“Fuck,” she hissed, grinding against my hand.
Finally, the blend of liquor and lust loosened Arken’s tongue just enough to break past her anxieties. Even though the wordscame out nervous, they were honest, lacking in any attempt to conceal her truth.
“Okay, yes, Kieran,fine—the impulse exists. I want to get rough with you. I just…I like being the one roughed up. To be the onetaken, you know? And I’d never really given any thought to wanting anything in return, to even ask for more than I’m given, let alonetake itin this context. I’d never felt the urge. It didn’t even exist until…”
Her poor lower lip was going to start bleeding any minute now, assaulted by her hesitation once again.
“Fuckingpleasefinish that sentence, Arken. You’re killing me.”
“Until I met you,” she confessed. “And now, ever since we—I just want…Fuck, I want so many things—I want it all, so bad that itfucking hurts.”
There she is.
“Explore them. Explore it all. I’m giving you permission to try whatever you like, to take whatever you want from me—and I promise you, I wasn’t lying. There’s nothing you can do wrong. Not a damn thing you could do to me tonight that wouldn’t get me off.”
“I don’t know if I believe that. I don’t know if I can.”
“What are you so afraid of, Little Conduit?” I asked softly, reaching to stroke my thumb against that furrowed brow, attempting to smooth it myself.
“I’m afraid to…I don’t know, cross a line? Push your boundaries, make you uncomfortable. This is all so new to me, this…need.I don’t want to hurt you, Kieran.”
I smirked, but I wasn’t entirely teasing when I asked the next question. “Are yousureabout that?”
I knew Arken was a masochist, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a sadistic streak somewhere hidden in there, too. We were so very similar, after all.
I knew my relationship with pain was different than Arken’s. Mine was akin to close combat—sharp and defiant but also comfortable and familiar. I didn’t take pleasure from pain, but it was a language I was well-versed in. It sharpened my senses—awakened my urge to fight, to survive. Pain reminded me I wasalive.
Arken’s relationship with pain was different. I didn’t knowhowI knew that, but I did. Somehow, I knew that for her, pain was a thing of beauty, not battle. To Arken, experiencing pain was more like a dance—a courtship. It was clear in the way she luxuriated in it, embraced it—always taking her time to welcome every mark I left across her skin. Always admiring them later in the mirror, as if they were both works of art and memories she wanted to savor.
I wanted to believe this juxtaposition alone was evidence of our compatibility—that I wasn’t just punch-drunk on a sudden influx of affection and intimacy that I had denied myself for so, so long.
But as was well-established, I was a selfish, greedy bastard—and even more so now that I was drunk. I needed more than just that evidence. I needed to know Arken wasn’t just capable of receiving what prowled around my dark side…I needed her to show me what manner of beast lurked withinhers.
Arken remained silent, so I continued.
“Because I want to hurtyou,pretty girl. And not just because I know you like it like that.”
Come on, Ark. Don’t tell me you don’t feel it…That same urge to take, to claim, to mark?—
“And I also know godsdamn well that you didthis,”—I took one finger and trailed it down my neck where she’d bitten and sucked at the skin until it bruised so intensely that no onecould mistake it for anything but what it was—“on purpose. That wasyoutaking,and you liked it. You likedstaking your fucking claim.”
A pained look flashed in her eyes, and though she left the words unsaid, they were written all over her face.
But you aren’t mine to claim.
I whispered my response all the same. “Aren’t I, though?”
It must’ve been what she needed to hear, because what happened next was a blur. She sucked in a sharp breath. Her pupils blew out, black and beckoning, eyes gone wide and wild. Her cheeks flushed, the corners of her mouth upturned as she crashed into me—mouth against mine, fingers lacing through my hair, the pillowy softness of her full breasts crushed against my chest as she took little notice of my comfort, though I was plenty comfortable with this.
I groaned as she used her grip on my hair to yank my head to the side, eliciting surprisingly sharp tingles against my scalp as she lowered her mouth, returning to her handiwork from earlier. With one slow, lascivious lick, her tongue teased at the skin.
And then she bit down,hard.
I gasped, eyes shooting open with legitimate surprise as she took the sinuous skin between her teeth, her quick little inhales sounding more like a serpentine hiss than the desperate breaths they were. I wasn’t a masochist, no—but for a moment, I sure as fuck felt like one. As she bit me harder than she ever had, I found myself savoring the ache.
“There we go. That’s my fuckin’ girl,” I growled in approval, tipping up my chin, giving her more room to work.
Arken may have had her reasons to keep her neck clean in the name of professionalism, but I was going to be shameless about this. I would waltz right into headquarters with her brutality on full display. I wanted Sophrosyne to know—I wanted thewhole damn worldto know that I had been possessed by this woman, body and soul.