Chapter 12 Thorne
Thorne
Her breath is still ragged from that first kiss—if you can even call it that. It wasn’t a kiss. It was a fucking declaration. Teeth. Tongue. Claim. It shattered whatever line we pretended existed between us.
I carry her closer to the fire in my room, her chest rising and falling, lips swollen from me. Costume still on—what’s left of it. Witch dress in shreds, thigh-high stockings slipping down, glitter smeared across her neck. My handprint still marks her hip. Her eyes are pure challenge.
“Say it,” she whispers.
“No.”
Her chin tilts, that stubborn spark burning bright even now. “Then you don’t get me.”
The fire behind her casts light over my shoulders, turning me into something carved out of night. I drop her to her feet and cage her against the old stone hearth, my fingers sliding up her arms just to feel her tremble. “I already have you.”
“You’re not listening,” she says, voice shaky but sharp. “If you want me—really want me—you’ll say it.”
My jaw is tight. My pulse is violent. I hate how exposed she makes me. I hate how truth sits on the tip of my tongue when she’s near. I hate that I’m going to give it to her anyway.
Because I can’t lose her. Not after this.
“I want,” I grit out, “everything.”
“Everything,” she repeats, softer now.
“Yes,” I rasp, threading a hand into her hair and forcing her to look at me. “Every word. Every secret. Every laugh. Every scream. Every night you think you’re alone. Every morning you don’t want to get out of bed. Every scar. Every storm. Every damn piece of you, Aspen—I want everything.”
She stares at me like she’s never seen me before.
Then she smiles.
Not the sharp, defensive smile she uses as armor—but something softer. Real. Devastating. For a second, I can’t breathe.
“Good,” she whispers, stepping closer until her body is pressed to mine, warm and electric. “Because I want everything too.”
My control snaps.
I grip the laces at the back of her dress and drag the costume open, watching the creamy white fabric fall away from smooth skin. Her breath catches when my fingertips trace down her spine. She isn’t wearing a bra. Of course she isn’t. No panties either.
That wicked woman walked into the costume party bare under her dress.
“For attention?” I murmur darkly against her ear. “From who?”
“From you,” she admits without hesitation.
Something primal growls loose in my chest. Mine.
“You walked around all night like this?” I slide a hand around to her stomach, pulling her hard against me.
She nods, smug. “Didn’t realize what it would do to you?”
I lean down, drag my mouth along her throat. “You knew exactly what it would do to me.”
A shiver rolls over her. “Maybe.”
I tear the rest of her costume away, letting it fall to the floor at her feet. She stands naked in front of me, wearing nothing but firelight and attitude.
“Look at you,” I say hoarsely. “Chaos wrapped in silky soft skin.”
“And you’re still here,” she says, chin lifting with that wild defiance I can never resist.
“Wrong,” I say, stepping back to drink her in. “I’m not just here. I’m not leaving.”
Her chest rises sharply. I watch her—every reaction, every flicker of vulnerability she tries to hide. Then I let her see the truth burning through me.
“You don’t run from the thing you were made for,” I tell her. “You claim it.”
Her eyes flare hot.
Slowly, I reach for my shirt—what’s left of it—and peel it off, dropping it to the floor. Her gaze drags over me, unapologetic. Hungry. She steps forward, palms skimming my chest like she’s mapping me.
Her voice is a whisper. “Touch me.”
Not a plea. A demand.
I wrap an arm around her waist and lift her effortlessly, her legs circling my hips like instinct. She gasps, clutching my shoulders. Her body is warm silk, nothing but temptation, and I swear my blood goes molten from the feel of her.
She leans in and bites my jaw—a sharp, wet drag of teeth that wakes every want I’ve held back since she walked into my life.
“You think you invented trouble,” I growl against her mouth, “but I was born in it.”
“Show me,” she breathes.
And I do.
I pin her to the stacked log wall beside the fire, heat licking over us in a halo of gold. I kiss her hard, dragging her bottom lip between my teeth until she moans and tries to take control again, nipping back, pushing back, fighting for dominance she’ll never get.
Because she belongs under me.
Claimed by me.
Ruined by me.
Her hands rake into my hair as my mouth devours hers, tongues colliding, breath hot and desperate. Every time she arches against me, I lose another piece of my sanity.
I don’t remember moving to the rug. Don’t remember lowering her down. I only know she’s looking up at me now like she wants to swallow me whole.
I kneel over her and slide a hand down the curve of her thigh, spreading her legs wide so she can’t hide. Her chest rises hard. Her pupils blow wide.
“Tell me what you want,” I demand.
“You,” she whispers.
“Say it,” I growl, needing the words, needing her wrecked honesty as much as she needs breath. “Say what you came here for.”
“I came for you,” she says fiercely. “I stayed for you. I—”
Her voice cracks. She looks away.
I grip her chin and force her to meet my gaze. “Finish it.”
She swallows. Breath shaking. “I won’t survive losing you. Not after this.”
I press my forehead to hers. “Then don’t lose me.”
My chest cracks wide open. There’s no armor left. Just truth, raw and brutal.
“I’m yours,” I whisper.
“Then take me,” she whispers back.
I kiss her, soft and slow, teasing and biting at her lips.
“Come here, beautiful.” I pull her closer.
“Thorne–maybe–maybe we shouldn’t do this.”
“Is that what you want?”
“No–” comes her reply, “I want you–all of you–more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
My grin slides sideways. “Good–me too, baby. Me too.”
A small smile spreads across her lips before I force her onto my lap, her hot center rubbing against my straining dick.
I push my fingers into her hair, tugging as I pull her lips to mine.
I start soft and slow, and her arms curl up to my shoulders, scratching at my back, whispering around the nape of my neck.
She moans into my mouth and rocks her pussy into me.
I press against her lips with need as my kiss becomes hungrier.
I devour her, taste her, lick at her mouth, and take her in.
I want to own her, be inside her, on top of her, all around her.
“You’re so beautiful. So sweet and sexy. I’m cursed with wanting you.”
Her eyes flash with desire as she peers back at me.
“Let’s see how dirty you can be.”
Aspen blushes but stays still.
“I mean it.” I slip my fingers through her damp folds as my teeth edge at her nipples. “Don’t make me repeat it.”
She sucks her bottom lip between her teeth. My eyes flick down to her chest, her rosy nipples flushed and begging for more of my attention.
My gaze trails down her soft body, delicious curves that make me want to feast for days. My cock throbs harshly, the bite of the zipper a cold reminder of the warmth I wish I was buried in.
Unable to take it any longer, I palm my rock-hard cock through my jeans as my other hand molds around her breast, tweaking at the nipple, twisting and massaging until she squeals and drips on my denim-covered thigh.
“So sensitive,” I breathe as I cup them, using one palm to hold them together, growling as my lips try to take in both nipples at once. I suck and swirl at her creamy flesh, using my teeth to nip and tantalize the hardened peaks.
“Could stare at you all fucking day, sweet Aspen.” I pull away, thumbs flicking over the nubs.
Wetness floods between her thighs with my words. Her beautiful eyes look up at me, so raw and vulnerable, everything I didn’t know I was so damn desperate for in my life.
I’m hardly able to form words around her. My body is too turned on, my brain flooding with lust constantly in her presence.
“I want to taste you.”
She says the words so damn sweetly, my cock pounds on the back of my zipper, ready to tear the teeth if that’s what it takes to get to her.
I’m hardly in control. She’s too sweet, too beautiful, too right for me.
Her tiny little fingers work the button of my jeans before my pants hang open and her eyes feast on my thick cock for the first time.
“It's so big,” are her first words.
I crack a grin, fist the base of my length in hand and stroke. “You don't have to do this.” I keep stroking as I talk. “There hasn’t been anyone but you in my head or my life, so I promise I’m clean, Aspen, but if you’re not ready—”
“You’re a virgin?” she asks quickly, barely spitting the words out.
“I may be a virgin, baby, but I’ve been practicing for this my entire life.” I pull her into my arms.
She looks up at me with pretty eyes hooded with lust, her lips swollen from kisses and her smile radiant.
“I am too,” she whispers. Those three words echo on repeat. “I wanted to wait until marriage but that didn’t exactly turn out. Who knows, maybe that’s why he left me for his receptionist.”
My heart slams in my chest, the knowledge that only I’ve been here running through me like wildfire. She’s beautiful and untouched and all mine, mine to break and put back together again with my tongue, with my fingers, with my love. “It’s his loss, Aspen, you know that, right?”
“I didn’t at first but now…I’m glad it didn’t work out. It brought me here, to you.”
I groan softly, in disbelief that she’s here with me. My girl is as sweet as pure-fallen snow and all mine. “You don’t know what you do to me when you say those words,” I confess, my cock throbbing with the need to consume her sweet body.
“Virgin?” Her eyes go round, unbelieving.
“Baby, every time you look at me with those innocent eyes, it feels like a vise grip wrapped around my cock.” I tuck my nose into her hair, my barely held control wavering quickly.