by throwing me off a cliff.” I’m gasping hard at saying those words out loud as they awaken the agony of being thrown aside like I was nothing. The memory stings horribly.
But Ragnar doesn’t react.
I turn my head from him, tears burning in my eyes, and suddenly a scorching embarrassment encases me, just as it must have done for the men revealing their secrets. I don’t want to see the pity in his eyes, or worse yet, have him think of me as so unworthy that my own fated mate didn’t want me. But there’s nowhere for me to run when he’s got me pinned under him.
He lowers himself closer and his mouth claims mine once more. Instead of hunger, this time he kisses me softly across my lips, luring me to him as sweetly as honey. A tear slides from the corner of my eye from the emotions burning inside me. His breathing intensifies and his fingers sliding across my jawline and holding me there as he breaks our kiss.
“I promise you, little fox, that I will destroy that fucking asshole for hurting you. I will make him endure unbearable suffering.” The intensity of his stare comes with sincerity and he means every damn word. Instead of making me feel humiliated for uncovering my secret, he promises me retribution, he stands up for me.
He runs a finger under an eye, catching my loose tear. Despite his huge size and dominating demeanour, he is a man whose values are deeply seeped in loyalty to those close to him.
I shouldn’t be excited by his promise, but it ignites a blaze deep within me. His desire is laced with mine, and feelings I shouldn’t experience lurk under the surface. I don’t want to think about what happens when we go our separate ways, or that I might pine for someone else like my wolf has been doing.
When he kisses me with promises of what he’ll offer me, with giving me what Martell never could, a glimmer of hope chases away the worry.
My heart stutters at how easily I’m falling over the edge for Ragnar.
Every inch of my body seems to wake up, vying for his attention.
He licks my neck in long strokes as his hand tugs up my shirt, his actions rough and fast. Inching down my body, he pulls back the fabric of my bra and smiles at my exposed breasts.
I’m trembling, half tempted to cover myself, but there’s something incredibly rewarding to have such a powerful Alpha study me like he’ll destroy the world if anyone gets between us.
“You want to know my secret,” he whispers, then runs his mouth between the valley of my breasts.
A humming sound is all I can manage as his tongue teases my breasts, making his way up to my nipples. “My fated mate rejected me too.”
His mouth instantly falls onto my nipple and he suckles on me, while his hand glides down my stomach and opens the buttons of my pants.
I’m hit by a powerful arousal at the flick of his tongue. A simple touch ignites the fire of desire intensifying in the pit of my gut, and I don’t think I could stop even if I wanted to.
Yet his words circle on my mind as his fingers circle my other nipple, and my wolf is there, reminding me I am making a huge mistake.
“Wait… is that true?” His soulmate rejected him too? What could have happened between them? And now, when I stare into his eyes, I see so much more than a powerful Alpha. He wears the scars of his past as protection. I wonder how long it will take me to be like him.
He groans a yes, then tugs on my nipple gently. I cry out with pleasure, easily forgetting what I’d just been thinking about. Before I can even get my bearings of what comes next, he lifts my legs and rests my ankles against his shoulders.
“I want to see all of you, if you’re going to be mine.” He smirks, and I’m breathing too hard to truly make sense of his words. He’d said this was a fake mating, right? To confuse my wolf.
His fingers curl under the band of my pants and underwear, then he tugs them over my hips and pulls them down my legs, then yanks them off past my boots.
I gasp at how quickly we’re moving now, at how much I’m drowning under him that my mind can’t catch up.
I don’t see where he throws