Page 26 of Crown of Thorns (The Initiation #3)

“Can you just imagine hearing the piano?” I reach my hands up, almost touching where the thorny branches of the rose bushes meet in the shape of an arch.

Stretched out, I put my body on full display.

I rumble when Noah’s greedy hand traces every line of my sternum, giving each inch of skin that same through devotion.

It’s addicting, the way he worships me without realizing it.

It feeds something inside me, some need to be more than desired.

To be revered. To be his center of gravity, whether he admits it or not.

Taking a nipple between two fingers, he has me wriggling in desire, hips picking up from their teasing roll.

“Ffuckkk…so good.” I can just hear the notes, slow and dramatic, in my mind.

Can imagine all my brothers watching me here, riding Noah like the slut I am, my greedy pussy slotted around his weeping dick.

Noah’s still fighting me, snarling while his fingers fly from one nipple to the other, making me wheeze out. Rolling against his pelvis like a snake, my dick swells in his hold. “This place,” he manages through clenched teeth. “What happens here?”

“You already know.”

“It’s not just sex, is it?”

“No.” I pause, lowering my voice. “It’s anonymity. Hierarchy. Control. That’s what makes it dangerous.”

“You f-fuck…” I let out a loud moan when Noah leaned in and planted his palms on both sides.

He takes control swiftly and mercilessly.

His thrusts are fast now, clipped and deep, accompanied by grunts that make my eyes roll back.

I’m close. I’ve never been fucked this way.

His strokes match his fucking, making my dick swell with an urgency to blow, the sticky precum coating my stomach.

“I won’t last,” I warn. Noah lets out a muffled shout, his mouth pressed against the curve in my throat, dampening the skin with his outcry. And then he comes, thrusts going sluggish as he trembles against me.

“ Putain ,” he swears. “Your ass is heaven.”

That’s all it takes for me to lose all common sense.

My toes curl as my orgasm slams through me, and I moan loudly as my cock spurts, coating Noah’s pecs and chin.

My chest heaves, breath ragged, arms wrapped tight around his shoulders.

I can feel his smile against my throat as we mindlessly drift to yet another dynamic. One that’s uniquely designed for us.

A s we walk upstairs, I realize that something happened down there, in the Atrium.

Something raw and unscripted. Noah let his mask slip, for a second, and I caught a glimpse of the man beneath.

It stirs something deep inside me. Something I don’t have a name for yet.

Walls have come down, and Noah has shown a tiny bit of vulnerability.

I don’t even think he realized it.

I can’t fully grasp it either, but when we get back to Noah’s dorm, I know I don’t want this moment to end. He doesn’t stop me. Just lets me follow him in like I belong there. And fuck, maybe I do.

“What are those?” Noah walks up to the window where I’ve stashed a box of scented candles. He sniffs at them, then lets out an appreciative hum.

“You like? It’s jasmine.” I light one, then wrap my arms around him and inhale his skin. “Come to bed with me.”

In the corner near the window, I’ve left my bag slightly open, just enough for him to see what’s inside. A clean towel. A bottle of water. Jasmine balm. Nothing extravagant. But I watch his gaze flick toward it. He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have to.

“My bed, you mean? You invited yourself in. Again.”

“I did. Are you going to kick me out?” Noah lets out a heavy sigh.

“You want to, don’t you, Professor? Want to tell me to get the fuck out of your space.

But you can’t.” His frustration is palpable, and I lick it up, humming as I feel his defences fall into pieces.

“You know, everybody wants what you’re having, Professor. Me, in bed, with you.”

He huffs. “Aren’t you a cocky, little thing?”

“I am.” He lets himself be dragged to the bed, the room in darkness aside from the candle and a dim light that sits against the wall across from us.

“Tell me what you saw that night, baby,” I murmur, tone low and careful, not teasing now, but searching.

I need to hear him say it. Need to know if he saw what I wanted him to.

“Cloaks. Masks. Rules.”

“Rules, yes,” I nod. “Privilege. Power.”

“Is that when business deals are signed?”

“No. But the gatherings can lead to deals. And to decisions.”

“Decisions…do you have a voting system?”

“We do. And we have different layers of importance.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means we only get to vote on topics that matter.”

“Such as…”

My fingers trace a line down over his abs down to his cock. “Such as when we get to play.” Grazing over his dick, I trail down to his balls. His hand stops me from going further.

“No. We’re not playing right now. You wanted to talk? Let’s talk.”

“What is it you want to know, Professor?” Fuck, I love to hear his title roll off my tongue. “Where do we go for dinners? Where will we hold our next ceremony? To which fund do we donate money? Who gets to decide what?”

“You donate money?” He sounds surprised.

I smile. “Of course we do. We give to all sorts of associations. We even set them up. They are great sources of making even more money, so I’ve been told. Then, of course, there are mergers and acquisitions, investments. The Elders even decide on political decisions.”

Noah swears at my words. “I can’t believe this truly exists. Even politics? This country is doomed.”

“It was doomed a long time ago,” I laugh.

Placing a thigh over Noah’s, I curl myself around him as much as I can.

I love being this needy around him. Love it when he wraps his large, strong arm around me like he does now.

How he squeezes me close, as if he, too, wants me close.

“But no, pupils don’t get to decide on that level.

Yet. That’s typically for those who have been a member for at least ten years.

And the board. They get to have their say over every single topic. ”

“The board? You mean the people I had my welcome dinner with?” He groans, already guessing the answer himself.

“The board is very secretive. I don’t think you met all of them that night. Not even I know them all.”

“But what about the students here? Are they all members?” He sounds out of breath, as if panic is only now kicking in.

“No. Only the elite of the elite.” My hand moves up and down his shaft, and this time he lets me.

“The elite of the elite?” His anger fuels my desire. “Who the fuck do they think they are?”

“Your reality. That’s what I wanted you to see.

Because if you think you can play this game without knowing the stakes, you’ve already lost. And the ones who’ll come for you?

They won’t just take your job—they’ll take your name, your future, your fucking skin.

Who are you up against if you decide to break the rules?

The end of your career would be the least of your worries.

Things could get way dirtier.” I straddle his thighs and bring our cocks together.

“Way, way dirtier, Professor. Now, I say that this conversation is over.”

“You little brat. You little—” He pauses, eyes glinting, breath hard.

The silence between us thickens like syrup, charged with power and defiance.

“Spit on it.” His eyes become large and dark when I do what he says, licking my lips as spit covers our dicks.

I stroke us together with two palms. “So, you wanted me to see all this. Why?”

“You already know. I wanted to show you Monterrey’s little secret.”

“Bullshit. That’s not the reason. You wanted to drive me crazy.”

“Yeah.” I grin as his eyes flash so beautifully. Desperate. He can’t refuse me, and he knows it. “I wanted you, Noah. Every single bit there is to you. I want it all for my greedy self.” My hips roll into his, grabbing the lube from him to make our cocks more slippery and easy to stroke.

“Your hands perform magic,” he chokes. His words make my abs tense with desire.

“See? This doesn’t have to be difficult. Just give in to me.”

“No,” he spits, eyes pupil blown. “I might fuck you, but I won’t let you have me.”

“Yes, you will. You already are. Every time you touch me, a piece of you gives in.”

“Never. I will fight you and your rich friends until we live in a better world.”

His resistance lingers, its meaning a blizzard, cold, chaotic, impossible to read. It stings like frostbite, beautiful and brutal all at once. I can’t tell if it’s rage, fear, or longing, but it cuts through me just the same. It’s fucking with my head. He is.

I’ve never had to fight so hard for someone.

So I punish him by edging him until he begs me for release then choke him with my cock and come down his throat, which is hot as fuck but not enough to calm my inner turmoil.

I let him fuck my face and watch as I blow him to heaven.

It still isn’t enough. His little mewls, his glimmering eyes…

the vulnerability he showed me. I want to break him into a thousand pieces, watch him shatter in defeat, before I glue him back together and keep him locked up where only I can get to keep him, because he is mine.

Mine . But even as I imagine destroying him, it’s not hate that twists in my chest. It’s hunger.

It’s fear. It’s the unbearable need to never lose the only person who’s ever really seen me.