Chapter Thirty-Seven
Cadence
His kiss was brutal, demanding, all teeth and desperation. My nails dug into the hard muscle beneath his shirt, uncertain if I wanted to push him away or pull him closer.
My body decided for me, arching against his as I moaned. Heat raced through my veins, a wildfire I couldn’t control.
When he broke our kiss, we were both panting. My lips felt bruised, swollen from his assault.
“Don’t you tire of playing these games, wife?” he murmured against my throat as his mouth trailed kisses all the way to my collarbone.
“If you want them to stop, all you have to do is let me go.”
His answering chuckle was far from amused.
It held a dark, sinister edge that made my toes curl.
Ryker’s hand drifted up my body, squeezing my hip, caressing the side of my breast until his palm wrapped around my throat, his fingers digging into my flesh just hard enough to show me who held the power.
“Does this feel like I have any intention of letting you go?” he said, his breath coasting across my lips as he tightened his hold. His knuckles scraped against my skin as he reached for the drawstrings of my pants, yanking at them with a violent impatience that left me trembling.
When the cord refused to yield, he spat out a curse, his teeth bared like a wild animal. He tugged harder, lifting my hips off the ground with the force of it. The sound of the laces snapping sent a jolt of desire through me, white-hot and blistering.
He didn’t give me a second to recover. Ryker’s hand found its way under the band of my panties. His touch was blunt and unceremonious, knifing downward in a relentless search that made me gasp. He pushed a single finger inside my core, and a guttural sound escaped me without permission.
But that wasn’t enough for him.
He thrust another digit inside, crooking them both upward until he found that spot that had color bursting behind my eyelids. I bit down on my lip to keep from screaming.
“You’re fucking soaked, Temptress.” His voice was rough with satisfaction. “For all your talk of leaving, your cunt knows exactly who owns it.”
I wanted to hate him for being right. But my traitorous body clenched around his fingers, drawing him deeper as my hips bucked against his hand.
“You fight me, even when your pussy is begging for it.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” I said, sounding breathless. “It’s hormones, nothing more.”
“You forget, Temptress, I can feel you, feel your arousal through the bond.”
Then something flared to life at the back of my mind. A slight tingling at first, before an intense need enveloped me. My core was on fire, and I felt the urge to claw my skin off just to escape the heat.
My face must have shown my alarm because Ryker’s grin widened. “Now you see what we could be, if only you surrendered to what fate had always intended.”
Gods. It was his arousal. I was feeling his desire through the bond.
Overwhelmed, I turned away from him, but he caught my chin with his free hand, forcing me to meet his gaze.
“Say you’re mine,” he demanded, his thumb pressing against my bottom lip. “Say it.”
“No.” The word was barely audible.
His smile was all predator as his fingers worked their cruel magic between my thighs. “Then I’ll just have to make you scream it instead.”
He withdrew his fingers, leaving me empty and aching. Before I could protest, he flipped me onto my stomach with alarming ease. The earth was cold beneath my palms as he yanked my pants down in one swift motion.
My face burned with humiliation and arousal, a toxic combination that made me want to weep with frustration. I heard the clink of his belt buckle, the swish of his laces, and then I felt the blunt head of his cock pressing against my entrance.
His large palm pressed against my lower back, forcing my submission. And yet, pleasure coiled tight within me, needy and wanton.
“The more you fight me, the more desperate the beast inside me becomes to claim you, to hear you say you’re ours, and only ours. Now tell me, who do you belong to, Cadence?”
“Anything I feel for you is a result of the twisted loyalties you forced upon me when you gave me that cursed ring!”
His laugh was a dark rumble that reverberated through my bones. “So stubborn.” He tsked. “Tell yourself whatever you need to, Temptress. I’m sure your lies soothe the ache you feel between your thighs every time you look at me.”
Fucking bastard!
I didn’t have time to protest, however.
When he entered me, it was without warning or gentleness. The stretch was exquisite agony, my body simultaneously resisting and yielding to his invasion. I couldn’t stop the cry that tore from my throat, raw and primal.
“You think you can deny what’s between us?” His voice was like gravel, his weight against my spine. “You think you can run from this?”
Ryker’s calloused palm landed hard on the exposed flesh of my ass, and I forced myself to stifle my cry, refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing what he did to me.
“Still fighting?” he asked, his voice a dangerous caress against my ear as he draped his body over mine once more. The weight of him pinned me to the ground, his firm chest pressed against my back. “Let’s see how long that lasts.”
I felt him, all of him, hard and insistent against the curve of my ass. His hands gripped my hips with bruising force, pulling me up and holding me in place as if I might still try to escape.
Perhaps I would if my body weren’t betraying me so completely.
His hand found my breast, squeezing it roughly until I gasped. The pleasure was all-consuming, intense, and suffocating, as though he’d buried his fangs in my flesh.
My hips rocked against him, needing more as I met each of his thrusts.
“Look at you. So eager for the man you claim to hate. Just be honest with yourself, Temptress. You love it when I use you like you’re my whore.”
“Fuck you,” I said on a gasp, the words lacking any real venom.
His laughter was razor-sharp. “Happy to oblige, wife.”
His movements became wild as he invaded my body. His fingers twisted into the loose strands of my hair, tugging roughly, the pain mixing with the pleasure. The head of his cock pressed against something deep inside of me, and I whimpered as white spots filled my vision.
“So needy,” he mocked, clicking his tongue.
And through it all, the lust and heat clouding my mind, a single word sang out, begging me to listen.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
“I hate you,” I said, attempting to dispel the intrusive thoughts.
“Hate me all you want,” he murmured, one hand sliding up my spine to seize the back of my neck. “Your hatred feeds me just as sweetly as your desire.”
I closed my eyes, trying to shut him out, to retreat into some part of myself he couldn’t reach. But his grip tightened, forcing my head down until my cheek pressed against the dirt. He angled my face to the side, and I could feel his gaze on me.
“Look at me,” he said, slowing his pace to torturous, shallow thrusts that made me want to rip him to shreds. “Open your eyes and look at me while I fuck you.”
When I refused, he pulled out. The sudden emptiness was worse than any punishment. My body clenched around nothing, desperate and hollow.
“Ryker.” The plea escaped before I could stop it.
His voice sounded like sweet poison in my ear. “You deny me, deny our bond, yet you still expect me to give you what you want. That’s not how this works, Cadence. Not anymore.”
His fingers found the bundle of nerves between my thighs, and he drew slow, lazy circles around my nub. A low keening noise erupted from me. His strokes quickened as he sent me careening toward the edge. Just as I was about to hit the peak, he stopped, withdrawing his hand.
“No.” The single word was a ragged sob.
“You want to come, Temptress?”
It wasn’t a question. It was a taunt, a challenge.
“Beg me for it. Give in to me.”
I sucked in a harsh breath. The silence between us was charged, electric.
“Please.”
The bond pulsed to life, his satisfaction at my submission flooding through, mingling with my arousal to the point of pain. Tears pricked my eyes, and the pressure of his fingers at my nape sent shivers cascading down my body.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
The chanting was so loud now that it blocked out all other sounds, all reason.
Ryker thrust into me, his rhythm punishing. I felt him swell inside me, stretching me to my limits. My pussy clenched around him as pleasure built low in my stomach. Each thrust drove me closer to the edge.
When I came undone, it was with his name falling from my lips like a prayer. Ryker’s movements became jerky, more erratic, more desperate. The pulsing waves of my orgasm triggered something primal in him.
His fingers dug into my hips as he chased his own release; the sound of skin against skin sang out all around us. He drove himself into me with a ferocity that bordered on violent. The sounds that tore from his throat were more beast than man.
I felt him spill inside me, hot and claiming, marking me in the most primitive way possible. His body went rigid above mine, muscles locked as he emptied himself.
A guttural groan vibrated through his chest, sending aftershocks rippling through my oversensitive body. The bond flared between us, our pleasure intertwining until I couldn’t tell where his ended and mine began.
For several heartbeats, we lay there in the dirt, his weight pinning me down as we both struggled to breathe. The open field was eerily quiet, as though nature itself was holding its breath in the aftermath of our violence, waiting to see who would draw next blood.
When Ryker pulled away, the loss of his warmth made me shiver. I stayed pressed against the ground, unwilling to face him, as confusion warred with satisfaction.
It would be so easy to give in to him. To let him claim me and care for me as he promised he would. But when the sweat cooled on my skin, his countless betrayals would remain.
He would still be the man who murdered my mother, and nothing could ever change that.
The rustling of fabric drew my attention, and I watched in silence as Ryker tugged my pants back into place. When he was done with his own clothing, he lifted me from the ground, pressing me against his chest.
I inhaled his familiar scent, letting it wash over me and calm my racing mind.
“Come, Temptress, let’s get you home.”
The soft press of his lips against my forehead was too much to resist. I let myself embrace the moment, just this once, as he stepped into the shadows.