“This is insane!” I shouted, gulping in air moments before we hit the waters’ surface. I felt no pain, as if his body cut a path for mine through the water, protecting mine once again.
Chapter Thirty-One
The moment we were in the water, I pushed away from Knox, shooting my body toward the shoreline. I didn’t wait to see if he followed since I could see the bubbles beside me, and the evidence of another whirlpool fighting to suck us into its deadly grasp. I knew he’d follow me since he was Knox, and he made everything look freaking easy.
Crawling onto the shore, I coughed up more water. Flipping onto my back, I watched the male who had just protected me from certain death, taking powerful strokes to reach the shore where I laid.
I flipped onto my stomach, moving to my knees while fighting to stand through the exhaustion. My body burned from misuse and screamed in protest. I fought the skirt I wore, heavy with water as it clung to my hips in danger of sliding off them.
When I finally gained my footing, I rushed toward the next cliff edge, leaping over it onto black slate rocks. My bare feet protested against the rock’s surface, and yet I kept moving.
I progressed down a few tiers, pausing once I’d placed enough distance between myself and the beast hunting me. I could hear the shouts of his men above us as Knox silently stalked me, his eyes smiling with victory, even though he hadn’t caught me yet.
I bent at the waist, placing my hands on my knees, staring up at him. Knox smiled wolfishly while closing the distance between us without showing a single ounce of the exhaustion I felt coursing through me.
My muscles burned, rebelling against more movement. He paused and slowly knelt, studying me while he allowed me to catch my breath. He stood, letting his stare drop to my exposed belly.
“You could just give up,” I offered as his eyes moved back to hold mine with challenge burning in them.
“You could be a good girl and get on your knees for me.”
“I prefer being bad,” I smirked, and his eyes lowered to my mouth. I licked my lips, noting the smoldering heat that filled his. “See something you like?” I taunted.
“I was thinking of how I intend to fuck that bratty mouth of yours. I bet you’d stop arguing if it was busy, wouldn’t you?”
“My mouth isn’t planning to do anything to your dick, Knox,” I snorted, standing to glare at him with a fire burning in my eyes. I hated that my body reacted to his words, uncaring that he was a murderous prick who wanted me on my knees in eternal servitude.
“That’s a waste of your pretty lips and very talented tongue, woman. I personally enjoy what that mouth does immensely.”
“That’s too bad, isn’t it?” I whispered, fighting the heat that pulsed in my belly, clenching with need.
I turned from him, jumping over a few more of the flat-surfaced rocks. I noted the noise they made as they creaked and groaned beneath my slight weight. Pausing, I turned to tease him, only to find him one stone away from me. My heart hammered in my ears as adrenaline and need clashed together.
I hadn’t even heard Knox moving, and yet he’d closed the distance between us. He looked at me, calculating. He enjoyed hunting me down. His muscles clenched while he watched me, enjoying the look of worry burning in my eyes.
I didn’t jump, not wanting to move blindly as he examined me, lowering his gaze to peer over the edge to gauge the distance of the fall. Slowly, his eyes slid back to me before I stepped toward the edge, dropping down to the next tier, using his distraction to my advantage.
“You’re going to be on your knees for me the moment I catch you,” he promised as he once again closed the space between us. “You could end this now, and I’ll go easy on you. Make me chase you much longer, and I’ll make you wish you’d ended it much sooner.”
“Are you going to hurt me, Knox?” I asked huskily, watching the cocky smirk playing on his full mouth.
“Only a little, but then you do enjoy being hurt, don’t you?” he countered, causing my nipples to harden from the deep, rich sound of his voice sliding through me.
“Not happening, asshole.”
I shook my head, watching how his body tensed while he prepared to close the distance between us. I stepped back, intending to move until a sickening crack sounded from beneath me.
My heart stopped, and the smile dropped from my lips, sending what blood was inside my veins coursing through my ears in a deafening roar as the rock broke.
A scream ripped past my lips as I began to fall. Knox dove forward without thought of himself, grabbing my hand. I cried out, dangling thousands of feet from the ground.
Staring down at the earth below me, I watched the rock slam against others, causing an avalanche of deadly rocks to rush down the cliff, crashing onto the ground, sending a dust cloud into the air. My body trembled, and tears slipped from my eyes while panic rushed through me blindingly.
“Look at me, Aria. Don’t look down,” Knox demanded, grabbing my wrist with his other hand. I dangled from the precarious height, unable to step onto anything since I was out further than the rocks beneath me.
“Knox,” I whispered through trembling lips, forcing my stare to meet his as I prepared to fall to my death.
“Just breathe,” he growled, and I wasn’t certain if he spoke to himself or me in the urgency filled tone.
He shook his head, worry flashing in his eyes as he yanked me up, holding me against his shaking body as he slowly exhaled, running his hands over my arms as I trembled.
“I have you,” he whispered, kissing my forehead.
Another cracking noise filled the air, and I gasped as we both started free falling. I dropped through the air, my body slamming painfully against one slab of rock, only to be tossed onto another before I stopped moving. I stared at the cloudless sky above me, inhaling past the pain that erupted in my back. I sat up, staring around.
“Knox? Knox!” I screamed thickly. I stood slowly, leaning over the edge of my rock to watch others crashing down the cliff, slammed into the earth, shattering. “Knox!” I shrieked as tears pricked my eyes, burning them. My hands reached for my hair, pulling on it as pain ripped through my heart. Denial that he’d fallen to his death ripped through me. “Knox! Don’t be dead! Please, don’t be dead, you stupid asshole,” I sobbed, wrapping my arms around my middle to stop the pain rocking through me.
“Careful, Aria, I may start to think you actually care about me,” a deep voice chuckled from above me.
I peered up, exhaling with relief as he studied my reaction. Tears slid from my eyes, and I dropped my head backward, closing them.
“That would be a stupid thing to assume,” I whispered thickly, still fighting the tears in my throat. I opened my eyes, allowing him to see the relief burning in my gaze.
We stared at one another, both checking for any visible injuries from the fall. It was several moments of silence before we were satisfied that the other was okay. I started to speak, but the rock I stood on made a loud cracking sound.
Knox shouted for me to move, and I spun around, jumping to the next one, and then the next as the sound of rocks cracking followed me. I felt him behind me, following me over the rocks that threatened to give way beneath our weight. Neither of us spoke as we made our way down the deadly mountainside, racing against the rocks that cracked with every jump we made.
The moment I reached solid earth, I rushed forward, forcing my burning legs to move to the next cliff’s edge. I leaped into the air when I was close enough to go over the edge, but Knox grabbed the back of my shirt, stopping my movement and throwing me backward. I rolled across the earth several times before coming to a stop on my stomach.
My eyes lifted, watching Knox’s men as they walked toward us. I rolled to my back, jumping to my feet, staring at Knox. I fought to get air into my lungs while my body rebelled. Knox smiled, victory burning in his oceanic depths while he watched me.
“Submit, Aria,” he demanded as his muscles strained, anticipating a fight.
/> I moved, and he mirrored the action, blocking my way while he tensed and prepared to advance. His scent was rushing through me, causing my already tense body to tremble with need.
“Never going to happen,” I whispered breathlessly, crouching low to swing up at him the moment he moved closer to me.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Knox dodged me easily, sliding to the right to capture my arm midair. He held my wrist as I hissed. I kicked my foot out, which he easily stepped over as he noted the sluggish movements of my attack. We both knew I was losing this fight, but I didn’t intend to make it easy.
I swung my other hand and pulled back before he could grab that one too. I closed my eyes, taking a step back as he yanked my body against his solid form, and a moan escaped my lips. Knox took me to the ground, hard.
Silently, he stared into my eyes, and I searched his face as the fight left me. Both of us fought to regain control of our breathing, and the moment I had, he growled huskily. His mouth crushed against mine, claiming my lips in an earth-shattering kiss that caused everything around me to vanish but him and what he made me feel as he claimed ownership of my mouth.
I moaned against him, letting the heat of his body warm mine. His hand continued pinning mine above my head as he ground his body against me.
The rattle within him echoed through me as he pulled away, watching me chase his mouth, needing more. His lips curled into a cocky smile as I lifted, writhing against him as everything within me demanded he destroy me.
“Knox,” I whispered huskily, unable to fight the urgency I felt for him with his scent rushing through me, matching mine in red-hot need that threatened violence. My body shuddered fiercely, and his eyes smoldered with knowing heat.
He smirked devilishly, lowering his mouth to my throat, which I bared for him. Warm lips kissed my racing pulse, and his tongue escaped the heat of his mouth as he brushed it over the wildly beating pulse at the hollow column of my throat. I whimpered, feeling his need against my belly, begging to give me what we both craved.
Everything within me demanded he claim my throat. I needed his teeth against my vein like some suicidal idiot wanting to be sacrificed to the beast. Knox dragged his lips across my throat to my shoulder, growling as he kissed the curve of my neck, nipping gently as a violent shudder of desire shot through me.
He growled louder, rubbing his erection against my apex that prepared for his large cock. His nostrils flared as if he scented my need, and then he groaned loudly, teeth scraping over flesh as he gave a silent warning by biting softly against my shoulder, without breaking the skin.
“Submit to me, Aria.”
He craved my willing submission as much. I wanted his domination and to take me by force. I lifted my hips, purring huskily while he turned his head, rubbing his nose against my cheek.
“Give me your submission. The monster inside of me hungers for you, woman. Say the words and I’ll give us what we both crave.”
“No,” I replied in a gasping tone, even though I wanted to beg him to put his mark on me again, needing it against my flesh.
I’d felt lost without his mark after it Taren removed it, violently. I desperately wanted it back, but I would not submit. His hand tightened on mine, staring at me through hooded eyes.
He chuckled against my shoulder as pain erupted, only to become an unbearable pleasure, and I cried out while it ripped me apart. My entire body vibrated with the claiming bite and softly murmured his name, barely above a whisper as the pressure of his bite gathered in my core, clenching hungrily for him to satisfy that need too.
His hand released mine as he pulled back, staring down at me with my blood painting his lips. Knox rolled his hips, watching my reaction to his thickening cock, and the pressure he applied to my clenching sex.
“Knox, please,” I whimpered through the pain created by my desire, rocking my apex against him with wild abandonment.
I couldn’t stop my body from moving, the bite forcing me past the brink of sanity and into the haze of everything I’d fought for months. I struggled with the urge unsuccessfully, rocking my body against Knox and the ground, and his eyes grew hooded. He lowered his mouth, brushing against mine before lifting his head.
Covering my mouth, he pushed his elbow on the ground to lift his body. He grabbed the hem of my skirt, lifting it on my hips, glancing briefly at his men, then back to me.
Slowly, he slid his fingers through my core, and I moaned against his hand. He growled, running his fingers against my opening teasingly. I cried out the moment his finger entered my body, finding it wet with need. He groaned, clenching his teeth audibly while he pushed another finger into my body.
“That’s my good girl, come for me,” he urged huskily, rubbing his thumb against my clitoris, eliciting a throaty moan against his hand, still muffling my cries. Knox’s eyes burned with fire, smoldering until my body combusted from his touch.
The slight penetration, and two more circles of his large thumb, and I exploded violently. Pleasure ripped through me, and I arched my spine into his touch as his nostrils flared with my release. Stars burst in my line of sight, and my legs dropped apart, lifting for him to give me more.
I wanted all of him, every single inch of him, buried so deeply into my body that I became the temple he worshiped. My eyes widened with the force of the orgasm. He continued to rub my clit, tears leaking from my eyes with the intensity as pleasure rolled through me nonstop.
“Good girl, Aria,” he crooned, lowering to rest his forehead against mine without removing his hand from either location. He peered into my opened soul he’d bared to his heady gaze, grinning, “You’re so fucking wet that I want to bury my face in that magical cunt of yours and drink it until you beg me to stop.”
Fingers slid through the slick arousal, pushing against my naked flesh. Knox closed his eyes, fighting for control. His jaw clenched with the effort it took to gather the will to win the battle he waged.
His hand moved, and his mouth crushed against mine, capturing the loud growl escaping his lungs with my lips. I slid my hands through his hair, holding his mouth against mine, kissing him with a need that we both felt as the world faded to background noise and melted away.
It was a kiss that left me boneless, sending the butterflies within my belly into flight. His hand lowered, pulling my skirt down even as he pushed my thigh up to rub his thumb over the sensitive inside.
His thick cock pressed against the sensitive nub, and he growled against my lips at the sound of my moan that exploded, captured by his greedy lips. Knox pulled his mouth from mine, smiling. I cried out at the loss of his heat when he lifted back, staring down at me through hooded eyes.
“I missed you too, Little Monster,” he whispered raspingly. His words were coated in thick gravel that grated on my nerves, pinching my nipples until they throbbed for him to suck their swollen tips between his teeth. “But I’m so going to punish you for making us both wait for what we crave. You also kissed other men, and that isn’t something I will allow to continue. I can smell that mutt on you, Aria.”
I didn’t speak, not even when crunching sounded all around us. Knox peered up, watching his men surrounding us as he still held me on the ground in submission. Knox lifted my hands above my head once more, staring into my eyes as someone grabbed my wrists, applying something metal and cold around each one.
I shivered as my strength weakened, and something shot through me, something… wrong. It was as if they’d splashed ice water over my face, waking me from the haze Knox had induced when he’d marked my shoulder.
I gasped, fighting for air as he studied me, even as worry flashed in his eyes. I exhaled a shuddering breath, and he mirrored it before glaring down at me, as if he, too, was awakening.
“You could have fucking died, woman,” Knox whispered, helping me to my feet before turning me to stare up the cliff we’d come down. Before I could say anything in my defense about our suicidal romp down the sheer rock face, he walked me toward the cliff he
’d prevented me from jumping over, and grabbed the back of my hair, holding me over it. I screamed. My hands lifted to his hold on my hair, forcing myself back toward his massive body. “If you are ever that reckless with your life again, I will chain you up and throw away the fucking key. Do you understand me?” he demanded harshly. “I expect a fucking answer, Aria!”
“I understand, Knox,” I swallowed past the chattering of my teeth as what had almost happened hit me.
Over the edge of the cliff was a sheer drop that continued down to blackened earth below. There was nothing to break my fall if I’d gone over, and I would have if he hadn’t caught me and thrown me back before I’d succeeded. I trembled as the reality of my stupidity hit me.
I hadn’t expected to have to run this far, because I hadn’t expected him to jump off a battlement blindly, or follow me down a slate cliff to catch me.
He was a fucking king, and they didn’t follow bitches over perilous jumps or into raging rapids. It was like law, or some shit that they had to remain protected!
Knox turned me toward him with anger etched in his tone, but there was something in his eyes that tugged at my heart. He was worried at how reckless I’d been with my life, and that I’d almost died trying to escape him.
I nodded silently, watching as he slowly released the anger, pulling me against him while he cupped my cheeks, and fought past whatever was happening within him.
He shook his head the moment he released my face, turning to speak to Brander. “Find us a way up that fucking cliff that doesn’t end with us dying.”
“There’s no way up, other than to climb. Not unless we go up the falls, but that only works if someone above knows we’re down here and tosses us a rope. No one knows we’re down here, not since we followed you, and you followed her. She, on the other hand, was the first idiot over the edge.” I would have snorted, but I hated that he had a valid point.
Ashes of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms Book 2) Page 23
