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Unable to move because of the way I was stretched, I lay still as he did all the work. He moaned several times and quickened his thrusts, a man succumbing to the desire of a woman, and that was so sexy to watch.

Despite the discomfort of his magnum size, I came all over his dick, swept away by the heat between our bodies that burned the room down to the stone foundation. The sex wasn’t wild and crazy. He didn’t throw me around or wrap his fingers around my neck. It was simple, missionary, but our bodies together were pure destruction.

He gave a heated moan as he thrust harder, pushing deeper into me with nowhere to go. The head of his dick hit a dead end, but I didn’t tell him to stop, because watching him get off was so damn hot.

He filled me and came to a halt, still a mountain on top of me, storm clouds that cast my land into shadow. It was the moment he would usually let me unfold and remove the stiffness from all my joints, but he kept me there.

And his dick stayed there.

He started to thrust again, just as hard as he’d been before we’d both finished, pounding me into the mattress and making my headboard tap against the wall. Like a sailor who’d been gone at sea for months at a time, he set foot on shore and released all the desire he’d contained on his journey.

But a man who looked like this didn’t have to wait long for women.

He could have anyone he wanted—dead or alive.

I pulled on a clean shirt from one of my drawers then stepped into the kitchen. An assortment of bottles of white were on the counter, but I grabbed a bottle of red before I uncorked it and poured a glass.

I took a drink then headed back to my bedroom, the house quiet like I was the only one in it. I stepped into the bedroom, and the fire had been lit in the hearth in my absence. It glowed and cast Wrath in a gentle light, making his big chest shine, creating long shadows under his jawline. His dark eyes looked a little brighter, less like the color of earth and more like copper.

I returned to bed with my glass of wine.

He sat up against the headboard and pulled me into him, making me use his chest as a pillow. My body fit between his thighs, and he wrapped his enormous arms around me.

I drank my wine and relaxed into him, cozy and warm.

He rested his chin on the back of my head, the sheets pulled to our waist.

It was hard to believe a man so big was in my bed right now, and I was the only one who could see him.

We sat together for a long time, at least an hour, and nothing was said. He certainly didn’t feel like a stranger anymore, but a lover I’d had for a while. I’d felt a twinge of pain in my chest when I’d left Viper behind, but I quickly forgot about him once Wrath came into my life. He was far more dangerous than a vampire.

Guess I had a type.

“What doesXivinmean?” I looked at the fire across the room, but his arms felt like the flames that gently heated my skin.

“It’s an endearment in the language of Xian.”

“Xian?”

“Death. The afterlife is known as the Realm of Caelum. The underworld is Xian.”

“Oh.” My glass of wine was already almost empty. I should have brought the bottle with me into my room. “And what doesXivinmean?”

“There is no literal translation. But the closest I can explain it is…mine. Completely, utterly, irrevocably.” His deep voice came from behind my ear, his breaths gently grazing the soft shell.

I felt his possession whenever we were together. Whenever he looked at me. And now, I felt it verbally, knowing he would say it again. “When you aren’t here…where do you go?”

“Xian.”

“And what is that like?”

He said nothing for a while, like he might not say anything at all. “It’s a place with no color, only a spectrum of gray. The trees are withered without sunlight. The shadows are long in the light of the torches. It’s quiet except for the constant hum that thuds in the deep. Some that enter Xian choose the darkness of the forest. Others choose to serve. Others choose madness.”

Now, I wished I hadn’t asked. “It sounds like a horrible place.”

“There is beauty in all things…if you look hard enough.”

“And this is what you wanted?” I asked. “To rule the dead? To live in a land without sun?”