SWNOVELS Acts of Grace: Part 1 – Chapter 20
Ijust put down the deposit to my very own apartment in the city, and I can’t stop myself from smiling. I’m standing outside on the balcony, taking in the expansive downtown view.
Gah. I can’t believe I hadn’t done this sooner.
“Enjoying the view?” Jacob, the realtor, comes out onto the balcony extending his hand and offering me my very own set of keys.
Without thinking, I reach for them and pull him into a hug. “Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me.”
“Get. Your. Fucking. Hands. Off.” A familiar voice growls through clenched teeth.
Jacob drops his arms as if I were on fire, and I don’t blame him one bit. Titus sounds like he’s about to murder someone, and with just one look at him, you know that’s not far from the truth.
His jaw keeps clicking, his fists are clenched, and his nostrils are flared.
“Titus. What are you doing here?” I’m not about to cower just because he caught me hugging a man. It’s not like I was about to jump Jacob’s bones. Besides, he made it clear we aren’t together.
“I could ask you the very same thing.” Titus narrows his eyes, looking between Jacob and me.
The poor realtor grimaces. “It’s clear you two have some talking to do.” He turns back to me, offering me a small wave and not daring to touch me in front of Titus. “Ashley, congratulations again. Call me if you have any problems settling in.”
I give him my megawatt smile, truly grateful for his help in securing a nearly impossible to snag apartment.
Titus stalks toward me as soon as Jacob steps inside. “Mind telling me what you were doing with that realtor?” His words are low, but the threat is palpable.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I dangle my new set of keys and grin. I don’t bother asking how he knew Jacob was a realtor. He’s a man of WRATH. They practically know everything, and what they don’t know they find out.
It’s annoying.
Titus snatches the keys from my hand before grabbing me by the waist and swooping me inside.
“Put me down, Titus! And give me back my keys!” He’s thrown me over his shoulder so now I’m hanging upside down, my fists pounding into his back as I try and get back on my own two feet.
“I’ll put you down when I’m good and ready.” Titus walks us into the sleek open planned kitchen, and I drool. It even looks pretty while hanging upside down.
Seriously, the white quartz and stainless-steel appliances are accentuated by the brass hardware—the jewelry to a home.
I can’t stop staring.
Finally coming to a stop, Titus rights me, setting me down on top of the kitchen island, my black sundress contrasting against the white stone.
“We’re going to start with why. Why, Ashley?” His eyes burrow deep into me, seeking understanding for something that shouldn’t even have to be asked.
“Why? Why not? I’m twenty-one years old. I just finished undergrad, about to start on my masters, had a horrible breakup, feel like a third wheel at my overprotective brother’s house, and oh yeah, I’m single. S. I. N. G. L. E. Single. That means I don’t have to run my major life choices by anyone other than myself.”
Titus cracks his neck and rolls his shoulders before focusing his eyes back on me, frustration evident in his face. “That’s not what I was asking.” He pauses, as if his reasoning is now somehow clear. Yeah, it’s not. “Why, Ashley? Why were you hugging that man?”
My body involuntarily jerks back as I scoff. “Oh my god. That’s what you want to know? I’ve just made a major life choice without consulting my brother or anyone on the WRATH team, and what you want to know is why I was hugging my realtor?”
Titus doesn’t look amused. His face remains unaffected, waiting for my response.
Rolling my eyes, I lay back onto the counter placing my weight on my forearms. “I was excited. Overjoyed. Elated. Ecstatic. On cloud nine.” Blowing out a breath of irritation, I finally give him what he wants to know. “I did what anyone would do when they’re overwhelmed with gratitude. It meant nothing beyond that. I’m not into him and he’s not into me.”
Titus’ hands fall to my thighs, squeezing them hard before prying my legs apart and settling between them. “You may have wanted nothing to do with him, but I can assure you, he definitely wanted something to do with you. He’s a man, Ashley. And you,” he grabs my hips, sliding me to him, my apex reaching the bulge in his pants making me groan. “You, my precious little treasure, are a sight to behold.”
My hips act of their own accord, rolling my core onto his ridge, seeking that delicious friction I love so much.
His growl is feral and the look in his eyes is pure molten lava.
Despite knowing that I should relent, giving in to what he and I both want, I can’t. I’ve never been one to leave well enough alone, so I take what he’s given me and fuel it. “And? So what if he wants me. I’m not with anyone. Nobody has the right to stop me if I wanted to accept his advances.”
“Ashley Hawthorne,” his hand reaches my neck, squeezing as he pulls my face to his, “you are mine and you will not allow another man to touch you, or so help me god, I will not be responsible for ripping them to shreds, scattering their body parts to serve as a warning. Do not touch what’s mine.”
My hand reaches down the front of his slacks, grabbing a hold of his very aroused cock, and squeeze. “If I’m yours, then you are mine. And I’m not responsible for ripping apart anyone who dares touch what is mine.”
At my words, he pulses in my hand, making my pussy clench right along with it.
Titus’ hands slide to the back of my head, his fingers fisting my hair and tilting my head back before his mouth descends on my neck, sucking and biting at the tender flesh.
“Yes, min skatt. I am yours,” he grits out, his voice thick with desire, melting whatever’s left of my anger. “And you are mine.” His tongue laps at the bruised spot he just bit before licking his way up my jawline and right to my open and panting mouth.
A violent clash of tongues and teeth ferociously lap and nip at each other, wanting to devour the other whole.
My body rises up, molding to his as if we were one in this tangle of limbs and lust.
“I need you.” His words are pained, as if he were ashamed of his own desire.
Needing to wash away any of his guilt, I do the only thing I can think of, I give him what he needs.
Sliding off the counter, I drop to my knees and lower my gaze. In this moment and every moment moving forward, I want to be the only thing he wants, the only thing he needs.
“Yes, sir. Let me please you.”
His big hand reaches down to my chin, pinching it with his fingers and lifting my face toward his, “Min skatt, know this—you are mine and that means that I’ll never let harm come to you. You are precious to me, and whatever we do in the throes of passion is just as much for you as it is for me. You are mine to treasure. Mine to pleasure. Mine to adore.”
My eyes water at the devotion in his eyes. I can feel him, his heart and soul—all pouring through, right into his words.
“Say it, Ashley. Repeat those words so I know you understand.”
“Yes. I am yours to treasure, yours to pleasure, and yours to adore.” My mouth dries at the way he’s staring. He may not say the three words I want to hear, but this is as much a declaration of love as I’ve ever heard it.
My calloused and damaged man, declaring his devotion to me the only way he knows how, pleading his loyalty only to me.
“Rise.” Titus’ commands and my body does as it’s told. “Bend over.”
His large hand presses against my back, pushing me chest down onto the cold white stone of the island.
With one rough pull, Titus rips my dress in two, throwing the black fabric to the side.
My hard little nipples brush against the cold stone and I gasp, feeling Titus’ hands grip my waist from behind.
“You’ve been a naughty little girl, Ashley.” His fingers dig deep into my flesh as he thrusts my bare ass back into him, the sensation of his slacks rubbing up against my pussy, driving me wild and serving as a tease of what’s to come.
He lowers his body to mine, the fabric of his shirt rubbing against the exposed flesh of my back.
“Do you know what happens to naughty girls?” Titus whispers into the soft skin of my neck.
“No, Daddy.” I respond, my words coming out more of a mewl.
“They get spanked.” I hear the clanking of his belt and his breathing deepening just like mine. “Place your hands on the counter. Now.”
A thrill runs through me, making my whole body quiver.
“Yes, Daddy.”
His commands strike something deep within me, driving me wild, and making me drip with desire.
I revel in being at his mercy, letting him take control as he pushes me to my limits, seeking out every ounce of my pleasure.
“Agh,” I moan as his leather belt lands on my left cheek before he’s rubbing at the stinging flesh.
“That was for letting him touch you.” Titus brings his palm to my right cheek, rubbing the globe before issuing another crack of his leather belt. “That was for thinking you could ever belong to someone other than me. You are mine, Ashley Hawthorne.” His fingers rub over my slick folds, no doubt noticing how wet he’s made me. “This belongs to me.”
He brings down his belt, issuing a quick but brutal slap to my pussy—the action making me moan in ecstasy as the combination of pain and pleasure dance together in what could only be described as the perfect symphony.
“Titus, please.” I beg, needing more of him. Needing all of him.
“Please what, min skatt?” His growl is feral as he grinds his length against my bare ass, soaking his pants with my arousal.
“I need you inside me.”
“This? Do you need this?” He slips his gloriously thick fingers inside of me and I groan, bucking my ass in the air like the needy girl that I am.
“More, please. I need more.”
He frees himself running the wide head of his cock up and down my slit.
“Fuck, you’re so wet, baby. I want to watch your little cunt swallow me whole.”
His words become reality as he impales himself into me, making me arch my back as I cry out his name in relief.
“That’s right, baby. It’s my name on your lips.” His hand snakes its way up my torso and onto my throat, his fingers wrapping around it in a possessive hold, all while thrusting himself in and out of my aching core. “It is me. Me who sets your soul on fire, bringing you to the pinnacle of pleasure and making you soar among the stars.”
“Yes, oh my god, yes!” Everything he’s said is true. All of it.
His pace picks up as his body slams into mine with enough force to make my whole body shake.
“Min skatt. My treasure.” The hand on my hip trails down to my clit, his fingers rubbing tiny circles onto the bundle of nerves. “I know this to be true because that is what you do to me. I burn for you, and only you.”
Tears I had no idea I was holding back leak from my face. My tortured and calloused man is speaking from his heart, and his words are nothing but sheer poetry.
“Come with me, baby. Let’s dance among the stars.” And with one final thrust, we fall.