"Maybe that's why I couldn't miss my chance to say it to you," Knox whispers, still staring down at me. For a moment he'd zoned out and nothing I did seemed to snap him out of it.

I give his body a little shake once again. "Say what? Knox?"

He blinks slowly, his eyes finally sharpening with awareness before locking with mine. The air shifts between us and becomes charged with intensity and heat. My body warms up in response to his, reading the situation when his breaths quicken.

"You are the first person I've said those words to," he murmurs. I finally catch on. I love you. A shaky breathe leaves me when he settles between my legs, hard and hot and heavy. "And you will be the last."

He takes my unintelligible "oh" all for himself when his lips come down on mine, silencing me.

He wraps an arm around my back, lifting my torso off the bed and crushing me to his body. I arch my back to get closer and dig my fingers into his scalp, desperately holding on. He bruises me with his kisses. They're rough and passionate. This entire moment is without the barrier of secrets and feelings we never admitted to. I feel it all so deeply, differently. All the while he rocks between my legs that I wrap around his waist, seeking more friction where I pulse for him erratically.

"I can feel you getting wetter on my dick," he growls. My stomach dips. "Does my wife want to get fucked? Does she want her needy hole filled?"

I nod against his mouth and kiss him harder, achingly.

He's always called me his wife but it was usually in the form of mockery, a reminder that I was his in the technical sense and never more. This is the first time I actually feel like his, wholly and completely. This is real, he said to me, and I believe him. This is the first time anything between us has ever felt real. There's no secrets, no lies, no hidden pasts. We have a chance to do this right if we want it bad enough.

He yanks my shirt off and kisses a path down my jaw, my neck, biting my jugular and soothing the harsh mark with a lick. I fall back on the bed with a moan when his lips close around my nipple. It's too much when he adds his hand to the mix by slipping it inside my shorts and pushing two fingers into me. They enter me easily, wet as I am, and I clench around him.

He takes them out just as quick and I whimper from the loss. I gasp and look down when I feel his fingers spreading the wetness from my pussy around my nipple before taking it into his mouth and sucking it clean off. He reaches down again, gathers some more of my arousal, and spreads it around the other nipple. Then he takes that one in his mouth, swirling his tongue and marking me with small bites. I'm so painfully turned on all I can do is lie there and tremble underneath his body.

"Knox." My hands sink into his hair, tugging. I lift my hips in frustration. "Come on."

My leg is lifted over his shoulder and his palm slaps my ass a moment later. Hard. Punishing. My body flinches with shock and excitement. Right. Manners.

"Please," I add quickly. Another slap that's so rough my skin stings, growing warm underneath his palm. "Fuck! Please. Please get inside me. I'll be good."

He soothes his hand over the spot he just marked. Approval. I feel his lips curl into a smirk around my nipple.

He releases it with a pop and leans over me, that dangerously sexy curve of his lips still in place.

"Good girls get fucked like sluts." His hand closes around my neck, trapping the air in my lungs. "Are you going to be a good girl, Mariana?"

"Yes." I push the word past a tight throat, blood rushing to my ears the longer I go without air. Just when I reach my peak, Knox loosens his hold and I suck in a greedy lungful of oxygen, gasping, "Yes."

My shorts and underwear come off in the next breath. Knox grabs my wrists and pins them down on the bed above my head, using my panties to secure them together tightly.

"You're okay to keep going?" He asks in a gravelly tone.

I'd be embarrassed of how quickly I nod my head if it wasn't for the lust in his gaze. "Please don't stop."

He grabs a condom from his bedside table, his teeth clamping on the foil and ripping it clear off. He doesn't take his eyes off me as he rolls it on to his cock that's dangerously hard and big. He's as ready as I am.

"Legs open," he orders. "Don't you fucking make me ask twice."

Oh God. I bend my legs and let them fall apart, opening myself up to him. I'm way past feeling any kind of reserved or self-conscious, especially when his burning gaze drops to my pussy and practically doubles with heat. There's so much desire in his eyes that I lose my breath just trying to wonder how someone could possibly want me as much as Knox wants me. I open my legs wider.

"Fuck," he snaps and loses all of his restraint. He pushes into me with one smooth motion and we both groan in relief. His head falls back and I watch through heavy lids as his Adam's apple bobs with a swallow. He's never let himself appear so vulnerable to me and it's such a turn on that my walls clench around him. He hisses under his breath. "Oh, fuck."

His head comes down again as he starts to fuck me. He keeps his gaze on mine while he pumps in and out of me. Hard, not fast. Deep, and so good. His pelvis knocks into mine and the resounding slaps of our hips echo through the room alongside our sounds of pleasure. He doesn't break eye contact once, even as his mouth parts and he struggles to keep his eyes open. The pure ecstasy on his face undoes me. Watching what I do to him only turns me on more and my stomach tightens with desire, ready to come apart.

My eyes start to drift shut when his fingers dig into my hips in warning. "Look at me, Mariana. See only me."

"I see you," I whisper to him. "Only you."

He leans over me and pushes my knees closer to my shoulders. The angle changes and a moan crawls out of me when he hits me even deeper with each stroke. The friction between our bodies is wet, sticky, and so, so good.

"What do you want?" He demands. He starts to pick up his pace and my clit rubs furiously against his abdomen after each thrust, sending me to the edge. I cry out and Knox's eyes darken, his hand gripping my throat. "What do you want? Tell me."

"You," I plead. I was right to say that. The intensity in his gaze softens around the edges. "I want all of you. This. Oh God, I need this. Please, Knox."

"Yeah?" He tips my face up by the neck. A growl tumbles out of his lips as they come down to brush against mine. "Fuck, you're pretty when you beg."

I might have smiled if he didn't grab one of my legs to throw over his shoulder to completely undo me. My fingers curl into my palms above my head and I lift my hips, chasing the release that's tightening my core.

"Shit." I gasp when Knox licks two of his fingers and bring them down to rub my clit. He's not gentle, moving it around in steady but hard circles. I arch off the bed completely when he gives it a twist. "Fuck!"

I shatter underneath his touch. My entire body convulses and he fucks me through it all, never once stopping as he drives in and out of me. I clench my thigh against his torso in a desperate attempt to hold on because I don't have control over my body anymore. Not one bit. I just shake and tremble and come so hard that tears have slipped out of my eyes. Knox bends his head to lick them away, chuckling under his breath when my breath catches on a sob.

"Easy, easy," he soothes, even though he doesn't slow down for me.

"Please," I beg when Knox continues to rub my clit, refusing to let my orgasm end. I keep coming and my body almost can't take it but it feels too good to ask him to stop. My clit has doubled in size and Knox easily grabs it so he can roll it between his fingers. My mouth falls open at the spark of electricity that runs up my spine. "Yes. Oh God, please."

"You're fucking soaking me," he groans. His harsh and irregular pants fan my face when he presses his forehead to mine. "All of this cum just for me. Fuck, that's a good fucking girl."

He lets go of my clit to grab my ass, hoisting my hips up higher on his torso as he starts pounding into me. My orgasm had finally slowed down but another one hits me and I squeeze my eyes shut. God, it's so much. He's hitting the deepest parts of me in rapid succession and I feel sore and bruised in the best possible way. A cry tumbles out of me and Knox slams his mouth against mine, slipping his tongue past my lips and fucking me like that too. I moan into the heat of his mouth and he growls into mine when his body stiffens. Then he comes so hard that I can feel his body tremor and I dig my nails into his back to ground him.

"Fuck." He breaks our kiss to suck in a lungful of air, gasping slightly. I watch as his face contort like he's in pain and pleasure all at once. He turns his head to kiss my leg that's hanging on his shoulder, gruffly murmuring against my skin. "Amore."

My heart jumps in my chest at the term of endearment. All I can do is watch as he kisses his way down from my ankle to the back of my knee, sucking the sensitive area there. It feels like he's worshiping my body and I come alive underneath him. More alive than I've felt in my entire life.

His body gives out on him and falls onto mine, our skin sliding against each other from the sweat they've accumulated. My hair is soaked and I moan in relief when Knox lifts it away from my neck, blowing on my hot skin. The burst of air is a cool welcome and I melt into him, gripping his sides and refusing to let go.

"Better?" He asks, blowing down my collarbones and over my nipples. I nod and keep my eyes closed so I can focus on the sensation. His deft fingers untie the panties secured around my wrists and his thumbs brush my skin. "Are you sore?"

My lips take form of a smile. "In a good way."

"Wait here."

He pulls out of me and I feel the weight of his body disappear from the bed. I'm too exhausted to even open my eyes and see where he's going. My brows close in on each other when something soft and woolly and warm swipes up my centre. I manage to partially open one eye and see Knox wiping me clean, looking as focused on the task as he is with everything else in his life. My chest pulses with warmth and I close my eyes again with a smile.

I almost fall asleep but Knox forces me to get up and use the bathroom first. I roll my eyes when I hear a satisfied chuckle behind me as I attempt to walk on shaky and completely unreliable legs. It takes longer than it should to walk to the bathroom and back when I'm done but when I do, I sink under the covers and quietly groan in relief.

Knox is already asleep, his face still serious despite being relaxed. One of his arms is thrown above his head and the other out to my side of the bed so I curl up into his side, grabbing his arm and locking it around me. I kiss the spot over his heart and swear for a moment that it jumps.

Sleep takes me immediately and that's my first sign that somehow, things will be okay.

I decide to have breakfast in the garden. I rarely spend time here even though it's a beautiful and quaint space. I used to stay away because it felt wrong to enjoy something in a place that I was held in against my own will but it doesn't feel like that anymore. At some point I stopped looking at this house as my prison. It feels kind of like home now.

I feel an odd sense of belonging sitting on the bench that overlooks a maze of bushes and flowers that have bloomed this past spring. It's kind of fitting—they were dead and lifeless when I first moved here but somehow, despite everything, they flourished. And they look more beautiful than I ever thought possible.

Besides, I want to soak up these peaceful moments. I have a feeling they won't last long. A big storm is coming that I'm not prepared to face. So for now, I tip my head and take in a deep breath of fresh air, revelling in the heat of the sun that beats down on my face and feeling my tense shoulders relax at the faint sound of chirping birds. Somehow I know I'm going to need to remember this moment.

The bench creaks slightly with the force of added weight and I open my eyes to find Knox. He's already dressed for the day in a suit that probably has no business being as expensive as it is. He leans one arm on the bench rest behind us and faces me, just staring.

"What?" I ask with a small smile.

I stare back. He looks devilishly handsome like always but somehow he looks more beautiful than ever. I think it's because I'm finally seeing him as something he never was—mine.

"You look like you fit here," he answers. "Like this is where you're supposed to be."

My grin expands. "I was just thinking that."

"Does that mean this is where you want to be now? That you choose to be here?"

That you choose me? he might as well have said.

"I choose this home," I say softly. Knox's jaw pulses but he keeps his expression neutral, refusing to give anything away yet. I reach forward to cup his face. "You're my home."

"Even knowing what will become of your father? What I'm going to do to him?"

The question hits me square in the chest. The pain of what he did is still fresh but I remind myself I only found out a day ago and that I'm doing the best I can to handle this right.

"It's going to be hard. I'll know he deserves it and maybe that's the part that's going to hurt most—that he's the only one to blame because they were his actions. I know that now. And for that reason he's already dead to me. Choosing him is out of the question."

"But I will be his killer."

"And I'll always be his daughter but you chose me too. Right?"

The bold statement slipped past me too easily and I shift in my seat. Was I too confident in us to say that? But Knox's expression softens slightly and then I feel a little less dumb.

"Come here." He pulls me forward by the wrists until I'm straddling his lap, fingers curling over my hips. "Even when I chose you for the wrong reasons I still chose you. Maybe I always knew what I wanted."

I scrunch my nose at his admission. "A loud-mouth wife that's a complete pain in your ass?"

A smile graces his mouth that tugs at my heart. I rarely get to see those, if at all.

"Yes. Sounds pretty sexy to me."

I roll my eyes but only to distract myself from the way my chest constricts. It's alarming how strongly I feel for him. I think I would follow him to the ends of the world if he asked.

It isn't until he brushes my face away from my hair that I notice something. He's wearing two bracelets and each of them has one half of the charm.

"You did this?" I bring them closer for inspection. He simply nods. "They make a dove, right?"

"Father gave it to Mother after a fight," he explains. I grow quiet and listen. "I was young but I remember the screaming. They never fought like that. I think Father had gotten involved in something life-threatening and Mother couldn't handle his lifestyle anymore. So he got her this. Doves symbolize soulmates and it was his reminder to her that no matter how unbearable their relationship seemed, it was for life."

"Wow." I blink. The love his parents shared surprised me for some reason.

"They always set a good example for me," he continues, reading my mind. "I believed in love before everything happened."

I let go of the bracelets and bring my hands back down to my lap. Before, he'd said, but I try not to get hung up on it.

I'm too obvious though. Knox raises a playful brow and holds my gaze as he removes one of the bracelets from his wrist. He grabs my hand and puts it on me, tying the black string so that it fits. I look to him in surprise.

"I believe in it again," he says hoarsely and I swear I melt on the spot. "Wear this for me. Look at it when we feel impossible because things are going to get impossible, Mariana. But choose me anyways."

His vulnerable words form a boulder in my throat. I look down at my bracelet and brush my thumb across one cracked wing on the dove.

"How did you know?" I suddenly remember to ask. "That my father's safe would be left open?"

"His ego. No one has ever suspected him so he had no reason to act suspicious. That's part of his style. He leaves his sins out in the open and everyone walks past them. Nobody tries to question those who don't hide."

"So, if I'd discovered the safe on my own and found it unlocked, I wouldn't have thought it was something bad because he wasn't hiding anything."

"Exactly."

Nausea floods me. "That's...smart. God, no wonder I never questioned him."

"He's a dangerous man. That's why I had to take every precaution to make sure he didn't have any way to come near you once we were wed."

Something else clicks for me. "Is that why you made me stop working?"

"Right. That." He sighs heavily and rubs a hand over his face. A bad feeling swirls deep in my gut. "I know you think he gave you freedom but he's always had eyes on you, Mariana. Your old boss works for him. He has contacts in every hospital in this state making sure to keep eyes on you so that no matter where you worked or studied, he could watch you. Your freedom was always a lie. I had to keep you home and away from his people. I couldn't tell you the truth because I had no intention of letting you in on my plan at first."

My head spins. I'm so stricken that I can't help but sway and Knox shoots an arm out to steady me. I swallow down the bile in my throat and whisper, "What?"

He rubs a hand up and down my arm. To calm me, I suppose, but that's just not possible. "I put the pieces together myself. I had to find information on you before marrying you to cover my bases. I recognized your boss and realized he was one of Ferrera's men. Then I looked into other hospitals to send you to but found his contacts no matter where I looked. Universities and high schools too. I had no choice but to keep you home. He does the same with your sister. Neither of you was ever free. He's always watching you."

"Oh my God." A shudder wracks through me. I feel violated. Betrayed. And for the first time ever, fear. "My sister too? Knox, we need to get her away from there. She can't be at home with him."

"You want to bring her here?" He asks. I nod desperately, hoping he'll allow it. "Okay. I'll arrange it."

I don't feel relief just yet. "What if he doesn't let her come?"

"You are your father's weakness, Mariana. Plead that you need to see her, that I'm making your life unbearable, and he will crack."

"God, when you say it like that it sounds so sick. How could he have raped your mother but has always treated me fair? How can he be both?"

"He is sick. No sane person would do the things he's done. You're going to drive yourself crazy figuring out why he is the way he is. I know it's hard to let it be but that's what you need to do."

"Yeah," I whisper and wrap my arms around myself. He's right but that doesn't make this easier. "Yeah. Okay."

It grows quiet then. Somber. So much has happened but this is still the beginning.

"I'm scared," I admit quietly. "My father's going to try to kill you and Felix and you can't let that happen. You...you have to kill him first. I need to warn Alessa and tell her the truth. Felix doesn't know any of this. It's a mess, Knox."

"It is." His eyes darken as they roam over me. "But I will take care of it. These are my dues to pay and I will handle them like always. Just be there when it's over. Choose me when this ends."

His gruff request is part command, part plea. I lean forward to press my forehead to his and nod.

"Only you."

______________________________

A/N

I'm fine...it's fine...everything is gonna be just fine......................*AGGRESSIVE SCREAM*

This is why this chapter is my fav in the whole book. The amazing sex scene? The intimate aftercare? WHEN HE CALLED HER AMORE? The promise of fighting for each other? Who would have thought from reading the first chapter that these two would end up being so freaking beautiful?

On that note, I told y'all to trust that everything I wrote had valid reasons! Maria not being "allowed" to work? Plausible explanation, among everything else about Knox and why he is the way he is. That's why when there was so much hate in the comments in the beginning I just wanted to scream BE PATIENT. I was so hurt reading all those comments knowing what my baby went through lmao *cries*

I know Wattpad has an image and reputation to write manipulative assholes for no reason but bear in mind I am NOT that kind of writer and for that, I pride myself. When and if I write an "asshole" lead, it's mainly because I'm just trying to show how flawed people come to be and why they deserve understanding and compassion. I will never condone male leads being abusive or manipulative. I never made Knox any of these things. I just made him a guy that makes mistakes, that went through shit, and is ultimately trying to fix what he wronged. Because people like that actually exist. So if you're a new reader of mine, know that I deserve trust and patience when it comes to my characters because I would never do you guys wrong either.

Please VOTE, comment and share if you liked this chapter!

Happy Reading :)