Den of Vipers

by K.A. Knight

He takes him down with no words, just a look. It’s all he needs. He strikes fear in the heart of his enemies when he’s in his suit.

But now? Like this? With his enemies’ blood coating his body, his rage pouring from him—he’s downright terrifying…and a little bit of a turn-on. Okay, a big turn-on.

Everyone has a kink, and the Vipers and everything they entail seems to be mine.

I watch with a sick satisfaction, a warmth spreading through me at what Ryder is doing. For me. It’s fucked up, but no one has ever cared before. Not enough to hurt someone because they hurt me, never mind touched me.

“You called her bitch?” Ryder asks, dropping the hammer to the floor. “You dare insult our princess?”

“You are, you better start accepting it, love, but keep pushing me, I dare you.”

He craves my complete control, but my surrender as well. Total surrender, but I’m so used to fighting, and when he peels back all those layers of stubbornness and hate, what will he find underneath? That terrifies me, that’s why I lash out. Why I push at them, poke and prod until we all explode.

She isn’t allowed to walk away from me. Not now. Not ever. I would kill everyone in this fucking world for her, anyone who ever dared hurt her.

She can’t know the true depth of feelings I have for her, that even though I try to stay impartial, that I try to hate her, I can’t. Because I’m falling in love with her.

I know this was a mistake because I’ll never be able to go back. Never be able to not touch her, taste her, now.

My little broken princess.

“There is nowhere in this world you can go, nowhere you can escape us, princess.” I crave her heat, her body, her mind, even her fight. She is my ever-growing weakness, a grey area blooming in my dark heart and stretching its colour across my soul until I can’t help but want to be a better man for her, to be the man she deserves.

She wants my brand of control. She wants to surrender to me. She wants to be consumed by me, and I want that too. Good girl.

We all know Roxxane is not a kept woman or a toy. She’s a fucking wild card.

She is goddamn beautiful, so beautiful it hurts.

That’s what she is. A work of art. One I’m going to stare at for the rest of my life.

“Crawl to me, love.”

So fucking what. No one will miss me.” That’s a fucking lie, I would. I would miss her so much, it sends a pang through my icy heart. To never hear her laugh again, to never see her challenge me, defy me…no. I would miss her. My brothers would. They would kill me if I hurt her.

Pleasure and pain go hand in hand for me.

Buckle up, love, because you’re about to get it.

I want her with every fucking fibre of my being, so much it hurts.

Tomorrow, or I guess later today, I’ll put my careful walls back up and slip into a suit, changing back to the cruel leader of the Vipers, but here and now, with her sleeping against my chest, our legs entwined and fingers laced together…I let myself be weak. For just a moment. For her.

Wow, someone is pissy today.

He’s a goddamn machine, and his torso is carved for girls’ wet dreams.

He needed to fight like he needed to breathe.

My pussy basically starts a Garrett fan club then, pom poms and all.

His chest isn’t ruined like he thinks, it’s a masterpiece of pain and suffering.

Roxy might not enjoy being spoiled, only because I have a feeling no one ever has, but she has no choice anymore. I’ve decided we are keeping her, and that means I get to spoil her whenever I want, and she has no option but to deal with it.

Roxy will save him. She will save us all. And we will damn her.

“Vipers, brother. Even snakes fear other snakes,”

I never said I was smart, but I do have some big ass balls.

“Did you two fuck and make up? I heard a lot of crashing, but thought I would leave you to it.” I laugh. “The phrase is kiss and make up, crazy pants.”

They aren’t knights in shining armour, no, they are the villains in the dark, with brooding eyes and beast-like tendencies.

I never needed a knight. I needed a body to stand with me in the dark, and these snakes? They do.

They care, they notice. Their words might be harsh and their touches mean, but only because I don’t think they know how to love any better than I do.

I’m walking willingly back into that den of vipers and holding out my arms to be bitten. Let’s just hope it doesn’t kill me.

“You left me.” “Never,”

I could burn her as easily as she could consume me.

We are just two people who found each other in this dark, brutal world. She’s fucked up, but I am too. Together, we could be something amazing, or we could explode.

We have been dancing around these flames since she first got here, and it’s time for us to ignite.

Pleasure is just another form of torture, and I am a master.

A woman can be strong and weak. Beautiful and scarred. Scared and brave. Smart and sexy.

Okay, no strings. Normal people can accept gifts. You can do this.

Diesel laughs when I try to run away, wrapping his legs around me until I have a psychotic human koala draped around me, keeping me still.

I wonder if I could convince her to walk around naked.

The love of a good woman, one strong enough to survive us, to survive me and the monster my father created in me.

To be loved by him would be both dangerous and an adventure. It might kill me, it might consume me, but I would die smiling. Except he can’t love me. Can he? And is that how he sees me? Standing so strong, capturing them?

Those who love us have the opportunity to hurt us the worst, and in my experience, they always do.

trauma sticks with you every day of your life. But we have a choice whether to let it control or destroy us.

Healing isn’t easy, sweetheart. In some ways, it’s worse than the actual…abuse, and you