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He runs his fingers through my hair, and I practically melt into him. I’m in a complete zen state when he finally speaks. “What did Whitmore say?”

“That I shouldn’t be anywhere near you guys,” I admit, my gut clenching at the reminder of his words, and Tatum sighs.

“Of course he did.” He drags his free hand down his face, but draws me in tighter with his arm around my shoulders.

“Why would the head of Trinity Falls Academy even comment on something like that?” I ask, that single fact confusing me more than anything.

I can’t understand why he wants information from my diary to begin with.

I don’t really write about anything exciting as it is.

It’s usually about me being lost or confused over boys.

Sure, this information is delicate, but why insist on knowing my thoughts with the switched journal.

It doesn’t make sense, and it certainly doesn’t explain why he pulled me into his office to discuss it.

If I hadn’t been openly involved at the fight last night, would that have made a difference?

None of it makes sense at all.

“We’re obviously drawing attention to ourselves,” Tatum states, pulling me from my spiraling thoughts, and I nod.

“I’m just trying to live my life,” I admit, and he squeezes me even tighter.

“They don’t seem to like the sound of that,” he says into my hair, and I scoff.

“That’s true,” I muse before tilting my face to meet his stare. “But maybe we also need to put some distance between us,” I murmur, my statement barely more than a whisper, and his eyes narrow as his jaw ticks with barely contained anger.

“Like fuck.” I gape at him in surprise. “I’ve spent every part of my life that I can remember being sad and lost, using all of my energy to please others, and then there was you.” His words are firm, unwavering, like steel cutting through the air and holding me captive.

“Me,” I repeat in disbelief, and he nods, cupping my cheek.

“You are everything.”

My cheeks heat under his intense stare. “That feels like an exaggeration,” I breathe, half trying to lighten the mood and the other half revealing my insecurities.

“Have I been known to exaggerate?” he persists with a pointed look, and I relent.

“No.”

He shuffles us around so his arm is still under my neck, but now we’re face to face.

“You make me want things I never did before.” My cheeks burn brighter at his admission.

“I’ve spent as long as I can remember resigned to the fact that when it comes to the blood kin curse, I wouldn’t fight.

Why take someone else’s life when mine is so worthless, you know? ”

I gape in surprise, my hands clutching at his t-shirt as I shake my head. “Tatum?—”

“Until you,” he interjects, stealing my next breath.

“Now I know I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get the chance to spend more time with you.

Any means necessary, Polaris. Any,” he insists, and my heart thunders in my chest. “So Whitmore can go fuck himself. Along with anyone else that could have an issue with it. I’ve waited forever for you. I’m not hiding any of that.”

I nod. Just enough to agree while still cautious about the mayhem continuing to unravel around us.

“I need to figure out who swapped it out and why,” I murmur, referring to the journal, and he nods.

“Absolutely, but let me just be in this bubble, me and you, for a little while longer,” he murmurs, running his thumb over my cheek, and I nod, feeling the pounding of his heartbeat against my palm.

“It’s beating for you. Only you,” he declares, his fingers finding their way into my hair again, and a shiver runs down my spine.

“I never feel more seen than when you look at me,” I admit, and his eyes darken.

“That’s exactly how I feel. You make me feel… everything,” he states, and I nod. “The good, the bad, and the ugly.” I frown at the negatives, but he shakes his head with a wry smile spreading across his face. “I love all of it. I went from feeling nothing to everything.”

I can’t take it anymore. Curling my fingers even tighter into his t-shirt, I eliminate the distance between us and press my lips to his.

His grip on my chin tilts my head back slightly, giving him better access to the seam of my mouth before he delves inside, deepening the kiss. I fall into him. Every breath he takes is mine too. It’s everything and nothing all at once.

He completes a part of me, but it feels effortless. Like it’s so natural, having it any other way doesn’t seem right.

“Make me yours,” I plead, tearing my mouth from his, and he shakes his head.

“I don’t know if I can, not without claiming you,” he admits, and I’m taken back by his honesty. Not that it should be a surprise, not when it comes to him.

“And if I want you to do that?” I finally ask when I manage to compose myself enough to speak, and he shakes his head again.

“You don’t know what you want.”

I lean back, giving him a pointed look. “That's what you said last time when we were in the maze,” I remind him. “Are you always going to doubt what I want?”

“No, but I always have your best interests at heart,” he insists, and I sigh.

“And what about what I want? Is that important? Because it matters to me.” My jaw tightens, but the dam has broken now.

Before anyone can even conjure an answer, I push on.

“I want to feel safe, I want to be heard, and I want to belong, even if that’s only with myself, in my own skin, because if you can’t respect me the way I respect myself then it’s not good enough.

But more than all of that, my body is screaming for you, I want you more than anything and everything in the world combined in this moment.

I want your dick, thick and stretching me to your will, and I want it now. ”

My chest heaves, my truth hanging heavy in the air as Tatum gapes at me.

“Always,” he promises, pressing a kiss to the corner of my mouth, and I groan.

“Please, Tatum.”

He moves a second later, pinning me flat on my back as he nestles himself between my thighs, all while his mouth remains on mine.

Our hands explore, running over the planes of one another as our kiss deepens. The moment he rocks the outline of his cock along the seam of my leggings, I can’t take it anymore.

“Tatum, please,” I beg again, and he finally tears his mouth from mine, only to dust kisses over my jaw, down my throat, and across my chest.

I move to slip my hands beneath my leggings, desperate to remove everything between us, but I don’t move them an inch before he tugs at my wrists. “You’re mine, Polaris. I get the pleasure of undressing you,” he states, and I gulp, feebly nodding as he shuffles onto his knees.

Watching him watch me is a kind of euphoria I didn’t know existed. His knuckles graze across my skin as he takes each layer of clothing off me until I’m lying before him in my underwear.

“You’re fucking perfect, Polaris,” he rasps, and I sink my teeth into my bottom lip, emotions blossoming in my stomach at his assessment of me.

“I hope you aren’t attached to these,” he states, running his fingertips over my cotton panties and bra, but before I can answer or ask why, he tears at them, the material snapping under his force.

He tosses the shredded fabric over his shoulder without a backward glance, grinning down at me with a sense of achievement glistening in his eyes.

“What about you? Do I get to undress what’s mine?” I ask, raking my eyes over him from head to toe, and he shakes his head.

“Maybe another time. Now, this is all about you,” he insists.

“But—”

He presses his finger against my lips, cutting off anything I was about to say. When he’s sure I’m not going to argue, he removes his hand and swiftly undresses, boxer shorts and all.

His cock is rock hard and jutting in my direction, and I gulp.

“I’m going to worship you, Polaris. Just not today. Today, what am I doing?” he asks, and I blink up at him, his words muddled in my mind as I find myself hypnotized by his cock.

“What?”

“Tell me what I’m going to do to you, Polaris,” he states, getting settled between my thighs again, and I instinctively spread them wider.

Clearing my throat, I look from his cock to his face three times before I find the words to answer. “You’re going to claim me.”

“Fuck yeah I am,” he rasps, running the tip of his cock over my slick pussy, and I groan.

“Please.”

Hooded eyes latch on to mine as his pupils dilate. “Beg me again,” he groans, his voice darker than ever, and I shiver, desperate to rub my thighs together, but it’s impossible with him situated between them.

“Please, Tatum. Claim me.”

It’s like my words unleash the madman contained inside. He grabs at my thighs, spreading me wider than I’m sure is possible before he lines his cock at my entrance. His head falls back when he feels how wet I am for him, a needy groan vibrating from his throat.

It’s only when his gaze settles on mine that he moves.

Swift.

Hard.

Sure.

There’s nothing between us, just raw need, purpose, and intention.

My back arches off the bed, desire coursing through every inch of me as he slams all the way home. He holds the position for a moment as we both gape at each other in disbelief.

“Beg me again,” he rasps, and I’m a sucker to please him.

Watching him unravel is everything. “Claim me, Tatum. Please. I need it. I need it now,” I cry out as he flexes his hips before slamming back into me.

My vision blurs, stars dancing along the back of my eyelids.

He takes me.

He fucks me.

He claims me.

I writhe beneath him, my body one with his, taking just as much from him as he does from me. The tingling starts in my toes, skirting up my spine seeking release, and I wrap my legs around his waist, desperate for more.

“Come for me, Polaris. I can’t claim you without it,” he orders, and I shiver, on the brink of falling apart as he lowers over me, lips ghosting mine as he speaks.

“Leave me dripping in your sweet release, Polaris. Now,” he growls, his eyes golden, but my perfect view of them is gone when he lowers his head, wrapping his lips around my nipple.

He sucks, hard, and I scream, my back arching impossibly tight as my climax wins, hurtling toward him at his command. Wave after wave of ecstasy crashes through me, the feeling only intensifying as he sinks his teeth into the side of my breast, drawing another cry of pleasure from my lips.

His thrusts come faster, harder, needier, and a moment later, with his teeth still latched on my flesh, he finds his release, spilling inside of me.

I can’t breathe as another wave of euphoria claims me, leaving me a limp mess melting into my pillows. It’s only when he relaxes his bite at my chest and leans back that I manage to see anything other than fireworks dancing along my vision.

But it’s not his content face and hooded eyes that hold me captive.

No.

It’s the bite mark that glows at his chest.

One that matches exactly what he just did to me.

“You’re mine now, Polaris,” he declares, and I nod, gaping at him in shock as he shuffles down the bed just an inch, unfazed by the mark he’s left on both of us. Instead, he lowers himself to his elbows, eyes focused on my pussy as I feel his release drip down onto the sheets.

With two fingers, he teases my entrance, and I watch with curiosity as he slips them inside, thrusting his cum back in.

He looks up at me through hooded eyes, a dark smile curling his lips. “Now it’s time to worship.”