It was true; the floral scent of her was intoxicating. And how she’d tasted…

I met her gaze again, the darkness of my eyes reflected in her own. An all consuming need to savor her cunt again, to hear her wanton whimpers, to have her shatter on my tongue, gripped me, holding me prisoner as much as I was holding her.

My shadows loosened their grip, turning from shackles into light caresses, eliciting a shiver from her. I kissed her wrists again, then drew back, attempting to put space between us so I could regain a semblance of self control.

Her attention fell to her brands. Those bow-shaped lips turned into a frown as she noted what was carved there.

“Why?” she murmured, returning her focus to me.

Now it was my turn to look away. “You are no ordinary female, and I am no ordinary male. You are mine, Assyria. Only mine.”

I hated her; yet I couldn’t mark her with anything but my honorific. An F would not do on the wrists of this female. She was simply too much for it.

Without warning, she rose from the chair and yanked on the back of my head. Our lips collided like lightning striking a lake, electric attraction sweeping through us both. I gripped her ass and hauled her up my body. In two steps I had her on the bed, pinning her beneath my bulk.

A stinging slap had me jerking back. Confusion flitted through me before she yanked me back to her. All reason fled as our lips crashed again.

“I want him to hurt like I do. Pain with this pleasure,” she thought, not realizing she was projecting down our bond.

I nearly groaned, my dick pressing painfully against my pants. “That is exactly how I like it, little imposter. I want to hurt you. Break you. Force you to submit to my will. Then make you scream my name as I sink my cock so deep into your cunt you see stars.”

I broke our kiss, staring down at this wild female who was upending my entire life.

“We should just get this out of the way so the bond calms down,” she said in a rush.

“Agreed,” I growled, shoving off the bed. Quicker than I ever had, I stripped, metal clattering around me. But I didn’t care, not when my sole focus was the lust flooding us and how fucking badly I wanted to sink my cock into Assyria. She wasted no time removing her dress either, leaving it to pool around her legs.

The moment it was gone, I pinned her again, the bare skin of our chests brushing. I kissed her hard, and she explored the ridges of my torso. I found her breasts and cupped them, and the fucking sound she made nearly sent me over the edge.

I dragged in a breath, breaking our kiss, and loosened the bind securing them. As soon as her hard nipples appeared, I sucked one into my mouth, dragging my teeth over the peak. Assyria hissed but didn’t tell me to stop.

Fuck, she’s incredible.

With my free hand, I ripped the fabric covering her pussy away—my next destination. The memory of her release on my tongue was enough to send me trailing down her stomach. She spread her legs wider, and when I finally reached her core, I paused, stifling a groan. Even in the low light, the sight of her arousal slicking her thighs was unmistakable.

“So fucking wet,” I growled, my hot breath brushing over her skin.

“It’s just the bond,” she panted, her hands fisting the sheets as she looked down at me.

Unlikely, given the pool she was making, but I let her have it just so I could taste her again. Pleasure pulsed down our bond as I closed my mouth over her. Flattening my tongue, I licked her, then swirled over her clit.

The gasp I tore from her was pure ecstasy. She shamelessly pressed into my face, so I gave her exactly what she wanted: my tongue inside her. Already, I knew what she liked, which strings to pull to make her a mess beneath me.

I fucking hated it. Yet I couldn’t stop myself from doing more, wanting more from her.

“Rokath,” she breathed, head tipping back. Her walls fluttered over my tongue, and another thought slipped down our connection. “I’m so close already…”

“That’s because no one has ever pleasured you like me, little imposter. You didn’t know the meaning until I licked your cunt last night.”

I pressed my thumb into her clit, spearing deep inside her. She was going to come all over my face, flood me with her arousal. A scream tore from her throat again, but this was all pleasure. A satisfied growl slipped from me, encouraging her to keep coming. I wasn’t nearly done with her.

Only once she started to calm did I retreat. I stood at the foot of the bed, eyes raking over her perfect body. The perfect peaks of her nipples. The way her legs remained open. The way her pussy begged me to fill it.

The tip of my cock was already weeping for it. I made quick work of removing my pants, the pain finally abating as I sprang free.

Assyria’s jaw dropped again, though for an entirely different reason this time. “Is that going to fit?”

A smirked down at her, fisting myself to relieve some of the ache. “If you want it, I’ll make it.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” she replied, tone laced with breathy need and a hint of trepidation.

“It wasn’t supposed to,” I growled, climbing back onto the bed. It dipped beneath my bulk, and Assyria examined me with the same hunger I had her as I settled between her thighs.

“Relax,” I said, trying to encourage her rather than frighten her. I trailed the pads of my fingers lightly over her skin, then brushed the hair out of her face so I could see her expression the moment I seated myself fully.

“I’ve only been with Vagach like this before,” she whispered, her teeth raking her bottom lip.

Fuck.

A primal urge to claim overpowered me, nearly making me spear right into her and likely hurt her in the process. I gritted my teeth, battling for control with the raging beast inside me. I dragged in a breath, trying to count to calm myself.

“Probably not the best time to mention that,” I gritted out, bunching the sheets in a white-knuckled grip. Anything to contain this feral part of me that wanted to take her like a wild animal. “The bond wants me to claim you even more now, erase the memory of him from your mind, body, soul.”

“Do it. Let’s get it out of the way so we can go back to hating each other,” she said, her tone breathy and wanton. My dick jumped as she pressed into me.

She was so, so wet.

“Let’s,” I groaned out. Then finally, fucking finally, I pushed into her. The moment I was seated fully, lightning stuck, taking with it all sense of self. It stole my breath, my reason, my judgement, only leaving me with the knowledge of how to make her irrevocably mine. The mark on my mate’s wrists was nothing compared to what would happen the first time she came around my cock.

A cry ripped from her throat and I swore, my eyes rolling back into my head as the most divine pleasure I’d ever experienced swept through me. Nothing, fucking nothing, compared to this.

I could slaughter every Angel single handedly in a the span of a day, and yet it wouldn’t remake the fabric of my being like this fucking moment.

I dragged in a serrated breath, then ripped my attention back to my mate. With a feral growl, I crashed my hips into hers, then captured her lips. She shot backward with the force of my thrusts, her core gripping me so tightly I thought I might come right then and there.

“Assyria,” I rasped, brows pinching as I buried myself to the hilt. Her cunt pulsed around me. “Fuck, you feel incredible.”

I slipped a hand under her lower back, angling her hips down so I could get even fucking deeper inside her. I didn’t relent on my bruising pace. The need to erase every other male from her mind, her body, her soul was overwhelming. Never had I felt so compelled to possess.

And with the wet sounds coming from where we joined, with how fucking slick my thighs were, I knew, deep down, I was gone. She was going to be my greatest craving, and I hated it.