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“Never said I was, leannan.”

When he calls me that, when one of his hands gently cups my cheek, something inside me twists. The anger, the pain…it all melts together in a way I can’t fight.

Tears threaten, but I refuse to let them fall. The tenderness in his touch reminds me of everything I lost—and everything I can't seem to let go of.

“You expect me to be a spinster for the rest of my life?” My breath hitches as his lips linger just a whisper away from mine, sending a jolt of electricity through me.

“That doesn’t sound so bad.” The warmth of his breath brushes against me, and a wave of goosebumps blooms across my skin.

“Is that what you’re gonna do?” My hands tighten around his biceps, my fingers trembling against the heat of his skin. “You’re just going to be alone forever?”

“Nothing will ever come close to what we had, Dinara.”

His words hit me like a punch to the gut, freezing the air in my chest. As though he’s realized what he said, his eyes lock with mine, a hint of vulnerability there.

“This isn’t fair.” I shake my head, the tightness in my stomach knotting even more as I try to push him away, as though distance can somehow protect me from this pull.

All I want is for him to tell me he wants to try again, that he wants to fight for us, because no one else can ever make me feel the way he does.

“Fair has nothing to do with it.” He slips a hand into my shorts and panties, and I know what he’ll find.

“Always so wet for me.” He rubs circles around my clit, his husky baritone across my throat setting me ablaze. “Didhemake you this wet?”

Those talented fingers slide inside me with a deep thrust.

“Did he make you scream like I did?” Another one sends me over the edge. “Did he make you squirt all over his mouth? His cock?”

Oh my God, what is he doing to me? I shouldn’t be letting this happen, but I can’t stop it either.

“Did you kiss him?” He backs away to stare at me, rage set deep in his irises. “Did you suck his dick?” The fingers around my throat tighten while he finger-fucks me until my eyes roll back. “Answer me.”

Pinching my clit, he waits for my reply while a cry dies off in my throat, the sensations he brings out overtaking my entire body.

“Yes.” My chin hikes up defiantly as I revel in his jealous state of fury. “I did it all.”

He drags my head back until the ache is painfully delicious. “What’s his name, Dinara?”

I laugh in a mocking tone. “Fuck off.”

A possessed growl escapes from his chest. “I’ll find out, baby, and I’m gonna kill him.”

Heat coils low in my belly. I’m enjoying his insanity.

“You’re mine. You’ll always be mine. You won’t touch anyone again. Do you understand me?”

My fingers curl around his throat, barely even making it across. “I was never yours, Cillian Quinn, and I never will be.”

“Wish that were true.”

He drives into me so hard, stars explode before my eyes, the world growing dimmer until all I feel is him. His voice. His touch. Just him.

“I can't get you out of my damn head.” His lips near mine, so close I can feel them.

“Maybe that's because you don't want to.”

“I fucking want to. I just can’t.” He grips my hair. “What have you done to me?”

Same thing you did to me.