Fiery Little Thing: Chapter 15

“ That’s how you make a bomb.” Kohen’s voice comes from behind as he releases me. “Next time you try to start a fire, make it as destructive as you are.”

Inch by inch, I turn my head toward him. “You built a bomb?”

He sits on the table’s edge and tugs me onto his lap. “The instructions are on Google. They had everything I needed in the lab.”

“You built a bomb?” I repeat.

I’m crazy. I must be crazy. There’s no way he’s saying what I think he’s saying.

Ludicrous. He’s absolutely batshit insane. It’s the only explanation.

The golden light from the fire outside flickers across his face, reflecting off the greens in his irises, kissing the arrogant pull of his lips. “Happy belated birthday, Thief.”

The reality of what’s happening hits me all at once. The heat emanating through the window, the sirens, the dark room, Kohen’s hardness pushing against my ass. “What”—and I cannot stress this one enough—“the fuck?”

Any hint of smugness or pride falls from his face. “Don’t you like it?”

My lips part, opening and closing, entirely at a loss for words. “Am I meant to be impressed?”

Kohen’s brows draw together, and he has the audacity to look offended by my question. “I think I deserve a kiss as a thank you,” he says with complete seriousness.

Wait. Holy shit. He’s serious? He… did he really do that for me?

This is the sweetest, most fucked-up shit anyone has ever done for me. My cheeks are burning hotter from the grand gesture than the fire.

I snap my mouth shut. This would be cute and all if it weren’t for this one teeny weeny fact. “You burned my house down—a little on the nose, don’t you think?”

The muscle in his jaw flickers. “I didn’t burn your house down, Blaze.”

I throw my hands in the air, then point at my chest. “It sure as shit wasn’t me.” I point at him. “So it’s gotta be you.”

The pyromaniac’s nostrils flare with a sharp inhale. “It was an accident. None—’ He runs his hand down his face, looking more distressed than I’ve ever seen him. “None of that was meant to happen. I didn’t mean to set your house on fire.”

I gape at him. I’ve heard some bad excuses in my time, but I have never heard something this messed up. “How did you accidentally drive several blocks to my property, walk down a long-ass driveway, then accidentally light my house on fire?” I’m bad at math, but this isn’t adding up.

“I was—fuck, this sounds so stupid.” Kohen hangs his head back to stare at the ceiling, massaging his temples like he might be able to avoid the consequences of his actions.

“Stupider than accidentally burning someone’s house down and letting them take the fall for it?” I narrow my eyes, pushing off his lap to lean against the window behind me to ease the pressure off my throbbing ankle. “Try me, buddy. I’m all ears.”

He takes a deep breath and looks at his hands lying in his lap. “I was there.”

“No shit.”

His eyes meet mine. “That night of the fire, I was waiting for you,” he explains, desperation lacing each syllable. “I was sick of you hating me so much and wanted you to just shut up and listen for once. So I came over and started a fire just below your window, expecting you to come out.”

I frown, shifting my weight.

“I waited and waited, feeding the fire so it wouldn’t be dead by the time you came out. So you’d be warm.” He sucks in a staggered breath and runs his hand over his mouth like he’s recounting one of the worst moments of his life. “ I was going to go inside, but I was trying not to piss you off even more than usual because I… I wanted to impress you. I wanted you to see how serious I was and that I could be the type of man you want. Instead, I got pissed off waiting around for you to come down, so I went inside to find the place empty. The first thing I saw when I pulled out my phone was a picture of you sitting on Duke’s lap, and I just…” He rolls his neck side to side, trying to ease the tension in his muscles as his lips pull into a thin line. “I went back outside and kicked the firepit,” he continues. “I thought I put it out. There was just… the leaves were so dry, and the breeze was…”

Nothing but the flames outside and the fire alarm can be heard as the air sizzles between us. “Let me make this clear,” I say slowly, pushing off the window to force Kohen to look dead into my eyes. “You burned my house down because you were jealous? Fucking jealous?” I shriek.

Kohen explodes too, lurching up to grab my throat, jaw ticking and shoulders tight beneath his leather jacket. “I’m here because of you!”

I roll my eyes and hit his chest. “Not this shit again—”

“Who do you think I sent into a coma just to get here—to you?” The question hangs between us as he stares at me so intently it feels like he’s unpacking every inch of who I am so he can figure out how to make me understand him.

A stone lodges in the center of my chest. “You mean Elijah?”

“Duke.”

My lips part.

He touched something that didn’t belong to him. That’s what he told me the first day he was here.

I stare at him for a moment, waiting for the punchline. My eyes drop to the fist curled at his side, and for the first time tonight, I notice the red outlining the fresh black ink etched into crooked dashes that goes in a semicircle on the side of his pointer finger.

Teeth marks.

My teeth marks from yesterday.

I’d stagger back if he weren’t holding me. This… none of the emotions he’s been showing me is new to him—this lust or infatuation or whatever it is he’s had for me and never communicated before.

Did it start right before I was sent here, or around when I went out with other guys? He’s never said anything nice to me, flirted, or did anything an average person would do if they were interested in someone. Why is he suddenly showing his interest in me?

Kohen permanently ingrained my teeth marks into his skin before telling me the truth about the biggest sin I hold against him. More than that, he did it knowing I could spend the rest of my life hating him even after discovering the truth.

“I’m sorry.”

My gaze cuts to his hazel eyes. “What?”

I know what those two words mean—I’ve heard them plenty of times, read them, spelled them, but not once have they ever been directed to me.

“I’m sorry for hurting you.” He lowers his forehead to mine, speaking just loud enough for me to hear. “Let me make it up to you.”

My heart pinches. Kohen can’t say that either. He isn’t allowed to. But I didn’t realize how badly I wanted to hear it.

Softly, he says, “Let me show you how important you are.”

I swallow. “You let them believe it was me.”

Even if he didn’t mean to do it, he still committed the crime I was sentenced for. Because of him, I lost the place I called home. I lost the useless things that brought shape to my meaningless life. And I… I can’t find it in me to hate him for it.

His forehead wrinkles as he tries to make me understand just by the look on his face. “I can get to you if you’re here. I can’t risk losing you forever if I go to prison.”

I want to scream at him. I want to riot. I want him to explain why he never said anything before. I want to hurt him for hurting me. I want all of it because there’s one thing I know with absolute certainty: he’s telling the truth.

He says it was an accident, and I believe him.

He says he wants to take care of me, and I believe him. I just don’t think he knows how to—I don’t know either. Nobody has ever taken care of me. Hell, I’ve barely taken care of myself. My stomach turns as I watch the way the blacks of his pupils consume the golden hues of his irises when our gazes collide. Don’t they say your pupils dilate when you see someone you care about? Whatever it is he thinks he feels, it’s wrong. I’ll never get the prince because I don’t deserve it.

“I wanted you before I even knew your name.” Kohen runs his thumb along my cheek, and the one simple touch feels unlike anything I could imagine. “It’s always been you.”

His voice comes out low, like he’s found the words somewhere beneath all the darkness in his heart. It’s louder than the sirens and the pulse racing in my ears as he kisses a path up my neck.

I shake my head.

“It will always be you,” he whispers against my skin and brushes a kiss over my lips. “You’re a necessity to me.”

My tongue flicks out, tasting mint. Kohen is the only constant I’ve had my entire life. Whether he was sick or injured, he’d always be waiting for me by the tree on my route home. Kohen walked inside my bare house, met my mother, saw me high, saw me hungover, saw me over every other man but him. I’ve hit him, screamed at him, framed him, did things I know would hurt him, and he’s still here.

Two endless pools of gold stare back at me, molten and hypnotizing as his warm hand slips up my skirt and toys with the line of my panties before pushing two fingers into me.

I curse and grab onto his leather jacket. When he pushes his hips against me, I don’t move away. When he unbuttons my shirt, baring my plain black bra to him, my hand falls to the hard dent in his pants, making him hiss against my skin.

I’m not going to ruin him; he’s going to destroy me. It was foolish to think there was any version of this story where I’d emerge the victor. I think if I were to die right now, I might be lowered to the ground with a smile on my face.

Knowing all this, like the pain that will follow once it ends and the hole that will grow bigger in my heart, I still unbuckle his pants.

Any control I’ve ever thought I had was an illusion; at least right now, I’m not trying to fool myself. With the fire warming my back and the sirens a distant tune, I give in to what my body wants so badly.

His dick is just as big as the first time I saw him without his pants, and it seems even more daunting when it’s in my hands. My name comes out of him like the embodiment of yearning at the first stroke. I only manage three more before he throws off his jacket, picks me up, and wraps my legs around his waist, using the window behind me for support.

Pushing my panties aside, he slowly brings me down on him, stretching me out to the point of pain. We both curse as he breaches my entrance, and my muscles tighten to try and keep him out. A whimper comes out instead of a moan, and he kisses me in a way I hate. With just the press of his lips, every single wall I’ve built comes crashing down, sending shockwaves all through me.

“It hurts,” I whisper, not sure whether I’m talking about the gnawing ache in my core from taking him, or the soul-deep torture of admission.

“I know. I’ve got you.” His harsh breaths fan my heated skin. “Just a little more. I’m right here.

”

I squeeze my eyes shut, hating the way his words tear through my defenses. He’s seen me when no one else has.

Kohen’s lips meet mine in a searing kiss. He moves, and I move with him, screaming at myself to stop but knowing I never will. It’s not like I know what’s good for me.

Inch by inch, I take a little more of him until I’m so full, it’s dizzying. Just as he lowers me to the hilt, he breaks the kiss, piercing me with his gaze as he whispers against my lips, “At the beginning, middle, and end, you’re the only one I’ll ever want. You’re mine, Blaze.”

“Don’t.” My voice cracks.

If he keeps saying that, I’ll never find it in me to hate him the way I used to. In the end, even that was a lie because did I ever really hate him? He annoyed me with his incessantness, and sometimes I hated the words that came out of his mouth, and all the shit he pulled when we were kids. But none of those things ever caused me the type of pain that my own family caused. Maybe it wasn’t hatred for Kohen that I felt, but hatred at life in general.

There are so many reasons why none of this can happen. I’m going down, and I don’t think I want to take Kohen down with me. Not when he’s looking at me the same way he looks at fire whenever he plays with his lighter. Not when he’s holding on to me like he will never let go.

I’m bad news—the worst kind there is. My grandfather knows it, everyone around here knows it, so why can’t he see it too? Why is he torturing me by giving me the thing I always wanted when I’ve already accepted I’ll never have it?

A tear falls, and he wipes it away before I can pretend it never happened, pulling his hips away just a fraction, only to push back into me. “I’m yours, Thief. I’m never going to stop wanting you.”

“Stop talking,” I beg, digging my nails into the back of his neck like a desperate prayer that he might listen.

Kohen keeps grinding his hips into me, going incrementally faster. “I’ve seen every single part of you. All the broken parts—even the parts you hate, and I’m still going to stay.”

“Shut up.” The roles have reversed. Now, I’m the one pleading for him to stop saying words that will hurt.

“I don’t want to be your enemy. I don’t want to be your friend. There’s only one way this ends.” Sex is intimate and raw, but it doesn’t strip me bare like the feeling of being understood.

He doesn’t let me drop my head against the crook of his shoulder or hide from every intensified part of him. So I have no choice but to look back at him and know this is it for me. Nothing will ever compare to this moment. Every thrust, every heartbeat, every word that comes out of his mouth, and mostly, him.

“For you? I’ll burn it all.”

How he’s looking at me is enough to push my head against the window to get away.

There’s a fire blazing at my back, but his stare is on me. I hold the eyes of a pyromaniac. How dangerous is it to be chosen over flames?

This isn’t power; it’s a one-way path to destruction. Kohen looks at me like he’s taking the first hit of his favorite drug. He’s heavy-lidded with eager eyes that’ve been swallowed by an abyss of black, knowing he would have crawled over glass for a taste of the thing he’s been hungry for his whole life.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.”

I choke on a sob. “Please,” I beg again. I can’t handle it. “Stop talking, Kohen.

”

“Say it again,” he gasps.

“Stop—”

“No, my name. Say it again. You don’t sound like you hate it.” Desperation laces his voice, even though his eyes are laden with despair.

“I hate you, Kohen.” He’s right. I don’t sound like I hate him. Not a single part of what I said sounds convincing.

“Yeah, you do. But you love the way my cock feels.” His lips tip up in a slight smile as he tallies up another win.

“In your dreams, firebug.” He slams into me as I speak, turning my speech into a cry.

“What was that, Thief?” A grin stretches across his lips, full of hope and all the good things he’ll never find in me.

“I’ll never be with you,” I say on a gasp as he drives me into the window.

“You make it sound like I was giving you an option.” He might have been gentle with me before, but it’s like he somehow knows it isn’t what I need, because his hand moves around my throat, pressing me back as he pummels his hips into me.

Each thrust pushes away the storm clouds in my way until all there is are the sensations spreading through my body and the pressure building in my core. He captures me in a kiss and pulls my bottom lip between his teeth, making me moan.

“You don’t have any idea what you do to me,” he rasps.

“Oh, I think I do. And I could make you so much worse.”

The grip around my throat tightens, cutting off the oxygen to my brain as I gasp for breath. “You’re my special little whore, aren’t you?”

My.

Special .

Little whore?

He’s really pulling out all the stops today.

I like it more than I should.

The force of his thrusts makes me slide up the window. “All pathetic and wet. I barely fingered that tight pussy of yours, and now look at you.”

I gasp for air as my eyelids shudder, threatening to close. Kohen presses his lips against my ear, holding my ass as he fucks me like it’s his last chance at finding heaven.

“You’re taking my cock like you were made to be fucked by me.” His voice is dripping with sin, promising me an orgasm that will shake the foundation of my being and shatter my brick walls.

For the sake of my sanity, I need rage. The tenderness of his words, of his looks, is too much. The vicious animosity that makes Kohen lose the fight with temptation and let himself fall from his nonexistent grace.

My lungs burn and scream for air; every inch of my body does. A cold sheen prickles over my skin, and white spots dot my vision. My hands find his arm—the one holding a tight grip on my throat—to grab onto. It doesn’t matter how hard I try to draw air into my lungs, his hold on me cuts off all the oxygen.

“Do you want to breathe?” The look on his face is nothing short of maniacal as he takes in my paling skin and the plea watering my eyes. “You do?”

I nod—or at least I try to when he’s holding me hostage like this. My brain doesn’t want it to stop though, because all that is on my mind is the way he feels inside me and how close I am to reaching ecstasy.

“I can’t hear you,” he mocks .

“Yes.” I form the word with my mouth rather than say it.

His eyes darken. “Louder.”

“Please,” I croak, even though my orgasm is catching up faster than I can handle.

“You’re such a good little slut when you listen,” he muses, studying the way I swallow hungry gulps of air when he lets go of my throat. “Only I can give you what you need, isn’t that right?”

I moan louder, clawing at his back as I roll on his cock without his help. That only makes him pull out. I growl, hitting his chest when he yanks the impending release from me.

“Ah, ah.” He grins. “You don’t get to come until I let you, brat.”

I’m going to kill him.

I glare at him, chasing his cock with my hips. “Stop being a bitch and fuck me.”

The fucker is enjoying this way too much. Being consumed by frustration is still better than crying in front of him.

“Beg like the desperate, needy girl you are.” He slips his tip inside of me only to pull out straightaway.

“Fuck you,” I hiss.

“Beg me to fuck you,” he repeats.

“Hard pass.”

I scream out when he plunges me down on his cock, making me take him to the hilt. “Fuck. You feel so good, baby.” His voice comes out hoarse and anguished, but it doesn’t stop him from pulling me right off him with a strained smirk. “Too bad you aren’t going to come.”

I bare my teeth and yank his head back by his hair. “I hate you, Kohen Osman.”

“You’ve brought this on yourself.” He does the exact same thing to me, grabbing a fistful of my hair and holding me back, seething beneath his lust-filled stare. “Say my name, Blaze. Tell me how sorry you are for keeping that pretty pussy away from me for so long. Tell me you’re going to learn and make decent fucking fires.”

My lip curls into a smile that’s all teeth. “Maybe I’ll just ask—”

My eyes widen when he drops my legs and spins me around to face the window. Both my hands fly forward so I don’t fall. “You’re going to watch what I did for you while you come on the cock of the man you hate.”

A cry rips out of my throat when he slams into me with a single thrust. The fire still rages, and I watch as people mill about observing the fire while others rush to the evacuation area.

Someone could have seen me get fucked against the window—someone still could. In this moment, I couldn’t care less about either when this angle hits each and every part of me that amplifies the feel of him. A single drive of his hips and I know that it won’t matter how hard I try to fight it, I’m going to come on his cock.

“If you want me to be your enemy, I’m going to fuck you like I hate you.” Thrust. “You’re not going to be able to walk after this.” Thrust. “You’re not going to be able to move with how thoroughly destroyed you are.” Thrust. “Every time you fuck yourself with your fingers, you’re going to wish I never ruined you.” Thrust. “So hate me, Thief. Tell me you want me dead because you’re the only reason I’d end up in a grave.”

One second, he’s slamming into me with his hands on my hips; the next, he’s rutting me like he’s lost all his inhibitions, and all he knows is the heat searing through us. Pleasure thunders through every corner of my body, turning my nerve endings into live wire as my muscles spasm around his cock, milking him for whatever he has when he comes at the same time. It spills into me and drips down my thighs even as his dick is still twitching inside me.

His fingers wrap around the front of me, grasping me in a tight hug. Kohen’s soft lips graze the shell of my ear as he whispers, “Hate me all you want, Blaze. But I could never hate you.”