My feet touched the floor and moved through the hallway until I reached my room. I turned to close the door only to be shoved into the room hard. I hadn’t even heard him walking behind me, assuming he’d remained on the first level with his whore. Knox didn’t speak; his cold, hard eyes told me all I needed to know. He strolled in, staring me down with heat and anger building within him.
“I guess you need it spelled out for you?”
Knox didn’t respond, or maybe he just didn’t like women speaking down to him. Instead, he paced around me, walking in a circle, glaring at me like he thought it would intimidate me, so I turned with him, never giving him my back. I followed him in the tight circle until my head began to get dizzy.
“Look, I’m exhausted and just committed a murder, which takes a toll when it’s done with magic, in case you are unaware of that fact. But you’re Knox, and you know things. I’m going to bed.” He still moved in a circle around me, but where he was walking around me, I was spinning, which was fucking with my head. “Hey, it has been fun playing spin the witches with you, but some of us are tired.” He stopped, grabbing me by the throat, walking me to the bed slowly.
I trembled, staring at him as he gave a wolfish grin, trailing heated eyes down my body as he spoke. The moment he did, everything inside of me snapped tautly and hung on his every word. Oh shit. This was bad, this was really bad.
Chapter 21
He didn’t hurt me, but he let me know that doing so would be an easy feat. He pushed me onto the bed, and I stared up at him, hating him even more than I had this morning if it was at all possible. He watched me sitting back up as his head tilted to the side, staring at the thin, sheer panties I wore that hid nothing from his heated deep-sea-colored depths.
“Touch your pussy for me, Aria.”
“Like I’m going to…What the hell?” My hand moved while my eyes rounded with the movement of my hand. “The fuck?” I snapped in shock, watching my hand run down my stomach, inching toward the sheer fabric.
“You think I would put my name on you just to protect you?” He watched my hand vanish into my panties as my finger slid through the wetness his presence created. “Fuck with me, and I’ll fuck you without even having to touch you.”
My fingers slipped through my sex as heat filled my cheeks. A moan tightened my throat and fought to escape.
“Slower,” he ordered, never taking his oceanic depths from where they’d locked with mine. “Fuck your tight flesh. Slower, Aria. Don’t want you to come now, do we?”
“No,” I hissed through clenched teeth, but my finger entered my body while it clamped around the digit, and I arched off of the bed, crying out with the need for something more. “Knox!”
“Taste yourself.”
My finger pushed into my mouth, and I sank my teeth into it, smiling around it as his eyes watched the trail of blood that dripped down my chin, defiance lit in my eyes.
He smiled wolfishly, kneeling before the bed. His hands parted my thighs, inhaling deeply before he rose, licking the blood from my chin before his mouth hovered against mine. His hand lifted, pulling on my finger.
“Release it.” His tongue trailed over my lips, and I moaned as I did what he’d instructed.
Holding my hand, he sucked my finger clean before running his tongue over the wound I’d inflicted. Dropping my hand, he lowered his mouth, kissing a spot on my exposed cleavage where a drop of blood had landed.
“You won’t hurt yourself again, ever,” he whispered huskily, backing up to glare at me. “Now, since I have you here alone, where the fuck is Amara?”
“What?” Confusion entered my stare, and I shook my head as he watched me.
His eyes searched mine before he repeated his question again, causing the skin to burn where his name had been placed. I hissed, opening my mouth to tell him where to stick it, but nothing came out. Instead, my body responded to the pain, and I moaned before I jerked in pleasure. He narrowed his gaze, dropping it between my thighs before moving it slowly back to my face.
“I don’t know where she is, Knox.” I’d answered honestly, but then I was confident with his name on my flesh, I wouldn’t be able to lie, anyway.
“Who was her lover?”
“Kevin Kline, but he wasn’t like Calvin Klein. There was also Harry, but they didn’t last long…”
“Who was her lover in the Nine Realms?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, closing my eyes. “I don’t fucking know who he was. Only that Amara kept going to the Nine Realms because of him.”
“Do you think she helped him escape into this realm?” He stood up, peering around my tidy room before slowly dragging his penetrative stare back to mine.
“No, Amara is too weak to do that.”
“Hecate witches are never weak.” Knox picked up a picture of Amara and me that Aurora took shortly after my mother had tried to drown and murder me. In it, I didn’t smile. I wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone for a very long time after it had happened. Amara was hugging me like she could save me from the pain the infection of the hemlock-covered blade had caused if she only loved me enough. “Did you enjoy last night?” he asked, and the self-assurance in his tone tore at my nerves, which he was pulling on.
“Not at all, asshole,” I smirked, watching him turn around slowly. I punched him in the nose, smiling as the satisfying crunch of it filled the room.
He picked me up swiftly, dropping me to the floor while his hand wrapped around my throat, watching me coldly as he stopped air from reaching my lungs. He held me there, staring down at me as his blood dripped onto my face. His smile was icy, and my hands did little to budge his from my throat.
“What the fuck was that about?” He lessened his hold to allow me enough air to speak. He didn’t remove his hand altogether, but then his weight alone left me crushed beneath it.
“Don’t you ever make me touch myself just to prove you can, asshole,” I choked out. Knox smirked, watching me struggle beneath his substantial frame. “I’m no one’s bitch, Knox. Not even yours. I’ll cut your fucking name off my flesh and take my chances with the others before I allow you to use me in that way, ever again.”
His thumb brushed over my wildly beating pulse while he watched me glaring murderously at him. His mouth lowered, and I turned away, staring at the box beneath my bed, and felt his head moving to look in that direction. I turned back, claiming his lips softly, nipping his plump bottom lip as a resounding growl filled my throat before I released it and narrowed my eyes on his lips.
The simple action sent a shock wave crashing through me, causing my eyes to round in horror. His grip tightened on my throat, and he smiled. I hated that I was drawn to him on a physical level, but worse, there was something deeper, something that drew the part of me that wasn’t a witch to him. It was as if he was drawing me in without trying to, and yet both of us were denying it. Or maybe it was just one-sided, but his cock seemed to grow around me, which I thought was like when a dog humped your leg, assuming it meant he liked me a little.
“Nice try, Aria. What did you see?” His nose brushed against my cheek as he watched me struggling to fight his influence.