“Do you even know what you do to me, Willow?” I ask. “I ache for you. I burn for you. And no matter how many times I touch you, taste you, make you fall apart in my hands…”
I brush my nose along her jaw, inhaling her perfume, letting it fill my lungs, my bloodstream, everything.
“It will never be enough.”
I bite down on her bottom lip, dragging it between my teeth, satisfied when her breath stutters.
“I want to ruin you,” I whisper, each word dripping withneed, with truth. “Mark you in ways no one else can erase.” My fingers tighten in her hair, my other hand skimming up her ribs beneath her shirt, memorizing every curve, every dip. “So you’ll always feel me—even when I’m not here.”
Her lips part, a soft, needy sound slipping past them, and fuck, I can’t take my eyes off her.
Her. Always her.
And I’m going to make damn sure she knows it.
CHAPTER 36
Willow
He wants to claim me.The realization slams into me, a freight train cutting through the haze of pleasure still crawling over my skin.
Finn isn’t playing. He isn’t toying with me the way I thought. He’s dead serious. He wants me marked. He wants me his.
And that’s a problem.
I know what happens when an alpha marks me. I lived through it. I survived the wreckage when it fell apart. Landon didn’t just leave—he shattered me. Took everything that bond was supposed to mean and tossed it aside. Left me bleeding with nothing.
I won’t do it again. I can’t. Even if Finn is a beta. Even if he swears it would be different.
His teeth graze my jaw, lips dragging down my throat, chasing the hammer of my pulse. I go rigid. He feels it. Knows it. His intent burns against my skin, and it’s as if his emotions are already bleeding into me.
He pauses, his mouth hovering just over the spot whereLandon’s mark used to be. He’s not dumb. He knows exactly what I’m thinking.
His fingers tighten on my waist. “I’m not him, Willow.” His voice is low.
I swallow hard. “I know that.”
“No, you don’t.” He brushes his nose against my throat, inhaling deeply. “Or you wouldn’t have tensed up like I’m about to claim you only to abandon you.”
My stomach twists. His lips ghost over the sensitive skin at the curve of my neck, nibbling, teasing, not quite marking—but thinking about it.
I grab his shoulders and push. “Finn.”
His entire body goes still.
Then—heat. Anger.
Not the kind that makes me afraid. The kind that makes me want to push him just to see what he’ll do. Slowly, he exhales through his nose, his grip tightening on my waist before he spins me, pressing my back against his chest.
My palms slap against the window, breath catching when I realize what he’s doing—what he’s threatening. He presses against me, the hard line of his cock hot even through his jeans against my skin.
I can see my apartment. My bedroom. My bed. The guys. If they were watching—if they were looking—they’d see me.
Finn’s hand slides down my stomach, pressing lower.
“I could take what I want,” he says, lips brushing the shell of my ear. “You want me to. I could bite you, make sure you’re mine before you leave this apartment.”
My pulse pounds. Because he’s not wrong. He could. A slow, teasing grind of his hips has me biting my lip to keep in a sound I shouldn’t make.
