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DECLAN

S he takes a step back with a naughty glimmer in her eye. The blade, now in my grasp, ready and waiting for me to throw.

“Show me what I’m working with,” she orders with her hand firmly on her hip.

Sizing up the target, I throw it, and it hits, the blade digging into the wall, but quite a few inches from her attempts.

“Hmm.”

She taps her finger against her lips, her eyes roaming my body.

“Take your shirt off.”

I don’t move; instead, I tilt my head with an amused smirk.

“Now.”

The command in her voice does something to me, something primal. I pull the shirt over my head and drop it to the floor. The cabin air is cold, but her gaze on my skin is fire. It always is.

She steps into my space, close enough that her breath grazes my throat. She presses the tip of the knife just beneath my collarbone, and I suck in a breath.

“You think I won’t bleed for you, sweetheart?” I look down at her.

“Trust me?” she asks, but it’s not sweet. It’s a threat. A dare.

“I’d let you cut my fucking heart out,” I say.

She drags the blade downward, slow and shallow, tracing the line of my sternum. I watch her the whole time. She doesn’t blink. Doesn’t hesitate. The pain is sharp but clean.

She’s not cutting me because she wants to hurt me.

She’s cutting me because she wants to own me.

And I fucking love it.

“I could carve my name into you,” she whispers. “Brand you. A bit like the one I marked my own skin with for you in the games.”

“I’m already yours. It’s even there in ink, baby. But go ahead, mark me some more.”

She stops. Eyes flicker up to mine. There’s a crack in her armor now; it’s small, but there. I reach for her wrist and gently guide the blade down until the tip rests against my abdomen.

“Do it,” I murmur. “Whatever you need to take back control, do it with me. Right fucking here. Let it out.”

Her breathing stutters. She looks down, then back up, and something shifts. Her control splinters and shatters. She drops the knife and forcefully grabs my face in both hands and kisses me like she’s drowning and I’m the only air she has.

Enough to make us become the fire.

We crash to the floor in a tangle of limbs and teeth. She claws at my chest, dragging her nails through the blood she drew. I pull her hips against me, grind her down until she moans into my mouth.

“Take your pants off,” I growl. “Now.”

She obeys without a word, kicking them away. I grab the knife from the floor, press the flat of it to the inside of her thigh, dragging it slow, deliberate.

She gasps. Her legs shake, but her eyes glisten with mischief.

“You like that?” I murmur. “You want more?”

“Yes,” she pants. “I want it all.”

I flip her onto her stomach, press a hand between her shoulder blades to keep her there. Her ass is already red from earlier. I grab her hips and pull her back against me.

“Good girl. Now don’t flinch, remember. Or you lose,” I whisper, gripping onto the knife.

She is frozen in place as I run the flat edge of the blade along her ass cheek; before I take it any further, I pull my hand back and launch it at the target, this time hitting between her last two.

“I throw better when I’m turned on,” I tell her, and she laughs.

“Good shot. Now, you need target practice. Your dick inside my pussy. Go,” she orders.

Now that is one instruction I won’t get wrong. I fuck her like I’m trying to bury myself inside her forever.

She screams into the floor, and I cover her mouth with one hand.

I pound into her relentlessly, until I start to see stars in my vision. Everything about this moment is raw, and it’s fucking electric.

“Give it to me,” I shout as I almost reach my own peak.

Releasing my hand from her mouth, she screams out my name, and that is my undoing. I violently shudder as I spill inside her.

She sobs into the wood, shaking beneath me. I collapse on top of her, arms wrapping around her, holding her so fucking tight.

“I’ve got you,” I whisper, brushing her hair from her face. “No matter how dark it gets—I’ve fucking got you.”

And when she turns her face to look at me, eyes glassy but fierce, I know.

This woman has my heart.

We’re each other’s weapons. And there’s no one I’d rather bleed with.

“Can we… go home, Declan?”

Home. I don’t believe that is a single place anymore.

It’s simply wherever my heartbreaker is.