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His mouth slammed over hers simultaneously, drinking in her yelping cries as her sex stretched around the width of his digit. Her channel rippled around the intrusion, inexperienced muscles quivering around him helplessly.

“I’m a dead man,” he muttered under his breath, breaking the kiss. “Gonna go to hell for defiling a virgin, gonna die working my cock into this superior pussy, but by Christ, darlin’, it’s gonna be fucking worth it.”

She needed to sit down.

When her legs gave way, Merrick chuckled and looped his other arm around her waist. “Easy, Tamsyn. Relax into it, it’s gonna feel strange. Let the shock pass for a minute, then we’ll find out what makes you feel good.”

She didn’t understand this urge to push her hips down, to take him deeper. Though she felt stretched wide and full, something told her to move, to ride his hand, grind into him until the pressure abated.

He didn’t push her for more. For the next few minutes, he kissed and nuzzled her throat, adoring her with tongue and lips, nipping lightly at her skin until she squirmed with building sensitivity.

When she finally stopped trembling, he kissed her mouth. “Stop or go, little owl?”

Murder was on the cards if he stopped. While she wasn’t a fan of the burning pain, she understood it was necessary. A sacrifice or—even though she hated thinking it—a trade of sorts. Physical pain in exchange for a physical connection.

Besides, it could be worse.

She doubted the fat, balding family friend who’d told her to call him Elder Frank all her life would’ve been careful when he pinned her beneath that bulbous stomach and made her scream.

She’d have been his fourth wife in two years.

Of course, if she went back to the community now, the only celebration the elders would facilitate was her funeral, and she’d be lucky if she got an unmarked grave in the reviled section of the cemetery—more likely was the disposal of her body by throwing it over the designated ledge further up the mountain, letting it bounce as far it could down the mountainside until it could go no further, then leaving it to the bears and wolves.

Even if she didn’t lose her virginity before the elders found her, she was tainted.

Worse, in their eyes, she was sullied by a man not of the community.

Oh yes, her time was limited.

So why was she hesitating? Wasn’t it sweeter to die knowing she was loved? That the one thing she had of any value, the one thing her father needed to uphold his standing in his beloved community, was given to someone who deserved it instead of an old man who bought it?

Poor Merrick. She couldn’t tell him what had happened to her in the years before she met him, or explain what was coming in the future. When she disappeared, he’d only have memories; the same ones she’d relive in the moments before she died.

Thesememories.

Careful to hide the sadness in her eyes, she slid her hand from his nape to his cheek, cupping it the way he liked to do to her. She finally understood why—there was a beautiful kind of intimacy in the gesture, a connection passing from face to hand that made her heart ache.

Lowering her hand to his chest, she traced aGover his heart, followed by anO.

“You want the bed?” he asked gruffly.

Just you, she thought, shaking her head.Always, only you.

There wasn’t much time to think after that. The thick digit inside her flexed, curling slightly as he moved it in and out gently. Her arousal simmered, flaring each time he touched a magical spot.

In and out, in and out.

Her hips picked up the slow rhythm, rocking to meet the in-stroke, falling away from his withdrawal. Small, greedy moans hummed in her throat, quietly urging him on.

“We’re crossing a line, little owl. This pussy is gonna come all over my fingers, then it’s mine.” His teeth pinched her earlobe, the nip of pain clamping her muscles down on him. “It’s gonna come on my face, my tongue lapping up every drop of sweetness, then it’s mine all over again.”

Tamsyn arched as he pulled his finger out to the tip, whimpering as he added another and stretched her open for a second time.

“Once it comes on my cock, it’s game over for both of us. My cock is the last you’ll ever know, the only one you’ll ever need. This beautiful, perfect cunt…” He growled like a beast snared by a chain around its throat. “I’ll ruin you, darlin’. I’ll ruin you so good, I’ll be your addiction. When I’m through with you, you won’t be happy unless I’m balls deep in your pussy or wedged in your ass. Game. Fucking. Over.”

Clawing at his chest through the soft material of the shirt, she shivered at the threat in his voice. He used such bad words to paint vivid images, encouraging her hips to respond.

Those fingers moved faster, plunging into her with wet noises that sounded obscene to her ears. The pad of his thumb settled on her clitoris, rubbing small, tight circles around the nub. He kept stroking her inner wall, toying with her until his fingertips struck some magical spot that made her buck and squeal.