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Forcing myself to focus, I grip the bottom of my nightie and pull it over my head, keeping my pace slow and torturous. Zade hums his approval deep in his chest, and it gives me a boost of courage. Enough to slip my panties down my thighs and step out of them.

There’s never a sexy way to do it, but the way Zade’s eyes hungrily eat up my body, it feels like I just performed a highly skilled trick on a stripper pole. In reality, I’d break my neck attempting that.

“Get on the bed and kneel,” I tell him, tipping my chin up to direct him. He grins but does as I say, climbing on the bed with a panther’s grace. He sits back on his heels with his knees spread, and more than anything, I want to take a picture of him so I can look back at it when we’re old and gray and neither of us are even capable of sex anymore.

Strips of moonlight and the soft glow from the sconces accentuate the hard planes of his chest and abs, highlighting each muscle straining against his skin.

Only the devil can wield the shadows around his body with such divinity. A devil and a God—two opposing forces that make up one contradicting being.

Licking my lips with anticipation, I crawl onto the bed and then onto his lap, keeping my pussy suspended over the tip of his cock.

His lips whisper up the column of my neck, and I put my hands on his shoulders to not only balance myself but to keep him controlled.

My core throbs when a deep rumble vibrates throughout my hands, building as I deliberately brush my hardened nipples against his face. Right when he goes to bite down, I pull away, increasing the tremors shaking his body.

His head tips back until our eyes clash. I shiver from the uncaged lust spearing from his gaze. He looks at me like he’s only biding his time. Doing my bidding for now until the second I unlock those handcuffs.

In the blink of an eye, he’ll snap, striking like a viper. My throat in his hands and my heart between his teeth.

I feel the fear pulsating in my clit, heightening my heart rate to dangerous levels.

“You think you’re broken now, Adeline? Wait until you free me from these confines,” he threatens, the deep timbre of his voice lined with sharp glass. “I’ll fuck you until ev

ery single one of your bones breaks beneath me. Helpless little mouse, for me to mold and manipulate.”

He’s deliberately trying to scare me, knowing how much my body sings for the terror he instills in me.

Instinctively, I want to run from his terrifying promises and the creeping trepidation that he’s going to do just that. I also want to challenge him so he can make good on them.

My heart thrashes against my rib cage, but I don’t break his stare. Biting my lip, I reach between us and grab ahold of his length, delighting in the way his top lip curls into a snarl.

And then, ever so slowly, I slide the tip along my slit, wetting him before lowering myself increment by minuscule increment, until there’s no discerning which of us is trembling.

I lean forward and wrap my arms around his neck, molding my soft curves into his harsh lines, and slowly work him inside me. It feels just as I remembered—the burning as he stretched me wide, but the insatiable bliss that accompanies it.

My demons are tickling the back of my brain, begging to be let in to wreak havoc on my sanity. Drag me from this precious moment where I reclaim something that was stolen from me. So, I focus every ounce of my attention on the man beneath me.

His thinning breath, the building earthquake racking his body, and the veins pulsing in his neck as he fights to keep still.

I nudge my lips against the shell of his ear, that heady sense of power arising up through my throat and off my tongue.

“Do you want to see how easily I can break you?” I murmur coyly.

He grunts as I drop lower again, more than half of his cock buried inside me. It feels like too much and not enough. It’s never enough. Even when I’m filled to the brim, I want more.

I don’t wait for him to answer, nerves eating me alive even though this feels right. So fucking right.

“I love you, Zade. Sometimes I can’t fucking stand it,” I say, my voice raspy and uneven. “But it was the only thing that kept me alive. You saved me. Even when we were apart, you saved me. And I hope to God you never stop hunting me.”

His head rolls back, eyes to the ceiling, and he stills beneath me, as solid as the stone walls in Parsons Manor.

“Let me go, Adeline,” he says tightly. I hardly recognize his voice.

I sink the rest of the way down, seating myself completely on his length. The stone cracks, and his chest ripples with a sharp inhale.

“Let me fucking go,” he bites out again. I shake my head, though he’s not looking at me. His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows.

I know what he’s asking. Release the handcuffs. He could get out of them if he wanted to. And the fact that he’s waiting until I do it myself speaks volumes.