Page 9 of Craving Consequences

My grip on her hips softens. It’s not out of kindness, but a test. A tease to bait her. I relax my hold and wait for her to fail.

And she does.

The smallest shift of her hips. Barely a grind. A breath of rebellion I do not miss.

I snap my palm across her ass. Relish in her sweet cry of pain.

“I said hold it.”

Face a mask of raw pleasure and endearing defiance, Everly purses her lips and glowers at me.

“I’m trying!” she snaps back .

I hate that I have no time to properly play with her. To break and rebuild her over and over again until she cums for me on command. But those are things I will need to work on when we have time.

“You don’t get to disobey me and expect a reward.”

I drag her off me. Just enough to dislodge my cock from her swollen entrance, leaving her gaping and empty. Her cry is involuntary, panicked and pathetic in the best way. A sound of pleading for mercy. For pleasure.

For me.

“No, please...”

“Will you behave?”

She nods frantically, hips locked in place now, muscles rigid with restraint. Her nails dig into my shoulders.

“Promise. Please.”

I kiss her. It’s hard and possessive. I claim her mouth the way I long to claim her body.

“Better,” I breathe into her lips. “Now, keep still.”

I slide back in. Slow and deliberate. I breach her tight ring with just the fat head of my cock and watch her eyes roll back in her skull. Her nails cut skin as she fights her body’s natural reflexes.

I grin to myself. “That’s it, baby. That’s mine.”

Her body shakes. A weak tremble I feel in every clench of her pussy. In every helpless breath she sucks in through her teeth .

But she doesn’t move. Not an inch. Her obedience is fragile. Beautiful. Pure, untainted submission.

“That’s my girl,” I praise softly into the plump flesh of her right breast. I suck lightly on the tip, teasing. Daring her to fail again. “Look how good you can be when you try.”

I keep my head buried in her. The agony of it destroying me but I refuse to falter. To sway. To let the ache winding tighter between us crumble me. My hand curves around the back of her neck and I draw her brow to mine. I kiss her softly.

“Ready to cum?”

“Yes,” she cries with sweet agony. “Please. Anything ... I’ll be good. I swear I...”

I shush her and she whimpers. Her lashes flutter. Her walls clench and leak. But she stays still, and I reward her by feeding her another inch.

Not all of me, but enough for her mouth to fall open with a soundless cry. It’s almost enough to make her move. I can feel her will breaking.

“Careful,” I warn darkly.

I hear the gulp of her swallow. Feel the tremble of her thighs on either side of me. She’s wrecked and I’ve barely started the torture.

“Do you want more, Everly?” I taunt, nudging her waist down.

“Yes. Please. Please, Van. ”

I smirk and grip her ass, forcing her to feel every inch she hasn’t been given. The stretch of discipline.

“You’ve been so good,” I murmur along the line of her jaw. “So fucking perfect for me.”

Her hips twitch despite herself. Her body is begging even while her mouth can only make weak little noises. She’s on the verge, the knife’s edge, and I’m practically coming undone watching her.

I reach down and slip a hand between her tense thighs. I ease her lips apart and tease her swollen switch.

“Van...”

“Shh,” I breathe. “You’re doing so well.”

She nods blindly, eyes unfocused with need. They stay locked with mine as I let my fingers move through her soaked folds, dance over her clit in methodical flicks.

“Van...” she chokes again, nails cutting, body shuddering. So close to collapse as her pussy grips me. Pulls me deeper. “Van, I...”

“Not yet,” I warn her, feeling her clench around me with the struggles.

But she doesn’t break. Every muscle quivers, her mind splinters, but she’s waiting for me.

I love you, I want to breathe into her ear as I break her, but not like this.

“Cum,” I tell her, and she does .

Hard.

Violent.

She cums writhing, with her back bowing and her cries haunting. She’s a mess of tears, sweat and bliss. A perfect picture of absolute obedience as I give her, her reward with every thick rope of cum I use to paint her walls. Marking her. Claiming her as mine.

She falls into my arms and I crush her close. Hold her while she convulses long after I’ve slipped free of her. Her ragged pants burn the side of my neck, but it’s the hard points of her nipples brushing my chest with every labored breath that drive me crazy.

“Thank you,” she whispers without prompting and I still.

That soft, raw gratitude, offered from the wreckage I made of her is what undoes me. Not the cries, not the way her body submitted so perfectly, not even her desperate little pleas.

This.

That simple thank you like I gave her something sacred. Like I am worthy of her reverence.

My throat works around the lump and I bury my face into her hair. I breathe her in. Inject myself with her scent of sweat, cum and lingering strawberries and chocolate. I hold her like she’s mine.

My good fucking girl.

“Thank you,” I tell her .

She lifts her face off my shoulder and smiles down at me, and I kiss her with every drop of the happiness she’s already given me.

She’s my sin. My damnation.

Even if I never deserve her.

“Time to go, guys,” Lachlan murmurs from behind the wheel.

I hadn’t exactly forgotten about the other man, but I’d been so lost in Everly, a bomb could have gone off and I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

Gingerly, I help her slip off my lap. Lachlan pulls her wrinkled dress down over her head and into place, covering her. He tugs her hair free of the collar before capturing her chin and tugging her mouth to his.

Everly goes to him without hesitation. Her arms hook around his neck and she leans into the arms he closes around her.

“Taking you home,” he tells her softly, lips never parting.

She nods. “Will you both stay with me?”

Lachlan lifts his face to brush a kiss to her brow. Over her head, his gaze meets mine ... asking and telling.

“Yes,” we both say simultaneously.

Everly’s smile is everything. I would give her the whole damn sky if she asked just to feel its warmth on my skin .

No one speaks for the rest of the drive. I keep my arms around her while she sleeps peacefully against my chest. My fingers skim through her hair, untangling the knots we created.

On her other side, Lachlan strokes her thigh lightly with his free hand. He traces small circles into her warm skin with his thumb.

I have no idea what’s coming in the morning. There’s a good chance she won’t remember any of this or worse, she will and she’ll regret it. Neither is ideal, but the only other option available is where she remembers and doesn’t regret it.

Then what?

How would this even play out? Jefferson is not a live and let live kind of town.

They’d crucify her. They’d ruin her life.

She’d get ostracized, humiliated. Plus, there’s Lauren.

She’s never been the one to take anything sitting down.

Even if she’s in the wrong and did something repellant, she will not accept me with her best friend.

Then there’s Lachlan. I don’t even know what the other man’s thinking or how he’s going to play into all this.

I steal a glance his way to find him facing the road with the same expression of quiet contemplation. The face of a man both fighting his demons and inviting them to a tea party.

He’s going to be no help. Not that I blame him. I am being equally unhelpful .

My gaze travels down to the head resting comfortably and content against my shoulder and I think maybe this is it. Maybe this is all we get. All the universe will allow us.

It’s after four in the morning by the time we hit the barrier of Jefferson. Despite there not being a soul in sight, looping strands of light hang in arcs overhead, strung from trees and twisted around lampposts.

Golden bulbs twinkle like fireflies in the darkness, casting soft halos over the cobblestone paths. They catch the early morning dew clinging to every perfect blade of grass.

Jefferson is beautiful. Like stepping through a Thomas Kinkade painting. A scenic masterpiece too perfect to truly believe

As someone raised in the chaos of the city, trained in the disregard of strangers and strong belief in minding one’s business, a place steeped with stories and rumors had been a rude awakening.

I went from living in an apartment, surrounded by strangers I never bothered learning the names of, to a town where complete strangers wave at me from their cars.

I know more names now than I have in my entire life.

I don’t know if I regret the choice to relocate thousands of miles away from everything Lauren and I have ever known, but I try not to.

Not when I have Lachlan and Everly. I can’t imagine another place without them.

After Therese passed away, staying in the place we built together felt wrong.

I know Lauren felt it, too. At seventeen, she was too old and too young to deal with it all and, for three years, I watched helplessly as she changed.

As the light faded in her a little every day.

I stood unable to do anything as she slipped down a path of self-destruction.

Jefferson had seemed like the right answer.

It appeared almost as if Therese saw where Lauren was headed and dropped it into our laps.