“Is that so?” he speaks with utter ease that’s in complete opposition to the way he’s driving in and out of my core.
“It is. I swear.”
“How did you get in?”
“I… I stole the invitation you sent Creighton.”
Lan did, but I’m not going to say that.
“Such a conniving little witch.” He hits a secret spot inside me, and he must feel it, too, because he hits it again and again.
“Please stop,” I sob, humiliation and shame dripping from every part of me.
I’m half naked and being held down by someone who might as well be a stranger.
A dangerous stranger.
A stranger who shouldn’t see me like this.
“Didn’t you beg me to fuck your cunt last night? Something about not wanting to die a virgin?” He thrusts again and again until stars erupt behind my lids. “I might be in the mood to do that. Right here. I will claim you like an animal in the middle of the night and no one will see you becoming all dirty and messy.”
I whimper and tremble. “I’ll scream.”
His sadistic chuckle fills the air. “By all means, scream. No one will hear you and you’ll only get my dick hard.”
He’s right.
They won’t.
Not only is this his property, but we’ve wandered so far away from the mansion that I can’t even hear the music anymore.
He’s planned this.
From getting me in this part of the forest to impersonating Landon. He planned everything.
And I fell right into his trap.
I’m helpless with no way out except for taking the lash of his fingers. The controlled in and out. The erotic sound against my forced wetness.
All of it.
I screw my eyes shut when a stabbing pleasure hits my womb and the orgasm is about to flood me again. I wait and I wait.
And I wait…
But he’s gone.
His fingers have pulled out of me, his knee no longer pins me in place, and my hair is free of his savage hold.
My pussy clenches like it did a second ago when I was about to come. Only now, that stimulation has vanished, leaving a dull ache between my legs.
Slowly, too slowly, I lift my head and stare behind me to find Jeremy standing in the middle of the night, blending with it, becoming an eerie part of it.
He’s wearing the black trousers and white shirt I saw earlier. No jacket.
Black ink swirls and cords along his taut muscles as he crosses his arms, disappearing beneath the short sleeves of his shirt.
Due to the lack of light, I can’t tell what the tattoos are about, but they add a hint of mysterious danger.
He’s watching me, but he might as well be looking through me.
It didn’t take him long to flip my world upside down, to unlock a part of me even I was scared of, but he doesn’t look affected in the least.
His face is hard, cold, detached.
A true devil of the night.
There’s no light in his gray eyes and they could easily blend in with our somber surroundings.
Dispassionate. Unforgiving.
If I didn’t know this guy, I would say he’s mad about something. But then again, he always appears to be angry at the world and disapproving of the people in it.
“Why…?” My trembling word trails off. I don’t recognize the hoarseness in my voice and I hate the weakness in it.
“Why what?” He slides his gaze over the length of me.
I clumsily pull up my jeans and scoot my arse until my back hits a tree. His impassive expression doesn’t falter, but he doesn’t look away from me, not even for a moment.
“It shouldn’t have been you,” I whisper.
“Let me guess, it was supposed to be Landon?”
I don’t say anything, but he doesn’t need me to.
He lifts his glistening fingers under the moon and I wish I could dig a hole and die in it. “Landon isn’t the one you begged to fuck you while you soaked his fingers as you came apart, now, is he?”
“I…would’ve never gone along with it if I’d known it was you.” My words are an attempt to regain my dignity—or what remains of it, but I immediately think it was a mistake.
Jeremy’s eyes darken and his whole body stiffens. I’ve always seen him as cold and merciless, but this is the first time I’ve witnessed this savage part of him.
It’s like he’s on a mission to destroy anything in his path.
“And yet you didn’t use your safe word.”
My lips part. He’s right. I…didn’t.
“I…forgot about it,” I say, refusing to think it’s because of something else.
“I think you didn’t. Deep down, you didn’t want me to stop. You looked awfully disappointed when I did.”
“That’s not true!”
He reaches me in two steps and I try to crawl back, but I only end up pressed further against the tree as he stands in front of me and wraps his fingers around my jaw.
His touch is callous, untrained. He’s a beast of a man, a savage who probably doesn’t know how to touch anything without the ruthless energy that emanates off him in waves.
I brace myself for whatever violent threats or acts he’ll commit, but he hauls me to a standing position then releases me. “Follow me.”
“To where?” I stare at the stiff muscles of his back through his shirt.
“Do you know the way back to the house?”
“No.”
“Then walk.”
Oh.
I don’t know why a part of me thought he’d leave me in the middle of nowhere to fend for myself.
Once again, I wait for the panic attack that doesn’t come.
But I know I screwed up tonight.
I didn’t only trespass on private property. I might have trespassed into the devil’s lair.
My thoughts are confirmed when he stares at me over his shoulder, his eyes still in tune with the night, tapering and shimmering with that mystic darkness. If anything, they appear more unhinged. “Come back when you’re ready to be fucked properly.”
CECILY
“You need to come home.”
“Papa!” I slide my attention from my book to the phone and I’m greeted by the face of my custom-made role model.
He grins, showing deep dimples in his cheeks.
Xander Knight is my father, my first best friend—Ava came later—and the greatest dad on earth.
He has a classically handsome face with his golden blond hair, sky blue eyes, and a sharp jawline.
Mum said he used to be the most popular boy at school and attracted everyone’s attention like a magnet not only due to his looks but also thanks to his charm.
It’s safe to say, I didn’t inherit any of those easygoing traits, and it’s not due to a lack of trying on his part.
“I just miss my only daughter too much, so either you come back to London and study at a local uni—which would make everyone happy, by the way—or I find a house near you so your mother and I can see you all the time.”
“No to both.” I suppress a smile because I’m well aware he’s capable of doing that and this is the third time he’s suggested that option.
When we went on a school trip at thirteen, Papa kind of convinced all the other fathers to rent out a holiday house near our camp.
Papa and Ava’s father, Uncle Cole, ended up buying the thing because they’re extra like that, and then they pretended to stumble upon the place we were staying at by chance.
It was the worst lie in centuries. Ava and I kind of came to the realization that we have overprotective dads and we’d have to live with that fact instead of fighting it.
No matter how old we get, we’ll always be their little girls who they wish would remain young forever.
“I mean it,” Papa says from the other end of the phone, a line appearing between his brows. “I can’t sleep at night thinking something has happened to you.”
“You’re just being paranoid. I’m healthy and well.” I flash him my best smile and hope to hell he doesn’t see the doubt and concern hiding behind it.
I am healthy, but only physically, and I certainly haven’t been well. Not since that night a month ago.
Something inside me has shriveled and vanished since then, and I couldn’t find it again, even if I tried.
It was wrong.
Everything was.
From my twisted tendencies to allowing myself to be in that position, even if it was for Lan.
I’ve never felt as ashamed or completely disappointed in myself as I did at that moment when I realized the one who’d chased me in the dark and brought me the most powerful release I’ve ever experienced was none other than Jeremy Volkov.
The resident devil of Brighton Island and the reigning Lucifer of TKU.
I couldn’t look in the mirror for days after the incident, went into my head more times than I could count so that even my friends started to individually ask me if something was wrong.
For a moment, I truly considered going home and finding comfort with my parents, Uncle Kirian, and my grandfathers, but how is that any different from running?
Besides, if I’d done that, I would’ve appeared under the weather and worried them needlessly.
I’m glad I didn’t give in to that impulse and stayed put. If Papa had sensed any hint of distress, he would’ve locked me up in the house and demanded to slay my demons for me.
But I’m past that age where I let him do that on my behalf. The real world without him is much scarier and full of people who wouldn’t hesitate to snuff me out, but I have to do this on my own.
Like I survived that black day on my own.
Papa shifts, allowing a hint of his home office to appear behind him. “I’m still worried. I wish you were still my little Cecy who hugged my thigh and rode my shoulders.”
Me, too, Papa.
“Unfortunately, growing up is mandatory.”
“Don’t I know it?” He shakes his head as if expelling an unpleasant thought. “Tell me all about school. Is everything okay? Is anyone bothering you? Do you have a boyfriend, and does he know that if he touches you, his parents will lose a son? Or maybe it’s a girlfriend, who still shouldn’t touch you unless her parents are ready to lose a daughter?”
“Papa!”
“What? I need to cover all the bases. You haven’t dated any guys since secondary school, so I thought maybe you’d realized you play for a different team. But you would’ve told me, right? You know I would support you no matter what, right?”
I raise a brow. “Does that mean you’ll be more lenient if I introduce you to a girl?”
“No, but I wouldn’t, say, hit her or anything.”
“You shouldn’t hit a guy either.”
“Of course I would. Boys are little wankers.”
I shake my head. “I’m straight, Papa. Annoyingly so.”
“Ah, fuck. So you really have a boyfriend? Name? Family name? Age? Address? IQ?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
He narrows his eyes. “Oh, he’s good. He’s really good if he’s already making my honeybee lie to me.”
“Papa, stop calling me that. That was for when I was five.”
“Not hearing that. I will, however, hear about this boyfriend that you’re hiding from me.”
“Who has a boyfriend?” Mum’s soft voice comes from the other end.
I pause, rub the side of my nose once, and grip my pen tighter.