His fingers are still inside me, his thumb lazily stroking my clit. Small bursts of pleasure cause a shudder to overtake me.

He doesn’t stop kissing me; it is as if it’s the first time he’s doing it. Unlike the way he handles my body, Jonathan’s kisses aren’t as experienced. It’s almost like he didn’t like kissing before. They’re firm, though, his kisses, and filled with so much confidence that they turn me boneless.

The need to get lost in him further burns hotter and brighter. I reach behind me and wrap my fingers around his cock that’s nestling against my back.

Jonathan grabs a handful of my arse cheek in his big hand before he slaps it. I yelp, my lips momentarily leaving his. “You cannot run away from me again, Aurora. Is that understood?”

“Mmm,” I mumble, eyes closing so I can go back to kissing him. I’m addicted to his lips, to the way he kisses, savage and all-consuming. Like he intends to fuse us together.

He spanks me again and my eyes fly open. “Is that fucking understood?”

“Mmm,” I whine this time.

“I mean it, Aurora. If you leave again, I won’t only chase you to Leeds or Oxford. I’ll flip the world upside down to find you.”

“What if you can’t find me?” My voice is still aroused, but it’s low as my deep-seated fears trickle in. “What if I disappear?”

“Then I’ll burn the world that forced you to disappear and resurrect you from its ashes.”

“You…will?”

“You think I’m not able to?”

“It’s not that.” If anyone is capable of that, it’s Jonathan. I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll make anything he wishes happen.

“You don’t seem to understand what it means to be mine. It’s not only about how you belong to me, or that I’ll cut off the dick of any bastard who looks your way and shove it up his arse. It’s also about how I’ll protect you from the world and yourself if I have to. It’s about burning your obstacles so you can leave the shadows and shine like you were always meant to. You can provoke or test me or even give me that fucking attitude, but you do not get to run away from me.”

Tears gather in my eyes and I blink them away, whispering, “Okay.”

“Okay, what?”

“Okay, I won’t run away from you, Jonathan. Looks like I’m stuck with you.”

“You sure as fuck are.” His voice is filled with possessiveness and something else as he grabs my arse tighter.

I love the feel of him behind me, cocooning me, almost like he’s caging me from the world.

But…tonight, and after what he said, I need more. I don’t want to be stuck in a position where he barely, if ever, sees my face.

Placing a hand on his cheek, I turn around, and I’m surprised that he loosens his hold on my pussy and arse to let me. Usually, whenever I attempt to wiggle away, he pins me in place and fucks me from behind.

It’s the only position he’s ever used to take me.

Our heads rest on the same pillow. My nose nearly touches his, and my nipples brush against the fine hairs on his chest with every torturous breath from my lungs.

For a moment, we stare at each other in silence, but my heartbeat thuds louder, thrumming faster against my ribcage. It’s almost as if it wants to leave and go to him — the man whose undivided attention is on me.

His cock nestles at the bottom of my stomach — hard, enormous, and so ready. He grips me by the hip and pulls me against his groin.

“What do you want, Aurora?” The arousal with which he says my name wrenches a moan from me.

“Will I be punished for it?” I whisper.

“We both know spanking isn’t a punishment for you. You get off on it.”

“Then why did you punish me with it?”

“Because you made the deal.”

“I don’t want this to be for punishment.” My words are so low and…vulnerable.

“Then how do you want it?”

“Do it because you also want it.”

“Do what?”

I brush my lips against his, then murmur against them, “Fuck me while I look at you.”

One moment is too long sometimes.

But other times, one moment is all it takes for a change to take place.

Jonathan flips me underneath him and my legs part of their own accord. Then he grabs me by the throat and thrusts deep inside me.

I push off the bed due to the force of it, eyes rolling to the back of my head. It doesn’t matter how wet or ready I am. Jonathan is big and having him inside me always hurts so good.

There’s so much power and pent-up energy in his shoulders. It’s almost as if he’s been waiting for this moment as long as I have.

My legs wrap around his lean waist, my hands grabbing his wrists for balance.

I try to meet his thrusts, going up while he comes down, but it’s impossible. There’s an animalistic need in his moves, a current, a storm that cannot be stopped or prevented.

I’m caught in the path of his natural disaster, in how he makes me feel whole without even trying to. He only has to be himself with his controlling, unapologetic, and oddly protective self.

Just him.

Jonathan slows his pounding, coming out almost entirely before ramming back in. White dots form at the edge of my vision as a sheen of perspiration covers my skin.

“Are you mine, Aurora?”

“Mmmm, y-yes…yes!” I manage through the tiny air space he’s giving me.

“Now, scream it.” He slaps my arse, hand squeezing tighter around my throat.

A loud moan fills the air as I fall to pieces around him, the waves scattering them farther apart.

That both scares me and consoles me.

On one hand, I know that Jonathan won’t prevent me from gathering those pieces. If anything, he’ll help put them back together again. On the other hand, I recognise that I don’t want anyone but him to touch my pieces ever again.

Not that I allowed anyone in the past.

Jonathan grunts as he spills inside me, his seed warming my walls. This time, he doesn’t curse because he came inside me or didn’t use a condom.

This time, he kisses my nose. “Good girl.”

16

Jonathan

During the next family dinner, Aiden and Levi do cook, and they give their all into it, too, messing up Margot’s kitchen in the process.

They don’t even allow their wives to help them. As we all sit for dinner, my son and nephew glare at each other across the table with that competitive streak that’s always existed in the King household.

James and I used to compete with everything when we were younger. Then, as we grew up, he became dull and started forfeiting. That’s why I found my competitive fix in Ethan — whose throat I will cut if he ever shows his face here again.

The fact that he saw Aurora in her nightgown is his first and final strike. No one gets to look at her dressed like that. Actually, even if she wore traditional religious clothes like Black Belt, I still wouldn’t like it if anyone looked at her.

She’s sitting at my left. Levi only gave up his place after some dramatic bitching about how he’s always pushed out and some other nonsense.