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She snorted a laugh. “Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but mortal and Legacy cocks are exactly the same. The blood of a god does not make your dick more special.”

She was prepared for the darkness that crept across his irises at the mention of being the same as a mortal. She was not, however, prepared for the shadows that sprang to life around him, twining around her arms, caressing her breasts, her hips, her thighs. She wasn’t prepared when Theon’s touch followed his magic, and she wasn’t prepared when something beneath her skin started pressing at her being, trying to claw its way out.

She was already arching off the bed, and he hadn’t even godsdamned moved yet.

“It’s different with a Legacy,” he murmured again, his voice as sensual as his touch where he was toying with a nipple. Then his head tilted to the side as he studied her. “You feel it, don’t you? You feel your power trying to get to mine.”

“I— I don’t know what it is,” she rasped, pressing against his hold on her. It had to be the bond. There was no other explanation. “Theon, I need you to move.”

“I know what you need, Tessa,” he replied, pulling out a fraction before pressing back into her.

“Do you?” she snapped. “Because it’s more than that.”

He huffed a laugh. “Still fighting me, even with my cock buried inside you.”

“I’m beginning to wonder if you know what to do with it,” she bit back.

His small smile fell, and then his mouth was on hers, his tongue swiping at the seam of her lips. He didn’t need to try too hard. She immediately let him in, moaning as he claimed her mouth the way he tried to claim every piece of her.

Bending her knees, she moved to wrap her legs around his waist, but then he was pulling back and pulling out, and she was cursing in frustration.

“Godsdamnit, Theon!”

“Hush, Tessa,” he snapped, gripping her hips and flipping her over, tossing her further up the bed. “I told you I know what you need.”

She felt the bed dip as he climbed up behind her, his knees pushing her legs wider. Then he was hauling her ass up before he slid all the way into her again, and she was moaning into the blankets, her face buried.

Taunting. That’s what made him do this to her.

She tucked that away for future use.

His hand was in her hair, pulling until her back bowed, and she was hissing at the sharp sting in her scalp. He pulled out and slammed back into her again as he growled, “Is this what you’re wanting from me, Tessa?”

“Gods, yes,” she moaned, arms stretched before her and fingers curling into the blankets. The buzzing beneath her skin increased, and whatever it was, it was as desperate for release as she was. Heat speared out from her center, her entire body sparking with need. The tension was becoming too much as he continued to hold her on the brink of pleasure, knowing exactly how to move to give her what she wanted, but not enough to let her grab it. And in this moment, she both hated him and needed him, and it wasn’t fucking fair.

He thrust into her again. Then his chest was flush with her back when he curled over her to speak again. “Do you feel that, Tessa?” He punctuated his question with another thrust of his hips as his shadows continued to rove across her flesh. There one moment and gone the next, the thing inside her was chasing it all, like lightning trying to catch the darkness it eclipsed. “It’s not the bond. I know you think it is,” he continued, low and dark in her ear. “But it’s you, Tessa. It’s us. So much more than a fucking bond.”

And then he was pressing her down to the mattress, his hand on her neck, holding her in place as he lost any semblance of control. The angle made him go deeper, his cock hitting the perfect spot every godsdamn time. She was coiled so tightly, it wasn’t going to take much more, so she let herself sink into the sensations of his cock plunging in and out of her. His shadows pressing against her clit with every thrust. Of his heavy breaths and her ragged gasps. Of his fingers flexing on her hip as he steadied himself. The sweat beading on her brow.

“Give it to me, Tessa. Now,” he demanded with another hard thrust.

She shook her head against the hold he still had on her neck. “Not yet,” she pleaded, wanting to cling to this all-consuming pleasure just a little longer.

“It’s mine. I decide when I get to have it.” Then there was a snarled, “Fuck! I can feel your power, Tessa. Just beneath the surface. When it is set free—”

She stopped listening. She didn’t want to hear yet again what her power was going to do for him. To hear yet again just another box she checked on his list.

So when his shadows pressed into her clit, vibrating against her, she let herself fall into oblivion as release tore through her. It wasn’t until she was coming back down from the high that she realized her hands were clenching the blankets so tightly her knuckles were white. That Theon had removed his hand from her neck. That he was pulling her back into his chest, dropping little kisses to her head, her temple, her jaw. She hadn’t even realized he’d come while she’d been lost to her own euphoria.

“You’re perfect, Tessa,” he murmured.

“You already got to fuck me, Theon,” she sighed. “You can stop trying now.”

“Tessa—”

“Please just…stop talking.”

To her surprise, he did. But his hold tightened around her.