All Chained Up (Devil's Rock #1)(69)

Martin’s eyes were dazed. Faint blood dribbled from his nostril. He didn’t look coherent enough to even process what Knox was saying. Briar doubted anyone in his entire privileged life had ever laid hands to him in such a brutal manner.

A quick look around her sister’s patio revealed everyone was as horrified as she was. Even the kids had stopped running and were watching in wonder.

“Knox,” she breathed, reaching out to grip his tightly coiled arm. He was in the prison again. Barely checked violence, ready to snap. “No, Knox, no!”

Everyone had gone silent and her words sounded almost obscenely loud. A little girl sitting at the picnic table closest to them started crying. Her mother snatched her up and hurried inside the house.

Briar tightened her grip on Knox’s arm. “C’mon. Let’s go.”

Knox released him and Martin staggered back, trying to gain his feet and failing. He fell against the table before dropping to the ground.

No one else moved. Everyone stared, looking at Knox like he might suddenly turn his fists on them.

In the sudden silence, the only thing she could hear was the hiss of the grill and the rasp of her breath. She glanced at Knox to see that he was looking, too. Watching everyone watch him with a blank expression.

With a curse so soft she barely heard it, he shoved past her and wove through everyone until he disappeared inside the house.

Briar hurried after him, her heart still hammering.

Her sister called her name right before she was about to enter the house. She sent Laurel a sharp look followed by a swift shake of her head. Laurel was the last person she wanted to talk to right now.

She caught up with Knox outside. He was waiting beside her car. One look at his face and she decided to let him cool off before they talked. And maybe she needed time to digest what just happened, too. She couldn’t get his enraged face when he’d unleashed on Martin out of her head. There was murder in his eyes.

He held out his hand and she dropped her keys into his palm.

They drove back to her place in silence. Tapping her fingers along the edge of the door, she stole several glances at him. His jaw was locked in tension, his hard eyes focused straight ahead on the road. She opened her mouth at one point to tell him it was okay, but it didn’t feel right. Nothing felt okay in this moment.

As angry as she was with him for exploding like that, she felt him slipping away from her, becoming his old self. The inmate that hardly spared her a word, and when he did it was fierce and brutal.

By the time they reached her condo, she was ready to talk. He unlocked her door for her and handed her back her keys.

“Thanks,” she murmured.

She stepped inside and he followed her, closing the door behind them.

She dropped her keys on the counter and spun to face him. “What the hell was that back there? I mean I know he was an * but was it really necessary to—”

He kissed her. Circled her neck with his hand and hauled her against him. There was nothing soft or tender about it. He claimed her, his teeth tugging hard on her bottom lip, and she opened for him with a moan. He picked her up, his hands guiding her legs around his waist as if she weighed nothing at all.

A few short strides and they were in her bedroom. On her bed. He fell over her and yanked her dress up to her hips with a single rough move. Everything was happening so fast. Her heart was pounding. Her blood roaring.

His mouth fused hotly to hers, not even coming up for air as she felt his hand between them, working his zipper down. He grabbed her hand and shoved it inside his jeans to close around him. “Touch me,” he ordered.

Her fingers circled his hardness, her thumb dragging over the swollen tip of him.

“Christ,” he muttered.

He fumbled in a pocket. She heard the crinkle and tear of a foil condom wrapper. He broke away long enough to shove his jeans all the way down his hips.

Propping up on her elbows, she watched him slide latex over his erection, so turned on at the sight that she couldn’t breathe. He spread her thighs wide and reached down to jerk her panties to the side with an impatient twist.

And then he was in her, pushing deep. She surged against the fullness of him, her head dropping back as he yanked her hips closer. He sank all the way in and didn’t wait for her to catch her breath at the sudden invasion.

He pumped inside her, his expression savage as he worked to his own release. She clutched his biceps, needing something to hang onto as he pounded out his need.

Abruptly, he paused and flipped her over on all fours. He ripped her underwear fully off and splayed a hand under her stomach, lifting her higher, positioning her how he wanted her on her hands and knees.

He slid into her from behind, his hands gripping her ass. She moaned, a rush of wetness meeting the thrust of his cock. He’d never been like this before. This was an unfiltered Knox. He took her fast and rough. For himself. And that only made it hotter. Made her sex clench and burn around the slide of him. She backed up into him, meeting his thrusts in her own frenzied need. Their bodies crashed together with loud slaps.

The sensation of his hands gripping her bottom, and the delicious friction of him sliding in and out of her, exhilarated her. She glanced over her shoulder at him, and the sight of that brutally handsome face, like something carved from stone, so feral and stripped bare with wild hunger for her, made her knees shake and threaten to buckle.

He leaned over her, his hard chest curving over her back. One of his hands slid around her hip and arrowed straight to the core of her, finding her clit and rolling it deftly. She came apart, her world splintering into shards of light and then descending to darkness, where, for a moment, she couldn’t see anything at all. But she felt. She felt him still going, hammering into her almost desperately, her breath coming in rapid gasps as he barreled toward his own release.