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“You’re a bastard,” she whispered, rolling her hips against mine.

I grinned. “Some call me that, yes, but that’s not the name I’m waiting to hear, Princess.”

Her lips pressed into a firm, tight line.

“How bad do you want it, Poppy?” I asked.

She gripped my hair, yanking my head down hard enough that my eyes widened. “Bad,” she seethed. “Your Highness.”

That was not—

Poppy lifted her legs, folding them around my waist. Before I could even fathom what she was up to, she rolled me onto my back. She planted her hands on my chest and rocked back as if to rise, taking me so deeply inside her that I forgot my fucking name.

“Oh.” Poppy gasped, breaths ragged.

I stared at her through half-open eyes. “You know what?”

“What?” she whispered, her body twitching all around me.

“I don’t need you to say my name,” I told her. “I just need you to do that again, but if you don’t start moving, you might actually kill me.”

A sudden laugh left her. “I…I don’t know what to do.”

That soft chuckle. Those even softer words. My chest felt too fucking full as I grasped her bare hips. “Just move,” I told her, showing her what I meant. I lifted her up the length of my rigid cock and then brought her back down. “Like that.” I groaned at the heated friction of our bodies. “You can’t do anything wrong. How have you not learned that yet?”

Poppy followed my instructions, tentatively moving up and down as the snow continued to fall. Her breath caught. She moved her palm up my shirt as she pitched forward. Her moan was the best kind of agony. “Like that?” I breathed.

I gripped her hips tighter. “Just like that.”

Drawing her lip between her teeth, she rocked her hips, and with each torturous rise and fall, her movements grew more confident, and I became more enthralled.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she rode me. The pleasure on her face, in her parted lips and glazed-over eyes. The sway of her heavy breasts, the tips of them disappearing behind the shredded shirt, only to reappear as she found an angle that caused her to gasp. My gaze dropped to where our bodies were joined as she began moving faster, grinding down on me until she came. Watching her take control like this, finding her pleasure, was the hottest fucking thing I’d ever seen.

And it undid me.

I moved, rolling her beneath me again. Closing my mouth over hers, I thrust into her heat as she held on, her nails digging into my skin. Release barreled down my spine as I took her, slamming my hips into her as pleasure erupted. I stayed seated deep inside her, the intensity of the pleasure shocking.

Fucking gods, the release lasted a small eternity. I was still twitching deep inside her when I pressed my forehead to hers. We remained like that for some time, our bodies joined, my hand at her waist, my thumb moving idly as our hearts and breathing slowed. We stayed in the falling snow longer than we probably should have, but I was reluctant to leave her because she was…gods, she was mine.

The possessiveness was a little shocking. I’d never felt that way for anyone. My brow furrowed.

“I don’t…I don’t understand,” Poppy whispered.

“Don’t understand what?” I shifted slightly above her, lifting my head.

“Any of this. Like how did this even happen?”

I started to pull out, but I caught the sudden tightening of her features. I halted. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yes.”

Poppy’s eyes were closed. I wasn’t sure I believed her. Worry grew. Had this been too rough? Had I been too rough?

“Are you sure?” I asked, rising onto an elbow.

She nodded.

“Look at me and tell me you’re not hurt.”

Thick lashes swept up. “I’m fine.”

“You winced. I saw you.”

Poppy slowly shook her head. “That’s what I don’t understand. Unless I completely imagined the last couple of days.”

“No, you didn’t imagine anything.” I scanned her face as she blinked the snow from her lashes. “Do you wish that this, right here, hadn’t happened?”

Her gaze darted away and then returned to mine. “No,” she whispered. “Do…do you?”

“No, Poppy. I hate that you even have to ask that.” I turned my head to the side, unsure what to say. To put to words anything I felt. “When we first met, it was like…I don’t know. I was drawn to you. I could’ve taken you then, Poppy…”

The truth of that was something I hadn’t allowed myself to see until that moment. I could’ve taken her the night at the Red Pearl. When she left there. Or when she snuck off to the library. I had so many chances. I would’ve found a way out of the city. She would’ve fought me, but she wouldn’t have been able to stop me.

I shuddered. “I could’ve prevented a lot of what has happened, but I…I lost sight of a lot of things. Each time I was near you, I couldn’t help but feel as if I knew you.” I thought of what I’d tasted in her blood. A part of me had recognized what was in her. “I think I know why it’s been like that.”