Page 2 of Marked

But he didn’t. Instead, my words just made him seem to grow bigger and even more dangerous than before.

He chuckled in amusement and turned his massive form completely toward me.

Seated before him, the only thing I could feel was his presence all around me.

It was both stifling and consuming at the same time.

He leaned forward, holding my gaze as his fingers curled around the back of my chair on either side of my shoulders.

He’d effectively trapped me with just his body, and I shivered hard as I felt my core clench with unwanted desire.

“Little girls with very wet little pussies should know their place before they tease much bigger men with their sassy little mouths,” he whispered, his voice just loud enough for me to hear. My heart went pitter-patter in my chest, and I almost forgot to breathe.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I countered, but my voice was shaky and unsure.

He grinned and stared me down, leaving little doubt in my mind that he knew I was lying. My stomach fluttered with butterflies, and I told myself once more that he couldn’t know how aroused I was. It wasn’t possible. Human noses just didn’t work like that.

“You think I can’t, but I can smell how very wet you are right now, baby doll,” he answered, his voice still low, and I realized it was doing very strange things to my insides. There was no way. It had to be just a lucky guess. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.

“Does that work on every girl you try to bring home from the bar?” I asked, smirking and trying to hide the fact that I felt more turned on at that moment than I’d ever been in my whole life.

Right then, I very much just wanted to fuck him, but I would never admit that.

Not for anything. Not for a million fucking dollars.

“Kendra, was it? I’m Alaric,” he replied, purposely ignoring my question.

I tried to remain stoic, but I was shaking like a nervous leaf on the inside.

I told myself I could handle this, that all I had to do was depend on myself to get out of here.

I’d dealt with a number of overconfident men like him before, and if he wasn’t careful, I’d knee him in the balls and ensure he’d never sire a child again.

“Fuck off, Alaric. You couldn’t handle me even if you tried,” I retorted, trying to save face even as my body betrayed me right in front of him.

The fucking man just chuckled.

The bartender cleared his throat. “Keep it out of my bar tonight, Alaric. You broke my damn pool table last time,” the redheaded bar owner said.

Alaric’s grin just grew wider at his words. His eyes never left mine, and I could feel myself warming even more under his dark gaze.

“Fond memories, Richie,” he answered, his voice dropping a note. The bartender just laughed.

“No, seriously. Not in the bar. My insurance expired last week,” the owner added, and Alaric’s smirk lifted even higher than before.

He reached for me and grazed his forefinger under my chin, forcing my face upward just a hair.

“Get your hands off me,” I growled.

“I’m just beginning to put my hands on you, baby doll,” he answered.

Before I had even a moment to react, he grasped me around my waist and hoisted me over his shoulder like I weighed as little as a bag of feathers.

The air rushed out of my lungs as my world was turned upside down, and when I finally realized what was happening, he’d already carried me through most of the bar.

Men howled and whistled all around me, shouting vulgarities and dirty suggestions his way.

No one had ever manhandled me like this before, and I didn’t quite know what to do. Reacting solely on instinct, I began to kick and punch him in an effort to escape. He laughed even harder, and a sharp pain exploded across the right cheek of my ass.

I stilled. What the hell? What the fuck just happened?

“Keep it up. You’re lucky I don’t bare your sassy little ass and take you over my knee in front of everyone in this bar right now,” he warned.

He’d spanked me. He’d actually fucking spanked me.

Fuck that. This was too much. I couldn’t allow any man to treat me like this.

I started struggling again, but it didn’t appear to do any good.

He was incredibly big and strong, and he looked rough and dangerous enough that not a single man bothered him as he stalked toward the back alley exit.

Thrown over his shoulder like this, I didn’t stand a chance.

I’d have to wait until my own two feet were back on the ground, then I’d make my move.

I was going to knee him in the balls so hard that they were going to retract straight up into his ribcage and never come down, dammit.

“Give it to her good, Alaric!” Richie yelled from behind the bar, and I could feel myself blushing with embarrassment. Bastard. Working for him now wouldn’t work out. Having him as a boss would simply be out of the question.

No one was going to save me. No one was even going to call the police. This wasn’t that kind of bar. I was left with no choice but to save myself.

Alaric sauntered out into the back alley.

Once the back door to the bar swung closed, there was an eerie silence that was only broken by distant car horns and squealing tires.

He hefted me back down to the ground, pressing me back against the brick wall of the building we’d just come out of.

His massive form surrounded mine, and I reached back and slapped him hard across the face.

The sound of my palm hitting his cheek echoed loudly around us, and for a moment, time stood still as we stared into each other’s eyes.

His were a dark blue that reminded me of the deep water of the Mediterranean, like tiny little sparkling gemstones rimmed with a darker ring, and I lost myself in them for a moment before I remembered myself.

“How dare you?” I snarled, staring up at him with fury. My hand tingled from the sting of smacking him as hard as I had. I uncurled my fingers and straightened them, trying to urge the pain away, but it didn’t really work.

For a moment, he looked taken aback at my boldness, but his expression darkened with what appeared to be very dangerous arousal. A soft purring growl swirled around me, and I felt my knees go weak, my pussy grow wetter, and my nipples get even harder.

This wasn’t supposed to be happening. Not like this.

“I think you want me to punish you, don’t you, baby doll?

” he murmured, and the air rushed out of my lungs.

His fingers caressed my throat, lightly skimming across my skin and setting fire to every nerve he touched.

Those same fingers moved to pet my scalp before tightening into a fist at the back of my head.

He pulled my hair firmly, and I gasped in surprise, but my pussy clenched hard, and even more liquid heat gathered between my thighs.

A bright flash of pain blossomed underneath his rough grasp, and I cried out at its intensity.

At least at first. Within several moments though, the pain transformed into something else, and I realized with increasing horror that it was desire, and that my cry now sounded much more like a moan of very obvious pleasure instead of pain.

His lips descended onto mine, kissing me gently at first before deepening into something more painful and aggressive.

In the beginning, I fought him and tried not to give into the kiss, but then I realized my stupid lips were kissing him back without my permission.

For a little while, I allowed myself to succumb to the rampant arousal pumping through my veins, but I realized what I was doing and pulled myself back.

I tried to forget about my throbbing clit and attempted to think with my head instead of my needy little pussy.

Think, Kendra. How are you going to get out of this? For a second, I felt lost, but then I figured out what to do.

I bit his lip. Hard.

I expected him to pull back, to decide that I wasn’t worth the time or energy to deal with, that he’d leave me alone after I’d hit him and bit him in less than two minutes.

Instead, he did something entirely unexpected.

He bit me back hard; it hurt enough to make me pause formulating the next step in my escape.

A whimper escaped the back of my throat as my lower lip throbbed with pain.

His teeth scraped against the spot he’d bitten, reigniting the hurt and reminding me that right now, he was very much in charge and I wasn’t.

He kissed me gently once more and pulled back, his dark eyes staring down into mine.

“Little girls who bite end up getting bitten in places much more sensitive than their sassy mouths,” he warned, and I shivered with need. My pussy tightened with desire, and I panted for air, trying to quell the incredible longing that was surging through my veins.

This wasn’t normal. This wasn’t natural. Something was really wrong, and I couldn’t figure out what it was.

I’d never felt like this. I could feel myself losing control, and I didn’t like it. At least, that was what I kept telling myself. I wanted it. I didn’t want it. I was a confused mess of need as he towered over me, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

My lip throbbed where he’d bitten it, and I imagined his lips all over my body, grazing across my throat, over my breasts, and in between my thighs.

My pussy clenched hard as I thought about how it would feel to come all over his tongue.

I flushed with shame at the filthy direction my thoughts were taking and tried to push them away.

Fuck.

Calm down, Kendra. What are you, a teenage schoolboy? Control yourself. Stop thinking with your pussy and get it fucking together.