I’d wanted Rían from the moment he pinned me against that wall in the shed.
When he was sweet. When he was ridiculous.
I’d even wanted him when I hated him.
I used to believe all whispers were lies.
But Rían didn’t whisper his lies. He whispered his truths.
There were two Ríans. One he showed the world and one he kept a secret.
One vile and heartless.
The other irreverent and ridiculous.
One belonged to the world. The other . . .
Could he belong to me?
“If I could, I would hold you close and never let you go,” he confessed, his forehead dropping to mine. “I would kiss you for the entire island to see. I would take you in the middle of the feckin’ courtyard. But this place is more dangerous than you could ever imagine. The only way to keep you safe is to leave you be,” he said, resignation ringing in each syllable. “But I’m not strong enough to let you go.”
With my head whirling and heart hammering, and heat building like an inferno in my belly, the last thing I wanted was for him to let me go.
“Then don’t.”
He captured my mouth the way he’d captured my heart. Wholly. Without mercy.
Rían would always be a mistake, but he wasmymistake. A mistake made of my own free will.
He wasn’t strong enough to let me go. And I wasn’t strong enough to make him. He’d break my heart, and I’d come back for more.
Long fingers slipped around my wrists, raising my arms over my head. Cold metal brushed my fingertips. Rían clamped the cold steel around my wrists, tracing the length of my stretched arms back down to my heaving chest.
His grin held the promise of pleasure and pain as he caught my thighs and lifted me against the wall. Settling my legs around his lean waist, his hips started to rock, slow and menacing. “Will I torture you, human?”
He hit just the right spot, making me gasp.
There would be consequences for this. There always were.
How could I think about consequences with every hard inch of him grinding in a steady rhythm against my center? Consequences be damned. We were wrong for each other—so very wrong. And yet, I didn’t want him to stop. I never wanted him to stop. “Do your worst,Your Highness.”
His kiss punished and tongue conquered, dominating with each perfectly timed thrust. He was a vicious spark, and I became a writhing flame as he shifted his dagger and cut me free of my clothes, baring my burning skin for his tongue’s wicked ministrations.
Glinting obsidian eyes combed down my body. “You are magnificent.”
For the first time in my life, I felt magnificent.
He kissed his way down my breasts, past my navel, to the curve of my hip bone, peeling away the barriers as he went. Kneeling on the stones, he lifted my legs over his shoulders.
I expected his hands.
He gave me his tongue.
I wanted to tug him closer, to make him go faster and harder, but all I could do was whimper as the chains holding me rattled. I wouldn’t survive if he kept going. I’d die if he stopped.
“Rían—” His name was my plea.
“That’s it,” he murmured. “Cry for me. Beg for me.”