Page 42 of Safe (King’s Heart #1)

Grant

The moment he opens the door, I can sense a shift in the air. It turns thick, fogging up my mind with unease.

He knows.

Not everything. But he knows something. She told him.

I can hear it in the soft steps of his feet as he approaches where I still lay curled under the covers of my bed in only a pair of boxers.

I sit up slowly, facing the wall so I don’t have to see it in his eyes.

His steps halt. He remains silent. The only sounds in the room are the soft whistles of his breathing.

“Don’t.” My voice sounds foreign. Wrecked and weak. “You’ll break us if you do.”

He sits carefully behind me, bracketing my body in his warmth. “We can’t be broken.”

My head falls forward, chin hitting my chest, tensing every muscle in my body to keep it all in. Keep it all away from him.

He places a gentle kiss at the base of my neck. It’s my undoing. A thousand walls that I’ve carefully constructed rupture all at once. The darkness rushes out. It’s disgusting. It hurts.

A deep, soul-shaking sob pulls itself from my body. And another, and another, until I’m gasping in between the onslaught.

It doesn’t stop. Tears and wails keep coming. Lifting themselves from all the hidden corners and crevices.

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” he coos while his hands tenderly brush down my arms.

But he doesn’t understand. It’s not okay. It won’t be okay.

I’m not sure how much time goes by, but eventually, my body begins to quiet.

I don’t feel better, I just have nothing left to expel.

He never stops his consolation—whispering and kissing compassion straight into my skin.

“Listen,” he says as he drags his lips across my shoulder, skittering goosebumps over my skin.

“I don’t know why you did that. Or if you still do.

And you don’t have to tell me anything. I just want you to know that—” He pauses for a moment—an audible swallow permeating the silence.

“I… I love you. All the parts of you. The broken ones. The asshole ones. The cocky ones. The happy ones that you save for just me.” I feel a smile stretch onto his lips against my skin.

“We can’t be broken. Not by this. Not by anything. ”

It sounds so pretty. So perfect.

A ray of light worms its way through all the darkness I’m feeling.

It feels so… nice. My soul grabs onto it, saving this feeling for another day when all I feel is the darkness.

I’ll need it.

My head lifts, turning cautiously in his direction. His cinnamon eyes grab me right away, refusing to let me look away. He brings his hand up to my face, soothingly rubbing his thumb against my cheek.

“Did you know that your face glitters when you cry?” he asks with a wistful smile on his face.

I say nothing, staring blankly, but another light pierces the darkness.

He smiles harder, explaining himself. “I’m serious. Your tears are like diamonds. They reflect all the light. You make everything brighter in my life. Even in your sadness.”

Another tear rolls down my face. He watches it the whole time, awe in his expression. “See?” He brings his finger up to touch it. “It’s beautiful.”

I look away from him, trying to deflect his attention, but my eyes get stuck on the barbed wire across my knuckles.

I flex my hand, watching the ink move over the calloused scars that I put there.

Suddenly, his fingers are there, brushing over the skin.

His touch feels like fire. It shouldn’t be there.

On that ugly part of me. I pull my hand away.

He speaks hesitantly. “Is-is the tattoo to cover up the-the?—”

I don’t let him finish, nodding as I tilt my head away from his grasp.

I couldn’t keep looking at them. The scars. The reminders of all the times I’d cut my hands on my teeth trying to make myself sick.

So I covered them up, getting the terrible-looking barbed wire to hide what was underneath.

He sighs and pulls my face back to him, his intense stare unnerving and soothing at the same time. “It hurts like hell to know that you went through this. And all alone. But now you don’t have to.” He reaches between us, grabbing onto my hand again and lacing our fingers together.

A storm of those light rays fills my chest. They do their best to cut through all the darkness. I smile, letting it take over my whole face. Filling all the empty spaces that have been carved out from my childhood. Only for this last night.

Only because of him.

“I love you too, Landon,” my voice grates out.

He smiles, leaning forward and kissing me. It’s soft and gentle, laced with promise and sincerity.

I turn the rest of my body toward him, climbing into his lap without separating our lips, deepening the kiss. Clinging to him and to this feeling like my life depends on it.

I dig my hands into his shirt, trying to pull him even closer to me. Make him one with me. Make him never have to leave.

My cock thickens through my boxers, insistently pushing against him, begging to be touched.

“Touch me, Lan. Please,” I plead against his lips. “I need you. Make me yours.”

“Fuck yes.” His voice is a husky rumble that sends a shiver deep into my bones.

He snakes his hand into my boxers, and relief explodes through me the instant his skin touches my throbbing erection. A whimpering moan flies from my mouth as he gives my cock a slow, sure stroke.

He doesn’t stop, jacking me while he consumes my mouth, making pre-cum weep from my tip under his movements.

His hand swirls around the head, collecting my wetness onto his fingers.

“Such a good pet. I love how much this cock leaks for me.” He brings his hand up to his face and runs his tongue over his glistening fingers.

A deep groan slips from him. “You taste so fucking good. I need more.”

Without any warning, he pushes me off of his lap and climbs off the bed, then snatches my legs and yanks me to the edge.

He drops to his knees in a hurry, grabbing my waist and pulling me even closer to the end of the bed. I sit up and watch as he pulls my boxers off and leans in to lick a long stripe from my balls to the tip of my dick.

“ Mmmmf . Goddamn, Lan. That feels so?—”

My voice is stolen from me when his hot mouth engulfs my cock. He makes a valiant effort, licking and sucking his way down almost to the base before gagging and pulling off, leaving a trail of saliva still connected to the head.

He lifts my legs, putting them on his shoulders and making me fall back on my elbows before looking up at me, a completely mystified look on his face.

“Why can’t I get enough of you?” He goes in for another taste, bobbing his head along my aching shaft and pulling away again.

“I’ve never looked at another guy twice, and suddenly I’m on my knees getting high off the taste of your dick like a tweaker.

What is this?” He says everything with that same bewildered look as he stares at my spit-covered, angry cock.

I growl and reach for his hair, fisting it so I can angle his gaze back to me. “I don’t know, but if you stop again, I will fucking murder you.”

He smiles devilishly. “I like when my pet gets angry. Hold onto my hair.” He tilts my pelvis up so my taint and ass are in his face and uses his hands to gently spread my cheeks, exposing my hole.

He shudders as he stares at it. “Why don’t you take that anger out on me? Make me eat this ass just how you want it.”

A thrill shoots down my spine as I tighten my fist in his hair.

“Take what you want, pet,” he rasps and then sticks his tongue all the way out, flicking his eyes up to me. Waiting.

I swallow around the lump in my throat and slowly guide his head toward my hole. When I reach it, he swipes his tongue across the sensitive skin. All my neurons fire at the same time as I yank his head back—my chest letting out quick, heavy breaths.

My eyes find his again. This time they’re half-closed. He slips his tongue back inside his mouth, taking a moment to lick along his bottom lip before sticking it back out for me.

I lose my composure and drive his face forward, smothering him against me and harshly yanking up and down on his hair so his tongue slobbers all over me.

I feel him moan into my skin as his fingers dig into my ass cheeks—his blunt nails close to piercing my skin from his hold.

“ Fuuuuuuuuck .” The word comes out as a deep groan while he makes a meal of me, licking and laving in every direction I turn his head.

“St-stick your tongue in, baby. F-fuck me with your tongue.”

He points his tongue and grips his hands closer to my hole, gently pulling me farther apart so he can enter me. It dips inside—so slight—but fireworks dance across my eyes.

“God. Yes, Lan. Yes. Yes. Yes. ” I chant the words like a filthy prayer, slamming his face right where I need it.

I go to grab my dick where it has been waiting and dripping all over my stomach, but my hand is smacked out of the way as he abruptly stands, making my feet slam against the floor.

“No,” he growls, jerking my body up and back onto the bed, then going over to the nightstand to grab lube and a condom—coming back to stand in front of me.

“You’re going to come while I’m deep inside of this perfect ass.

” He reaches under me and squeezes my ass cheek so hard that I yelp.

“I want to feel that slutty hole squeeze the fuck out of my cock while my baby comes.”

I melt into the bed at his words—a boneless slut with a wet, sloppy hole and legs splayed open.

He throws the lube next to me and goes to open the condom. “Wait,” I blurt.

His motions freeze and he eyes me.

“I just… I’ve always had sex with a condom. I got tested not too long ago, after being with Trevor. And I’m clean.”

He lunges for my mouth, swirling his tongue around mine for a dizzying kiss, before pulling away way too soon, making a pathetic fucking whimper come out of me.

He hovers over me, his cock rubbing against my heavy balls, shooting sparks into my belly, which takes great effort to ignore. Instead, I look at the seriousness in his eyes.