Page 83 of The Hunter

I wasn’t that woman anymore.

Henry straightened, and I relaxed the grip my legs had on him. As he brought his erection up to my entrance, I whimpered, my hips tilting instinctively toward him.

“I’ll give you what you want,” he began, teasing me to the point of madness. “But my promise still stands. You’re not here formypleasure. This is foryourpleasure, too. Okay?”

“Okay,” I exhaled, my breathing increasing as anticipation coiled inside of me.

“Okay.” He leaned down and kissed me. Soft. Light. Tender.

Then he thrust into me in one, deep stroke.

Chapter Thirty

Henry

Ariana’s moans filled the room, echoing off the walls like a prayer and a curse. Her body gripped mine like a vise, her heat drawing me deeper until I was completely lost inside her. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Every nerve in my body sang with the sensation of her wrapped around me, slick and trembling, as if her body had been made for mine.

She felt like fucking heaven.

Not just the way her walls clenched around me. Not just the way her breath ghosted over my skin, or the desperate little whimpers that slipped past her lips and drove me mad.

It was the way she held on to me — arms curled around my neck, thighs locked around my hips — like I was the only thing anchoring her to this world. Like she needed me.

I pulled back, slowly dragging out of her before driving back in with measured control, each roll of my hips a battle between reverence and ruin. My fingers traced the scars along her stomach, and guilt surged like wildfire through my chest.

I should’ve seen the signs. Should have known what she’d been enduring in silence. She told me at the gala she wasn’t living. That she was simply surviving. It wasn’t the last time she said those words to me, either. She’d repeated them.

And I’d ignored her. Every. Single Time.

I let my hatred twist her into something she wasn’t. Let it blind me to the truth right in front of me.

Now that I knew what Victor had been doing to his wife, I’d make sure he never touched her again. Never breathed in her direction without suffering for it. I’d make him regret every bruise, every scar. Tenfold.

“Henry,” Ariana’s voice pulled me back to the present, the stab of her nails digging into my back dragging a groan from me.

As much as I wanted to let go of every ounce of restraint and fuck her so hard she’d never forget me, I didn’t want to do anything she wasn’t ready for. Anything that might bring forth memories of Victor.

“More,” she begged, her voice filled with desperation. “Please, Henry. I need more of you. Need you to fuck me.”

I clenched my jaw, trying to keep control. “Iamfucking you, princess.”

She vehemently shook her head. “You’re having sex with me. That’s not what I want. I don’t want you to be careful with me. I want you to shatter me. I want to feel everything. Every ounce of you.” She curved toward me, taking my earlobe between her teeth. “Let me have all of you.”

Whatever restraint I’d managed to hold on to snapped clean in two as her plea echoed around me.

Like an animal unleashed, I slammed into her with a ferocity that surprised even myself, burying my face in the crook of her neck and inhaling her scent. My teeth grazed her skin before I gently nipped at her pulse point.

“Harder,” she whispered.

“I’m more than ten years older than you,” I panted, pulling back to meet her heated gaze. “This is as hard as I can fuck you.”

“And it’s incredible.” She smiled that wicked, beautiful smile I was fast becoming addicted to. “But that’s not what I’m talkingabout. Your teeth. I want you to bite me harder. Mark me. Claim me as yours.”

Fuck.

I didn’t think it was possible, but I got even harder inside her.

“Are you sure?” I asked, not wanting to do anything to hurt her, even if she was asking me to.