“You can’t just ignore this! I can’t just watch you hurt yourself. It isn’t fair to ask me to do that!”I set my hands on his cheeks, wanting him to really hear me.
He went to knock my hands away, but the action lifted his shirt a hair. Beneath the edge sat a massive dark spot. I didn’t wait for permission, instead grasping the hem and pulling it up.
I hissed in a sharp breath at the sight. Black and blue covered his stomach, over his side, even his back. When had he gotten hurt? Was this just hunger?
I recalled the fight, the way he’d moved across the room with such ease, avoiding the hits.
Apparently not all of them…
I lifted my gaze to his, a question there.
He refused to look at me, and his words came out soft and unhappy. “I don’t heal well when I haven’t fed, and I haven’t fed well in a long-damned time.”
“You shouldn’t have hidden this from me.”I struggled to keep tears in, to not let him see how deep his words hurt me. He’d hidden something so significant, had kept his pain to himself, and for what?
How many times had he shouldered my pain? My problems? Yet he couldn’t trust me to do the same for him.
“I’ll go find someone for you,”I signed, then went to pull away, to collect myself and talk to Brax. If anyone knew who he’d feed from, it was Brax.
Except, Knox caught my wrist and held me there. I couldn’t turn around, couldn’t look at him this time. He’d see everything in my face, and he didn’t need to carry anymore guilt than he did. I didn’t need to make this any harder on him than it already was.
“You saw my incubus,” he whispered. “During the fight, you saw it. People see it as sexy, as seductive, but they don’t see the thing it really is. It would happily kill anyone if it could only feed from them. It doesn’t care about anything or anyone, just a beast, and the only way to keep it docile is to give it what it wants. Even Brax’s other side cares about you, but not mine.”
I met his gaze, wanting him to understand how I felt. I tugged my hand free so I could sign back.“I’m not afraid of you or it. I love you, Knox. Please let me help you.”
“What if we change? What if you see that side of me and can’t love me anymore? What ifIchange?”
I shook my head.“Nothing will change. You said you become what your partner wants, but I want you, whoever that is. I don’t care if you’re rough or gentle or fast or slow or anything else. I just want you, whoever that is.”
He shuddered, a full-body tremble that made me realize just how tightly he held himself. Even still, his bright eyes bore into mine as if determining the truth. He must have figured it out, because one moment I looked down at him and the next, I stared up and into his green eyes just as he blocked out the world around me when his lips took mine.
And there was no mistaking that it wasn’t just Knox kissing me—this was the beast he’d desperately kept away from me.
Knox
Movinghurt.Everything in me hurt, the ache in the middle of my body gnawing with each shift I made, the pain having grown since the fight.
It had only taken a few lucky shots to cause this, though I normally would have healed without problems. In fact, if I’d been properly fed, I might not have taken the hits in the first place.Hunger made me slow and sloppy.
Resisting since being with Hera had brought my energy to an all-time low, and it had meant that, instead of healing after the fight, my injuries had only worsened. I’d tried to hide them, hadn’t wanted anyone to realize the problem. If any of them had known, they’d have made it into a big deal and pressured me to feed.
And yet, no matter how much I’d resisted, as it turned out, I couldn’t win against Hera. Maybe we’d always been headed here, and I’d just dragged my feet, had just made it more difficult. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t resist her anymore.
So I took her lips with all the aggression I felt, with the need inside me I couldn’t ignore anymore. I gave in to it fully, and the rush of immediate power swirled through me.
It was a sure sign she felt the way I did, that she wanted this as much as I did. My incubus all but purred in response to the meal, to the power of her passion. I slid my hand up her side, dipping inside her shirt to feel her heated skin.
I’d touched her before, had felt the flawless expanse of her body, but that had been dulled. I’d had myself silenced from Wade’s influence, but this time, I was whole.
I moved my lips from hers to her throat, to the place where her pulse thundered. I tasted it all, none of it lessened from Wade’s powers. The scent of her skin, the sharp tang of her passion, the desire that spilled from her, it all clouded my head.
I felt aggressive and starving, wanting all her attention, all her focus. I wanted to feast on her until neither of us could move.
I nipped at her throat, then locked my lips on her shoulder, sucking hard until she gasped and dug her fingers into my back. I wanted to mark her, to leave her wearing love bites from me like a claim anyone could see.
My personality shifted, as I knew it would, as it always did, but I tried not to let it scare me. I wasn’t some empty shell putting on a performance. Instead, I was rough with her because she wanted me to show her that I needed her, that I love her, that I felt every bit as ravenous as she did.
My incubus stretched out, feeding happily from her, and it only had her arching her back in my hold.