Page 27 of Beautiful Beast

“Then nothing’s stopping you.”

Another growl, followed by his lips pressed just beneath my jaw. How many times had I imagined this? What it would feel like to be taken by someone who desired me and not who was chosen for political gain.

I closed my eyes. This wasn’t desire. It couldn’t be. Not from him. And from me? I swallowed. He’d come to kill me. Quick and painless. The best I could hope for. “Do it.”

“No.” The sudden word was vicious and ragged. Instinctive. His fingers tightened in my hair, and when he spoke again, it sounded pained. “No, I cannot kill you.”

“Then what?” I forced strength into my voice to keep it level, even as my body seemed to melt with the heat from him standing so close. From touching me. “He will stop at nothing. Prince Andaros. Do you understand? There will be no thoughts other than to save me from the evil that is dragons. The only way he’ll stop is if I’m dead or…” My mind gave me the answer, my heart kicking up a pounding harder than a war drum. I turned my head, and he lifted his head to meet my gaze. The dragon in a human body watched me with naked interest. A predatory gleam. I lifted my eyes to his once more. “Ruin me.”

Endre’s stillness betrayed him. One hand came around my throat, pinning me to the wall. Heat seeped through his palm, like the dragon buried within would surface at any moment. His lips were at my ear again, and I’d never felt anything like his breath on my skin. Had never been close enough to understand the reality of how it felt to touch and be touched. Why the fingers holding me captive felt like so much more than bonds.

“You dare tempt a dragon when he has you alone?”

One squeeze of his hand on my wrist, and the knife clattered to the cell floor. His grip felt different without the blade.

Significant.

I couldn’t speak.

“Do you think I’m a good male?”

“I hope you’re not.”

A growl, a true one that was more beast than man, shook me to my core. “My honor was put to death a long time ago. There is nothing left of it. And I can scent your interest. I am no selfless gallant who won’t dare to take what you offer in order to protect your honor.”

His hand shifted on my throat just enough to allow his lips to press against my skin there. My entire body felt—there was no way to explain the tightening. The longing. The invisible tendrils of longing I couldn’t put name to but grew from the trail he blazed on my skin.

But I wanted to find out.

“I offer you nothing.”

“Don’t you?” The hand that held mine against the wall slid my arm upward, pinning it helpless above me. He released my throat to grab the other, his hands as unbreakable as chains on my wrists. I should have been afraid.

I should have been anything but what I was.

“Ruin me,” I said again, breathless.

“You don’t know what you ask for.” The whisper in my ear again that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. Chills that woke up and stretched along my body like a lounging cat.

“That is because I cannot ask. I don’t. I’ve never—” My breath caught at his low growl. Like my admission made him wilder. I breathed the words again. “Ruin me.”

He laughed, and I wanted to feel that sound where no one had ever touched before. Endre moved so slowly, like he might snap at any moment and do as I asked. His lips touched mine as he spoke, brushing against them in a whisper of every kiss I’d ever imagined. “You might not survive me, Princess.”

“I don’t care if I survive. It is the only way I can be free.”

If I returned, they would compel me to tell the truth. The potion was simple. One of the first I learned. If I was untouched, they would give me to Andaros. If I gave in and begged for whatever heat lived in the space between us, they would kill me for consorting with dragons. But if they took me, I was worthless.

“Beg me,” he whispered.

By the Fallen, I wanted to. Never in my life had I craved anything more than to feel what it would be to surrender to the mercy of this man. This dragon. I shook my head. “No.”

“Beg me.”

“No.”

“What is it you want, Katalena? For me to ravish you? Lay you down on this bed and bury myself inside you until you know nothing but me? Show you what it means to burn alive without fire? To take what I want?”

Yes.

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