His heated eyes aren’t focused on my face anymore. With my leg suspended mid-air, he has a complete view of my black lace underwear.
He does a deliberate job of licking his lips. “Nice.”
My cheeks warm as I twist and free myself. Shadow tries to get a hold of me while I hit him without any mercy or remorse.
Problem? I don’t think he feels my hits or even cares. He keeps flashing me those infuriating grins as if he’s enjoying my struggle.
I know I shouldn’t let him get under my skin, and that being worked up will be the sure way to lose, but I can’t help it. I charge at him with all my might. He imprisons me from behind, his tattooed arms hugging me tightly.
“Give it up, beautiful.” Hot, sultry words whisper in my ear.
Shivers dance along my skin at the feel of him. All of him. From the broadness of his shoulders, to the slight stubble grazing my cheek, to the bulge at the small of my back.
“Never,” I groan and elbow him, but again, it does nothing. Either his muscles are too hard or he really gives no fucks about pain.
He continues whispering in my ear, “You might change your mind about me, you know.”
I laugh, long and humourless. “What’s there to change about a hollow monster?”
Shadow’s leniency seems to fly out of the window. He spins me around so fast, I turn dizzy. I don’t get to analyse the darkness swirling in his expression.
He slams his lips against mine.
Shadow doesn’t kiss, he devours. His tongue plunges inside and finds mine in an uncontrollable frenzy. I can’t keep up with his bruising, possessive claim. My body sags against his wet chest that smells of cloves and the lake’s water. I’m lightheaded and it feels like drowning and going under. I can see the surface, it’s within the tips of my fingers, but I don’t want to reach out. Even though I can’t breathe, I keep falling into Shadow’s unapologetic claiming.
When he breaks free, both of us are panting. He murmurs against my swollen lips, “You’re kissing the monster.”
His mouth goes back to abusing my lips. He pries them open and thrusts his tongue inside with more maddened urgency. It’s as if he’s punishing me and stripping away every ounce of control I have.
Well, not so easy.
I bite his tongue, not hard enough to draw blood, but it’s enough to push him. Or that’s what I think. Shadow doesn’t pull away. He bites my tongue back until the metallic taste fills my mouth. A zip of pleasure sprouts from the sharp pain.
God. I must be so sick in the head to find this pleasurable.
His hand slips through the slit of my dress.
He takes his sweet arse time roaming the tip of his fingertips on the swell of my breasts, but he doesn’t touch where I’m aching the most. My nipples throb and peak for attention, but Shadow doesn’t do them any favours.
I’m shivering, and it has nothing to do with his wet clothes gluing against me.
He shoves me against the cushions. I fall so hard, I don’t even get a chance to think. My body moulds into the soft cloth, and strange need spirals inside me. Shadow’s strong thighs straddle my stomach. Blood smears his lips. He licks it like some vampire, keeping his overcast eyes on me.
My blood. He licked my blood. I should be disgusted, but my body has a mind of its own and is firing up for his touch.
“I hate you!”
He yanks both my wrists above my head and holds them in one hand. His calloused fingers find my nipple through the cloth and he pinches the peaked pebble.
A zip of pleasure shoots across my spine, and I cry out.
“Say that again,” he taunts.
“I hate you! I despise you. I loathe your existence.”
There’s a sick pleasure in my outburst.
“You wish you do.” He lowers his head, and to my horror, my dress has bunched up to the middle of my waist. My lower half is splayed for Shadow’s wild eyes.
I love the unhinged way he looks at me. It’s as if I drive him as crazy as he drives me.
He cups me through my underwear and slips his forefinger beneath the cloth and into my wet, slick folds. A fierceness takes over his features. “I love how much you hate me.”
I groan even though my body is arching into him. “Fuck you, arsehole.”