That was all.Then his mouth crashed down on her breast and Elizabeth's world narrowed to sensation.
The careful gentleman of last night had vanished entirely.When his teeth found her skin, Elizabeth's body bowed upward, a broken sound escaping that belonged to neither pleasure nor pain but some wild place between them.He gathered her wrists together, trapping them above her with one broad palm while his free hand moved with purpose between her legs.Where she needed him most.Elizabeth twisted—
"Don't move."
Not a request.A command that brooked no argument.Elizabeth whimpered but obeyed, her body trembling with the effort of stillness while he destroyed her with touch alone.The pleasure built too fast, too intense, crashing over her before she could prepare.
He didn't let her recover.His mouth replaced his fingers and Elizabeth nearly sobbed at the overwhelming sensation.Too much—it was too much—her oversensitized flesh couldn't take more.She tried to pull away but his hands gripped her hips, holding her immobile while his tongue worked mercilessly.Another climax tore through her, then another, until she was begging incoherently.She tried to form his name but it fractured into syllables that meant nothing, scattered like pearls from a broken string.Everything she'd ever known about herself unraveled with each pass of his tongue, until Elizabeth was just sensation wrapped in skin, burning from the inside out.Her mind went white, then gold, then some color that didn't exist outside this room.Elizabeth heard someone crying out—high, desperate sounds that might have embarrassed her if she could still connect them to her own throat.But that required thought, and thought had abandoned her completely, leaving only the endless loop of tension and release, building and breaking.
When he finally pulled back, his breaths came in harsh pants.He stripped away his shirt, his breeches, with haste.Fully naked for the first time before her.Elizabeth stared—he was magnificent, all lean muscle and masculine power, and clearly, undeniably aroused.
He positioned himself between her thighs and Elizabeth tensed, understanding dawning.This was different.He was going to—
But he didn't enter her.Instead, his hard length slid against her wetness without penetrating, the friction maddening.Elizabeth's legs wrapped around him, trying to pull him closer, without conscious thought from her.
Nor was her tongue working under the command of her mind.
"Darcy, please—"
"No."The word came out harsh, desperate.
His control was iron andawfulandhateful.Each stroke had him dragging directly over her entrance, the blunt pressure making her hips cant upward instinctively, seeking more, but he kept his angle shallow, denying them both what they wanted.
She needed, sheneeded.
Every ridge of him dragged against her swollen flesh, and she wanted—God, she prayed—he was seconds from snapping.His forearms trembled—actually trembled—as they held his weight above her.His breath came hot and ragged against her neck, more animal than man now.That perfect jaw of his locked tight, unlocked, locked again as he moved.
It wasn't enough.
"Please," she begged again, the word torn from somewhere deep and desperate."I need you.Need all of you.Please."
Darcy made a sound like a growl, low and threatening."Quiet."
But his body betrayed him—pressed harder, slid almost to her entrance.Almost.The blunt head of him caught there, just barely breaching, and Elizabeth's entire being narrowed to that single point of contact.So close.He was so close to giving her what every cell in her body screamed for.
"I don't care."She was beyond shame, beyond reason, beyond anything but the consuming need that had her clawing at his shoulders."Please.I need—"
Darcy cut her off with a bruising kiss, teeth and tongue and barely leashed violence.When he pulled back, his teeth grazed her throat—not biting, just pressure.A warning that sent lightning straight through her core.
Elizabeth's reaction was instant and primal.She arched beneath him, keening, her head tilting back to expose more of her throat.The submission felt right, necessary, as fundamental as breathing.
"Please, alpha, pleasepleaseplease—"
Darcy snapped.Elizabeth saw it happen—watched the last thread of his control break like a rope under too much strain.When he reared back, his eyes were black, purely animal, nothing human left in them at all.A low growl rumbled from his chest, vibrating through her bones.
Then he was positioning himself at her entrance, no warning, no preparation beyond what they'd already done.
"Mine," he snarled, and thrust into her in one brutal stroke.
She couldn't comprehend the incomprehensible thing he'd just said and then it was too late.The pain was sharp, burning—her untried body stretching to accommodate him all at once.Elizabeth cried out, fingers digging into his shoulders hard enough to draw blood, but Darcy didn't stop, couldn't stop.His hand wrapped around her throat—not choking, but holding, possessing.The weight of his palm against her pulse made her dizzy with want, with need, with the burning stretch between her legs.
His thumb forced her jaw up, making her meet his wild eyes.
"Look at me," he demanded, his voice barely human, all growl and command."Look at me while I take you."
He began to move, deep, relentless thrusts that drove the breath from her lungs.Each stroke burned and ached and somehow still sent sparks of pleasure shooting through her overwrought nerves.Elizabeth couldn't look away from his face—savage, beautiful, completely undone.This wasn't the cold, proper gentleman who'd sat across from her at dinner.This was something else entirely, something that belonged to darkness and instinct and the wild places between heartbeats.
And she belonged there with him.
