Nex lifted his head, a dark smile forming. “Trust me, kitten. You’renotready for the things I want to do to you.”
“How do you know? What do you want to do?”
“What do I want to do to you?” His hand moved at a tantalizingly slow speed up her stomach and between her breasts, fingers curling around her throat. “I want to dominate you. What I want is much rougher than what I just did. I want to punish you when you give me trouble. I want to make you wait to come until you feel like it’s less of a want and more of aneed.” He turned her head and bit her neck hard enough a moan built in her throat. “I want to tie you up and smack that beautiful ass until it turns red while I fuck you. I want to claim and taint every inch of you until there’s no doubt in your mind that you’remine, until I’ve ingrained myself so much you can’t be touched by someone else without thinking of me and wishing my hands were on you.”
Kat’s lips parted. It wasn’t foreign to her, just different to hear out loud. Although her hands fidgeted, the neediness between her legs heightened with every word.
He released her throat and traced her lips, watched her tongue dart out and touch his thumb. A half-smile escaped, and Kat took it as a victory. Moments when he stared like that made her feel she couldn’t go a day in her life without him.
Sobering, she chewed her lip, the comments about their relationship eating at her nerves. “Nex?”
“What?” His expression softened. “What is it?”
“What, um . . .” She tugged on the neckline of her dress. “Uh.” Unsure how he’d respond, her breaths shallowed. Was it silly to want a label given he didn’t live in this realm?
“What’s wrong, kitten? Was I too rough?”
“No.” Kat shook her head. “No, that was,” she licked her lips, heat flooding her body, “mm-hmm.”
“Mm-hmm?” Nex quirked an eyebrow and tried not to laugh at how adorable she was.
“Don’t.” Kat planted her face in his chest.
“Don’t what?” Nex wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her head, backing off before she retreated to another room and refused to speak to him. It’d already happened once, and while it was entertaining, he didn’t want to embarrass her. “It was mm-hmm for me too. Now, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” Kat folded her hands in her lap. “Today, someone asked if you were my boyfriend.” She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “And I-I didn’t know what to say.”
“What do you want to say? Are you bringing it up because that’s what you want?”
“I don’t know. I guess I want to know . . . that there’s only me.”
Nex grabbed her chin. “Katherine, there’s no one but you. Only you. I better be the only one for you.”
“Of course you are. I don’t want anyone else.” Kat’s gaze dropped to her dress, where she smoothed out wrinkles that weren’t there. “So, you don’t want to be together like that?” She looked up at him, heart pounding so hard she wasn’t convinced it wouldn’t leap out.
“If you want to call it that, call it that. You want to be my girlfriend? Very well, you’re my girlfriend. The label doesn’t matter to me because it means nothing in my realm. There aren’t titles that shift depending on how serious someone is or isn’t. There’s noit’s complicatedor boyfriends or fiancés or spouses. That’s not how it works, but if it makes you feel better, then sure, you’re my girlfriend, and I’m your boyfriend. But if we’re abiding by human labels, then you better submit to mine as well.”
Kat tilted her head. “What’s yours?”
“Mine.” His hand slid between her legs. “Mine is that you aremine.” He flattened his palm on her back to hold her in place, thrusting his fingers into her. “You belong to me. Call me whatever you like, kitten, but when I ask who you belong to,” he sunk his fingers in harder, “your answer damn well better be me.”
Kat whimpered. His fingers pumped in and out, building her up again. Kat set her hand on his face. “Are you mine, too?”
The gesture swelled Nex’s heart. Innocence poured from her big green eyes. Her tender touch and delicate hands crumbled the walls he’d kept up for everyone else. He’d never belonged to anyone, but Kat was different. She wasn’t just his. He was hers, and every part of him belonged to her.
“Of course I’m yours.” He turned, kissing the palm of her hand. “I belong to you and only you, Katherine. No one will ever compare to you. Your turn.” He growled, stuffing her with a third finger. “Tell me what I want to hear.”
“I’m yours.” Kat whimpered as he curled his fingers inside her.
“Who do you belong to?” He shoved them in harder.
She panted, eyes shut, on the brink of another release. “You.”
“Look at me when you say it.” He snatched her jaw and turned it toward him. He needed to hear it again, to hear it a million times, because he couldn’t imagine being without her. “Who do you belong to?”
“You.” She stared into his eyes, never wanting to look into any others. Her hands fisted his shirt as the pleasure washed over her, lightening her body all the way down to her toes. “I’m yours, Nex.”
Nex admired her flushed face, her glazed eyes. He was unsure how he reached this point with her. The point he couldn’t imagine not being with her. The first time in all the years he’d existed that he belonged to someone.