A tear spilled down her cheek unchecked. She didn’t try to wipe it away. She didn’t stop staring at her feet as if the tiles had become a crystal ball, a seer’s tool to peer through classifications of mammals and segregations of species to not just witness the animal’s nightmare but to live it. “So…in answer to your question if I had a pleasant night? I want to change my reply and not complain about myself. I won’t complain about my discomfort because the other inhabitant of that cage couldn’t. He couldn’t voice his pain. He couldn’t beg for a reprieve. He just endured. Every damn day. For decades.”
When she looked up, I struggled to keep my façade in place. The mask I’d worn for so long that I’d forgotten I had another face beneath it. A mask that caused grievous bodily harm because it was his right to do so. A disguise that allowed me to be the monster my brother was, the heartless people my parents were, the superior over everyone.
She saw that slip. Her gasp gave her away. Her eyes danced over mine, diving deep, tearing through my walls until I felt her inside me. Her tiny hands clutched at my sins. Her dainty feet ran over my scars. In a heartbeat, she’d run riot in my psyche and left utter destruction in her wake.
So I did the only thing I could do.
I dropped the barrier against my lust and my sanity.
I ripped my hands from my pocket and dove my fingers into her hair. Our bodies went flush, fitting together as if we’d always had, her female liquidity against my male rigidity, and…
I kissed her.
I pressed my mouth to hers and tore my way into her just like she’d torn into me. My tongue was a knife, slicing her to ribbons; my saliva was a poison, killing her before she killed me.
The harness around her body held her steady, but her arms were free to move. I jolted as her touch scalded my neck. I shivered as her fingers became nails, digging into me as I dug into her. My hands dropped down her spine, gathering her harder against me so she’d feel how much I struggled. How much I fucking wanted her.
Her lips widened under mine, and I kissed her harder.
I kissed her until all I could taste was her, all I could remember was her, until bruises painted our lips blue.
I needed to stop.
Everything.
But I only kissed her deeper, struggling to breathe. My body turned savage and weak all at once. My mind swam, lightheaded with need. Snatching her off her feet, I stumbled off balance.
Our lips disengaged, and I automatically released her so I didn’t pull her down with me. The harness kept her standing while I fell to one knee.
Somehow, I’d ended up doing what I’d fought against since she landed on my beach.
I bowed.
I bowed at her fucking feet and looked up at the most stunning girl I’d ever seen. A girl who wasn’t a goddess, after all, but a golden-hearted human who was even rarer than myth.
Her lips were swollen and pink. Her gaze no longer filled with rain but lightning bolts. I needed to prepare her for Euphoria, but all I could do was stare up and ask the most damning question. A question I’d asked before but still didn’t have a fucking answer.
“Who are you?” My tone had tangled with darkness and desire, weighed down with sand.
Her swollen lips parted, perhaps to give me some cosmic answer delivered by fate’s arrow, or maybe to curse me with an even greater spell. Either way, I wasn’t prepared to listen.
I didn’t have the goddamn strength.
Wrapping my arm around the top of her thighs and clamping a hand on her hip, I dragged her forward. I gave her no room to argue or struggle as my mouth clamped down on an entirely different part of her body.
The moment my tongue touched her clit, the harness creaked with her full weight. She went lax and locked tight all at once. “Ah…God. Sully—no.”
No?
I didn’t understand that word anymore.
No was something you said about inconsequential things.
This?
Tasting her? Tonguing her?
This was not inconsequential.
This was fucking consequential. The biggest consequence of my life.
My tongue drove inside her.
She cried out, swinging in her binds. Wetness welcomed me to dive deeper; her inner muscles clutching around my invasion. Her body flushed with heat as I released her hip and brought my hand between her legs.
While my tongue circled her clit and her desire made her pant, I pressed two fingers inside her. The second her body swelled and settled around my touch, she moaned so guttural and raw, my hips pumped into air.
I couldn’t control the instinctual need to replace my fingers with my cock.
Everything about this girl made me drunk. It made me forget my boundaries. My promises. It made me go rogue with the need to take everything I could. To steal her senses. Her sanity. To make her as tormented as me.