KNOT: A Wake Family Novel by M. Mabie

only spurred him on. It was no mystery, he’d always pleased me, just not like this.
    It was spiritual. When Reagan Warren fucked you, it felt like a full-body blessing. He hadn’t even moved, still buried to the hilt. It was like I could feel every twitch of him, every heart beat conveyed through his body into mine. His groin pressed against my ass.
    Masterful hands kneaded me.
    I had always been a hair trigger. He made me come like he’d designed me himself. It’s not much of a curse. I assure you, and I’m aware of how lucky I am. And like a freight train, I could feel the low rumble of it already approaching the rail of my spine.
    Hold it in for him. He said wait.
    Can you never just please him?
    It had felt like there was something more he wasn’t saying, but I suspected that was usually the case.
    I tried to reach out for that line of thought, but it rushed past me. The sensations of his hands on my body, his cock inside me, and his heavy breath at the nape of my neck screamed for my full attention.
    He ran his tongue up the side of my neck to my ear, and I bucked. His hand quick to halt my movements, his large paws on my hip before I could locate my wherewithal from his fingers teasing my sex.
    I panted, my climax stalled. I wanted him to fuck this ache inside me so badly. I wanted him to push through the years of strife and take it. Smash it away. And while he was at it, find my fears and make each one submit.
    Take all of me. Even the ugly parts that don’t deserve you.
    We both shivered, and he pulled me up on my knees with a hand on my shoulder. I leaned back against his chest, and his hand came around the front of my body and held onto me between my neck and clavicle. My face fell to the side where his head was.
    I was drugged.
    I wasn’t thinking clearly. Endorphins flooded me even though I hadn’t even come.
    “Do you feel that, Nora?” I felt his voice spread through my chest.
    Yes, I feel all of it.
    He ran his palm up my neck to under my chin, and I gladly tipped my eyes to the sight above me. His face was upside down, and my back bent even more to allow me a view of him behind me.
    “Do you feel how it’s still all the same? And how each new time it’s more.” He pushed against me but gained no ground already buried like he was. I felt fragile and strong, beautiful and, then again, it was like he was looking my ugliness in the eyes. There was nothing left of me to give or hold back.
    “I trusted you,” I professed in earnest.
    Those were the passwords. He let go of my neck, and I fell forward catching my body with my hands on top of the mattress. His fingers burrowed into my hips, and he started a pace that almost leaned to one side for a few measures before he switched angles. He fucked me all the way to paradise.
    One of my hands went to his on my hip, and I laced my fingers with his, then he pulled away.
    “No,” he objected. “You don’t want that. We’re both getting what we want this time. I get this, and you don’t have to care back. Compromise.”
    I would have rather been battered, it would have hurt less. Wounded, I struck back.
    “You don’t always know everything.”
    “And you don’t know when to shut your mouth,” he replied quickly like he’d predicted what I’d said. His movements slowed. “So help me God, if you argue with me right now, then I’m done.”
    So fast we moved from compromise to ultimatum.
    Oh, Hyde .
    That was my problem. Sometimes I couldn’t stand Hyde, but I couldn’t bear to hurt Jekyll. What did that leave for me?
    Couldn’t we even fuck without fighting?
    I looked behind myself, our sex familiarly paused to argue. I didn’t want that. Not for tonight.
    He told me once to be direct. Well, he’d get straight as an arrow, and I hope it hit him hard. “It hurts that you won’t hold my hand.”
    He cocked an eyebrow. “Hurts?” he asked.
    “Yes, Reagan. It hurts. It hurts my pride because I thought I was worth more than that. More than