Chapter 20

Sadie

M y heart raced as Keelan’s hands glided up my legs, and when they reached my hips, I tried to shift to escape. But he quickly gripped them, pinning me down on the bed. Whether or not I wanted to admit it, Keelan Blake had all the power in that moment—a power I wanted to surrender to.

Wanted to but shouldn’t.

“Take it easy, princess,” he purred. “This will be a hell of a lot more fun if you stay still.”

Will it, though?

He leaned over me and placed his knees on the bed, the left one on the outside of my right leg, the other pushing my thighs apart. His hands gripped the black silk of the nightgown and shifted it up to my waist. I was bared for him.

Oh my God, even his hands on my hips are making me wet. What the fuck is wrong with me?

I escaped him because he murdered a man in cold blood, and I didn’t want to live with such monstrous violence—forced to exist alongside a man who killed so easily, so gleefully. I had lived through enough in my life. Just yesterday, I watched him bash a man’s face into his truck until he broke his nose. Sure, according to Keelan, the guy was a sick bastard, but still, he didn’t even flinch. He didn’t even hesitate.

Brian , I quickly thought. Brian … he was who I wanted. No, he was what I needed. Brian would have protected me from that man and quickly got us the hell out of that gas station. He was an attorney. Brian would have hoped that someday justice would be served to a man like the one who placed his hands on me, letting the law do its job … or karma.

Brian would never, ever show that level of violence. It wasn’t in his nature.

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the kind, handsome, gracious man Brian was, but the image wasn’t there. Instead, it was Keelan’s intense, beautiful blue eyes, his tattooed, chiseled body, and his full, wet lips that offered so much pleasure for me to touch … and taste. To take me.

Keelan’s devilishly handsome face never left my mind since that day in the courtroom. The look he gave me as the officer led him out would haunt my dreams for twelve long months. It was a promise and a threat that this was not over. We were not over. He wouldn’t rest until he found me, even if it was the last thing he ever did.

I could run again, but I would never be able to hide.

That burning blue fire in his eyes trapped me right at that moment. Keelan Blake was a dangerous animal hellbent on leaving his mark of ownership on my body and soul. He would make sure that no other man made me feel the way he did .

No man would touch me the same way as he did.

“Keelan, stop. How many times do I have to tell you I’m with someone else? This is wrong.”

“Sweetheart, if this were wrong, your body wouldn’t be begging for me like this,” he murmured, his voice laced with smug certainty. There was truth behind those words, a truth that I hated. I gasped quietly as his hand skated across my belly, the tips of his nails tracing over the stubble above my wet heat. “Besides … I thought he wasn’t your boyfriend.”

“Keelan,” I repeated, “Brian, he’s—”

My voice trailed off as he looked at me with hooded eyes. There was fury behind them, and my muscles locked up. I fucked up by saying Brian’s name again. Keelan lifted his hand from my stomach and grabbed my throat.

“If your pretty lips mention that asshole’s name again, I’ll take a picture of me fucking you from behind and send it to him.”

He squeezed my throat, but it wasn’t hard enough to cut off air or hurt me. It was the same grip he used during sex, the kind that he knew I liked … the kind that reminded me of who I belonged to.

And it was never Brian.

“I promise, Sadie, that man won’t have anything to do with you after I tell him about all the dirty things we’ve been doing on this trip and plan to do.”

My breath hitched, and my fingers dug into the blankets beneath me. The pressure on my throat was too alluring, and I didn’t resist as he pushed my legs farther apart. What was it about Keelan holding me down like this that made me drip with desire? A single thought drowned out the logical ones tucked in my mind. I wanted him to slide inside of my pussy and fuck me until only his name left my lips.

“Mmm, that’s what I thought, baby.”

Keelan released my neck and roughly slid both hands down my body, causing goosebumps to skate the back of my legs. He wrapped his hands around my hips and lifted them as he bent down, pressing his hot lips against my folds, teasing me.

I cried out against the sensation and twisted the fabric of the blankets in my hands. Fuck, I was going to come just from his heated breath. He inhaled, taking in the scent of my arousal, the betrayal of my sensibilities. My body was begging for him to taste me.

The bastard knew it, too.

“You can say whatever you want, Sadie, but this sweet little cunt is desperate for my touch. I know you. I know your needs in a way he never could. I know exactly how you like to be fucked.” His eyes met mine again, dark and possessive. “Like you’re my fucking property.”

Keelan’s mouth found my heated core once more, but this time, there was no teasing. He dove in, devouring me without mercy. His tongue flicked over my clit relentlessly, sending waves of sharp pleasure that made my body lose control. All my defenses crumbled at that moment, and I completely gave myself to him.

I lifted my hips, grinding into his mouth. He groaned and applied more pressure to my clit. I had no control over the whimper leaving my mouth, my body swirling with pleasure and need.

“Keelan,” I cried, biting my bottom lip. “Don’t stop. Oh, God, don’t stop.” My voice came out breathy and pathetic, and I hated myself for it. I should stop. I needed him to stop. Yet neither of us was willing to pull back. He pressed his tongue against me, sucking that tender spot as his finger slid inside. I gasped more loudly now. My head fell back, my hips arching into his mouth.

“Fuck, Sadie,” Keelan said while keeping his mouth against my opening, his tongue now replacing his finger. He pumped his tongue in and out of me, fucking me with his mouth. His finger stimulated my clit, keeping both sensitive spots occupied at all times. My legs were shaking against his head already, and I was hanging on by a thread.

I was so close already, and I hated that he could draw yet another orgasm out of me so easily. I tried to fight it, at one point making a feeble attempt to withdraw my hips just to make it all last a little longer, but Keelan caught me with ease, keeping me in my place. Right where he wanted me. There was no escaping him.

“Oh, fuck … oh, fuck!” I swore as I shook against him, the pleasure building at the base of my spine. Keelan fucked me harder with his tongue, showing no intention of stopping. He wanted me to drown in the pleasure. Keelan wanted me to know he owned me now as much as he did back then. And he was fucking right.

It wasn’t long before my orgasm hit me. I had very little control over the way my body responded to his touch. Trembling. Pulsing. Quivering. I struggled to catch my breath as pleasure rippled through me, consuming every inch of my body. Yet Keelan kept going, using his tongue and fingers to make a point.

I was his.

When he finally pulled back, his eyes were dark as they looked at me. A hard bulge was prominent in his jeans as he stood up, sliding down his zipper. Still struggling to regain my composure, I tried to keep my eyes on his face as his cock sprang free from his pants .

“Come here,” he demanded. Still breathless, I swallowed. “Put it in your mouth.”

“Fuck you.”

The corners of his lips curved up like my words amused him. Then he suddenly grabbed me by my legs, yanking me down and sliding me across the mattress. I let out a slight squeal before he dragged me off the bed to my knees right in front of him. His hand wove through the strands of my hair, close to the scalp, his cock right in front of my face.

“All of this will be far simpler if you stop fighting me, sweetheart,” he said. His cock was right in front of me, ready to be taken. A part of me wanted to make him suffer in whatever way I could find. But at the same time, I wanted him to lose himself to pleasure like I did—to show that I still held power over his body the way he did mine.

My gaze remained locked on his as I allowed him to guide my head forward, opening my lips to take his cock into my mouth. Right away, he filled me up with his shaft, hitting the back of my throat. There was nothing gentle about the way Keelan fucked my mouth. There was nothing gentle about the way I took him.

My tongue roughly rubbed up against his cock, stimulating him from all the angles. Tears filled my eyes as I gagged on his length, but I refused to pull away. My teeth scraped his skin to draw out the pain that he liked. Keelan’s grip tightened in my hair, holding me in place … controlling every breath I took. Saliva dripped down my chin from the force of his thrusts, and I loved every single second of it—the way his body tensed above mine. He was on the edge. I could feel it .

“Fuck, Sadie. Your soft lips feel so fucking good around me,” he groaned, his head tipping back for a moment. His thrusts grew more erratic as he had barely any control left. I could feel his tip at the back of my throat as I bobbed my head back and forth, each movement accompanied by a soft gagging noise that seemed to push him closer to the edge.

He was almost there.

Keelan’s pleasure was mine, even after all these years, because the urge to reach for my aching pussy was overwhelming. But before I could touch myself, he suddenly pulled back, sliding himself out of my mouth. I gasped, startled, as he gave his cock two firm strokes and spilled all over my chest.

For a moment, I was frozen in shock as he moaned through his release. The expression he made as he climaxed was nothing short of beautiful, but it did nothing to calm the irritating fact that I needed to shower again.

I shoved him backward and scrambled to my feet. As I did, my angry gaze locked on his satisfied one.

“Is this the part where you call me a fucking asshole?” he asked, the annoying smirk returning. “Where you pretend that I forced you to do something that your pretty little pussy and mouth had been dying for again since we left the cabin?”

My mouth parted. “You are a fucking asshole, Keelan. That has always been a fact.” He was such a goddamn smug prick. Yet the cooling claim on me was present all the same. I moved to pass him, intending to go into the bathroom, but he grabbed my arm.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I glared at him, yanking my arm against his grip. “What the hell does it look like I’m doing? I’m going to clean up. ”

His eyes darkened as they moved from my face to my chest. He smiled wickedly. I already knew he was planning yet another thing to humiliate me. That’s what psychos like him did. “No, I don’t think I’ll let you do that.” Keelan reached up and began to rub the cum on my chest and neck all over my skin, coating me with him. “I like you like this . Claimed by me,” he said. “The way it always should be.”

Keelan wrapped his other hand around my head and leaned close, his mouth claiming mine in a possessive, desperate kiss. His tongue danced around mine. I leaned in, surrendering to that gentle part of him that would vanish by morning.

When Keelan broke the kiss, he stepped away, pointing behind me. “Get in bed.”

Defeated and exhausted, I nodded and crawled into the bed but didn’t lie down. Instead, I leaned against the wall and pulled the sheets up to my chest to cover the sticky mess. Keelan walked to the other side of the bed and picked up his phone from the pillow it landed on.

“I talked to Gavin while you were in the shower earlier.” His tone was calm and casual, as if he hadn’t just rubbed my chest with his bodily fluids moments ago.

Shocked, I blinked at the news. “Oh yeah? What were you two talking about? Or am I not privy to that?” I asked, hoping that he’d finally give me some answers about what the hell was going on.

“I—” he started before looking down at his phone. “That lockbox I told you about …?”

“What about it?”

Keelan cleared his throat. “Patrick is the one who left it for me. He hid it somewhere. There was something big going down with our families, and he knew it was the only way to protect you. To protect all of us.”

My eyes widened, and I dug my nails into the sheets.

“Gavin is keeping an eye on things with our families until I get it. So, maybe, for once, you trust that there’s something more happening than me ‘taking revenge’ for your betrayal. You may not want to hear it, but you don’t have a choice. You never did.”

My brows furrowed in a bitter mix of confusion and anger. A prickling numbness, like icy needles, spread across my skin, and I felt detached and cold. Patrick? My dead brother is behind this goddamn nightmare? As much as I hated Patrick for mistreating me growing up, I grieved his death for months. Something about hearing Keelan talk about him set my gut on edge.

What the hell is going on ?