I sighed. I moaned. I cried out for more.
“Let me go…” I gasped, my spine bowing.
“Say it,” he hissed.
His pace picked up, and he fucked in hard and fast between every word. The sound of our sweat-slick skin slapping cut through the dimly lit room. “Say you’re strong enough to save yourself.”
I couldn’t do anything but nod. The friction of the carpet inflamed my skin with every punishing thrust.
“Say it out loud,” he demanded, his expression furious.
“I’m strong enough to save myself.” And this time I believed it with every fiber of my being. I believed in myself. Fire reforged my broken spirit and vanquished despair.
“You’re going to fight me and win, understand?”
“I will,” I moaned, my breasts bouncing at the ferocious surge of his cock. “I’ll win.”
And then he hit deep. His pelvic bones slammed against mine, grinding to hit that sensitive spot, igniting a heady rush of a climax in a storm of fire. I submitted to the command of his cock and surrendered to insatiable pleasure that swept outward on flames drenched in bliss. My intimate walls gripped himhard, milking him in hot, quivering pulses. One hand was spread against his throat, the other I pressed above his heart. And in a room carved for moonlight, with the stars shining bright in the velvet night, I came apart with his name silently branded on my lips.
I was barely aware that he’d joined me in his own climax with lusty jerks and loud, gruff grunts, his cock kicking and warmth spilling inside.
Both of us were abandoned in a sensual world, gasping for air and sharing breath. When I came slowly to, I discovered he was still on top of me, his hands buried in my hair.
Graysen softened enough to pull free from my body, his slippery seed seeping between my thighs. He kissed my temple, rolling onto his side and dragging me into him, banding an arm and leg around my figure so I couldn’t wiggle free.
I sighed, then inhaled, soaking up a lungful of his masculine scent. I sank into his embrace, snuggling closer. Right now, truthfully, a small part of me didn’t want to be anywhere else.
I pushed the sweaty hair away from my face and angled my head to find him propped up on a forearm and staring down at me. His eyelids lowered lazily, and he yawned, blinking blearily with a lopsided smile.
“Youwon’tfree me, orcan’t?” Because there was a marked difference between the two.
His smile faded. “I can’t,” he replied with a bleak undertone to his voice.
I studied his face, the unease skittering across his features. The worry that I might fall back into despair, that he’d yet again chosen his mother over me. Deep down I knew that’s what I’d do too. I’d strap him to a chopping block and hand over a meat cleaver to the Butcher if it meant that I’d save my mother and sisters.
An itchy feeling tickled the back of my mind, and I absentmindedly drummed my fingers across his chest as I thought about it further. If his brothers knew what I was up to in the library, then it would stand to reason he did too. He knew that a massive wall blocked the escape tunnel, and he’d have felt me break down there in absolute darkness. “Did you let Sage in beneath the Keep? Did you send him down there to find me?”
His mouth tipped up on one side. “You needed a friend.”
I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to die,” I told him honestly, but I was too bone-tired and sated to feel anything else but a soothing comfort from being in his arms. The tamer aspect, I expect.
When he next replied, his words drifted apart and were strangely slurred. Respect shone in his cunning gaze. “You’re the girl who bows to none. You’re going to destroy us all to save yourself.”
I tilted my head, perplexed, but I couldn’t stop the small smile as silvery moonlight glowed inside my soul. He believed I would find freedom and burn the lot of them on my way out. “And you’re okay with that?”
He nodded sluggishly, once, twice, his mouth parting to say something before his features slackened and his eyelids fell shut. His head dropped heavily into the crook of my neck, and then he collapsed, his dead weight pinning me.
I gaped in surprise as I stared up at the ceiling.
47
Graysen
The dreamworld was insubstantial, like clouds changing shape as they drifted across the sky. Until the nightmare arose, as it always did when I finally succumbed to sleep. The dream dimmed and darkened, and a country road materialized.
My heart palpitated against my ribs as I relived the horror of that night so long ago, the sound of my baby sister’s terrified wails tearing apart the desolate night.
Death and fear surrounded the crumpled limousine.
