by Eva Ashwood
Eli wasn’t an easy one to take down, however. Luke Carmine had obviously picked him out for a reason. He recovered quickly from Kace’s blow, not even bothering to wipe away the blood pouring down his face before he returned a punch just as quickly. His fist bashed against Kace’s cheek, splitting the skin there.
I watched the exchange, trying to catch my breath from the adrenaline running through me as the two continued their fight.
I was… fucking livid.
For the first time, I thought I might understand the rage that always seemed to pulse under Kace’s skin, barely contained by his self-restraint.
In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to watch him destroy Eli. To watch him tear the fucker apart limb by limb.
But I couldn’t. As furious as I was, I wasn’t willing to let Kace beat the ever-loving shit out of Eli. If he did, it would have repercussions far beyond just the three of us, far beyond Slateview, even. Eli worked for a man who was a rival of Nathaniel Ward, and if this got too out of hand, it could set off a war between the two groups. I couldn’t let that happen.
I pushed off the lockers, my backpack in hand. I swung it hard and hit Eli in the shoulder, knocking him off balance before he could lunge for Kace again. Kace’s face still flashed with raw fury, and I vividly remembered what Bishop had said about not rushing into the middle of fist-fights.
But I also remembered Kace stopping last time I’d confronted him. I remembered him reacting to my touch as if it’d shocked him out of the blackness that overtook him.
Steeling my nerves, I shoved my way between Eli and Kace.
“Enough,” I snapped, looking at Eli first. “Enough.”
Eli had his gaze locked on Kace, and there was no trace left of the ego and amusement that had flickered in his eyes when he’d been messing with me. He looked like he was out for blood, but he stopped short of lunging again, probably realizing exactly how much shit he might get into with his boss if he kept up this fight.
He chuckled darkly, wiping his hand across his nose.
“You made a big mistake, Reaper.”
Kace growled, taking a step toward Eli. Quickly, I grabbed hold of his arm, keeping him back. He glanced down at me like he was about to shake me off, his nostrils flared and his chest heaving. I shook my head at him, keeping my grip tight. I knew I couldn’t restrain him physically, but I held him with my gaze, staring up into his light green irises.
“Enough,” I repeated, my voice softer and more intimate than it’d been before, the word halfway between a plea and a command.
He stared back at me, the wild look slowly fading from his eyes. Haltingly, incrementally, he unclenched his fists.
“Good thing your little girlfriend was here to save you this time,” Eli spat, bitterness coating each of his words.
I knew he wanted nothing more than to continue this fight, but he locked his jaw and turned away from us.
We watched Eli walk away before I shook my head. My heart was still pounding so hard I felt a little queasy, and I glanced around at the gathered crowd. Everyone looked slightly disgruntled as they dispersed, as if I’d ruined their fun by stopping the fight.
Well, too fucking bad. They wouldn’t get their entertainment today. It wouldn’t be the last time there was a fight in the halls of Slateview High. They’d get their fix again soon enough.
Ignoring the few lingering onlookers, I pulled Kace down the corridor before he could do or say anything else.
Just like I had the first time he’d gotten bloodied in a fight, I tugged him into the boys’ bathroom. A junior with dark hair whose name I couldn’t remember glanced up as we entered, letting out a startled yelp as he quickly shook himself off and zipped up his fly.
“We need the room,” I said shortly, not even bothering to look away.
He needed to know I wasn’t fucking around—not that he was likely to give me a hard time when I had Kace with me. He looked like a damn Berserker, his face smeared with blood and his muscles still tense from the fight.
“Yeah. Sure, whatever.”
The boy didn’t even bother washing his hands, but his hygiene was the furthest thing from my mind. As soon as the door closed behind him, it was like he didn’t even exist. All that existed in this moment was Kace.
I tugged the large boy over toward the sink, grabbing several paper towels from the dispenser and wetting them down. Then I reached up to dab at his face, working them over where his skin was split and Eli had bloodied him.
“You always do this,” I muttered. “Always…”
“Would you have rather him do whatever he was planning on doing to you?” Kace grunted, his voice harsh.
“No.” My brows pulled together, and my stomach dropped at the thought. “Of course not, Kace. But there’s—you always go in fists first.” I shook my head. “You shouldn’t. Not for me, not for anyone. Especially not over Eli. Not when he’s someone that could actually retaliate against you. His people could retaliate against your people. It could set off a war, and over something so stupid.”
“I don’t give a fuck about that.” His lips curled, and he winced as my fingers skated over the spot on his cheek where Eli had hit him. “I don’t sit back and watch while someone steps where they shouldn’t. I don’t let the people I care about get hurt.”
I frowned, pausing before continuing in cleaning up his wounds. When I was done, I tossed away the dirty towels and turned to Kace.
“Let me see your phone.”
His head drew back, a confused look passing over his face. “What?”
“Your phone, Kace.”
He eyed me before pulling it out of his back pocket and handing it over to me. I shot a message to Bishop, telling him that Kace and I would be walking home together and not to wait for us. Then I handed the blond boy back his phone and leaned against the sink.
“Why are you always fighting, Kace?” I asked. “You’re always doing it, even when you don’t need to.”
He shook his head, something dark passing through his moss-green eyes. “I’m not always fighting. I fight when it matters.”
I frowned. “Kace—”
He straightened his spine, his whole body seeming to swell up again, as if the anger inside him was almost too much for his body to contain. When he stepped toward me, I swore I could feel his energy pulsing from his body like a physical force.
“I know it was stupid, Princess. I get that. I know it could’ve fucked everything up. But what you have to understand is, I will always fight for you. I just will. And if it fucks shit up for me and my boys, I’ll fight for them too. I’ll do everything I can to keep you and them safe.” His voice dropped to a low rasp, pain and anger pouring out with every word. “But I will never, ever stand by and let you be hurt just because that’s the ‘safer’ option.”
My heart danced an uneven beat in my chest, and I stared up into his eyes, riveted by the emotions I saw there.
It was so much.
Too much.
More darkness and trauma than any boy of his age should have had to deal with in his lifetime.
I didn’t know where all of it came from, but I knew it was what fueled his words. What made them absolutely true.
Kace would kill to protect me.
He would die to protect me.
That knowledge hit me with the force of a hurricane, tearing through the landscape of my heart until every single barrier that still existed between us came tumbling down.
Until there was nothing but the pure, raw truth of my feelings for this boy.
“Kace…”
I repeated his name, my voice hardly more than a hoarse whisper.
But before I could say anything else, he silenced me, pressing forward with a kiss that I couldn’t resist.
Not even if I tried.
Not even if I wanted to.
But I didn’t want to.
Twelve
The banked fire that always smoldered between us burst into a roaring inferno, and Kace ne
arly bent me over backward with his fierce, consuming kiss. My back arched, my legs going weak as I clung to his shoulders to keep myself grounded. His hands skated over my ribs, my waist, my hips, twisting the fabric of my skirt as his fingers dug into the rounded curve of my ass.
A second later, I was lifted and deposited on the edge of the sink, and the position was so familiar, so reminiscent of the first time Kace had made me come in the boys’ bathroom, that my clit throbbed at the remembered sensations.
Then Kace settled between my legs, and all the memories fled from my mind, replaced with the visceral sensations of the here and now.
He ground against me, his cock already hard and seeking my wet heat, his mouth devouring mine with such raw need that neither one of us could catch a full breath.
When he finally tore his lips away from mine to trail them over my jaw and down my neck, I tilted my head back, staring up at the cracked, water-stained ceiling without really seeing it.
Only when his hand slipped between us, shoving up my skirt and tearing at the fabric of my leggings, did some measure of rational thought return to my mind.
We were in the boys’ bathroom at Slateview High.
A public room with a door that didn’t lock.
“Kace,” I gasped, my hands gripping fistfuls of his short blond hair. “Door!”
“I don’t give a fuck,” he muttered against my skin, his breath making goose bumps rise on my neck.
Another protest tried to work its way out of my mouth, but when he pulled my earlobe between his teeth and bit down, the jolt of sweet sensation made me forget what the hell I’d been about to say.
Maybe I don’t give a fuck either.
I rolled my hips against him, tilting my head to offer him more—more of anything he wanted to take.
But he drew back, leaving me staring at him, panting and breathless.
He gazed at me for several heartbeats, possessiveness and lingering violence swirling behind his green irises.
“I lied,” he grunted, his expression hard. “I do give a fuck. Nobody gets to see you like this but me.”
With those words, he scooped me up into his arms and turned, carrying me toward the door.
I knew this from last time too, knew that he wasn’t about to march me out into the hall like this. And sure enough, when we reached the door, he set me down right in front of it, using our bodies to block it closed.
His hand trailed down my jaw before two fingers tilted my chin up, and even that movement was infused with a controlled sort of violence, like it was taking all of his self-restraint to be gentle with me at all.
“We won’t let them in, Princess. No one will get in here.” His eyes were hooded as he dragged his plump lower lip between his teeth. “I’ll fuck you so hard against this door, no one will ever get in.”
Oh, God.
My knees wobbled at the dark promise in his voice, and I felt a rush of wetness slick my panties.
I nodded, leaning back against the door for support. We were both breathing hard, and Kace’s gaze burned into mine with such intensity it seemed to eclipse the rest of the world, erasing any lingering fears I might have about being discovered.
None of that mattered as much as the boy before me.
Kace released my chin, bracing both hands on the door on either side of my head, caging me between them.
“Do you want my cock?”
I nodded again, swallowing thickly.
“Then take it out.”
He shifted his hips back to give me room, and I reached for him quickly, tugging the button free and unzipping his fly to free his thick length from the confines of his boxer briefs. It was hot and heavy in my hand, and I looked down as I wrapped my fingers around it, entranced by the way his large dick made my hand seem so small and delicate.
How does he ever fit inside me?
How does that monstrous thing fit inside my tiny hole?
And why does it feel so fucking good when it does?
Kace groaned as I stroked him gently, his hips bumping against my hand as his head drooped forward. His gaze flashed up to meet mine again, and I could see him warring with himself, like he wanted more than just my hand but also couldn’t bear to let me stop what I was doing.
“Leggings off,” he finally rasped.
I didn’t want to let go of his cock, but the tone of his voice made me move without hesitation.
Using both hands, I reached under my skirt to hook the waistband of my panties and leggings, shoving them all down at once as I kicked off my shoes, my hands shaking with adrenaline. One side of my leggings got caught on my foot, and I yanked desperately to tug it off before tossing everything away.
“Good.” Kace’s entire body was taut as a wire, his muscles tense and straining. “Now lift your skirt. Let me see that pretty pink pussy.”
Jesus. Oh, fuck.
My entire lower body felt flushed and swollen, needy and so, so empty.
I needed Kace to fix that for me.
I needed him to fill me up.
With trembling hands, I lifted my skirt, bunching it around my waist and baring myself completely to him.
He let out a low moan, taking one hand off the door by my head and reaching down to fist his cock. Then he grabbed my hip with the other hand, pulling my lower body toward him. My gaze flew downward and my breath hitched when he rubbed the broad, smooth head of his dick against my clit, sending shockwaves of sensation through me.
“What—what are you doing?” I stuttered.
He didn’t answer.
He also didn’t stop, rubbing the head of his cock up and down through my folds, gathering my arousal before returning to my clit, rubbing and massaging it until we both let out muffled noises of pleasure.
Every time he dipped lower to slather his dick in more of my wetness, he thrust into me just the smallest amount—just enough to make my hips buck against him desperately, enough to make me feel the barest hint of what it would be like when he filled me completely.
“Kace!” I gasped, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt.
I wanted it off. I wanted to touch the bare skin of his chest, to run my fingers over his tattoo. But he wouldn’t let me. He wouldn’t stop what he was doing long enough for me take his shirt off, so eventually I just gave up, sliding my hands up and under the hem to trace my fingertips over the ridges of his abdomen.
We were both slick by now, so fucking wet with each other’s arousal that his cock slid over my clit easily, and every touch made me more and more desperate.
“You want this?” he asked roughly, dipping into my channel again, just enough to begin stretching my inner walls. They clamped down hard, trying to keep him from slipping out even as he pulled away.
“Yes.”
It was the truest damn word I’d ever spoken.
“Then beg me for it, Princess.”
My gaze, which had been locked on the place where he was touching me, flew up to meet his. His face was contorted with the effort of holding himself back, his eyes so dilated the pupils had nearly overtaken the soft moss-green of his irises.
My heart pounded in my chest, and my tongue darted out to lick my lips as I held his gaze.
“Please.”
“Please, what?”
His cock slipped the barest inch in and out of me again—so close to giving me what I needed, yet so fucking far. It wasn’t enough. Not enough.
My eyes almost rolled back, and I whimpered breathlessly.
“Please, Kace. Please…”
“What, Coralee?” His voice was like sandpaper. “You have to tell me what you want. Then I’ll fucking give it to you.”
“Please. Please. Please.” My voice got louder as I spoke, gaining strength as the last of my barriers broke down completely. “Please, fuck me.”
His expression changed in a heartbeat, as if those words had hit him like a physical force. His chest rose and fell fast as he lifted me into his arms, holding my ass with a strong grip. The head of his cock
found my entrance again, and my entire body braced with anticipation.
“Hold on to me,” he murmured. “Don’t let go.”
I did as he commanded, releasing my skirt and wrapping my arms around his shoulders, burying my face in his neck.
And then he gave me what I wanted.
What I’d begged for.
In one swift motion, he drove into me, slamming me back against the door as he filled me to the hilt. I cried out against the warm, smooth skin of his neck, gulping in breaths of sage scented air as he pulled out and plunged in again.
My back pressed against the door with each hard thrust, and I was sure I would bear the marks of it later, but right now, it didn’t even matter.
This was beyond pain. Beyond pleasure.
It was pure, raw need.
“You’re so fucking tight,” he grunted, and even those words turned me on, making me clamp down around him. “Fuck, Princess. Goddammit.”
He drove into me over and over, as if every bit of rage he had wanted to unleash on Eli was being channeled into this instead. As if he was purging himself of some demon inside the softness of my body.
Noises poured from my throat, even though I pressed my lips hard against his skin, trying to keep myself silent. He fucked me so hard that for a wild moment, it occurred to me that he might get his wish. This door might not ever open again.
Every rough thrust made sensation barrel through me, and my toes curled as I hooked my ankles together, squeezing my legs around him as tightly as I could. When he thrust one last time, slamming me back against the door and grinding his hips against mine, the feel of him pulsing inside me pushed me over the edge, hurling me into the overwhelming bliss of my own orgasm.
He circled his hips over and over, pressing me against the door so hard it was like he was trying to meld our bodies into one, like he was trying to make this moment of ecstasy last forever.
When he finally stopped moving, I pressed my forehead against his. We were both breathing hard, completely spent. But for the first time in a long time, I felt completely relaxed too.
His lips found mine, and this kiss was slow and deep, as if we were savoring each other.