Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
My toes curled at the pleasure of his glorious assault. He grasped my hips, towering over me like The Devil in his painting. His fingers were flecked with black and red, staining my bruised hips with paint. I wished the paint would sear into my skin forever.
“I was born to do this, Piper,” he grunted, not halting his rhythm even for a moment. “For you.” He slammed his hips harder to punctuate the point, sending me exploding around him all over again.
The entire time, I stared at the painting, transfixed by it.
I couldn’t help but believe I was born for this too. Born for him.
Seventeen
Piper
My toes curled into the damp grass, head tilted upward at the gentle breeze.
I hadn’t been able to sleep. There was no way I could sleep. Not with the energy thrumming through me. Even though Knox had thoroughly tired me out, my limbs heavy and my body sated.
He was sleeping, his arms tight around me like they always were. He didn’t exactly cuddle me; he encased me in the vice of his arms as if someone might try to take me in the night.
As someone previously accustomed to their own space, with strict no sleepover rules, initially, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sleep like that. Turned out I could. I slept deeper than I had in my adult life.
But not on this night.
Not with the looming pressure of the outside world, oppressive like a weight in the room, pushing at the walls, the ceiling. Not with the exquisite painting sitting in the room like a living thing, staring at me.
My body was still stained with the paint smeared from Knox’s hands, and the paints cluttered on the dining room table. Knox didn’t seem bothered when I refused to let either of us shower. He was trapped in a hungry trance for me. As if he needed to fuck himself into oblivion in order to distance himself from whatever had opened up inside him as he painted.
I hadn’t complained.
The door to the cabin opened and closed. I’d anticipated it, though he took longer than I’d thought. I’d expected him to wake the second I crept out of bed, his arms locking around me. But he’d been in a sleep so deep, I hadn’t roused him when I extracted myself from his brutal grip.
The deepness of his slumber spoke to just how exhausted he must’ve been. How special it was for him to give away completely to slumber, be that vulnerable with me. It was something beyond extraordinary when a man who defined himself by his strength let himself be ‘weak’ in front of you.
I’d wanted him to sleep. But my absence must’ve roused him.
Arms went around my waist as he pulled me to press against his torso, mouth nuzzling into the curve of my neck. His teeth brushed the skin, sending a delicious shiver down my spine.
“I don’t like waking up to you being gone.”
“I didn’t go far,” I told him, my body prickling in awareness of the threat in my midst, my skin tight with excitement.
His hold on me tightened. “Anything outside of the bed is far.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s a full moon,” I pointed out, though I didn't need to since the moon was shining in our faces, refusing to be ignored.
“I like to bathe in the moonlight,” I whispered. “Though it’s a little more difficult with the city lights battling against it. And I doubt I’ll be here for another one. So I wanted to … make the most of it.”
I trailed off as I spoke the words, cloaked in anxiety, stifled by it. It was highly unlikely we’d be there much longer, I didn’t think Stone would allow it. The moon pressed against me, a firm reminder of action required. Change required. The power of it all shifting me.
Knox didn’t speak for a long time. I yearned for words of reassurance. For promises. Plans. Anything to give me hope for a way out.
He didn’t give me any of those.
“I’ve always wanted to fuck you in the garden under the moonlight,” he said against my neck.
My skin erupted in exquisite chills, and my body buzzed with need at the words.
“Why are we still standing here, then?”
The words were barely out of my mouth before Knox lifted me, spinning me. My legs wrapped around him as he carried me with considerable strength to the garden.
Our mouths fused together, the kiss carnal, animalistic. He didn’t waste time, quickly lowering me onto the dirt, prying the blanket away from my naked body so my skin pressed into the soil, the earth, the plants. Soil I’d turned over, life I’d created crushed beneath me, surrounding me, us.
Knox knelt above me, cut against the moonlight in a brutal glow, like some kind of dark god.
His eyes roamed over me hungrily, his erect cock twitching with need.