God of Monsters (Juniper Unraveling #4) - Keri Lake Page 0,152

yourself with it.”

I’m grateful that he can’t see the tears. That he isn’t privy to the thoughts inside my head, the doubts I have about myself.

“I need to know that I’m not dead inside.” In the pitch blackness of my blindfold, I try to imagine the expression on Titus’s face right now. The pity in his stare. “I want the anger. The rage. The fear of being alive. I want you to fuck me. Hard.”

A long pause follows, his cock still fully embedded inside of me.

“No,” he finally says. “I won’t be the one to hurt you like that.”

“It doesn’t hurt anymore, Titus. That’s the problem. I’ll crawl out of my skin if you try to be sweet and gentle with me right now.”

Remus happened to me, but I want to take back the power. The control. I want to feel all those fears from before without cowering to the memories and letting them crush me. “Do it,” I whisper.

“Okay. If that’s what you need, then I’ll do it. For you.”

My body flips around, and he bands one arm across my belly, taking hold of my hair. He tips my head back, scraping his teeth over my earlobe. “But I’m going to fuck those nightmares out of you for good, Thalia.” He slides back inside me and ups the pace of his thrusts, and in the darkness, I see all the images flitting past behind my shuttered lids, none of which pause long enough for me to recall them.

New memories filter in. Visuals of staring down at myself from a bird’s eye view, watching Titus taking me from behind. The trees swaying overhead. The moon shining down, it’s silvery beams touching our skin in sparkles of light.

Beautiful.

I smile as the tears saturate the cloth blinding my eyes.

The sounds of Titus grunting and moaning fades beneath the pounding of blood in my ears. Why has he gone quiet?

A cold, tight feeling expands across my chest, and the air withers, like a deflating balloon.

Titus?

I open my mouth to say his name, and feel the scratchy cotton against my tongue. The damp, moldy taste of the rag fills my mouth and invades my sinuses.

Titus? Titus! Stop! Stop!

Why isn’t he stopping?

Wriggling in my binds is futile. My pulse slams through my veins as panic settles over me.

“Stop! Stop!”

The blindfold is ripped away, my body flipped back around, and Titus stares down at me with horror carved into his expression. “Did I hurt you?”

Gaze trailing over my surroundings, I note the gentle sway of trees. The bright moon, a full moon, overhead. A sky full of stars.

I clamp my eyes and breathe deeply to calm my rapid panting. I’m safe. It’s Titus. I’m safe.

At the soft touch of fingers trailing down my temple, I snap my eyes open to be sure they belong to Titus.

Brows still furrowed with worry, he studies me, no doubt, searching for explanation.

“I’m … fine.” I cast my gaze from his, so he won’t see the truth there. The reality that I’m not okay. The rims of my eyes burn with the threat of tears, but damn it, I’m tired of them.

“Hey.” With a gentle grip of my chin, he guides my eyes back to his. “No one said you had to tackle everything all at once.”

“I just … want things to be the way they were. Before. I want to be normal again. To forget what happened.” My view wavers with the tears brimming in my eyes, and when he kisses my temple, they slip away.

“Someday, that may happen. But not tonight.”

“And what if it takes years? What if it never goes back to the way it was?”

He thumbs the tears away. “Doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere.”

The emotions inside of me explode, and I lift my head, wrapping my arms around him, and press my lips to his. “You can still make me forget him. Please.”

I trap his massive body between my legs, and he keeps his gaze locked on mine when he slides back inside of me. As I arch back, he buries his face in my neck, kissing my throat, while he moves against me like waves on the ocean. Slow and steady. He’s the calm, placid sea coming to life, crashing over me.

Pulling me under.

An impossible need stirs deep inside of me, a feeling beyond sex, like something stitching my soul to his. I breathe him in and drag my tongue over his skin, filling my mouth with the taste of metallic fire. Leaves rattle in