“You love me?” he growled in my ear.

My hand slid into his hair and fisted. “Yes, honey.”

“Who do you love?”

“You, Daddy,” I gasped, it was coming.

“No, baby,” he whispered. “That’s sweet and you know I love it but say my name. Who do you love?”

I turned my head, shoving my face in his neck and breathed, “I love you, Knight.”

His head came up, mine went back, his eyes caught mine through the darkness and his c**k slammed into me as he growled, “You love me, Anya. Don’t forget that.”

“I won’t, honey,” I breathed, holding on, my arm tightening around his back, my fist tight in his hair.

“Never, baby.”

“Never, Knight,” I gasped then came.

He f**ked me harder.

Oh God.

“Give me your face,” he grunted, slamming into me and I focused on him. “That’s it, baby, give me that beauty.”

Then his mouth crushed down on mine, one of his hands shafting up, fingers driving into my hair, fisting, his tongue thrust in, started plundering, his h*ps went wild and he groaned down my throat.

He kept plundering then he gentled the kiss and his c**k started gliding then he planted himself to the root, his lips slid to my ear and his fist loosened in my hair but his fingers stayed tangled there.

“My mother named me Knight because she needed one.”

Sated, still coasting, his unexpected, revealing words made my body still.

Then I wrapped my legs around him and held tight.

“Fuck me,” he whispered, voice low, nearly hoarse, “so f**kin’ sweet.”

“Tell me,” I whispered back, giving him a squeeze.

His head came up, he shifted slightly to the side but stayed connected to me. He did this so his hand could slide out of my hair to wrap around the side of my neck and his thumb started stroking my jaw.

“Her little man,” he whispered, “her knight. I would protect her, she told me. She needed that. She was so f**ked up, her life so jacked, her only hope was a f**kin’ baby.”

My body melted under his but my limbs stayed tight as my hand in his hair drifted so my fingertips could brush through the curls at his neck.

“I hate that for you,” I whispered back.

“It’s what she raised me to be. It’s all I know, Anya. Protection. I was born then I was raised to be a shield.”

My hand slid to cup his jaw as tears filled my eyes and I whispered, “Honey.”

“I loved her then, I love her now. It was not a hardship, Anya. It’s who I am. It was what I was made to be.”

“Okay, sweetheart.”

“No one harms you,” he told me.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“I looked into your aunt.”

I blinked in the dark.

“She’s doin’ a bang up job of makin’ her own life a misery, she doesn’t need any help. So I’ve left her to it. But I’ll tell you right now, babe, if she was livin’ even a little of the good life, I’d take that away.”

“Knight, we don’t –”

“No,” he cut me off firmly, “bury your head tomorrow. Tonight, you get me. No one harms you, Anya, and like you do when I tell you to get on your knees beside me, when I take that sweet mouth with my c**k when I want it, when I f**k that beautiful cunt as hard as I like, I do what I feel I gotta do and you yield to me.”

“Okay,” I whispered again.

“You chose your path and the path you chose, there’s no turning back.”

I started trembling.

“Anya, listen to me, mark this, there is no turning back.”

My hand started to slide away from his face but he moved quickly, caught it and held it there.

“You had our chance tonight, babe. And you got to your knees beside me. There’s no turning back. You can’t give me that, all of that, and take it away. You need to get this, baby, and right now I need to know you do.”

It was a test. Tonight wasn’t the usual bossy. It was a test.

And as far as Knight was concerned, I passed.

I stared at the planes and angles of his shadowed face.

“Anya, do you get this?”

I licked my lips.

“Baby –”

“I get it, Knight,” I whispered.

He held my eyes and even through the dark I could feel them burning into me.

Then he dropped his head, forehead to mine before he slid his nose along mine.

“I love you, Anya, you’re the only woman who’s had that from me and you’re the only one who ever will.”

He meant that. Every word. To his soul

He meant it.

This rocked me so deeply I closed my eyes and my body tightened under him and all around him.

Call me crazy, but I liked that.

His lips came to mine and my eyes opened.

“Go. Clean up. I wanna eat you then f**k you again.”

“Okay, Knight,” I whispered and he slid out.

“Hurry,” he ordered gently then rolled off me.

I rolled out of bed.

And as my man told me to do, I hurried.

Chapter Fourteen

Happy Birthday

The elevator doors opened, I took in a deep breath and walked out.

I was tipsy, not drunk.

Lemon drops.

But my legs were trembling. My stomach in knots. That tingle had spread up my spine, the back of my neck and over my scalp and also along my waist, my bottom and down my inner thighs and it wasn’t leaving.

And I knew I was already wet.

This was because I’d been naughty.

And this was because it was one thirty in the morning and thus for the last hour and a half, it had been Knight’s birthday.

He didn’t tell me.

After Kathleen’s facial Wednesday, when we were gabbing, she’d asked in passing, “What are you getting Knight for his birthday on Sunday?”

I didn’t know it was his birthday. And I was so thrown by this I didn’t even remember what I said to her.

I was in a panic.

What did you get the man who had everything or could get it for himself?

I went to the mall twice since then, bought him things and none of it was right. None of it was good enough. None of it would mean anything.

Then it came to me. Something I knew he would like.

It was August, two and half months after Knight claimed me for good because I let him. My spa was opening in a few weeks. My apartment was a full on mini-spa because that was all I did there. My stuff and some of my clothes were there but I didn’t need them since Knight had since totally spoiled me. New silky, lacy, satiny nighties. New jeans. Dresses to wear to Slade when we went. Shoes. Tops. He’d ordered me to, “throw all that shit away, babe, I catch you in any of it, you earn a red ass” meaning my underwear when I came home to bags and bags of seriously sexy undies.