Every hair on the back of my neck stands at attention. I’m walking blindfolded through a lion’s den. Reaching out, I feel what has to be the hallway wall. I increase my pace, letting it guide me in what I hope is the right direction. Every step that doesn’t send me crashing into Shane buoys my confidence. I’m feeling downright cocky.

The lights flicker. Just a second, there and gone. I see enough to know I am in the hallway leading to the library. Two steps later, thick arms wrap around me, lifting me off the ground.

“Fuck!” I don’t mean to scream, but I do. Damn the flicker. He must have been right behind me.

“Claire?” Margot calls, “Are you okay?”

“She’s fine,” Shane calls back. “Stay downstairs.”

“Hold on, let me find my headphones,” she grumbles, her voice carrying in the still house. A suspenseful thirty seconds later, she calls out loudly, as if she already has them on, “Protective gear is in place. Activities may resume.”

I try not to laugh. A giggle slips out anyway. Shane’s lips hover above my ear, his breath hot. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” My response would be more believable if another giggle didn’t come out with it.

“Nothing?” His teeth close on my earlobe. Thick and hard, his erection prods my ass. I can’t keep from rolling my hips back at him. He bucks, and I think about how he thrust into my hand in his bedroom. How heavy he felt, the way his cock twitched when I ran my thumb over the head. I press back harder. His groan makes me laugh again.

“Careful.” Shane’s voice is a rasp. “If you laugh at me, I’ll have to shut you up.”

“Do it.” The words slip out, but I wouldn’t have tried to stop them anyway.

He stiffens. Then I’m spinning, rotated in his arms until we’re chest to chest. I expect him to cover my mouth with one hand while he rips my clothing off with the other. To be pushed to the ground and taken brutally on the floor of the hallway. I’m not opposed to the idea.

Instead, a hand knots in the back of my hair, tugging my face up. Shane kisses me. Deep and sweet, the hand not in my hair snaking around my waist, pulling me tighter to him. I’m stunned. Frozen. He’s done nearly everything else, but he’s never kissed me. Even after our two almost-kisses, this catches me completely unprepared. Gently, he pulls my hair, snapping me out of my shock. I kiss him back, forgetting about hunting. Forgetting about fighting. I forget Margot is downstairs and that tomorrow I leave. There’s nothing except us, kissing in the dark hallway.

His mouth is warm, and his tongue nudges the seam of my lips as he presses his pelvis to mine. My lips part for him the way my thighs want to, my body eager to take him in any way possible. I’m waiting to be ravaged. For him to take my mouth with his tongue the way he dominates my pussy with his cock. But Shane doesn’t kiss like he fucks.

Each press of his lips is sensual. His tongue strokes mine in a way that’s almost teasing. It’s so opposite to everything I’ve experienced from him that I don’t know what to do. I like it, though. God, I love it.

Careful, the little voice in my head says, but I ignore it.

Shane breaks the kiss, and I want to protest. Then he says, “My room.” He presses his lips to mine again before pulling away. “Now.”

I’m reeling from the kiss, from the switch-up. He leads me through the dark house with shocking ease. As we enter his room, the power comes back on.

“Thank god,” Shane growls, pushing me to the bed. “An ass this perfect deserves to be seen.” He emphasizes his point by yanking down my pants and planting a hard spank on it. My face is probably as pink as my ass right now.

It’s just a compliment. Calm down.

“So you do fuck indoors?” I ask, my voice breathier than I want it to be. “And here I thought you were a one-trick pony.”

Shane has stripped me down to nothing yet remains fully clothed. Unfair. I turn back toward him and grab the hem of his shirt, pulling it over his head.

“I’ve got so many tricks,” he mutters as I yank at his waistband.

“Do I get to see them all?”

His sweatpants hit the floor. We’re skin to skin, his thick cock pressed between us. I drag my nails down his back, and he kneads my ass. We’re nothing but a tangle of hands, reaching and stroking, tugging each other closer like we can crawl under each other’s skin.

“Not tonight.” His words prompt a shiver when they hit my ear. “I need to have something to keep you around with.”

The hope I’ve been smothering surges inside me, rising until it’s all over my face. I don’t want him to see how happy his words make me. Tucking my face into the crook of his neck and shoulder, I drag my teeth across his skin. His hands pause mid-grope, cupping my ass.

I bite him. Light. Barely a nip. It won’t even bruise. It’s nothing like the fang marks he left on me.

I’m spinning, pushed away from the heat of his body. Faster than makes sense, I’m bent at the waist, cheek pressed into the duvet, both hands pinned at the small of my back. His knee slides between my legs, knocking them apart.

“You bit me.” Shane sounds surprised and amused, but there’s something else underneath. An emotion I can’t identify. Maybe I’d recognize it if my brain weren’t screaming, Fuck me, please fuck me.

“You bit me firs—What the fuck?” I yelp, the end of my retort cut off as his hand comes down hard on my ass. Pain explodes from the impact, making me lurch forward. I can’t get free, so I only shove my face harder against the bed.

“Little deer don’t bite,” he says, voice as smooth as I feel jagged. “Not unless they want to be spanked.”

I don’t realize he’s moving until his cock is inside me, plunging in with one hard thrust. My pussy clenches around him, eager to get things rolling. I brace for him to drive into me again as he pulls back. He shifts all the way out. As I’m sputtering my unhappiness, he spanks me. I feel hot, my ass scalding from his touch, my pussy throbbing from the lack of it. Then he thrusts again. Hard. Deep. Punishing. He wouldn’t pull all the way out again. He wouldn’t.

He does.

I’m empty for a heartbeat before pain radiates across my ass. Another spank. It’s infuriating and thrilling all at once. This time, when he goes to plunge into me, I tighten my walls until I think I might pull a muscle. He groans as he meets the resistance, working himself inside me. I shove my face into the duvet before he pulls out. This time when his palm connects with my ass, I let myself free the scream that’s been battering at my teeth since the first strike. He didn’t ask me to, but I’m too far gone to care. The bed muffles it, but Shane hears me.

“There she is.” The soft affection in his voice doesn’t match the way he’s brutalizing me. He releases my wrists. “Good girl. Now grab the blanket and brace yourself.”

I do. I lose all sense of time. All sense of anything beyond his cock driving into me and his hand coming down on my ass. My throat is raw as I gasp and wail into the mattress. When my orgasm comes, it matches the speed and power of his strikes. My hands grapple in the duvet. I choke on my own inhales. An avalanche of pleasure carries me away, leaving me in a heap when my pussy stops spasming. I’m aware of him rubbing my ass, speaking in a low, soothing tone. I don’t know what he’s saying, just that he sounds pleased. It isn’t until I’m sprawled fully on the bed that I realize I never felt the heat and rush of him coming inside me.

Pressing up to my elbows, I look over my shoulder. Shane looks way too pleased with himself. I want to say something snarky, but I’ve got nothing. I came so hard my brain cells tapped out. He gives me a gentle pat on my ass like I’m a dog that’s done something well.

“Good start, little deer.”