Page 46 of To Curse A Knight

“Is that what you’re planning with Mr. Roboto and Conan?” His tone was casual, but his eyes were alight with amusement. “Did I walk into some polyamorous support club?”

He was teasing, but the words struck a chord in me. My plan… all of my plans for years involved bringing down bad people by doing bad things and building an empire to help fund my mission. Nothing else mattered.

I didn’t have a plan—I couldn’t even find the words to explain what I was doing. With Aaron, with Kellan, with my attraction to him. I was taking this fucked up scenario three steps at a time, throwing a lot of money and the risk of incarceration at a problem I was desperate to solve. That was the extent of my lifeplan.

I released a long sigh; the breath left through my lips in a soft hiss. I didn’t filter my response, choosing to be forthright instead of engaging in our usual dance of phony words.

“Lucky, when Alvarez is long gone, I’ll figure out what I’m doing with the rest of my life. Right now, I’m just treading water, okay?”

His forehead wrinkled in concern, but no witty retort came. If I’d known a bit of honesty could make this man shut up…

Abruptly, he reached for me, pulling me by the shoulders toward him. He pressed a soft kiss to my forehead like we were seasoned lovers seeking comfort from each other.

“Roger that.” When his eyes met mine, for a moment, I fell under their lulling spell. Their normally glowing radiance was a softly storming sea. Then just as quickly, he broke its magic. “Let’s go find our room, ya?”

Right. Our room. We were heretogether, which meant we would share a room tonight. Luckily, the guest room—my room—had a settee. Lucky would sleep there. The king bed wasn’t big enough for the two of us.

“Hill!” Winter hollered from the living room. “Stop making out and come play Balderdash.”

“I feckingloveBalderdash!” Lucky exclaimed. He dropped my hands like they were on fire and strolled toward the alcove leading to the next room. He turned expectantly. “Yeh coming, Blondie?”

I rolled my eyes at his puppy-like enthusiasm but I fell in step beside him, ready to immerse myself some more in the love and laughter of my friends.

I needed a reminder of all the good in this world beforeI gave my soul over to the dark.

The earth shuddered beneath my feet as I stumbled through the darkness, raucous wind whipping my hair into vicious knots. Flashes of foreboding red light clung to my periphery, but when I turned my head to catch its glow, it disappeared; a nebulous, terrifying omen. A sticky film coated my hands, its resinous residue crawling up my skin in painful, jagged tingles. My bare feet dragged on rocky ground, sharpened stones pierced my heels, hobbling me on my path forward... Into nothingness.

Ominous chuckles broke through the whistling of the wind, the dark laughter echoing all around me in a cacophony of dizzying sound. Terrified chills skittered acrossmy skin. Despite the sweat on my brow, my body froze with panic.

A broad hooded figure came into view, floating toward me shrouded in shadow, before stopping to hover in front of my marbled form.

“Hello, Hillary,” the masculine voice rumbled, the demonic tone evil personified. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Blondie. Blondie!”

My body writhed within the soft duvet as powerful hands pinned me in place against the mattress. An awful, ragged scream of pure terror flooded my ears as I fought to make sense of my surroundings.

My earphones had been removed, and the garbled sound of a man’s Irish lilt was muffled against the shrill screams that hadn’t abated—the piercing sound of them about to cause a migraine.

“Blondie! Hillary! Shyte,” the man shouted, just before my sleep mask was ripped off my face. The abrupt brilliance of light blurred my vision before my eyes settled on … Lucky.

Sleep-rumpled Lucky, dressed in nothing but a pair of black boxers, had me pinned beneath him on the bed, his brows knitted into a panicked frown.

The screams—still the screams. Where were they coming from?

The bleary-eyed Irishman cursed and then leaned in, abruptly putting his mouth over mine, coaxing my tongue against his in a frantic kiss. The faint taste of mint toothpaste washed over me.

The screams abruptly stopped. Oh—they were mine. The banshee impression had come from me.

The wild horses in my heart hadn’t stopped racing despite the warm body holding me hostage. Blood pounded in my ears as I leaned into his kiss, desperate for a distraction from the relentless nightmares and their torture on my mind.

Heleaned away from me, breaking the kiss and his hold on me, searching my eyes for answers. I didn’t have any I could give him; not without exposing every solemn secret that had taken sanctuary in the depths of my soul.

“I need you to fuck me,” I blurted, my cheeks pink because of my moment of vulnerability, not at the frantic tone to take his cock.

For once in his life, Lucky was speechless. As soon as I said it, I knew it was exactly what I needed—sex would help me escape my mind through the use of my body. I needed to get lost in Lucky; to get swept up in his pillowy lips and molded body and thick cock—the one I’d stroked, but never had inside me.

I neededhim.

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