Page 31 of Malicious Wedding

He smirks. “When, my darling Ash.”

“If, I’ll want concessions. Smoke is important to me and I won’t stop working there. I’ll need money for renovations, money for payroll, hell, money for raises—”

“I told you already. I’ll give you whatever you want.”

Frustrations swells. “What about answers? What about a straight reason for why you’re doing this whole bribing me to marry you thing? Is it really so hard for a freaking Crowley to find a wife in this city?”

“No,” he admits.

“Then why me?”

“Because you’re Ash.” He says it like that explains anything. Instead, it only pisses me off, but he keeps talking. “You’re my best friend’s mouthy little sister. I used to think about you all the time—” He stops himself suddenly, as if he said too much. He thought about me? All the time? When did he do that? “I know you, even if you think I don’t. I’m not looking for any woman to marry me, I’m looking for a woman worthy of my attention, worthy of my time and devotion. Worthy of my obsession.”

I hold up a hand. “Okay, there’s that word again.Obsession. You know I really hate that word coming out of your mouth, right?”

“Obsession,” he repeats, coming toward me.

I bump into the wall. Sunlight spills through a nearby window. The house smells like roses and old wood. He looms, massive and beautiful, staring into my face with an expression caught between divine ecstasy and lust.

“You’re just—you’re confused. You’re mourning Iain. You don’t want to marry me.”

“That’s where you’re very wrong.” He leans forward, pinning me there with his hands on either side of my shoulders. I shiver at his size, at his pure physical brutality. This man is a beast, a monster.

He’s a swarm of hungry insects coming to strip me clean.

“Explain to me again, one more time, why this is a good idea?”

“No,” he says, lips coming toward mine.

I nearly yelp. But he doesn’t kiss me. Instead, his mouth brushes across my cheek, along my jaw, toward my ear.

And I moan.

Jesus, it’s mortifying, but this low moan escapes my lips involuntarily, and even though I snap my jaw shut, it’s too late.

He heard it. Hell, he must’ve tasted it.

“When you’re my wife, I will be devoted to you,” he whispers, low and throaty, like that damn sound I just made drove him wild. “I mean that, Ash. Obsessed is only the beginning. I will throw myself into you. I will please you however you need, in ways you can’t imagine now. Hands tied behind your back on my massive bed, your lovely wet pussy in the air—”

“Carson,” I whisper, shocked and more than a little aroused, my nipples stiff and my pussy throbbing.

“I will taste you slowly, suck your clit, drink you down, hold your hands pinned above your head as I make you come. Again and again, my obsession, I want to make you scream. I want to make you black out, dragged right to the edge of perfection, only to pull you back until you’re whimpering, trembling, begging for me to fuck your throat and come on your lovely little tongue. I want to ruin you, Ash, only to rebuild you, again and again, over and over, night after night. I’ll come on your beautiful tits, come on your ass, inside your pussy, smear it across your lips, and I’ll bathe you gently and tenderly when we’re through. I will give you so much.”

He sounds unhinged. Right on the edge of losing control. It’s incredible and terrifying, and I want to throw myself at him, but I also want to run. There’s an edge, an ugly and awful edge, one that scared me more than anything, but it’s also more alluring than I ever imagined.

This man will hurt me. He’ll do exactly what he’s saying—he’ll ruin me.

But I think I’ll love every second, and that’s what scares me the most.

“You really can’t control yourself, can you?” I whisper, breathing hard.

“I am controlling myself better right now than I ever have in my life. You don’t understand how close you are.”

“Close to what?”

“To my mouth destroying yours.”

I tilt my chin back. My heart’s racing into my skull. Every inch of my body’s telling me to take this man and let him give me every filthy pleasure I’m picturing and more.

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