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She felt his words deep in her chest, in her bones. The anger had only magnified their wanting for one another, alongside all that raged against the world and what it had demanded of them.

Hawthorne –Wilder– froze for a moment, as though warring with himself, as though he didn’t dare breathe. ‘I can’t fight this anymore,’ he groaned against her lips. ‘Not tonight.’

His arms snaked around her, pressing every part of her to him as he returned her kiss fiercely. His mouth was hot and lush and bruising. His tongue met hers and sent a thrill straight to her core.

‘Me either,’ she whispered. She dragged his shirt from his shoulders, desperate to feel his heated skin beneath her touch, desperate to get him naked. The fabric fluttered to the floor and she trailed her fingers down his torso, toying with the waistband of his pants, noting the bulge beneath, her blood heating at the sight.

He tore her shirt apart with a growl, buttons popping as he claimed her mouth once more, ripping her chest band down, freeing her breasts.

Thea moaned as he cupped them in his rough palms, pinching her hard nipples between his fingers. She arched into his touch.More, more.Her body, her heart demanded more.

Wilder obliged her silent command, ripping open her trousers and wrenching them down her bare legs.

She palmed him through his pants and he groaned, the sound making her buckle.

The same dark frenzy she remembered from the Bloodwoods took hold of them both. Thea felt herself winding tighter and tighter, relentless heat pulsing between her legs. She fumbled for his pants, but he batted her hands aside, focused on removing hers completely, getting to his knees before her as he stripped them away.

Her undergarments were next, and suddenly she was naked, completely exposed.

Wilder kissed her breast, his tongue circling her nipple before he moved to the other, teeth scraping, causing her to arch as his hands cupped her backside.

‘I have many regrets in this life,’ he murmured against her skin, kissing a path down to her navel. ‘But not tasting you that night in the woods is one of the biggest. I need to rectify that now. Let me show you how much Idon’t want you, Thea.’

Suddenly, he was hoisting her up, carrying her not to the bed, but to one of the armchairs in front of the fire. He placed her down gently and she sank into the cushions, her skin flushing as he spread her legs wide. His gaze was heavy-lidded with lust as he looked upon her, spying the slick wetness between her thighs.

He glanced up at her, his lips parted. ‘I need to taste you,’ he said again, his voice thick.

Thea swallowed and gave a single nod.

That was all the permission the Warsword needed. He hooked her legs over the arms of the chair and put his mouth on her.

Thea saw stars.

He licked up her centre in a long, luxurious stroke before circling over and over. Thea threaded her fingers through his hair as he kissed the most intimate part of her, spreading her wider and feasting upon her.

She cried out as he sucked on her clit, coaxing waves of pleasure from her, making her climb higher and higher into the ecstasy of him.

Squeezing her breasts, pinching her nipples, she moaned, ‘Oh gods…’

‘The gods have no place here,’ he told her as he slid a finger inside her.

Two.

Bliss crested, causing her to writhe beneath his touch.

‘You’re perfect,’ he said. And he worked her into a furious frenzy of desire.

She knew no inhibitions then, no shame or vulnerability. Only him and the pleasure he unravelled in her. All she could do was ride out the tidal wave, rendering her as powerless as a piece of driftwood in a surging storm.

‘I want you undone, Thea…’ Wilder murmured against her.

He fucked her with his tongue and fingers, her thighs clamping around his head as she lost herself in him, as she did exactly as he bid.

There was freedom in this, she realised abstractly as she reached the point of no return. There was freedom in letting go.

And so she did.

She cried out, nearly sobbing as she climaxed, as Wilder wrung every last drop of pleasure from her trembling body.