“Christ,” he muttered.
He fumbled in a pocket. She heard the crinkle and tear of a foil condom wrapper. He broke away long enough to shove his jeans all the way down his hips.
Propping up on her elbows, she watched him slide latex over his erection, so turned on at the sight that she couldn’t breathe. He spread her thighs wide and reached down to jerk her panties to the side with an impatient twist.
And then he was in her, pushing deep. She surged against the fullness of him, her head dropping back as he yanked her hips closer. He sank all the way in and didn’t wait for her to catch her breath at the sudden invasion.
He pumped inside her, his expression savage as he worked to his own release. She clutched his biceps, needing something to hang onto as he pounded out his need.
Abruptly, he paused and flipped her over on all fours. He ripped her underwear fully off and splayed a hand under her stomach, lifting her higher, positioning her how he wanted her on her hands and knees.
He slid into her from behind, his hands gripping her ass. She moaned, a rush of wetness meeting the thrust of his cock. He’d never been like this before. This was an unfiltered Knox. He took her fast and rough. For himself. And that only made it hotter. Made her sex clench and burn around the slide of him. She backed up into him, meeting his thrusts in her own frenzied need. Their bodies crashed together with loud slaps.
The sensation of his hands gripping her bottom, and the delicious friction of him sliding in and out of her, exhilarated her. She glanced over her shoulder at him, and the sight of that brutally handsome face, like something carved from stone, so feral and stripped bare with wild hunger for her, made her knees shake and threaten to buckle.
He leaned over her, his hard chest curving over her back. One of his hands slid around her hip and arrowed straight to the core of her, finding her clit and rolling it deftly. She came apart, her world splintering into shards of light and then descending to darkness, where, for a moment, she couldn’t see anything at all. But she felt. She felt him still going, hammering into her almost desperately, her breath coming in rapid gasps as he barreled toward his own release.
She felt the scrape of his jaw against the side of her face and then the sink of his teeth into her earlobe. And just like that she shuddered all over again, her body vibrating and humming as her sex squeezed around him.
“Oh,” he groaned. “That’s it. Milk my dick.” She felt him come inside her as he held himself deep, spasm-ing almost in rhythm to her own contracting body.
His voice breathed into her ear, “Mine.”
She felt the word echo through her, felt it sink deep and root inside her in the most hidden crevices of her heart. Her chest expanded on a silent yes. She was his. And he was hers. She felt that, too, even if she couldn’t say it out loud.
She collapsed on the bed, not even minding his weight over her, pressing her into the mattress.
She turned her face to the side, still gasping. He braced his arms on either side of her, keeping his weight from fully squashing her. His harsh breath fluttered the hairs at her neck. She rubbed the tickle away with her fingers.
He lifted himself off her, and she felt an ache at the sudden loss. As he went into the bathroom to dispose of the condom, she sat up, smoothing her wrinkled sundress down her thighs. She was standing by the time he returned, ready to have the conversation she had tried to start with him before he kissed her.
He stepped out of the bathroom wearing a familiarly distant expression on his face. The sight of it stabbed her in the chest, and suddenly he felt out of her reach. Already gone. She ignored the feeling and told herself she was overreacting.
She took a breath and started. “Knox, about what hap—-”
“I’m going to head out.”
She blinked and shook her head, sure he did not just cut her off to announce he was leaving. “We need to talk,” she said, nodding at him as though en-couraging those words to sink in. For him to understand.
He rubbed his fingers over the center of his forehead like he suddenly had a headache. Like she was his headache. Which stung. “I don’t think we should do this, Briar.”
She flinched. “What is ‘this’ exactly? Let’s be clear on that point since you don’t want to do it again. Fucking?” She managed to not even shock herself at uttering the profane word. “Is that what you mean? You don’t want to fuck anymore?” She motioned savagely to the bed. “You could have fooled me.”
He looked almost bored as he gazed at her, tilting his head to one side. “Let’s not do this, Briar.”
“Oh, let’s do it. I want to. Really.” She crossed her arms. “I thought you coming here last night established you were interested in me.”
“There’s fucking and there’s having a relationship. I’m not the relationship type. You are.”