“I hate you. I’m obsessed with you. You’re everything I want. I’m everything you need.”

  His touch made it hard to breathe.

  I tried not to get lost in the sensation, but it was a welcome distraction from the ache in my chest.

  “All you want to do is hurt me. You’re mean.”

  “Princess, you like it when I’m mean.”

  “I do—Hey!” I crossed my arms in an X across my chest as he pulled the towel away in one swift motion.

  “Don’t hide from me,” he snapped, grabbing my wrists and pinning them down on either side of my head. “You like it when I’m mean to you, Otherwise you wouldn’t taunt me just to see how I’d react.”

  “I never did that,” I objected, but there was no force behind it.

  “Your heart speeds up, you breathe a little deeper, and your pussy starts to ache, you get wet. Thinking of all the ways you want me to rip you apart.”

  His heated stare traveled from my shallow heaving breasts, down my navel, to between my legs.

  “Like now. You’re wet. I can see your pussy glistening.” The hands gripping my thighs began to glide inward, both going for the same place.

  “You rubbed your ass against my dick the other night. And while teasing me is the right way to make sure you get fucked, hard, all you really need to do is tell me you want it.”

  His fingers reached my pussy, my stomach dipped, and I swallowed, knowing he felt the truth dripping from it.

  “I do want to hurt you. I want to see you bleed for me—scream for me. Break you over and over just to be the one to piece you together again. But I can make hurt feel very fucking good, princess.” He slid one digit inside me, deeper than he had the first time, pulling a soft moan from my chest.

  “You’re so beautiful, Adelaide.”

  I blinked at him using my full name, and his mouth covered mine not a second later.

  Not tentative—rough and demanding. I let everything go and shut my eyes parting my lips and giving him immediate access. It was just a kiss, yet it felt like my heart was melting, restraint and reasoning right along with it.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck, squealing when he sunk his teeth into my lower lip, the taste of iron hitting the tip of my tongue.

  His hands went beneath my ass and used it to lift me higher up on the bed. Instead of returning to hold me, I heard the sound of his zipper going down.

  My eyes popped open, my nerves fraying inside me. If I truly wanted to object this would have been the time for me to open my mouth.

  There were no further words spoken, no questions or doubts voiced.

  I think regardless of what we did or said this is where we were going to end up.

  He stared at me as he shoved down his pants and drawers, not completely removing them. It wasn’t fair, how gorgeous he was.

  I scanned over his perfectly muscled chest, down his torso, and stopped at his long, very hard cock. I bit my inner cheek as the insatiable need between my legs turned into a throbbing.

  There was a metal bar going through the head of his dick that had me burning with curiosity. I wanted it inside me.

  He slowly climbed up onto the bed, placing his body between my spread legs.

  The tip of him pressed between my lips, wedging at my entrance.

  He braced one hand above my head, the other he used to hitch my left leg over his hip.

  “Scream as loud as you need to.” His taunt was accompanied by a devilish smirk and a thrust of his hips. He pushed and pushed until he was seated deep inside me.

  The pressure of being stretched to the maximum and stuffed full of him almost trumped the burning sensation his rough intrusion had caused.

  The air rushed from my lungs on a scream, I grabbed for his shoulders just as he withdrew, and then slammed himself in again. He cursed beneath his breath, grabbing for my right leg and hooking it around his hip like he had the left.

  “You’re mine,” he affirmed, his stare blazing into me.

  I felt as if he saw more than my outer shell, seeing everything there was to see as he proceeded to fuck me in earnest.

  He buried his cock deeper and deeper inside me, fucking me harder the louder I moaned while staring into my eyes. I knew he wanted me to understand this was his way of staking a final claim. He wanted me to feel his possession, and I did. I felt him, everywhere. Not just between my legs.

  His solid body dwarfed mine, every time his muscles flexed I felt them beneath my fingertips, breathing him in with every little gasp. His stare reached a private space inside me I never let anyone into.

  “Fuck, princess,” he suddenly growled, planting himself impossibly deeper and wrapping a hand around my throat.

  The mattress began to creek beneath us. Sweat-slicked skin smacked against sweat-slicked skin.

  I called his name trying to run from the brutal way he was pounding into me, the intensity and fullness were too much.

  His grip grew tighter around my neck. It felt like he was truly trying to rip me apart. Pain was a close companion to pleasure, both fighting for precedent.

  The metal bar began hitting a sweet spot, and suddenly I was working with him, gripping him tighter to keep hitting that same place inside me. My pussy flooded with arousal, drenching his cock so thoroughly a squelching sound filled the air with every thrust he made.

  “Remember what I told you last night?” he questioned, his grip tightened more, restricting my airflow.

  I croaked out a reply that was undecipherable. I was climbing rapidly, unrecognizable sounds pouring from my chest.

  “I can feel it. I can feel you. Come for me, princess. Come all over my dick,” he rasped in a guttural tone.

  As if his words were the permission I needed, the climax hit strong, he dug his fingers into my throat and captured my continuous moans in his mouth as I shattered apart around him, dragging my nails down his back.

  Specs of white invaded my vision as he continued to drill me into the mattress, not letting my throat go until his release was over.

  When his dick swelled, he didn’t pull out; he emptied himself inside me with a satisfied curse and rough, even thrusts.

  We stayed joined together, him barely out a breath, watching me struggle to catch mine as he slowly removed his hand from my throat.

  When he pulled out, I glanced between us, seeing my juices and blood all over his cock. My eyes met his; I licked my lips and swallowed.

  He ran a gentle finger up and down my swollen slit, pushing me into another small orbit of pleasure that had me shuddering beneath him as a primal look washed over his face.

  My demise stared back at me from within his napalm eyes.

  TRES

  Traditus

  Amant similes diabolis

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sedecim

  I pulled my shorts on with a wince.

  Adding my tank top and boots was more of the same.

  It was naïve of me to think once was going to be enough. When we started the sun was pushing away the gloom in the sky, now it was setting again.

  He alternated between fucking me with his cock or his tongue, breaking long enough to feed me and let me take a quick nap.

  I felt as if I’d been hit by a truck. My body looked as if it’d been tossed into a meat grinder. There was an imprint of a hand on my throat that I tried to cover by pulling my hair over my shoulders.

  My lips were still puffy. Bruising was beneath the denim of my shorts, also in the shape of a hand. I was concerned my pussy was too swollen; my labia looked like two fat pillows.

  Zane showed back up again as I was brushing out my hair, clean and freshly dressed.

  “No,” I croaked, my voice hoarse and raw.

  “No, what?” he tried for innocence and failed, only making himself seem more up to no good.

  “No more, we’ve had enough.”

  His boots thudded across the bathroom floor.

  I shut my eyes and internally groaned, feeling him step up behind me.

  “It’s never going to be enough.”

  Two strong arms slid around my waist, locking together just above my navel. I could have stayed as we were, paused time and let all the hurt, worry, and uncertainty pause with it.

  He was warm and strong—this strange man I knew nothing about but felt as if I’d know my whole life. He wasn’t safe, though. And I knew his words weren’t directly regarding sex.

  “Open your eyes, Addy,” he softly intoned.

  I did as he requested, being met with the reflection of us in the mirror hanging above the sink.

  “What do you see?”

  I saw him and all his perfection—beautiful bastard.

  Dark hair was now flawlessly restyled—lashes to die for, oceanic eyes regarding me closely.

  The brand on his neck stood out the most. The one beneath my eye and inked on my right arm were a sharp reminder of our differences.

  “I see you. I see me.”

  “You see us.”

  I nodded slightly, holding his gaze in the glass. I did see us. But when we returned back—I had no idea how this would ever work.

  Maybe he would get tired of me before then?

  “You are truly fucking gorgeous, do you know that?” His hands flattened and slid down to my shorts.

  “Zane, compliments will get you nowhere,” I huffed, trying to stop his obvious intentions.

  “I wasn’t telling you that to get something. This,” he easily shook off my grip and popped the button on my pants. “Is mine whenever I want it.”

  I scoffed, sucking my teeth when he slid his index finger between my swollen lips.

  “You hurt, baby?” he questioned knowingly, pulling my hair to the side and planting a feather-light kiss over his hand print.

  “You know its hurt.”

  “Let me make it feel better.”

  “Uh…”

  He bent his knees, dragging my shorts and underwear down as he crouched.

  “What are you doing?” I turned my head and looked at him over my shoulder.

  He spread my legs apart and then ran his hands over the globes of my ass.

  “So perfect,” he said more to himself than me.

  “Watch yourself as I make you come.” With that he spread my swollen lips and plunged his tongue inside me.

  I jerked at the feel of him and grabbed hold of the basin on either side, curling my fingers around it.

  He ate me from behind, fucking my pussy with his tongue. I bit down on my lip to stifle my moans.

  “You taste so sweet,” he groaned.

  The sound of him feasting on my pussy and my untamable whimpers reverberated in the air.

  He must have sensed how close I was already. He shoved his tongue so deep inside me I felt myself contract around it. “Zane,” I expelled on a low moan, gripping the basin so hard my knuckles turned pink.

  I looked in the mirror and saw the flush steal across my face as an orgasm erupted in my core.

  Before I could come down, he was back on his feet shoving his dick into my pussy, covering my mouth to silence the scream of pain and pleasure.

  “Zane, please,” I panted, slamming a hand against the mirror and tucking my chin to my chest.

  It was too much. He was too much for me. Our height difference had me half lifted off the ground, the position we were in making me feel every solid, hard inch of him.

  “So fucking good,” he growled, fucking me harder.

  It hurt so bad it felt incredible, my pussy grew slicker, another orgasm teetering on the horizon that I wasn’t sure I could survive.

  He grabbed a handful of my hair and wrenched my head back, so I was watching us in the mirror.

  “Touch yourself, princess. Come one more time for me,” he commanded, swiping his tongue up my neck.

  My body was so strung out on what he’d done to it the past few hours my hand shook as I brought it between my legs.

  I whimpered, feeling him move beneath my fingertips as I dragged them upward to my clit. I strummed it a mere two times before I came on a soundless scream, clenching around him as my eyes rolled to the back of my head.

  He held my weight as I became a puddle of orgasmic mush, drained and nerves beyond raw as he finished.

  He came inside me…again, cock emptying every drop of semen into my pussy.

  A kiss was placed on my shoulder as he pulled out.

  He was back to normal as if nothing had happened before I could even turn around, leaving his come to drip down my thighs.

  I didn’t bother looking in the mirror again. I couldn’t even recognize myself right then.

  “You can’t keep doing this,” I breathed, searching for something to clean myself off with.

  Obviously, I was an idiot because this would have been better voiced about three rounds ago.

  “Doing what?” His tone told me to tread carefully.

  My not give a fuck was reminding me I didn’t have to take his shit.

  “Coming inside me. You’re aware of how babies are made, right? That’s the last thing we need.”

  I turned the sink on and grabbed my old shirt from out of my gear bag, using it to clean myself up.

  “It’s going to happen sooner than later.”

  I froze, knowing I didn’t just hear him say that.

  “We can’t have a kid together. One, hell no. Two, our factions—.”

  “They’re going to be in an alliance,” he swiftly cut me off. “That’s how I know your brother.”

  I fixed my shorts, steadily staring at him. I didn’t feel all that surprised by this. Take that back. This wasn’t that big of news to me at all. I’d known that he and Luce were up to something, admittedly not something this huge. Did my parents’ know?

  “Why would you do that?”

  “I didn’t. Luce came to me.”

  Why would he do that?

  “And you accepted a deal?”

  That was stupid of you.

  I didn’t even make deals with Luce.

  “Give me some fucking credit, Addy. I’m not stupid. I know your kind isn’t exactly the most trustworthy. I have an insurance plan.”

  “My kind?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “And what insurance…?”

  The smug look on his face told me I’d guessed correctly before I could speak it aloud.

  I swallowed, feeling like a fucking fool. Of course, it was me. That only made too much sense. No wonder this asshole said I was his; I legitimately was thanks to Luce’s deviance.

  I wasn’t all the way acquainted with the ‘political’ side of running a faction, but I did know how iron-clad most deals tended to be and this one was not some simple trading of biscuits for tampons.

  It was an alliance between the two largest gangs the Badlands had, just like the radio had predicted. Was that a fucking omen?

  “Why are you just now telling me this?”

  His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “I didn’t think it held much relevance until you let me stick my dick in you.”

  Ouch. “Oh, my…” I laughed, looking towards the ceiling with a shake of my head.

  I bent down, ignoring the soreness radiating through my body as I pulled Annie’s shell case from the gear bag and looped it over my head, and then I zipped it up and grabbed that too, rising back to my feet.

  “Are you about to throw a tantrum?”

  He sounded far too amused for my liking. I ignored him, heading out into the bedroom.

  “Addy—.”

  “Quit talking, Zane.”

  “What the fuck did you just say?” His footsteps followed right behind me.

  I grabbed Annie’s gun from where it was propped against the wall.

  “Oh, right, maybe I should start speaking in terms you understand.” I whirled around to face him, not realizing how close he was.

  Refusing to take a step back in spite of the look in his eyes, I stayed the path.

  “What I meant was, shut the fuck up.”

  He blinked almost as if he were surprised I just said that to his face.

  “Aw, what’s wrong? Are you about to throw a tantrum?”

  A muscle ticked in his jaw, he reached for me and almost reflexively, I slammed the butt of the gun into his stomach.

  He barely keeled over, merely grimacing with a grunt of discomfort.

  “I didn’t mean to—know what never mind. You deserved that.”

  I took advantage of his slight pause and hauled ass into the hallway and down the stairs. It was like re-entering the real world after being lost in his for so long.

  “Don’t run now, princess,” he called to me, his tone completely normal.

  “No one is running from you, dickhead!” I yelled up the stairs, belatedly aware that everyone else in the house was staring at me.

  “Addy?” Cam questioned in concern, standing up from where he’d been sitting beside Maliki.

  Zane appeared at the top of the steps, a completely unreadable expression on his face.

  “What happened?” Nyx questioned, appearing from behind the kitchen island.

  “Nothing.” I moved away from the bottom of the steps to the dining room table.

  “My princess is upset about the deal her brother made,” Zane announced when he reached the first floor.

  “Wrong,” I shot back. I wasn’t mad about the deal. Hell, it was pretty fucking smart in the big picture. Team up with the big baddies? Hell yeah. It was the secretive parts of it and me being tossed in the middle I didn’t like.

  And not everyone was like us.

  Not everyone would see past the transgressions caused by Zane’s mother and father to who he was in his own right. It wasn’t fair, but neither was life.

  “What deal?” Nyx asked at the same time Cam shook his head.

  “You knew?” I accused, shooting daggers at him.

  “I just figured it out.”

  Zane started coming towards me, I slid into a chair and gripped the gun, positioning it so that the barrel was facing his stomach.

  He was undeterred, continuing on his path. “You gonna shoot me now, baby?”

  “If I need to,” I coolly replied, downplaying my reaction to him calling me baby.

  He pulled out the chair across from mine and sat down, though the fluid way he moved made it seem like he went from standing to sitting with a simple fluttering of my lashes.