Page 30 of Devoted (Love and Burlesque #2)
CHAPTER THIRTY
VIVIAN
Switch it up.
A n annoying beeping wakes me from my comfortable sleep. I got to bed a little earlier than normal because of the mental exhaustion I experienced talking to my mother earlier today.
I answered my phone by accident when I was working on a sketch. As soon as I heard my mother’s voice, I should have hung up the call. But guilt made me drop my pencil and pick up the phone. People could change, and things could be different this time. Or so I thought.
They weren’t. She berated me for not answering her calls for weeks and accused me of playing a game with her. It’s not true; I just don’t want anything to do with them anymore. No person who grew up with loveless, harsh, and judgmental parents would want to.
But I also didn’t want them bothering Thomas or Alek when they couldn’t reach me. They had gotten the worst of it when we were kids. I can take an annoying call now and then to save them the trouble.
Grabbing my phone from the nightstand, I turn to the side and silently pray it’s not another notification from my parents. I squint my eyes in confusion when I see it’s a text message from Knight.
Knight Adler - Boss Text
Knight
Wake up darling
For some unknown reason, the message sends a chill down my spine. It’s then that I realize something feels off in my room. The little nightlight I usually have on—a crescent moon surrounded by stars—is dimmed to the darkest setting.
Did I bump into it before getting to sleep? No, it was light enough that I could still see the drawings in my sketch pad while I flipped through them in bed. Right now, my room is so dark that I can’t even see the shapes of any of the furniture at my feet.
Vivian
I’m awake. Are you still at the club?
I text Knight back before I shove the blankets off my body and swing my legs over the edge of the bed to find my kitty slippers.
As I slip my feet into the shoes, I hear a notification go off somewhere in the room.
My body tenses, and it feels like ice is coursing through my veins.
In horror, I look at the closet mirror, angled toward my desk and my reading chair, to see the glow of a cell phone reflected there.
The light morphs into different shapes as phantom fingers type on the screen.
Even when expecting the reply, my body jumps when I see a new notification on my phone… from Knight.
Knight
tell me to leave
please
Reaching over to turn on the small lamp at the edge of my nightstand, I flick the switch and stand up to face him once there’s some light in the room.
“Why would I want you to leave?” I ask.
Time slows when I see his state. He’s dressed in his normal work clothes, black trousers with a gray button-up peeking through a mostly zipped hoodie. The hood lies on his shoulders as if he’s just slid it down seconds ago.
It’s his expression that surprises me. Knight looks pained, his normal grumpy face seems a million times lighter than the one I’m seeing right now. Red eyes that don’t reach mine stare at a point on my bedframe. His elbows are on his knees as he leans down in a pose that feels so fucking heavy.
“Because I broke into your room while you were sleeping, Vivian,” he replies in a hushed tone.
“What’s wrong, Knight?” Crossing the room and standing at the foot of the bed, I force him to at least look in my direction, even if he’s still not meeting my eyes.
A self-deprecating laugh leaves him in a huff of air. It’s not fair how he looks so distraught and breathtaking in that one motion. He rubs his hands down his face, through his stubble, and stops when his fingers reach the bottom of his chin.
“I need you,” he confesses. “That’s what’s wrong.” His eyes—the color of a storm on the ocean—look more gray than blue in this low light when he finally peers at me. “You are the plague in my veins, and the only salvation from your infection at the same time.”
Well, fuck. I didn’t think being compared to a plague would cause me to become so wet and needy, but here we are. The look of total desperation is what does me in. The man before looks like he can’t breathe without me, and day after day, I feel myself falling into that same thrall.
My steps are slow as I approach him, and his expression of shock has me thinking he might have expected me to run away after everything he’s done and said tonight. Instead, with gentle hands, I push at his shoulders until he’s reclining in the large chair.
Wild eyes dart back and forth, as if he’s trying to read my next move. Am I gonna kiss him or stab him?
Honestly, he’s deserving of both, but the need pulsing between my thighs has me putting away the knife play for later. I also want to calm whatever pains him tonight.
Positioning myself so I’m fully in his lap and the tip of his clothed cock grinds against my throbbing clit, I wrap my arms around his neck and lean into his space. I want him to be covered with me. My smell, my taste, my scorching skin on his.
“I need you, too,” I sigh against his lips.
Thick hands clutch at my waist as he uses them to aid in my movement on his lap. His eyes shut tightly as he let out something between a whimper and a curse.
“Please let me fuck you,” Knight begs, his breath uneven and uncontrolled as his hips pump below me like he’s trying to rip through our layers of clothing with the force of his dick.
With his head thrown back, I can see the flexing of all those delicious muscles. I can tell he’s so close to losing control.
“Or you could fuck me,” he continues begging. “I don’t care as long as I’m inside you, my lo—my darling. Please.”
Gripping his jaw, I tilt his head back toward me and use his face as leverage to lift myself to bounce and grind on his lap.
“I want you to take what you need this time. Take control, find your salvation in me.” I peck at his lip. A sweet gesture in contrast to the not-so-sweet way I’ve clashing my pussy on his twitching cock.
His eyes darken in a way I’ve never seen before. “Get on the bed, Vivian.”