Page 129 of Played By Design

My nails dig into his shoulders. “All of it. The workbook. The songs. The—” I swallow hard. “Why keep me?”

Kain’s cock twitches inside me, and my body clenches around him on instinct.

His hands slide up my sides, calloused fingers rough over my ribs before they move higher, and he holds my face between his hands. “Because you’re mine.”

The possessiveness of it wraps around my throat and squeezes, and my dick jumps against my stomach, leaking another hot stripe of pre-cum.

Kain starts moving again, his thrusts slow and deep, and each one punches a broken sound out of my lungs. His thumb brushes over my cheekbone, where hot, silent tears leak down my face.

“Say it,” Kain murmurs, rough and demanding. “Say you’re mine.”

My hips hitch, chasing his cock. “I’m yours.”

A pleased rumble rises from his chest, and his pace picks up, his hips snapping forward with enough force to rock the counter beneath me.

The quartz is cold under my ass, but Kain is burning hot everywhere else, his chest flush with mine, his cock splitting me open, his breath scorching my neck.

“Why?” I ask again, quieter this time, the word struggling past my lips.

Kain’s hand drops between us, and his fingers finally wrap around my dick, and pleasure jolts through me, curling my toes. With a firm grip, he strokes me from root to tip, spreading the slick gathered there.

“Because we’re mates, Reef,” he says with a certainty that drops my stomach. “And I will delete anyone who tries to take you from me.”

My breath catches. Mates. The word hangs in the pheromone-thick air, right in a way I’ve spent twelve years not understanding.

More tears threaten, and I bite his shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

A ragged laugh escapes him. “Because if I told you back in high school, you would have just gone along with it, and I wanted you to realize it on your own.”

I bite him again, hard. “Fucking stupid asshole.”

“Yeah.” Kain pinches my right nipple, rolling it between his thumb and forefinger, and I yelp, my hips bucking into his grip. “But I’m your stupid asshole.”

He strokes my dick again, his thumb swirling over the slick head, sending a white-hot bolt of pleasure straight up my spine. His fingers move to my balls, massaging them until I whimper and my thighs shake.

“One more time, Bunny.” His breath warms my ear. “Ask me again.”

I swallow, my throat dry. “Why?”

Kain stills. His cock sits heavy inside me, his hand wrapped around my hard length, his breath warm on my neck. “Because I love you.”

Everything stops.

My heart. My breath. The world.

Kain’s thumb strokes the underside of my dick, concentrating on the bundle of nerves right below the head. “If that doesn’t fit within your game parameters, change them, because I’m Marking you tonight.”

A fissure cracks open behind my ribs, spreading through years of constructed categories, and the heat of it spills into my throat, my eyes, my lungs. I can’t breathe around it. Can’t think around it. Can’t do anything but cling to Kain’s shoulders and shake.

He kisses me again, softer this time, his mouth gentle on mine, and I kiss him back with everything I have, my tongue pushing into his mouth, my fingers curling over his shoulders.

His hand speeds up on my dick, stroking me in time with his thrusts, and the pleasure builds so fast it steals the air from my lungs. My balls draw up tight, and my stomach clenches, and I’m so close, so fucking close, my thighs trembling and my toes curling.

His free hand pinches my left nipple, and a spark of pain lights up every nerve ending.

“Kain,” I pant. “Kain, I’m going to⁠—”

His hand leaves my dick, and his cock slides out of me in one thick drag, and the sudden emptiness hits me so hard I cry out, the sound bouncing around us. My dick throbs, the head flushed dark and wet, so close to the edge it hurts.