Page 29 of Crown of Thorns (The Initiation #3)

NOAH

A long queue stretches outside The Black Cat. Men and women dressed in flashy colours—from short skirts and high heels to crop shirts, tattoos, and piercings—occupy the streets of Saint-Laurent. It leaves me plenty of time to reconsider.

I shouldn’t be here. This is a mistake. A reckless, dangerous mistake.

LouisGxx: I can already smell you, baby. Your arousal. Your wetness. Promise me I can lick it all up?

I ignore the message, though others swarm the unfolding drama, reacting eagerly to his thread on IG.

But the truth is, it’s impossible to stay away. He posted that video for the world to see, but the message was for me. I know it. He knows it. And now I’m here, on the verge of doing something really fucking stupid.

I want him for myself. I want to claim him, unofficially, publicly. And I hate that I care that much.

LouisGxx: I’ll take that as a yes. Please don’t make me wait for too long.

Two men in dark suits approach me through the crowd, cutting through the line like a blade.

“Professor Montague?” one asks, his tone formal but firm. “If you’ll please come with us.”

It’s not a request. I recognize them now. Deveraux security. My stomach knots.

“Of course,” I say, stepping forward, already aware of the dozens of curious eyes now following us as we move past the queue and toward the doors of The Black Cat.

“I should wait just like the others,” I protest as we make our way past the line and straight to the front door.

“I’m Amadou,” one of them says, ignoring my comment. “If you need anything, I’m here for you.” He pushes me inside the club. “And no, sir, you don’t have to queue. You were expected.”

The club has undergone a complete transformation since I was last here. It’s packed, balloons fluttering around, glitter shot into the air, making the crowd go even crazier.

“Can I get you anything to drink?”

I shake my head.

That’s when I see them.

Standing on one of the smaller stages, they're owning every single meter of the place. Surrounded by admirers. I wonder how many of them followed the IG thread?

They’re being blatantly ignored since the guys are just talking to each other. One of them leaves his empty glass to a girl whose breasts are pressed against his side, and she hurries off to find him another drink.

Louis looks handsome in his dark pants. His hair is slicked back, face flushed. My eyes take in every roll of his hips. Every swell of his pecs. Every ripple of muscle. My breath catches. The air feels thick, charged. And I’m lost.

One quick glance at his phone and suddenly his eyes lift, scanning the place until they find mine.

For a shocking few seconds, his darkness swallows up everything.

His attention on me makes everything else fade away.

I stare, unable to look away, as one of his admirers takes the moment to wrap an arm around his naked torso and press his lips against the corners of his mouth. Of my mouth.

Louis grins while I stand there, jaw tightening, every nerve ending tensing. He makes me feel ashamed, afraid, aroused. He loves to push me into a corner just to see how I’ll react. Is that what he wants? To make me lose it like some animal?

I blink, and Louis is on the move. Shaking himself free from any touchy hands, he walks toward the stairs.

I can't drag my gaze from him. People part like he is some kind of god, all eyes on his tall, imposing frame. But his eyes never leave mine. His mouth is still curved into a smirk, like he’s got me exactly where he wants me.

“This way.” Amadou leads me to the private booths. Louis is not far behind; I can feel his proximity from the way my skin crawls.

This is the second time we'll end up in a private room together. The way he throws me off my composed self makes me feel vulnerable, angers me. I want to make him feel what it’s like to be brought so far out of balance that you fear to snap in two.

Has Louis ever been so lost that he didn’t know how to get back onto the right track?

The moment I step into the private room, the light fades. In the middle stands a large bed with silver satin sheets. The bass from the club’s music thumps faintly through the walls, a distant pulse against the quiet heat between us.

I pause. Breathe. Ready to lose myself.

“Finally, you’re not ignoring me,” Louis rumbles from behind me. The door clicks shut.

“I wasn't ignoring you. It was a busy day. And you weren’t exactly subtle about it.”

He snickers. “Trust me, I tried to be subtle. It didn’t work.”

“You and subtle? When?”

“With my messages. With my decorations.”

I snort. “That’s being over the top. Like that video you shared with the whole world just now. What do you want to gain? Even more attention? Attention from me?”

“Semantics. I take it you enjoyed it, otherwise you wouldn't be here.”

He’s not touching me, but I can feel his breath in my hair, feel the goosebumps it awakens with every exhale. Desire pools in my stomach, making my cock harden further.

“No,” I bite, but his amused chuckle proves he knows I’m lying.

Spinning around, I grab him by his arm. “I’ve come tonight to clarify a few things.”

“Talk to me, baby. I love your sweet lies.” His hungry gaze settles on my mouth, and he bites his bottom lip, provoking me, wanting me to lose my dignity.

With a growl, I push him, making him lose balance and fall. Right before he goes down, he grabs my wrists, making us fall together onto the bed.

He pushes my hand down and over his hot, slick sternum and pecs until it rests above his cock.

I swear I can feel it throb. “Tell me how much you enjoyed watching me dance with these guys. How you secretly wished it was your cock I’d feel pressed against my ass.

” He smirks that special Louis-smirk, the one that arouses me and pisses me off at the same time and rolls his hips against mine.

“Hmmm. No need to be jealous, baby, you know I’ll come home to your bed tonight. ”

Something breaks inside me. Something I didn’t know I was still holding onto.

Heat radiates from him, the warmth of his hard muscles pressing into my chest as I lean in closer, shattering the careful walls I’d built around my heart.

The scent of citrus and vanilla hits me like a drug, sharp and sweet against the stale, cold night air outside.

Every ridge of his defined physique is a sharp outline, and I feel each one against me as if his body is a map I can't stop tracing. Rationality is seeping through my fingers.

His crow tattoo pressed against my palm feels like a dark promise. Beautiful, mysterious, and dangerous. Just like him.

“You devil.” I make work of rolling down my pants and lift his hands above his head, snarling as I straddle his hips.

I’ve been so careful, but here we are. I’m losing my sanity.

“Is this what you want?” I shake his wrists.

“My attention? You can have anyone you want. Anyone. They all want you, they all look at you.”

“Baby, you’re so cute when you’re jealous.”

“Shut up and take off your pants.” Sliding my thigh off of him, I roll him onto his stomach and wriggle him out of his tight jeans and briefs.

His sun-kissed skin is perfect. Those wings, completely covering his rippling shoulder blades, the crow, the gate to his secret life.

“You can’t blackmail me. Can’t renovate my private space. Can’t sleep in my bed.”

He wiggles his ass, two firm round globes made of flawless skin and watches me over his shoulder with a superior smirk. “I already did.”

Yes, he did. My little devil. And now I can’t stop wanting to claim every inch of him. No matter how hard I fight, the desire only gets bigger, consuming my every thought. I drop a kiss on his ass cheek, then bite hard and watch how his eyes roll back.

“Fuck.”

He grunts when I do it again, this time slapping the other cheek.

He jolts against the sheet, making my cock full like I’ve never experienced before.

Jesus. I’ve never let myself go this far, not even the first time in my office when he let me lose control.

Yet I can’t stop alternating between biting and slapping, slapping and biting, keeping Louis on edge with anticipation for what I’ll do next.

“Fuck, baby, love it when you lose your mind.”

He curls his lips into a satisfied smirk, and white-hot rage flashes through me.

I’m not strong enough to keep this desire at bay.

He whacks open the bedside drawer and scoops out the lube, uncapping the bottle and spurting a generous amount onto his fingers.

My throat dries when he reaches behind and slips a wet finger over his crack.

I blindly grab the lube from his fingers, coating mine with the slick, cool liquid before slowly sliding my finger inside him, feeling the tight heat welcome me.

“This is my ass,” I rumble. I don’t recognize my voice.

Don’t recognize the authority. Louis whimpers and pulls out his finger, using his hand to stroke my wrist, leaving a strange tingling under my skin.

I don’t remember when I took off all my clothes.

My cock, hard and heavy, glides up and down his ass cheek while I watch my finger pump inside his ass.

Inside his round, perfect ass. Louis grunts and mewls, rolling his hips for more friction.

Leaning over his back I bite his nape, then suck his ear.

“And I’m going to fuck my ass so hard you won’t need a reminder who it belongs to. ”

“Please, baby.”

Spreading his pink cheeks, I watch his sweet hole flutter, then spit on it, before sliding a finger in, then a second one, slowly working him open.

Louis moans, a sweet sound that makes me possessive as hell. Kneading the skin, I just slapped firmly, I wait for him to push back on my fingers before finally pulling them out. He whimpers at the loss. The throbbing in my chest intensifies.

“Turn around. Give me what I want.”