"Put your hands behind your back," I growl, part of me recognizing this is a shade of darkness even my perfect painter couldn't capture on canvas. But another part, the savage Don within me, couldn't care less.

When she complies, placing her hands behind her back, my cock throbs violently.

I grip my base and guide myself to her mouth. She kisses the tip. "What do you want me to do?"

"Open your mouth for your Don. For the man who owns you—the only man who has the right to touch you."

She parts her lips. I guide myself inside, groaning when I feel the slick warmth of her tongue. The most intoxicating aspect is how she looks at me. She moans as I slide in and out, cradling her head in my hands, shifting my hips, claiming her mouth.

When she begins to match my rhythm, moving her mouth in perfect synchrony with my thrusts, I feel my release building. During our lovemaking, I restrained myself because I craved feeling her climax around me. I needed to experience her body trembling for me alone.

But this is about something else. Possession.

"I need to... own you because... no one else can," I groan, her mouth making wet sounds as I quicken my pace. She moans, nodding, encouraging me. "Just me. Only me. Just?—"

I groan as heat surges through me. Her eyes widen when I explode against the back of her throat. Watching her swallow, I nearly keep going, let my dick harden again and claim her beautiful mouth all night long.

Instead, I seize the moment of clarity and step back. "I didn't plan that."

She rises, wiping her mouth. "Don't apologize. Don't explain. I wanted that as badly as you. I wanted you to punish me— to own me. I can't believe I let that bastard poison my mind."

"Don't blame yourself. You've endured far more than anyone should ever have to."

"Do you forgive me?" she asks, a tentative smile touching her lips. "I mean—you punished me."

Somehow, I manage a smirk. "Does it count as punishment if you enjoyed it?"

"Who said I enjoyed it?"

I pull her into my arms. "Your moans gave you away..."

She wraps her arms around me, clutching my back tightly, digging her fingernails into my skin. "Perhaps we're both equally unhinged. If you'd told me earlier this evening that we would... do that, I wouldn't have believed you. But I desperately wanted to make amends."

"You've suffered tremendously, Sienna," I say. "You believed something reprehensible about me... but don't worry, you've atoned."

When she looks up at me, it's miraculous. Somehow, a playful glint illuminates her eyes despite everything that's happened. "It hardly felt like atonement. If anything, it's left me more confused."

"How?"

"Being with you has been a rollercoaster from the beginning. I know, right? Cliché. Nauseating. But it's the truth. Tonight, though, it's been the wildest ride yet. Everything has become so complicated. Before you, I never imagined it possible to have my heart shattered and my world transformed in the same night."

"If I recall correctly, it was my world that was transformed..."

"I enjoyed it too," she confesses softly. "When you were looking down at me, I felt powerful. Like, I was your obsession. It felt exhilarating."

"Youaremy obsession. That's why I can't stand thinking about you believing I would harm an innocent woman. I've killed people, Sienna."

I expect a gasp, some indication of shock, but she merely nods. "I suspected as much."

"But those I've killed deserved their fate. Or I was defending myself. I've never harmed a woman or child. Nor would I." My tone darkens. "Adrian will pay."

"What will you do to him?" Sienna asks.

"String him up. Tear him apart. Make him scream for forty days and nights before finally allowing him to bleed out. But you shouldn't hear these things."

She digs her nails deeper into my skin. "I don't want you concealing anything from me. Your mother told me about the mob, about her position within it."

"She did?"