Chapter 18 – Konstantin
I carry Raelyn into the bedroom like she’s both sacred and dangerous, something I need to protect and consume all at once.
Her fingers clutch at my shirt, nails digging in, body trembling—not with fear, but with need.
I close the door behind us, and something inside me snaps cleanly, fully, into a darker, uncontrollable place.
The kiss starts slowly, almost tasting the tension, then turns feral.
My hands roam over her body, hungry, claiming.
Every inch of her answers me in kind. She gasps into my mouth, shivers pressing into my chest, and I lift her onto the bed, tilting her, claiming her like I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire life.
There’s no gentleness. No caution. Nothing but raw, molten obsession made physical—our bodies colliding, heat and hunger blending into one unstoppable force. Every kiss, every touch, every shudder is mine to take, hers to surrender.
I growl low in my throat, lips and teeth and hands tracing, claiming, marking, needing. The world outside ceases to exist. There’s only us—fire, hunger, obsession—and the dangerous, sweet surrender of finally being together in this way.
The kiss is no longer a conversation; it’s a conquest. It tastes of salt, heat, and a shared madness.
I growl into her mouth, my tongue tangling with hers as my hands find the hem of her shirt.
I don’t wait. I strip the fabric away, my eyes devouring the sight of her skin flushed and glowing in the shadows.
“You’re mine,” I rasp against the frantic pulse in her throat, my teeth grazing the sensitive cord of her neck. “Every breath, every shiver. I’m going to mark you so deeply you’ll forget anyone else ever existed.”
My hands slide down to the waistband of her sweatpants, dragging them and her lace away in one fluid, impatient motion.
She’s bare beneath me now, a vision of pure, unadulterated perfection that makes my blood roar.
I don’t give her a chance to feel exposed.
I bridge the gap, my chest pressing against hers, heart to heart, fire to fire.
I move lower, my mouth claiming the curve of her breast, my hands pinning her wrists above her head. I want her still; I want her writhing. I want to feel the exact moment her soul surrenders to the same obsession that is currently tearing me apart.
“Say it,” I command, my voice a dark, jagged edge as I press my knee between her thighs, forcing them wide. “Tell me you’re mine, Raelyn. Tell me you want me to take everything.”
“Take everything,” she rasps.
I pull back for a split second, my chest heaving, the air between us practically combustible.
Seeing her like this—flushed, raw, and answering my touch with a wildness that contradicts every ounce of her innocence—trips a wire in my brain.
It’s primal. It’s the feeling of a man who has finally found the one thing he’s been hunting for his entire life.
I can’t stand the barrier of my own clothes for another heartbeat. I strip out of my shirt and pants with a jagged, impatient energy, my eyes never leaving hers. When I settle back over her, skin-to-skin, the contact is like an electric shock.
“You drive me insane, Raelyn,” I groan, my voice a low, ragged confession against the shell of her ear. I grip her hips, my fingers sinking into her soft skin as I anchor her to the mattress. “I can’t think straight when you breathe like that. I can’t function when you look at me with those eyes.”
I trail my lips down to the crook of her neck, my breath hot and unsteady. The memory of her tears from earlier burns in my mind, a sharp contrast to the heat of our bodies now.
“I never want to see you cry again,” I growl, my teeth grazing her collarbone in a way that is both a threat to the world and a vow to her.
“Unless it’s like this. Unless it’s because I’m giving you so much pleasure you don’t know what to do with yourself.
Do you understand? You’re mine to protect. Mine to ruin.”
I move my hand down, my palm flat against her stomach, feeling the way she trembles for me. The obsession is a living thing between us now, heavy and dark, and I realize with a jolt of fierce territorialism that I will never let her go.
I sink lower, my hands sliding beneath her thighs to hook them over my shoulders, opening her completely to my gaze. The sight of her—raw, wet, and trembling—is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and it makes the beast in my chest roar for blood.
“You look so damn good spread out like this for me,” I growl, my voice a dark, velvet rasp. I lean in, my breath hot against her inner thigh. “I’m going to taste every bit of you. I want to know exactly how you taste when you’re coming apart in my mouth.”
I don’t hold back. I swirl my tongue against her, a long, firm stroke that makes her entire body jolt. I hear her breath hitch, then a sharp, broken sob of pleasure.
“That’s it, moya dusha,” I mutter against her skin, my words muffled and filthy. “Scream for me. I want everyone to know exactly who is making you feel like this. I want you to be so full of me that you can’t even remember your own name.”
I use my teeth, grazing the sensitive flesh of her hip before returning to her center with a relentless, sucking greed. My hands grip her hips so hard I know I’ll leave marks—bruises that will remind her tomorrow that she belongs to a man who doesn’t know how to take half-measures.
“You’re so fucking tight,” I hiss, pulling back for a second to watch her face. “I can’t wait to feel you clench around me. I’m going to stretch you out, Raelyn. I’m going to fill you so deep you’ll feel me in your soul.”
I dive back in, my tongue working with a rhythmic, punishing pace, driving her toward the edge.
The pressure is relentless. I don’t give her a second to breathe, my tongue flicking and swirling against her clitoris with a rhythmic, driving force that pushes her higher and higher.
I can feel the tension in her thighs, the way her heels dig into my shoulders, and the frantic, shallow gasps that tell me she’s right on the precipice.
Then, she snaps.
Raelyn’s back arches so violently that her head nearly leaves the pillow.
A white-hot, electric shock ripples through her, and she breaks—completely and beautifully.
Her internal muscles pulse in a frantic, rhythmic squeeze that I feel even through my tongue, and she lets out a raw, echoing scream that rings through the quiet room.
“Konstantin! Konstantin!”
I pull back just enough to look up at her, my chin damp, my eyes dark with a terrifying level of satisfaction. Watching her writhe, her skin flushed a deep, feverish pink, makes the blood in my veins turn to molten lead.
“That’s it,” I rasp, my voice a jagged, filthy growl. “Scream my name, Raelyn. I want you to scream it until your throat is raw. I want everyone to know exactly who owns that voice, who owns every single one of those pathetic, beautiful little sounds you make.”
I crawl back up her body, pinning her wrists beside her head, my heavy weight settling between her trembling thighs. I lean down, my lips brushing against her ear as she tries to catch her breath.
“You sound like a fucking angel when you’re coming apart for me,” I whisper, the words dark and heavy with possessiveness.
“It makes me want to drive into you until you can’t scream anything else.
It makes me want to keep you like this—naked, shaking, and loud for me—every single night for the rest of your life. ”
“My turn,” she says, her eyes glittering. “I need to taste you.”
My eyes widen. I’ve seen her shy, I’ve seen her broken, and I’ve seen her submissive—but this? This spark of predatory intent from my little bird is enough to make my heart stall in my chest.
She doesn’t wait for my permission. She presses her delicate, trembling palms against my chest, her skin a pale contrast to the dark ink and hard muscle of my torso. I let her push me, fascinated by her sudden surge of agency, until I’m lying flat on my back against the pillows.
“You want to taste me, Raelyn?” I ask, my breath catching as she crawls up my body.
“Yes.” She’s breathless and unsure, but sounds very confident. It turns me insane.
She climbs over me, her knees settling on either side of my hips.
The feeling of her bare skin against mine, the friction of her soft thighs against my rougher ones, is an exquisite torture.
She hovers over me, her hair falling like a silken curtain around us, creating a private world where only the scent of our shared heat exists.
“Then take me,” I growl, my hands coming up to grip her waist, my thumbs digging into the soft flare of her hips to steady her—or perhaps to steady myself. “Show me exactly how you want me. Show me how much of a ruin you want to make of me.”
I watch her through hooded eyes, my pulse drumming a heavy, frantic rhythm in my throat. The contrast is staggering: the innocent girl I swore to protect is now the woman haunting my every waking thought, looking down at me with a hunger that matches my own.
I reach up, one hand tangling in her hair to pull her face down toward mine. “If you do this,” I warn, my voice dropping to a dangerous, gravelly depth, “there’s no going back. I’ll never let you leave this bed until you’ve had your fill of me.”
Raelyn looks down at me, her eyes clouded with a dark, defiant heat that makes my blood boil in the best possible way. A slow, playful smirk touches her lips—a look I’ve never seen on her before—and it’s more intoxicating than any drink I’ve ever had.
“Then it’s a good thing I have a very large appetite, Konstantin,” she whispers, her voice surprisingly steady, despite the way her body trembles against mine. “I don’t plan on going anywhere.”