Chapter 22 #2
“You! You wanker!” she burst out, her hands flying, shoving at my chest. “Your voice the entire ride here . . . I clung to it . . . it kept my heart pumping. And when everything was fading away, it was your voice I heard calling me back. You saved my life. Not just because you knew about the nectar, but . . .” An infuriated sob hitched from her throat.
“It was you I felt gripping my soul and keeping me rooted to the earth.” She pushed me again, stumbling me back into the wall of the house.
“I can suddenly feel you everywhere. Under my skin, in my head. From the moment I came back . . .” She stepped back from me. “And you stood there like a coward.”
“Excuse me?” I pushed off the wall, using my body to loom over her, though she didn’t flinch. No one had ever called me a coward. Ever. If they had, they wouldn’t live long after.
“You heard me.” Rosie lifted her chin, not backing down. “You are so afraid. Afraid of feeling, afraid of living. Afraid of letting anyone in. Probably mad I am fae now because you no longer have an excuse to walk away, acting like you are some hero for doing it.”
My head tipped back, her accusation arrowing my chest.
“You paint yourself as the victim so you can stay in your safe bubble. I’m sorry that girl hurt you, but we’ve all been hurt, Killian.
That’s life.” She shook her head. “I’ve already lived a life where someone’s insecurities and ego took precedence over me.
Where I was tossed aside and treated like a pet.
I have fucked for money, and I have been raped for revenge.
I will not be that girl again. I want someone who will fight for me.
Who loves me more than his own issues. Who could give a fuck about right or wrong when it came to me.
And if Wesley is that man, then I guess you’re right.
I should return to him.” She turned away from me.
Rage-filled terror plunged into my system, tearing down every one of my walls, showing me the only certainty I knew.
Her.
Not the fear of her, but the fear of losing her.
Of watching her happy with someone else when I knew she was mine.
I could feel it in every fiber of my being, screaming from my soul.
I sensed the weight when I first met her, saw her on stage, but I shoved it away.
Ignored it. Now it roared through every molecule of my body.
The mere idea of her in Wesley’s arms, kissing him, moaning his name, colored my vision red. How did I ever believe I would have been okay with that?
I would have killed him.
Lunging, I grabbed her arm, yanking her back to me, a possessive noise vibrating in my throat. My muscles quaked, but I was trying so hard to keep myself in control, afraid I could hurt her.
Her blue eyes went back and forth between mine, her hand slowly reaching up and touching my face, her fingers sliding through the blood on my cheek. “It’s not only me who pretends to be someone else for a living.”
“What are you talking about?”
“This character you are trying to portray. He doesn’t fit anymore, if he ever did. He only keeps you confined. I see you, Killian. I see the passion you keep inside. All the hurt, pain, anger, and violence. We are the same.”
“You are nothing like me,” I snarled. “What I’ve done . . .”
“What you’ve done?”
“You fucked people . . . I’ve killed them.”
“Do you know why I am so faithful to Kitty? It isn’t just the debt she helped me get out of, giving me a home and a family. She helped cover up a murder.”
“What?”
“I shot one of my rapists in the head. He came into Kitty’s one night looking to get his dick wet. He didn’t even recognize me. I took him upstairs . . . and I shot him. Kitty helped me drag out the body and get rid of it.”
I blinked against a swell of fury at the idea any person ever made her suffer. I wanted to bring him back to life just so I could kill him again.
“I have blood on my hands too, and I don’t regret it for a moment.
The only regret I have is letting Vicente control me for so long, even after he walked out.
You are letting her do the same to you.” She stepped right up to me.
“I don’t care what you’ve done. I don’t care who’ve you killed.
Your seedy past. Or the fact you are a lord or have money.
I don’t give a shite, Killian. It means nothing to me. I just want you.”
Air burned down my esophagus as I sucked in sharply, my chest heaving.
“Rosie . . .” I rasped out her name, our mouths almost touching. A rumble of thunder rolled over our heads, though I could see no storm in the sky. Lightning flashed, the air thickening with sexual energy, only igniting my nerves with more desire.
“Nina,” she whispered. “I want to hear you say my real name. Just once.”
My dick hardened to the point of pain. “Nina . . .”
She sucked in sharply, the sound breaking my last reserve.
Grabbing her head, I crushed my mouth to hers, a hungry groan growling from my throat as if I had been starved all my life of the one thing I wanted.
Like this was what I had been searching for all my life.
I tipped her head, deepening the kiss, my tongue sweeping deeper into her mouth. Claiming and searing.
She moaned, her fingers dragging roughly through my hair, tugging me closer, making me lose my mind. I had kissed many women in my time, some amazing, some okay. Sometimes it was a means to an end. To get to the sex. Get off. Leave. Rinse and repeat.
Kissing Rosie shredded everything I had ever experienced before, and her lips demanded just as much back from me.
“Killian . . .” she gasped against my mouth, and I knew she was feeling the same. Whatever this power was, it was making me forget everything but her. Nothing else mattered. Nothing in the world would stop me from being with her.
She rubbed my cock, shooting sparks up my spine, as my mouth took hers again, wanting her to forget every other man who ever had the privilege of tasting her lips.
I grabbed her ass, lifting her up, her legs circling my hips as I pushed her up against the cabin.
Her hands tore at my jacket. “Fuck foreplay. I need you inside me. Now.”
I wanted nothing more, but her pleasure meant more than mine. I didn’t want to be another male on her list. The endless stream who came running back to her but never cared about her, who never made her special, making her their first and only priority.
“Too bad.” I pulled her bloody, ripped sweater over her head.
She had lost so much weight in prison, but her body was absolutely perfect to me, whatever it looked like.
My hand trailed over the still-healing scar from where she had been shot earlier.
The marks of her past dotted her pale white skin.
I wanted to know every story of them, how she got them.
There wasn’t an inch of her skin I didn’t want to explore and worship.
I slid my hands over her breasts, feeling her nipples harden under my palms. After reaching back to unhook her bra, I squeezed and massaged them, smearing my blood over them like I was marking them as mine.
“Perfection.” I swallowed before taking one in my mouth.
A hitched breath snapped from her, her body arching into me as my tongue flicked and sucked on her nipple.
“Killian.” She drew her nails up the back of my neck as I moved on to the other.
“I want this to be all about you.” I dropped to my knees.
My fingers skated over her hips, slowly dragging her trousers and underwear down and taking off her boots.
I licked my lips, staring at her naked body, her eyes glittering with desire.
“Watch me.” I kept my eyes on her as my mouth grazed her thigh.
Her head tipped back into the wall, but she didn’t break eye contact, a shaky sigh expelling from her lips.
My fingers dug into her thighs, spreading her legs wide for me, lifting a leg over my shoulder. My mouth skimmed her pussy, the tip of my tongue just hinting at her folds.
“Bloody hell,” she croaked. Her hips bucked forward, putting a sinful smile on my lips. Pinning her down with my arm, I peered up at her.
“I’ve wanted to taste you for so long.” I nipped at her thigh, biting, making her jolt at the contact before I soothed it with my tongue.
“Killian.” Her nails dug into my scalp.
The feel of her tugging on my hair fueled me like a fiend, and I licked through her, sucking on her clit hard until she let out a long, primal moan.
“So fucking incredible.” I gripped her tighter, opening her wider to me. She was like nothing I had ever tasted before and was now the only one I’d want.
“Bloody hell.” Her hips rolled with me. “Oh gods!” She gasped, almost as if she was in shock.
Her body responded with verve, clenching around me almost instantly.
I couldn’t stop my male pride, the sensation in my gut that she could never pretend with me.
Her legs were trembling without me even fully entering her.
I slipped two fingers inside her, pumping them as my lips tugged and sucked at her clit, and she let out a scream.
I let go of any ego, giving her everything.
Hearing her pleasure only turned me on more.
I feasted on her pussy, listening for every cry of pleasure, learning her body.
Though I felt like I already knew it; some strange connection understood how to please her without prior knowledge.
Electricity danced across the sky, tapping against our skin.
I could feel the familiar energy, knowing it wasn’t just us adding to the intensity in the air, spilling down on us.
Brexley and Warwick’s energy was too intense not to recognize.
It added to our pleasure, their desire and magic on top of our own, making pre-cum spill from my tip.
“Killian?” She scratched at my back. “Please. I need you inside me!”