Without thinking, I dipped my head forward. My tongue snaked out to trace the line of her artery. Her salty flavor suffused my system, obliterating rational thought. I retreated to a purely primal headspace, and my teeth sank into her shoulder, pinning her beneath me. She whimpered again, twisting against me. I increased the intensity of my bite, holding her firmly until she shuddered and stilled.
Satisfied with her surrender, I released her and traced the little indentations my teeth had left in her skin, flicking my tongue over her abused flesh. A harsh sound caught in her throat, as though she was swallowing a sharp cry. Her back arched, her breasts pressing against my bare chest. She wasn’t writhing in an effort to escape me anymore. She rubbed herself against me, her hips rotating up into my thigh.
I pulled back from her neck, so I could stare down into her eyes. She gazed up at me, almost as though she were in a trance. I saw confusion flicker across her features. My innocent Valentina didn’t understand what was happening to her, what I was awakening within her body.
I crushed my lips to hers, knowing I was the first to claim her mouth. She stiffened beneath me for a moment, but I sank my teeth into her lower lip in rebuke. She shivered and gasped, and my tongue surged into her open mouth. For a few heartbeats, she didn’t respond, not knowing how to accept my kiss. I stroked into her mouth, silently instructing her how to surrender to me. Tentatively, she moved her tongue against mine, and I groaned at the decadent sensation of her innocent exploration.
She jerked in my grip, her hands instinctively seeking to touch me. I couldn’t allow that. If she did, I would come apart, and I wouldn’t ruin this perfect sense of complete power by losing control of my body.
I lowered my hands slightly, digging my fingers into her forearms as I shoved her down into the soft earth. She drew in a shuddering breath, and I kissed her with more force, taking everything I wanted from her. Her soft whimpers and little panting sounds when I allowed her to breathe drove me to the brink of madness, but her total submission gave me the sense of control I needed to deny my base urges. I might be pressing her body into the dirt, but I wouldn’t soil my innocent Valentina.
She’s not mine.
The cruel thought ripped through my mind, shattering the perfection of the encounter. I’d never be able to have the girl who felt so perfect, pinned beneath me and trembling with equal parts fear and desire.
I pushed up off her with a curse, tearing my lips from hers.
She stared up at me, her eyes glassy and dazed, her lips swollen and glistening from my brutal kiss.
My fingers curled to fists at my sides, and I gnashed my teeth like the animal I was before I turned sharply and sprinted away. I had to put distance between us, before I did something I couldn’t take back.Chapter 4ValentinaMy lips still tingled from Adrián’s fierce kiss. After he’d left me alone and confused in the jungle, my limbs had felt oddly heavy and my cheeks were hot. Even though my mind reeled from the strange events and his sudden abandonment, my body still burned.
I’d taken a shower, and my skin had felt almost unbearably sensitive beneath the warm spray. My nipples were hard, and my sex pulsed strangely. I didn’t understand what was happening to me, but I knew it felt good. Strange and a little scary, but so good.
I got into bed, my skin feeling tight. A place low in my belly ached. I pulled the covers over my head and squeezed my eyes shut, as though that would help blot out the strange sensations.
Suddenly, the mattress dipped.
I yelped and threw the covers off, my heart hammering against my ribcage.
Adrian’s pale green eyes burned down into me, his granite jaw tight and his defined cheekbones sharper than ever. He sat on the edge of my bed, as though he had every right to be in my private space.
I shrank away, fear stirring at the back of my mind as my blood pumped hotter through my veins. The ache between my legs intensified, pulsing in time with my heartbeat.
Before I could demand to know what he was doing in my room, he reached out and rubbed his thumb across my lower lip. Sparks danced over my skin, spreading through my flesh and finding their way deeper inside me. My brain buzzed, and electricity crackled through my body.
“You left me,” I said without thinking, my voice strangely breathy and a little petulant.
“I did.” He didn’t stop touching me. His fingers moved from my lips to trail over my cheeks, to trace the line of my jaw. He barely brushed my skin, but when he touched my thrumming pulse at my neck, I arched toward him on a gasp. “I’m here now,” he rumbled.