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I move my hand higher, up his chest, to the side of his neck. He releases my pinned wrist, only to grab my thighs and lift me against the wall, settling himself between my legs.

His mouth goes for my lips but I turn his face aside, bringing myself to his ear instead.

Then I bite him gently on the earlobe. My nails dig into the back of his neck, and his entire body tightens. I feel him grow harder against me. I smile.

Boys are so simple. But I’m no better.

My hips move against him slowly, once, then again. His hands tighten on my ass, hard enough that I know I’ll carry the shape of his fingers tomorrow. Instead of stopping him, I breathe louder into his neck. The pain pulls something through me.

His other hand slides up my side toward my breast. He slowly slips the strap of my dress down my shoulder and cups me, thumb brushing over the nipple until my body betrays me again. The loud slap of bodies against the table fades into distant noise. In the silence between us, Nero dismantles my control piece by piece, stripping away every defense I’ve spent years building.

I should stop this.

I should stop him.

Instead, I bury my mouth against his throat so I don’t make noise.

His touch grows rougher, pressure turning into pain, pain turning into heat. I bite his neck to keep quiet, teeth sinking against hot skin. But no blood. I don’t have fangs. Not that kind of a monster.

He takes his time, slow and deliberate, playing with every reaction he pulls from me. My body gives in to him, sinking deeper, when every sane part of me should pull away. He stills for half a second, then lifts me higher until my breasts are level with his mouth. His lips replace his hand, soft at first, slow enough to let me breathe. He kisses the soreness he made, tongue moving gently over skin, and my fingers lock in his hair. My breasts are completely tense.

He doesn’t stop and starts biting. Gently at first, then harder and harder, tugging at my nipple with his teeth. That pain again, spreading through my whole body. I want to scream. I feel his teeth break through my skin. Pain explodes through me. I grip his hair, nails scraping his scalp, but my shadows don’t answer. I can’t call them. Maybe I don’t want to call them. Maybe I don’t want him to stop, and that scares me even more.

A heavy door slams shut somewhere in the basement. The sound yanks me back.

Nero looks up at me from below, eyes faintly glowing blue in the dark. A drop of red shines on my skin where his teeth nicked me. He licks it away slowly.

Reality comes back to me in pieces.

“Let me down,” I rasp.

He lowers me to the floor but doesn’t move away.

“We’re not done,” he says.

“Yes, we are.”

I pull the strap of my dress back into place and try to step around him, but his hand catches my waist.

“What are you trying to prove to yourself again?” he asks. “That you don’t want this?”

“I drank too much moonshine. You caught me off guard. Nothing special happened.”

I try to say it with as much boredom as I can manage, even though my heart is beating harder than it should and I’m wetter between my legs than I was during my last time with Max.

“Nothing special?” Nero lowers his head until his mouth hovers near my ear. “You know I can smell you.”

My throat tightens.

“Every part of you,” he says. “Your hair when you walk. Your skin when you breathe. Your sweat when you feel. And now I smell something more. Something you can’t control.”

His fingers graze the inside of my thigh, moving slowly upward. I catch his wrist and stop him.

“It smells sweet,” he murmurs. His voice drops into a low, rough growl. “You have no idea.”

Then he takes my hand and presses it against the front of his pants. He is hard under my palm, and I can feel myself almost drowning down there. He somehow feels it too.

“There you go,” he says softly. “My stardust girl.”