Page 162 of A Smile Full of Lies
“You think you’ve paid enough, baby girl?” he whispered, breath ragged. “You think I’m done with you?”
I whimpered, and he smiled because we both knew the answer.
His pace turned brutal. No more restraint. No more teasing.
Just the raw, punishing rhythm of a man who’d been on the edge for far too long — who’d chased and waited and watched andached— and finally,finally, had what was his.
His cock slammed into me over and over, thick and deep, the force of every thrust making the clamps jolt and my breath hitch in sobbing little gasps.
My tits were swollen. My nipples throbbed with pain. My clit was pulsing from overstimulation.
And still he fucked me like he needed it tobreathe.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he said, voice shredded and raw, the words slamming harder into me than his hips ever could. “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get tofucking do that to me.”
He reached up and fisted the chain in his hand again. And when I looked up at him, eyes glassy, mouth trembling, broken beneath the mask, hesnapped.With a ragged growl, he slammed into me one last time, bottoming out, andrippedthe nipple clamps off.
I screamed until I lost my voice.
The flood of sensation — pain, relief, everything — hit like a lightning strike just as hebitmy neck, sinking his teeth into the juncture of shoulder and throat as he camedeepinside me.
His whole body shuddered, cock pulsing, seed spilling, breath harsh against my skin.
And through it all, he kept that bite locked in place like he wasbranding me.Marking me as his.
When he finally released the bite, he didn’t move. He collapsed over me, face buried in my neck, arms wrapping around me so tight it almost hurt.
And then, against my skin — quiet, trembling,real— he whispered, “I love you.”
My heart fucking stopped.
He exhaled, rough and broken.
“I love you, Ros. And I thought I was going to lose you. And I didn’t know what I would’ve done if I had.”
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.
I just turned my face to his mask and kissed it, slow and desperate, until he finally reached up — hand shaking — and pulled it off.
His eyes were wet. His mouth was soft. And his arms wrapped around me like I was the last thing he had left in the world.
We were still tangled in the sheets, sweat cooling on our skin, my thighs still shaking from the aftershocks of what he’d done to me — what I’dbeggedfor without ever saying a word.
His arms were wrapped around me like steel bands.
One hand in my hair.
The other curved around my waist, thumb brushing soft strokes over my ribs, over my scar.
Grounding me. Holding me like he couldn’t stand the thought of letting go.
And for once… I didn’t want him to.
I turned my head, burying my face in his neck, breathing him in — cedarwood, leather, citrus,Knox— and whispered, “I didn’t tell you what I was going to do because I love you.”
His entire body went still.
“I couldn’t risk losing you,” I said, voice barely a whisper. “Not to prison. Not to vengeance. Not to anything. I couldn’t live with it if you’d died trying to make Thayer pay.”
