open arms. I accepted all of him. I wanted all of him, even this dark, dangerous part.
Especially this dark, dangerous part. It called to the darkness in me, and for the first time, I didn’t resist their joining. I surrendered on a sigh, not only to him, but to myself. I was done doubting my judgment. I was done denying what was between us. I embraced the most frightening, thrilling parts of myself, just as I embraced his.
Nothing bad could come of it, because Raúl was everything good in my world: my savior, my protector.
I wanted him. I wanted us.
Suddenly, he grabbed my waist and shifted back. Before I could fall, he threw me over his shoulder. He carried me towards the bed; a hungry beast dragging his prize to his lair.
The stomach-drop fear at falling burst into a giddy shout when my back hit the soft mattress. Raúl didn’t seem to share my slightly drunken mental state. His granite face was carved in forbidding lines as he grabbed my wrists and pulled them above my head. He held them there in one hand while his other reached into the nightstand drawer.
Light glinted off silver handcuffs, and my heart squeezed at the hard flash in his eyes. He bared his teeth in defiance as he closed the metal restraints around my wrists, locking me in the debilitating cuffs that the cops had threatened to use on him. He’d feared that they would take him from the safety of his home. He’d feared that they would lock him away, where he’d never be able to touch me again.
“Raúl…” His name hitched in my throat as I felt his pain knifing in my own chest.
His eyes hardened to jade again, and he fixed me with a scowl. He didn’t want my soft concern. He wasn’t ready to accept it.
He pulled away from me, leaving me bound in place with the cuffs looped around one of his unyielding iron bedposts.
Despite my aching heart, desire coiled low in my belly as I watched him remove his clothes with sharp, angry jerks of his powerful limbs. When he was fully naked, he towered over me; my angry, dark, wounded god. He tipped his chin back, studying my helpless body at his leisure. Heat flared beneath my flesh, leaving fiery trails of lust beneath his blazing gaze.
By the time his weight settled over me, I was burning up, desperate for his touch. Pain or pleasure, I’d welcome whatever he chose to give me. Every inch of my skin crackled and danced, and I doubted I’d be capable of telling the difference between agony and ecstasy.
The bruising squeeze of his huge hands on my breasts triggered an answering, aching throb between my legs. His fingers closed around my nipples, pinching and tugging on the sensitive buds as his teeth sank into the soft flesh where my neck met my shoulder. Sharp pain bloomed into bliss, becoming transcendent. The endorphins and adrenaline flooding my body rushed through my mind, sending me flying high. He was the only solid thing tethering me to reality: his cruelly possessive hands; his immense strength; his earthy, grounding scent.
I tried to reach for him, not knowing if I wanted to push him away and escape the pain, or if I wanted to pull him closer, urging more of this sweet torment. The unyielding handcuffs clattered against the iron bedpost and bit into my delicate wrists, adding a new ache to the overwhelming assault on my senses.
His corded muscles flexed, pressing into my flesh as he brutally claimed every vulnerable inch of my body. His cock was hard against me, but he didn’t drive into my sex to use me for his own sadistic pleasure. He was handling me mercilessly, making me suffer, just as he’d promised. But this wasn’t a violation. He was staking his claim over me, branding me with his ruthless touch. He was ensuring that I would always know who I belonged to, and he would always know that I belonged to him.
His angry, frustrated growls dropped to the low, primally satisfied hum that indicated his pleasure with me. As I submitted to his torment with wild abandon, the barrier of rage he’d slammed between us dropped away. He felt my surrender in a deeper, more innate part of his brain than my words could reach, and his anguish was soothed by my eager acceptance of his harsh claim.
He pulled back slightly, so his blazing eyes could capture mine. His