“Why are you still a virgin?” he asked, noting the way my head turned slowly to his.
“That’s none of your business.”
“No witch has ever made it past eighteen with her virginity, and yet you’re what, Aria? Twenty-four years old and still have it, I know because I can smell it.”
“You can smell it?” I frowned and then began fidgeting under the scrutiny of his gaze before he finally answered me.
“There’s a pureness to a woman when she is untouched or untainted by a male.”
“Awesome,” I grumbled.
“Why keep it?”
“Look, my vagina is not up for discussion. I’d also prefer your lips not to drip nonsense about my lady parts, Knox.”
“You’re missing the magnitude of what I am asking. You’re a Hecate witch, cursed to breed once a month, and yet you’ve never parted those thighs and allowed a man between them.”
Looking away, I picked at my finger as I absently bit my lip, considering how much to tell him. My head tilted before I stared at the wall to ignore the heat of his eyes, burning the side of my head.
“Have you ever felt physically sick when someone touched you?” I asked softly, not meeting his stare.
“No,” he said abruptly, without hesitation.
“I do,” I snorted. “My first try was when I was seventeen. His name was Tommy Mason, and he was a sweetheart, but he tried to kiss me, and I barfed all over him. We made good friends, but his touch made me sick. The next boy was just some boy I’d met at a dance. My sisters were there, and they’d had dates. I chose a guy at random to give my virginity because I was sick and tired of hearing my sisters talk about it. He took me deep into the woods and stripped naked. He started removing my clothes, but I felt sick, so I tried to stop it. He got forceful and mean, so I made him choke to death slowly. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, and there was a sickness in him. Next time, I was older. I had been dating Jared for weeks, but when he touched me, I felt nothing, like literally nothing. His hand would slip into my shirt, and he could touch me, but I couldn’t feel him. We tried spells, tried to create a male from clay, which was actually a terrible idea. Either way, nothing worked. I’m a dud,” I snorted, turning in his direction.
“You felt me,” he said, after a moment of silence.
“Yeah, lucky me,” I said sarcastically. “Also, hard pass. I don’t like you.”
“I don’t like you either, but I don’t have to like you to fuck you.”
“I’m not interested, Knox. I prefer to sleep with a man I like.”
“Sex with people you like is messy. All you need to fuck is basic chemistry. Your pussy needs to be wet, and a dick needs to be hard enough to fill it. That is what chemistry does. Your body knows what to do without your feelings, making it a fucking mess.”
“Do you want to fuck me, Knox?” My voice came out sultry, and I winced inwardly.
“No,” he clipped. “I like my women fast and hard, and to have more experience than rubbing her clit in a dark room as she bites her fucking lip, so no one else knows she’s self-soothing her cunt,” he snorted, pouring himself more coffee as if he hadn’t just torn me down in one fluid sentence.
“Okay,” I muttered, using my finger to pull on my lip to keep myself from rebuking his statement, not that he was wrong. He’d pegged me so hard I’d felt it in my ass. Brutal but honest.
“You’re not my type,” he stated.
“Got it the first time,” I growled, and my stomach agreed. On cue, servers entered the room, clearing the cream and sugar before placing platters of meats and fruit along with other delicious-smelling food onto the table. My eyes widened at the amount of food before us, it was enough to feed an entire room of children. Once the room cleared out, Knox began using his fork to grab meat he then piled onto his plate.
I watched silently as he pushed a large chunk of meat into his mouth and chewed it soundlessly. Slowly, my eyes went back to the mountain of food, and I sucked my lip between my teeth, holding it there before he spoke, causing me to turn in his direction.
“Eat, you’re too skinny.”
“I am not,” I muttered.
“Eat,” he continued.
“I don’t even know where to start.” The thing with having a large family is that you normally ended up with scraps. Aurora had done her best with us, but there were a lot of mouths to feed, and my mother was great at draining the account for months before she put the money back, like she got off on showing us who held power over us. “That’s enough food to feed an entire school of starving kids.”
I stood up since I couldn’t reach most of the dishes from a sitting position and grabbed toast, strawberries, and mixed fruit before sitting back down. I pushed a large piece of pineapple into my mouth and barely caught the juice as it drove past my lips and ran down my chin. Grabbing a napkin, I dabbed at my lips and sat back, chewing it in silence.
“Eat, or I’ll take it as an invitation to bend you over the table and do what we both really want to be doing right now.”
“No, that’s pretty much just you. I don’t want to bend over anything,” I squeaked as I pushed food into my mouth, stalling the conversation. Knox smiled devilishly, watching my mouth as I licked my lips around the fruit.
Chapter 15
I hoped the others had as much food as we did to chow down on. Picking up a giant strawberry, I broke it in half, plopping one piece into my mouth before sucking my thumb clean. Turning, I looked at Knox, who watched my mouth with a dark look in his eyes.
“If the portals are weakening, why aren’t more people here to enforce the covenant?” I asked, trying to get him to stop looking at me as if I was part of the meal.
“I’m here,” he stated as if that was the end of the discussion. “You like the pineapple?” He studied me as I picked up another piece without caring that he watched me pushing it into my mouth. I nodded, and he continued. “They say it makes your pussy taste sweeter.”
I coughed, and he moved as if he would save me from choking. I held my hand up, watching him through narrowed eyes. Once I’d swallowed it, I licked the juices from my fingers on purpose, noting the way he locked onto the action.
“Who says it?” I asked, knowing he wanted a reaction to his words.
“Scientists do, along with studies they’ve run.”
“Do you think they actually run studies on it? Like, have women eat a ton of pineapple and then spread their thighs, parting their petals so that scientists can lick them to discern the difference? I mean, pussy before pineapple, and pussy after pineapple, and the men who tasted them for science?” I pushed another piece into my mouth before turning away from him. I stood, grabbing the orange juice, and poured a glass before sitting back down to peer innocently at him over the rim as I drank.
“I’ve tasted a lot of pussy, and I prefer the taste when she’s a fan of fruit.”
“Maybe you should just stick some fruit in her pussy, and then you’d have a fruit snack for later,” I offered, shrugging before I took a long swig of orange juice. “Anyway, back to the problem. I’m certain you didn’t have the others eat elsewhere just to bend me over the table and fuck me or bore me with your sexual prowess while filling me full of fruit.” One delicate brow lifted as I waited for him to speak.
“Maybe I will,” he shrugged, shoving food into his mouth without breathing before eating more. “Amara showed up to town with a purpose. What was it?” Knox set his fork down, apparently done with eating.
“She came to sit on the council since Freya vacated it without warning. There’s also the store we own that has to be run by someone in our line, and Freya vanishing put a kibosh on us, ignoring this place. Amara volunteered to come back, and when I offered begrudgingly to join her, she said no.”
“And you didn’t think it was strange that she didn’t want you here?”
“No, because lately, she’d been putting more and more distance between us,” I admitted with a soft shrug as a pang filled
my heart. “I just figured maybe she needed space, but then I called, and she didn’t answer. I sent her messages, and they went unread until they disconnected her number. Now we’re here.”
“Amara showed up in town with an agenda, Aria. She vanished seven days ago.”
“You’re lying. Amara’s phone has been shut off for two weeks. If she vanished one week ago, that would mean she turned off her own phone. I scried, trying to locate her, and she wasn’t in Haven Falls. If she was, I’d have found her. I have never missed a target I have scried for in my entire life. Not to mention, I didn’t feel her here. Why wait until now to tell me this?” I asked carefully.
“Because there are things that aren’t adding up,” he said, observing me. “The day Amara showed up, she took down the magic that protected your home. She disabled the House of Magic. Why? It would have protected her. She fucked anyone who would let her and even tried to fuck me. The thing is, every male she fucked is dead. They’re not just dead, Aria, they were put onto their knees and executed and then arranged on an altar to make it look as if they were sacrificed. That isn’t something creatures in this realm do. That’s something someone from the Nine Realms would do to someone who had trespassed or stolen something from them.
“Then the attack on the portals happened, three places at once. To weaken it as it has been, those wanting to get inside this realm would have needed an outsider to help them. The thing is, Aria, they’d have needed a Hecate witch to weaken the portals to the Human Realm because they were erected by the goddess. The creatures that went after you while you bathed your virgin pussy in the creek? They came out of a tear in a portal on your property. Someone helped create that hole from your bloodline. Then there was the sacrificed alpha we found on your altar, in your backyard. Her scent was all over it, all over him. Amara isn’t missing, Aria. She’s committed treason against the Nine Realms.”
“You’re lying,” I whispered through trembling lips.
“Am I? Or do you just not want to believe she was capable of it? Because it’s the only thing that makes sense,” he said, dabbing his mouth with a napkin and chugging the milk he’d poured. “Amara had a lover in the Nine Realms, did she not?”
“Fuck you,” I snapped, standing up to leave the table. I didn’t make it more than a few steps before he picked me up and slammed me on the chair, jolting my teeth as he leaned over and stared into my eyes. “I won’t condemn my sister.”
“You don’t fucking have to, she is already condemned, Aria. Did she have a fucking lover in the Nine Realms? Answer me, because your fucking life depends on it.”
I swallowed and gave myself an internal shake. What the hell had she done? This wasn’t something I could save her from, not if it was true. I didn’t believe it in a million years, but I also couldn’t let the entire bloodline take the fall if she had. I could prove her innocence or figure out the truth, but if he had the council’s ear, I couldn’t lie.
He growled, and I nodded. “Yes,” I admitted closing my eyes briefly with guilt.
He straightened and nodded. “Fucking figures,” he muttered. “You guys can’t keep your legs closed no matter what the laws are, can you?” My eyes held his, and a delicate brow lifted. “Nah, Aria. You are something else entirely.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re a witch, but that’s only part of what you are. Your other half is more dominant. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t have that pesky little hymen in the way of your ovaries.”
“Can you keep my ovaries out of your mouth?”
“That’s anatomically impossible, Aria.” He shot my words back at me, and I rolled my eyes at his effort to point it out. “Or it is as long as they remain within you.”
I exhaled, turning as the servers entered the room to clear the dishes. They had removed one plate before a male stepped in behind me and growled. I spun in my chair, looking up as he lunged. My arms went up to cover my head, but an arm reached over me and yanked the man around the chair I sat in before he could reach me, tossing him out the door. Standing, I looked at Knox, who sniffed the air and turned to watch as another male moved toward me.
“Bloody hell,” Knox hissed, catching the man mid-leap and wrapping his hand around his throat, snapping it until the room echoed from the kill. “Out!” he snapped, and I moved to obey, but his arm caught me before I reached the door, shoving me into the chair before he slammed the exit closed—along with any chance I had of escaping. “Your ovaries just dropped an egg.”
I stared at him blankly before peering at the motionless body on the floor in utter horror. Slowly, I looked up at Knox, whose nostrils flared, and the moment he moved to step closer, I grabbed the chair holding it in front of me like a shield.
“What the fuck are you doing, woman?” he demanded.
“Not dying today,” I warned.
“Cover your scent,” he snapped, grabbing the body and tossing it aside like the man’s life meant nothing. “I don’t care how you fucking do it, just do it now.”
I turned, staring at the food before frowning. “With what?” I asked, jumping as something clawed at the door.
“I don’t care what you do, just do it now. I won’t fight my men for you; I’ll toss your untouched ass out that door and watch them fight for scraps of you before I do that.”
Swallowing hard, I shook my head to clear my thoughts and grabbed the pineapple, pushing into my panties before scrunching my face up.
“Did you just push pineapple into your pussy?” he asked, leaning against the door, studying me through heated eyes.
“Did it work?” I demanded not bothering to deliberate at where I’d placed it, which wasn’t inside of my body—because that would be nasty.
“No, not at all,” he confirmed huskily.
“Think, Aria,” I whispered softly. “There’s no spell that will magically erase my scent. If I’m ovulating, so are my sisters.”
“The difference between them and you is that yours is a virgin pussy, and the need to mount you will bypass most men’s moral compass. You are a rarity, and in the Nine Realms, men would track your scent and take what they want from you whether you wanted them to or not. Fix it, or I will.”
“How?” I whispered, ignoring the growls and fights that were unfolding outside the door.
“You won’t like it,” he warned.
“If it doesn’t end with your cock in me, I’m game,” I replied without hesitation. He chuckled darkly, smirking as he left the door to grab my hand. “What are you doing?”
“Fixing it without bending you over,” he snarled, stopping and then turning as the door creaked and bowed.
He moved me in front of him, and I felt his pulsing cock rub against my back. Yelping, I leaned forward, arching my back to get distance between us, but he pulled me back even while fingering the code into a hidden panel that had blended in with the white wall. The moment it opened, he pushed me inside, following behind me.
“Careful, little lamb,” he warned huskily. “Not even I am immune to your scent right now.” Knox held me in place as the rattling in his chest sounded, and my body went pliant in his grip.
I stared down the pitch dark hallway, or what I assumed was one, and waited for whatever was happening to him to pass. I didn’t breathe, let alone move.
“Walk,” he ordered, and I bolted at the sound of his voice, only to be yanked back. “You run, this ends with you mounted and screaming my name, Aria. Do not fucking tempt me right now.”
Chapter 16
Knox followed me, issuing directions in the dark and preventing me from slamming into walls as we made our way through the labyrinth of secret passageways in his mansion. We passed walls with holes that allowed a little light into the darkness, and I hadn’t missed that they looked into bedrooms. I also hadn’t missed that my vagina was covered in pineapple and that I’d left it in my panties due to the room being in danger of being breached.
We approached a glowing doorway, and I slowly turned, watching his head no
d as I pointed at the room. Once through it, I took in the library, staring at the changes that had occurred since I was in it last night. We ended up in the room where I’d found him last, but the fireplace was gone and had been replaced with a chair if you could call it that. It was large, plush, and looked as if it could fit several people. The couch was missing, along with the entire length of the passageway that led out of the room.
“Uh,” I whispered as my eyes focused on anything but him as he watched me through a hooded stare. “So, is there a garbage can in here by chance?” I asked carefully.
“For?”
“I have a pineapple issue.” I watched his lips curling into a wolfish smile that set every nerve ending on high alert.
“So you do,” he chuckled, stepping closer, watching me for any sign of movement.
It wasn’t his usual predatory gaze. It was feral. It was the look a wolf had as he watched his prey for any sign of weakness, and once shown, he’d exploit it to get an easy kill. He stopped in front of me, holding my gaze as one hand lifted my dress while the other slipped between my legs. I gasped and then sucked air into my lungs to hold the moan in as his fingers collided with my clit and then slid through the slick, sticky mess the pineapple had made.
The entire time, he watched me, trembling lips and all. My body shivered, reacting to his touch as if he was the match that lit the fire within me. He pulled the pineapple out, smelling it, and I opened my mouth, snapping it closed as his smile formed the closest thing to an actual smile he’d had since I’d met him. His teeth were no longer blunt, which I wasn’t sure he noticed as he plopped the chunk of pineapple between his lips, devouring the fruit that had been in my panties.
“That was… Oh my God,” I uttered, watching as Knox licked his lips clean.
“It does make it taste sweeter,” he rasped, sending every nerve in my body to high alert with need.
“Gross!” I cried, taking a step away from him, noting he moved forward with me. “Remember, you don’t like me.”
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