He worked me expertly as he pushed further in, letting me slowly acclimate to his size as the pleasure allowed me to take more and more.

Connected to him in this way, finally, had my last remaining walls crumbling. It felt like I was opening on a deeper, soul level, pulling him into me as I grew drunk off his darkness.

“You’re going to come for me,” Rune said. “I want to taste your release in your blood.”

At the mention of feeding, Rune drove hard. I panted and writhed as the discomfort mixed with the waves of pleasure, only amplifying them. Damn him, Rune had been right all along.

I did enjoy pain.

Just like my fear, panic, and terror, I only wanted to bleed for him.

Rune cursed. “Those adorable whimpers,” he groaned. The sound of his voice vibrated through my body as he increased the pressure on my clit. He continued to stretch me, to pick up his pace as his dark eyes held mine captive.

We’d only just begun, yet my body was bursting, desperate for release. I sunk into the bed, my wrists tangling with Rune’s shadows as they continued to coil around the length of my arms above my head. I tensed up, climbing as my nerves surged with heat.

When I reached the top, Rune knew it, in that frightening way he knew everything about me without me having to vocalize any of it.

“Come.”

I exploded, tightening around him as his hips rocked and I rode wave after wave. Rune’s eyes went gloriously crazed, capturing my moan with his lips as he drove deep. I swore I saw the cosmos behind my eyelids, but soon Rune had yanked me back down to hell with him by my collar.

“I’m not even close to finished with you,” Rune whispered at my ear as my eyes fluttered open.

He pinched one of my nipples and pulled, and I jolted from the sharp stab of pain. He did the same to the other, and I struggled against the hold of the shadow vines. They tightened in response. The pain had me alert, and Rune kissed my forehead before holding my steady gaze.

“Breathe. Remember to breathe,” he warned.

He carefully lifted my neck, unclasping my collar and setting it aside. I frowned. I already missed its comforting squeeze. When I realized what was happening, my heart skipped.

Time slowed down. I saw the exact moment his eyes shifted, the exact point at which he finally let go of his last thread of control. Rune buried his cock deep inside me. He bared his fangs. I screamed.

When his fangs pierced my neck, the pain was excruciating for two long seconds. And the agony was worth it—a sacrifice I’d make over and over for an eternity—to claim the flood of blissful ecstasy that soon washed over me. I stopped fighting against my bindings, and my every muscle unwound as I sighed.

As Rune pulled from me, it felt as though I was taking right back. A dam had shattered, freeing a flood of powerful desire just as potent as my blood. He’d finally unveiled all of himself to me—the ruler, the dreamer, the man, and the predator. He sunk into me, and I pressed into him. I was trapped in the longest orgasm of my life, like one constant peak that never dropped, never ended.

I was as light as cloud rolling over Valentin’s mountains, the gentle fog in the painting Rune had gifted me for my living room. I held on to the awareness of Rune fucking me harder than ever, my legs wrapping around him as my eyes closed. Where his teeth sunk, I felt only tingling pleasure, the focal point of the intensity that spread outward in decadent ripples. I was both satisfied and yearning, like this was all I’d ever wanted but didn’t want it to ever end. The juxtaposition locked me deeper, opening me as Rune held me down and used me, his hands bruising, roaming, forcing.

When he broke away, his tongue flitted over my wound to close it. I smiled dreamily. I loved the thought of wearing Rune’s mark of ownership just as much as he did.

“Open those pretty eyes, baby,” Rune said softly, still inside me, driving deep and slowly.

I opened my eyes. Though his features were warm, his eyes still held an undeniable hunger, desire that bled and bled like an open wound.

“There are no words,” he growled.

He leaned down, and I realized my wrists were no longer bound. I reached for him, skimming his strong jaw and running my hands through his dark hair. Rune shuddered, his arm muscles growing impossibly taut.

“For how addictive you taste,” Rune said. “It’s dangerous, Scarlett. I’ve never tasted anything like it, in all my centuries. You will never be fed from by another. Or I will sever their head from their unworthy body. Is that understood?”

I giggled. “Yes, Lord Rune.”

Rune rolled his eyes, his lips quirking up. “You’re venom drunk.”

One of his shadows crawled over my neck idly, smooth and solid.

“Open your mouth,” he commanded. When I obeyed, he shoved two fingers inside and said, “Suck.”

I hollowed my cheeks, gagging when he went deeper. He smiled sadistically at this, his eyes molten fire.