“What’s the matter?” I asked, blinking up at him. Just a second ago, he’d seemed so eager to fuck me. Now I could almost see the conflict etched into his cool scowl.

“You have to know that venturing into my bed is on a whole different level than fooling around with Corry Cross.”

“Yeah, I got that from all the knives and duct tape.”

“It’s not just that. You fuck me, the whole coven is going to know. And not everyone is going to take kindly to the prospect that you might choose me as your king.”

“I don’t care what they think.”

He inspected me through narrowed eyes, almost like he was trying to assess my sincerity. To prove just how serious I was about taking this step with him, I wrapped my arms around his neck and delivered a fierce kiss to his lips. His shoulder muscles flexed beneath my hands as he leaned into the connection.

It was a kiss unlike the others he had given me. They had been hard, demanding, and bruising. This one. This kiss was so damn good, I could feel it pierce my soul and stretch all the way down to my needy center. His mouth took as much as it gave, demanding I be present in this moment. His hands went to my hair, holding me close as he licked a trail of kisses over my jawline, down my throat, and over my collar bone. It was there that he nipped at me, his teeth sliding over my skin and making me shudder beneath him.

I felt his breath fracture, and his arms trembled as they held me. I could see his blood-red eyes, affixed to my bare throat. With the way his tendons went taut in his neck, I knew he was holding himself back from biting me. But for whatever stupid fucking reason, I trusted him.

Maybe it was because I was so desperate to have someone on my side.

I swallowed hard, I closed my eyes as I savored the way he felt against my skin. His scent was so damn intoxicating it made my head swim and my legs weak. “Is it going to hurt?”

His shoulders tensed and even though my eyes were closed I could feel his gaze on me. “When you’re with me there’s bound to be a little pain. But you like a little pain, don’t you doll?”

I felt my whole body burn with a blush. “I… I think I do.”

Gleaning my embarrassment he sat back on his heels. My eyes flicked open to see him kneeling between my spread legs. He looked so goddamn good framed between my thighs. Like he belonged there.

My mouth went dry as I found him staring at me with an expression on his face that lit something inside me on fire. “Liking pain is nothing to be ashamed of. Others might try to shame you for what you’re into but down here with me, you don’t have to pretend.”

His fingers brushed against my hips and my skin went hot at his touch as he eased my skirt—the last remaining article of clothing I wore—down my legs. Tossing it aside, he grabbed my knees and splayed them wide open, exposing my bare sex to him. He arched down and slid his tongue through my wet heat. His eyes flashed through his screen of golden hair as he watched my reaction to his carnal kiss.

Bloody hell.

His lips and tongue against my center were warm, wet, and oh so damn good.

When the point of his tongue found my clit, my hips bucked and I ground myself onto his mouth, arching into him. “Fuck!” I gasped, flopping back and twisting my fists into his sheets, stunned by how good it felt. I felt his lips spread against me into a grin as he continued savaging my cunt with stroke after stroke of his surprisingly strong tongue.

My head spun when he abandoned my clit and ducked down further, angling his head deeper between my legs. When his tongue pushed past my folds and filled me, my hands flew to his head.

I held onto his hair for dear life, my whole body shaking as he made the most deliciously masculine sound against my center, like a ravenous animal. I bucked against him, silently begging for more. He glanced up, and what I saw made me gasp. His eyes were wild and crazed. Like I was the tastiest thing he’d ever put to his mouth.

“Fuck, you’re so damn tight,” he ground out as he lifted his face from my pussy. His lips, his chin, and his snake bites glistened with my juices and it was all I could do to keep myself from coming by the erotic sight of him. “If my little masochistic likes pain so much, it’s a good thing you didn’t let my brothers touch you yet. If you had, this would hurt a whole lot less. And you don’t want that, do you doll? You like feeling pain. Because you weren’t ever allowed to feel it back at your old home, were you?”

My eyes widened and for a second I was paralyzed beneath him, stunned by his perception. It was like he peered into my soul and so casually strewn in such a personal fact that I was barely coming to realize myself. And he had just thrown it down like it was just another article of our clothing forgotten at the foot of the bed.

“You’re right,” I said on a slow and shaky exhale. “I like pain and torment. That’s probably why I came back here to the coven. I think I can handle the pain of courting four fucked up vampire princes. But I wonder, how are you going to handle it when I let your brothers touch me?”

His scowl carved a deep V into his brow. “It’s going to piss me off.”

“I need to pick a king and I don’t want to deal with any drama between you and Feral. You can’t be possessive.”

“WellI am,” he snarled. “I don’t have a problem with Sterling and Corry. Just know that if you come down here smelling like Feral, I will wash away the scent of his blood and cum by covering you in my own. Understand?”

I shivered at the darkly erotic threat and nodded. The way things were going, there was a better chance of pigs learning to fly than Feral and I fucking. But even if the threat would never come to fruition, it filled me with an intense hunger that had me squirming beneath Eros.

Smirking, he leaned back to pull out his cock from his boxers. I pushed myself up on my elbows to look at it.

Holy fuck.

How was I supposed to fitthatinside me? An electric curiosity had me reaching for it, my fingertip stroking the head of it where a bead of clearish liquid dribbled from the tip.