Then he lowered himself onto his knees before me.
“What are you doing?”
Ryker gripped my dress in his hands and slowly pulled the fabric up my frame, his gaze never wavering from mine.
“Ryker,” I said, the single word a warning.
“You can lie to yourself, Temptress, but you can’t lie to me.”
Before I could stop him, Ryker ripped my panties from my body as he bunched my skirt around my waist.
And then his mouth was on me.
His warm tongue dipped between my folds, and I gasped. The pleasure that rippled through me from that single act shouldn’t be possible, but Ryker always had that effect on me. He flattened his tongue against my clit before he sucked the swollen nub into his mouth. My head tilted back, and I saw stars.
My fingers threaded through his hair without my permission, and I tugged on the strands, hard enough to cause pain. Ryker growled against my center, and the vibrations sent a sharp tendril of pleasure through me.
His fingers dug into my thighs, spreading me wider as he devoured me with a hunger that made my knees weak. Each stroke of his tongue was deliberate, calculated to draw out the whimpers I tried desperately to swallow.
“Stop fighting it.” He murmured the words against my slick flesh, and I hated how right he was.
I was fighting, fighting the pleasure, fighting him, fighting myself. But my body was surrendering, betraying me with every shudder and gasp.
“I hate you,” I said, the words catching in my throat as he slid a finger inside me, curling it upward in a way that made my entire frame tremble.
He pulled back just enough to look up at me, his lips glistening with evidence of my arousal.
“Then hate me.” His voice was a dark rumble that quivered through my core. “Hate me while I make you come undone.”
His mouth returned to my center with renewed fervor, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out. The walls seemed to close in around us, the air thick with tension and desire. My body continued to betray me, responding to his touch like it was made for him alone.
He pushed another finger inside me, stretching me, filling me as his tongue worked relentless circles. I could feel the pressure building, that telltale tightening low in my belly that warned of impending release.
“Fuck you,” I said, the words a throaty rasp.
Ryker chuckled darkly, the sound enough to curl my toes. “That’s the idea, Temptress.”
The coil of tension wound tighter with each stroke of his tongue, each thrust of his fingers. I was fighting a losing battle, and we both knew it.
I was close… so close.
“Look at me,” he commanded, and against my better judgment, I did.
The raw hunger in his eyes almost undid me. He wanted this as much as my treacherous body wanted him. The realization sent a jolt of exhilaration through me.
“I want to see your face when you come apart for me.”
And with those words, he curled his fingers just right, sucked hard on my clit, and the coil inside me shattered. My release crashed through me in violent waves, my body trembling as I clung to his hair, to the wall, to anything that would keep me upright. I bit my lip until I tasted blood, refusing to say his name even as it threatened to spill from my tongue.
He worked me through my orgasm, gentling his touch as the aftershocks rippled through me. When I could breathe again, shame and fury rose in equal measure. I shoved at his shoulders, and this time he allowed the space, rising to his feet with a fluidity that defied the brute strength of his frame.
But I should have known better.
Ryker closed the distance separating us as he pressed me into the wall. “This stops here, Cadence. I won’t indulge your efforts to create a chasm between us.”
The sound of his belt buckle being unfastened snapped me out of the lingering haze of my orgasm. My hand darted out, my fingers wrapping around the cool metal of the dagger sheathed at his hip.
In one fluid motion, I pulled the blade free and pressed it against his throat. The sharp edge kissed his skin, a thin line of red blooming where steel met flesh.
