“I’m known for my control, but with you…” he cracked his neck and shook his head.
I ran my fingers through his hair and yanked. His eyes were dilated, his lips an inch away from mine. I leaned forward, and he swallowed. I leaned back and bopped him on the nose. His eyes refocused and then he blinked. I giggled. His hand moved, his fingers tickled me. I squealed and fought to get away.
I’d wrestled a man twice my size before; nothing could move him. But as I shoved him and crawled away, it was too easy. And I couldn’t help but fall harder.
The bed dipped. I looked back over my shoulder to where he sat upright. He was magnificent. My gaze trailed along the ink on his arms, the light in his eyes was playful, and those lips didn’t look so innocent after the unbelievable things he’d just done to me. He lunged, and I squeaked. His hands were on me, grabbing me by the hips. He lifted me and placed me on his lap.
Knots, did his cock ever go down?
My pussy still hurt from last night and my insides felt like he’d rearranged them, but I wanted nothing more than for him to take me again.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Dane asked.
“Oh, you know. Things to do, places to go, people to see,” I said nonchalantly. His gaze was a weight, and I was caught in his trap.
“I don’t think so,” he murmured huskily.
“I didn’t know I needed your permission to do as I pleased,” I baited. My cheeks flushed as I remembered the last time I did something without permission.
“We’ve been over this already, but if you’d like me to refresh your memory…” he trailed off.
I didn’t have time to answer. Dane stood up, taking me with him. I squeaked, my legs locking around his thick waist as he hooked massive arms under my thighs. With purposeful strides, we marched into the bathroom.
He set me down on the cold marble, but he didn’t move back. He stepped into the space between my knees.
“Open up, Vera,” he commanded, his voice a low, vibrating growl.
My heart hammered against my ribs. My breath hitched, and my mind immediately went to the sting of his cock or the roughslide of his fingers. I braced myself, my eyes fluttering shut as I parted my lips, waiting for the invasion, for the next round of being mastered.
Instead of skin or heat, something plastic and bristled slid into my mouth.
My eyes snapped open. Dane stood there, one hand still on my hip, the other holding my toothbrush. He was scrubbing my teeth with a slow, focused rhythm, his eyes tracking the movement as if it were the most important mission of his life.
I tried to speak, but it came out as a muffled “Mmph?”
“You have morning breath, baby,” he said, his voice still deep but now laced with a thread of dry humor.
The tension snapped like a rubber band. I let out a bubbly, minty laugh against the brush, my shoulders finally dropping. The contrast was ridiculous—this lethal, tatted-up soldier was carefully brushing my teeth as if I were a precious, fragile thing he’d been tasked to keep clean. The fear I’d carried for years felt smaller in the face of his silliness.
“Says the guy who just ate ass.” My words were muffled by the brush.
Dane didn’t even blink. He finished the last few strokes before pulling the brush back. “And I’d do it again,” he countered, his voice flat but his thumb tracing the curve of my bottom lip.
Once he was satisfied and I’d rinsed, he reached into a nearby linen closet and pulled out a heavy black t-shirt.
“Put this on,” he ordered.
“I don’t like being told what to do,” I teased. He moved back and I hopped off the counter. I pulled the fabric over my head. It swallowed me whole, the hem hitting the middle of my thighs, the sleeves falling past my elbows. It was warm, and though I couldn’t smell it, the weight of the cotton felt like a second skin.
“Lies,” he growled.
My face warmed as I caught my reflection in the mirror. I looked like a different person. I didn’t see the hollowed-out girl Amos had left behind. Hickeys littered my neck. I saw a woman draped in an Alpha’s armor, looking soft and claimed.
For the first time in years, I didn’t avert my gaze. Usually, my reflection was a list of failures—eyes that were too wide with fear, pale skin, bags beneath my eyes, and a mouth that had forgotten how to do anything but apologize. I was used to seeing a ghost inhabiting a body that didn’t want tobeanymore.
But today, the woman in the mirror looked alive. My lips were a deep, bitten red, and the flush across my cheeks contrasted with the black cotton of Dane’s shirt. I looked… happy… cherished. Like something valuable that had been carefully handled all night long. It made a lump form in my throat, a strange ache for the woman I had been only forty-eight hours ago. She had been lonely. The woman staring back looked like she might finally be home.
The house was too quiet, and the absence of the second heartbeat I’d fallen asleep to was suddenly deafening.
