Chapter 17 Mercy #2
He groaned lowly. "I could never deny myself anything when it came to you. And I sure as hell couldn’t deny you—never. Not then, and not now."
Before she could blink, his hands were on her hips, and he hoisted her up until her legs were hooked around his waist. She locked her hands around his nape, fingers threading through the smooth, short hair there. Her lower half shifted against him.
The hands on her waist tightened, stilling her.
"Not so fast, wife." Rhyden started to walk backward, and when his legs hit the bed, he sat with the grace of a predator, Rin on his lap, her legs splayed over his strong thighs. "Don’t get any fucking ideas. I’m in control. Not you. If I fuck you, it’ll never be like it was between us.
Never again." She gasped sharply as his fingers twisted in the back of her hair, and he tilted her head back so far she nearly toppled off his lap.
"That’s the only way this can happen. Say you understand—say it. "
The words were at the tip of her tongue. A curse, not an agreement. But god, her plan, it hinged on this. Without her schemes, maybe this still would’ve happened eventually.
Maybe they were destined to collide like this.
That was why Rin found her lips parting, words spilling out:
"I understand. It’ll never be like that between us." Why did that make a distant part of her Soul ache?
The room spun. She landed on her back, bouncing on the mattress, with Rhyden looming over her. He cupped the base of her throat, and she dropped her chin, hiding the vulnerable spot of her neck away.
"Hiding from me?" Rhyden leaned down, nosing along the side of her neck, while his thigh forced between hers, rubbing against her core. Her leggings were a thin barrier.
"Maybe I like the chase," Rin countered. Seduction came easier when she didn’t force it. "Maybe I want you to work for it."
"You have no idea the monster you just riled." He smiled, revealing his fangs. His hands were skilled and torturously slow as he inched her shirt up the expanse of her stomach. Cool air stirred her nipples into taut peaks, and he grinned down at her bare chest. "No bra?"
She clenched her jaw, reaching for his belt buckle, her fingers working it open hastily.
He let her, all while his touches were lazy.
Teasing. When the metal of his buckle slapped her hand as she freed it, her trembling fingers dove inside his waistband, skimming over the line of his boxers.
She brushed the hair under his navel, heart in her throat.
Rhyden leaned down, uncaring that she had a one-track mind, as his lips wrapped around her nipple. Her back arched. She couldn’t let herself fall into rapture. Not so easily. And never with him. No matter how much his touch threatened to pull her into the depths of wanton pleasure.
Rin arched up into him, his thigh pressing against her core.
He switched to her other breast, and her fingers finally skimmed under his waistband, hesitant.
Like a predator, he scented her naivety in the air and laughed against her breast, sending vibrations rippling out as his teeth nipped her flesh.
His lips glistened as he hovered over her. "Cute," he huffed. "Are you sure you know what you’re doing?"
She was no longer totally naive, but her first time on Sibeth had been cloaked in neon, too fast for her to keep up. This time, there was no denying what was to come, and Rhyden was making her work for it.
Emboldened by his taunting words, she gripped his length, hindered slightly by his jeans. "You tell me."
Rhyden groaned, head falling to her chest, hand locked around her throat. He pulled away, so close his breath seeped into her open mouth. "I want to ruin you."
And Rin nodded… tremulous, but evident.
His lips fell to hers.
Punishing.
And deadly.
When she felt the threat of his fangs, she ripped her mouth away, heaving, breasts against his chest. His shirt forced them to part, and when it was thrown over his head, he claimed her again.
Every time she felt his fangs, she moved her head.
It became a dangerous dance between them.
She gasped as he rolled down her leggings.
When she was only in her dampened panties, and he in his dark jeans, unzipped and slung low, unease gripped her.
Was she really going to do this?
She stilled, lips slackening against his as his tongue swept inside her mouth.
Rhyden pulled back, hands tightening against her. "Want me to stop?"
"No." Rin urged his face back to hers. "Keep going."
He cupped her breasts, fingers teasing, brushing against her nipples. His rings burned against her skin. Rin’s hand stalled where it was wrapped around him. He bucked into her palm.
She felt… powerful, even as he punished her with every kiss.
Rhyden yanked down her panties with such force, the edges cut into her hips, tearing slightly.
The faint ripping sound worked them both higher.
Static shocked her skin as his rings grazed the soft skin under her navel, traveling lower until his fingers dipped into her wet heat.
She gripped him fiercely, punishing him just as he was her—she was unable to wrap her hand fully around his thick, hard length.
His pants and boxers came off, and his bare heat pressed her into the mattress. Her thighs were a cradle for his hips, and his length was an undeniable weight on her thigh.
Rin’s fingers curled on his chest as she tried to peer down between their bodies.
"Scared yet?" he taunted, as if trying to get her to stop this.
"You’re… big," she managed. Dark shadows were between their flushed chests, hiding him from her full view.
But she felt him against her. His size. Kindling fear welled in her belly, even while desire sparked at the apex of her thighs, where his fingers lazily brushed her wetness, diving deeper until they prodded at her entrance. "Will it fit?"
His hair fell over his forehead, tickling her temples. "It will. You can take me."
She shivered from the promise in his words.
Suddenly, he gripped her upper thighs, spreading her wide. She gasped, feeling the stretch burn the muscles of her inner thighs. He fixed her body until she was just so, lifting her lower half until it nearly hovered over the mattress, held by his strong hands.
"But not tonight," Rhyden added lowly. "Not all the way."
"What do you mean?" She was overwhelmed by the way he held her thighs open, air breezing over her exposed flesh.
One of his hands released her thigh, and her skin tingled in the absence of his touch. She knew she would have bruises there—from him.
He did something, hand reaching low between them, in that place she could not see. His knuckles brushed her core, and she flinched from the sudden spike of arousal. He nudged against her entrance, and she felt something catch. It was cold.
"I’m not going to go all the way with you.
Not tonight. And maybe not ever. If you can prove you’re a good little wife, I might fuck you in truth one day.
But not now. Especially not knowing the others could come back in hours or less.
That’s not long enough for what I want to do to you.
I want you dripping for days when I’m finished. "
He nudged deeper, teasing. Even that searching push into her once-claimed place was a stretch on her untrained muscles.
She was at a loss. "What are you… talking about, Rhyden?" She made an embarrassing huff when he pushed deeper into her. She felt the tip of his finger trace against where the tip of his cock met her entrance, as if testing the give.
"Have you ever been fucked before?"
She nodded.
"Don’t tell me who," he gritted. "I don’t want to know.
Especially if it was one of those goddamn fools.
" His lips pressed into her ear, fangs teasing her earrings.
"If you ever remember our past, you’d know how insatiable you were for me.
Proper with everyone, but never in our bed, in the privacy of the home you stole from me. " The last words were a hissing growl.
"I stole nothing from you."
He drove forward. She gasped, hands shooting up to grip his shoulders, nails cutting into his skin. She felt herself give under him. Just as she felt that cool, hard thing catch against her, teasing her flesh with every breath of space he claimed as he pushed deeper within her.
She shoved at his shoulders, curious. When she peered down between their bodies, she saw a glimmer of silver on his hard flesh.
A piercing.
It caught against her—a barrier he seemed unwilling to cross. It was cool, yet warming with every passing moment from their shared heat; steady friction built between them.
His control was fraying, and if Rin weren’t hell-bent on keeping hers, she would’ve given in long ago to the feel of him between her thighs. She ached and burned, and he wasn’t even all the way inside her yet.
"God, you feel amazing. I hate it. I loathe you," the vampire spat.
She gripped his face; the nails of her right hand left crescents in his shoulder. "I don’t even remember you, but I still loathe you. Does that piss you off?"
Rhyden growled, and she realized she had let a predator inside her body.
He pushed up inside her. But not all the way. It burned, and she felt the unnatural glide of his piercing against her.
"Ah—" She grimaced from the burning stretch of him between her thighs. He wasn’t even halfway.
Her head fell back against the mattress.
Every thrust spoke of brutal hatred.
This was the revenge he had spoken of.
Rin loved it… and loathed him. God—
Crushing sadness gripped her. So fiercely she felt like she couldn’t breathe.
Among the sadness, the wild rush of love. It made her wish he were hers, utterly.
Their Souls were strung together.
Rhyden seemed to feel it too—whatever consuming thing that filled the room, shifting in the shadows. "Mine," he growled against her mouth, just before he kissed her, biting down on her lower lip.