Page 35

Cadence

The only sound discernible inside the cave was the slow trickle of water as it dripped from the ceiling.

That, and the rasp of my ragged breathing.

We stood chest-deep in the still water, and anticipation flooded my veins as Ryker watched me. He raised his fingers and traced a path down my neck to my collarbone. His touch lingered when he reached the pulse point at the base of my throat, and his gaze darkened when he felt the rapid beat that had settled there.

My breathing hitched, and my lips parted as he lifted his eyes to meet mine. Primal need burned in his gaze, and I was certain he saw the same in me.

“How I feel about you, Cadence, is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before,” he murmured.

He pressed his mouth to my throat as he left a trail of wet kisses all the way to the shell of my ear.

“You’ve buried yourself beneath my skin. Your presence has invaded my thoughts to the point of insanity. Not even my dreams are safe from your presence, and it feels as though you are haunting me,” he breathed. “Are you Cadence? Are you haunting me?”

Before I could say anything, he sucked my earlobe into his hot mouth and bit down. A shudder ran through my body and Ryker pressed closer, the head of his cock nudging at my entrance.

“You’ve become my addiction, my obsession, and I fear there are no lengths I wouldn’t go to, no boundaries I wouldn’t cross to keep you at my side.”

He’d proven that time and time again, and I hated it.

But at that moment, with him, I felt anything but hatred. It wasn’t disgust that had me pulling him closer, needing to eliminate any space between us.

Without warning, Ryker lifted me from the water and placed me on the ledge. He stepped between my thighs and stared down at me, open and bare before him.

“And none of this is a choice,” he murmured so quietly I almost didn’t hear him. “It’s a descent into madness. A pull I’m unable to resist, even as it threatens to bring me to the edge of myself.”

Ryker lifted his gaze, and his eyes locked with mine. Obsidian had consumed the whites of his eyes, and I inhaled sharply.

Not from fear, though.

From anticipation.

“I know it will tear me apart, and yet, I would never escape it because, in that darkness, you are mine, and mine alone.”

Then his mouth was on me.

He placed a hand on my lower abdomen and gently pushed me until my back hit the cold, wet earth as his tongue swirled inside my opening. Ryker licked the length of my slit before he sucked my clit into his mouth.

A needy sound that I hardly recognized as my own escaped me, and I almost exploded then and there.

“You make the most delicious sounds, Temptress,” he purred, and as his warm breath hit my center, I whimpered.

“You’ll be a good girl for me, won’t you, Temptress?” he drawled, emphasizing each word. “When I give an order, you will obey. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes,” I breathed, desperate to feel his hands on me again.

Ryker chuckled darkly, pleased with my obedience.

“Now play with your nipples while I devour your needy cunt.”

I slid my fingers up my body and pinched one puckered nipple and then the other. When Ryker dipped his tongue back inside me, I cried out at the intense pleasure the competing sensations created.

Then he went to war on my pussy and everything else faded away.

I cupped my breasts, feeling the full weight of them as I continued to circle my nipples, pinching and squeezing as he’d instructed me.

The world could have crumbled around us, and I wouldn’t have noticed… or cared.

All I could focus on was the way he made me feel.

The stirrings of an orgasm began to build, and I reached down to run my fingers through Ryker’s hair, partly needing to touch him and partly to make sure he didn’t stop his ministrations.

I was close.

So, so, close.

And unabashedly desperate.

“That’s it, Temptress,” he growled against my pussy.

The vibration sent shock waves pulsing through my core.

“Shatter for me.”

My inner muscles clenched, creating a tingling sensation before waves of pleasure crashed into me. Violent tremors wracked my body, and a wanton moan, long and guttural, passed between my lips as a sense of euphoria washed over me.

I was panting hard, trying to catch my breath as I came down from my high, and I didn’t even realize Ryker had pulled me into the water until the cool liquid assaulted my sensitive nipples.

Ryker spun me in his arms so that my back was to his chest, and he placed my hands on the edge of the pool to steady me.

“My turn,” he snarled against my ear, and that was the only warning I got before he thrust into me, long and hard.

I screamed Ryker’s name, but that only encouraged him to go faster, deeper. With one hand on my hip, he wound my hair around his fist, anchoring me to him as he pounded into me without restraint.

“You take me so well, Cadence,” he praised. “So. Fucking. Well.”

Each word was punctuated with a thrust so harsh I could feel it in my womb.

The sound of flesh meeting flesh bounced off the walls of the cave and echoed around the chamber as Ryker ruthlessly fucked me.

The pull on my hair disappeared, and a moment later, Ryker’s fingertips danced across my collarbone before his large hand gripped my throat.

“This fucking pussy is mine,” he rumbled.

The hand on my waist crept higher, stroking my side until his palm kneaded my breast with no hint of tenderness or gentility.

I doubted Ryker even knew how to be gentle.

And I wasn’t sure that I cared.

His grip was rough and punishing as he squeezed my tender flesh, tugging and twisting my sensitive nipple.

“Oh, gods, Ryker, please,” I gasped, unsure of what I was even asking for.

“I told you I’d have you begging, Cadence,” he taunted. “What is it you need, hmm? Do you want me to fuck you so hard that you won’t be able to sit down for the next week without remembering where I’ve been?”

His hips slammed forward, and the force of it made my whole body jolt toward the edge of the pool.

“Yes,” I whimpered.

“You want me to fill up this needy cunt with my come until you’re drowning in it?”

His movements slowed, and I was on the verge of sobbing and promising him anything he wanted if he’d just keep moving inside me.

“Ryker.”

His name fell from lips as the plea it was.

“You want me to own you, don’t you, Cadence?”

His thrust was long but languid, not enough to bring me to the edge of oblivion.

“You want me to own this pussy so completely that no other cock will ever satisfy you?”

“Yes, Ryker. Yes, to all of it.”

I might have been embarrassed by the desperation in my voice if not for my all-consuming need for him.

“Beg me to make you come, Cadence.”

“Please, Ryker,” I begged. “Please make me come.”

Ryker snarled behind me, the sound animalistic and savage, leaving no doubt about its meaning.

It was a sound of claiming.

The predator preparing to conquer its prey.

The hand on my breast moved to the side of my neck, and with both palms wrapped around my throat, Ryker unleashed on me.

He slammed into me with a ferocity that left my body shaking and my lungs struggling to suck in my next breath.

There was nothing between us except the raw, electric tension that heightened my senses and made me feel as though I had never truly lived until that moment.

“You’ll give me one more, Temptress,” Ryker demanded right before his fangs sank into the juncture between my neck and shoulder.

I screamed in ecstasy as bursts of light flashed behind my eyes, and my body gave out, crashing against the rocky ledge of the pool.

“Good fucking girl,” Ryker shouted as he spilled himself inside me.

My breathing was choppy, and I felt as though I might pass out from the sheer bliss raging through me.

A slight buzzing noise sounded in my ears, and I barely heard Ryker when he asked if I was all right.

Beneath the noise and stimulation, something else stirred.

It started as a gentle tug in my chest before growing frantic, insistent.

Oh gods, it couldn’t be true.

Not him.

Not now.

But no matter how I longed for ignorance, I was unable to deny the pull or what it meant.

Ryker was my fated mate, and whether or not I liked it, the bond had just taken root inside me.