Chapter Twenty-Two

We’re both attempting to catch our breath, but I’m far less worried about catching my breath and more focused on the paralyzing fear that is gripping me. My body begins to shake, and the way he smiles at me chills me to the bone, the moonlight shadowing his features make him look like a demon of the night.

In the next moment, that knife from before is out, and it’s slicing through my shirt like butter, forcing the fabric to fall to my side. He then hooks the blade under my bra, slicing through the middle like it’s nothing, forcing my breasts to spill free. I try to cover myself, but he pins my arms to my side, bearing down all his weight onto me before he sucks my nipple into his mouth.

“Look at me, angel,” he coaxes softly.

I grit my teeth and try to dissociate, but it’s not as easy as it should be. Not when Zayden is forcing my eyes on him.

Slowly, I unpeel my eyes, allowing myself to look at him.

“Good girl. Now keep those perfect eyes on me until I’m finished.”

He lifts up the knife once again, taking the back of the cool metal and dragging it down the middle of my chest, forcing a shiver to run through my body. Whether it’s from the cool feel of the blade or the fear of what comes next, I’m not sure.

The knife makes its way down my stomach and to the hem of my leggings before cutting a line down those as well. Zayden’s large hands wrap around the shredded fabric before yanking them down past my knees and off to the side, my panties going along with them. I’m suddenly lying in the damp grass, completely exposed and vulnerable. And though I feel a deep-seated fear inside me, I can’t help but feel a lighter feeling begin spreading through me when I see the way he’s looking at me.

His eyes greedily take in my naked flesh, looks of varying adoration and awe covering his face as he curses under his breath.

“You’re perfection, angel. Absolute perfection.”

“P-please,” I stutter. “Don’t h-hurt me. Don’t?—”

“Shhh,” he whispers. “I’d never hurt you, only if you asked for it.”

My brows furrow at that. “So, you really won’t kill me?”

He cocks his head to the side in confusion.

“Of course not. If you die, I die.”

“Then you’re gonna rape me again,” I breathe out shakily, closing my eyes as I begin to accept my fate.

“I’ve never raped you, angel. You’ve never told me no, never pushed me away from you. You’ve always been willing and giving of your body, a gift I treasure.”

“You made me think you were someone else, that’s rape, Zayden!”

He lets out a groan as he drops his hips down against me, rubbing his hardening cock against me through his pants.

“I love it when you say my name, angel.”

“Stop calling me that,” I grit out, doing my best to keep my head through his fucked-up mind games.

“I can’t. That’s what you are. You’re my angel, and I’ll be your devil. Bound for all eternity. I’ll do anything to protect you, always know that.”

“From everyone but you, right?” I bite.

“Exactly,” he says before cupping my pussy, grinding the heel of his hand against my clit. I try to repress a moan, but with a little more pressure, it escapes me before I can help it.

Zayden continues this move as he takes the knife in his other hand and begins dragging the blade against my skin again, this time on the sharp side. My pulse begins to thunder as fear grasps me in a chokehold when the silky tip of the blade pierces my skin just slightly, enough to allow a bead of blood to follow with it.

He makes two more cuts, each just below the other, on my inner thigh, the sharp pain morphing into something unnamed, something unknown, and a dark, recessed part of me enjoys it.

“Fuck, I knew you’d bleed so beautifully for me.”

His eyes collide with my own, that same bloodlust-hazed look in his eyes like it was earlier tonight as he sets the blade aside and rubs his thumb over the cuts, smearing the blood across my thigh before lifting it to his mouth and rubbing it against his lips. His tongue flicks out, tracing over the crimson red before he groans and rolls his eyes into the back of his head. I feel his palm increase in speed against me, and when he plunges a finger inside me, I’m embarrassed to say that I’m absolutely soaked. He adds another finger before pulling out, rubbing those same fingers into my blood once more before sucking on them.

I should be repulsed. He’s disgusting, sick, and demented, for sure. I should not feel my pussy pulsing, ready to fall apart at the sight of this psychotic man losing his fucking mind because of me, for me. Without another word, he pulls his cock out with one hand before he’s shoving himself inside me.

A sharp scream tears through me at the aggressive thrust before it fades into an unwanted moan. I should be fighting harder, I shouldn’t succumb. But when his hand digs into my hair, fisting it into his palm as he forces my eyes on his, I let go of everything, and I exist in this moment, no matter how wrong it is, it feels so fucking good.

“You’re so perfect, angel. I need to have you forever,” he pants as he tightens his hold on me.

“Fuck,” I moan as his pelvis grinds against my clit.

“Goddamn, your cunt grips me so good. Tell me how much you love my cock in you. Say my name,” he groans.

I shouldn’t be giving in to this at all, let alone obeying his commands, but his name slips past my lips like it was always meant to, and he rewards me with his fingertips now dancing against my clit.

“Zayden.”

He doesn’t last another second, shoving deep inside me, hitting my G-spot, and making me see stars as his warm cum fills me. Once his orgasm subsides, that doesn’t stop him, as he continues fucking me for several more seconds, practically forcing the cum as deep as it can go before he finally slows, forcing my eyes to meet his.

“That was perfect.”

Now that my own orgasm has subsided, I don’t know how to feel or what to think. I’m disgusted with myself and confused and still kind of turned on. The sudden need to cover myself is strong as I try to cover my body with my hands. Zayden watches me carefully, and it’s almost like he can see in my mind, like he’s attempting to allow me inside his. I’m not sure I want to go to a place like that, though.

He shucks off his leather jacket before peeling up his shirt, revealing those insanely defined sets of muscles covered in the various shaded tattoos, before pulling the shirt over me. He continues to unravel it down my body until it hits my upper thigh, just barely covering the three cuts that are finally not bleeding.

I watch as his fingers dance around the puffy and swollen skin as if he were entranced by it.

“Will they scar?” I ask.

He shakes his head before looking up at me.

“When I mark you forever, it will only be when you beg me to.”

I don’t say anything to that, as we both just watch each other for several seconds. I feel his other hand come up to my lips, brushing against them reverently. Something is wrong with me. I can’t describe it, I can barely comprehend it, but all I know is that right now, in this moment, I want him to kiss me more than I want my next breath.

Maybe I want it so I can confirm that I have nothing but disdain for him, that what just happened was nothing more than a lust-fueled haze. I was scared and running on an adrenaline high. That’s all it was, and if his lips touching mine fills me with the revulsion it should, I’ll know for sure that I’m not crazy. I haven’t lost my mind. I was acting out of survival and a basic human reaction.

My mind made up, I lift a hand to the back of his neck, pressing forward slightly and making my intention clear. His eyes flash with surprise, and he doesn’t hesitate, his lips are on mine in the next instant.

Butterflies tear through my body, soaring from my chest to my lower belly. My heart begins beating harder than it was when I was running for my life down this hill. A warm buzzing feeling begins from where our lips are joined all the way to my toes, and when his tongue peeks out to tangle with mine, it’s officially confirmed. I’ve lost my goddamn mind.

Surprisingly, Zayden doesn’t try to do anything more than kiss me. He is practically consuming me like I’m the meaning of life, his life at least. I need more, though. Pushing Zayden to the side, he rolls easily onto his back, and I climb on top of him, sinking down onto his already hard cock with only a little pain. I breathe through it before rising up and sinking down again.

“Fuck, angel. Ride my cock. Take what you want.”

I continue my motions, chasing only my own pleasure as Zayden watches on in awe, digging his fingers into my ass cheeks as he guides my rhythm.

“Zayden!” I moan.

His cock hits each spot just right, forcing my body to shudder and shake as I do my best to keep myself upright.

“I’ve got you,” Zayden says before he wraps his arms around me, holding me in place before lifting me up as he gets to his feet.

He carries us for several feet before pressing my back against a cool surface. Before I have a moment to look around us, Zayden’s taking over, thrusting deeply inside me as his mouth is latched to my neck, sucking and licking me as he fucks me against this wall. The only thing I can do is toss my head back and enjoy the feel of him.

“Zayden! Fuck. I’m gonna—” I gasp as that familiar feeling is already setting in, causing my legs to quake as my breathing becomes choppy.

“Good. Come all over my cock, baby. I want to drown in your cum.”

I feel his teeth sink into the hollow point of my neck, and in the next minute, I cum. My vision spots, and my body practically locks up as I shout my release. I scream and squirm in his arms as he holds me up, fucking me until he’s following right behind me, his cum filling me up for the second time. Thank fuck for birth control, though I’m still not one-hundred-percent confident that it’s fully effective yet.

Letting out a ragged breath, I rest my head against the wall before looking up. I stare at the starry sky for several seconds before an archway catches my eye. I look up to see that we were fucking against a stone pillar on one side of an entrance to what looks like a private cemetery. My eyes squint as I try to make out the words better. It takes me a few moments in the dark before my eyes clearly read the word “Graves” scrawled across the top.

“Is this…”

“My family’s plot?” Zayden fills in. “Yes. Say hi to my mom and dad.” He laughs, forcing a demented laugh to escape me.

“Oh my god. No. This is disgusting. We fucked in a cemetery, in your cemetery,” I say.

“Twice.” He nods.

I cover my face with my hands as I shake my head. I feel Zayden slowly lower me until my feet are on the ground. A shiver runs through me as the crisp air wraps around us.

“Are you still going to tell on me, angel?” he asks, forcing my chin up with two fingers.

I squint my eyes as I look up at him.

“You’re still gonna let me go?”

“Of course not,” he scoffs as he runs his hand through my hair. “But I want to know if you still want to see me rotting in a jail cell or on the wrong side of this ground.”

The way I can barely form a sentence proves I’m in no position to be making decisions or declarations, but for some idiotic reason, I no longer feel threatened by him. He’s too obsessed with me, whether that’s good or not. I truly don’t think he’d ever hurt me or let anyone else hurt me. He’s not a good man, he obviously feels no remorse for the man he killed today, and he’s made it clear that wasn’t his first kill, but a strange comfort settles with me that he’s not gonna stake me with a chair leg at any given moment.

“Why did you kill him?” I ask. “The guy…in the dining room.”

His fingers continue tangling through my hair, like he can’t help but touch me as he speaks.

“He works for a man that wants information on me, on Dominic, on you. He knew you were in the apartment. He knew too much.”

I’m quiet for a moment, secretly loving the feeling of my hair being played with as I speak again.

“So, this man, he’s the one Dominic was talking about. The one who wants to hurt me?”

His eyes come to mine, a dangerous glint in them as he shakes his head.

“He doesn’t want to hurt you, but he would never pass up an opportunity to control me. I’d burn heaven itself to the ground to keep you as mine. He’ll know that and use it against me, against all of us.

“Why? What does he want with you? What?—”

He presses his lips to mine, silencing me for a moment before resting his head into the crook of my neck.

“No more questions. Just listen to Dominic and me. Don’t run. I need you safe.”

I decide to stay quiet, and he seems happy with that as he wraps his arms around my shoulders and buries his nose into my neck, continuing to inhale my scent in a way that is still definitely creepy but not nearly as terrifying as it was just hours ago.

Silently, we walk back up to the bike, Zayden tucking me into his side so tight I can barely walk on my own. We find my shoe along the way, which is nice, and he slips his leather jacket on, which is honestly hot as shit since he’s now bare-chested with only a leather jacket and his pants on.

One tattoo catches my attention more so than the others. It’s a pair of angel wings with a scrawled name across them. It only takes me a second to recognize my own letters inked into his skin. My eyes come to his in surprise, but he only watches me impassively, seemingly waiting for me to speak. I choose not to, though, and he shrugs before leading us to the bike.

As I go to sit on the leather seat, I wince at the feeling of cum running down my legs. Zayden’s eyes drop between my thighs, and he smirks before shoving some of the leaking cum back inside me. I inhale at the intrusion before he gives me a salacious wink and fires the bike back up, weaving his way through the cemetery and back to the main road.

What the fuck just happened?