Page 114 of Dark Flame

“Until you give me the answer I want, you’re not leaving this spot. You’re not coming. As long as it takes, Hellion.”

“Alec, I won’t be able to stop.” And just as her core follows her own words, her orgasm nearly about to yank her into the abyss, I slide from her, leaving her empty and wanting. She gapes, whining. “That’s not fair.”

“It’s perfectly fair. You don’t get to come until you accept yourself. Until you realize how fucking magnificent you are—preciselyas you are. Darkness and all.”

“Then we’ll be both celibate.”

Bet you we won’t be.I push back inside her, slowly this time, watching as I hit the deepest parts that cause her eyes to roll back.That’s it. You were saying, Hellion?

“Fuck off.” But it’s lost so much of her normal venom. A fight from a woman who’s lost hers.

Light or Dark, you’re perfect.

She moans, her nails digging into my shoulder. Even undressed, she’ll never be able to penetrate my skin, and for the first time since learning she’s my Bride, I wish she were a vampire so she could truly unleash the full depth of her anger.

Not that trying won’t also hold its intrigue.

I release her hips to shrug out of my shirt. “You’re angry, Harlow. You need someone to hurt. Something to take your rage out on. I want to be that for you. Give me your rage, however you wish to deliver it.”

Her hand flattens over the place my heart once beat. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“That right there, that you don’t want to, is the very reason you won’t.”

Grasping her hips, I spin us away from the tree and drag us to the ground, settling beneath her, her pussy clenching as she comes down on top of me. It’s a position I’ve never been in for any other woman because it’d mean giving up my control. But Harlow can have every bit of it, and I roll my hips into her, urging her to claim it for herself.

“Not now, but after this, what if the black magick fucks with my fire? You heard what happened; they were binding my magick. I’m stronger now than in the past, and with the Darkness…” A slashing emotion—pain—slices down the bond, and it’s the only reason I let her remain still atop me. And then it’s her whisper—a sign of that caring nature of hers I’ve come to love. “What if my magic explodes again? It’s fire, Alec. It’ll kill you.”

“Then you’ll be free. If you die, I die, but since the bond is one-sided and incomplete, you’ll get everything you want.”

Anguish stares down at me in the form of masked feelings and potential heartache. “What if that’s not what I want?”

“Then you won’t kill me. Hellion, you’re talking like you’ll have no control.”

“I won’t! You and I both have no idea what’ll happen.”

“Yes.” Seized with irritation, I sit up, my arm clenching around her waist to keep her still, my cock buried deep inside. “You’re right. Neither of us know what’ll happen, but you’re pissing me off. You’re giving up before you even try. Where’s the Sinclair I kidnapped, the one who ran for her life? The one who sat in that cell and never once gave up? You sharpened a rock, for fuck’s sake, to defeat me.You, Harlow Sinclair,my Bride, you don’t give up. Ever. Don’t worry about me, because no matter what happens, death won’t keep us apart. Death would give you a chance to move on, and I’ve decided I’m too obsessed with you to allow that. Now…” I fist her hair, yanking her head back until her back arches and her perfect, budded nipples consume my view. Before I lose myself to them, I demand, “You’re angry, Hellion. You’re confused. You’re hurt. You’re scared. And don’t lie, because I feel every single one of your emotions. Before we return to the coven, you need to work this out, and I want you to do so on me. Magickally or otherwise, unleash yourself.” I dip my head, tracing a nipple with my fang and whispering, “Please, Harlow. For me. For yourself. Let it out. Let yourself go.”

My tongue swipes over her nipple while my fangs dig into the flesh, but just like every other bite, I do not go gentle. I devour her like I would prey I didn’t care for. I drink in heavy gulps, urging her to fight me.

A moment later, she does. Heat comes through where her palms are on my shoulders, and it’s with a genuine flinch I pull away, yanking my teeth from her skin to meet her smirk seconds before she grasps my neck and angles my face up to hers.

“How do you know what I need?” she whispers against my lips.

Because I can feel you better than you feel yourself.

“Thank you.”

And then she takes over, and it’s a beautiful thing, letting go to her. Seeing as she comes up on her knees until only the tip of my cock is inside her and then sinks back down, burying me as deep inside her as she can. She does it twice, taking her time, her body twisting with pleasure.

Do it, Hellion. You know you want to. Justfeel.

She moves harder, faster, and I thrust from below, helping her towards the finish—helping herlet go.

Her back arches with her cry, birds and bats fluttering far away as she disrupts the sliver of peace around us. My little nature disruptor. My piece of Darkness, all for me.

Fucking beautiful.

And that’s when it happens. When her eyes flash with something dangerous and alluring, when the purple of her eyes flicker to a midnight black, the same colour as mine, and her nails dig into my skin. She won’t break it, but she tries, riding me into a near-oblivion.