Chapter 12 Liar #2
He took a careful step on the metal and then when it creaked, he ran, leaping inhumanly fast until he was in the ship proper. He hit a panel and the door slammed down between us and the gangplank.
He moved through the space with confidence, at home wherever he was.
I kicked my legs. “Put me down, Brute.”
“As soon as I find a soft nest for you, I’ll put you down, Kitten. Will you struggle? I hope so.”
“Ooh, kinky.” I slumped back down again, vaguely aware of the narrow ladders he somehow managed to get both of us down without bumping me once.
His spatial awareness was stellar. He also had an incredibly good sense of where people would put a bed on a creepy boat.
Would he actually take me if I was unwilling?
How could I be anything else when this whole thing was so incredibly freaky?
The room was on the small side, but the size of the bed may have made the room seem more small in comparison. He threw me on the bed, then secured the door with the bolt before dragging a metal chest in front of the door that he shouldn’t have been able to move.
I was still gasping from hitting the bed by the time he turned around. He turned on the light, spilling golden beams across his skin. It gleamed too much. Not that I had anything to stab him with, but it showed that he was still in battle mode.
“Remove your weapons,” he growled, nodding at me.
I frowned down at my ukulele. Somehow I still had that. I pulled off the strap and held the neck like a bat. “No.”
He smiled, showing teeth as he grabbed my hem and then ripped it up the front until I was wearing sleeves and my smiley face underwear with matching bra. “No weapon. You are the prize.”
I froze, horrified by his rudeness and then swung the ukulele at him. He ducked, twisted it out of my hand and placed it carefully on the metal dresser in front of the door.
“Don’t damage my prize,” he said, looking at me with hunger in his eyes that made me wonder if he was going to actually eat my flesh.
“Ah. The Ukulele is the prize. That makes sense. You can let me go then.” I swallowed hard while he captured my wrists and put my hands over my head against the pillow. I curled up my knees to block him.
He looked down at my knees then inhaled deeply and bit me.
I yelped while he raised his face with a bloody sliver of glass between his teeth. He spit it out at the side and then licked the blood off my knee.
My heart raced at the weirdness. Also, his tongue caressed my skin in the most shocking way.
My heart leapt as his tongue trailed down my inner knee.
This was absolutely objectifying. I mean, when people take glass slivers out with their teeth, it’s definitely…
Never mind. I no idea what anything was.
I must have still had glass from the brunch with Nix’s mother.
Yes. Let’s call it a brunch. And he’d taken out the sliver, which meant taking care of me, which was a good sign. Right? Maybe.
“What are you doing?” I demanded, sounding as bewildered as I felt. This was Nix, but it also wasn’t.
He smiled at me. “Taking my prize. Your heart is beating so fast. Will it break or fly away?” He grasped both wrists in one hand then then placed his free hand on my chest, like he was considering whether he wanted to rip my heart out and eat it.
It wasn’t like being groped, which sort of made it worse. What were his tastes like in this kind of mood? Right. Let’s call it a mood. I swallowed hard. “My heart will explode.”
He took my hands in his, then rolled us so I was kneeling on his body while he lay on his back looking up at me. He looked relaxed beneath me, but his eyes were slits of feral mischief. “It will have better range from this position.”
His hands encased mine, and he wasn’t letting go, but the rest of my body was free.
I tried to knee him, but he only shifted, slightly so I bruised my knee on his thigh.
“Playful Kitten,” he rumbled with a look of approval.
I tugged on my wrists, but he had me securely, not hurting me unless I struggled too much. “What are you doing, Brute?”
“Taking my prize.” He stretched up to lick my throat, before relaxing back on the bed. “I can see you better from this angle.”
I blinked at him then looked down at my body, and my inappropriately cheerful underwear beneath the ripped disaster nightgown. His body was chiseled everything covered in a layer of sweat and blood. “You need a bath,” I said, frowning down at his sculpted pectorals.
He tilted his hips, bouncing me on his body. “Feel free to give me one, Kitten.” He licked me again, this time from my shoulder to my neck.
I sputtered while goosebumps rushed all over my body. Was I terrified? Yes. Did I like him licking me? Maybe. He was the beast, but he was also Nix. Jezebel was against seduction entering the picture, but he was still my husband, and I’d always been a fool for his touch.
He watched me with unnerving intensity until I sighed and slumped over his body, sliding down until I was stretched out more comfortably.
I was so tired. I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, pretending just for a second that we were home in the hotel, and we were going to cuddle all night.
He rumbled a growl that pierced me to the bone. “You submit to me?”
“Sure. I mean, I married you. So I guess we are co-submitters. Now I feel like I’m trying to file taxes or something.”
He moved me so I straddled him, my hands now pinned on his broad shoulders instead of the pillow. How did he do that?
“What are you doing?” I asked, still disoriented. He looked so much like Nix, felt like him, but was he?
He touched my neck, soft, but sweet pleasure that had me melting in his hands. “Making my Kitten purr,” he growled before taking my earlobe with his teeth. He was going to eat my ear lobe. No. He was going to make me feel so good, my head was going to explode along with my heart.
“Nix,” I whispered, so uncertain, so tired of not having him with me for good. He felt like my husband. I hesitated, but then touched him, his skin, his tongue swallowing me in utter bliss. It was Nix. It always would be.
He rumbled in his chest and then his hands were on my back and hips, smoothing over my skin like silk, the perfect pressure, the perfect weight. He touched me like Nix knew how to touch me.
No matter what mask he wore, he was the same person underneath.
And he would never hurt me. I relaxed as he explored my skin with his hands.
This was what a massage felt like for other people.
Pleasure washed over me in waves, and I let myself drown.
I slumped over him while his hand smoothed down my back, stirring me out of my satisfied stupor.
Only Nix could touch me like this, no matter what people called him.
His hands moved over me languidly, pressure that left me relaxed and aware of him and his strength and gentleness. Nix always knew how to touch me right.
I wriggled against him, getting more comfortable, relaxing against him.
His skin didn’t have the same sheen as before.
Pity I couldn’t stab him with his wedding ring now.
Honestly, knocking him out seemed like a waste of time at that point.
Maybe he had issues with multi-personalities, or something, but he was still the same beneath the beast or the civilized veneer.
“I missed you,” I murmured, snuggling against him. So much.
“Did you? Surely I am a large enough target. If you miss me, there is no hope for you.”
I snorted, smiling while I nuzzled him. “Such a big bad beast. If I’m your prize, why haven’t you taken me?”
His hands ran down my sides over my bare skin beneath the strips of cotton nightgown. “If you don’t know that you’ve been taken, then you never will.” He sat up so his chest was against mine, raising my face so I had to look at him. “You are mine, and I keep what belongs to me.”
I swallowed hard at the burning heat in his eyes. Nix’s eyes. I took a deep breath and then shrugged. “Are you sure you’re not the one being kept?”
He stared at me, confusion furrowing his brow. “Ah, that is why I’m on my back, in your power.” He smiled a diabolical smile while he pulled me close then slowly, agonizingly slowly, bent his lips to mine.
I gasped against him and slid my hands up his neck, cheeks, gripping his head while I took his mouth. He tasted like Nix. So sweet. So soft and gentle. No one else could kiss me without it hurting. He sighed in my mouth, slow, sweet, and wonderful.
I tugged on his bare shoulders and nibbled on his bottom lip.
He pulled away to say roughly, “So sweet and soft.” His hand went to my chest over my heart. “Steadily beating. Good. I don’t want my prize to explode too quickly. Such a worthy prize.”
“Such a worthy champion,” I whispered back.
He held still, studying me intently. “What do you want, Kitten?”
I froze. That was just what he’d said the last time we were so close, so intimate. He really was Nix, right here, in my arms.
I smiled brightly while my heart beat a little too fast. “I want to make love to my husband.”
He frowned. “You are mine.”
“And you are mine. Make love to me, beast,” I said, gripping his shoulders like I could hold onto him and keep him there. This time, I knew what I wanted, and it was him. Forever. I loved him so much.
He turned his head to kiss my wrist. His tongue skated over my skin. “My prize is cold without clothes,” he said, so soft and low.
“You could cover me with your body to keep me warm,” I offered.
He met my eyes, his own not as hard as before, still hot but not burning, more melting. “Could I? But how could I keep from crushing you?”
“It would be an excellent way to die. In case this does kill me, I should tell you, I love you too.” I stared into those eyes, so like my husband, but so different. Calculating in a completely different way.
“Love…”
“Otherwise I wouldn’t have come into the creepy dungeon to find you.
There is no prize worth that.” I shivered.
“So you aren’t my prize, but you are my love.
My heart. My home. Whether you’re the beast who devours the darkness, or the champion who is never defeated, you’re always the one I love. And I always will.”
His hands, arms and legs wrapped around me until I was lost in a beast cave. He felt too good to be real. He knew exactly what I wanted, every touch, every taste. It was like skateboarding, only I had my soulmate with me, so I’d never be lonely again.