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“Oh, you noticed, did you?” I stepped back from him while his hunter’s eye tracked me as I moved deeper into the room.

Goose, not to be kept from his charge, slowly leaked smoky tendrils under the crack of the door and began reforming on the other side, passively sitting, guarding the door.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find you?”

The thunder of his voice rolled over and through me, every nerve in my body lazily waking up to light themselves on fire to burn bright for him.

“I hadn’t considered it, honestly. You really do think highly of yourself if you think I spend my entire day obsessed with you.”

The creaking of his leather gloves punctuated his irritation as he flexed his fists. “How?”

“How am I obsessed with you? I’m not.”

“You are. But more importantly, how have you been hiding from me? I will know so that I can remove that obstacle. You will never be able to hide from me again.” He drew closer, close enough that the warmth from his body radiated through my gown and any nerve still left in bed was shoved out and forced to attention.

“Do you think I would tell you? I will hide if I want to.”

“Coward,” he spat, his arm snaking around the small of my back and pressing me flush against his body. “Hide all you want, little bug. I will always find you. I will always hunt what is mine down and return it to its rightful place.”

“I’m not your fucking property,” I hissed and tried to push him away from me.

It was like a toddler shoving a mountain.

“We both know you are mine. As I am hopelessly yours.” His head dipped, his lips hovering dangerously close to mine.

I could almost taste his kiss. Could feel the way the sunshine of it flowed into the hollow spaces of my existence and filled them with warmth.

“But you aren’t, are you?” I whispered against his lips, the heat of the moment turning my voice dark and husky with need as my body responded to his nearness even if I did not wish for him to even exist near me.

“You know I am.” He punctuated his statement by slowly grinding the thick, stiff length of his cock against my stomach.

I could not keep my hand still. It had a mind of its own as it slithered between us and took hold of him. I had longed to do this. Needed to feel the weight of him pressed against my palm. To feel the beat of his heart so bald against my flesh. If only there were not several layers of cloth between us.

His hips pressed him farther into my grip as he hissed with need and tipped his head back to savor the sensation of my fingers clenching around his shaft through his breeches. A deep, masculine groan of satisfaction rumbled through him, shaking his entire body as I stroked him.

“You aren’t. You never have been, and you never will be.” I rose on my tiptoes and pressed a single kiss to the gentle valley above his heart, the linen of his tunic sticking to my lust-slicked lips.

I yanked my hand away and danced out of reach, reaching for the door. Goose watched me with uninterested eyes and did not move from the doorway he was so clearly blocking.

“Move, Goose!”

I was too late, though, and I was yanked back against him again. This time, he bodily walked me to an empty wall and pressed my face against it so that I had nowhere to run to, no means of escape as his big body enveloped mine.

“Dig your claws in all you want, kitten. It changes nothing. You can claw and scratch and bite all you want. I encourage it. I like it.” His knee slipped between mine and wedged itself higher between my fighting thighs. “I prefer it, really. I have no desire to bed or love a woman who would merely bend to all my whims. If I did, I could have any woman in the land.”

“Then, go find one to fuck, and leave me alone.”

My mouth said one thing, and my hips said another as they tilted back and ground my aching pussy against the firm length of his thigh.

“I have what I want right here.” His gloved fingers dug into my hips as he pressed me down into his thigh, guiding the undulations of them.

I couldn’t help the soft panting or the way sparks bloomed behind my eyes. I struck at them, reminding myself of all the reasons I hated him. Trying desperately to remind my body that opened and practically begged for him that he was the enemy.

“Let me go, Raven.”

My voice was thick with lust. My words said leave me alone, but everything else said go faster, harder, make me lose myself in you.

“Come to my chambers tonight,” he whispered against my throat.