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“Fuck,” he groaned, his forehead dropping to my shoulder. “So tight. So perfect.”

Pleasure shot through me, a bolt of liquid fire.

His hips began a relentless rhythm, each thrust pushing me further into the couch. One hand snaked around to find my breast, squeezing roughly before pinching my nipple. I cried out. This wasn’t the gentle, timid coupling I’d experienced once before. This was raw and primal. I was out of my element.

But my body craved the destruction, embraced the pain with the pleasure.

His thrusts grew harder, more demanding, the slap of skin against skin filling the quiet condo. The pleasure built inside me, coiling tighter with each brutal thrust. I never knew I could be taken like this—like I was something precious and yet something to be conquered all at once.

“You feel that?” he growled, his accent thickening with his arousal. “Feel how perfectly you take me? Like you were made for my dick.”

“Yes,” I gasped, barely able to form words as he hit a spot deep inside me that sent sparks shooting behind my eyelids. “Oh madonna, yes!”

He shifted, pulling me up so my back was flush against his chest, his arm wrapped around my waist like an iron band. The new angle drove him impossibly deeper, and I couldn’t hold back the scream that tore from my throat.

“That’s it,” he encouraged, his thrusts devastating me. “Let me hear you. Tell me how it feels.”

I was putty in his hands, threatening to melt or combust on his command.

“So good,” I managed between breathless pants. “So full.”

His hand left my breast, sliding lower to find the sensitive bundle of nerves between my legs. His fingers circled my clit.

The pressure was too much. My vision blurred as waves of ecstasy crashed over me. I was teetering on the edge, his expert touch driving me toward release with relentless precision.

“Come for me, prinkípissa,” he commanded, his voice a dark promise in my ear. “Let me feel you come apart around me.”

Those words were the final push I needed. My body convulsed, pleasure exploding through me like a supernova. My inner walls clamped down on him, pulsing rhythmically as I screamed his name. The orgasm tore through me with such force that tears sprang to my eyes.

Markos growled, his rhythm faltering as my release triggered his own. He buried himself to the hilt, his powerful body shuddering against mine as he emptied himself inside me. His teeth found my shoulder, biting down hard.

The pressure was almost too much to bear, pleasure spiraling through me with an intensity I’d never experienced before. In the aftermath, we stayed locked together, our hard breathing timed in a rough staccato that had no symphonic beauty.

“I own this.” Markos cupped my pussy, his cock still rock-hard inside. “And I’m never letting it go. Do you understand, Serena?”

Hazy brain waves tried to form some kind of protest, but there wasn’t enough oxygen to do anything but agree. So like a creature rabid with insanity, I nodded.

“Good. So fucking good.” Markos pressed a hard kiss against my throat before he released me.

The sudden emptiness made me instantly cold. I collapsed onto the couch, wondering what on earth I’d just done and knowing all the while that there was no coming back from this.

Markos bumped around in the kitchen, but I didn’t care enough to look. Moments later he was back, pressing a warm, damp cloth between my legs.

I shifted, pulling away from his touch.

“Don’t,” he warned. “Don’t you dare be embarrassed about anything that passes between us.”

I opened my mouth to speak, to tell him off, but he lifted me into his arms and walked back to the guest room. The words turned into a formless croak. Markos chuckled as he laid me down. After tucking me in, he left. I decided to lay here quietly until I was sure he wasn’t coming back. Then I would get up, shower maybe. Or go down to the beach and join the runners in their crazy pursuit of exercise. But as I waited, sleep crept around the edges and drug me back into the dark, where I dreamed of a monster king and his briny, underworld kingdom.

Chapter 25 – Markos

I shouldn’t have done that.

A night spent with Zephyr, taking care of a problem employee, put me on edge. The information extraction proved useless. He was just a dumb fuck who happened to cross his boss, skimmed a bit of money, and thought he would get away with it. There was nothing nefarious in his actions.

But the bloodshed brought out the beast inside.

My plan upon returning to the condo was to exorcise the monster, work out, and go for a long swim. Before I could do any of those rituals, the little goddess appeared—and wouldn’t leave.