Page 108 of Dare

Anarchy flooded my veins. With a gnash of my teeth, I let her go. She stumbled in place, a wave smacking her stunned profile. Wet and too tempting to withstand, she watched me with fury and need stringing across her face.

This vision, I had no right to. The obscene, monstrous, desperate ways in which I wanted to defile her would end us both.

Unwilling to trust myself, I sheathed the blade and bade a retreat. Stalking toward the beach, I did my best to shake off the residue of Flare’s sopping body. But I could not ignore the heat of her words.

In my periphery, I caught sight of her mouth moving. Deliberately. Violently. She knew I would see the accusation. More than that, she knew I would hear it.

“You’re right,” she dared. “You are a coward.”

Fucking. Little. Beast.

With a growl, I pivoted the fuck around and shot back to her.

36

Flare

Like a battle and a victory, the villain prince strode across the sand with his features twisted, all brutal beauty and violent surrender. Every intention cluttered his face, as though we were about to commit a hundred counts of treason.

Jeryn’s long limbs smashed through the waves. As he strode forward, his hand ripped out the scalpel knife and flicked open one of the blades.

Anticipation and triumph blasted through me. Butterflies broke from the cage of my stomach.

I could stand there and wait. Like captured prey, I could freeze up.

Instead, I whipped out my dagger and bolted toward him. Like adversaries racing into warfare, we shot toward one another, smashing through the high tide. I rammed into Jeryn at the same time he barreled into me.

With a snarl, the prince used his free hand to seize the back of my neck. “You fucking saboteur.”

Then he hauled my mouth to his. And my heart exploded like dynamite.

As our lips slammed together, a volcanic sound blasted from my throat. Jeryn’s mouth crushed against mine, his wet lips clamping, slanting us at a livid angle. A howl got stuck in my throat as I thrashed my mouth against his, the collision instinctive, as volatile as the waves.

Those ruthless lips wasted no time. Slicing his tongue across the seam of my mouth, Jeryn pried me open and drove inside with precision. I needed no coaxing. My own tongue dove for his, coldness and heat clashing.

The impact buckled my limbs and wracked his frame. Together, we shuddered into the kiss. Because oh fuck, we were kissing.

We were kissing.

Neither tender, nor exploratory, we threw ourselves into the tempest. With a destructive rhythm, Jeryn flexed his tongue into mine, whisking against every sensitive inch. I keened and rode that tongue, falling into cadence with him, the tempo ferocious.

Somewhere in this world, walls shattered, towers fell, and the rafters of a fortress collapsed. Someplace on this continent, hurricanes cracked mighty ships in half, sinking them to the bottom of an ocean. Somewhere, opposing forces raised weapons and unleashed bloodshed.

And nearby, the rainforest watched us. And around us, the water flailed.

This was how it felt to surrender and conquer. This was how it felt to kiss a villain.

Jeryn banded his arm around my middle, his digits choking the knife hilt. His unhampered palm rushed to my ass, spanned one cheek, and hoisted me into him. My feet left the ground, hovering inches off the ocean floor. The muscles of his arm bulged as he braced me, bearing my frame as though I weighed no more than a plume.

Still holding my dagger, I flung my free arm around the ramps of his shoulders. My fingers launched into his hair and groped the roots, pulling hard and harsh.

The prince seethed. His lips quaked against mine, and that greedy hand snatched my ass firmer, the reaction fueling me like timbers. He liked it rough.

Oh, but I knew rough, as I knew soft. I thrived off that jagged noise, as I thrived off gentler ones, and I could handle both.

We brandished weapons in one hand and clung with the other. With every thrust of our tongues, this kiss felt like fucking, and the fucking felt like fighting. Jeryn split my lips wide and pitched his tongue deeply, the force of it sizzling through my veins.

He groaned, the sound rippling through me and dropping between my thighs. He’d been right before. I’d grown wetter than the sea.

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