Page 79 of Claim

“I broke it off when I realized she still believed we had a future together. I’d even gone as far as to offer to introduce her to Doms who were better suited for her, but she refused and begged me to stay with her. Then she threatened me and anyone else I took as a submissive. In her eyes, she devoted herself to me, and I threw her away. My intensity and possessive nature brought her to the point where she couldn’t accept we were over. Finally, when she realized none of her tactics would get me to budge on my decision, she stormed out of my old penthouse, saying she wouldn’t go on without me.”

“You thought it was another ploy to get you to change your mind.”

“I failed her. It was my duty to take care of her, meet her needs, and keep her safe. Her last words were a cry for help, and I let her walk out the door. The next morning, her brother called with the news. I might as well have killed her.” He wiped a hand across his face as he gazed at his intricately designed ceiling. “Didn’t I tell you I was the villain?”

He had to be kidding me.

“Mr. Pierce, you’re neither the hero of the story nor the villain.” Pushing up to sitting, I climbed over to straddle him and leaned down.

Surprise and confusion played over his face for a second before he gripped my hips in a firm hold. “Is that right? Want to explain this with your Morelli logic?”

“Did you or didn’t you tell her that you weren’t right for her?”

“You heard my story, so you know the answers.”

Pressing my palms to his bare chest, I retorted, “I don’t think you seem to understand them very well.”

“I understand completely. I know my role as a Dom. I refuse to make the same mistakes with you that I made with her.”

“Do I look fragile to you?” I asked, bringing my face down until we were nose to nose and letting him see my annoyance. “I am not her. You will never put me in the same category as her again.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes.”

Before I knew what he planned, he flipped me onto my back, pinning my arms above my head, and loomed over me. The raw masculine beauty of him had my blood heating and wet heat pooling between my legs. His wicked gleam told me he knew how my body reacted to him. And from the way his cock lay hard and heavy between us, he felt the same way about me.

He wedged his thighs between mine, spreading my knees apart. “Haven’t you figured it out? You’re in a category of your own.”

“Which is?” I tried to lift my hips, desperate for the feel of him inside of me, but he stayed out of reach.

“Claimed.”

“I don’t buy that. You’ve had submissives before. We just discussed Maria.”

He slammed into me, making me cry out.

“You’re not Maria. Didn’t you say that? And it’s one thousand percent true.” He pulled out and thrust back in just as hard, and the pleasure-filled pain brought tears to my eyes. “I’ve never claimed a woman. You’re the first, and you have no fucking idea what that means.”

“Tell me then.”

I tugged at my arms, needing to touch him, but his fingers tightened on my wrists as his other hand grabbed my leg, positioning it over his shoulder.

He pumped in and out, working me, driving my desire higher, making me orgasm over and over.

And right when I was ready to beg him to stop making me come, he pushed us over the crest and said, “Claiming you means you’re fucking mine, Sophia. I will use any means necessary to protect you. I’m not letting you go. I can’t. This was why Lucian didn’t want us together. There is no escape for you now.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Damon

A little before seven in the morning, I leaned against my wraparound balcony on my penthouse terrace, drinking a cup of coffee.

I’d spent most of the night lost in Sophia. The woman pushed every one of my buttons, and I couldn’t get enough of her. The need to see the fire in her eyes, to punish her, to watch her cry, to fuck her until she begged me to let her sleep burned in my blood.

It was like nothing I’d experienced before. Putting words to the emotions, desires, and drive to protect her meant making her vulnerable.

What if I pushed her into the same state Maria had fallen into?

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