My stomach clenched.
Kissing her deeply, I stiffened. Pulling back, I drank my fill of her naked body. I’d seen most parts of her—either running, hiding in a tree, or spread-eagled on a table—but her bruised skin and elongated muscles seemed to control my cock completely.
My brain scattered as I followed the hollow path of her belly to her sharp hipbones over silky skin. There wasn’t an ounce of fat anywhere on her delicate frame. She had abs that were impressive but cute and a pussy that was tight and hidden demurely by perfect pink lips.
She was pure female—the embodiment of fragility and tenacity that I coveted and fantasised about.
The things I wanted to do to her. The things I’d always locked away bubbled beneath the surface.
I hadn’t noticed before, but she had a singular subtle scent of freshness—a comforting perfume that was both an aphrodisiac and intoxicant, making me fall deeper into hell.
I wanted to tell her she was beautiful.
I wanted to tell her what she was doing to me.
But I couldn’t.
Grabbing her breast, I pinched her nipple, before bowing my head and sucking it into my mouth.
She moaned, clamping my head to her chest. Every lash of my tongue made my cock ripple with need.
Her hands were insatiable as they slid over my burning shoulders, kneading, stroking, seeming to both calm and drive me wild.
I crawled back up her body.
Her eyes latched onto mine, glowing with things that were too intense and painful. My heart cleaved and lurched, exceeding my realm of ability to function.
Frantically clawing at a small hint of ice, I kissed her deeply.
It should’ve just been a kiss, but her mouth had a sorcery against my control. Her silent plea for more whispered around us; her body shifted and begged beneath mine, driving me closer to throwing myself into the pit that I’d climbed from and not give a flying fuck about anything anymore.
“I want you inside me, Jethro,” she whispered, her breath misting over my skin.
My hand went to her throat, tensing around the tender column. “I’ve never wanted to fuck someone as badly as I want to fuck you.”
She moaned, “Then stop delaying.”
“No, I like watching you squirm.” I dropped my nose to where I cupped her throat. “After all, you won again, Ms. Weaver—”
“Nila. Please…you can call me Ms. Weaver when we aren’t millimetres from claiming each other.”
I shook my head. “As I was saying, before you rudely interrupted.” I bit her bottom lip, sucking it into my mouth. “You won because I fucked you.”
“I think you won on that account, too.”
I licked her, tracing the tip of my tongue along her jaw, making her tremble. “You didn’t beg though, did you?”
She stiffened, a small moan echoing in her chest. “Don’t…don’t make me.”
A small smile played on my mouth. “Oh, I’ll make you, Ms. Weaver.” Nuzzling into her throat, I kissed a cold diamond on her collar. “Let’s begin, shall we?”
She growled, “Just put it in me, Jethro.”
I chuckled. “Just put it in me? That’s hardly romantic.”
“This isn’t romantic. If it was, we’d have candles and rose petals and soft music. This is a means to an end.”
I reared up on my elbows. “A means to an end?” I shouldn’t be hurt, but goddammit I was.
Nila clenched her stomach, reaching for me. “I want to come. You want to come. Stop prolonging it.”
My cock wept at her distress—she’d passed the edge of common sense. I wanted to give in—fuck, how I wanted to—but I also wanted to win just once. She’d somehow become the victor in all our battles. This one I intended to walk away the vanquisher.
Slamming my hand on her sternum, I pressed her against the mattress and scooted down her body. Every inch I travelled, I nipped and sucked—her nipple, every rib to her naval.
“Jethro…” she panted, her hands once again diving into my hair. My heart did weird things when she held me like that—her fingernails digging into my scalp, her barely restrained lust causing pinpricks of pain that felt better than any pleasure.
“Tell me what I want to hear, Ms. Weaver. Then I’ll give you what you want.”
“I won’t. I won’t beg. You’ll break before me.”
I laughed softly, rimming her belly button with the tip of my tongue. “Are you so sure about that?”
She’s right.
My cock hadn’t stopped throbbing, and the sticky wetness at the top told me I’d been unsuccessful in stopping my need.
She yanked on my hair, trying to pull me up. Biting her flat stomach, I caught her wrists and pinned them against the mattress. “No more touching, Ms. Weaver. Remember that control I mentioned? Well, I need it.” Blowing air on her pussy, which was mouth level and glistening, I murmured, “You have the tightest, wettest, greediest cunt I’ve ever had the pleasure to taste. And I plan on dining again. Take your time and decide if it’s beneath you to beg.”
“Bastard,” she growled, fighting my hold on her wrists.
“I’m the bastard?” I positioned myself, swiping my wet tongue along her slit. Her back bowed as her breath caught. “I’m the bastard for wanting to give you pleasure instead of pain?”
Stop that.
I hadn’t meant to say that. Another slip. Another fucking dangerous slip.
Nila didn’t notice as I tongued her again, diving below and dipping quickly and intrusively inside her.
“Ah!”
A violent shiver of lust commandeered my muscles. My ears roared with the need to forget about taunting her and fuck her dirty and wrong.
“Jethro…please…”
“Almost a beg, Ms. Weaver.” Without pause, I buried my face in her pussy.
She tried to move, but I kept my fingers locked around her wrists and gave her no room to move as I fucked her with my tongue.
I looked up, following the delicious contours of her stomach. She glared down at me, her eyes full of black flames.
I smiled, licking her harder.
“I won’t do it.”
I didn’t reply, only sucked her clit into my mouth.
She spasmed, shuddering uncontrollably.
“It all ends with one little word, Ms. Weaver.”
“I won’t. Not until you call me Nila.”
My tongue drove into her tight pussy; her muscles clenched viciously around me.
“How about a tr—truce?” Her voice strained as her legs stiffened, toes curling.
“A truce?”
“Two winners.”
I breathed hot, drenching her inner thighs with everything boiling inside me. “Fine.”
“You go first.”
I chuckled, so turned on with need, I rapidly lost the skill for conversation. “No chance. Beg.” I pressed my mouth and nose hard against her, inhaling deeply until my lungs were soaked with her smell.
“Jethro!”
My heart raced. My breathing made every word clipped and breathless. “Say it—put us both out of our misery.”
Her head twisted to the side, pressing her cheek against the sheets.
“Do it and I’ll do what you want. I’ll use your name. I’ll climb on top of you. I’ll spread your legs and drive my cock so deep and fast inside, you won’t be able to walk for a week.”
We both groaned at the mental image. Fuck, she better beg. Otherwise, she would win another round. I was two seconds away from taking her.
My impressive self-control—the same restraint that had protected me all my life—had disappeared.
Her hips churned as I dragged my tongue through her quivering pussy. “Beg, Ms. Weaver. Beg.” Her velvet skin against my tongue sent all thoughts of family and consequences far into the stratosphere.
I sucked her clit again, my ears straining for her to give in to me, but still she resisted.
I stuck my tongue deep, driving her toward an orgasm. Her cunt convulsed,
milking my shallow penetration.
I groaned. Sweat ran down my temples, and my back ached from tension. My hips rocked against the mattress, driving my cock into the surface, seeking relief from the quaking pleasure-pain.
“Beg, damn you!” I hissed against her clit. I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Use my name and I will.”
Fuck, we wouldn’t get anywhere. We were both too strong. Too damn stubborn.
Panting hard, I looked up into her blazing eyes, glassy and intoxicated with desire. “Together.” It was the first time I’d conceded a truce. I didn’t like it, but if it got me inside her, so be it.
Nila froze, her mouth falling wide. Finally, she nodded. “Together.”
Pressing a kiss onto her pussy, I climbed her body and settled between her legs. Locking my fingers in her hair, I held her firm with nowhere to go. My cock twitched, resting against her entrance, imploring to slide inside.
Our hearts matched with racing beats, our breathing just as threadbare and frayed.
Her lips moved; sound spilled. “I’m begging you to fuck me, Jethro Hawk.”
My eyes snapped shut as a full body shudder took me hostage. “Again.” I swallowed hard. “More, Nila. Beg.”
The moment her name fell from my mouth, she let go of everything she’d been holding back. Her hands fell to my arse, digging her nails and drawing her knees up. With a fierce burst of power, she jerked me forward, forcing my tip inside her.
We both moaned. Loudly.
“Fuck me, please. I’m begging. I need it. I need you. I’ve never needed anything as much as you filling me.” She tried to reach up to kiss me, but my hands in her hair kept her open and honest and stripped bare.
“Jethro, I’ll die if you don’t fuck me this very minute. I’m hungry. I’m starving. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just know I’m itchy and achy and weepy and so damn angry that you won’t give me what I want.”
“And what do you want…Nila?”
She shivered. “I want your cock. Now.”
And you can have it.
I thrust.
There was no gentle easing like last time. My self-control was done. Over. Finite. I sank inside with a barbarous impale.
She screamed.
I groaned.
We both collapsed into one another.
Falling. Falling. Swirling. Swirling. We took each other prisoner. Punishing our bodies, focused on one blistering goal.
“Oh, God, no…stop,” she cried. Her hips tried to dislodge my size.
“I can’t stop.”
“It hurts.” Her breath was cool against my fevered flesh.
“Let me in.” I thrust again, gritting my teeth as a wash of pleasure shot into my balls.
Her mouth opened to scream again, but I clamped a hand over her lips, silencing her. Her cheekbones were stark, skin stretched with lust. Her eyes were so dark they mirrored my reflection, showing a man I didn’t recognise. A man who’d well and truly passed the boundary of right and wrong.
Then a drawn out keen of welcome vibrated in her chest.
My eyes snapped shut as her body gave in to me, stretching, inviting.
Fuck.
My hands fisted harder in her hair. The foreplay had drained us of everything. This would be hard, fast—bloodthirsty.
“I’m going to fuck you now, Nila.”
“Yes.” Her fingernails sliced deeper into my lower back as I thrust into her. I rammed inside over and over, balls-deep and buried. I wasn’t just fucking her body but her mind and soul, too.
She let me in everywhere.
She dropped everything, letting me bulldoze through her defences.
My heart bucked at the preciousness of what I held—the gift in which she gave. It fucking tore my innards out and turned me hollow.
The connection was too acute. Physically, spiritually. I’d never wanted to belong…always been an outcast and outsider, but between the legs of my Weaver Whore, I found….redemption, salvation.
She clamped around me, dragging a ragged groan from my chest. I ground my hips harder, deeper, faster.
We locked eyes.
I shouted at her silently.
Cursed her wordlessly.
You feel me inside you?
You feel me claiming you?
You feel me destroying you?
My muscles went rigid as her eyes recognised my message and shot one of their own.
You feel me around you?
You feel me undermining you?
You feel me making you care?
I slammed forward, drawing a primitive sound from her. “God, you—you feel…”
“What? What do you feel?” I growled.
“Good. Too good. I need—I need to come.”
You and me both.
I couldn’t do this anymore. I needed it over, so I could run and hide. So I could fix everything that was wrong with me. So I could find the man I’d been for fifteen fucking long years.
She made a helpless sound of need, grinding herself on my cock. We dripped with sweat, our skin slipping and slicking against each other, our lungs desperate for air.
Tightening my hold on her hair, I increased my rhythm. Nailing her to the bed, I fucked with wild savagery.
Her orgasm came from nowhere and with no warning. One second she rode me as hard as I rode her, the next she went stiff and taut. Her mouth fell wide. A moan that twisted my heart fell around us as her pussy fisted my cock with strength that tore me into pieces.
My own release percolated like a typhoon inside, howling and buffeting my every cell.
“Fuck.” Grabbing her hip, I tilted her body so she was angled for even deeper punishment.
Tears of delirium trickled from her eyes as I drove my cock further inside her. Her face squeezed tight as I hit the spot where I could go no further. Her body halted any deeper claiming.
The moment she finished coming, I couldn’t stop.
Pleasure surged through me with every thrust. I turned to stone as fiery release exploded from my balls and splashed inside her.
Fuck, pull out. Pull out.
Lurching upright, I wrapped my fingers around the base of my dick and fucked my own hand as I shot thread after thread of release onto her belly.
The second it was over, the guilt came back.
The fear.
The anger.
We were now doubly fucked, and I had no clue how to fix it.
Nila looked at her stomach, and in the boldest, sexiest move, ran her fingertip through my release and sucked it into her mouth.
Fuck. Me.
My entire body tingled.
“If sex with you is like that every time, I have a horrible feeling we’ll end up fucking each other into an early grave.”
An icy gust skittered down my spine. If only she knew how true that sentence was.
She had no clue what I would do to her the next time. She’d had me twice with only skin between us. The next time…shit, I couldn’t think about what I’d do without getting hard again.
The joy at what I planned trickled into my double-crossing heart, and I knew this was the beginning of the end.
We would keep on ruining each other.
We would keep on desecrating debts and vows.
And we would keep on fucking up our future until nothing but horror remained.
LIFE HAD TURNED from manic to surreal.
I still lived in a den of beasts, with fear around every corner and dread in my future, but my present had never felt so right.
I had obligations to talk to my father and brother before they appeared with guns blazing.
I had messages to reply to Kite.
I had bridges to mend with Kestrel.
But for some reason, I couldn’t bear to leave the insanely comfortable mattress of the Weaver quarters.
The ceiling above was obscured by the bolts of Persian material, and the scent of freshly spun fabric was the best air freshener I’d ever smelled.
&
nbsp; I stretched, basking in the echoing pain of being used by Jethro once again.
He’d shown me how much passion was hidden beneath his wintry shell, and I knew he’d only just started to thaw. The thought of more sex, better sex, deeper, soul-blistering sex made me shiver in both excitement and nervousness. I meant what I said about killing ourselves with pleasure. I didn’t think I could stand much more. But nothing on earth would stop me from willingly walking to my demise if it meant I could take Jethro with me.
Don’t forget the plan.
I froze.
My goal of seducing him had worked. He’d changed and for some reason, had let me worm my way into his affections. But by letting me inside him, he’d stripped me of my defences. The moment when my body stretched around him, letting him take me fully, I’d felt something give inside. More than just an invitation or coy come-hither to destroy him—it had been real, and I’d had no willpower to stop him from invading.
You’re playing such a dangerous game.
My heart crawled up my throat at the thought of losing.
What can truly happen, though?
I already lived with a death sentence. So what if I died with a broken heart as well? It wouldn’t change my fate. It would only grant fullness to a life while it was still mine to enjoy.
Common sense didn’t like my conclusions, but I switched off my thoughts.
I rolled over, inhaling the scent of his woodland leather from the pillow he’d rested upon.
After we’d crashed back to earth, he’d spent an hour just lying there. Regrouping or thinking or just being himself…once he’d gathered his façade, he’d wordlessly disappeared and not come back.
All my belongings had already been transferred, and I noticed my phone, recharged and no longer in pieces, blinking with incoming mail on the duck-egg-blue bedside table.
Not only had Jethro given me my phone, but he’d left it on and waiting for me to use.
Why did Jethro want me to use it? Wasn’t he jealous that I had an affinity with Kes/Kite? You have to put a stop to that. It wasn’t fair to confuse Kestrel by flirting with him via messages only to pull away in person.
I had too much to juggle with dealing with Jethro; I couldn’t enter into another masquerade with his brother.
Grabbing the device, I skimmed through my emails and opened text messages.