She needs reassurance. It’s more important than anything at this point.
“You tell me.” I loosen my grip on her neck. The small mercy doesn’t send blood to her cheeks. They’re still pale. A little ashen. “Would I ever let anyone take you from me? Hmm? WouldIever kill you? Is my life more important than yours?”
“It is.” A sob. “You have so much to see. So many places to go to. You deserve to have it.”
“No.” I’m done playing. Done dragging this out.
My cock pulses as the blade kisses her waist, breaking skin with a shallow cut. The breath whooshes out of her, her jaw going slack.
Pain seizes her face, how her eyes focus, seeing me anew.
Her home. Her truth.
She’s mine.
“You don’t have to lie, Knox. If you have to kill me, that’s fine.” Two pearly tears roll down her cheeks. “It’s okay. It’s okay. You have no other choice. I understand, it’s?—”
Clearly, the way I’m handling this does more harm than good. Her mind keeps drifting to my family, and fuck that.
“No one’s making me do anything.” I seethe, grabbing her jaw and twisting her head left and right. Back to me. “We’re home. Their tests are over. And you’re forgetting”—another cut, along the curve of her hip now—“it wouldn’t have mattered if we failed. Wouldn’t have mattered one goddamn bit.”
“There were so many of them…” Her sobs gut me. Rip me apart.
I almost—almost—take her down and crush her to my chest.
Can’t. Won’t. Not yet.
“Let me tell you exactly why we’re here, Trouble.”
With her throat back in my grip, I step back. Just enough space to let my gaze drag over her naked body. Down the swell of her breasts. Her navel.
“Jesus, you’re gorgeous like that. Bleeding for me. Need you. Your sweet pussy, want that too. To rut into you.” My teeth sink into my bottom lip. “But—no.”
“No, what?” The hook rattles violently. She has no chance against my binding or the bolts that pin it to the ceiling. “Talk to me. Fucking talk to me.”
She doesn’t ask,Why are you doing this? Why the knife?
Deep down, she understands there’s no other way to wipe the others from her memory.
“No, I won’t fuck you, Skylar.” My knife cracks against one of her gashes. “Not yet.”
Precum dampens my cock at the wet sound of the knife connecting with her flesh. At her broken whimper.
“Here’s why.” I drag the blade over her hipbone, carving a third shallow cut. “First…”
Blood coats the steel, and I use the flat edge to smear it across her body, painting her red.
Her anguished groans are the fuel I need to keep going.
“You’ll be here, on this hook…” I release her throat, wrap my arm around her, and pull her to me. Her blood soaks my clothes. Her hot breath mingles with mine. “Until the pain makes the others disappear. Until there’s only me, the best and worst thing you’ll ever live through. Until you get that…”
Talking is hard when I pin the tip of the blade to her flesh. I don’t see but feel it skimming the curve of her ass.
When I press it to her butt cheek, breaking skin, she gasps, and the sound is full of need.
I’m just as hot, as fucking feral for her.
“Get what?” she breathes.
