Page 149 of Riot

My breath caught. The man who'd kept me in a cage for ten years. Gone. Just like that.

"How do you feel about that?" he asked, voice low.

I searched inside myself for grief. For shock. For anything that resembled loss.

Nothing.

Just relief. And something else. Something darker that had been building since I walked through his door.

"Free," I whispered.

His grip on my face tightened. "Say it again."

"Free."

The word broke something between us. He rushed his mouth to mine, and this kiss was nothing like before. This was possession. Claiming. The kind of kiss that rewrote history and burned away the past.

I gripped his shirt, pulling him closer, needing to feel every inch of him against me. His hands moved to my waist, lifting me onto the counter in one smooth motion. The cold granite against my thighs made me gasp into his mouth.

"I need you," I breathed against his lips.

"You have me," he growled back. "All of me."

His hands slid up my thighs, pushing my dress higher. The reverence from our first time was gone. This was raw. Desperate. Two people who'd been through hell trying to find heaven in each other's skin.

I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him between my thighs. The hard length of him pressed against me through his jeans, and I moaned into his mouth.

"Bedroom," I managed to say.

"No." His teeth found my neck, biting down just hard enough to make me arch. "Right here. Right now."

His fingers hooked into my panties, tearing them away in one violent motion. The sound of ripping fabric made something primal unfurl in my belly.

"Riot—"

"Tell me you're mine," he demanded, fingers finding me already wet and ready. "Tell me you'll never run from me again."

"I'm yours," I gasped as he stroked me. "Always yours."

He worked me with skilled fingers while his mouth claimed my throat, leaving marks that would be visible tomorrow. Marks that said I belonged to someone. To him.

When I was trembling on the edge, he pulled back. I whimpered at the loss, but then I heard his zipper. Felt him positioning himself at my entrance.

"Look at me," he commanded.

I opened my eyes, meeting his gaze. In that darkness, I saw everything. His rage. His love. His absolute devotion to keeping me safe. To keeping me his.

He pushed inside me in one hard thrust, and I cried out, nails digging into his shoulders. There was no gentleness this time. No careful consideration. Just need.

"This is what you do to me," he growled, setting a punishing pace. "Make me lose control."

I could only hold on as he took me apart, each thrust driving away the memories of cages and lies and betrayal. There was only him. Only us. Only this moment where the past couldn't touch us.

"I love you," I sobbed as the pleasure built to an impossible height. "I love you so much."

"Show me," he demanded. "Come for me, Allure. Let me feel it."

His thumb found that sensitive bundle of nerves, and I shattered. My body clenched around him as waves of pleasure crashed over me, so intense I saw stars.

---