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“What’s next?” she asks breathlessly.

I reach out, my hand trembling just a fraction as I tuck a wild lock of hair behind her ear. My thumb brushes the corner of that smile, lingering on the soft, damp skin of her lower lip.

“Everything,” I growl, my gaze dropping to her mouth with carnal hunger. “We’re going to break every single thing in this building…”

The heat in my gut flares hotter as my touch drags lower, exposing the wet, pink skin inside her lip.

Why waste energy on breaking more bricks when I have something so much more volatile right here?

“Starting with you,” I murmur, brushing my nose against hers.

Her head tilts, lips parting just a fraction in a silent invitation. So I lean in, and crush my mouth against hers.

Every muscle in her body turns to stone beneath my hands, and I’m already preparing to pull back, to offer some biting, arrogant remark to mask the mistake. But when her tongue meets mine, every thread of restraint that barely existed in the first place snaps.

Saints be-fucking-low.

A low, guttural groan vibrates from my chest into hers, and I thread my fingers deep through those silken strands of hair, fisting them at the nape of her neck to pull her even closer. She lets out a soft, broken whimper, and the iron pipe slips from her grip, hitting the concrete with a heavy, ringing clang that echoes around us.

Her hands scramble for purchase on my shoulders, her nails catching on the stupid coat. I’m hard as a rock in seconds, my blood turning to liquid fire that pools heavy and demanding in my gut. I can smell the arousal on her, washing off in thick, needy waves, cutting through the scent of wet cement and sawdust.

I need her. I need her like I needed that first delicious breath of mortal air when I stepped through the Veil.

Driven by a molten, all-consuming greed, my hand slides from the silk of her hair down the arch of her spine, finding the soft, fleshy curve of her ass. I hike her up, pinning her back against a pillar. Her legs lock around my waist, heels digging into the small of my back as I anchor us in the shadows of the skeletal building.

“My little summoner, so brave and angry with the world,” I rasp, pulling back just enough to see her blown-out pupils and the feverish flush blooming across the tops of her breasts. “You want more, don’t you?”

Her answer doesn’t come in words. It comes in the desperate, instinctive tilt of her pelvis. She rolls her hips against mine, her heat searing through my layers.

“Use your words, Eden,” I command.

My fingers dig into her hips, bruisingly tight, as I anchor her against the stone. I force her to feel every inch of me, my head tipping back as the pleasure spikes behind my eyes.

Every instinct I possess is screaming for the same thing—to be inside her. My tongue, my fingers, my fucking cock. I want to fill every part of her until there’s no room left for anything that isn’t me.

“Tell me what you want,” I growl. “Before I stop being polite about taking it.”

“Yes,” she chokes out, her head falling back to expose the long, pale line of her throat and her pulsing jugular. “Yes. I want... I want more.”

I bury my face in the crook of her neck and press a desperate kiss to her pulse point, and then I bite down. My fangs graze the edge of the skin, sinking in just enough to mark her, hard enough to make her hiss through her teeth. Before the sting can turn to pain, I soothe it, my tongue sweeping over the mark in a long, slow lick.

“Atta girl,” I murmur against her damp skin.

I shift, dropping us both onto a stack of discarded plywood and pallets. A fine cloud of brick dust rises around us, coating our skin in a grey shroud as she settles onto my lap, straddling me.

“Let me take the stress away, Eden. Let me give you something else to cry about.”

I slide my hand down the waistband of her jeans, finding a soft patch of hair that makes my blood roar. Fuck—she’s already soaked for me. I run a single finger through that slick heat, dragging it right over her swollen clit before sliding two deep into her, curling them upward, watching her brow furrow in pleasure.

I can't help it—my other palm connects with her ass in a sharp, stinging slap that echoes through the cavernous construction site.

“Look at you,” I rasp, my thumb circling her clit in time with the rhythmic, punishing force of my fingers inside her. “You’re fucking filthy, aren't you? So fucking pretty when you're coming apart.”

Her breath’s coming in short, desperate hitches that have nothing to do with her stress and everything to do with the way I’m fucking into her.

“That's it, Eden,” I encourage, fangs digging into my lip so hard I taste the metallic tang of my own blood. “Take it. All of it.”

I slide the hand on her ass down the back of her waistband and use her wetness to push against the tight, fluttering ring of muscle, before slowly sliding a finger inside, completely filling both holes.