My pieces are white. His are black.
It suits him. Suits the color of his soul and the coldness of his heart.
I keep looking at the rigid texture of the black knight and thinking how much it reminds me of him.
Knight is sitting opposite me, still smoking his cigar, watching me with eagle-sharp eyes.
I have my hands folded in my lap, an attempt to hide my nerves as I try to recall the rules of the game.
All I remember is the king mustn’t die and the queen is the strongest piece on the board. Next to the queen is the knight.
All the other pieces need to be played with well-thought-out strategy, so when you strike with your strongest pieces, you hit where it counts to weaken your opponent.
At least that’s what I remember.
When did I last play a game? I think it might have been ten or fifteen summer camps ago, and I can’t remember who won or lost. The people I tend to play with always end up in some argument, and the best course of action is to forget the game.
“You first, mon cherie, vas-y doucement avec moi maintenant.” Knight soulful French accent has me hanging on every word.
“What did you say?”
The sexy Frenchman simply shakes his head and takes another drag on his cigar. “Just play.”
Deciding not to press him—because I’m sure he couldn’t have said anything good—I move the pawn in the center forward.
He follows with his center pawn, doing the same thing. After a number of turns, I realize he’s mostly been mirroring my moves. I don’t know why, but I have a bad feeling he’s doing it for a reason.
He takes my first pawn, and I take his. He takes my castle, and I take his, but then, out of nowhere, his queen glides over and captures my knight. I never even saw the opening.
My next good move is with my other knight, but all it will do is get me closer to his bishop. I take the chance.
“Check mate, game over,” Knight announces as simply as if we were talking about the weather, then moves his queen right up to my king.
My eyes bulge and my nerves seize. “No, that can’t be right.”
“Oh, but it is, Goddess, and I have you in checkmate at least four different ways.”
I look down at the board.
It’s true. Even if his queen didn’t get me, my king is on the edge of the board and is right in the path of his knight, castle, and bishop.
My heart sinks, and I suck in a shivering breath.
I lost.
Knight’s menacing smile returns, this time amplified to a degree that sends a shiver to my soul.
“Could we have a rematch? It happened so quickly.”
“No.” He gives me his usual clipped answer and laughs.
At the sound of his laughter, I realize something I should have before, and the deepest dread spreads over me.
He knew I’d lose.
The realization pushes my heart deeper into the abyss of desolation.
The bastard is so arrogant and self-assured, he knew there was no way I’d beat him. That’s why he chose chess.
Knight probably plays the damn game all the time. That’s why it’s here, set up in his office, ready to be played.
Knight played me, played on my desperation to be heard, and played on my hopes.
“You lost. I won,” he reminds me, his voice rising higher with every syllable spoken. “So, now I get to pick anything from you.”
I stare at him for a few seconds, mentally adding this moment to the ever-growing list of worst mistakes I’ve ever made in my life.
“This isn’t fair.” My voice is as frail as shattered glass. “You knew I’d lose.”
He raises his hand, opens his palm, and shakes his head. The expression on his face softens, feigning innocence. But I can see straight through his bullshit.
“I knew no such thing.” He observes me through lowered lashes.
“Yes, you did.”
“Pray do tell. Tell me how I’d know you’d lose, Mon Cherie? Am I psychic, now?” He dips his head, and a lock of his hair falls over his eye. “For all I know you could have been some chess wiz in high school.”
He knows I wasn’t anything of the sort. Also, this argument is fruitless and stupid. He set me up.
“Regardless…” The wanton look in his eyes is a sign that I’m about to see more of the real him. “I won, so now I want my prize.”
I stifle an enraged growl and summon my last drop of courage, preparing myself to hear his prize. I just hate that I know, whatever it is, will only be something to further humiliate me. That is all Knight Grayson has ever done since I’ve met him. It would be unbecoming of him to prove me wrong.
“Okay. What do you want from me?”
He puts out his cigar in the ashtray. I watch the smoke wither and wane, along with the embers on the butt of the cigar.
Dark lust sneaks into his eyes when he looks at me, and he sets his shoulders back as if gearing up for something. Me. My retaliation.
“I want you to suck my cock, naked. Then I want you to ride my face so I can feast on your pussy until you come.”
My insides turn to stone, becoming no different from the lifeless sculptures in his workshop.
I gasp and push to my feet, my legs feeling like they’re barely beneath me.
He can’t be serious. But he is.
The devilish look on his face that could command the host of Hell tells me that he is.
And those words …
Damn it, they’re not that much different from what my characters said to each other in the last chapter of Girl No.9. But that was fantasy. Fiction. This is very real. He’s real, too, and damn me…the sudden ache between my thighs and beading moisture in my core serve as a reminder of what this man does to me.
The look on his face deepens, wrapping around me like invisible threads of arousal, and I know if I do what he requests, it will push me further down the rabbit hole. It might even be near impossible to climb back out.
I can’t do that to myself.
“No.” My voice echoes in my chest like another heartbeat.
A grin so scandalous it could make the headline of every tabloid slides across his sensual lips. “Sorry, Goddess, that appears to be the wrong answer. I seem to remember you promising me anything.” His tone is colder than ice but melts my insides like boiling lava. “I would have been bound to consider your mother’s designs if you’d won, so you can’t suddenly backpedal because you don’t like my request. Then again, you are giving me that fuck-me look again, so maybe you do like it.”
My eyes snap wide, and something I don’t want to acknowledge sparks in my chest. Regret. Longing. Truth?
“No. You are such an asshole.” The tremble in my voice makes me sound weaker. “You—”
“If I remember correctly,” he starts talking over me, “term fifteen of our legally binding contract, which we both signed, states you agree to do whatever I request of you while in the pursuit of the activities listed in the terms and conditions. This is what I want. I want you.”
I want you…
That last part ricochets off the walls of my mind, rumbling down to the soles of my feet. It’s like he’s check-mating me again but in a different way.
“I assume you wouldn’t want to be in breach of our contract now, would you?” He adds. “We all know what happens if you are.”
Those harsh words pull me from the reverie of hearing he wants me.
What an absolute asshole. He wouldn’t really do that. Would he?
And what a fucking threat. Using my father against me to get me naked. It’s so low, so dark, and so like Hades.
Every time I question the extent of his villainous mind, I get an affirmative answer that Knight Grayson is just as despicable as I imagine him to be. And more.
“Fine.” I sound as if I’ve just agreed to go to the gallows and chop off my own head, yet, at the confirmation of what I’m about to do, my traitorous body betrays me all over again.
A secret voice inside my core whispers tempting desire, taunting me that I want this. I try to push it away, but it returns with company.
My mouth is watering at the thought of getting to taste him, and my pulse is throbbing at the scandalous image of me sitting on his face while he eats me out.
I’ve never even done that before.
What will it feel like to have him do that to me?
And… what else will we do?
What else would I want him to do?
God, I really should have said good night when I had the chance. I still lost anyway. If I’d left the devil when I could, at least I’d still have my dignity. All I would have needed to do is reconvene a new plan to negotiate.
I would have saved myself this.
“Clothes off, now, mon cherie.” Like flames, his gaze flicks over me, scorching everywhere his eyes touch. “Or would you like me to do it for you? Just say.”
“No.” I look away, my eyes dropping to the faded square patterns on the marble floor. I wish I could disappear into them as I flick the straps of my dress down.
I pull the zipper on the side down next, trying to steady the tremble in my hands.
Knight’s heated gaze hasn’t left me. Not even for a second. Neither has the maddening lust curling in the pit of my belly.
With the zipper down, my dress floats to the floor, pooling at my feet. All that’s left on me is my strapless bra, thong, and my heels.
“Keep going. When I say naked, I mean naked.” His voice is deeper, more accented and huskier.
I undo my bra and allow it to join my dress on the floor, then I bend to take off my panties, my breasts bobbling, my skin tingling.
My heels are the last to come off, and I step down onto the cold floor, allowing the coolness to balance the heat flowing through me.
Finally, I meet Knight’s gaze, and the air in my lungs stills when I take in the feral look in his eyes. There’s something about seeing him looking at me like that that freezes me in place.
The rawness sends a shudder through me, and I fear that I might shatter as his gaze continues roaming my naked body like a nomad searching for a home.
I can’t imagine the countless women who would have dropped their panties effortlessly for this man. Ones he wanted and others he might have used to pass the time. Yet the look he’s giving me now makes me feel like I’m the only woman he’s ever seen like this. And wanted. I could almost, almost believe it.
He stands, steps around the table, and moves toward me, his height making me feel as if I’ve suddenly shrunk.
He walks around me, studying every inch of my body, fueling the fire flowing through my veins. It’s nothing short of a miracle that I haven’t combusted into a pile of ash.
Knight stops in front of me and inches as close as we were earlier when we were kissing. “On your knees, Goddess, now.”
Swallowing hard, I lower to my knees and gaze up at the big bulge pressing against his pants.
I’m distracted from the trepidation twisting through my nerves when he undoes his belt buckle, pulls the zipper down on his pants, and frees his massive perfectly erect cock.
At the sight, my lips part and my body goes taut.
His cock is thick and hard and just as big as he graciously informed me when he told me he was six point three inches long. I can see for myself that he wasn’t exaggerating.
Knight takes his length, fisting it, and I grow wetter from watching him touch himself. Then the sexy French man lifts my jaw and directs his cock to my parted lips.
“Open for me.”
I’m so turned on, I can’t even breathe, but I try to hide it.
I don’t want him to know.
Opening my mouth, I lower my head and lick the crown of his length. Pre-cum seeps out of the tip, and I lick that off, too, making him flinch.
He threads his fingers through my hair and cups the back of my head as I take him deep into my mouth and suck.
The feeling of him sliding in and out of my mouth makes all the gray areas of this moment vanish.
He groans, the sound instantly turning me on, and I’m so wet I know any second now, my arousal will start running down my thighs.
Suddenly, he’s pushing far enough to make me deep-throat him. It hurts, but it’s a good type of pain. Like the sort he talked about the other night, where pain is pleasure and pleasure is pain.
I’m so lost in the sensation and feeling like I own his pleasure that I fight off my gag reflex and keep going. Even when tears are stinging my eyes and begin streaming down my cheeks, I don’t stop.
The sound of his groans and grunts hook me like long sharp talons, making me never want to stop. I shock myself further when the thought hits me that I could bask in the sound of his pleasure forever.
Knight fists my hair with his large hands and guides me to take him even deeper, then he pounds faster, fucking my face.
The way he owns my mouth is nothing short of dominant. And I let him.
I drink up his dominance, shoving aside everything warning me away from him, and I let him take and take and take with his long, wild, untamed thrusts.
His cock hardens further in my mouth, and I feel he’s close.
“Oh, fuck,” he stutters with a deep masculine rumble of ecstasy.
I look up at him, wanting nothing more than to see him come undone at my hands.
He does, flooding my mouth with hot cum. It hits the back of my throat, and the warmth sends a shock to my system, spreading electricity through me.
With his grip tightened on my hair, I swallow even without him telling me.
The salty, sexy taste of him flows down my throat, leaving me shamefully hungry for more.
He stares down at me, wide-eyed and fierce, then he grabs my arm and lifts me to stand. Before I can catch my next breath, his lips are on mine.
He’s kissing me as if he wants to own my mouth in other ways, and I’m kissing him with the same reckless passion.
We bump into the chessboard, knocking it over, and the pieces go flying everywhere, erasing the evidence of our game.
Our bodies crash into the wall, and he deepens the kiss, consuming me. My head spins, and it’s like I’ve been waiting for this moment forever.
A thrill races over me when I feel his cock pressing into my belly, hardening all over again.
Knowing I’ve made him hard, boosts me with a confidence I never thought I could feel, and I tug on his shirt, needing to feel more of him.
He lets me undo the buttons and run my hands up his bare chest. I trace the definition of hard muscles beneath my fingers, marveling at the way he feels.
God, he feels so damn good, and so do I.
It’s not supposed to be like this. I know it’s not, and it’s unnerving, but I’m too drunk on the pleasure to care. And my body doesn’t seem to care about anything other than him.
Leaving my mouth, Knight traces hot kisses down the length of my neck, and I press my naked body against him, absorbing the attention he’s giving every inch of my skin.
He goes all the way down to my breasts and cups both with heated palms. Then he clasps his lips around my right nipple and takes as much of my breast into his mouth as he can. Tremors erupt all over my body as he starts to suck.
He sucks hard, moving from one breast to the other, then he flicks and swirls his tongue over the tight peaks, making them harder with need.
I love this. Too much.
I know I shouldn’t. Mustn’t even. But I can’t stop loving his mouth on me any more than I can this wild moment.
I hate that I want more, and that I don’t want it to end, or go back to who we used to be.
My head falls back with a moan on my lips, and I slip my hand through his hair, running my fingers through the thick, silky fibers.
His teeth scrape the overly sensitive parts of my nipple, and I push against his cock, loving that too, and feeling it grow against me.
He catches my face and kisses over the bridge of my nose. “I want to eat out your pussy, Goddess.”
I remember the part of his request, and pleasure stokes through me like a heated furnace. “Take me.” I sound selfish and greedy and like I’m saying what I truly want to say for the first time in years.
With a cruel smile, he picks me up and carries me to the sofa.
There, he takes off his shirt, revealing those steel abs and inky art on hot tanned skin.
He swivels me around to face him. I suck in a sharp breath when he kneels at the edge of the sofa in front of me. Seeing him on his knees is so freaking hot, I could lose my mind just from watching him do that.
“Open your legs for me.”
My nerve endings throb at the possession in his tone, and I’m held hostage by his sinful words.
I spread my legs wide, and he stares at my bare pussy, looking at me as if he wants to consume me.
I’ve never felt so exposed before, yet so desired and wanted.
Licking his lips, he slides his fingers over my wet folds.
“Fucking beautiful and perfect,” he husks, driving his finger deeper into me, tunneling into my passage.
I arch into his touch, moaning out so loudly, I instinctively clamp a hand over my mouth.
Frowning, Knight reaches up and clasps his hand over mine.
“Don’t you fucking dare do that.” His burning eyes hold me still. “I want to hear every moan that leaves your hot little mouth. They all belong to me. The same as your pussy. It’s all mine.”
He pounds harder and… Holy. Fucking. Shit.
My mouth drops, but that’s the only reaction he allows me to have in that split second. My next breath sees him burying his face between my thighs and thrusting his tongue into my passage.
The impact makes my body bow, and mindless moans fall from my lips.
I’m louder than before, but I don’t care.
His tongue thrashing around inside my passage, giving me ultimate pleasure, feels so damn good, I don’t care about anything.
The sweet luxuriating sensation pulses through me like the waves of the sea, and I fall into the blissful pleasure of having his mouth on me as he eats me out.
I’m not ready for him to stop. But thankfully, it’s only brief.
A cunning smirk lights up his face, and he gets on the sofa with me.
He lies down and lifts me onto him, positioning me so that I’m actually sitting on his face.
Realizing how crazy and indecent this is, I squirm against him.
“Knight.” His name is trapped in my throat. “This feels…”
“Stay right there. Just. Like. That. But feel free to suck my cock if you need something to do.” A smile dances in his words.
He spreads his hands over my ass and shoves his tongue back into my passage.
In this position, it feels different. He’s able to go deeper inside me and awaken new pleasure. Pleasure I’m desperate for. Pleasure he gives to me.
Seeing his cock—erect again—bouncing before me, I lower my head and take him into my mouth once more, sucking and pleasuring him while he pleasures me.
I rub my pussy over his face as he thrusts his tongue into my passage and swirls around the hard nub of my clit. It feels too good, and I can feel my orgasm rising like the intense waves of a tsunami.
It’s so strong, I feel I might pass out. With my head feeling like it might fall off my body and keep going through the earth, I stop sucking him and straighten up so I can take the strong waves of pleasure pulsing through me.
Knight increases his wild assault on my core, but then he switches to sucking on my clit.
That does it. That pushes me over my limit. I come instantly with a shriek that pours out of me, hot and filthy, the sound touching every corner of the room like air.
The ruthless orgasm tears through me, shattering my mind, savage and merciless, just like him. I ride the feeling, the pleasurable wave, allowing it to take me higher and higher. So high I feel like I could almost touch the sky. I reach my arms up and behind me as if I can.
I hate when my awareness starts trickling back and the tingles of pleasure begin to fade.
Knight slips out from under me and pulls me onto his lap for another kiss. A slow, slow sensual kiss that feels too tender for us, then he stops and presses his forehead to mine.
I expect him to do something more. I can feel him hard against my core. He’s mere inches away from sliding into me. So, why isn’t he?
“It’s time for you to go upstairs.” His voice is back to normal. Cold, uncaring, and arrogant.
“What?” I pull back to look at him and notice the guard sliding back over his eyes like a gate. Part of me wants to fight to keep it open, but it happens so fast my choice is taken away.
“It’s time to say good night.” The low timbre of his voice tightens my stomach.
“Why?”
“We can’t. We’re done here, so go to bed.”
His answer makes me flinch like he just slapped me, then I remember this is what he does. Humiliate me.
Why am I even surprised? It’s not like this is the first time he’s done this to me. Except the last time, I got a heads-up of the devil he was.
This time, I was the fool.
I feel even worse when he slides me off his lap and stands to tuck himself back into his pants and zip up.
I don’t allow another second of damning humiliation to pass before I rush over to my pile of clothes on the floor.
I’m so stupid. Why does this kind of shit keep happening to me?
I manage to pull on my dress. Forget the bra and panties.
I’m about to bolt through the door when he grabs my arm and pulls me close to his chest.
The look in his eyes is hard and passionless with a lethal calmness that makes my skin crawl.
“Don’t play games with me ever again, Aurora. You won’t win, no matter what the game is. Do you understand me?”
Red-hot anger heats up my blood. He sounds like he’s talking to a child again, and as if everything we did moments ago never happened.
“Yes, Knight, I understand you perfectly.” I make a point of staring deeply into his eyes, so he knows I can see him for the asshole he is.
“Good, and we will not talk about Sunset Cove again. You can keep managing the place and doing what you were previously doing, but you stay out of my way when it comes to the renovations.”
I didn’t know my heart could sink any further, or break into any more pieces, but it practically falls out of my chest and smashes on the floor.
I’ve never met anyone who could stir such deep emotions in me, and such a wide, raw mixture. I’ve also never met anyone who could make me go from wanting them to hating them within the space of minutes.
Defeat pulls me further under as I realize with regret that I lost.
I’ve lost for good. I won’t get to fulfill my mother’s dreams for Sunset Cove. Because of him and his greed.
“I hate you.” I speak the words on my mind as a tear slides down my cheek.
Like the asshole he is, Knight simply nods and gives me a mocking smile. “Never stop, Mon Cherie. Never… stop.”
I yank my arm out of his grasp and continue my escape through the doors I shouldn’t have entered.
Everything was a mistake, and I was wrong.
Some monsters can’t be tamed, and I need to get my head out of the clouds. Knight isn’t Hades. Even he had a heart.
Knight is something else entirely.
He’s my destroyer.
