Pain sliced through her, tears prickling the backs of her eyes.
She shoved her fingers through her hair. He’d never agree to her idea if she came at him like she had been, all fury and hatred. She needed to find some freaking control. She could pretend she didn’t despise him. She faked it here every night.
The coming war didn’t give a shit about her pain or her past. It was going to rise up from Hell and devour everything in its path. There was no time to be angry and hurt. Not anymore.
Scrolling through her contacts, she hit Mia’s name.
The phone rang twice. “Hey, Grace!”
“Hey.”
“What’s going on?”
“I need to get in touch with Chaos. Can you help me?”
Grace clapped her hands to get her class’s attention. "Right, time for some one on one."
The advanced class she taught twice a week had a few other possible candidates to join her crew, but no one as good as Mia and Eve, who she noted were absent today. Mia hadn’t said they were skipping class when she spoke to her, but it wasn't hard to guess why. And if she was honest, it stung a little.
She didn't force people to fight in this war. Helping someone gain the ability to protect themselves was one of the most worthwhile things she’d done, whether they decided to use their powers for killing demon scum or not.
She just hoped their overbearing males lightened the hell up and let their mates come back to her class. Because the truth was, the fight may come to their females whether they liked it or not.
"Okay, form a circle around the mat and we'll get started."
The door swung open.
Grace glanced up as Chaos strode in.
She straightened, every muscle in her body tightening, preparing to what? Attack? To defend herself? Run the other way? She had no idea, but she had no control over it.
Yeah, she’d asked Mia to get Chaos to contact her. But never in a million years had she expected him to show up at one of her training sessions.
The hulking half angel, half demon making her life difficult was wearing workout clothes—nylon shorts, a muscle shirt—and that ever-present grim expression. The cold determination in his dark gaze made her shiver and her heart speed up.
He was an oncoming storm as he prowled across the floor. Power snapped from him, reaching out to her. Did he know he was doing it? Could he feel it, too, or was her block strong enough to hide the volatile energy reaching out from both of them, trying to draw the other closer, clashing, intertwining?
Grace felt it. Every. Damn. Time.
But today, it was stronger than ever.
Snapping herself out of it, she straightened her spine. They needed to talk, but not here, not now. She started toward him and held up her hands. “This class is full."
He crossed his arms, emphasizing their massive size, and she found it a struggle to drag her gaze away from all that defined, deeply tanned skin.
Get it together, Grace.
He quirked a brow. "You can't squeeze in one more?"
Everyone was watching now. She couldn't exactly demand he leave. "I don't think there's anything I could teach you here.”
"Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps I could show you a thing or two." His voice had dropped so deep she felt it tug low in her belly.
What the hell was he doing?
She struggled for something to say, something to make him leave.
He lifted his chin, aiming his dark gaze over her shoulder. "We're holding up your class."
She glared and did the only thing she could, she turned her back on him and faced her students. "You're in luck. We have a special guest. Chaos is a combat and defense specialist, and he's going to show us some new moves."
His low growl rumbled behind her, for her ears only, and she didn't hide her smile when she crooked her finger for him to follow. All but a couple of her students were demi, so apart from the humans, everyone knew who he was and at one point had stayed and trained at the compound.
So it wasn't a surprise when many waved and greeted him by name, and though the guy was no charmer, the batting lashes and coy smiles didn't surprise her, either. What she was surprised by was her reaction to all the female attention thrown his way.
She didn’t like it.
Which was freaking absurd.
This mate thing was no joke. She disliked the male intensely, had made no secret of it, but right then, the urge—the pure, raw, animal instinct—to drop into a fighting stance in front of him and let everyone know he was hers, was hard to resist.
No, her draw to him had never been so strong. She needed him out of there before she did something she could never take back. Something she’d most definitely regret.
He stood, legs braced apart, hands hanging loose at his sides, and a small superior grin tugging up his wicked, sensual lips. "Where do you want me?"
Between my thighs.
No. Nope.
He narrowed his gaze on her, dark and glittering, and drew in a rough breath before letting it go slowly, like he’d just read her wayward thoughts and was trying to gather his own failing control.
Clearing her throat, she straightened her spine. She had to be imagining things. He had no idea who she was to him, she’d made sure of it.
“Ready?” she blurted, much too loud.
His grin spread wider, and he flashed straight white teeth, like a shark about to take a bite out of his much smaller, much weaker prey.
“Careful, you might strain something,” she muttered.
She’d never seen the surly bastard smile before, not like that, and yeah, he looked good when he did, and she wasn't the only one who thought so. Several females actually giggled for Christ’s sake. She rolled her eyes even as her heart pounded harder.
More giggling.
She swung around before she could stop herself, aiming a cold stare at one of the gigglers. “Something funny?"
The girl’s face turned an unattractive shade of red and her gaze darted back to Chaos. "I...ah...no."
“Yes, Chaos is all tall, dark, and...bulgy, but I'm sure he's not the first good-looking male you've ever seen, and I'm sure he won't be the last. Take a good look, get it out of your systems, then let’s focus on what we’re here to do, yes?”
The room went completely, utterly silent.
Fuck. Had she really just blurted that out loud?
Chaos stepped around her to address the class, thankfully ignoring the idiotic things she’d just said. “Let’s get started."
He moved through his lesson at a steady pace. He was good, of course. His muscled body moving with speed and ease, something that should be impossible for a male his size. He wasn't a bad teacher, either. He was still bossy as hell, though, but the other females didn't seem to mind his heavy-handed approach. Nope, not one bit.
By the time the class drew to an end, his darkly tanned skin was covered in a fine sheen of sweat and his shirt clung to his chest and flat stomach, defining his bulging abdominal muscles. Her mouth watered, and God, she wanted to touch every bit of that sleek, muscled body. She wanted to touch him.
And she hated herself for it.
As the last of her students walked out the door, she knew she had to pull it together. They needed to talk about the coming war, about what was happening around the city. And she needed a clear head to do it.
"Nice moves," she said, trying to come across unaffected, but her husky voice told a different story.
He inclined his head. "Thanks. You're not bad yourself."
Her eyebrows hiked high. “Did you just compliment me? Has the world already come to an end?" Grabbing a couple bottles of water, she handed him one.
Something flashed across his handsome face, but then it was gone. “I’ve never said you aren’t a good fighter, Grace.”
He lifted the bottle to his lips and drank deeply, causing his throat to work in a distracting way that for some weird reason affected parts of her body that had no right to be affected.
“You did say I was incompetent, though.” You need to get him on your side, not pick a fight.
He lowered his bottle. “I was angry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Again, not something she expected him to say. She kept her surprise to herself this time. “But you think we should stay out of this war?”
His gaze dropped to her mouth, and his jaw tightened, before it lifted back to hers. “I think you don’t know as much as you think you do. I think you and your people could be an asset to our fight if you would listen to what I’ve been trying to tell you instead of killing indiscriminately. Why did you want to see me, Grace?”
She shivered again at the sound of her name rumbling from the massive demon hunter and crossed her arms as well. “Fighting with each other is counterproductive. We should be working together. I have demi, a lot of them, trained and ready to fight. We’re an asset you can’t afford to ignore. Not anymore. There’s a hellsgate demi in the hands of our enemy. We need to stop fighting each other and work together.”
He tilted his head to the side, studying her for several long, intense seconds. “Is that right?”
His voice was doing that deep, almost hypnotic thing again, and suddenly she was being drawn in and had to fight her body’s desire to move closer, to touch him.
“Yes.”
He stared down at her, so much going on behind his dark gaze that she couldn’t take it another second.
“Teach me a move. Not one you just showed the class, but one you use when you're fighting,” she said into the tension-filled silence. She needed to move, to hit and kick, fight him before she did something else to him. Something a lot more pleasant.
His head jerked back slightly.
She swallowed hard. “You afraid I’ll kick your ass?”
He grinned again, that shark smile. “Oh, I think I can handle it.”
She shrugged, her belly a riot of nerves. “Well, then, what are you waiting for?”
To her surprise, he moved to the center of the room and crooked his finger at her like she’d done to him earlier. "Come here."
A throb started between her thighs. Maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all. She hesitated.
“Now, Grace.”
Heat flooded her body at that low, rumbled demand, and desire, hot and hungry, hit her with force.
As much as she wanted to run the other way, she couldn’t. This was her bright idea. She couldn't back out now. Tightening her ponytail, she shook out her arms and legs to stop them from goddamn quivering and stepped onto the mat with him.
"Watch me, then I’ll come at you, yes?"
"Sounds good." Sounds terrible.
He ran through the moves and she barely saw what he was doing, too mesmerized by the play of all those bulky muscles, the incredible strength of his body, the graceful, brutal way he moved.
When he finished, he looked up at her. “Got it?”
“Yep.” Nope.
She should get him to run through it again, but the idea of showing any weakness to this male had her grinding her teeth. Then it was too late, and he was moving in behind her. Close. So close. Too damn close.
“For this exercise, I’m going to take you from behind,” he said, voice impossibly rough and deep.
Take her from behind? Seriously? He had to know how that sounded, the images it conjured.
“Right.” Her nipples tightened. Shit. Shit. Shit.
He cleared his throat. “And you're going to try to stop me."
Grace braced, waiting for the attack, and even though she knew it was coming she could barely control the explosion of nerves erupting in her belly.
He waited, several seconds ticking by. His breath brushed the side of her throat, his breathing deep and even. He wasn’t touching her, but she could feel every inch of his body. The immense heat radiating off his skin was like a physical touch, and it lifted goose bumps all over her.
When he finally attacked, she knew it was coming. His breath hitched, a tiny tell, but enough to give her a split second of warning, enough time to loosen her body and execute her defense.
She did as he'd instructed, somehow it had gotten through to her, and she grabbed his forearm, twisting away, running through the sequence of moves, fighting back.
He switched things up suddenly, coming at her from another angle. Grace spun and deflected his strike with her right arm, then swung back, her body spinning away, leg high. Her kick made contact with his side, but he didn’t slow.
He kept at her, relentless, fully on the offensive. Not going easy on her, not even close. Not that she’d expected him to. She countered every move as best she could, adrenaline racing through her veins. He didn’t let up, kept coming at her over and over again. Her lungs were screaming when he finally made a move to take her down to the floor. She hooked her leg behind his knee in retaliation, locking on, refusing to go down without a fight, and he went down with her.
She was about to spring back to her feet, but he moved quickly, one solid arm banding around her, keeping her down. How could he move so fast? It should be impossible.
He rolled and pinned her to the mat. Her legs tangled with his, his body a heavy, unrelenting weight on top of her. She hissed and he grunted as they wrestled, as she fought him.
It was no use, she gritted her teeth and looked up at him. His gaze locked with hers, but there was nothing cold in their depths this time, no, they blazed. He’d loved every minute.
Her breath stuck in her throat.
Oh shit.
He was hard.
The impressive length of him was hot, unyielding steel against her stomach. And he wasn’t trying to hide it.
“Is talking the only reason I'm here, Grace?” he said, voice like an earthquake rocking right through her.
He didn’t know she was his mate, but he felt the connection, the pull, it was there in his eyes. “Christ, you’re arrogant,” she said instead of answering him, afraid that maybe, just maybe, a small part of her had been looking forward to seeing him again.
His gaze searched hers, sliding down, moving over her face. No doubt taking in her hot cheeks that she knew were bright red and not just from exertion.
She couldn't escape that penetrating stare as it grazed her parted lips, watching each of her panted breaths explode from her.
His nostrils flared.
No, she couldn't hide it or fight it. Her body's reaction to the male above her was right there to see. "I hate you," she said, a last-ditch effort to muster her self-control.
Heat darkened his features, and her nipples tightened in response. "Good."
Then his mouth came down on hers, hot and hungry.
She gasped into his mouth, the contact hitting like an electric current sending heat pumping through her veins, warming her limbs and making the pulse between her thighs unbearable.
Chaos grunted against her mouth, and didn't wait for an invitation, no, his tongue pushed between her lips, taking what he wanted.
She groaned at the taste of him—dark, exotic, intoxicating. His massive arms came around her, one sliding under her, down to her ass, the other going up to cup the back of her head.
She was caged in, his hard body surrounded her, vibrating with unbelievable strength, with power. If he chose to, he could crush every one of her bones like they were toothpicks. He wouldn’t, though.
No, she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. He wanted inside her. He didn’t know why he wanted her so badly, but he did.
She knew all of this, because she felt it, too. She also knew it wasn’t really her holding him back just as tight. It was something much bigger than both of them. Which was why she couldn’t stop her hand from sliding under his shirt, seeking the heat and texture of his skin. It was like her body had a mind of its own, and right then, it wanted to get as close to Chaos as it could.
He ground against her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist.
Chaos growled and did it again, the hard, unrelenting length of his cock pressing down o
n her clit through her workout pants making her whimper.
She needed to tell him to stop. She needed to stop, but instead she lifted her hips and rocked against him. The big hand on her ass shoved down the waistband of her pants and his long, thick calloused fingers gripped her bare ass cheek. She needed to shove him off before it was too late. Before she let him yank down his shorts, tear down her pants, and slide inside her.
There would be no hiding who she was if that happened.
Grace gritted her teeth as he kissed and sucked his way up her throat, his beard tickling her skin, her nipples getting incredibly tight, aching so deeply she was on the verge of begging him to suck them.
The words were on the tip of her tongue to demand he take her. And they shamed her. With the way she wanted him, the confusing thoughts and feelings bombarding her the tighter he held her, the deeper he kissed her, she knew she was in serious trouble. Giving her body to him would be bad enough, but she couldn’t live with herself if she developed actual feelings for him as well.
And with how strong the mating bond felt in that moment, she knew she was in real danger.
There was no way in hell she would ever be this male’s mate.
“I can smell you, Grace. How much you want me.”
She shook her head even as she nuzzled his jaw, sucking on his strong throat, grinding against him.
“Christ,” he bit out. “I want to fuck you, angel. Let me fuck you.”
Angel.
Grace squeezed her eyes shut. The hunger and grit in his voice only increased her own need. It throbbed through her body, making her shake, making her want to cry with how much she wanted him.
But she had to say no, she had to end this now. This was a huge mistake. If they had sex, he’d know, he’d know who she was, and then she’d be stuck. She’d be his, because that’s the way it worked, that’s the way he’d see it and he’d never let her go. He’d claim her, use her to increase his power, and she would rather let a demon slice her to pieces than belong to the male on top of her.
Knight's Dominion (Knights of Hell Book 4) Page 6