Page 191 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

She had no idea what she was doing, but she didn’t care. Tonight there were only the rules she made herself and if this kiss involved sharp teeth and tongues, then it did. They were animals tonight, connecting in their purest form.

He made a low, guttural sound as she bit his bottom lip and then his hands were in fists in her hair, holding her still as he kissed her back with raw savagery, nipping, biting, licking, tasting.

She moaned, her hands pressed against the velvety skin of his chest, all heat and the prickle of hair as she touched him. He was naked but for the crown of laurel leaves and he was magnificent, and even though the darkness hid most of him, his crown deemed king in this forest.

Tonight, she would be his queen.

He shifted his hips and without hesitation pushed inside her, hard and deep, and it felt right to wrap her legs around his waist and arch beneath him, making him slide even deeper. Sensation rushed through her as she felt herself stretch around him and tighten, holding him inside her. Glorious pleasure with a slight edge of pain to make it sweeter.

She groaned, inner muscles tightening around him, and then his mouth was on hers again, the kiss savage, passionate, wild. He moved, inevitable as the turn of the earth, as the change of the seasons, the rise of the sun and the fall of night.

There had always been this darkness inside her, a hint of primitive savagery that she hadn’t wanted to uncover. But now she did. Now she went deep into that darkness and found him there waiting for her.

He moved faster, harder, and she moved with him, the forest surrounding them, glittering with the wild magic they were generating between them.

And it was magic. It was glory. It was a connection she’d never dreamed she’d ever have, but it was happening right now and she was losing herself to it. Losing herself to the pleasure and the night.

When the orgasm came for them both, it blazed hot through each of them, leaving them flaming in the dark. Both, like torches.

Dominic opened his eyes to find himself lying on his back in the middle of the forest, completely naked. Dawn was filtering down through the forest canopy above his head, dew chilling his skin.

For a moment he had no idea where he was or why he was lying naked in a forest. He felt...relaxed. Which he shouldn’t have considering the location, and yet, he did. Alcohol and other such...substances, didn’t usually leave him feeling so boneless and sated, though they were usually the reason he woke up somewhere he didn’t expect.

But he wasn’t hungover or anything else. In fact, he felt oddly energised.

He sat up at the same time as a beam of sunlight shone through the trees, falling on his skin like a benediction, and that too felt good, so he stayed there for long seconds, enjoying the feeling of sun on his skin.

Then memory began to filter through, of the darkness and warm skin, of breathless cries and intense pleasure...

Abruptly, he looked around for the woman he’d spent all night having sex with like an animal in the dark, but there was no sign of her.

He was alone.

Damn.

He’d never had a woman like her in all his life and he’d had more women than he could count. All beautiful. All skilled lovers. All ready to do whatever he wanted.

Butthatwoman... She’d been all passion. All heat. Fire between his hands. She’d taken what she’d wanted from him, no holding back, matching him passion for passion. He’d taken too and she’d let him just as he’d let her. She hadn’t asked him what he wanted or watched him to make sure he was enjoying himself or watched herself to make sure she only looked sexy. She hadn’t cared. It had been dark, admittedly, so neither of them had been able to see, but she hadn’t teased him or taunted him, or tried in any way to engage him. No, she’d used him, he suspected. Taken what she wanted as if she owned him.

And he’d found himself giving as good as he got, his reward her cries of pleasure, her nails digging into his back, her teeth against his shoulder.

They hadn’t spoken. They’d let their bodies speak instead and it had been...

He let out a breath, closed his eyes, and tilted his head back, feeling the warmth of the rising sun on his face.

He felt...bloody amazing. His body sated. His mind at peace.

That hadn’t happened in years.

The pursuit of pleasure had always been one of his interests, and he hadn’t cared where it came from. The urge to fill the gaping void inside him with sensation. It was always there that void, or maybe it wasn’t a void. Maybe he was just dead inside and sex and pleasure were the defibrillator he used to jump-start what was left of his soul.

In which case, the sex he’d had last night had been one hell of a charge. He could feel it still, passion burning in the depths of him, embers of a fire that had ignited the night before and were smouldering away still.

Who was she?

It didn’t matter. What mattered was something coming alive inside him as he’d run through the forest in the dark, an exhilaration, an excitement. The instinct of a hunter, chasing sensual prey.

He’d never felt it before, not at any of the bacchanals he’d held in years gone by, and some of them had been good. But this...this was something else. This was what a bacchanal wasreallyabout, wild, savage, carnal.

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