The faint scent of jasmine wrapped around me, filling my head with impossible dreams. A warm, soft body was pressed against me. I opened my eyes.
Audrey Sable was lying beside me. Her arm was draped over my chest where I lay on my back, and she was holding on to me tightly. With her body flush against mine, she was lying so close to me that I could feel her chest rise and fall against the side of my ribs.
Shit. I had only meant to stay until she had fallen asleep. Actually, I hadn’t meant to stay at all. After I had established that no one was attacking her, and that she wasn’t fleeing out the window either, I had planned on going back to my own room. But then she had told me that she’d had a nightmare. About me. About what I had done to her. And something inside me just… broke. So I had decided that I could at least help her get back to sleep, but apparently, I had drifted off too.
Audrey tightened her arm around my chest and wiggled slightly against the mattress, snuggling closer to me.
My heart twisted painfully.
The pale light of dawn filtered in through the window, illuminating the side of her face. Her features were soft, and her chest rose and fell with rhythmic breaths. She looked completely at ease. Almost as if she felt safe. But that would change the moment she woke up and realized that she was nestled against the person responsible for her nightmares.
I studied her face. By all hell, she really was beautiful.
When she made a small noise from somewhere at the back of her throat, the sudden urge to lean down and kiss her forehead shot through me like a pulsing bright light. Horrified, I smothered the impulse.
What was I doing? Audrey was my enemy. My prisoner. Nothing more. I should be making her life hell. Not comforting her nightmares and dreaming about kissing her forehead.
I had to get rid of these feelings for her. Against an opponent as lethal as Audrey Sable, emotions like that were dangerous. Far too dangerous. I had to cut them out of my heart so that I could go back to only hating her. The way it should be.
Placing a hand against her shoulder, I shoved her away from me and sat up.
She jerked awake. Her hair was mussed, and there were faint imprints from the sheets on her right cheek as she sat up straight as well.
“I’ll be adding this to the list of things you owe me for,” I informed her while I straightened on the floor.
“I owe you?” She scrambled off the mattress as well. Crossing her arms, she glared at me as I started towards the door. “You’re the one who climbed into my bed.”
Pulling authority around me like a cloak, I stopped and turned to face her. Which was a mistake. Because she was still wearing my shirt. My heart squeezed painfully as I saw her standing there with her messy hair and rumpled shirt, and I almost lost the grip on my anger. I scrambled to draw the power and hatred back to me as I advanced on her.
“You woke me up in the middle of the night with your pathetic noises,” I said, my voice harsh. “And still I was generous enough to help you get back to sleep.”
“I didn’t ask you to do that.”
Closing the final distance between us, I took her chin in a firm grip and forced her to tilt her head back. “Are you entirely incapable of saying thank you or showing any kind of gratitude?”
“Say thank you? For what? Being forced to sleep next to a clingy octopus all night?”
The clingy octopus comment almost tore a laugh from my throat, but I managed to stifle it before it could make its way out of my mouth. By all hell, why was she capable of affecting me in this way? It had to stop.
So instead of laughing, I painted a mocking sneer on my face. “Given that I woke up and found you snuggling up against my chest with your arm around me, I’d say that you’re the one being clingy and needy.”
Embarrassment flickered across her face. Good. I wanted her angry and embarrassed and hating me with every fiber of her being so that I could remember why I hated her.
Reaching up, she tried to slap my hand away. I didn’t let her. Instead, I tightened my grip on her jaw until her eyes flashed.
“So what would you like me to do?” she snarled. “Get down on my knees and say ‘thank you, sir’ and then suck your dick in gratitude?”
“Yeah, that would be nice.”
A sharp smile spread across her lips. Lifting her hand, she tried to move mine away from her chin again. This time I let her.
As soon as I had released her, she lowered herself to her knees before me. Her rage-filled eyes stayed locked on mine the whole way down.
“Thank you, sir,” she said, her voice dripping with mockery and sweet poison.
I smirked down at her. “That’s better.”
Satisfied with my victory, I began to turn around so that I could leave the room while she was still kneeling there on the floor. A reminder of who was in charge. But her hands shot out and grabbed my hips before I could finish turning.
Panic crackled through me as she drew my loose gray pants down and wrapped her warm hand around my cock.
“I wasn’t finished,” she announced with a wicked grin on her lips.
Fuck. I hadn’t meant for her to take it that far. Opening my mouth, I was about to tell her as much, but then she drew her hand up and down my shaft.
Pleasure curled around my spine and I had to suppress a shudder.
With her hand still around my cock, she swirled her tongue over the tip of it. I had to squeeze my eyes shut to block out the feelings that rose inside me when she did that.
While my eyes were still closed, Audrey released her grip on my now hard length and took it fully into her mouth. I sucked in a strained breath as she worked her lips. Pleasure built inside me.
Then she pulled back.
When I opened my eyes again, I found her smirking up at me with her eyebrows raised in challenge.
“I think you and I both know how you really feel about being in bed with me,” she baited.
I drew my fingers through her glossy black hair, combing it back in an almost loving gesture, before gripping it tightly in my fist. She answered by sliding my cock into her mouth again.
While keeping her eyes locked on mine, she traced her lips up and down my length. A dark moan escaped my throat.
“See?” she taunted in response to it, and let out a smug laugh while her lips were still wrapped around my shaft.
Using my grip on her hair to hold her head steady, I shoved my cock down her throat.
She gagged, and her eyes widened in surprise, but she took it all without even trying to pull back. It just made my body throb even more with desire. Her eyes seemed to burn with it too as she held my gaze.
I kept her like that for a little while longer, kneeling before me with my cock down her throat, and watched as she gagged on it while trying and failing to draw breath. I wanted to scream at her to hate me, but all I saw in her beautiful green eyes was dark desire that burned like wildfire.
Releasing her hair, I shoved her back.
She sat back on her heels and sucked in a deep breath while I yanked my pants back up.
Before she could recover, I grabbed the collar of her shirt and hauled her to her feet. A small huff escaped her lips as I threw her up against the wall. Bracing my forearm across her collarbones, I pinned her to the smooth marble.
“You need to stop playing this game with me,” I growled in her face, my voice low and full of warning. “Right now.”
“Or what?” Raising her chin defiantly, she smirked up at me. “Are you afraid that you might actually start to like me?”
Oh, by all hell, she really had no idea how I truly felt about her.
Carefully keeping all of those emotions off my face, I instead flicked my gaze up and down her body before letting a mocking smile curl my lips. “Seeing how desperate you are for my cock, I’d say the same to you.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, pretty boy.” Fire burned in her eyes. “I still hate you.”
“The feeling is so fucking mutual, sweetheart.”
For a moment, we just stared at each other. The air around us seemed to crackle as if the whole room was full of lightning. Another breath passed.
Then she locked her fingers behind my neck and yanked my mouth down to hers.
Our lips clashed in an angry kiss. Dropping my arm from her collarbones, I instead braced it against the cool stone wall while I wrapped my other one around her back. She kept one hand around the back of my neck as she slid her other down my chest and stomach. After snaking it around the small of my back, she yanked my body harder against hers while she continued stealing every breath from my lungs.
Somewhere deep inside my mind, I knew that I should stop this. I should be cutting my feelings for Audrey out of my heart once and for all. Not feeding them like a fucking addict.
But then she raised her leg and wrapped it around me, trapping my body against hers as she ground her hips against me, and all thoughts of logic and reason flew right out of my head.
I slid my hands down her perfect body and then grabbed the hem of her shirt. My shirt. While still claiming her lips, I pushed the soft, white fabric up her stomach. She moaned into my mouth as my fingers skimmed the curve of her tits. Reluctantly releasing her grip on my neck, she raised her arms, allowing me to yank the shirt over her head. I tossed it to the floor next to us.
She drew her hands down my arms, her fingers digging into my biceps, as I shifted all of my attention back to her. Reaching down, I placed my arms around her ass and lifted her up. Her legs wrapped around my waist while she once again locked her fingers behind my neck and crushed her lips to mine.
The chain still attached to Audrey’s ankle rattled on the floor as I carried her towards the bed. She stole furious kisses from my mouth, as if she had to hurry before I put her down again. My arms tightened around her.
Then the wooden bedframe hit my shins as I reached the bed. Leaning forward slightly, I dropped Audrey down on the mattress. It bounced underneath her as she landed on it before she scrambled backwards to get into a better position. I stripped out of my pants while raking my gaze over her body.
Her cheeks were flushed, and her green eyes still glittered with some of the lingering rage from our fight, which made her look both horny and lethal at the same time. The expression was so intense that it stole my breath. Hell, I wanted her so badly.
After throwing my clothes on the floor, I grabbed the chain still locking her to the bedpost. A gasp ripped from her lips as I yanked the chain, making her slide towards me. She scrambled to sit upright again while I climbed onto the bed. When she finished pushing herself up, she found me already straddling her hips.
I placed a hand against her chest and shoved her back down on the mattress. Hooking one hand around the back of my neck, she yanked me down with her. While bracing myself against the bed with one arm, I reached down and traced my fingers over her pussy.
A shudder coursed through her body as I rolled her clit between my fingers.
By all hell, she was already soaked.
I drew my hard cock through her wetness, teasing her entrance. A frustrated growl rumbled from her chest. After raking her fingers down my back, she pulled my body harder against hers while she raised her hips. I chuckled against her lips, but did what she wanted.
She gasped into my mouth as I thrust my cock into her.
Tearing my lips from hers, I kissed my way across her jaw while I pulled out a little and then shoved into her again. A moan tore from her throat and she dug her fingers into my back. I drew out again before slamming all the way into her. Throwing her head back, she sucked in deep breaths while my lips continued down her throat.
When I reached her collarbones, she drew one of her hands down my arm and towards my wrist. With a firm grip on it, she moved my hand upwards and placed it against her own throat. Then she squeezed her fingers over my hand, making my grip tighten around her neck.
Dark desire and deep satisfaction swirled up inside me.
I wrapped my hand firmly around her throat, cutting off almost all of her air.
A moan of pleasure spilled from her lips as I pounded into her while my fingers restricted her breathing. Leaning down, I kissed that spot below her ear that I knew made sparks dance across her skin and her toes curl. Her eyes shuttered and I could see the release building inside her. I let her suck in one last breath before tightening my grip all the way at the same time as I slammed into her.
Her pussy clamped down around my cock as a violent orgasm coursed through her body. I loosened the fingers around her throat. She sucked in deep breaths, her chest heaving, while I continued riding the wave of pleasure with her until a similar one built inside me.
However, before I could come as well, I pulled out. After we fucked that first time back in Eldar, Audrey had explained that she used her poison magic to prevent unwanted pregnancies. But since I had now bound her magic, she wasn’t able to do that anymore. And I wasn’t taking any chances.
Disappointment blew across her face at first as she blinked and frowned at me in confusion. Then understanding dawned in her eyes. It was followed by some other kind of emotion that I wasn’t at all sure how to interpret.
Placing her hands on my cheeks, she moved my face back down to hers and then gave me a kiss so sweet that I thought my heart was going to shatter.
I rolled over and dropped down on my side next to her while wrapping my arm around her. Then I pulled her warm body tightly against mine. Her chest heaved against the side of my ribs, but she leaned into my embrace.
Insanity crackled through my brain and snapped all of my self-control.
Leaning down, I placed that kiss on her forehead that I had wanted to give her when I woke up.
The feeling of it almost broke my soul.
But I allowed myself this moment. This one moment. Once I climbed out of this bed, this would never happen again. Could never happen again. It was too dangerous. She was too dangerous.
I had to do something to truly shatter this connection between us once and for all. To make her hate me so much that she would never even look at me again.
And I knew just what to do.
