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Fingers twisted in her hair, and then his mouth closed over hers in a brutal kiss. She could still taste him there.

Sweet and effervescent, the taste of euphoria—of sex and lust and every filthy, wicked thing she’d never known she craved.

She bit his lip, needing more. His answering growl was like fire in her blood as he backed her against the table.

“Upstairs?” she asked, breathless.

“Too far,” he answered roughly and turned her around. A sudden slap to her ass had her entire body jerking. “That was for scaring the shit out of me with the grimble.”

One hand gripping her by the nape, he bent her over the table, stripping off her trousers and pushing them down to her ankles.

“And this,” he said, rubbing his palm over her cheek. She was entirely at his mercy, wholly exposed as he held her in place. “This is for cheating during the sparring match. No magic, Tink. You know the rules.”

Three more slaps quickly followed, each one harder than the last. Taly writhed against him, not sure if it was pleasure or pain that already had every part of her aching.

“Hands on the table.”

She eagerly obeyed, placing her palms flat against the wood.

Two fingers dragged down her sex. Skye swore at the wetness he found waiting for him. “Looks like somebody missed me.”

“Shut up and take your pants off,” she snapped. They could play later. Right now, she needed him. In her bones and in her blood—

He shoved inside her in a single stroke, and Taly cried out—at the size of him, that first stretch, so exquisite there would never be any getting used to it. Standing behind her, one hand still twisted in her hair, the other on her hip, he pulled out nearly to the tip before slamming all the way home.

She groaned into the wood.

There was no warm-up. He set a brutal rhythm. Savage, punishing thrusts pounded so deep inside her she might’ve been sobbing from the sheer bliss of it.

They’d made love. They’d fucked. But never like this. The sounds tearing out of them weren’t words. Just panting, growling, gasping—like their bodies had given up pretending this was anything but survival. The wet slap of skin echoed obscenely through the hall. Every frantic thrust had the edge of the table biting into her thighs, sending the opposite end banging into the wall.

The fabric of her stays pulled tight against her aching breasts, his shinguards scraped against the back of her thighs—she was lost to sensation. She could already feel it, that familiar tension coiling deep in her belly, so agonizingly exquisite…

But it wasn’t enough. Close but not enough—

His hand seized hers when it began to move, slapping it back down to the table. “No cheating,” he rumbled in her ear.

“Em, I—” she choked. But the words caught on a moan as her entire body, her very blood, convulsed, and she wassuddenly right on the verge, teetering over that precarious, wild ledge.

Her muscles seized, aching to fall—but the release didn’t come.

Then her name ripped from him, violet aether flaring where his hands gripped her. He slammed in to the hilt with a groan as his body locked and poured into her.

No.

No, no, no…

Taly whined and tried to move against him. Every muscle in her body, every nerve, every cell, was still poised to shatter, but she couldn’t fall, couldn’t even move. She was trapped between him and the table, clenched so painfully tight around him she could feel every twitch of his slowing pulse—even as hers kept climbing.

Skye exhaled—a slow, satisfied sigh like steam venting off too-hot metal. His fingers slid through her hair, baring her neck before his lips brushed against it. “Blood sharing is a very intimate thing,” he murmured. “Especially when a shadow mage is involved. Taking our blood into your body gives us power over you. Lets me do things likethis.”

It was like he had a hand fisted around her very blood, and it was suddenly him controlling the flow of it through her body. Letting the tension build, letting it coil tighter and tighter as he dangled her closer to that ledge.

Tears leaked from her eyes as agony and ecstasy combined. She rolled her hips, chasing friction. A sharp pull on her hair stilled her.

“I could leave you like this.” His nose grazed her neck. “I’d say you’ve got another 15 minutes before your body breaks down my blood. I could make you beg for it—tease you until you can’t think straight. Then make you work for every damn inch tonight.”

She whimpered when his hand finally slid around to tease between her legs.