“Don’t. Not unless you want it over before it’s begun.”

“Is that normal?”

“No, you have a particular way that makes me fucking hard all the time, ready to explode.”

“Are you like that with any other women? I could kill them?”

He groans and buries his face in my neck, biting. “You’re not helping, Lucie Joy. You’re pushing buttons. But you’re not a killer.”

“That I know of.”

“Fuck,” he mutters. “Why is this conversation turning me on?”

Excitement bubbles inside me, and he licks my skin, kissing me up to my lips as he slowly rocks against me.

I kiss him back, enjoying the heat and the stretch, the buzzing desire growing inside, and pleasure bursts like sparks.

And I realize… we’re having sex.

I start to move with him, and things pivot as he lifts his head, eyes intense, passionate, locked on me as he begins to thrust in earnest.

At first they’re shallow, but soon he’s invading me in waves, hitting something that’s delightful and incredible inside. And with each thrust, the little rub of the piercings makes things flutter and clench.

He moves harder, deeper, watching me the entire time until we’re slamming together, the pleasure building higher and higher. I try to gulp down air, but my lungs don’t work. I wrap my arms and legs around him as he claims me over and over, the strokes he’s pushing into me equal parts brutal and delicious.

“More!”

He goes harder, and a small, keening sound breaks free, filling the air as I greedily lift my hips, giving him all the access I can. When he reaches down between us and twists my clit, I cry out, shattering, and he loses control, a pure savage beast, rutting and slamming into me. I let him… I want him to.

His savagery makes the waves hitting me intensify and I think I come again, right when he slams in so deep I can feel his cock jerk inside me, feel the heat of him coming inside me.

And I know I want all that again.

When he’s done, when I’m done, he stays in me, rolling us over so I’m on top. With a stroke of my hair, he says, “Consequences served, Lucie. You belong to me now. In all the ways.”

In that moment, it’s exactly where I want to be, claimed as his.

In that moment.

NINETEEN

callahan

We’re notclose to Central Park, so I run along the West Side Highway paths that take me down to Battery Park and up to around the West Fifties. Then I turn and run back. The park’s better, but this’ll do in a pinch, and while we’ve got a gym at home, I needed to get out of there.

I push myself hard, relishing the burn in my calf muscles. The thump of the music in my ears chases most of my thoughts away.

Apart from the stubborn ones which have everything to do with her.

Lucie.

Fuck.

I took her virginity last night. But that’s not even the problem. I’d always planned to. That was written in stone, me fucking her, ever since she kicked me after rescuing her that first night.

But shit. I didn’t expect it to be so fucking good.

It wasn’t that she was tight.