Wandering over to the fireplace, I touched the covered mirror—the one gift Reese and I had purchased together—and sobbed. The sheets fluttered, responding to the sudden burst of wind from the opening of the front door.
“Mom, I’m sorry, but I just want to be alone.”
“It’s Braedan, Keaton.”
I froze, staring steadily at the sheet covering the mirror as it ruffled in the breeze. “You shouldn’t be here. You put your identity on the line for me and I know Nadine is going to tell Noah who you really are. I can’t risk it. Go before he takes you away from me, too.”
He surrounded me, holding me in his arms. “I was at the funeral, but it was nearly impossible to get to you. You…shouldn’t be alone. Noah could bring Hell to Earth and it wouldn’t keep me from you.”
As I stared at his muscular arms, peeking out from the pushed up sleeves of his sweater and his beautiful hands, I began to feel again. I fell apart in his arms, clinging to his hold as it tightened around me. “I didn’t—don’t want you to see me this way.”
“Never feel embarrassed for being human.” His hold loosened. “Turn around and look at me, Keaton.”
“I can’t. I have a feeling your eyes will be a mirror for all the things I don’t want to see. I’d rather go my life being sight blind and never have to see the ugly things I’ve seen again.”
He released me, moving methodically behind me. The soft silk came over my eyes and was snuggly tied in the back. “I believe you misunderstood what I said about being in the dark. But for you, tonight, it’s done.”
Securely blinded, I turned around and reached out for him. He guided my hand to his soft lips.
“Be with me,” I pleaded.
The tickle of his fingers running through my hair made my scalp prickle. “I can’t continue to be your escape from your grief. You need to face it. I know the loss. I’ve felt it many times and pretended it didn’t exist by seeking solace in unhealthy things. It’s not a future I want for you.”
“Nothing feels unhealthy about the way you feel inside me.”
He gasped my name. The warmth of some part of his face teased my forehead.
“I…can’t remember the good in my life anymore. Hurt me until there is nothing left and I’m so riddled with pain I feel numb, and I’m forced to remember.”
His exhale skirted down around my face. He held me firmly, verging on hurting me like I requested, but for some reason or another, he held back and slackened his grip. “Listen to me very carefully, because I will not repeat myself. Don’t ever ask me to hurt you. The strength of your orgasms will be the only violence that I inflict on your body. Understood?”
“Yes.”
The touch of his hands sliding up my dress immediately made my body react. I helped him by holding my arms over my head and allowing him to slip it off my body. It fell to the ground with a soft ruffle. Hands glided up my hips and to my breasts slowly swaying against the lacy material of my bra. Soft silk tickled my skin. The prickle of his stubble brushed against my sternum.
Hovering his mouth over the nipple, he exhaled with a heat that increased the sensitivity. I immediately responded with a groan and guided myself with whatever I could find. Clutching my wrists, he placed them behind my back.
My breasts were caressed firmly, equal attention was spent on the right and the left. The touch of his hands barely registered down my waist and stopped at the waistband of my underwear. Taking his time, he slid them down my thighs. It slipped down, butterfly-light as it tickled my skin, pooling around my ankles. Grasping the back of my legs, he lifted one leg and then the other to step out of them. The humid breath from his exhale danced across my inner thigh, smoldering me with an inescapable impulse.
Sopping wet…his tongue traced a line up the opening of my sex.
A stream of the moisture trickled down my slit. Guiding it down with his fingers, he rocked up and down. Smooth and damp, his tongue traveled up my slit and stopped at my clit. He flicked the nub repeatedly with his tongue, increasing the pressure slightly with every lick.
Unsure if I could stand any longer, I staggered. Pressing my lips together, I attempted to suppress a moan.
“Did you tell security that everything is fine if you scream?”
“N-no.”
“You’re lucky I did it for you, because you’re going to scream.” Swift enough to startle me, I was picked up and gently placed on solid ground. He positioned me to kneel. From behind me, the abrupt change in wind bristled the fine hairs on my neck.
Feeling him behind me, pressed against me, his hard, warm body felt completely nude. His cock throbbed against the swell of my behind, probing for a place to release. He unclasped my bra, allowing it to fall away from my body.
Exploring me again, he teased my breasts and slid down at a painfully delayed speed on his way to the place that craved his touch the most. He ran his hands up and down slowly, placing the lightest pressure against my clit.
Heavy and erratic, his breath tickled the back of my neck. His tongue blazed a path from the curve of my neck up to my ear lobe. Briefly, he took my hand behind my back to cup the tip of his latex-sheathed erection.
Only mere inches of him slid inside me, making me feel just enough but not enough.
“Say something,” he whispered, his teeth biting sharply into my earlobe, “or I’m going to keep up the delay.”
“I need to feel you.”
“I don’t believe that’s your filthiest, Keaton.”
“Slide your cock inside me.”
“How do you want it?”
“H-harder… I want you to bottom me out.”
Opening me with his fingers, he retreated and allowed the thick head to roam around my sex. Placing his palm against my back, he forced my spine to curve.
My hands touched the floor with a soft slap.
At a teasing pace, his erection inched inside me.
“Yes,” I hissed, quivering in satisfaction.
The hold he maintained on my body secured me and pulled my upper body back toward him. I reached down, guiding myself against his legs, bended at the knee as they surrounded my lower half. Inside me, his cock throbbed and stretched me while he moved leisurely.
My sex was drenched with my arousal. The sound of his methodic thrusts inside my flooded warmth and bare flesh colliding with naked skin reverberated between us.
The strokes from his cock became unyielding, hurried and deep, sending me into an ascent so quickly, I almost lost my balance and landed on my face. He adjusted me again, directing me on all fours. The pain of kneeling on the hardwood was silenced; the control he wielded over me promised a pleasure severe enough to numb everything unpleasant.
His pounding was unrelenting, and I bounced roughly with every movement. The friction he built inside my core made my eyes water. It flooded me to the point of bursting the unsteady dam with violent frenzy. The erotic soft grunts—the hard slaps of our naked flesh in chaotic sway with one another filled my ears.
Demureness. Silence. Self-control. It was all erased for a high far above the clouds, the air was thin and there was no strength to scream. I convulsed dramatically, unable to remain steady on my limbs.
Enveloping me securely with his arms around my torso, he held me upright. Unwavering in his movement against my strong pulses, creating a tightened grip on his girth, he rode me until my strength to support myself was depleted.
Holding me by the waist, he twirled me around and lifted me up. My hands probed, reaching out for something to grip onto. I folded myself snugly around him and leaned forward, my mouth opening, aiming to kiss him. Velvet lips caressed mine tenderly, probing my mouth and pleasuring it with his tongue while teasing my lips with his teeth.
The dense heat swirled around my body, he carried me to an unknown place in the house. Finding his neck, I reached up and ran my fingers through the barely there hair and up to the longer strands that slipped easily through the spaces in my fingers and fluttered down the back of
my hand. Setting me down, my bare feet touching a cold, hard floor, he turned me around. I reached out, clutching the cool textured surface. My breasts mashed against the frigid surface as he slid into me from behind.
Fingertips tickled my arm, eventually finding my hands. Holding me tightly, he pumped inside me with a deliberate pace. My panting breaths danced against the surface, resonating against my face. The electric pulses he evoked sent a fever to my fiercely perspiring body. My nipples hardened under the rub of the stiff surface underneath me.
Spun around and lifted by my thighs, I braced myself and wrapped my arms around his sweat-slicked body as it bowed, melding into me. I slanted backward, barely able to remain steady as he drove inside me at pace that sent me flying.
Braedan's body was a powerhouse, made for shocking me into the beautiful agony of pleasure. Possessing my mouth, his lips took me adoringly and gently.
Double blinded by the blindfold and the intense thrill making me see stars behind my shuttered eyelids, I had the sudden urge to release pent up fullness.
I held out for as long as I could. My body relented and I came apart.
He kissed my open mouth, stifling my loud cries and moans.
Clinging to me, he groaned softly against my mouth and slowly began to decrease his pace.
Our bodies draped in a layer of moisture, clung together as we embraced.
PARTIALLY ON THE COLD floor and partially on Braedan while dressed in only his suit jacket, I removed my blindfold as I sat up. Dressed in undone slacks and an unbuttoned black shirt, his arm cradled behind his head, he slept peacefully.
An untamed and small smile crept its way onto my face. I reached out and fingered the angular structures in his face. “Beautiful,” I whispered, kissing his lips. As I continued to trace the juxtaposition of the delicate and the strong features that made up his prepossessing looks, certain parts of his face began to look familiar. It wasn’t anything I noticed before, but it was glaringly present now.
Without opening his eyes, he lifted up to his feet. With his back to me, he began to adjust his clothes. Stepping over to the mirror, he grabbed his dark shades from the mantel, replacing them on his face. He returned to me, his warm, strong grasp held my hands and helped me to stand. Gliding his hands down to remove his jacket from my body, he left me naked. His chin slowly moved down, seemingly taking in the site of my body.
“I wish you could see the look in my eyes every time I see your body this way.” His sudden touch along the scars on my back traced a trail downward that made my slightly sore sex awaken with the desire for more. “You are the beautiful one.”
“So you did hear me?” I grinned.
“I’m a very light sleeper.” His head inclined to the right, pointing to my dress on the floor. Turning away from me, he waltzed over and grabbed it to tentatively help me back into it.
“Did something go wrong with your eye surgery?” I asked, flipping my hair to one side and allowing him to zip up my dress.
He gently kissed the nape of my neck and wrapped his arms around me from behind. “You can’t keep hiding here.”
I was still stuck on the question he wouldn’t answer and the sudden familiarity I couldn’t place with his face. It took me a few minutes before I could respond. “I’m not hiding. Just enjoying being in my own world with you.”
“What happened, Keaton? I want a truthful answer and not another of your diversion tactics.”
I turned around, squinting my eyes at him and brushed my hand down the buttons of his black shirt. “Like you just did to me?”
The corner of his mouth twitched upward into an endearing, skewed grin. “My eyes should be fine by tomorrow. You will see them again then.”
Nodding that I understood, I replied, “I…went to Sonja’s house after the funeral. I tried to comfort Craig, Sonja’s fiancée, and tell him how sorry I was. I understood his anger. Completely. But the things he said…he said I was poison. I can’t stop thinking maybe he’s partly right.” I sniffled, trying to hold myself back from falling over the ledge. It was the first time since we spent the night together that I was glad he was wearing sunglasses. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for the man who saw the real me completely, to see past all the things I was dressed in to make me fit into the society I was born into and watch me at my most naked moment.
“You aren’t poison, Keaton. You’re a person who had a difficult lot in life. To me and for me, you’re my consolation and my muse. You can’t allow Noah to impede on your life this way. It’s probably what he wants. Sonja’s loss will hurt for a long time. I can’t say I knew her well, but from the short time I interacted with her, she was a phenomenal person. I’m sure she would never have wanted Noah to have a lasting effect on your life and for you to be the woman who is scared of living.”
“I-I know.”
His soft touch grazed my chin. “Then, prove it.” His pleasantly wet and soft lips swayed against mine, increasing the ever present heat between us.
Something between a bang and a knock at the door started me out of skin and caused him to pause.
“Keaton?” My mother’s voice rang out behind the sound of the door hinging. “Are you there?”
Groaning my discontent, I slanted against Braedan’s body, clinging to what I wasn’t ready to release. “Can you stay and we can ignore her? Just for one more minute.”
His lips swept across my forehead, evoking a wave of relaxing heat down my face. “I can’t stay. I’m late for an engagement.” He released me and headed toward the door.
I plucked up his tie from the ground and fingered the silk material. Bringing it to the nose, I inhaled Braedan’s sent.
I glanced toward the foyer, expecting to see him standing alongside my mother, but only saw her.
Peering down at my black dress, I ran my hand along the hem, recalling what I tried to come to terms with in my moments with Braedan: Sonja was gone.
“Keaton?” My mother walked across what was once the living room.
I gave her a warm hug. “Is Braedan still here?” I scanned behind her, wondering where he had disappeared to.
“No. He had some matters to attend to and had to leave.” Rubbing her arms through her thick wool cape, she eyed the room with skepticism. “I know you’re an adult and your decisions are your own…but what have you always been taught? Leave a little to desire on your wedding night.”
I sat cross-legged on the floor and sighed. She didn’t marry my father until well after she had me. Her argument was always that she wanted me to lead a better life and be a better person than she was. “Braedan isn’t shallow. It’s not a good time to talk about the dangers of premarital sex.”
“That’s not what I meant at all, Keaton. With what’s happened to the past, I don’t want you to rush into things or lack value and virtue because some men—who never should’ve been given the opportunity to affect you—made you feel that way.”
“Braedan definitely doesn’t.”
Nodding with a perplexed look that indicated she gave in only because she didn’t want to argue, she scanned the floor. “Why did you return here?”
“I needed to figure some things out. Phoebe and Reese. Sonja and her baby. I kept placing responsibility with myself for what happened to all them, but Braedan made me realize something.”
My mother pointed at the position of my legs and shook her head.
Lifting up, I adjusted my dress to fall properly. “Noah and his followers are solely responsible for taking the life of my friend. And he is not going to succeed in making me run scared.”
She clasped her hand to the side of my cheek, a sullen grin painted her face. “Good, because that man will get his due someday.” She glanced behind her as though someone was standing there. “To what I was speaking of earlier…it’s becoming serious between you and Braedan? Did you two…spend the night here together? I know what I thought I heard in the study the other day, but…”
The flutter inside my chest, the tingle on my skin�
��it was as if he was there, touching me.
He’d become the extra breath I never thought to take. Since I’d gotten used to breathing that way, I couldn’t do without it. I required the extra oxygen. I needed him more and more. With him, I was in a space reserved for two in the world where I experienced all the things I longed to feel and avoided, or pretended weren’t necessities to my well-being. For the first time in my life, I was on the precipice of falling—maybe I already had.
Through all the hurt, anger, and soot that many tried to decorate me with, I felt settled. I was enveloped in a love so pure it swept away everything that had been done before. And through it all, the thought made me smile in spite of my pain.
As she took my hands, her eyes were fixed on the place where Braedan and I slept last night. “Finally,” she breathed out. “It’s been a long time coming. I approve. I very much approve. I don’t approve of you two being intimate without an engagement ring on your finger, but that’s another discussion for another time.” She began to run her fingers through my hair, attempting to fix it. “His business. His charity. It’s as if my prayers have finally been answered.” Perplexed over her inability to fix my hair the way she preferred, she dropped her hands. “He truly does have the face of an angel.”
I simpered at her. “The face of an angel?” I playfully mocked her.
“Don’t make fun of your mother, Keaton. That’s my description and I’m sticking to it.”
My mother’s descriptive words filled my thoughts. I began to feel the apprehension brought about by my fear of letting go and being emotionally stripped with someone.
The most lethal monsters had faces that could’ve been considered angelic.
I couldn’t shake the notion that I had seen his face before Rebirth. It wasn’t as though Sander’s features were becoming clearer to me. It was something else. Something in my gut. Every time I thought about it, my heart began to sink and I couldn’t figure out why.
The Rebirth of Sin (Wicked Trinity Book 2) Page 22
