My hand slides lower, gripping her throat gently but firmly, keeping her exactly where I want her. “Is that what this is? Punishing me because you can’t handle solitude?”
“No,” she snaps, but her voice cracks with raw, vicious honesty. “It’s because when you’re gone, it feels like you forget I exist.”
My control splinters dangerously, and I pull her flush against me, my lips grazing hers with brutal softness. “Forget you?” My voice is guttural, harsh, drowning in violent obsession. “You’re in my blood, Camille. You poison every fucking breath I take. Forgetting you would mean forgetting how to breathe.”
Her lips part, trembling, eyes darkening. “Then breathe with me.”
My grip loosens just enough for my thumb to caress her jaw, deceptively gentle, though every nerve in my body screams with reckless possessiveness. “Understand this,” I rasp, lethal and quiet. “I don’t leave you behind because I forget you. I leave because the things I do, the man I am out there…it’s not safe for you to see.”
Her fingers curl into my shirt, pulling me closer, holding me tighter. “I don’t want safe,” she whispers, desperation threading her words. “I want you.”
Something primitive, unhinged, and dangerously vulnerable surges within me, shattering my resolve. My hand fists her hair, pulling her head back as my lips crash onto hers, violent, claiming, punishing us both. Our breaths tangle, the kiss brutal, edged with the cruel truth we both refuse to admit.
I pull away, just enough to meet her burning gaze.
“Camille,” I warn softly, voice fractured, jagged. “I’m going to drag you into the darkness with me.”
She meets my gaze, unblinking, beautifully ruined, ready to shatter.
“I’m not afraid,” she breathes, eyes burning with fierce defiance. “The dark is where my monster lives.”
The tether inside me snaps, and my restraint disintegrates. I surge forward, gripping her thighs roughly, hoisting her onto the nearest surface. Her back slams against the wall, and I pin her there, trapping her exactly where I need her. Exactly where she belongs.
Her gasp is muffled by my mouth, tongue plunging deep, tasting desperation, surrender, fury. She meets me with equal hunger, her teeth sharp on my lip, pain mingling with pleasure. My hands slide up beneath her ruined dress, fingers biting into her hips hard enough to leave bruises, marks she’ll carry as a twisted reminder that she’s mine.
“Tell me,” I demand roughly, my voice barely recognizable. “Tell me who owns you.”
She arches into me, her thighs tightening around my waist, heat radiating through the fabric separating us. Her eyes flash, defiant and pleading. “You do,” she whispers fiercely. “Eternally… you.”
My chest heaves, ragged breaths fueling the inferno raging between us. I shove her dress higher, exposing the silk-soft skin beneath. Her legs part willingly, inviting my touch, needing it. My fingers slip between her thighs, rough, possessive strokes making her tremble violently against the wall.
“Louder,” I command darkly, lips dragging along the curve of her neck, biting just enough to sting, to claim. “Say it again. Let me fucking hear it.”
“You own me,” she gasps, fingers clawing desperately at my back. “Every part of me, Kane. Body, heart, soul…all yours.”
Her words annihilate the last shred of my control. I free myself, slamming into her in a single, brutal thrust, burying myself deep, relentless, merciless. She screams my name, nailssinking into my shoulders, holding on as I ravage her, claiming her body, her mind, her very fucking essence.
Every thrust punishes us both, the violence of my need undeniable, terrifying, intoxicating. Her hips roll against me, meeting every fierce, ruthless drive with a demand of her own. We’re a beautiful disaster, destruction wrapped in skin, devouring each other as if salvation lies in mutual ruin.
“Mine,” I snarl into her mouth, branding the word onto her tongue. “Always fucking mine.”
She shatters around me, tightening impossibly, a tortured moan tearing from her throat. Her climax rips through her, violent and devastating, dragging me over the edge with her. I erupt inside her with a savage growl, spilling into her the depth of my obsession, marking her irrevocably.
Breathing harshly, forehead pressed to hers, I remain buried deep, still holding her pinned, feeling the aftershocks ripple through us both.
“Never forget this,” I rasp, possessive and broken. “You asked for the monster.”
Her trembling fingers brush my jaw, soft yet certain. She meets my gaze, unwavering even in ruin. “I didn’t ask, Kane,” she whispers fiercely, breathlessly. “I summoned him.”
***
Later, tangled together in my bed, her hair sprawled like midnight silk across my chest, I trace slow, possessive circles along her spine. The room is heavy with darkness, the quiet only punctured by our synchronized breathing, raw and uneven.
My thumb strokes gently over her hip bone, an anchor to remind myself she’s still here, still mine, despite the darkness I dragged her through tonight.
“Camille,” I murmur, my voice rough from our brutality, softer now but still edged with the vulnerability only she can unlock. “There’s something I want.”
She shifts slightly, lifting her head just enough to meet my eyes, wary curiosity flickering in her gaze. “Something else?”