Page 35 of Carved Obsession (The Sanctum Syndicate #4)

Carter

“You almost fucking killed me! Do you have any idea how angry that made me? You left a damn scar on me!” Scarlet roars on top of me. The flames dancing behind her give her a delightful, feral quality.

My answer comes with the press of my hips, cock straining against her weeping pussy, pulling a strangled moan out of her pretty little throat that bears my mark. Gorgeous .

Yet, she doesn’t falter.

“That’s why I did it all. It was my goddamn revenge. You needed to understand you may be the lion of this jungle, but it’s the fucking lioness who controls the kingdom. There are consequences, even for your mighty actions, killer-boy. ”

Well, I’ll be damned. I hurt her feelings, and this devious, intriguing cat-and-mouse game was her revenge.

This kitten isn’t going anywhere.

I’ll fucking chain her to me if that’s what it takes to keep her to myself for the rest of my days. She’s the unhinged little beast to the hungry creature living beneath my skin.

“Stop fucking smiling and apologize!” She slaps my chest, seething as she leans forward to get better leverage with that knife against my throat.

My cock springs up as her pussy lifts off of it, the tip lining up damn near perfectly with her drenched seam.

I think I may be seeing stars, because even that warmth shoots electric pleasure straight into my balls.

Scarlet’s eyes drift closed for a few delicious moments, and a twitch pulses into the tip of my shaft.

“If it’s an apology you’re begging for, it’s not going to come,” I tease.

“You fucking bastard!”

A sharp hiss tears from my throat as a sting sears across it, my hips jerking up involuntarily, clutching hers tighter. Stars explode behind my eyes. Because that single, hitched motion drove my cock deep into Scarlet’s unbelievable cunt. Three of the four rungs of my ladder vanish inside her.

Crying out, she hurls the knife to the side, bracing herself against my chest with one hand while the other locks tightly around my wrist as I clutch her hip.

Fuck, I think I dreamed of this moment. Of her tight walls strangling every inch of me. Sweet whimpers as she impales herself on me. Only, I’m sure I imagined it without the blood currently flowing out of the cut in my throat. She could have actually killed me, and I didn’t even take her seriously.

“Oh, fuck!” She slaps my chest, attempting to lift herself off my cock. The friction derails her efforts, and she whimpers as her head falls back, a sensual motion that holds my gaze hostage.

Sliding her hand off my throat, she pulls back to straighten, and her gaze widens as one more rung slides inside her sweet, pulsing cunt.

She brushes her palm against her belly, and when I notice the blood left in its wake, a feral instinct blooms within me.

A primal need that never surfaced because no target was ever worth it.

It is now—Scarlet is worth it.

“You look good against my pale skin.” That unhinged grin of hers is back, painting her features in pixie delight as she looks at her bloodied hand.

I grind my teeth when she adds more, gently rubbing her hand over the cut on the base of my throat. I should be pissed she sliced through one of my tattoos, but I’m strangely calm and proud to bear her mark.

“What are you—?”

The question catches in my throat when she lifts off my cock until only the tip remains. She grabs it with that drenched hand and paints it in violent shades of scarlet like my dick belongs to her.

When she lowers herself on my bloodied cock, taking on each piercing one by one, counting silently until she’s balls fucking deep, I think nirvana herself gazes upon me, because I’m about to fucking come. And I realize I may really be right—my cock definitely belongs to her.

“Jesus Christ, woman!” I dig my fingers into her flesh, guiding her as I piston my hips to meet hers.

That feral creature beneath my flesh brims with each glimpse of my blood-coated length.

“Mooore,” I growl.

And with that grin pulling at her lips, she adds more blood between thrusts. But she doesn’t stop there. She spreads it all around her pussy, using it to rub her clit as she throws her head back and revels in the filth of it.

“My dirty little whore. You look so fucking beautiful just like this, painted in the color that bears your name.” I slide my hands down her thighs, rejecting the instinct to take control. “That’s it, kitten. Fuck my cock like your sweet cunt owns every inch of it.”

She moans in response, grabbing onto my forearm to brace herself as she bounces on my shaft.

The slapping of our skins forms my new favorite melody.

Abstaining from coming is a fucking Olympic sport, and I may just be a gold medalist, because it’s damn near impossible with a pussy like Scarlet’s wrapped around my cock.

I’m done for.

“You’re so goddamn good at this, kitten,” I rasp.

“Oh, Carter...” She whispers my name like a ritualistic chant. And I’ll happily be her god if this is how she worships at my altar.

“Take everything you need from me. Take it all.”

A full-body shiver ripples through her, strangling my shaft as she collapses onto my chest. I grab the back of her neck with one hand, wrapping the other around her hip to hold her still and take over.

Jerking my hips to meet hers, I roll them slightly at the end when her whimpers grow with the movement.

Over and over, I fuck her twitching cunt, reveling in every single mewl that falls from between her pretty lips.

“This...is too much. So much...” she whispers breathlessly, as if this onslaught of pleasure is a true assault.

“It’s not nearly enough, love.”

I pump my hips, grinding my pelvis against her clit until every inch of her blooms in goosebumps and her moans turn into lust-filled cries.

“Bend back, Scarlet.”

“Wh-what?”

I guide her up, ignoring her protests as she clings to me. “Brace yourself backward.”

She frowns but follows the order and leans back, steadying herself on the floor next to my thighs.

“Holy fuck!” she exclaims as the angle allows my cock to grind harder against that magical spot inside her core. “Oh, Carter.”

“Keep saying my name just like that, in that slutty, breathy tone, and I’ll ruin this pretty pussy, Scarlet.”

She cries out as she slams her hips down, rolling them as she all but uses me to get off.

“Ruin me . . .” she whispers.

I take control, wrapping my hands around her hips and holding her only a couple of inches above me, then fucking her like her life depends on it.

I pump my hips upward, easing out before I ram right back in, repeating the movements as she whimpers and chants a series of curse words in her melodic voice.

Her legs tighten around mine, breasts blooming in delightful goosebumps, core pulsing faster as a full-body shiver ripples through her.

“Oh, fuck, Carter . . . I—fuck! I don—”

She doesn’t need to ask for it. I know what she needs.

I release one hand from her hip, bringing two knuckles to her clit and bearing down on it. It takes three rolls before spasms shake her entire body. She cries out as she drenches me with her pleasure.

I’ve never experienced a woman reveling in her orgasm quite like this.

I’m so fucking fascinated by the way she squeezes my shaft, so enraptured by the pleasure she douses me in, I almost forget to pull out.

I scramble to lift her off, but she frantically shakes her head, slamming down on me and trapping my cock inside of her.

“Scarlet, I—”

“Come!” she rasps.

And by God, I do.

My cock spasms almost violently within her choking pussy, and I spill inside of her. Ribbons of cum jerk in her warmth, and I swear I feel it rippling through my lower belly, my lower back, and up my fucking spine.

She collapses onto me, whispering something about having the contraceptive implant as she buries her head in the crook of my shoulder. I almost chuckle at the practicality infiltrating her ecstasy. She still trembles softly with her orgasm, and I’m barely reeling back from mine.

I find myself with my arms circling her, one hand on the back of her neck, holding her to make sure she doesn’t get away from me. But I pull her head back just enough to see her pleasure-tainted features.

Her eyes flutter open, a dark abyss pulling me in, and I crush my lips against hers like she’s my only lifeline as I lose myself in her darkness.

The kiss lacks the hungry violence I was expecting.

It’s doused in lazy passion, in comfort and indulgence.

And I drown myself in it as I delve into her inviting mouth, stroking her tongue with mine, sucking her lush lips, and tasting every sweet, soft part of her.

When we break for air, it’s lighter. Colorful, somehow. And I know it’s she who is changing my atmosphere.

“This was a mistake,” she whispers.

“Why?” I ask. Her words cut unexpectedly.

“Because you’re the first man to ever make me feel this way. To...make me come.”

“Oh.” Now that is truly shocking. Too many thoughts go through my head, ranging from How the fuck is it possible? to Hell yes, I’m the first to have the privilege.

“Either me and you are it for the end of times,” she adds, “or...I don’t know how to go on without feeling this...bliss ever again.” The truth dances with the flames in her eyes.

It may be the lingering orgasm messing with my brain, but there’s no fucking way any other man gets this privilege from now on. All of her orgasms are mine .

“You can’t expect to tell me I’m basically your first and think there’s any fucking chance for anyone else to touch you, Scarlet. Consider this first orgasm my mark on you. No one gets to touch you ever again.”

I don’t miss the hitch in her breath, and I could have sworn my heart beat just a little faster.

“That’s quite a caveman thing to say,” she says.

“I don’t care if you don’t like it.”

“I didn’t say I don’t, killer-boy.” She rises just enough to better pin me with her intense gaze.

“Just remember one thing; if your mark is on me, mine is on you. And I’ll gut any woman who dares to fucking touch you.

Make sure you’re okay with that, otherwise there’s gonna be a whole lot of blood on your hands.

” Her tone is laced with honey, sunshine, and bloody butterflies.

So colorful and sweet you could miss the blatant, disturbing threat.

I take in her violent, utterly possessive words, and I could have sworn my cock, which is still inside of her, twitched. Christ...she really is an unhinged little beast.

“Kitten, you wouldn’t hurt a fly,” I tease.

“That’s true—I wouldn’t hurt a fly. Or most animals, for that matter. But humans are a whole different story.” That feral look gleams in her eyes, bringing forth a feeling so deeply familiar I could be looking into a mirror.

She’s speaking the truth. I just know it in my gut.

“You’re not fucking with me, are you?”

She slowly shakes her head. “Tell me your preferred poison, and I’ll tell you mine.”

She’s serious. But this is it, my opportunity to learn more about her.

“You know mine already.”

“Carving?” she asks, though it’s more rhetorical.

I nod.

“It’s long. Drawn out. Effective for extracting information.”

“It is,” I agree. “It’s useful, but it’s not why I do it.”

“Why, then?”

I reluctantly pull my cock out of her, ignoring her protest as I shift her to the side and rise to grab a towel, then sit down next to her.

“When I carve into them, when I flay them alive,” I say, pushing her thighs apart to wipe her clean, “it’s to observe the array of emotions passing through them.

It’s fascinating to see which one settles in, because it’s always different.

I do it to see their reactions to each one, to feel their screams against my eardrums and experience their fear, their regret, their desperation. It’s enthralling.”

She’s propped up on her elbows, observing me as I finish cleaning the blood and cum from us both. I throw the towel to the side, and she cocks her head, heavy with unspoken words. I feel analyzed.

I rise to my feet, then help her up. She silently protests when I nudge her into bed, grabbing the first-aid kit to gently clean the cut on my throat first. When she’s done, she happily jumps onto the mattress, lying patiently as I give each blanket a little shake before I lay it on top of her.

A strange sensation passes through my gut. It takes me a moment, but I identify the signs. I wish I wouldn’t, because this is vulnerability. I am feeling vulnerable.

A small shockwave ripples through me. Intense, yet oddly comforting in its novelty. I don’t push it back but embrace it as I slide into bed next to Scarlet. I wrap her in my arms, our legs a tangled mess.

“You don’t really feel much, do you?”

Her question echoes through the chambers of my mind.

“Not really, no.”

I expected her expression to change, for me to see some form of a negative shift in her features. But there’s none. She just nods.

“Does that bother you?” I ask.

She ponders for a moment. “Do you feel any emotions?”

“Complex emotions are foreign. I can understand anger, frustration, all those interesting ones you graced me with lately. I can feel a sort of basic joy, satisfaction.”

“What about . . . um . . . care?”

“To a certain level. I understand that the people close to me are there for a reason. They would put their life in danger for me, so logically, I would do the same for them. They are my people, who I trust completely for all logical reasons, and maybe some illogical ones, so if this is care, then yes. I can feel care.”

She chews on her lip, blinking a bit more rapidly.

“Anything more intense than that?”

“Not yet.”

But I know the words are a lie before they even spill from my mouth. Blatant fucking lie. Because right here, with Scarlet wrapped tightly in my arms, unfamiliar, new , raw emotions riddle me to my fucking bones.

And goddamn it, they feel good.