“It was just a thought,” I said, bracing for his reaction. “I don’t know what I want to do long term yet, but for now I think I’ll stay at Aster’s.”
And the only thing he said was, “Okay.”
Wings didn’t actually spring free from my back, but it still felt like an invisible force sent me hurtling forward and into his arms. He caught me easily, surprise sketched across his chiseled features. Surprise that quickly gave way to desire when I licked my lips and tipped my chin up, a silent demand.
When his lips came down on me, I felt in my soul that he would never deny me anything. Never take me for granted. Never clip the wings growing bigger and bigger each day I took my own path in life.
I loved him for that.
And God, Lizzy was totally going to hold this over my head.
Then Rain caught a fistful of my hair in his strong grip and I forgot about anything else but him.
“Finally have you to myself,” he rumbled, pulling my head back and exposing the column of my neck.
The pinch of pain made me gasp sharply and then his lips were on my neck, smoothly gliding up and down and soothing it away. He pressed his face closer and I felt his breath against the now damp skin there before his lips peeled back and his teeth replaced them.
A shiver passed through me when he caught the delicate skin there between his teeth. I held my breath, waiting for him to bite down. Waiting for him to mark my skin as his for the whole world to see. But his teeth let go in the next heartbeat and his tongue replaced them, branding me just as surely.
“Rain,” I cried, shifting on my feet.
My hands found their way beneath his shirt, tracing over the cords and cords of muscle holding him together like one irresistible machine. Everywhere I touched, there was strength. Yet when my nails dug into his skin, I had a hands-on experience for the way that same muscle flexed, reacting to me.
“Harder,” he said, dropping his mouth to my shoulder. He pulled the strap of my dress out of the way and pressed butterfly kisses over the area until my toes curled.
Obeying his demand, I pressed my nails against his chest and raked them down his front again.
Rain growled, nipping at my flesh with his teeth. Then he grabbed my hips and spun us so fast it was dizzying. I felt the hard edges of a desk behind me. He lifted me off the ground and sat me on it instead, tossing stacks of paper and parts to the floor with casual disregard.
I blinked up at him, shocked into inaction. His eyes were the darkest grey I had seen yet, a storm stirring deep inside them. He leaned over me, sealing me in with those strong arms, and brought our faces so close his eyes became the only things I could see.
There was an undercurrent of danger in the air—similar to when he’d held a wrench in Gibson’s face—that hadn’t been there a moment before.
Wariness would’ve been a valid response, given everything I had seen.
Given that Rain’s infamous brother was the kind of scary people tended to whisper about and that some of those violent tendencies had obviously been passed down.
Instead, excitement licked at the inside of my veins, adding lighter fluid to the blaze that had started with his first touch. All that strength and darkness and unyielding affection was a weapon he could wield against me any time he wanted.
Feeling bold, I spread my legs wider, dress hiking up my thighs. “What’s wrong?” I asked on a breathy whisper, fingers dancing up his forearms.
He didn’t look away from me. “The things I want to do with you...to you. I’m not gonna lie, magic girl. They’re fucking filthy and I don’t know where to start.”
I leaned forward, putting my lips to his ear. “Here’s an idea,” I said softly, pressing my nose against him. His whole body seemed to swell as he took a deep breath. “Do whatever you want.”
He caught my neck, gripping tightly as he pushed me back so he could stare me down. I only gave him my most infuriating smirk, loving the way his fingers tightened.
The way I had to work just a little bit harder to pull in my next breath.
The way my nipples turned into points so sensitive they felt trapped by the fabric covering them.
His eyes shifted between mine, searching for a lie he wasn’t going to find. “You have no idea what you’re signing up for, Pixie. And maybe I should give you a chance to change your mind, but I won’t.” His voice echoed all around me with dark promise. “Don’t regret those words, because you’re mine now. No more half measures. No more interruptions. Nod if you understand me.”
There wasn’t an ounce of hesitation in me.
I wanted all of that and more.
I wanted everything he had to give.
When I nodded, I did so with another smile.
A smile he quickly wiped off my face when he ripped his shirt off and tossed it behind him.
Lord have mercy.
My imagination over the last several days had absolutely nothing on the real thing. The sleeves of his tattoos ended at each shoulder, leaving the pale, sculpted lines of his chest on full display. Red lines from my nails tracked down his pecs, over his abs. My eyes got snagged on the fine hairs headed below his belt, so I was caught by surprise when he lunged for me, closing the distance.
Rain’s hands found my hips again, and his grip was no less than bruising. I cried out, more in surprise than pain, and dark eyes found mine for a heartbeat, measuring carefully. Whatever he saw there had his lips curving in a savagely beautiful smile.
My heart skipped so many beats I wasn't sure the rhythm would ever return to normal.
Deft fingers slid beneath the hem of my dress, tugging it upwards. The backs of his fingers brushed against my thighs, leaving goosebumps in a burning trail. When the fabric was fully above my hips, exposing my dark blue panties and the wet spot I knew was evident in the center of them, his gaze flashed with satisfaction.
“I can almost taste you already,” he purred. My thighs tensed, a fresh supply of heat flashing in my core. “So wet and ready for me.”
His attention shifted to something over my shoulder, and when his eyes returned to me, he gave me that look. The one that said he wanted to have me.
Claim me.
Consume me.
Rain reached behind me and I heard a soft clink against the desk.
I looked down when he opened his hand between us, breath catching when I caught sight of the bungee cord he was holding.
My mouth went dry. This...I hadn’t expected. For all my bluster and my sinful choice in clothing, my experience tapped out around a handful of scattered trysts in the back of a pickup.
“Give me your wrists,” he said in a voice that brokered no argument.
I held them out towards him, hoping he wouldn’t notice the slight tremble of nerves. For some reason, I was more concerned about disappointing him than the prospect of being restrained.
His eyes narrowed on my face, then he crushed his mouth against mine so hard I had to grip the desk with my legs to keep from falling backwards.
I fell into his kiss with familiar ease, lips and tongues finding the perfect spots like it was nothing.
My eyes closed, and despite the intensity with which we moved against each other, I could feel what he was telling me without words.
Each time he bit my lips and then softly brushed his tongue along the spot.
Each time his hands moved to another area on my body, gripping me roughly before lightly stroking.
Each time he growled savagely into my mouth and then released a soft sigh on the tail end of it.
He was telling me the same thing.
No matter what he had said out loud, if I asked him to stop, he would stop with no questions asked.
That knowledge had me extending my wrists again. They still trembled. But with excitement that matched the pulse between my legs.
He tied my wrists together without looking, without stopping the endless assault of his kiss. I only realized he was done because I tried to lift a hand to cup his
jaw and felt the resistance.
A thrill went through me and I swear he knew it.
“At my mercy now, Pixie,” he rasped, fingers digging into the meat of my thighs, leaving flushed skin behind.
I tried to think of something smart to say, but the words died on my tongue when he dropped between my legs, spreading my thighs farther apart with his shoulders.
Rain turned his head, nipping at the side of my knee. My leg kicked out by reflex and he grabbed my calves, pinning them back against the desk.
His tongue followed his teeth, soothing the slight burn. When he bit at my thigh a moment later, my breath caught. I looked down in wonder as he pulled back. We both seemed to stare at the indentation of his teeth marking my skin.
I reached for him again, bound hands awkwardly grasping at his hair and finding no purchase by which to bring his mouth where I really wanted it: my hot, dripping center.
Rain chuckled darkly at my attempt and turned to the other side, giving my opposite thigh the same tortuous attention.
His fingers glided up and down the backs of my legs, stroking the excitement bubbling inside me while that wicked mouth of his licked and bit and sucked.
He worked his way so, so slowly up to the apex of my thighs, mouth so close to my pussy I could feel each heavy pant of his breath against me.
“Rain,” I begged, trying to shift my hips closer to him.
Huge hands wrapped around my waist, long fingers digging into the meat of my ass while he held me in place. He kept one hand on my hips so the other was free to tug my panties to the side, exposing me to him fully.
“Look at you,” he hissed. “So fucking pretty and pink and wet.”
I watched in awe as his head dipped and his tongue flicked out, lapping at my sensitive folds. I sucked in a sharp breath, body flushing with delicious heat.
He groaned against me, the sound wicked and pleased. “Knew it. You taste just like pixie stix.”
I laughed before I could stop myself. “The candy? Are you serious right now?”
Rain raised a brow, grey eyes gleaming. “I don't joke about pussy. Not when it's this good.”
My mouth fell open, but I had no real response to that and he wasn't interested in giving me time to develop one.
Eyes holding mine hostage, his mouth closed over my pussy and I felt the flat of his tongue cover every inch of me. My lashes fluttered at the electrifying contact, but I knew he wanted me to watch so I let my nails bite into my palms while the pain grounded me.
Satisfied, he returned between my legs for more, that skilled tongue flicking against my clit on every swipe. My thighs clenched around him, threatening to close, but he had all the leverage and that big body keeping mine spread.
Roaming fingers slid from my waist and found my entrance with ease. He rubbed me in slow circles, dipping in just far enough that I felt the tantalizing stretch before the inevitable retreat. On the third time, I whimpered and couldn't stop myself.
Rain rose up above me suddenly, pushing me back with a strong hand around my throat. I let him move my body how he wanted to. Let him lay me out on top of his desk like an offering. It seemed as if his eyes glowed while he looked down at me, and I made no move to cover myself.
I wanted to be on his mind the way he was on mine.
I wanted him to remember seeing me wet and ready for him each time he walked in the door.
The fingers around my throat flexed and his voice emerged. Sudden and unstoppable. Rough and demanding. “Knees up.”
My body moved at his command more than mine, and then two of his fingers were pressing inside me. Curling against the textured walls of my pussy. Stirring waves of blinding pleasure that had me squirming against his firm grip.
He pressed the heel of his palm against my clit while his hand restricted the amount of air I could grasp. My lungs burned even as sparks danced across my skin. Pressure built at the base of my spine and I felt my face pinch with the surge of need riding me like a tsunami.
“Rain,” I hissed between my teeth, reaching for him. My wrists ached from being bound. His fingers picked up speed, curling and flexing inside me. I was overly aware of how the cool wood felt against my overheated back.
The sensations were too much. Too powerful.
“Rain,” I tried again.
He leaned down over me. “I’ll let go of you when you cum all over my fucking fingers, Pixie. And not a moment before.”
Belatedly, I hoped he hadn’t meant to draw this out any further because the combination of his low voice and the savage flash of teeth, along with everything else he was putting my body through sent me hurtling over the edge without a parachute.
I cried out, body jackknifing. Legs kicking. Arms flailing. I heard his satisfied rumble like it was coming from far away and before I could even see straight again his hands were back on my thighs.
He lifted me into his arms all at once and set off while my word still swam in and out of focus and aftershocks quaked against my core. Despite the orgasm I was still coming down from, my body was practically leaking as he carried me up the stairs. Strode inside his bedroom. Deposited me on his metallic grey bed.
This is happening, I told myself, watching him watch me with a joyous feeling I could hardly recognize bouncing around inside my chest.
He started rooting around in one of his drawers and I frowned. Then my eyes widened when he turned around and flipped open a pocketknife that looked awfully sharp in the near darkness of the room.
Oh God, I really have no idea what I’m getting into here.
And yet, I didn’t run.
I didn’t scream.
He approached the bed, and even though I felt like a rabbit that had finally grown exhausted and been cornered by her prey, I knew I was going to see where he was trying to take this before I made my protest.
I didn’t believe he would hurt me. Not for a second. But I did believe he was wildly unpredictable. Seeing as how my memory was thankfully longer than a butterfly’s, I distinctly remembered him stomping into my classroom with a wrench.
Well-adjusted, Rain was not.
But I was his, either way.
So, as he crawled onto the bed and the mattress dipped beneath his weight, I raised a brow in challenge. Speaking to him with a single look.
Bring it on.
Chapter 9 - Rain
My woman was completely and utterly out of her mind. Seriously. Crazy didn’t seem a powerful enough choice of word.
I had a knife in my hands. A sharp one at that. She was on my bed. Wrists bound. Totally fucking naked and so gorgeous I thought my eyes should burn out of their sockets from looking at her.
But she was at my mercy. And yet you wouldn't know it from taking in the imperious stare she was meeting mine with.
Of course, I wasn’t about to cut her.
That would be a bit much, even for me. I enjoyed playing around with the idea of dominating her, and maybe one day I would show her around a few knots and let her tie me to the bed instead.
But I didn’t hold much interest in the more extreme aspects of that world.
Maybe my brother was into that kind of thing—violence was in his veins more than blood as it was—but I wasn’t about it.
“Love the fight, Pixie.” I crawled towards her and extended my free hand, nodding my head at her wrists. “But this is only to get these things off of you.”
She flushed red, suddenly shy, as if my face wasn’t still covered in the delectable wetness from her pussy. Kayla extended her slim arms towards me.
I caught them and tugged at her, loving the way her eyes widened before she realized I was only fucking with her. Once she was settled, I carefully slid the knife beneath the loose ends of the cords and cut them apart.
Kayla shook her hands out while I folded the knife and stashed it away, taking a condom from the drawer and placing it in reaching distance while I did. Then I grabbed her hands and brought them up to my face, inspecting the slight bruises around her
wrists. I waited to feel bad about putting marks on her that weren’t likely to fade for a few days yet and found that I wasn’t capable of it.
She was mine. At the end of the day, that was my greatest burning truth. The constant light that would illuminate my existence.
She was mine and if I wanted to mark her every goddamn day so that the entire fucking world knew there was a man out there staking their claim then I would do just that.
Stuffing those primal emotions back in the box before they escaped completely, I adjusted my grip, clasping her hands gently. I raised them to my mouth, kissing the knuckles. The backs of her palms. Those same marks around her wrists and the tiny, tatted wings.
She watched me closely, pink lips parted, emotion shimmering in her eyes. I knew exactly what she was feeling because I had felt it each time I looked at her since Creed had let me see that picture.
I fucking loved this woman and no matter what I did to her body, I would make sure her heart knew that for a fact for as long as I drew breath.
Leaning forward quickly, I captured her lips in a searing kiss that sealed our souls together.
Mine, I told her with my tongue, swiping it across the seam of her lips.
Mine. My hand captured the back of her neck, holding her steady while my tongue slipped inside her sweet heat.
Mine. I growled and forced the sound down her throat, palming her heavy breasts in my hand.
“Jesus,” she breathed against me when I broke the kiss and let my teeth ghost down the side of her neck.
“Only me,” I said into the hollow of her throat. “Always me.”
“Always,” she echoed, hands tracing greedily over my body. Kayla made up for the time she had spent bound in moments.
Her nails raked at my skin. Delicate fingers traced the lines of my jaw. The wall made by my abs. The dips and curves of my back and spine. She touched me everywhere and I closed my eyes, savoring this moment and the many more that would follow.
But if I spent much more time savoring, I was going to make a mess in my fucking jeans like a jackass.
I placed another tender kiss along her brow and pushed her backwards, smirking at the way she rolled her eyes before letting herself fall onto her elbows.
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