Red Thorns: A Dark New Adult Romance (Thorns Duet Book 1)

Sebastian.

The one who’s currently cutting off my air supply while looming from behind me is none other than Sebastian.

I’d intended to kick and claw, to yell at him so he’d let go, but not only is he confiscating most of my oxygen by grabbing my throat, he’s also yanked both of my wrists behind my back and imprisoned them.

My phone has clattered to the ground and the flashlight outlines dark shadows.

Mine and his.

We’re gigantic on the wall across from us, like some beasts coming out at night to let their instincts loose.

If it were anyone else, they would’ve panicked at being immobilized in the dark by someone who might as well be a stranger. And while that feeling bleeds into my bloodstream, it’s not the only one.

It’s not even the prominent one.

The temptation I’ve been escaping my entire life burns inside me, resurrecting and rising from the ashes like a phoenix.

“Se…bastian…” I manage through the small air opening he’s allowing me.

And I know he is allowing it, because if he chose to, he could choke me to death in no time.

Hot breaths assault my sensitive ear as he whispers dark words, “Shh. Don’t say my name. We’re nobodies right now.”

“W-what?”

“We’ve played house for long enough. Time to play chase.”

“What do you mean by…chase?”

“I’ll let you go and you’ll run. If I catch you, I’m going to take you, use you, abuse you, and fill your cunt with my cum and make you choke on my dick until you’re crying and begging me to stop.” His voice lowers to a threatening range. “But I won’t stop.”

My stomach tightens with sensations I’ve never felt before and it extends to my core. I’m so stimulated by his words alone that I think I’m going insane. That I’m imagining things.

But I can’t imagine it if he’s here with me. If his thoughts are toying with mine, seducing them, trapping them in a chokehold.

Literally.

Figuratively.

The promise in his words is like my worst nightmare and my most coveted dream.

Right in wrong.

Wrong in right.

Yin and yang.

“W-what if I want to stop?” I don’t recognize the neediness in my voice, and that’s when it hits me.

Really hits me.

Maybe this is what I’ve needed all along.

Not the expensive therapists or the group meetings or hiding so my mom doesn’t see what type of monster I am on the inside.

Maybe the solution has been to act on those urges I’ve felt since I was a teen.

Sebastian bites down on my earlobe and I whimper. “One word.”

“What?”

“I’m giving you one word to stop it all. If you don’t use it, everything is game.”

“What is it?”

He glides his tongue up and bites down on the shell this time, making me wince as his voice drops. “Reality.”

I shudder, my back going rigid against his hard chest. He’s not even touching me, but my clit is throbbing and tingling in morbid anticipation.

Inhaling a deep breath, I whisper, “Do…I not get boundaries?”

“You only get that word. Use it wisely.” He releases me, and I stumble forward as the rumble of his voice echoes in the darkness, “Now, run.”

I hesitate for a second, contemplating whether or not I have the time to grab my phone. The shuffling of footsteps behind me erases that idea.

Not thinking twice, I bolt forward, metaphorically stabbing in the dark until I stumble over something. A table.

I grimace as the sting spreads through my feet, but I don’t stop. I feel around, my adrenaline level spiking until it’s pulsing in my limbs. My heart throbs as I squint, trying to make out anything in the darkness.

It’s strange how the senses sharpen when our vision is gone. I can feel the air forming goosebumps on my skin and smell the sweat trickling between my brows. But most of all, I can hear the thudding of footsteps behind me, of someone coming after me.

Just like that night in the forest, a strange aura overwhelms me and my senses sharpen until it’s scary.

I dash forward until I touch something. The railings. I grab on to them as I climb the stairs. Every now and then, I glance behind me and imagine a shadow on my tail.

Only it’s not my imagination.

He is right behind me.

I shriek as I start taking them two at a time. His thudding footsteps follow right after. Hard. The sound reverberates through my ears and chest.

The rush of energy is so high that I’m physically dizzy. My legs scream with pain and I trip, falling to my knees with a thud. I lose my balance and I’m about to fall backward, but I catch myself last second.

I don’t stand, though.

Or more like, I can’t.

Sebastian grabs me by the hair and I scream as he pushes me face-first into the stairs. My jaw hits the hard flooring and my eyes sting with tears from the impact. I think I’ve broken something, but apparently not since all I can focus on is the large body covering me from behind.

Swallowing me.

Dwarfing me.

Dominating me.

His hard chest feels like lava against my back. Loud thumps penetrate my ears and I’m not sure if it’s my heartbeat or his.

Or a mixture of both.

He grabs my shoulder blade hard. “Where do you think you’re going, my filthy little slut?”

My breath hitches, it’s in equal measure because of his words and the new depth in his voice. The raspiness in it as if he’s indeed a different person.

A stranger.

This is happening.

“I’m going to ram my bare dick into that tight cunt of yours and rip you apart and you’re going to take it like the dirty whore you are.”

Holy fucking shit.

Is it possible to come by just his words and his hold on me? Because I think I’m getting there.

This is crazy.

He’s crazy.

I’m crazy.

And yet, I buck against him, my ass nuzzling into the hardness of his cock.

It’s so thick and big, I feel it through my shorts. I feel how much it’ll hurt, how much I might not survive this.

But it’s impossible to stop, not when I’ve gotten this far.

“Do you really think you can fight me, slut?”

I don’t know what snaps me. If it’s the name-calling or the condescension in it, but I squirm as a roar echoes through the empty darkness.

Mine.

I twist around, squealing as I hit and claw anywhere I can touch him. His arm, his face, his shoulder. I don’t know, but I think I even rip his shirt.

My crazed movements are based on pure instinct, as if I’ve lost the rational, human side of me and I’m just an animal now.

Like him.

We’re both pure fucking animals.

He grabs both of my wrists and slams them above my head on the stairs as the shadow of his abdomen flexes over me.

I try to kick him as I wiggle, releasing god-awful raspy pants filled with the need to survive.

“Let me go, you fucking asshole.” I don’t recognize my deep voice and the throatiness of it. I sound like I’m really in danger. And maybe I am.

The only problem is that I want it.

Deep in the darkness of my chest, I fucking need it.

Slap!

I gasp as the sting registers on my face. He just…slapped me and…I’m wet.

Holy fuck. I’m really insane.

“Run your mouth again and I’ll fuck you raw in the ass.” He grabs my chin with his calloused fingers and shakes me, and I swear I’m dripping into my shorts.

I stop fighting for a second and he uses the time to release my wrists, grab my hair, and ram me against the stairs. I yelp and my hands shoot for him in a mad act of defense, but it’s too late. He’s already ripping at my shorts.

I kick my legs in the air, fighting with everything I have. I fight like I’ve never fought before until I actually believe that I want out of this, that this isn’t something I already agreed to by not saying that damn word.

Even in my madness, my strength doesn’t match his. He yanks the shorts off and throws them away, then all but rips off my panties. I gasp when the gesture creates friction against my swollen clit.

He slaps me on the pussy and I squeal, my back arching. The stairs feel so rough against my back, but even they add a strange sense of stimulation.

“Look at your cunt weeping for me. Such a dirty slut.”

“I’m not…not a slut…”

He smacks me on my most intimate part again and I whimper-squeal as he savagely thrusts two fingers inside me. It’s so much rougher than when I handle myself, primal and filled with a blinding type of control.

“Do you feel how my fingers are stretching your channel? Soon, it’ll be my dick and it’s bigger and harder. Feel your juices coating me and inviting me in?” He rubs the heel of his palm against my clit at the same time as he pounds into me with his two merciless fingers and I’m a goner.

A fucking goner.

I don’t even last a few seconds under his callous ministration as my mouth falls open and I scream.

The stimulation is the strongest I’ve ever experienced, and as a result, I come the hardest and strongest I ever have. The waves roll off me until I think I’m blacking out.

“Yes, strangle my fingers before you take my thick dick up this tight cunt.”

His words add fuel to my orgasm and I don’t think I fall down from it as the sound of his zipper reaches my ear.

He forces my thighs apart, not so gently. “Open them wide for me and keep them there.”

I try to fight, but he pinches my clit, causing a sob to tear from me.

With his hand in my hair, he wraps the other around my throat and powers inside me in one brutal go.

My mouth remains open in a soundless cry and my eyes roll to the back of my head.

True, I’m wet. True, I was ready and stimulated from my orgasm, but nothing, absolutely nothing, could’ve prepared me for the violation of his huge cock. It’s the literal definition of being torn apart and feeling every second of it.

“Mmm…a fucking virgin. Even fucking better.” The satisfaction and pure sadism in his tone leave me gasping. “I can feel your blood coating my dick. The best lube I’ve ever had.”

He pulls back almost all the way out and slams back in. Tears gather in my eyes from the sting of it.

God, it’s painful.

It’s painful like nothing I’ve felt before.

It’s painful like I’m going to vomit my guts out and choke on them.

And the most screwed-up part is that I’m craving the degradation and the immorality of it all. My brain and body have morphed into addicts and this is my fix.

He drives into me with renewed energy, as if he’s indeed trying to tear my flesh and leave me bleeding on the floor.

I’m gasping for air, spluttering and sobbing, and even that feels like too much to my battered state of mind.

“It hurts…oh, please, it hurts…” I don’t know why I’m saying it. It’s not like I want him to stop. In fact, I’m falling into the sting of pain more than I would ever admit.

But he doesn’t slow down anyway. He takes it to the next level until my breathing is chopped off.

Until all I’m releasing are guttural sounds from deep in my soul.

I know it then.

He’ll never stop.

Not unless I say the word to end it all.

But I don’t want reality right now. Even with the pain, I’d rather stay in this alternative world.

“Mmm…yes, you’re so fucking tight.” His voice is deeper, darker, and laced with a frightening type of lust.

Animalistic, even.

He rolls his hips and then drives in again, making me see stars in the pitch-blackness. The stairs dig into my back and my air supply diminishes more by the second due to his hold on my neck and how dizzy I am.

The fact that I’m being fucked senseless by a shadow in the dark should be any sane person’s nightmare. It should twist me up and drag me down. I should be crying because of the pain, and while I am, it’s not only that.

It doesn’t turn me off. It’s the exact opposite.

I’m so wet that the audible in and out of his cock echoes in the air. The tangible smell of sex and sweat surround us until they’re all I inhale.

And him.

There’s always him, hovering over me, immobilizing me in place and powering into me over and over.

He goes on and on, ramming inside me like he’s punishing me. Like I’m a hole he’s using to get off. “Do you feel yourself strangling my dick? Such a whore, even while being a virgin.”

I bang my palms against his chest, sobbing. “Stop…stop…”

“Ahhh…so fucking good.” He tightens his hold on my throat until I think I’m choking or fainting or dying.

But something entirely different happens.

I come.

This orgasm is different from anything I’ve experienced. There’s no buildup to alert me to the impact or those tingling sensations at my core whenever I’m about to reach a peak.

This one is so sudden, like slamming headfirst into a crashing wave. It steals my ability to breathe, think, or react. I go limp, unable to take it all in. I scream, but the sound is muffled by the lack of oxygen.

He picks up the speed of his thrusts, causing my back to slide up and down the stairs. It lasts through my orgasm, fueling it, heightening it, before he pulls out.

A groan escapes me when my pussy’s nerves tingle, indicating how sore and battered it is. I blink in confusion, still caught in my orgasm-induced haze as I stare at him. Did he come already?

As if answering my question, he releases my throat but not my hair as he crawls up my body and settles on top of me so that his knees are on either side of my face.

Grabbing his hard cock in one hand, he slaps me with it across the lips and I taste the precum. “Open that mouth and take me like a good whore.”

When I hesitate, he hits me three consecutive times on the lips. I open my mouth with a gasp and he thrusts inside, instantly hitting the back of my throat.

I choke and attempt to squirm, but his grip on my hair serves as a steering wheel while he powers in with a mad force. He uses my mouth in the most brutal way possible, making me gag on my drool and tears. He barely allows me any air before he drives back in and does it all over again.

And again.

My jaw is numb and my pussy aches, but the itch inside me is still there.

Waiting.

Probing.

Demanding more.

Just when I think he’ll keep fucking my face all night long, he pulls out. “Open your mouth wide. Let me see your tongue.”

I do as he tells me, wincing. His hold on my hair is so strong that I think some roots will rip.

Before I can mentally prepare myself, hot cum sprays all over my mouth and chin.

“Lick every fucking drop.”

I try to, mindlessly running my tongue over the contours of my lips and tasting him…and me.

Holy shit. I’m tasting both of us right now.

He taps my mouth with his cock, not too hard now, but enough to get my attention. “Good slut.”

And with that, his shadow disappears from over me.

I remain in place, sprawled all over the stairs with cum, drool, and tears streaking down my chin.

I have no idea how long I stay there, panting. A few moments later, the lights go on, but there’s no trace of him.

My harsh breathing remains irregular as I lick the remnants of his cum from my lips. Disappointment tugs at the base of my stomach.

Reality is here.