Page 91 of Captive Souls

“I like to bathe in the moonlight,” I whispered. “Though it’s a little more difficult with the city lights battling against it. And I doubt I’ll be here for another one. So I wanted to … make the most of it.”

I trailed off as I spoke the words, cloaked in anxiety, stifled by it. It was highly unlikely we’d be there much longer, I didn’t think Stone would allow it. The moon pressed against me, a firmreminder of action required. Change required. The power of it all shifting me.

Knox didn’t speak for a long time. I yearned for words of reassurance. For promises. Plans. Anything to give me hope for a way out.

He didn’t give me any of those.

“I’ve always wanted to fuck you in the garden under the moonlight,” he said against my neck.

My skin erupted in exquisite chills, and my body buzzed with need at the words.

“Why are we still standing here, then?”

The words were barely out of my mouth before Knox lifted me, spinning me. My legs wrapped around him as he carried me with considerable strength to the garden.

Our mouths fused together, the kiss carnal, animalistic. He didn’t waste time, quickly lowering me onto the dirt, prying the blanket away from my naked body so my skin pressed into the soil, the earth, the plants. Soil I’d turned over, life I’d created crushed beneath me, surrounding me, us.

Knox knelt above me, cut against the moonlight in a brutal glow, like some kind of dark god.

His eyes roamed over me hungrily, his erect cock twitching with need.

My own body overcome with desire, I opened my legs to him, willingly inviting his gaze to where I knew I’d be glistening for him.

It felt lewd to be naked out there like that, lying in the dirt. Forbidden yet natural all at once.

Knox looked at me a moment longer before his body covered mine, hooking one of my legs around his hip before he entered me inside.

I clawed at his back and cried out as his brutal strokes didn’t slow, as the ground, rough and soft and gritty, pressed into my back.

I thought that he’d already marked me, claimed me as his. But that was it. That act in the dirt, underneath the moon, that was Knox claiming me down to my soul.

In view of the Appalachian wilderness, under the glow of an ageless moon, that was it. The world witnessed to us, no going back. Only forward. Only through.

Whatever darkness might come.

Later, once we were sticky, sated and covered in dirt, Knox carried me inside and right to the shower where the hot water cascaded over us. There he took me again, coaxing more orgasms out of my spent body to the point that every ounce of pleasure and energy was drained out of me.

My legs couldn’t hold me. Not that they needed to. Knox carried me from the shower back to the bed where he dried me then proceeded to brush my hair. Soft, careful, rhythmic strokes. I drifted off just like that, enjoying such an unexpected showing of caretaking, of love.

It was the best night of my life. I felt loved, worshipped, owned and devoured. Knox took every part of me, and I would’ve given him more if he’d asked.

It felt pivotal. It felt permanent, something between us. Not that it hadn’t been from the start. But there was no denying it after that. My world could not have kept spinning without Knox. I couldn’t have breathed without him.

Again, toxic. Completely untenable. Something I should’ve guarded myself from. But I didn’t want to. I wanted to beloved the way he loved me. Too much. Enough that he would’ve burned the world down for me.

After last night, I was sure that was the way he loved me.

Until I woke up in the cabin.

Alone.

The SUV was gone.

Knox was gone.

Knox

It was a long way to Maine. Around sixteen hours of driving. Each way. Too long to leave Piper for. But I had no other choice. Not only did I have to get out of that cabin, but I had to talk to my brother. I reasoned that the drive would also serve to give me distance, help clear my head of whatever fucking enchantment had been put over me.

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