“Do you know what you’re going to do?” he asked.
She almost tripped on the back of a chair but steadied herself like it hadn’t happened and moved oppositely him. “What?” she asked, her voice breathless.
“You’re going to give me every little scream you gave the darkness when you thought of me these past few weeks.”
Ana backed again, but Sam didn’t stop progressing upon her.
“Those fingers sliding between your thighs… finding that delicious wet center, pinching your peaked nipples.” His head tilted at her delighted, yet fearful, eyes.
Ana brought her hand up to her full breast, palming the corset over it. His tongue darted out over his lip as he eyed her.
“Show me,” he said.
But Ana… to his surprise… tutted her tongue, pulling the corset down slightly and giving him a peek of her swollen nipple. “That’s not the deal,” she said. “You haven’t caught me yet.”
Sam eyed her as he reached for the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head, and he savored the look on Ana’s face when he beheld her once more.
Sam was covered in tattoos.
Nearly every inch of his trim torso, his arms, his hands… all the way to that defined vee at his hips that made her mouth water. With ravens, vines, roses, skulls, and that fucking snake around his throat and collar. His ink-covered hand stretched around the back of the chair, prompting his forearm to flex, the veins to ripple beneath the black art, and Ana’s thighs tightened.
Fucking sunlight and Death, she cursed. And the way he stared at her, that hair falling so lazily over his dark eyes, his chin dipped… She wanted to trace every tattoo’s edge with her tongue and hang from the necklace of his hand on her throat like she had earlier in the night, then climb his body and sit on that stupid fucking face.
She sidestepped around the table, Sam coming around the other side in her direction, his lips twisting into a dangerous smile.
“Keep running, baby,” he said, stepping closer.
She bolted toward the living area, but he was on her in three strides. His arms looped around her waist and hauled her feet off the floor. She kicked, writhing and riding the adrenaline rushing through her. She managed a kick to his shin and lunged out of his arms toward the other side of the couch. Sam cursed but didn’t falter. Feet slamming into the floor, he darted to the other side, blocking her.
They stood off for a split second before Ana grabbed her wine and threw it in his direction. He sputtered, and Ana ran for the counter. Sam wiped his face and knocked over two of the barstools so she couldn’t run back in that direction. Trapped, she nearly buckled against the fridge as he advanced on her.
That smile lit up the darkness as the lights flickered in the midst of the storm now picking up outside. Ana’s heart thudded as he stalked toward her. He lunged, and Ana slipped down, ducking under his arms and bolting to the living area again.
She jumped over the couch, but he grabbed her in midair, his arms tightening on her body so much that she couldn’t move her body. Her legs even felt trapped against him.
The windows rattled with the strike of lightning, and in that second, she yelped and shrank into him, though she wasn’t sure why.
Sam’s deep chuckle filled her ear, his head in the crook of her neck, his hands grasping at her full hip and soft waist. Roaming free and claiming every inch. Ana let out a quiet moan, her head sinking back onto his shoulder.
“You give in to fear like it’s your home,” he whispered, his fingers gripping at her breast. Her taut nipples strained behind the corset bra. She ached for him to touch her bare skin, so much so that she grabbed his hand and moved it beneath her bra. He cursed into her neck, swaying with her, his lips on her throat and trailing over her neck tattoo. The way he grabbed her flesh made her thighs squeeze, anything for that friction she so desperately needed. She could feel his length stiffening behind her, making her shift her ass and, in turn, causing him to bite her and groan.
Ana grabbed his hair, her arms curling behind his neck, her tug hard enough that he sucked in a sharp breath, and his nails dug into her breast. She whimpered audibly, hating herself for liking his push, enjoying the way he sent her blood rushing and wondering all the ways he could terrify and pleasure her—not that she thought he would truly be more than any other idiot before that had promised her all the ways they could make her scream.
Although, she really hoped she was wrong.
Whipping from his grasp, she pivoted, her hand searing across his cheek. She bolted away as he registered the sting, running toward the bedroom, but he was on her once more. He had barely taken a few more strides, and somehow her arms were pulled from her sides to behind her back, locked in his hand. His other wrapped her hair, making her head pull toward the ceiling and her body rigid. She wasn’t sure how his hand had her wrists so secure, and she wondered if he was using whatever demonic powers he possessed to hold her there.
She’d heard stories of some demons manipulating shadows, the air, shifting into other creatures… The few she’d met in Icemyer had been either feral enough that they’d lost the once human part of themselves or so subdued from trying not to be the thing they’d become that they denied their demon selves. And while Sam looked human…
She was willing to push his every limit to see how far she could take him into that animalistic state.
A cold chuckle came from inside her. “Don’t let it get to your head,” she rasped. “I enjoy the chase.”
He whipped her around, grabbed her struggling figure by the waist, and lifted her onto the table, pinning her wrists into the wood. Breathless, he hovered over her, her bent legs spread on either side of him, and for a moment, neither moved.
“I’ll enjoy your screams,” he hissed.
Her heart began to pound at the look in his eyes, the way they darted from her own to her lips, the way his hair fell over his lashes. His mouth twitched upward, nose nudging hers. Ana leaned forward, desperate to finally kiss him, but Sam dodged her. She caught the spark in his eyes, that devious glint that made her heart skip, and his grip tightened.
