I force a smirk onto my face, even though my heart is racing so fast I might actually die right here, right now, impaled on the cock of the man who's offering me everything I've ever wanted.
"Your vows mean nothing with just words, Wilder," I say, using his last name like armor.
His eyes flash—challenge accepted.
"Fine." His voice drops even lower, rougher. "Let me do something that will make you understand."
Then he bites his bottom lip.
Hard.
Hard enough that I see the moment skin breaks, blood welling up and pooling on his lip—dark red, arterial, proof of commitment rendered in biology.
"Kiss me," he whispers.
The command shouldn't turn me on.
Shouldn't make my pussy clench around him, make more slick flood out to ease the way for his knot, and make every nerve ending in my body light up like I've been struck by lightning.
But it does.
All of it.
I lean down—helpless, compelled, unable to resist the pull of his bleeding mouth—and kiss him.
The taste of copper explodes across my tongue.
His blood mixes with my saliva, metallic and intimate and so fucking primal that I moan into his mouth. He kisses me back hard, one hand leaving my hip to tangle in my hair, holding me in place while he claims every inch of my mouth with his tongue.
When we break apart, we're both gasping.
Both so far past the point of rational thought that I'm surprised either of us can still form words.
His blood stains my lips.
I can feel it—warm and wet and marking me as his in a way that should terrify me but instead feels like coming home.
"Bite me and seal the deal, Sweetness."
The words register slowly.
Penetrating through the haze of lust and fear and desperate, aching need that's been building since the moment I crashed into him at the post office.
Bite him.
Bond with him.
Make this permanent.
My eyes widen—mismatched irises focusing on his face with sudden, sharp clarity.
He's serious.
Completely, utterly serious.
There's no hesitation in his expression, no second-guessing, no fear of what comes next.
Just certainty.
