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I should have taken her then. I could have. She would have bent to my will with just as much enthusiasm, and yet I could not bring myself to close the distance between us because I knew in the aftermath, she would hate me and I would despise myself.

I pressed the robe to my face and inhaled her sweet, rosy scent.

“What are you doing?” My creature’s voice was sharp and demanding.

I turned, robe in hand, to look at her.

She was still dressed in last night’s clothing, her hair windswept and wild, and her bright eyes narrowed. But her features lacked the tightness of anger. Perhaps she was too tired to hold on to those feelings, as a darkness gathered beneath her eyes.

She may have slept last night, but it certainly wasn’t restful.

“Where have you been?” I asked.

A light ignited in her eyes, and it pulled at the corners of my mouth. There was her fury.

“I told you yesterday I would visit the selkie.”

“You returned?” I blanched. “With those feet?”

“Of course with my feet,” she snapped. “Whose would I have used?”

I dropped the robe and stalked toward her. “I warned you against returning.”

She smiled wickedly. “Did you really think a fairy ring would keep me from learning your name?”

“Is that what you are doing?” I asked, stopping within an inch of her. She shifted, straightening her shoulders, curving her back. She was preparing to fight me, and I wondered if she knew it. I leaned in a centimeter more and demanded, “Did you bargain with the selkie?”

“So what if I did?” she asked.

I reached for her, my hand bracketing her neck where her pulse raced against my palm.

“Do not toy with me, vicious creature,” I said, voice quiet. “Tell me truthfully, did you bargain with the selkie for my name?”

She must have seen something in my eyes that hinted at my anger, because I felt the fight leave her body.

“No,” she whispered.

“And will you promise never to do so?”

“No.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I can give you everything he could and more.”

“There is nothing I want from you except freedom,” she said, but as she spoke, her eyes fell to my lips.

I leaned closer, a whisper between our mouths. “Are you certain of that, creature?”

When she did not speak, I lost all control and crushed my mouth to hers. For a brief moment, she tensed, but as my tongue swept over her lips, she melted, her mouth moving just as hungrily as my own.

I could not decide where to put my hands. What would she want? I’d had no issue touching her before, but this felt precarious. The wrong move could end it too soon, and I wanted this for as long as possible. But it was she who fueled the fire when her arms wound around my neck to bring me closer. Her breasts pressed against my chest, her mouth opened for me, and her tongue caressed mine.

Fuck, she was sweet.

My hands went to her waist and then to her thighs, and I lifted her off her feet. Her legs encircled my waist, and I pressed my weight into her as her back met the door of her wardrobe. My cock was so hard and so heavy, and as it found friction between her thighs, I groaned and she gasped, her fingers tightening in my hair.

I sought purchase against the naked skin of her thighs, my palm resting against her wet heat, my fingers trailing the slickness gathered there.

“Sweet creature, say you are desperate for me.”