“Crane?”I ask, wondering what’s happened.“Has the horseman—”
He bursts into the room, kicking the door shut with his foot as he grabs my face hard and kisses me even harder before I can finish the sentence.His mouth is lush and wet and warm but there’s no tenderness here, there rarely is these days, and he fucks me with his tongue like he’s taking complete ownership.My beard scratches against the stubble on his face, and his skin is hot to touch.
He tastes like rain.
We both stumble backward until I’m pressed against the wooden wardrobe, the handle digging into the soft flesh by my kidneys but the pain only feels right.His fists go to my shirt, holding on as the kiss deepens, becomes violent, and I moan against his lips, unable to contain myself.I haven’t felt this wanted and desired in such a long time.Last night was punishment, this is something else entirely.
“Hit me,” he rasps, his eyes like flint as he pulls back.“Hit me, Abe.”
I blink at him rapidly, at the sound of my old name, at the oddity of his request.
“Sir?”My old moniker for him slipping out as well.
“I said fucking hit me,” he growls.“Hurt me.”
I shake my head, licking the taste of him from my lips.I’ve been full of such hatred and anger toward him, but now seeing him like this, wounded and lashing out, I can’t do it.The turmoil I’ve felt about him seems to evaporate.
“No, I—”
“I’m not asking, I’m ordering you to,” he says, grabbing me by the throat and spinning me around so that his back is against the wardrobe.“You fought back so well last night.”
“Crane…”
“Want me to get you in the mood, is that it?Get you to hate me again?You seem to do it so easily, you slippery fucker.”He says this all with a sneer on his upper lip, his eyes flickeringbetween madness and desire, if desire was a fever he needed to be cured of.“How about all the times I fucked your fiancée and made her come screaming my name?How I made her forget you even existed?How I told her she belonged to me and only to me and she wanted it, she wanted, needed, to be with me, not you,neveryou, you missed your fucking chance, you—”
I unleash.
I strike him right across his sharp cheekbone, my knuckles feeling like fire.
The back of his head smacks against the wardrobe.
Then he raises his head, his damp black hair flopping across his forehead, and his eyes search mine in the same way that Pastor Ross’s did when he was praying to God.“Do it again.”My fist shakes, I hesitate, and his hand is still on my throat.“Do it again or I’ll tell you how I used a riding crop on her ass and a ruler on her cunt and I dominated that sweet witch until she was puffy and pink and slick with—”
Pure jealousy slams into me and I punch him again, this time getting his jaw until I hear his teeth clank together, and his grip on my throat loosens, his chin dipping down.
“Crane,” I say, breathing hard, my knuckles burning, my shoulder hurting from the action, and somewhere deep inside me I feel the horseman stir in that darkness.“Please don’t make me do it again.I don’t want the Hessian to come out.He might break the rules and come out during the day.”
Crane lifts his head, his hair obscuring most of his haunted eyes.“Maybe that’s what I deserve.Maybe that’s what I want.”
I swallow hard, not liking any of this, how quickly our roleshave reversed.I’d always wanted to see Crane snap, to see that flippant mask slip, to know what it’s like to punish him for a change, but I don’t want any of it.Not like this.
“Well, I don’t want it,” I say gruffly.“I don’t want it, Crane.This isn’t safe.”
I knew that word would get his attention.
He nods slowly, my words sinking in.His gaze drops and his hands go down to my trousers, pressing the heel of his palm against my erection, which I hadn’t given much thought to until now.
“Then I just want to fuck,” he says, his voice low and husky, sounding more normal again, and when he gazes at me, I see his pupils blacken in lust.“I want to fuck.I want to come inside you and make you come too.”
He presses harder against my length and I gasp.The foolish little noises I make when I’m with him embarrass me and I feel my cheeks already going hot.
“There’s that color I like to see,” he murmurs before he grabs me by the back of my neck and gives me a possessive kiss that makes my fingers curl at my sides.“My pretty boy,” he adds as he breaks away with a smirk.
Then he reaches up and grabs my hair in his hands and gives it a sharp tug, making my mouth drop open, the pain causing my dick to twitch with blood, with need.It’s fucking beautiful.
“Yes,” he hisses, leaning in to lick the rim of my open mouth.“Oh damn it, Brom, I’m going to fuck your seed right out of you.”
With another tug that makes my eyes water, he leads me over to my bed and orders me to get undressed, and then undress him when I’m done.
