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Maybe he was a match.
Maybe I’d finally found someone who could keep up.
Someone who could take everything I had—and give it right back.
My thighs burned, my wrists throbbed from his grip, and the raw ache between my legs pulsed with every heartbeat, but I wasn’t done. Not even close.
His lips grazed my throat, his breath hot and ragged, promising another round, and I arched into him, my nails digging into his back, daring him to keep up. Dominion Hall’s shadows loomed around us, but the only thing I craved was the edge—the razor-thin line where pleasure bled into danger.
His eyes, blue and feral, locked on mine. “We’re not done,” he’d growled, and I felt it, the heat of his promise, the way his hands spread my thighs like he owned every inch of me.
But my mind was already racing, chasing something wilder, something that would push us both past the brink.
I wasn’t normal. I knew that. Never had been.
Other girls dreamed of safety, of softness, of kisses under moonlight and vows whispered in the dark.
I craved danger. I got off on chaos. My mind didn’t quiet unless I was dancing with something that could break me—whether it was a fall from the sky, a man with sharp edges, or the bite of a risk I had no business taking.
I’d tried to want other things. Tried to be softer. Smaller. Palatable. But it never stuck. Because deep down, I didn’t just like danger.
I needed it.
And Elias? He didn’t just carry danger—he was it. Coiled and simmering beneath the surface, built from the same sharp pieces I was. It made sense, then, that my brain would go hunting forthe next high, even now, still trembling from what we’d just done.
It wasn’t that I didn’t care about consequences. I just couldn’t stop wanting what I wanted.
And right now?
I wanted to take this already-unhinged night and make it mythic.
Noah’s words from the pool echoed in my head—she’s gorgeous, but she bites—and a reckless idea sparked, igniting my blood.
Obsidian. The snake.
I wanted her coils against my skin, her danger woven into us, amplifying every thrust, every scream.
I slid from under him, my body slick with sweat, my movements deliberate as I straddled his hips, teasing his cock with my heat.
“Stay,” I whispered, my lips brushing his, my curls falling around us like a curtain. His hands gripped my ass, hard enough to bruise, but I leaned back, flashing a wicked grin. “I’ve got a surprise.”
His jaw tightened, suspicion flickering in his eyes. “Vivi, what the fuck are you?—”
I silenced him with a kiss, deep and filthy, my tongue claiming his until he groaned into my mouth. Then I slipped off the bed, my bare feet silent on the hardwood, my skin prickling with anticipation.
I wanted Obsidian, and I wanted her now.
I grabbed Elias’s discarded T-shirt from the floor, the black fabric swallowing my frame, and padded out of the suite, leaving him sprawled on the bed, his cock hard and his eyes burning.
The hallway was dim, Dominion Hall’s silence pressing against my skin. My heart thumped, not from fear but from thethrill of sneaking through this house of secrets, my body still humming from his touch, my mind alight with what was coming.
The main living area sprawled below, a maze of luxury—leather sofas, a bar gleaming with expensive bottles, and there, against the far wall, Obsidian’s enclosure. The glass was thick, the tank lit by soft light, and inside, she lay coiled, her black scales glinting like polished midnight.
Her eyes, dark and unblinking, met mine as I approached, and my breath caught. She was lethal, unapologetic, a creature that existed on her own terms.
I understood her, craved her, wanted her danger to dance with ours.
It was insane. Reckless. And I didn’t care.