Page 507 of Coal Hearts

His heart pounded against mine. A drumbeat full of tribal war.

“You’ve killed me twice tonight,” he breathed just before he pounced.

“You are destined to destroy each other.”

I gasped as his teeth sank into my throat.

The pressure of his bite.

The puncture of his incisors.

I screamed.

Not in pain.

But in ecstasy.

His hips pistoned up, bouncing me on his lap as he hugged me and fucked me, bit me and loved me.

I tumbled into that blinding light.

My body detonated with a million blazing shards. Rippling with ecstatic waves, I became one with life and loss and love.

Henri roared beneath me.

His orgasm spurted in thick, body-wracking jerks.

I lost track of time as we transcended that bed, that room, that fortress, and for a few microseconds of freedom, we weren’t blood and bone but air and energy instead.

And then, it was over.

And the crash back to earth hurt worse than anything.

Every injury from today welcomed me back. Every awful bump and bruise.

“This match will not last.”

Wincing, I sank into Henri’s tight embrace.

I didn’t care he almost suffocated me.

I didn’t care I was trapped on his lap and his body still speared inside mine.

It was just us.

Clinging to each other in the dark.

“You will both burn.”

I’d been injected with a contraception, collared, cuffed, and imprisoned. I’d been hunted, shot, abused, and tormented, and somewhere along the way, I’d become a different creature.

I still didn’t know who that creature was.

I didn’t know how I felt about needing a dash of pain to erupt my pleasure.

But what I did know was...I’d been warned about this.

Adversity had found me, and if I believed in fate and star-crossed destiny, then Henri wasn’t just a man who’d targeted me and made my life a living hell...he’d been drawn to me.