Every inch of her stiffened. “No! What are you doing?” She shoved at him, hard. He pinched her nipple and she cried out, “Please. Don’t. Don’t hurt me. Don’t—”
“I want to make you soar, Nadine.” As he rolled the stiffening bud beneath his thumb, he ran his mouth over the mark he’d left on her neck, tasting her sweat. Tastingher. He wasn’t sure if he was just pretending anymore. The Cullraven blood pounded through his veins and her fear excited him.
Nadine clawed at him, raking at his face and chest. With another rough exhale, Cal took his hand from her blouse and grabbed her by the wrists. A heated throb went through his lower belly when she pushed back, nearly breaking his grip. Grimly determined, he dragged her hands over her head with effort and held them there firmly, pinning her beneath him while she continued to writhe.
“Soon,” he whispered, a little breathless himself now. “You’ll fly just for me.”
She screamed when he let his teeth sink into the soft skin of her throat. He made a low, admonitory sound, brushing his lips over the slowly forming welts. She had covered up the other mark with some kind of makeup and he couldn’t have that. Not with his brother so eager to ruin her. He would not see another woman die.
Cal slid his large hand into her open fly and parted her silken thighs, tracing over the familiar shape of her beneath the coarse dark curls that covered her sex. She was wet, slick. When he circled the hood of her clit, her hips jerked and she choked, “No!”
“Yes,” he said, close to her ear. “Come for me.” Desperation colored his words; it seeped into his touch. “Chooseme,” he urged.
She kicked and tried to bite. All the friction was making his cock hard but he ignored that, focusing on her breathing. There was a little vocalization coloring the edges of every breath and her hips had tilted unconsciously, giving him better access. They were reaching the tipping point now. She was close, so close to giving in.Such a good little sparrow.
She moaned into his mouth when he kissed her again. The kiss now tasted like blood. Had anyone from town walked in to see them now, they would have looked like two animals. His arms were covered in scratches and she had gouged at the back of his neck. Sweat stung the wound, making it burn. It would hurt more later, when the endorphins wore off.
“No,” Nadine panted, breathless. It was too dark to make out the finer expressions of her face in the gloom but he could see her parted lips, the arch of her throat limned in white from the weak light of the cave’s entrance. His mouth had left out a florid bruise.
Cal released her wrists, leaning on his forearm for better leverage as he slid his fingers between her legs. She jolted in surprise, and pain exploded at his nape as she raked him anew. She could do that all she liked, he decided. They belonged to each other—or would, very soon. He would wear those marks proudly as the price of her yielding.
He ran his thumb over the curve of her sex before finding her clit again and rubbing hard enough to make her gasp. Another moan filled the air, with a sharp and piercing edge.
“Let—me—go.” Her fingers were in his hair, sliding through his scalp in a way that had his eyes rolling back from pleasure. And then she yanked.
It was vicious. His jaw snapped shut and the taste of blood filled his mouth again as he bit his tongue. With a curse, Cal twisted his head away, just in time to see her curl in on herself, like a wounded creature guarding its softer parts. When he leaned towards her again, her foot shot out in a wild, blind kick. The displaced air of it glanced off his stomach, rippling the fabric of his shirt.
“Do you prefer your punishment in a different flavor?” he asked. “This could be seduction, Nadine. I could give you candlelight and sweet words.”
She scrambled away from him on her hands and knees, breathing like she’d just been forced to run a marathon. He turned on the flashlight and saw her face, bone-pale in the glare. Her hair scattered about her shoulders in tangled sheaves and her lashes were wet with tears.
The sight of it tore at something withered and bleak inside him. “I could give you everything,” he said raggedly.If you come to me now.
“Fuck you,” she cried. “Fuckyou.”
“Soon.” In his ragged whisper, the word sounded like a grim promise. She winced just as the light clicked off. Now that it was over and the cold cave air was overtaking the fire in his blood, he realized what he’d almost allowed himself to do.
He turned and left her there, breaking into a light jog in his haste to return to Ravensgate.
The terror on her face haunted him, even as he got himself off with an urgency that felt more like possession than desire. He’d had to scare her, to make her realize the danger. Shewouldn’t be likely to let her guard down around Ben or his father now. Probably not him, either, but there was only one conclusion to their careful dance, where every backstep only brought them closer.
She should leave. By all that was sacred, sheshouldleave.
But part of him still hoped that she would not.
Cal let go of his spent cock and walked into the bathroom, shedding his soiled clothes as he went. They were covered in that strange reddish-gray dust from the mines that looked like flakes of dried blood. As he washed in the old clawfoot tub, the herbs in his soap made his wounds come to life with a vengeance. The one at his nape, only half-hidden by his hair, was especially painful.
Dissatisfaction hung over him, sticking to his skin like a web. He had wanted to seduce and conquer, and instead, he had decimated his poor quarry, leaving her broken and terrified.
You were supposed to scare her.
But if she hadn’t stopped him by drawing blood, he might have taken her there on the cold ground. He was supposed to let her fight him off, but instead he had overpowered her.
No. This was no ritual. No careful dance in the woods. This was . . . reckless.
What happened to your control?he scolded himself.You pride yourself on it.
Maybe he needed to go away again and gather himself. If a taste of her was enough to make him lose control, he would not be able to wait to do this properly.
