The door hinges don't even creak. It opens with a slow, deliberate grace, and a predatory grin curls my lips. She glides in like she owns the shadows. If I hadn't been vibrating with anticipation, I might have missed her entirely. The second the lock clicks shut behind her, I move. My steps barely a whisper against the floor as I slither through the shadows to intercept her.
She’s fast. The moment she registers my heat, she’s already pivoting, swinging around to face the threat. But I’m faster, and I’ve got fifty pounds of raw muscle on her. One hand snaps out, my fingers shackling the elegant curve of her neck, while my other palm settles heavy and possessive on her hip. She freezes and I feel the exact micro-second her body recognizes my touch. That familiar melt of her muscles as she surrenders to the gravity of us. I swing her back around, pinning her spine flush against my bare chest.
"Someone's been a very bad girl," I rumble, my breath moving the cloth of the mask against her neck.
Marigold shivers, a violent little tremor that travels from her neck to her heels. “Hmm. I don’t know what you mean.”
The chuckle that rips from my throat sounds wicked, even to my own ears. The mask makes me feel like a different animal. “You like playing games, little shadow? Then games we’ll play. You aren't leaving this room until you’ve creamed all over my cock and admitted you’re mine.”
“And if I choose not to play?” Her voice is a challenge in a silk-wrapped blade.
“Then I’ll go grab one of the others and make you watch while I take them,” I taunt, my thumb dragging across the pulse point in her neck. “You’d be happy for me, right? Isn't that what you said?”
She moves with a sudden, violent grace that catches me by surprise. She twists in my hold, her body a blur of wicked motion as she spins to face me. Her hand slides into my unbuttoned jeans, but instead of the soft warmth of her palm, the bite of cold metal kisses my aching cock.
She’s got her blade out, the edge of it resting against my length.
“Not very kind of you to sign some poor woman’s death certificate, Tomcat,” she says, her eyes searching mine with a terrifying seriousness.
I laugh, my cock twitching against the steel. The danger is a goddamn aphrodisiac. “Something tells me you’d look good covered in blood, baby.”
Her head falls back, and she finally takes in the silver spiked skull, the purple LED 'X's glowing in the dark. Her expression shifts into something delighted and dangerous. “Oh, you’re playingdirty. A mask? Really? We all know that’s the one thing that turns women into dirty little sluts.”
My hand tangles in the hair at the back of her head, forcing her to hold my gaze. “That’s exactly what I’m counting on. You want to be my dirty little slut, Marigold?”
“This is a really bad idea,” she whispers, though her breath is coming in short, jagged hitches.
I let out a rough laugh and release her neck, grabbing the hem of her hoodie and yanking it over her head in one fluid motion. She backs away, her head shaking, her eyes wide. “We’re friends, Axton.”
Every step she takes back into the red light, I take one toward her. I am the hunter and she is the prey.
“We’re more than that, and you fucking know it.”
Her eyes are roaming now. They’re tracking the mask, the ink on my chest, the line of my v-taper. I can see the heat drowning the logic in her brain. The back of her legs hit the velvet couch, and she falls back onto the cushions with a muffled curse. She tries to scramble up, but I’m over her before she can find her footing. I wrap my hand in her hair again, pulling her head back until she’s peering up at me, vulnerable and exposed.
The vibration of her whimper travels up my arm like a low-voltage shock. Her hands anchor onto my thighs, her fingers digging into the muscle as if she’s trying to hold onto the earth. With my free hand, I unzip my jeans the rest of the way and pull my cock free, my fingers wrapping around the thick, pulsing length of it.
A groan rips out of me, half-pain, half-pleasure.
Fuck.
She isn't even touching me yet, and the sheer proximity to her is making me ache so hard I’m seeing stars.
“Tell me no right now and I’ll walk out that door and never fucking look back,” I growl, my voice vibrating through the skull of the mask. My pulse is a sledgehammer in my chest. “Words, baby. Give ‘em to me.”
A bead of pre-cum glistens at the head of my dick, and her eyes lock onto it with a predatory focus. Her tongue peeks out, gliding along her bottom lip in a slow, hungry curve that makes my vision swim. I tighten my fingers in her hair, the strands winding around my knuckles like a leash.
“Words, little shadow. Now.”
She gives me action instead.
She knocks my hand aside, her fingers wrapping around my length in a firm, possessive grip that draws a sharp hiss from my lungs. She strokes me once, twice, as if testing the weight of me before she leans forward and takes me into the wet heat of her mouth.
“Motherfucker,” I snarl, my hips bucking forward without a single thought of restraint.
Goddammit.
“Jesus fuck, baby. This mouth.”
