Chapter 45
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Briar
At first, I was too stunned by the brutality and suddenness of his fierce kiss to react, but then I tasted blood.
Whether it was him or me who was bleeding, I didn’t know, but it slid down my throat as his tongue invaded my mouth. The coppery taste wasn’t unpleasant as I swallowed more.
His hand briefly tightened on my neck before easing; his claws remained a sharp reminder of how easily he could kill me. When his tongue found mine, I tried to resist, but found it impossible to do so.
He wasn’t the man I’d loved, but I’d missed him. While his kiss was far more punishing than ever before, it was also familiar and right in some strange way.
He was all around me, filling every space. I could no more deny him than the tides could deny the moon… or maybe it was me I couldn’t deny.
I wanted to hate him. He was such an arrogant prick, but even with as much as he pissed me off, I also missed him when he wasn’t around.
When his finger found my clit again, the bones went limp in my legs. I leaned into him to keep from falling over as the spiraling pleasure building within me climbed ever higher.
He’d said he’d never claim me again, but his kiss and touch burned deep into my soul. They branded the most intimate parts of me almost as much as his bite.
Whether he was Knox or Seth, my body was his and always would be. I wasn’t so sure about my heart, as there were plenty of times when I didn’t like him. I also wasn’t sure he was capable of love anymore, but I knew no one else could bring my body to life the way he did.
My arms slid around his neck, and my fingers bit into his nape as his body eased against me. His rigid muscles softened, and the bruising intensity of his kiss eased as his tongue leisurely traced the contours of my lips.
Blood no longer spilled into my mouth. He tasted like fresh air, freedom, and familiarity. He tasted of love, or the memory of it at least, as his hand slid out of my pants and he plucked me off the ground.
His other hand left my throat as he swept me up in his arms and carried me across the room. I didn’t know where we were going until he settled into a chair and broke the kiss.
Our gazes locked, and as they did, sanity started to return. Somehow sensing this, Knox wrapped his hand around the back of my head and pulled me down to reclaim my mouth.
I should stop this—I still had enough sanity left to know that—but I didn’t want it to stop. For ten endless years, I’d yearned for him. While he wasn’t the man I remembered, I still saw glimpses of his kind heart, and there was no denying he retained a very possessive nature when it came to me.
Even if we never grew to love each other again, I wanted what could be my last time with this man.
It was I who turned the kiss savage and demanding again. When his erection rubbed between my legs, I ground against it. I couldn’t give him everything, and neither could he, but we could give each other this.
Knox tugged at my pants, pushing them down my hips. Wiggling on his lap, we managed to get them off before he stripped the remnants of my sweater.
The crackling fire was warm against my back, but it had nothing on the heat he created within me. Breaking the kiss, Knox’s eyes met mine; his pupils were slitted as he wrestled to restrain the beast.
“Get on your knees,” he commanded.
Unsure of where this was going and reluctant to leave his lap, I didn’t move. He twirled a strand of my hair around his finger while watching me.
He lifted a claw and traced my bottom lip with it. “You’re going to wrap that pretty little mouth around my cock and take it deep, even if you choke on it.”
Something in me rebelled against his command while something else reveled in it as his eyes burned into me. Was he daring me? Trying to see if I would do it or back away?
“You’ll do as I say, Briar.”
And then I understood. For years, he had no control over what happened to him; he demanded that control now.
Refusing to break his gaze, I climbed off his lap and went slowly to my knees. He kept my hair twined around his finger as I knelt before him.
His shaft stood proudly from his body. Like the man himself, it was larger than I remembered, thicker and longer.
It took me some time to adjust to his size when I was younger, it would do so again now, but I also couldn’t wait to have it inside me again. I ran a finger up his dick, tracing the thick vein pulsing there.
He didn’t move, and while I couldn’t see his eyes, I felt them burning into me as I ran my thumb around his head, spreading my wetness and his precum around it. Lifting my eyes, I held his gaze as I lowered my head and ran my tongue around the head of his cock.
A slight stiffening of his muscles was the only response he gave as I licked away the salty taste of him. Slowly, I took him deeper into my mouth, licking and teasing as I hollowed my cheeks and sucked along his thick length.
When he released my hair, his claws clicked against the chair arms as he gripped them and his legs spread further.
I’d missed his taste and the strength of his rigid cock as my hand stroked his shaft and my mouth ran down the length of him.
I managed to suppress my gag reflex when his erection hit the back of my throat.
I couldn’t take him all the way in, but when I sucked on him, his hips lifted toward me. He used to like it when I played with his balls while doing this, and I did so now.
He inhaled sharply, and one of his hands rested on the back of my head as he guided me down. “That’s it, take me deeper.” The last word came out as a groan when I nearly went to the base of his shaft. “Fuck, Briar, you feel so good. I’d almost forgotten…”
His words trailed off as his hips bucked toward me. Unable to stop myself, my eyes lifted to the big, beautiful man before me. With his head tipped back, the corded muscles in his neck stood starkly out, his biceps and forearms bulged as he gripped the chair and the back of my head.
He craved being the one in control, but I held him in the palm of my hand, literally and figuratively. I reveled in it as his hips rose and fell, and my eyes closed while he guided the back of my head faster.
When wood cracked, my eyes flew back open. Orange fur raced up his arms, and his jaw cracked as it started to shift. Keeping hold of his cock, I pulled it free of my mouth when it started to swell impossibly larger.
“No, not the beast. Only the man,” I said.
I was taking a huge risk by denying him; he was on the verge of giving himself over to the beast, but I would not be with the beast. Knox’s slitted pupils met mine as his jaw stopped lengthening.
“Only the man,” I whispered.
Before I could say or do anything more, he lunged forward and grasped my waist. I gasped when he pulled me onto his lap. My ass connected with his rigid shaft; it nestled against my cheeks as he locked his arm around my waist.
“Only the man,” he breathed in my ear as he trailed his hand down my spine. “But the man is more dangerous than the beast.”
“I know he is.”
The man was far more lethal to my heart.
He leaned back as his hand ran over my ass before he gave it a light slap. I squeaked in surprise as he chuckled and gave me another slap.
“You are exquisite,” he said. “Every inch of you is made for bedding.”
I shivered when he ran a hand around to my hip before slipping it between my thighs. He pulled me firmly against him.
“I could spend hours looking at you, touching you, fucking you.”
My breasts became heavier at his words as he dipped a finger into me.
“And so wet,” he murmured. “So ripe and ready for me.”
He shifted me so his cock nestled between my thighs. He guided it partially into me while continuing to rub my clit; my muscles clenched around him, drawing him deeper.
Unable to resist, I rolled my hips until he slid in further. “That’s it, little thorn. Get me inside you.”
I gasped at the familiar sensation of him stretching and filling me. It had been so long since we’d been together, and while his size was a little uncomfortable, it was also right.
His fingers biting into my skin as he gripped my hips, Knox guided me further, but he didn’t shove me down or drive upward. He wanted to; I could sense that in the rigidity of his muscles, but he restrained himself.
There was that glimmer of his old, kinder heart, but it would vanish soon. It never lasted. That didn’t matter as all I cared about now was having him fuck me into oblivion.
As he slipped deeper inside me, an overwhelming feeling of completeness robbed my breath. I bit my lip at the increasing discomfort as his finger circled my clit again.
“Knox,” I breathed. “More. Give me more.”
His hand clasped my throat again, pulling me back while he lifted his hips and buried himself completely within me. The discomfort of having him inside me eased as he continued to tease my clit while remaining still.
“Fuck, Briar. I could come just from looking at you.”
Claws grazed down my breasts before he rolled a nipple between his fingers. I moaned as my head tipped back and little tendrils of electricity rippled across my skin.
When I was certain it wouldn’t cause any discomfort, I circled my hips and groaned as his cock hit a spot deep inside me—one that I’d forgotten existed without him in my life.
Things were so different from what they were before, but some things remained the same. No matter how much we changed, we still fit perfectly together.
His arm locked around me, pulling my back against his chest and holding me as I rode him. Claws pricked my flesh, but they didn’t sink in as he struggled to retain his control.
When he rubbed small circles around my clit, I bucked against him, demanding more as my breath came in small pants. It was almost too much to bear as the pleasure and pain mingled together.
His teeth clamped down on my neck, and my whole body jolted as a startled cry escaped me. It wasn’t a shifter claiming bite; there were no fangs, and he didn’t pierce my flesh, but he kept me pinned against him as he thrust within me, hitting that spot again and again.
With his finger working my clit, the pressure growing inside me built toward exquisite torment. When he growled against me, my loud cry drowned out the storm as I came apart.
My body bowed against him as waves of ecstasy cascaded through me. It was so overwhelming that pieces of me fragmented like glass from a dropped mirror. They scattered to the far reaches of the kingdoms.
I wasn’t sure I could ever put those pieces back together, and I didn’t care as tremors wracked my body. He bit harder, but still didn’t break my skin before releasing his bite. I was still quivering when he stood and carried me to the bed.