QUIVER, BOOK EIGHT (A DARK ROMANCE)

by Laura Avery

  “Great,” I snapped, turning my back on him and settling into bed. “You worry about Morgan and Pierce then and I’ll just stay silent while they make all the decisions like a good girl.”

  Jackson didn’t say anything for a few minutes, letting me sit in my own misery. I knew he hadn’t fallen asleep because I could still hear him breathing soundly next to me, inhaling and exhaling as if I wasn’t fuming next to him. Just when I was about to swing back around and study him for a reaction I felt his arm shoot around my waist and yank my back against his body.

  I slammed into his hard chest and gasped. “Jackson!”

  His grip only tightened on me, claiming me as if I were a piece of meat and he a ravished lion. “Fine.” I felt his lips clamping down on my neck possessively, his thick tongue sucking tenderly and then roughly on my skin.

  I bit down on my lip and tried not to moan when I felt his hard cock pressing into the back of my body. He had promised less than an hour ago to wear me out all night long and it seemed like he was getting ready to make good on his word.

  “Fine, what?” I squeezed my legs together and settled into his body. He was so much larger than me, it should have felt overpowering, and sometimes it did. But right then, at that moment, it just felt right. I didn’t want him to ever let go of me. We were practically cuddling. At least, that’s what it felt like to me, but I didn’t dare say it out loud at the risk of him taking his hands off me.

  He was silent for what felt like forever before letting out a deep groan. “Fine, you can have a say if it’s that big of a deal to you.” He fingers drifted forward, slipping over my neck and rubbing softly on the skin just above my breasts. “I’ll tell my brothers.”

  “You will?” I asked, turning to him, stunned.

  I was half expecting him to laugh at any moment, taking it back as if it were some big joke. It was a big deal for him to even say such a thing, it made me feel like we were something more than just pain and hate. It was still there, taking over his presence, but who knew? Maybe somewhere deeper down there was something else, too. Something that was strong enough to overcome the hate eventually.

  He shrugged as if it were no big deal. “I guess but it’s not going to mean much. There’s two of them and one of you, they’ll just overrule you every time.” His hands were directly on my breasts now, flicking my sensitive nipples up and down roughly. “Your nipples are so hard, lamb. I guess you get turned on when you’re mad, huh?”

  I flushed. I hadn’t even realized they had started to grow under his touch. “I don’t care if they overturn me,” I told him, ignoring his later comment. “Just as long as I have a say. When you were lying there, not moving, and it felt like Morgan had more of a say then I did…” I trailed off, wishing I could find words to express just how empty it made me feel. “It killed me.”

  “Why?” he sighed. “I’m here, right? That’s what matters. And Morgan isn’t shit to me. I think she’s pretty fucking annoying if you want the truth.”

  He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know, they fought like cats and dogs until Jackson called Pierce to get her out of his way. “Exactly. You guys don’t even like each other so she shouldn’t get to know what’s going on with you. If anyone should then it should be me. I’m your…”

  `I felt his body go stiff. “You’re my what?”

  I shook my head, catching my mistake too late. “Nothing.”

  Jackson pulled away from me and flipped my body onto my back, pinning my wrists above my head as he looked down at me with confusion. His normally grey eyes were completely black now, lost and unable to understand the simplicity of what I really craved from him. “The only thing you’re ever going to be is mine, Emery.”

  My heart was racing in my chest. I hadn’t seen him this intense since before he got stabbed. His guard was completely back up and I almost wondered if what he had just said about me having a say was completely off the table now. I silently cursed myself. I had slipped up, pushed him too far. I’d almost called myself his girlfriend.

  Crist, I might as well have asked him to marry me.

  He took the hand he wasn’t using to hold my wrists together and linked it under my chin, forcing my eyes up into his dark ones. “Do you understand me, Emery?”

  “Y-Yes, I understand.”

  “Then fucking say it,” he told me.

  The edge was back in his voice. Not that it had ever gone completely away but it had softened for a while. But now it was there, evident and clear, he was back in his damaged and lost atmosphere he had become so accustomed to. Great, all I had to do was wait until his next near-death experience for his guard to come down again.

  I didn’t say any of this, though. No, instead I did what I always did. I agreed with him. Not because I was lying but because it was just the way it was. I couldn’t help the fact that I was submissive to him any more than he could help the fact that he was made to own me.

  Dominate me.

  Control me.

  Make me scream over and over again.

  Lord, there went the moisture between my legs again.

  “The only thing I’ll ever be is yours,” I whispered.

  Looking into his eyes was like drowning in a sea of darkness that you would never be able to swim your way out of, no matter how hard you kicked and fought. I wanted to be buried inside of those eyes and make my way down to the inner parts of his soul, helping to let light creep into it again.

  All the times Morgan had warned me about what kind of man he was, how awful and damaged he was played in and out of my mind like a surge of firecrackers that never stopped. I could feel the truth crashing over me but I was stuck, stunned into place, and unable to move on from the show that was playing out in front of me.

  It may have been a disaster but it was still beautiful.

  Jackson leaned down slowly, pulling my bottom lip up and sucking on it tenderly the way he had become accustomed to. I groaned and puffed my pillow out a little deeper, desperate for him to make it sore with redness by the time he was done.

  “Good girl,” he cooed in approval, sucking even harder.

  A small surge of pain shot through my mouth and into the lower part of my face as he sunk his teeth into my tongue, biting down so hard on my lip that I was waiting to taste blood. He released my lip and then grabbed a hold of my tongue deepening our kiss.

  My bones were slowly waking, as If they had been asleep forever, never really feeling anything, only existing. But kissing Jackson, well kissing Jackson was like finding out you were made of tin and a heart was on its way to you. I never wanted to stop. I wanted to spend the rest of my life wrapped in his arms and lips…

  And heart.

  God. How I wanted his heart.

  I forced my tongue out further, letting him fully suck on it while the soap between my legs began to flow more freely. It felt like forever since I had last cum, the previous relief of what Jackson had done to my body hours ago was gone and I was completely turned on again.

  Jackson wasted no time sucking on it as his grip tightened around my wrists. It was impressive how he managed to control me without applying any pressure to my hurt wrist. It was like he knew exactly where to press so that I wouldn’t feel any tenderness while still making it next to impossible for me to move.

  How could he know my body just as well as he knew my mind?

  We had only just started being intimate…

  I felt like I needed forever to learn ever curve and defined part of his perfectly crafted physique. Of course, he did seem to have a lot more muscles than me. And in places I hadn’t even known existed nonetheless. Speaking of his body…

  “I want to touch you,” I begged into his lips.

  He grinned and pushed his hard cock into my lap as he continued to kiss me roughly. “You want to touch me where?” he whispered, pushing his hard-on even harder into my thigh.

  It sure was clear where he wanted me to touch him.

  “Everywhere,” I pleaded.
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  He moved his lips to my neck as if he were considering my request. “That might be able to be arranged,” he said between more sucking. “If you ask nicely like a polite little lamb.”

  I could feel my nipples going so hard that they felt like they were going to snap under the friction. I wondered if I would ever get used to the effect he had on my body. If I would ever be able to control it. Just as the thought popped into my head I felt the wetness between my legs start to slowly drip down the inside of my thighs.

  I guess that answered that.

  “Please, Jackson?” I closed my eyes and then forced them back open when I felt my eyelids starting to roll back into my head. I knew he wouldn’t like that, he enjoyed seeing my gaze locked on him, got off on knowing I was too turned on to handle my own body. “Please, can I touch you?”

  He took his hand away from my wrists but I knew better than to move them without his permission. “I don’t know, lamb, it might give you too much power.” He shoved his hand between my legs, roughly pushing them apart as he found my center. “You might start thinking you make the rules around here.”

  The fact that we had already hooked up not that long ago was a different kind of torture. I didn’t have the usual shield of fabric between us. Instead, only the skimpiest of my bra and panties combined with his boxers was separating our hot and sweaty bodies from one another. Let’s just say my hormones weren’t having the best reaction to the new development.

  I shook my head. “I won’t! I swear!” I knew I sounded pathetic, like I was begging, but it was hard to care when my body felt like it was going to combust at any moment.

  Jackson reached up and grabbed my bra strap between his fingers, turning it back and forth a few times before releasing it suddenly and letting it snap into my skin. He grinned when he saw the sting it caused in my eyes. “Yeah? You promise you won't let the power go to your head, baby?”

  My arms were starting to inch downward, craving his skin. “I promise.” He was literally driving me insane, he knew I would never get our roles reversed. He knew I would never think that I called the shots. He was just teasing me, dragging out my torture. “Please, stop teasing me,” I finally groaned.

  He huffed. “You should talk, you walked around all high and mighty like a little fucking tease for years, lamb.” He grabbed me by the back of my head and snapped my head forward, crushing a rough kiss on my lips. “Do you have any idea how much self-control it took for me to not grab you and kiss you every time I saw you? To not show that hot little body of yours just how much I could rock it.”

  My heart started fluttering rapidly. Jackson had never admitted he wanted me in all those years he knew me before. I had always thought he found me repulsive. “I always thought you hated me.”

  “I did,” he assured me. “You can hate something and still want it.”

  The more he said the less sense he made.

  But I knew better than to argue.

  My body was shaking underneath him, my mind rushing in all directions. I hated how little he showed emotion because when I got the tiniest glimpse of it I was left overanalyzing it far too deeply.

  He reached above me and pulled my hand down, pushing it onto his bare stomach. “Is that what you wanted, my naughty little lamb? You wanted to feel every inch of me?”

  I was in heaven, my fingers tracing up and down every crack of muscle he had been graced with. I had never seen a body so beautiful in my life, not even on the pages of magazines. “I swear it’s not fair for anyone to look this good without even trying.”

  He chuckled at my words. “You want me, don’t you, Emery?”

  I nodded. “You know I do.”

  “Then say it,” he demanded.

  “I want you,” I whispered.

  “For how long?”

  “Forever.”

  He groaned and leaned down, kissing me again before he pulled off of me and opened the drawer next to his bed. “Give me your hands,” he demanded, looping a piece of rope around them when I obeyed and shoving them behind my back. “You can only touch me when I say you can, lamb. I own you and that means I’ll be the judge of what you can and can’t do. Am I making myself clear?”

  I huffed in annoyance. My exploration of his body had been cut short way too quickly for my liking. My body was being flipped over like a ragdoll before I could protest and Jackson was tightening the thick rope around my wrists, once again careful to avoid my wounded wrist.

  “Jackson,” I complained. “This isn’t fair.”

  He flipped me onto my back again and looked me up and down slowly. “Life’s not fair, lamb. If it was I would have fucked the shit out of you a long time ago.” He grinned and pushed my hair out of my face, placing it behind my ears.

  My thoughts immediately went back to the night we were supposed to have sex for the first time. The night that I had walked in on Liam and everything had changed for all of us. I had been ready even back then to give myself over to him fully, even when I had every reason in the world not to.

  His hold on me was constant and forever.

  “Do you think we would have that night?” I found myself asking him. I cleared my throat when I saw the blank look on his face. “I mean if things hadn’t have gone down the way they did?”

  “It doesn’t really matter, does it?” he growled in anger. “Things did go down that way. You did what you did which is why we’re in the situation we are now.” His thumb was on my chin, stroking hard. “When and where I had you for the first time or the last time doesn’t matter and won’t matter because I was always destined to own you, period.”

  My eyes were blinking rapidly up at him unintentionally.

  He snapped my head forward and pried my lips apart with his finger. “Suck on my finger, lamb.” His tan face looked even more defined in the darkness. The curves of his perfectness were being played up perfectly. “Yeah, just like that, Emery, suck on my finger just like you would if it were my huge cock.”

  I swirled my tongue around the edge of his knuckle seductively.

  Amazing: even his finger tasted delicious.

  I inhaled his aroma, letting it sink into my senses and drown me. I never wanted to shower again. I just wanted to walk around with him all over me for the rest of my life. Living in him and then dying in him. God, what’s wrong with you, Emery?

  You’re so crazy.

  So, why does this whole thing feel so right?

  “You’re way too good with that deep mouth, lamb.” His eyes went dead and he yanked his hand out of my mouth and grabbed me by the chin, forcing me to look at him. “Are you sure you haven’t done this before? Positive that you never had a cock inside of that innocent little mouth of yours before mine?”

  I shook my head rapidly, wanting to calm him down. “Y-Yes!”

  He kept his hands on my face. “Because you know what will happen if I find out you’re lying, right?” He raised his eyebrows. “You’ll be in a world of shit and whoever had the nerve to stick his pencil dick in my sweet mouth will be fucking dead. You know that, right?”

  “I’m not lying,” I insisted.

  “I’m serious, Emery. I’ll kill him.” He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against mine. “I’ll kill any man that ever touches you. Any man that ever dares to try and dip his hands in what belongs to me.”

  He didn’t have to say it again for me to believe him. It was evident from the evilness and possessiveness in his eyes that he meant it. A slow chill made its way up and down my spine. Besides his brothers, Jackson was the only man who could talk about murdering someone as if it were completely natural. What was even more daunting was how deadly serious he was.

  I tried to reach my hand up to run across his temple in reassurance before I remembered I was tied at his mercy. “I’ve never… I’ve never done that before, I promise.” I felt myself blushing further.

  Jackson ran his thumb over his perfectly arched cheekbones in annoyance. “The thought of you opening your mouth for some oth
er fucking douchebag makes me want to strangle someone, Emery.” He pushed his large hand back down to my face, wrapping his fingers around my cheek. “No one else ever gets to know just how perfect that mouth of yours is, my little lamb.”

  I shook my head. “I swear, only yours, Jackson.”

  He nodded, pressing harder on my face. “Mine is the only cock you want, Emery?” His other hand was between my legs again, pressing my thighs apart “You want me and only me for the rest of your life, baby? Want me to own you forever?”

  I moaned and felt liquid pushing onto his fingers. “Only you.”

  “Say it,” he growled.

  “I want you and only you!” I gasped. “Only your big cock!”

  “That’s good.” He dipped his fingers into the front of my panties and squeezed down on my slit roughly. “That’s a good girl.” He smirked when he felt my wetness dripping down around his knuckles. “There’s my good girl, getting nice and wet.”

  I sure was.

  “Ugh,” he groaned. “That pussy is so fucking slick, Emery.” He pushed his hand roughly up and down my line before shoving the edge of his index finger inside of me. “Look at that, little lamb, you’re fucking soaked.”

  He was speaking the truth. I could feel my center growing with moisture by the second. Since my hands were bound together I used my legs to jolt my body into his touch, desperate to further the process of relief that my inner joints begged for.

  Jackson laughed, his eyes glistening with evilness before he yanked his fingers out of my body and shook his head. “Nope, not yet, little lamb. I want you to show me how that mouth was made for me and me alone before you get to cum.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to collect my emotions. Part of the thrill for Jackson was controlling me, making me wait, only allowing me to have him on his terms. I knew that but it didn’t make the whole keeping my body under control thing any easier.

  Jackson was on top of me within seconds, placing his knees on either side of my body so I was boxed down on the mattress. His eyes roamed up and down my chest before he reached out and pulled the blanket completely off of me. “Don’t move,” he whispered. “I want to look at every inch of you, baby.”