His fingers slide out of me.

He’s giving me a chance to back away, but I can’t deny that I want him to keep going. I’m showing both of us that I want all of it—all of him.

“Please,” I beg again, shaking my head.

Thick fingers circle around my entrance, dipping in—just the tips—and pulling out. I lift my hips, trying to guide him where I need him to fill me.

Then he removes his skillful fingers. My eyes snap completely open, and I have to bite back the frustrated groan rising in my throat.

Roman lifts his hand to his mouth and licks me clean from his fingers, letting a heady noise reverberate from his chest. “I knew you’d be my favorite meal.”

His masked face lowers inches from mine as a strong hand digs into my waist, holding me steady. Air rushes into my lungs with a gasp when he rubs himself against me.

My eyes widen. The layers of fabric between us do nothing to disguise his size.

He grinds his hips again, pushing against the very part of me that his fingers abandoned. “Say my name.” The command reverberates through my body.

“Mickey,” I moan, moving my head from side to side against the fallen leaves. “Please…” I can’t find the words I want to say. I want him to take all of me, but I’m frightened to give him more than he’s already taken. My heart has already felt too much pain.

He shoves his hand under my shirt, grabs my breast like he owns it, and has the deeds to prove it. “I warned you, Isabella. I promised you,” he snarls. “I’ll be claiming you once I catch you. You ran, Princess. You. Ran. You thought you could leave me? You thought I wouldn’t hunt you down? Now, I’m going to claim my prize.”

I hesitate, then say, “But I’m a virgin.” It might just be a word, but I wish he could say the same.

A strained sound comes from his throat. “Good girl. You waited for me.”

I can’t help but blurt, “And you didn’t.” It’s not a question, but a statement. There’s no way he hasn’t gotten around.

“Who said that?” he hums, rolling his hips in slow, languid motions. “What? You think I’ve ever had eyes for anyone else?”

I gape up at him, breath ragged. He…He can’t be serious. Not when he looks like that.

“How many times do I need to tell you that you’re the only one for me?”

It’s a feat to believe he hasn’t been with anyone else when girls would bat their lashes and throw themselves at him.

“I don’t want this,” I mutter, acknowledging the lie in my own words. I’ve wanted this for longer than I could have realized.

He pinches my nipple, causing me to arch my back. “Liar.”

With one word, one name, I could end this game and save what’s left of my heart.

But just like the other night, I don’t make a sound.

He briefly lets go of my hands, but I’m too slow to react before the cold air kisses my bare skin. My top lands in a heap on the forest floor.

Goosebumps erupt all over my body. Before I know it, my hands are stuck again, and my pants join the pile, leaving me completely naked beneath him.

He hisses beneath the mask. My body heats, feeling him brand the sight of me into his memory, from my puckered nipples down to the wetness coating my inner thighs.

Red blossoms across my skin, and I wiggle around to try to cover myself. No one has ever seen me this vulnerable and bare. And he’s there, fully clothed and leaving everything to the imagination.

“Fucking hell,” he groans and releases my hands so that he can knead at my breasts like they’re the most precious things in the world. “Just look at you. Jesus—Fuck,” he mutters gruffly, shaking his head. “I can’t believe how stunning you are. Look at how perfectly your tits fit in my hands. Your pussy is going to be so fucking tight. I just know it.”

I whimper as the rough material of his jeans rubs against my clit as he continues exploring my body, slapping my hands away every time I attempt to hide from him.

He keeps me in place by holding his hands on my hips while pulling himself out of his pants and teasing at my entrance.

I squirm as more arousal pools between my legs. “Mickey,” I gasp.

He slides himself up and down my center, coating himself in my slick. I can’t look away as he does it over and over, the head hitting my clit each time.

“Beg me to fuck you,” he growls, pulling my head back by my hair. When I do nothing but squirm against him, he says, “That wasn’t a question, Isabella. It wasn’t a fucking suggestion, either. Beg me to fuck you until the only name you remember is mine.”

The air is so charged with angst and desire I can practically taste it. “Mickey.” I shiver from the cold and anticipation.

“Mickey, what? Leave you like this, alone in the woods, all horny and wet?” he muses, purposefully bumping my clit with the head of his dick.

“Please,” I whimper.

“Do you want me to shove my cock into you and fuck you hard like the dirty little girl you are? Huh, is that what you want?”

“Yes,” I pant.

My entire body buckles and spasms when he rams his fingers inside me, thrusting fast and hard. I scream, and my eyes roll to the back of my head until I see stars. My nails sink into his arms while my legs squeeze around him. Still, his vicious assaults don’t slow.

Pressure builds in my core, tightening my muscles. I writhe and chase the high, but he pulls his fingers out right before I find release.

I whimper, completely delirious, as he snarls, “Then fucking say it, Bella.”

I shake my head but cry, “Mickey, please fuck me.”

The words are barely out of my mouth before he drives his dick inside me until there’s nothing left to give. My whole body convulses from the intrusion, and I scream out. The stretch causes pain to thunder through me, followed by mind-numbing pleasure.

“Shh, you’re doing such a good job.” He gives me a second to breathe, then pulls back and sinks in fully.

Then, a second time.

Drawing himself out to the very tip, he slams into me. His hands stay on my hips to stop me from sliding on the soggy ground.

“That’s it. Take my cock,” he hisses through gritted teeth. “God, you’re bleeding all pretty, Princess.”

He does it again, and again, and again, until it doesn’t hurt as much anymore.

“Fuck, I need to kiss you.”

First, he pulls off the smiling mask. Then, with one hand, his shirt lands next to my clothes, and my breath catches in my throat. My eyes widen as I see the bare skin of his chest and arms for the first time in three years.

Almost every inch of him is covered in tattoos. Different animals and designs were painted on his figure in dark ink, some that looked like he had drawn them. But that’s not what my attention is fixed on.

It’s the only one I can see where the black has turned gray with age.

A single word is at the center of his chest, just above his heart.

Bella.

His lips meet mine before I can process the tattoo.

“You’re mine.” Thrust. “Fucking mine.” Thrust. “You’re not getting away from me.” Thrust. “You’re not going anywhere.”

With each thrust, he’s marking another part of my soul. And it frightens me. I’m unsure if I can give myself to him in the way he wants—the way he is to me.

I don’t realize I’m shaking my head until he stops.

“Scream if you want me to keep going. Tell me you love me if you want me to stop.” The muscles in his arms flex like he’s trying to hold himself back.

My eyelashes flutter as I try to get my bearings and ignore how his cock is twitching inside me. “That—that doesn’t make any sense.”

He lowers himself so his lips brush mine. “If you can still speak while I fuck you, I don’t deserve to have you.”

I stare up at him, unable to do anything but glance at the tattoo and then back at his face. I could call him Roman. He’s given me an out.

Mickey allows me precisely three seconds, then pounds into me, savage and merciless, squeezing my flesh in his hands. This isn’t love-making or sex. He’s fucking me. And it’s perfect.