“That as long as I’m alive…” Maybe if I do this, lower my mouth to her neck, part my lips, and bite her, maybe that’ll scare her. “No one touches you.”
She screams, letting me know it does. When I spank her with the knife, and she cries out my name, I almost come in my jeans.
God, I want her.
“I’ll torch the farmhouse. Snap their necks with my bare hands.” I pull her toward me, grinding her naked body against me. “I’m that strong. That feral. I’d have killed your sister myself if they’d let me.”
“Y-Yes.” Her pulse is a ticking bomb beneath my lips. “I swear. I get it. You can let me go now. It hurts.”
I reach around to cut her other butt cheek.
She howls when I grab a fistful of her wounded flesh. “Knox, stop it. You’re hurting me.”
“I don’t want them on you anymore.” Her ass fills my hand, her blood coating the inside of my palm. “Don’t pretend you don’t want that too.”
“There are other ways.” She should be kicking me. Cursing me. Instead, she clings to me, legs wrapping tight around my waist. Desperate. Begging. “We can talk about it. You can hug me.”
Rage slices through me. She considers me a source of comfort instead of the biggest monster out here.
I’m failing her. I’m?—
I know what to do. Know how to fix this.
She gets off on pain when it’s inflicted on her. But if I bleed for her, she won’t have it. Hurting her loved ones, that’s what scares Skylar the most.
Her smooth forehead creases when I pry her legs off me. Every step I take backward deepens these lines.
“Where are you going?” Her chest heaves once she’s finally able to speak. “What are you doing? Don’t leave me here.”
“I won’t.” I stop, and with my eyes on hers, I press the blade to my arm, right above my elbow. “I’m right here. Always will be.”
My skin is splitting. Blood trickles from the shallow cut.
Feels so good.
The anguish flashing across her face is better.
“No!” Her face crumples in agony. “No! Stop it!”
While her love—the one she hasn’t admitted to yet—warms my sick, twisted heart, I won’t revel in it.
This isn’t about me.
“I’m doing it for your own good.” The blade sinks deeper, hot rivulets running down my arm, over my elbow, dripping to the floor.
Her chin trembles as she stares at the cut. “How the hell is this for my own good?”
“Their actions were brutal.” The second cut, the third, they don’t even register.
Nothing does except her hardened nipples. The thin red lines I carved into her. Her arousal wetting her inner thighs.
“So?” Her question breaks on a sob.
“Don’t lie to me, Skylar.” I toy with the knife, teasing another untouched strip of skin on my arm. My cock throbs as the beast inside me takes over. “You know damn well why I’m doing this. Say it.”
“Stop!” She bares her teeth to me, fighting against her restraints. “Don’t hurt yourself.”
“Or what?” I challenge, feeling like we’re getting somewhere.
