I felt it back in the panic room – that moment when the tension sent his walls tumbling down and the monster inside was unleashed. Now, his monster rears up again, and the beast inside me snarls and snaps her teeth, ready for more. I cup my hand behind his head. I curl my lips back into a smile. “But are you willing to shed blood for it?”
My fingers clasp the handle of the knife. I yank it from the wall behind him. Noah flinches as the blade whips past his ear, and I laugh. I hold the knife over his heart, blade touching his skin. Noah’s chest constricts against the metal. But he doesn’t look down. He doesn’t break my gaze.
“I will bleed for you.” His words are a whisper, but they carry all his power. “I’ll kill for you. If you keep Eli and Gabriel safe. If you keep Grace safe.”
“Your stepmother?” I remember she was sent to the hospital after finding the words I wrote in Noah’s bedroom. His muscles tense as he thinks of her – the monster who loves as only a savage heart can, with brutal intensity and wild possession.
Noah nods. The movement draws the blade across his t-shirt, cutting open the fabric and revealing a hint of the skin beneath. A drop of blood rolls down the blade, scenting the air with violence.
“Claudia,” Noah whispers.
We snap.
We crash together, a tangle of lips and hands and heat. It’s as if something between us has broken open, and now we can’t keep our hands off each other. Noah catches my lip between his teeth, biting until I taste blood. I spill his blood and he spills mine. It’s filthy and hot as fuck.
My hand holding the knife gets jammed between us. Noah’s fingers wrap around my neck, tightening against my skin as he pulls me closer, grinding our bodies together, thrusting his tongue deep because a taste is not enough. I feel something wet slide over my fingers. I pull back slightly and see that I’ve nicked Noah again. A red line of blood blooms across his shirt.
Noah looks down at the cut with a cool detachment. “You did warn us that you have claws.”
I laugh, and he catches my laugh with his lips, swallowing me until I’m his. He walks me backward across the room, his muscled bulk impossible to resist even if I wanted to which, holy Jupiter, no fucking way. He shoves me down into the sofa, rough and commanding. Yes, this is the monster behind those coal-black eyes. This is the beast locked inside Noah’s heart-shaped box.
I grip the end of the sofa as he rolls my skirt up. My thighs still ache from what we did in the panic room, but I’m already wet for him, aching to be filled again.
Noah’s body presses against mine. He reaches around and pinches my nipple through my shirt. His fingers are bloody from touching his chest. I moan into the sofa cushion as he bites my neck, claiming me as his. I relish the pain, because I know I need it as much as he does. The two of us thrive in pain, we revel in it.
“Condom,” Noah rasps. I shake my head. I don’t have anything on me. I’ve never had a reason to before.
Noah freezes. I grind against him, begging him with my body. “No point. I already need to get a morning-after pill.”
“But—”
“It’s my fucking pussy, Marlowe. Don’t argue with me.”
I need him now.
I see the dark side of Noah creeping in as he accepts this command. He thrusts into me, hard and urgent, filling me up until I can’t breathe. His hand fists my hair, yanking my head back to expose my neck. I am under his spell, completely helpless as his strong hands hold me in place, his hips thrusting inside me. I love it. I crave it.
“Fuck.”
A cry reaches my ears, strangled with pain. It’s not mine. It’s not Noah. But who…
My eyes fly open. Eli stands in the doorway, staring at me like I’ve grown two heads. His shoulders shake as he takes in the scene – my neck bent back, my naked chest smeared with Noah’s blood as he thrusts into me from behind.
Eli’s mouth hangs open, but he doesn’t speak. The hurt in his eyes rips every last shred of hope from my soul.
“Eli, wait—” I manage to choke out, my voice still heavy with lust.