“We’ve changed,” I tell her.
“And I wonder if it’s for the better or for the worse?”she muses, a darkness coming over her delicate features.
Her question sinks in.Am I any better than I was at eighteen, before I fled into the night, like a coward who had stolen something he had no intention of giving back?Am I better now that I am possessed by the spirit of a bloodthirsty soldier?Am I better now that I know what’s truly at stake and the sacrifices I have to make?
“I guess it depends,” I say, settling down in the hay and patting the space beside me.“Are you better off with your innocence taken?”
She gives me a wry smile and crawls over to me.Her proximity causes me to lean in and breathe in her wildflower scent, the smell of her causing my heart to tighten, my cock to harden.How can I love someone so much and desire her so equally?How can I want to lavish her with tender affection yet want to choke her, spit on her, make her writhe beneath me in total depravity?How can those two halves coexist?It’s as if there’s light inside me that corrupts the darkness, leaving me to live in shades of gray.
“Innocence never did anyone any good,” Kat says.“I may have lost my innocence to you, but in its place, I gained power.”
The fierceness in her eyes only arouses me more, a deep and chaotic longing that’s clawing its way to the surface.
“Kat,” I whisper to her, and then I’m grabbing her face in my hands, holding her in place, kissing her deeply, feeling every inch of her mouth with my tongue, wanting more, so much more.
I place one hand on her skirt, making a fist in the fabric, trying to hold myself back, and then she pulls her head away, breathing hard.
“Brom,” she says, her mouth wet and open, and God, I want her so badly it’s killing me.
“Yes?”I manage to say, removing my hand from her skirt, and trying to remain in control of my emotions and urges that threaten to overwhelm me.
“I…,” she begins, picking up the stiff hay between her fingers, the light coming through the hole in the roof illuminating a faint flush on her cheeks.“I’m still menstruating,” she says, stumbling over the word.“It’s near the end, I think, but it’s still…I’m not…”
“If you don’t want to be with me,” I tell her, placing my fingers under her chin and forcing her to meet my eyes, “then you don’t have to be.I might like things rough, but I’m not about to force myself on you if this isn’t what you want.Iloveyou, Kat.But if you’re worried about blood, then you’re worrying for no reason.I want to be with you, just like this.I want to be inside you like I was four years ago.”My voice lowers.“I want to come inside you, spread my seed inside your cunt, make you scream my name until all of Sleepy Hollow knows who you belong to.”
She gives me a fearful look.“Crane will kill you.”
I raise a brow and lean in to her, still holding her head in place.“Is that the only reason I shouldn’t?Because Crane will kill me?And what about you?”
She licks her lips, and I want to do the same to her.“I don’t want to end up pregnant with your baby, Brom.”
Lord, how that stings.It fuckingstings.
“I’m not saying never,” she goes on quickly, reading my face.“I’m not…” She closes her eyes.“I don’t know, Brom.I want to be with you.Just like this.Now and in the future, in all my futures…”
“But the horseman…”
“It’s not the horseman,” she says, looking at me with pain in her eyes.“It’s notjustthe horseman,” she corrects herself.“It’s that our union, our baby, is supposed to be a sacrifice to a demon.You said yourself, the anti-Christ.I’m not about to birth the anti-Christ.You can understand that, can’t you?”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, I can’t help but smile at how ridiculous we sound.“Oh, I understand,” I say, letting go of her.“I’m not too keen on fathering the anti-Christ myself, and that’s a phrase I never thought I would utter.But you’re still taking that tea and if you’re menstruating, it’s unlikely you’ll get pregnant.That’s nature.”I pause, feeling the heady, possessive want for her flare through me.“And what else is nature is the need to take what’s mine.And you’re still mine, Kat, no matter what anyone else says.You’re mine, aren’t you?”
She nods.
“Then lie back on that hay, hike up your dress, and spread your legs.”
Her blue eyes widen a little as she stares at me, and I’m not sure how she’ll take to me ordering her around.She liked it once.She likes it with Crane.
And with a shaking exhale, she leans back on the hay.
She obeys me.
A wicked thrill runs through me, the sense of power I’ve craved.Having the horseman at my disposal is one thing, having Kat obey me, and only me, is another.
She is submitting.
I am taking.
I get on my knees and come around her.“You said your innocence never did you any good.Show me, then, how bad you can be.”I place my hands on her calves, spreading her legs.“Lift up your skirt,” I tell her.“Or I’ll do it for you.”
