“You’ve been trying to get me in your pants for almost a year.”
“Stop acting like you didn’t enjoy it!” I shout back, needing to inflict my own damage.
“Free pussy is always enjoyable. I didn’t have to work for it.”
My slap comes as a shock to even me. My palm and fingers sting from the blow I just delivered to his cheek. Even with his stubble, I can see the redness on his jaw. When I drop my hand, it burns like fire. Stone doesn’t move, but the look in hiseye is deadly, and I step back. Two streams of white smoke exit his nostrils. It reminds me of a bull I used to see in cartoons. I would laugh if he weren’t moving toward me, something evil in his expression.
Stone pushes me against the wall and picks up my hand, the same hand I just assaulted him with, and licks the redness on my palm. I shudder as arousal rips through me again. And I hate it. I hate that the feel of his tongue on my burning skin feels good, just like when he slapped my pussy and then licked at the pain.
“Did it feel good to hit me, Countess?”
“Yes. You fucking deserved it!” I curl my fingers into my palm to stop the tingles both from his tongue and the slap.
“Hmmm.” His other hand moves down to one breast, squeezing. Involuntarily, my back arches, my stupid body betrays me by pushing into his hard palm. My nipple beads and I roll my lips inward, but I refuse to release the moan that wants to escape. But as much as I don’t want him to know how good he feels, I don’t stop him. His hand continues down to my hip, gripping it. “I do deserve it, Countess, because I’m not who you think I am.”
I suck in another breath when his fingers push under my hem and over my thigh. His palm is sticky, wet, from my earlier arousal and his saliva. “I’m a man who won’t care about you just because you opened your legs.” He cups my pussy, pressing in. I’m soaked. I can feel his rings. His callouses. His heat. There’s also the faint burn from the slaps he delivered earlier.
“Don’t touch me,” I pant, straining against his hold. I grab his wrist and try to drag it away from under my skirt, but it’s no use. I can’t think when he’s touching me.
He leans closer, pressing into me, imprisoning his hand between us. His lips touch my ear, and I try to lean away, even when I want to turn my face and meet his lips. The gruff voice whispers into the curve of my ear is erotic. “Too late, Countess.My mouth and fingers have had your pussy.” He slides his fingers inside me, swirling them between my lips, up and down, caressing me. “And you liked it.”I can’t deny his words because even now, I want him to do it again, even when I want to gouge his eyes out. Suddenly, he slaps my pussy, hard, and this time I do cry out. God, the sharp stinging pain feels good, so fucking good, and I hate that I get wetter. “Don’t ever hit me again. Do you understand?”
I don’t agree because I’m not sure I can resist. Hitting Stone felt good. Felt freeing to assert some control over him.
Another slap lands, and I pant, breathing through the pain. Pleasure follows, and I hold in the need to ask him to do it again, but this time I want his finger to push inside me again, curl, and make me feel the way I felt earlier. I want him to push his dick inside while the stings pulse through me. I’m shaking with the effort to stay quiet. I grit my teeth.Don’t let him do it again, Camryn. It’s a game to him.“Or what, you fucking asshole? You’ll be a cruel piece of shit? Too late!” I spit the words in his face and glare at him. Those dark eyes meet mine. A standoff. I stare up into his face, noting everything about him. He looks at my lips and lowers his eyelids. He slides his hands out from between my legs and cradles my neck, squeezing slightly. His threat is there. The threat to hurt me. I feel slightly dizzy with the way my breath is hampered and I close my eyes because I feel the wetness, my wetness.
“All the more reason to stay away from me, Countess.”
With that, he releases my wrist and neck and pushes away from me. I open my eyes and sag against the brick wall, my body in utter chaos. My pussy is throbbing. The moisture on my neck is cooling, and I can still smell his smoky, delicious scent.Shakily, I brace against the wall, using it to stand more upright. I lift my chin. “Don’t worry about that. Let’s pretend likeit never happened.” I walk away, refusing to run, refusing to let the tears drop. I walk right through the door and up the stairs.
When I reach into my pocket for my keys. My fingers feel numb, cold. It takes me three tries before I can get the key in straight. I open the door and slam it, leaning against the surface, finally letting the tears of frustration and embarrassment leak down my face. “Fuck him,” I whisper, trying to push the tightness in my chest away. I drop my keys on the table and take off my shoes. When I start to move, I feel the slipperiness between my legs, and immediately, I want a shower. I need to get his saliva off me.
Ripping my clothes, I drop my skirt and shirt as I go, unsnap my bra, and climb into my shower, turning the water to hot, withstanding as much heat as possible. A form of self-flagellation for being an idiot. I pick up the soap and washcloth, furiously rubbing my neck and then my breasts, trying to wash away the feel of him squeezing my breasts, flicking my nipples. I open my legs and pause, looking at my tattoo covered in the bandage. I didn’t even ask about it, too busy letting him do what he wanted to me. There are faint bruises that look suspiciously like fingertips starting to form around the tattoo, fromwhere he held my thighs open.There’s another rounder shape further up on my inner thigh, right before my pussy. His hickey.
I close my eyes and remember his words.“My tattoo is already on you permanently. But this one? This is for me.”
Chapter 36
Speeding down the highway, I grip the handlebars harder. Camryn’s taste is still in my mouth, on my tongue. Her wet, shredded panties are still in my pocket. It all lingers, taunting me. I hurt her. The accusation in her eyes gutted me.
My heart isn’t completely black because I feel some shame and guilt over what I said, but I did what I had to do. I can’t have Camryn close to me. I can’t risk her. Two souls are already on my conscience, and as much as Camryn makes me feel more than I have in a long time, I have no business tainting her, corrupting her with the parts of me that aren’t fit for humanity, especially a woman with a bright future. She’s so young and so free to start her life off right.
I’ll be 45 in a few months. I’ve been to jail. I’ve killed men and butchered their bodies. I’ve used their ash to decorate my body and buried what was left so deep in the dank forest ground, never to see the light of day again.
My baggage is too heavy for her to carry. I’m barely managing under the weight of it all.
So as soon as I heard the slam of her upstairs door, I walked back into the tattoo shop. Onyx was tattooing one of his clients.Fortunately, she wears headphones when she gets inked. Most times, she falls asleep. “Did Jace hear us?”
Onyx paused and looked up at me. There was no judgment in his eyes. “The music was turned up. He didn’t head to your office. I told him I didn’t know where you were or where his sister was.”
He lied for me, and it is one more mark against me. “Fuck.”
Onyx looked back down at his work and didn’t say another word to me. It was his way. So I left before I went back upstairs and begged for her forgiveness. The last woman I begged to forgive me was dead, murdered for the same reason: her association with me.
I went back to my office, my chair. The seat was still wet. Another glaring reminder. When I spotted her discarded panties on the floor, I picked them up, bringing them to my face. It reminded me of the first time I met her and saw her panties hanging in the shower at her brother’s house, and now another pair of her panties are in my hand. But these mean more. These are mine, cut from her body with my knife. With them gripped tightly in my hands, I got on my bike, the need to blow off some steam was strong. I could have gone to my cabin, but Iv’s ghost is always there and I don’t need more reminders tonight.
Chaotic thoughts crowd my mind as I cruise down the highway. Maybe I just need to fuck her right out of my mind and erase the taste of her on my tongue. She was so responsive, so fucking hungry for what I offered her. Her cries still ring in my ears. I’ve never enjoyed eating pussy more than I did with her.
Pulling into the long driveway, shrouded by trees, heart-thumping music reaches me. Before I get closer, two Lords come out, eyeing me up and down. Both of their faces are expressionless, but I slow down and brake, bracing with my feet. They approach me, and I feel the hairs on my neck raise at theman I don’t recognize. I don’t move for my gun, but my knife is close enough to pull out if I need to.
