Page 110 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

“You’re sick,” I said.

His hand came down hard, the slap filling the room a split second before my cry.

“That was such a pretty sound, baby,” Rune said softly, rubbing the skin he’d just struck. “Would you like me to list all of your offenses one by one?”

I gritted my teeth. “You can summarize.”

He spanked the right cheek this time, and instead of a sting, this hit was forceful and bruising. I tensed, gasping at the aftershock. When he laughed, I huffed and wiggled my arms. He gripped me tighter, his free hand shooting up to press my head back down into the cushion.

“Struggle and I’ll hit harder.”

When I went still, he sighed.

“Insults, lies, pitiful attempts to provoke my jealousy, disrespect, general orneriness…”

I giggled. “General orneriness?”

His hand came down once, then twice, and by the third time, I was writhing against his hold. But he didn’t stop, switching sides and delivering three more blows. I panted. My head swam with the strangest mix of pain and lust. I blinked, confused by how the torment was starting to morph, twist around in my body, and transform into something darkly sweet.

“Worst of all is how artfully you’ve driven me to the brink of madness.”

Something had shifted in his voice, as he was getting high off my pain as much as he did my pleasure. I drank up his desire, sinking into it like a steaming bath.

“I’m obsessed with this tempting little body, consumed by thoughts of torturing it, devouring it, driving it into the deepest depths of ecstasy. I want to punish you for it all—for how obsessed I am with your devilish mind and your fragile, guarded heart. You make me fucking crazy, Scarlett,” he growled, and I cried out again when he delivered a heavy strike, followed by four more in quick succession.

Heat radiated from my brutalized skin, and sweat beaded along my forehead. My thighs pressed together. With the way my head grew fuzzy, blurry, floaty, I nearly wondered if he’d drugged me.

Rune’s fingers slipped between my legs, diving beneath the lace and rubbing my clit. I moaned, grinding against him greedily. My last tendrils of self-consciousness had been slapped right out of me.

I felt the unmistakable cool touch of his shadows slither around my wrists, his other hand now free to rub my bruised ass as he played with me.

Two of his fingers slipped inside of me, and his hand struck me again, this time closer to my pussy. I yelped, tears brimming my eyes from the increased sting of such sensitive flesh. But at the pump of his fingers inside of me, I relaxed quicker, arching into his touch even as I trembled.

“That’s a good little slut,” he praised. “My good little slut.”

I would’ve thought such a pet name would trigger my deep wells of shame, coax out Isabella’s cruel voice in my mind. Instead, the mental pain only mixed with the physical, nonsensically driving my pleasure that much higher. I pulsed with need, moaning and writhing as Rune continued to pulse against the tight bundle of nerves inside of me.

“You love what you do to me, don’t you, Scarlett?” he asked, and at the note of anger in his voice, I tensed up in anticipation. “Answer me.”

With another three slaps, I sunk against him, no longer fighting. I knew I was helpless, unable to escape no matter how hard I tried. My body betrayed its own survival imperative, feeding me a steady stream of heady pleasure when I should’ve felt only agony.

“Yes,” I said, my voice a rasp of sound.

I did enjoy what I did to him. I loved when Rune unraveled, when I coaxed out parts of himself he’d hidden away—parts he thought he’d lost forever. I loved when I tested his perfect control, when his desire flooded through me in waves of shadowy darkness. He was a fixture of the divine dark masculine, a powerful force of destruction that rivaled hurricanes, volcanic explosions, and earthquakes that split the world wide open.

And yet, when I called for him, he came. The vampire lord of Aristelle stalked me, watched me, protected me, and was downright obsessed with claiming me. He might’ve been the one binding and humiliating me, leaving his marks on my skin, but I knew that underneath his dominance, he was hemorrhaging just as uncontrollably for me as I was for him.

“Mm.” Rune dragged the sound out as he moved his slick fingers to my clit.

I moaned as he worked me, easily bringing me up to that sublime precipice.

“At least you’re no longer lying,” he said, dissatisfaction dripping from his tongue. The sound of it bothered me as my headspace shifted. I was a vine growing in search of the light from his praise. “Be good for me, and I’ll let you come. Just one slip, and I will send you to your seat soaking wet and unsatisfied.”

He pulled his fingers out from between my legs, and I groaned with frustration.

“Is that understood?” he asked, his tone clipped.

Sharp need throbbed where he’d removed his touch. All I could do was pitifully nod, mumbling a throaty, “Yes.”

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