THE SACRIFICE: Secret Society Romance (4Horsemen Series Book 3)

by Elena Monroe

  Once I took a big gasp, I felt Khaos’s hand slip into mine. All my senses seemed shaken up: all I could hear were the police shouting, all I felt was the ability to float, all I felt was weightless.

  “Come on, we gotta go.”

  Following his lead, we tried to run but the water only felt heavier when you tried to leave it. When I was little, I used to think the ocean could grab onto you and never let go. That every time you tried to leave that’s why you felt weighted, sleepy even.

  Professional mermaid was my dream until I realized those are only nightmares in disguise.

  Splashing water everywhere, we finally made it to the sand drenched into being quicksand when he kept going, dragging me behind him with a firm grip making me believe I really could trust him with no regrets.

  Now if my heart would stop aching so much for him, we could take this nice and slow.

  Hiding under the pier, Khaos’s body pushed my back against one of the pillars and closed in on me like his presence could keep me hidden.

  In comparison, it probably could.

  I took in every detail of his face, all the random scars and tiny tattoos, a complexion that’s sun kissed but not tan like my own, boyish good looks on the verge of manhood, perfectly messy hair, and these eyes that you could fall into. Emerald orbs that were sprinkled with gold and screaming I can save you to me.

  “Khaos, I think it’s safe now…” every part of being wedged between a pillar and him made my body burn up with tension and made my heart say fuck going slow. He was going to save me.

  Death by poison.

  He was staring into my soul when he swallowed so hard, I saw his Adam’s apple bob in his throat, “I wouldn’t ever let anything bad happen to you, but I’m also never gonna steal your moment like you had back there because you fucking deserve it. I won’t ever push you to feel or be something you’re not.”

  He was making a declaration just like in Romeo and Juliet, on the verge of being caught, he needed to make sure I knew how he felt.

  Every word from his full lips made me ache because he was honoring actions over words the way I did.

  He showed me every declaration was true.

  Taking my hand, he kissed my palm and whispered, “We gotta get out of here. Come on.”

  Khaos yanked me down three blocks all while ordering an Uber back to his place. My lungs burned and my heart was heavy, full of all the love Khaos poured into it.

  “Thank you…” my voice was small as we slipped into the car.

  A big smile on his face he asked, “For what, babe?”

  “Chasing me. I’m not good with words like you are and I’m not good at copping to how I feel.” Squeezing his hand, I rested my head on his shoulder, hoping he understood and didn’t just hear gibberish spilling from my mouth like most people did.

  His thumb caught my chin, forcing me to look at him again, “I speak Birdy pretty fluently now and I think that’s basically you admitting to loving me.” His lips quirked up on the sides and morphed into a full-blown grin before his lips pressed against mine.

  Is that what I was trying to say?

  We were still drenched, our clothes heavy and sticking to our bodies like glue when I leaned against the cold brick of his house waiting for him to open the door.

  Pushing it open he mimicked my position against the doorframe, “I want to be the one you can lean on, Birdy. I want you to let me be that person for you.”

  I felt all the feelings demanding I pay attention the same way Khaos demanded every pair of eyes on him when he lit up a room. I couldn’t swallow them down or absorb them, they were on the tip of my tongue and dissolving into my soul.

  Taking the few steps between us, I grabbed his shirt, yanking him closer to me when I felt his lips collide with mine.

  Favorite scent.

  Favorite taste.

  He was a care package meant for every broken girl who was never taught to love, and I appreciated him so much more for loving me anyway.

  His mouth opened against mine, dragging my lips apart, letting his tongue slip inside. Clamping my lips around his tongue, I sucked the desire off him like I was hoping I could to parts of him forever, not just now.

  Tugging his shirt up between us, I stood so close to him I swear I could hear our hearts drumming against our bodies in unison. Lifting his arms, I was careful around the cast before I held onto the soaked shirt like it would get up and abandon me like everyone else did in my life.

  My knuckles wrapped in Khaos the way I wanted to be.

  Spilling inside, our mouths attacked each other, and I heard his foot kick the door closed behind us as we crashed, clashed, and nearly clipped every corner of every fixture and piece of furniture sprinkled throughout his entryway as we made our way to his living room.

  I was hungry for him and I couldn’t decide if it was sweet or hot. My clothes felt warm and sticky just like between my legs did and the seam of my shorts wasn’t helping that feeling. Every time we took a step without each other, we would snap back together again when our hands and mouths couldn't devour each other the way we wanted to.

  Distance wasn't something we were good at.

  He was my stalker, and I was his admirer.

  Peeling my wet white tank top up my torso, I felt my nipples pucker even harder knowing that he'd be looking at me with that crooked grin and those eyes that ate me up but still seemed just as hungry as I was.

  My tank top landed on the floor with a dense thud that made my mouth turn up into a smile when I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his chest into mine. Our mouths worked slowly, taking in every second of this with slow tongues and even slower hands.

  I felt his fingers linger at my shorts, tugging me forward into our kiss before pulling on the fabric, releasing my button even easier with the moisture still between the threads.

  He was unwrapping me with such precision I felt like a present only fueled by his words, "You're too beautiful for this fucked up world..."

  I wanted to speak but I was terrified if I liked this anymore, I would expect him to never leave.

  I was fucked.

  I already had expectations and he was constantly crushing them all expertly.

  His lips still slick with our desire, he didn't even pull away when he groaned, "Take these off."

  He was the only man I was comfortable listening to, it never ended in pain. Just mutually assured destruction and pleasure.

  I could handle that.

  Damp denim shorts weren't easy to remove as I swayed while pinned against the back of the couch by his hard chest, his lips leaving wet kisses down my neck making my whole-body ache for him. Kneeling in front of me, his fingertips slowly tickled my sensitive skin as he traced the outline of my panties before slipping them down my legs.

  I could feel his warm breath on the inside of my thighs, giving me chills as I leaned back while massaging my lip between my teeth. I wanted his mouth on more than my lips.

  I wanted his lips on my goddamn heart the way I always desired someone to want to leave their mark on me. Not a bruise, but something more permanent.

  "Is this what you want?" His lips dragged along my inner thigh, not forming any kisses but simply leaving skid marks on me, teasing me in a way he would approve of.

  I nodded as his lips moved dangerously close to how wet I knew I was- soaked, like our clothes littering the floor, leaving spots on his hard wood. Opening my legs even wider, his face buried between them when I felt the wet sensation of his soft lips against my bundle of nerves that cried for him.

  "Khaos," I wanted to moan out more against his tongue. He certainly deserved it for the way his lips closed in on me and sucked me into his void. I felt my back arch as he grasped my thigh, resting it on his shoulder, offering him more of me as his tongue gently pressed and flicked my clit bringing me closer to the edge.

  Pulling away from me I felt instantly like I was hanging off a cliff only one shove away from coming when his puckered lips blew on my a
ching clit. I inhaled without exhaling when his voice whispered, "Let go baby, your wet pussy wants you to..."

  I came undone with Khaos blowing on me. I fell off that cliff and landed in his heart, neck deep and not really looking for salvation.

  I felt the fabric of his jeans rub against my still trembling thighs when he leaned down making me taste myself. His pillow soft lips pressed against mine, whispering against my mouth, "I never understood the phrase… the best things in life are free. I don’t want to pay for your attention; I want to earn it, Birdy, because you taste like freedom.”

  That feeling of being a fraud crept up my back when I heard him say my nickname. I wanted him to say my name, my real name, in that same voice that made it seem like he was just as permanent as a flightless bird. Just like me, but instead I felt my chest swell with other feelings...

  Fraud.

  Liar.

  Jealousy that I deprived myself of hearing my name in all his Khaos.

  Lifting me up by the back of my thighs, he practically tackled me when we fell onto the other side of his cloud couch with a laugh. We were all tangled up with the heat still fueling us as I felt his hard ridge pushing against my inner thigh. Wanting nothing more than to hear my name roll off his tongue I chased his lips with mine.

  Before pulling away completely, I whispered, pinned under him, “It’s Grace… Birdy is just a nickname...”

  Pulling away, I still felt the tenderness of our kiss dancing on my lips when his brow furrowed, looking down at me in this odd way I couldn’t quite figure out. He was leaving me here, drowning, in my own fucked up feelings of wanting him to stay and go before I got hurt at the same time.

  Maybe he pulled away because he doesn’t want to get hurt either.

  “That was the only one of my rules I still hadn’t broken… The last girl I loved started with a G. You promise to keep tasting like freedom and I'll promise to stay off rooftops. I love you, Grace. I don’t care what you call yourself.” That same smirk started a barn fire in my heart when he decided I was worth breaking his last rule after having his heart broken.

  We needed each other and this was our middle finger to all the rules in our lives.

  Too bad he didn’t know about all the rules in my life.

  Falling back down to me, his lips found mine again without any trouble and our mouths opened for more while he pushed his hard cock against my sensitive pussy. Letting my hands work over his wet jeans, I tugged until he pulled away enough to take them off.

  Struggling to find our grip, we both yanked them down until he was only in underwear. Every one of his exposed muscles and tattoos had my eyes darting around the tension. Stepping out of his black boxer briefs that read Supreme, I laughed to myself holding my lip from letting it loose, he sure was and I wasn't denying it.

  "You don't need to be gentle with me," I muttered out loud waiting for him to bridge the gap between us and touch me again. Pushing me onto my back, sinking into the couch, I let him get comfortable between my wide-open legs.

  I was welcoming him inside me... every inch and giving him permission to break me first.

  His teeth latched onto my lip, pulling away, getting my back to arch, “Everything you do is so genuine… Maybe I think that deserves tenderness.” He stared down at me, a smile tugging at the corner of my mouth when I realized he once believed he could pay for authenticity. We were both a bargain, one we still couldn’t afford unless we changed countries and names. Even then, nothing was guaranteed the way he was used to.

  “You can’t buy these kinds of feelings, can you?” My voice was soaked in breathy syllables, moaning for more when I felt his tip stretch parts of me I once considered one size.

  “Everything can be bought… except you, Grace.” He whispered against my neck, leaving kisses behind as his fingers massaged my tight nipples trying to distract me from the only discomfort Khaos had - his size.

  Khaos didn’t know it but he was speaking to my soul.

  I stole expensive things thinking the worth, value, price tag would rub off on me - that I would be so expensive no one could afford me.

  I let people think that by keeping them at arm's length.

  Khaos showed me that I couldn’t just be bought.

  “I love every fucking inch of you,” his voice crashed against my ear when I gasped into the air feeling every inch of him. He had a way of making me love my body the way he did, instead of hiding it in baggy shirts and hoping no one noticed.

  Dove took what he wanted, clothes and pride be damned, both were a waste of his time.

  Opening my legs wider, I begged him to hurt me, not be gentle, be what I was used to but he refused. He always made me feel like I deserved feeling this good for once in my life.

  Lowering down to his elbow that was barely exposed where the cast ended on his forearm, I felt his one good hand cupping my breast between our brushing chests as his hips ground into mine. He wasn't pulling out just to drive himself back inside me - he was digging himself deeper.

  My chest felt tight, trying to keep all the moans trapped when his hand grazed lazily over my throat, groaning into me, "You’re a war cry for my dick, babe. You know better than to hold those moans back from me." Before I could respond he pressed his lips to mine again, pulling away only to whisper in my ear in a throaty voice that made me weak, “Let me hear you.”

  That’s all it took to let all the trapped moans leak from me in sighs, heavy breaths, and inhales.

  We were both smiling and somehow letting this turn into more than just sex. It was crossing a line that neither of us noticed. The same kind of sticky that I couldn't decide if it was sweet or hot.

  “Khaos…” I whimpered at his touch when I felt his fingers tease my clit while his hips kept attacking mine with brutal thrusts and his lips continued covering my neck in kisses. He was always putting me first even when I didn’t deserve it.

  Pushing him down I straddled his legs with his hands on my hips, grasping me like I’d fly away. “Say it, Grace.”

  He wanted to hear I loved him the same way he loved me.

  He wanted my words, not just my actions.

  He wanted to know this wasn’t one sided.

  “I - you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” I was praying it was enough when I fell down onto his lips.

  Lying in bed, tangled up with him was like a dream, but my eyes were open and I was too aware to be actually dreaming. The smell of sex and feelings mingled in the air around us while his fingers traced down my ribs to my hip and back again.

  I spent the night when I didn’t mean to.

  You don’t mean to do anything when it comes to Khaos, it’s all natural.

  “Your cast is ruined now.” I said so matter of fact like he didn’t already know when his arm yanked me closer and his lips kissed my face haphazardly before getting up.

  “Worth it.”

  Moving slightly into the vacant spot on the bed, still warm from his body, I closed my eyes soaking in this moment because I didn’t know how many more we would get when I kept hearing a faint buzzing. Sitting up I tried to hear where it was coming from when I saw my phone in my jean shorts pocket but ignored it.

  Nothing was important right now.

  Nothing outside this bedroom could touch this moment.

  “Cereal break? Then more of this,” he winked at me like a dork in the doorway of his room. All he was missing was finger guns.

  Fishing out my phone to check the time, I saw all the unread messages when I looked at the name that was just emojis that seemed to define chaos: a bomb, an explosion, a gun and an eye roll. Only Khaos had lost his phone and still hadn’t replaced it.

  KHAOS: Since you refuse to answer my calls or texts, I guess I have to result to using your boyfriend's phone.

  KHAOS: That's what he is now, right?

  KHAOS: I’m going to call. Next time pick up the phone or I’ll break more than his hand.

  I felt my chest feel suddenly hollow and my
adrenaline kick up into high gear when I gripped onto my phone until I felt my fingers tingle. My knuckles went white and I knew my days of hiding out with Khaos were over.

  You could only ignore Dove and keep secrets for so long.

  Pulling up my still damp shorts and pulling his discarded shirt over my head, I rushed down the stairs trying to act normal when every part of my body was malfunctioning. None of my senses worked properly and hiding it seemed impossible.

  “Captain crunch or fruit loops?” Khaos’s voice was just as playful and happy as normal when I leaned against the wall trying to cover up anything being wrong.

  “I have to take a call, but I’ll be back in a minute.”

  I took in Khaos behind the island still smiling like a dork when he replied when I was hoping he wouldn’t. “Okay, but don’t be upset when you end up with captain crunch scratching the roof of your mouth because you couldn’t decide. Hurry before it gets soggy.”

  Still leaning against the wall, I tried to commit him to memory, just like this, before it came crashing down. I could only keep my two worlds from colliding for so long, and it looked like my time was up.

  The phone still in my thunderous grip vibrated right through my attention span and snatched me away from worshipping Khaos the same way he did me when he thought I didn’t notice. The dove emoji was at the top of the screen when I slipped out of the side door while Khaos continued jamming to Kanye West while eating his cereal.

  Pressing the green button once I was far enough away from the house, down the driveway, I felt all the air escape my lungs and my heart panic in the wake of no oxygen. His voice was unforgiving the way I expected, “About time we talk, isn’t it?”

  Swallowing a bucket of moisture while my trembling lips shook, I was breathing heavily out of my nostrils as I waited for the slap, punch, or hit coming next.

  “Have you lost sight of him being a mark, Little Bird? Do you need a reminder more than his broken hand?”