“Oh, I’m not letting you loose, wife. I’ve been kneed in the balls by the best, but somehow, I think you’ll really make it hurt.”
I tugged against his grip, more to prove a point than because I expected to win. My wrists didn’t budge. My body might as well be encased in stone. And every time I moved, I rubbed harder against him, and the friction…I was completelyon fire.
Dante dragged that stare back down my body, slow anddeliberate, like a predator taking inventory, and his hard cock pulsed against my lower belly, sending a rush of wetness between my legs.
His mouth curved. “Say it.”
“Say what?”
“That I won.” He tipped his head to the side, and his hair came loose from its tie, spilling down over one of those powerful shoulders like a flood of dark silk. “Tell me I won, Emberline.”
“I’m not telling youanything, you old buzzard, except youcheat.”
“I don’t need to cheat to win.” His expression turned serious. “Although if you’d had a weapon… I’m not so sure we’d be here right now. You might be on top of me, holding a blade to my throat.”
His pupils dilated, two black dots swimming in an azure sea, and all that heat between us suddenly seemed dangerous and inevitable. I wanted to see if his mouth tasted like his blood, if I could lick those soft lips the same way I’d licked the skin on his throat.
“Holding a blade to your throat does hold a certain appeal right now,” I ground out, trying not to grind against the erection pressed between us. An erection that felt impossibly massive and was getting bigger by the minute.
Surely that would never fit, right?
His grin widened. “Now you’re just flirting.”
“I’m thinking of a thousand ways to kill you, all of them bloody and incredibly painful,” I corrected. “Slow, too.Veryslow.”
“Sounds fun.” His grip loosened enough for me to move my wrists, for my hard nipples to scrape against his chest, nothing but a thin layer of fabric between us, and for onebreathless moment, I wanted there to be nothing between us, nothing but skin and sweat and mouths and fingers and…
“It’s only the blood.” Dante’s breath came out choppy around his words. “What you’re feeling…” He sighed, squeezing his eyes closed. When he opened them, his gaze was clear, but the need was still there, plain as day.
“It’s only my blood, hitting your system for the first time. Drinking an older vampire’s blood gives you a rush of power, but it also makes you horny, Emberline. And I’ve been tempted by you,”—his voice dropped—“since the moment you walked into my life with that cold little stare and that mouth that doesn’t know when to shut up.”
My pulse jumped, the traitorous thing, and I swallowed. “And you hate my mouth?”
Dante’s gaze locked on my lips. “I do hate your mouth.Fucking hate it.”
He leaned in, slow, giving me time to refuse.
I didn’t refuse.
When he kissed me, it wasn’t gentle. His lips were soft, but the way they pressed against mine was hard, demanding. Heat spiraled through me as he pressed his tongue into my mouth, and the sharp edge of pressure that had been building for hours settled between my legs, a hot, demanding weight.
He made a needy little sound, and I strained against him, still pinned, still furious, my heart fluttering against my ribcage like butterfly wings, as if it wanted to fly away.
All while his mouth moved against mine like he was claiming victory and losing control all at once.
I bit into his lower lip—hard enough to make him inhale, a sound half-pain, half-grunted lust. Blood bloomed on my tongue, powerful, sweet, and delicious, and I suckedhard, ravenous for another taste as he groaned, grinding himself against me in a frenzy.
He pulled back a fraction, eyes burning, a bright stain of red on his wet lips.
For a moment, neither of us moved, my pulse racing, body on fire. The room smelled like sex, arousal, and canal air seeping through the cracks in the windows, but I didn’t care because all I could smell washim. Dante’s weight anchored me to the mat, his hands still gripping my wrists—possessive, dominating.
Gods, I’d never felt so alive.
Dante was bigger. Stronger. This was a fight I couldn’t win—and didn’t want to win.
But this… horror spread through me like ice. This couldn’t happen.Ever again.
“I despise you. I want a fucking divorce.”
