Somehow, I found myself standing on the bed, him watching me from below—a humungous cat on the prowl for a doe on the mountaintop. Our chests seemed to rise and fall at the same time, at the same pace. Hunter and Prey, connected to life through flesh and blood.
Instinctually, I knew he was about to make a move…a second too late. His hands wrapped around my ankles and I went down, bouncing with anOOOF!
He pulled me forward, keeping a secure hold, even with all of the kicking and twisting. He let go, for the briefest of seconds, and I kicked him in the chest, hard. He barely moved, and before I could put distance between us, he had me again. For reasons beyond me, I spread my legs open, and he came in between, throwing his weight on top of me.
“Get OFF!” I pushed and grunted, but then I pulled at him, bringing him closer. I was on a seesaw with yes and no. He went to kiss me and I moved my face. “GET OFF!”
“You are MY wife. You BELONG to me. You OBEY me.”
I shoved with all my might, and the pressure lessened but didn’t retreat all together; my gravity tugged at his. I was at war with three—my mind, my body, and him, and the natural instinct to give myself to him was in the midst of a separate battle with the urge to fling him off. Total effing insanity.
“Oh, is this how it’s going to be?” I cried, wrapping my legs around his waist, pounding him on the shoulder with a fist. “Are you going to become Luca Fausti? NO meant nothing to him. EVER. But I AMYOURWIFE. NOT a WHORE! Not that any woman wouldwantto say NO to him. Just like women can’t seem to say NO to you! THOSE EYES make me insane with wantandtear me to pieces!”
The words had come from some place demented. I cried even harder, hitting him one last time, but it was an imposter of my earlier attempts. My limbs went limp with exhaustion like the air out of a balloon, the fight draining.
“Look at me.” His voice was hoarse, shredded. “I still have my jeans on.”
He did.
I realized with coherence that, yes, I was furious about what he did—leaving me to go on some ridiculous quest for honor that was never disgraced anyway, and possibly for maiming Nick Lomas for nothing, and for his past. But mostly, I was terrified.
I still had to tell him about Nemours. If I couldn’t stop him this time…
He sensed something too. An understanding seemed to flow through us, more like a ravaging current, and the visceral need seemed to drown us both. He lifted only a little, and using my feet, I brought his jeans down, urging him to go further.
The urge was lost on him. In his eyes I saw the wild animal, the need to claim, and my own hands were itching to release the claws, to shred him to pieces, our bodies at war.
He once told me that when he made love to me, that was his surrender, but when he was this way—when I fuck you—our bodies would battle, and no doubt about it, his would be crowned the victor each and every time. My flesh, blood, and bone,my surrender, were as good as his, but hell if I’d go easy on him.
“My fucking eyes,” he said, the words cold.
“Yes, your fucking eyes,” I spat the words at him.
He stood, staring down at me, and then in a surge, flipped me on my back, using my ankles to pull me toward him. He used his knee to part my legs, and his hand came to the back of my neck, a handful of my hair in his grasp.
He pulled, tilting my head toward his. He came in to kiss me, but I snapped at him with my teeth and he grinned.He came in again, and this time I drew first blood, and he hissed out a breath before he lifted my nightgown above my behind and took me in one powerful thrust.
If I had fillings, he would have knocked them loose. His pace was fierce, his thrusts long and deep, and with each slam our skin slapped. Sweat immediately drenched me from extreme exertion. I could feel his dripping on my skin, splattering as we fought against each other, the restraints that separated us, in maniac desperation to fight this out without words.
Noises that didn’t sound human came from the both of us, though I refused to cry out, not yet. That was a sure sign of the win, that he had conquered me fully. Though my body could never lie to his. He read me like he had my battle strategies in his back pocket.
The pressure was building, building, and he knew it. It was happening a lot quicker than usual. I was close to the moment of explosion, of touching heaven, before reality brought me back to myself. He said two words in Italian,tell me, and though I bit my lip, not wanting to, I did. He’d use his body as a means to get the words out of me anyway.
“You,” I said, hardly able to speak. “All you.” Then I cried out, begging for mercy. I was so close…and so was he. I surrendered to his body first. His pace became even more furious, like a savage animal with the most basic of instincts, until the sound from his mouth reflected that nature when he claimed what he had been hunting.
After he released my hair, I fell forward, the nightgown sticking to me. I stuck to the sheets. He didn’t allow me to rest though. He flipped me back over, looming, wanting to see my face. The face of a woman totally lost to—him.
Neither of us said anything for a time. Our chests began to slow, one pulse echoing the other, my heartbeat following his, the blood in our veins seeming to chase the same destination.
A charged silence electrified the air. The floors creaked, the walls relaxed. The house had hushed in the midst of our strife, the fracas only surrounding the two of us.
“My fucking eyes,” he sighed. “And all of you. I’myourhusband. Ibelongto you. Iobeyyou.”
He took a seat next to me, then rested on his back and stared at the ceiling. He put his hands over his chest, like he was trying to contain the beat of my heart, not to lose it.
The drink still coursed through him. As hot as his red temper had been, he went completely cool. All but one part of him—hisweaponwas still ready to battle it out again.
I flinched, not even wanting to think about taking him on again. He had been so intense that the urge to squirm away from him was strong, but I didn’t have the energy. He might as well have set his mouth on the sensitive part of my neck, sunk his teeth in, and paralyzed me.
