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He promised he wouldn’t hurt me, but I’ve never been one to take a man at his word.

“Ramsay,” I try to say, trying to shift away from his bite. “Ramsay, stop.”

But he won’t stop. He doesn’t even seem to hear me.

“I said stop!” I cry out, louder now. I yank my neck but all it does is create pain so sharp that I let out a scream, my vision going black.

“Stop it!” I yell, panicking rising up and choking me. “Stop!”

My predator side unleashes. I can’t move my arms a whit, not with the rope and shirt gathered around my wrists, but I do have more strength than normal and I am heavy. With a roar I use all my power to launch my body up and out of the tub.

I only make it halfway but it’s enough for the tub to tip over, water spilling over the floor, and for Ramsay to lose connection with my neck.

As soon as I hit the ground and fall out of the tub, I roll over, ready to defend myself in any way that I can.

But Ramsay stays behind the barrel, his fingers digging dents into the wood. He’s breathing hard, blood running down his chin. My blood. His eyes are darkened, the pupils wide and red, like a full crimson moon.

He looks menacing and monstrous and beautiful.

My gods, he is beautiful.

He swallows, the red in his pupils fading. I watch as his fangs disappear into normal teeth again, so much like my own do.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, his voice hoarse. “I didn’t…I tried not to succumb to it.”

“To what?” I ask warily, glad he’s still keeping his distance.

“To the bloodlust,” he says as he wipes his mouth and eyes the stain left on his hand. “We can lose control when we’re feeding.”

I give him a look like,you don’t say?

“I must admit, it was harder than normal with you,” he goes on. “Your blood is unlike any blood I’ve ever had. Your blood is…astonishing.”

Even though the idea of bloodlust makes me uneasy, I somehow don’t mind my blood being called astonishing. I think I’ll take it as a compliment.

“I’ve never felt this powerful before,” he goes on, stepping out from behind the barrel. “This unbeatable. Unstoppable. I feel like I could rip this ship right down the middle and then call up a maelstrom to devour the rest. I don’t know what you’ve done to me, Maren.”

He comes toward me, his movements graceful as always but reminding me of a fox about to pounce, everything so measured and controlled and deadly. My pulse kicks up again and I take a step back, away from him, knowing I don’t have anywhere to go.

“I don’t know what you’ve done to me,” he says again, shaking his head slightly, awe in his gaze. “You’re more than the answer to my prayers. You’re the answer to prayers I never knew I had. You’re an enchantment, a treasure, a powerful curse in its own right and I am one hundred percent under your spell.”

He licks his lips, tasting my blood on them, then he gives me a wicked smile. “I have never desired you more.”

Then in a flash he’s at me, having moved in a blur of inhuman speed, and I let out a muzzled scream, prepared to fight, but then he’s shoving me to the ground. I fall on my back and try to flip over, trying to defend my neck, but he’s sliding down over my stomach and parting my legs and burying his head between my thighs.

I gasp at the intrusion of his tongue, the way his mouth clamps over me, sucking me between his lips, and I tense with worry that he might bite me there. Not that I wouldn’t be opposed to anything rough but I don’t want him to get carried away again.

But his teeth remain tucked away and he’s all wet tongue and soft lips as he works me with his mouth, sucking and licking and ravishing me.

My hands go to his head, gripping his long soft hair as the shirt flops over his back and then I’m brought to orgasm again, so quick that it takes me by surprise.

By the time my moans fill the air and my limbs are shaking, my body convulsing from the inside out, he’s tearing off his shirt and unbuttoning the flap of his breeches and I look down in time to see his gloriously thick cock placed in his palm, ready to unleash on me.

I expect him to shoot me one of his arrogant grins again, the one that tells me I’m in a lot of trouble and he’s about to enjoy it, but there’s a graveness to his face. His eyes are dark and crackling with intensity like a summer storm, his mouth parted, his jaw tense. He looks like he could either bed me…or kill me.

Instead he grabs me by the shoulders and waist and flips me over so that I’m on all fours.Most immoral and sinful, I can’t help but think.

I can’t help but like it as well.