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“Come in, Raven.”

I wasn’t ready to see him again. I hadn’t sorted through the menagerie of wild animals that he had let loose within my chest nor the firestorm in my blood.

“I brought you some clothes. And dinner should be—” He stopped dead in his tracks when our gaze locked. “Caoilfhionn’s breath.”

“Nothing you haven’t seen before, Raven.”

Hunger banked in his eyes, and my body ached to let him loose on it.

“I’ve never seen you like this,” he whispered, setting a wine-red dress on the bed along with a chemise, a surcoat, and a pair of shoes. The comb he held, as well as the small pot of something, remained in his hand, though. “Can I brush it for you?”

“Only if you promise to pull it a few times.”

The flames within me took control of my tongue and said what had been floating on the surface of my mind.

“Little bug.” His voice turned dark and dangerous. “I’ve come to care for you.”

Emboldened by his response, I turned fully in the chair, so I was looking at him and not at the stunning wooded vista outside the open window. My toes barely touched the floor, but I kept my knees tightly pressed to each other as my fingers traced up and down my thighs, drawing his eye to them. I felt the electricity within me stir, answering to his nearness as I teased him, inching my knees apart slowly. “Is that a statement of fact or a statement of intent?”

He swallowed hard against the lust growing thick within the room with us.

“Yes,” he grated out, taking a step toward me. “First your hair . . . and then . . . dinner . . . yes. Food.”

“And if I’m hungry for something else?” I asked as my knees came full apart and let him lock his gaze on my slick center. I drew my finger down my inner thigh and dipped into my slippery, silken heat.

He watched, hypnotized by me, as I stroked my throbbing clit, sending unrestrained shudders through my body.

“Then, after dinner, if you’ve been a good girl, I’ll let you pick the bed or the Maw.” He loomed over me, his head dipping to be a whisper away from our lips touching again. His hand, covered this time in a sleek glossed leather glove, caught my wrist and held me still. “But if you keep doing that, you won’t have a choice at all, and I am ravenous for you.”

“Then, get down on your knees and slake your hunger,” I moaned, my hips rising to find friction against our joined hands.

“Feidlimid be good.” He groaned as his fingers explored my slick satin and slowly toyed with the sensitive flesh that burned for him. “Sóna, have mercy on me.”

There was something intoxicating about having this behemoth of a warrior at my fingertips, begging me for mercy.

I would be his merciful goddess. Just this once.

“Kiss me, and I’ll grant your wish.” I tipped my head back and waited for him to comply.

He never did. Instead, he untangled our grip from each other and took two steps away from me. “You aren’t in your right mind. This isn’t your choice. Get dressed, please. When you’re done, I’ll braid your hair.”

It should have burned, his rejection, but I could see that he was suffering as much as I was for his refusal. His normally sun-kissed skin had lost two shades and looked pale and clammy to the touch. He was clenching his fists, the knuckles of his glove stretching taut as he stared at me. He would have been better off running a ten-day marathon than he was staring me down and refusing to fuck me when I very clearly was begging him to do so.

“Remind me of this the next time you want me to come for you.” I cut him a glare as I pushed out of the chair and went to the chemise, pulling it over my head.

He stopped me, holding me captive with the chemise half over my head, and slammed his lips down on mine through the pale linen of the gown. I hadn’t been expecting it. I was totally off guard, and the sparks that lived within me sizzled back to life. “The next time I want you to come for me, little bug, you will be screaming, begging me to let you.”

He was pulling away, and I could not tolerate that. Could not tolerate the way his body left mine cold when it was not pressed to me. My leg rose and hooked around his hips, drawing him back flush against me. His resistance was tissue paper in a monsoon, and his lips found mine again through the linen that both blinded and restrained me. The hot brand of his hands found the small of my back and crushed the scant bits of air between us.

His lips burned mine, scorching the fabric, and I could almost smell them burning as the sleek sensation of his glove slid down the back of my thigh and hooked my other leg up around his hips. He held me aloft without a single twitch of exertion, cradling and kneading the flesh of my ass as I ground down into the rock-hard bulge held back by the leather tie of his breeches.

Every undulating slide of my slick core against the fabric was accentuated by the power of his massive hands guiding and the thrust of his hips against me. Even the slightest friction created by us snaking against each other, l was driving me crazy. Any thought that was not him and this moment evaporated the moment his lips touched mine.

The sun within me burned away all thoughts of what he had done. What it meant. Who he had made me.

All I could think of was this. His flesh against mine, and our bodies locked against each other.

Once again, it was he who had the willpower to rip himself away from me, but he didn’t go far. The gentle press of his forehead against mine as we panted ragged breaths, trying to fill rebelling lungs with air washed over me with a sense of contentment.