Page 24 of Filthy Beginnings

“I-I appreciate you freeing me. But I need you to put the restraints back.”

His amber eyes—streaked with red—flashed with defiance. “No.”

She kept talking. “Then you need to go. This was…” she forced the words out, “a mistake.”

He snarled low. “No mistake.” He slapped the flat of his palm against his chest. “I feel you here. All those vibrant colors, sinking beneath my skin, staining every cell so I’ll never look at anything the same ever again.”

A soft sigh escaped. No one had ever said anything so lovely to her before.

“You feel it too, Scarlett. I know it.” His tone had deepened to a low, coaxing rasp. “You and I are what happens when everything is just right.”

Her body responded to his disarming statement, slick pooling between her folds.

She did feel it.

But she had to be smart, to think of her own survival and his. Hadn’t her brother warned her against letting lust and love rule her choices?

“You need to stay away from me.This,” she gestured between them, “won’t end well. It’s forbidden to touch a prize before a champion is decided.”

“Good thing it’s already decided.” His voice pitched to a low, teasing rumble, his mood shifting from intense to playful as easily as a fighter executing a feint and jab.

Scarlett got the sense she’d miscalculated, that Damien Skolov lived for a challenge, and she’d handed him one.

“There’s no chance in hells I’m not winning this tournament.” The determination in his voice affirmed her suspicion. “Especially now that I’ve met you.”

“Such a big head. It’s dangerous to be too cocky.”

“Omega, I can promise you, when I’m between those pretty thighs and you’re screaming my name,bothmy big heads will only grow bigger.”

Her laughter caught her by surprise. “You’re outrageous.”

He reached out a hand, the rough pad of his thumb stroking her upturned lips. “Try to tame me. I dare you.”

Need mixed with the colors inside her, sparking and swirling like a windstorm.

A few escaped, flashing outward.

He groaned, his stare tracking the splashes of color as they slid across his skin. “It feels like the lightest touch. I can’t wait to feel your hands on me.”

She startled. No one had ever felt her colors before.

“You should know, Scarlett,” he leaned over the mattress and tucked a stray hair behind her ear, “I have fought for everything I’ve ever gotten. I have no problem fighting for you too.”

Her breathing hitched. “You’re too young for me.”

“Why don’t you try me out and see?” His thick thighs pressed into the edge of the bed, that cocky grin playing at the corners of his full lips. “You had no complaints before.”

Goddess help her, she hadn’t.

She’d never been as needy and wet as Damien Skolov made her with just a few rubs of her clit against that enormous bulge stretching his leathers.

“That was…” she shrugged. “I lost myself for a moment.”

“Same. I meant to at least introduce myself before I climbed on top of you.” He shook his head, running a hand down his jaw. “My brothers would have my ass for that. But it doesn’t change the fact that you are mine. And I can’t wait to give you so much pleasure that all the colors of the galaxy dance behind your eyes as you come screaming my name.”

She pressed her thighs tight, finding it hard to catch her breath, much less keep from squirming. The picture he painted all she could see.

She craved more of his sweet words. Hungered for his teasing, deep rumble and intense declarations.

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