Page 57 of Monster's Pretty Bride

“There you are.” I murmur the words as I tilt her chin higher, forcing her to meet my gaze. She isn’t broken. Even with the bruises, the exhaustion, the remnants of near-death still clinging to her skin, she is still her.

I want her. I have always wanted her.

From the moment she stepped into my stronghold, spine straight, eyes burning with fury, hands shackled, I have wanted to shatter her. Break her down, watch her struggle, watch her fight me.

I never wanted her to fall.

Her fingers tighten against me. “You’re hurting me.”

I don’t let go.

I pull her closer. Close enough to feel every tremor rippling through her body, the way her pulse races against my skin, the way her breath stutters, just once.

She glares. And it does something to me.

“You’re hurting me,” she says again, slower this time, deliberate.

I release her wrist, but not her. I never let go of her. My hand slides up, over her throat, to her jaw.

“Good,” I whisper, low and dark. “Maybe you’ll finally learn.”

Her eyes flash. She hates that I speak to her like this. That I touch her like this. That she responds to me like this.

But she does.

Her breath catches. Not in fear.

In anticipation.

I don’t let myself think. I don’t let myself hesitate. Hesitation is weakness. And I will not be weak with her.

I crush my mouth to hers.

Eryss gasps or maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s the both of us, the collision of two forces that should never meet.

The taste of her is fire, defiance, survival. She is alive beneath me, against me, with me. My hands tighten in her hair, pulling her head back, forcing her to take the kiss I give her.

She responds with rage.

Her fingers clutch my shoulders, nails digging into flesh, dragging, pulling. Her body molds against mine, heat and fury, tension and resistance.

She doesn’t surrender.

She fights.

It makes me hungry.

The kiss turns vicious. Tongues tangling, breath stolen, bodies pressed so damn close I could consume her.

She shoves me back.

I let her.

Barely.

We break apart, both breathing hard.

She stares at me, stunned, wild, shaking.

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