He smiles then, the first genuine smile I've seen since the grove. “Sleep now. Let your body process what we've shared.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
I gesture toward the obvious bulge straining his pants. “You're still dressed. Still hard.”
“This was for you. To bring me down from the violence, to claim you properly. My needs can wait.”
“What if I don't want them to wait?”
Before he can protest, I push myself up and reach for the fastenings of his pants. He catches my wrists, but gently.
“You've given enough tonight.”
“I haven't given you what you need most.”
“Which is?”
I look up at him, this massive creature who just marked me as his in the most primal way possible. “To know that I want all of you. Not just the controlled lord who feeds carefully from my throat. The dangerous one who kills to protect what's his.”
His grip on my wrists tightens.
“Show me,” I whisper. “Show me what you do when you're not trying tobe careful.”
He strips out of his clothes with brutal efficiency, revealing the body I've only glimpsed before. Pale skin stretched over powerful muscle, scars from centuries of violence, and a cock that makes my newly satisfied pussy clench with renewed want.
“You're sure?”
“I'm sure.”
He covers me then, all heat and weight and barely controlled power. When he pushes inside me, the stretch is almost too much. He's bigger than any human male, and my body has to adjust to accommodate him.
But the bite marks on my thighs pulse with each movement, sending pleasure through pain that makes the stretch feel perfect rather than overwhelming.
“Mine,” he breathes against my throat.
“Yours,” I gasp, wrapping my legs around his waist to pull him deeper.
He moves then, no longer careful, no longer controlled. Each thrust drives him deeper, harder, until I can feel him everywhere. The bed shakes with the force of his movements, and I hold on to his shoulders, nails digging into skin that's finally warm to the touch.
His mouth finds my throat, teeth scraping over the pulse point. “Everyone will see,” he growls against my skin. “Everyone will know you belong to me.”
Before I can respond, his teeth sink in. The bite is deeper than any he's given me before, meant not just tofeed but to mark. To brand me as his where every other lord will see it.
The pain mixes with the pleasure of him moving inside me, creating that perfect storm of sensation that only he can give me. When he bites my shoulder next, then the curve where my neck meets my collarbone, I understand what he's doing.
He's claiming every visible inch of skin. Making sure no other male can look at me without seeing exactly who I belong to.
This is what I wanted. Not the gentle lord who worries about hurting me, but the predator who knows exactly how much I can take and isn't afraid to give it to me.
When he comes, it's with a roar that echoes off the stone walls. His body goes rigid above me, cock pulsing as he fills me completely. The sound and sensation trigger my own climax, and I come around him, inner muscles milking him for every drop.
Afterward, we lie tangled together on sweat-dampened sheets. His arm bands around my waist, holding me against his side while our breathing slowly returns to normal.
“No regrets,” I murmur against his chest.
“None?”
