Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Briar
I didn’t see him move and didn’t know he was before me until his claws pricked my skin. They didn’t pierce it, but they pressed deep enough that I was aware he could tear my throat out before I blinked.
I didn’t dare move. Any movement might trigger an explosive response from the beast… or the man.
I’d pushed him too far; it was something I never did with Seth, but we’d never argued. Now all I did was fight with this looming, overpowering, overbearing asshole of a man.
A part of me hated him for having replaced Seth, but I couldn’t deny that another part craved him. I could tell him, and myself, I wasn’t willing, but his touch, while bordering on lethal, also set fire to my blood.
Knox’s orange eyes burned as they filled my vision. I missed the Caribbean blue color they used to be, but this fiery orange was also beautiful, even if it was a constant reminder of everything I’d lost and everything he’d never be again.
His face, only mere inches from mine, was different than the boy I’d loved. Age had matured it into that of a cold, unrelenting man. The black stubble covering his head and jaw only added to his aura of dangerousness.
When his gaze fell to my breasts, hunger prickled along my skin as quick, small breaths caused my chest to rise and fall. His nearness, his scent, and the power emanating from him hardened my nipples. My breasts begged for his touch.
“Do you know what I want to do to you?” he growled.
As he leaned closer, his erection made that clear as it prodded my belly. My stomach fell at the same time as a fierce ache spread between my thighs.
Even if I could speak, I wouldn’t. The movement of my throat might cause his claws to pierce my flesh if I tried.
“Do you know how badly I want to see that pretty, defiant mouth wrapped around my dick, taking it deeper and deeper until you choke on it.”
A fire already burned within me, but those words turned it into an inferno—one that only he could quench.
“You were always so good with that tongue of yours,” he continued. “The way you could suck and lick and fuck.”
He groaned the last word.
“I much prefer it when your mouth is occupied instead of running,” he said.
Despite the need clawing at me, his words ignited my ire again.
“Maybe if you weren’t always such a prick,” I said quietly and from between my teeth, so my throat didn’t move too much, “I’d taste you again, but every time you open your mouth, I want to shove my fist into it.”
A cruel smile curved his lips. “I can smell your arousal, Briar. No matter the words you spew, I know the truth.”
“My body reacts to you. I’ll never deny that, and it probably always will, but it doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means everything. You know”—he lifted his free hand to run a claw down the front of my sweater, cutting it open as he went—“my body wouldn’t react in the harem.
I believed they’d kill me for it, but knowing that they weren’t you kept me from getting hard.
So, to save us both, the beast emerged whenever they came for us. He satisfied their twisted desires.”
I sucked in a small breath at this revelation as cool air caressed my chest. I hadn’t bothered with a binding; what was the point? Now, I would have given anything for that extra barrier between us as he drank me in.
“You can deny everything, but if you truly didn’t want me, your pussy wouldn’t be dripping right now. I bet you’re throbbing with your need for me.”
By the time he said the last word, there was something far more animal than man about him. He was feral and spiraling, and I was the thing he wanted to devour.
His claw grazed the sensitive flesh of my belly before slicing the sweater the rest of the way open.
“The man never desired any of those casters, and neither did the beast.” His claw slid leisurely up my chest. The teasing caress left me weak-kneed and aching for more while my mind spun at his revelations. “Determined to survive, the beast did what was necessary.”
His eyes met mine as his claw circled my nipple. His other hand remained locked around my throat. “I was never a man when they fucked me.”
What he’d endured and what my kind did to him was so heartbreaking that it brought tears to my eyes.
He frowned at me. “Are you crying for yourself or me?”
“For you,” I whispered. “For me and for everything we’ve lost, but mostly for you.”
“Hmm,” he murmured as he watched his claw circling my nipple. “It’s not your tears I crave, Briar. They won’t satisfy me.”
When his hand on my throat constricted, I gulped. My head tipped back to try to keep my air supply open, but he didn’t cut it off.
“You’re more beautiful than I remember,” he said.
I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t speak while he continued to study me.
“You’ve turned into a woman,” he said. “Who’s begging to be fucked.”
His clawed hand dipped down to the edge of my pants. He gripped the button.
“How wet are you?” he inquired. “If I were to slide my hand between your legs, would I find your pussy also weeping for me?”
He would, but I wouldn’t utter those words.
“Is it begging for my tongue or my cock?” he asked as his face moved closer to mine. “Answer me.”
I gulped as his fingers stopped moving and his claws pricked my flesh again. “Both,” I admitted.
I couldn’t lie when we both knew the truth.
That cruel smile curved his mouth again as his eyes gleamed. With a small tug, he pulled the button free; it clattered as it bounced across the floor.
“I remember how good you felt and how deep you took me. And now here I am, bathed in the musky aroma of your arousal, the rapid beat of your heart, and your eyes as you watch me.”
When he retracted his claws to slip his hand inside my pants, I gasped as his finger slid through my wetness before circling my clit. The ache within me became a physical pain; I didn’t know if I wanted him to stop or continue.
If he stopped, I might die. If he continued, I might lose myself completely.
“I thought you were never going to claim me as your mate again,” I managed to bite out.
He chuckled. “I don’t have to claim you to fuck you. I did that countless times before I marked you.”
Sadness swelled within me. He was right about that, but at least I’d known there was love between us all those other times.
When we first started sleeping together, he was too young to mark me. Somehow, the animal he was meant to be broke free during our last time together and claimed me as his. That animal ceased to exist when the beast took its place.
Although I wanted to cry from the sheer ecstasy of what he was doing to me, I somehow found the strength to grasp his wrist. His eyes narrowed on me.
“Stop,” I whispered.
“You want me.”
“I do, but you’ll hate yourself and me afterward.”
He released a harsh bark of laughter. “I stopped hating myself years ago, my prickly little thorn. Fucking you again is the least of my many evils.”
“Knox—”
Whatever I was about to say ended abruptly when his mouth crashed down on mine.