Tyrant (Scars of the Wraiths #2)

by Nashoda Rose

  Kilter was quiet for a minute, and I got a little nervous that maybe he’d changed his mind about wanting to sleep with me. “Kilter?”

  “Not good at this shit,” he said. He ran his thumb back and forth over my lower lip. “This between us is what breaks a man, but it’s also what makes him whole. You make me whole, babe.” I opened my mouth and he shook his head. “Not done yet.” I smiled. “You saw me when no one else did. You trusted me when I gave you nothing to trust.”

  My breath hitched. I never expected that from Kilter. He was closed off behind walls that protected him. But he trusted me, and maybe because I’d trusted him first. I showed him the path.

  “And I’ll always want to fuck you.”

  Shit, he’d read my thoughts.

  His body tensed, tatted arms flexing as he hovered above me. “You sort your shit out?”

  “Yeah.” I smiled.

  His brows lifted. “It’s been a fuckin’ hour.”

  “Don’t need much time,” I replied, repeating what he’d said before.

  He snorted, and then there was a brilliant spark of light in his eyes and a subtle grin. God, he was beautiful.

  “Won’t ask you again, you sure?”

  I yanked him closer with a hand bunched in his T-shirt. His elbows collapsed and his chest lay on mine. “Yeah, babe,” I said, smiling. “I’m fuckin’ sure.”

  He chuckled, shaking his head, but the laughter faded as his eyes darted to my mouth as I licked my lower lip. I saw the change in his eyes as they smoldered with desire.

  Butterflies sprung and tingles erupted everywhere. Then he leaned over me, his lips almost touching mine but not quite. His heated breath tickled my cheek as he shifted to my ear and my breath stopped.

  “We do this… forever, Rayne.” His whispered words caused goose bumps to scatter across my skin. “And being immortal, that’s a fuck of a long time.” His tongue traced the tip of my ear. “You’re mine because you choose to be. No other way.”

  “Okay.” I couldn’t breathe. Damn it, I couldn’t goddamn breathe. He suckled the lobe of my ear and twinges erupted between my legs. “Kilter?” I whispered.

  His kissed the edge of my jaw then down my neck. “Yeah?”

  I swallowed. “Can you kiss me now?”

  He lifted, his eyes meeting mine. “Trying to take my time, babe.”

  I didn’t want him to take his time. “Can you take your time after we’re done?”

  He huffed with a mild smirk. “Yeah. Whatever you want.”

  And that was it. All control vanished as his mouth slammed onto mine.

  Consuming.

  Powerful.

  Releasing.

  It was everything Kilter was. Rough. Honest. Raw. Unbending.

  His mouth roamed over mine, tasting, discovering. My lips throbbed and my body ached. His hand slid down my side to my hip then back up again, slipping beneath my shirt. The touch of his hand on my bare skin sent a wave of heat through me.

  His tongue swept into my mouth as the kiss deepened. Slower, but just as fierce.

  “Fuck, baby.” He broke away and trailed kisses along my chin and down my neck. “Never been like this.”

  I moaned when his thumb stroked back and forth just beneath my lace bra. Oh, God, I tilted my head back, a soft gasp escaping when a featherlight touch of his thumb brushed over my nipple. But I was still wearing my bra and I needed his hands. His touch.

  “Kilter,” I breathed.

  “Fuck, you taste amazing. Beautiful.” He trailed kisses along my collarbone then pushed my shirt over my shoulder and kissed there, too.

  “Kilter?”

  “Hmm.” He didn’t lift his head, nor did he stop kissing me, so his lips vibrated against my skin.

  “Shirt.”

  He nipped my left shoulder and lifted, tore his shirt off over his head, and tossed it aside. Then his lips were on mine again.

  “My shirt,” I said against his mouth. “I need your hands on me.”

  “Yeah,” he mumbled, but kept kissing me, his hand now sliding over my ribs, down to my hip where he squeezed.

  Suddenly, he moved, shifting to the side of me. My eyes hit his chest and I stilled as I stared at the beauty mixed with the painful scars of his past. I couldn’t look away and I knew he was watching me as I saw for the first time what his brother had done to him.

  I placed my palm on his chest and slowly ran my fingers over the raised lines that were accentuated with black ink. He didn’t hide them. No, Kilter had black ink engraved into each jagged scar.

  My eyes trailed down to his hard abdomen, each muscle pronounced, and yet there too was scarred by what his brother did to him. On his right shoulder was the spectacular tattoo of what appeared like a dragon with scales and claws, but it also was something else, like a beast of some kind.

  I ran my hand up over his chest to the ink and I traced it, wondering if this beautiful creature came alive like mine had.

  I glanced at him. He was completely still as he watched my reaction to his scarred skin. They were pieces of who he was—his strength and resilience. His determination to survive. His story, and I loved every page of him.

  I lowered my head and trailed kisses along the path of his scars, my tongue flicking out to taste him. Lingering. Taking my time. Discovering. And reading every page.

  “Babe?”

  I paused, looking at him and was met with a scowl. Shit, maybe he didn’t like anyone touching his scars. I hadn’t considered that. “I’m sorry.”

  His frowned deepened. “What the fuck for?”

  “You don’t like me kissing your chest. I didn’t realize—”

  “You can kiss any part of me you want. Love the feel of your lips on my skin. Love your tongue even more.”

  “Oh. But you’re scowling.”

  He grabbed my wrist and brought it between his legs to his cock. His very hard cock. “I’m scowling because my cock hurts like hell and I’m trying to stop myself from ripping your clothes off and fucking you so hard everyone in the fuckin’ house knows it from your screams.”

  Wow. Okay. His cock twitched beneath my touch and I liked that. I liked that he was hard and he scowled because he was trying to keep control.

  He let my wrist go and undid his button on his jeans. “I’m good with all that, except the part about everyone knowing what you’re doing to me right now.” I undid his zipper.

  He groaned. “Sweet Jesus.” He grabbed the bottom edge of my shirt. “Arms.” I raised my arms and he pulled my shirt off over my head and tossed it on the floor. Reaching around me, he undid my bra. It slipped from my shoulders and he tossed it on the floor, too.

  His eyes were no longer on my face, but on my body and it was heated. I’d never had anyone look at me like that. So intense and with this unadulterated desire.

  “Going to taste you before I sink my cock into you.” His hands went to my hips and he slid my pants off. He shifted to his knees above me as he dragged them down my thighs, past my calves, off my feet, and threw them aside. His hands glided back up my legs to the thin straps of my pink lace panties.

  “Didn’t picture you in pink, babe.” He lowered his head and placed a kiss right above the pink bow in the center of my panties, causing an intense clench between my legs then tweaks and tingles. God, there were so many sensations going through me right now that I wondered if this was normal.

  His head lifted. “Not normal,” he said. He’d read my thoughts and I noticed all my shields were down. “Scars feel emotions and sensations stronger than humans, but this is more.” With one yank, he tore my panties from me.

  My mouth dropped open. “You don’t like pink?”

  “Fuck, no. But I like pink on you. I like any color on you. But I like you naked better.” He shuffled down the bed. “Open your legs, baby.”

  I did.

  “Wider.” He had his hands on my inner thighs.

  I was breathing hard and the tweaks, whooshes, and whatever else went haywire. �
�Kilter.”

  He was on his stomach between my legs, heated eyes on me, and his mouth inches away from my throbbing sex. He slid a finger through my wetness and I arched into him. “Just the way I like you, hot and fuckin’ wet as hell.”

  I no longer paid attention to what he said. I couldn’t. I closed my eyes and gripped the pillow on either side of my head, fingers curling into it. “Oh, God,” I murmured when his heated breath wafted over me and his finger circled my clit, slow and gentle, barely touching me.

  “Beautiful. So fuckin’ beautiful.” He slid his finger down me again and lifted it to his mouth. The tip glistened—with me. He put it in his mouth and sucked. “And you taste amazing.”

  It was hot watching him taste me like that. Seeing the desire in his eyes. Feeling his need.

  He lowered his head and his tongue took the place of his finger, and I gasped, lifting my hips, but his hand on my abdomen kept me in place.

  Holy shit. Flares set off inside me. There was a strange pressure as if something was building inside me.

  His tongue flicked over my clit, and then he suckled. “Jesus,” I gasped as the building increased and teetered on the edge of…something. I didn’t know, but I wanted to fall. God, I wanted to fall and keep falling.

  He licked and teased, and then his finger circled my opening and I tried to push down onto him, but he wouldn’t let me. “Kilter. Please.”

  “Wait, baby.” His finger moved back up me then to the spot that throbbed and pulsed. He circled faster, harder. When I felt as if I was going to break apart into a million pieces, he moved up my body and his mouth found mine.

  “Want to kiss you when you come,” he said. Then his finger continued to tease me, the tweaks becoming intense twinges as everything tightened inside me.

  Kilter’s mouth crushed mine when I screamed as wave after wave exploded. Over and over again until my entire body shook and quivered beneath him.

  Holy crap.

  Twitches pulsed as I slowly landed on what was like a bed of rose petals. Sweet. Beautiful. Velvet. It reminded me of velvet.

  There were no words.

  Now I knew why he kissed me. He was keeping everyone in the house from hearing my scream.

  He pulled back. “Something special,” he murmured, and I think it was more to himself than to me.

  He was right; it was special. It had been from the beginning. And now I wanted him inside me and I was feeling brave. “You going to take your jeans off now and fuck me?”

  He huffed, but there was a mild twitch at the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, I can do that.” He came to his knees, shifted to the edge of the bed, and stood. His jeans were already undone and he quickly dropped them to the floor, taking his boxer briefs with them.

  It was my turn to stare as he stood naked in front of me. There was no ink on his legs, only on his abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms. He had thick, muscled thighs with a sprinkling of hair and I caught a glimpse of how his legs curved up into his tight ass. Sorry, girls, Kilter has the best ass.

  My eyes shifted to his cock and my heart skipped a beat. He was clean-shaven, and it was hard and thick, the tip glistening with wetness. He was the one who was beautiful.

  He placed one knee on the bed and it sagged under his weight. Then he crawled over the top of me and lowered. It was all done slowly, his eyes never leaving mine.

  I slid my hand down his scarred, inked chest to his abdomen and then to his cock. His body jerked as my finger grazed the tip of it.

  “Fuck,” he mumbled.

  I trailed a finger down the length of him then back up again. He remained completely still, hovering over me, but his expression was tight as if he was in pain. But I knew he wasn’t. His eyes still burned with heat.

  I curled my hand around the base and gently squeezed. A hiss emerged from his throat and he threw his head back. I smiled at his response, loving how I could make this crass, arrogant man bend to me.

  Because that’s what this was. Kilter bending to me. He gave me the pages he’d kept hidden from everyone else.

  His hand covered mine on his cock. “Condom, babe. I need inside you.”

  “I, ah…” God, I didn’t have any condoms.

  He chuckled. “Don’t expect you to have any. Fuck, I’d be pissed if you did.”

  “Pissed?”

  “I know I’ve been gone for six months, but thinking about you fucking other guys is not something that rolls well with me.”

  I raised my brows. “So, you thought we’d get together?”

  He briefly kissed me on my swollen lips. “No, babe. I didn’t.”

  “Oh,” I murmured, kind of disappointed that he hadn’t.

  He cupped my chin, thumb stroking over my lower lip. “All I thought about was protecting you. Wanting you to get better. I never thought I’d have a chance at something special. And you’re something special, babe. Don’t deserve you, but, ” the corners of his lips curved up, “never said I wasn’t selfish. So, yeah, I want special and sweet and the beautiful woman lying underneath me waiting for my cock. You good with that?”

  I shrugged, hiding my smile. “I guess.”

  He snorted and ground his hips into me, and his cock pressed into my clit and sparks shot through me. “Oh, babe, you so don’t want to shrug at me. I can make you beg for a very long time.”

  “I bet I can make you beg, too.” I squeezed his cock, sliding my hand up and down.

  “Don’t beg. But I’m all for you trying.” He winked at me, grinning.

  God, he winked at me. Kilter grinned and winked. It was as if learning the truth had finally released him from the prison he’d been living in.

  He leaned over, opened the nightstand drawer, and fiddled around for a second before pulling out a small, square package. He ripped it open and rolled it on with one hand while I held the base of his cock. Then he moved so he knelt between my legs.

  I wrapped my legs around his hips and he groaned as he slid his cock through my wetness before gently pressing at my opening.

  “Look at me,” he ordered.

  Shit, I had my eyes closed, waiting for him to thrust inside me. I was tense, knowing it would hurt at first.

  “Want to see your eyes, so I know I’m not hurting you.” As soon as I looked at him, I relaxed and took a deep breath. This was Kilter. I wanted him inside me and my body ached for him.

  “That’s it, baby. We do this slowly the first time. Okay?”

  I nodded.

  “Keep your eyes on me.”

  I nodded again.

  He lifted up on his arms and slowly pressed his cock into me. It was tight. God, it was tight, but it wasn’t painful. It was uncomfortable, maybe. He kept his eyes locked on me as he slowly tilted his hips and slid inside me further.

  As my body adjusted to him, he slowly sank deeper. I felt the need to yank him down on top of me, and I tightened my thighs around him, tilting my hips up to meet him.

  “Fuck,” he groaned. “Give me a sec, babe.”

  His cock buried deep inside me, every inch of him pulsing, every inch of me throbbing. There was a raw need for him to move. To thrust. “Please, Kilter.”

  “You’re so fuckin’ tight and feel so damn good, Rayne.” He slid halfway out then back in again.

  I closed my eyes and arched, meeting his slow thrust. “Faster,” I begged, one hand at the back of his neck, fingers bunching in his hair and pulling.

  He moved faster.

  Deeper.

  Harder.

  I clenched around him. The sensation of him moving inside me was like being taken away from all the bad, erasing it and being set free.

  His hips ground into me, and with his thrusts, the pressure built until every part of me clenched around him.

  My breath hitched. “Kilter,” I cried.

  He thrust harder. Our bodies slapping into one another in perfect rhythm. “Fuck! You there, babe?” he ground out, his face tight.

  I was already there. “Kilter,” I screamed, a
s I came hard and fast. Everything inside me quivering and shaking.

  “Yes.” Kilter pumped into me hard three more times before he made a low graveled groan as he came, too.

  Our chests heaved, hearts pounded, and our skin was heated as he both stilled and stared at one another for a minute, taking in what we shared, knowing it was special.

  And, yeah, knowing this was more. We were more. And it was endless.

  I PRESSED UP AGAINST Kilter’s side, my finger tracing the ink on his abdomen while he absently stroked my back. I was naked, so was he, and after the first time, we did it again, except this time I rode him while he held my hips.

  Watching his face when he came, God that made me come so hard that I screamed—loud. To which he laughed after he finished coming because everyone in the house had to have heard me. And Kilter, being Kilter, didn’t give a shit if they did. Actually, I think he liked it. I didn’t. I was mortified.

  That was a half hour ago and we were still lying in bed, slow caresses, Kilter leaning in to me and kissing me soft and sweet. It was nice. I hadn’t had nice before Kilter.

  His hand stopped stroking my back and the pillow rustled as he tilted his head to look down at me tucked in to his side. “We need to talk.”

  Okay, that was serious. “About?”

  “A meeting’s been called.”

  I didn’t particularly like the sound of that. “A meeting? With who?”

  “Everyone.”

  “Umm, okay.” Did that include me?

  “Yeah, babe. It includes you. Not happy about it, but a vampire attacked you and we need to find out why.”

  I had no idea why. It wasn’t like the vampires had a use for me, except for my blood, which was the same as any other person. My ability had no benefit to them even if they knew about it.

  “Waleron wants to know everything about you.” My heart leapt because I knew he was referring to the compound, and it wasn’t something I liked to talk about. “How long have you known you could steal people’s emotions and replace them like that?”

  I stiffened and turned over so I lay on my back, then pulled the sheet up over my breasts. Better to talk covered, less vulnerable. Kilter rolled to his side so he faced me and yanked the sheet down, cupping my breast, his thumb barely grazing my erect nipple.