my knees and opened them, making room for him to get closer.
I scooted back on the bed, but he didn’t follow. Instead, he kissed a hot, wet trail down my stomach, and my back arched with desperation and need. Knox knelt on the floor and dragged me to the mattress’s edge, before hooking one of my knees over his shoulder.
He kissed my inner thigh where it rested against his cheek, then he moved lower. My fingers fisted in the duvet as he pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to my core, nuzzling and moaning against my wet flesh.
I rose onto my elbows, watching him. My hips bucked in time with the laps and glides of his hot, skilled tongue. My fingers dug into his hair as my body tightened with need, and he pressed one thick finger deep inside.
“Knox,” I whined, my body moving against him.
He added a second finger in answer and curled both digits until I gasped in pleasure.
I collapsed backward, breaths rasping, and I let the man work. When my climax broke over me, Knox drank it in.
He climbed onto the bed when my spiral ended. He kissed me gently, as if I was precious, before returning his attention to my fully sated body. Rousing me again in moments.
I rose with intent, still damp with sweat and soft with satisfaction as I pulled a condom from my nightstand drawer.
His sharp blue eyes moved between mine. “Are you sure?”
I pushed him down onto the bedspread in answer. I kissed his fabulous chest and military-blessed abs, then I opened the condom wrapper with my teeth and straddled him so he could watch me roll it on him.
I inched forward, sliding against him, dragging the hot wet heat of me over the impossibly impressive length of him. And I smiled at the slew of filthy words that fell from his lips in response.
Knox pulled my mouth to his and kissed me deeply, the taste of my satisfaction still on his tongue.
I reached between us, guiding him to my opening. “Are you sure?” I asked, offering his question back to him.
His brooding, sexy face brightened in a cheeky grin, and his hips bucked up to meet me, ready to position himself inside.
I pushed him back down, regaining control and holding his shoulders against the bed with my palms. His big hands gripped my thighs as I sank onto him. I moaned and squirmed as he stretched me to my limits, the delicious tug and pull of it making me both frantic and weak.
Knox urged me up and down the length of him, guiding me with his hands as I slowly rocked my hips in time. I clenched around him, feeling my climax stir once more. Then he sat, pulling my ankles behind him and sucking one nipple deep into his mouth as I rode.
Making love with Knox felt like worship. I didn’t want it to end.
I clung to him as our sweaty torsos slid together, releasing control yet again, giving in to the pleasure as he thrust inside me.
Then Knox turned us in an instant, suddenly pressing my back to the bed and covering me with his body. Burying himself deep inside once more. His hips moved faster, harder. More urgent.
Frenzied.
And my climax mounted.
“Come with me,” he said. The words were a growl. A demand. “Come on, baby. You’re right there. I can feel it.” He pushed a hand between us, his thumb pressing and circling my most sensitive spot. His hips worked harder against me, spreading my legs impossibly wide.
My moans came louder, wilder, as I thoroughly relinquished control.
I groped at the hot ridges of his lean, muscled torso.
Desperate to hold on, to pull him in, utterly lost in the bliss and ecstasy.
The sounds of his fervent, praising words and the rhythmic connection of our bodies tore me completely apart. Pushed me to the brink. And I fell.
“There you are,” he whispered. Knox sucked the skin at the base of my neck. Ran his tongue along the underside of my jaw. “Right. Fucking. There.” His hips moved in time with the words, pounding against me, punctuating the command, sending me over the edge once more.
And I cried his name in reverie.