Page 35 of Dark

I caught his lips in a kiss. Our tongues met, his pulse pounding under my fingertips as I skimmed his chest. His hands slid under my tank, slowly drawing it up my torso. He grazed the back of his knuckles up past my navel, measuring the dip of my clavicle as if I were a work of art, like my body was something to memorize and paint in a thousand interpretations. His fingers smoothed over my skin, warm and calloused, mapping my ribs, caressing my hips. I stretched my arms up over my head, his touch raising gooseflesh as he grazed the undersides of my breasts. Time slowed as he tasted and tempered, exploring ticklish spots, discovering every inch of skin that could make me shudder and squirm. And still it wasn’t enough. Not close to enough.

Ethan’s fingers glided up my spine, pausing between my shoulder blades to unhook my bra. “God. You’re beautiful.”

I bit his lip, wolf so close to the surface my thoughts were turning savage.

“Tie me up.”

The straps shivered down my shoulders, the sudden rush of cool air peaking my nipples and causing my breath to speed. He tugged lightly at one, sending electricity arcing from his lips at my throat to the juncture of my thighs.

Something rough and warm scraped up my torso, starting at the band of my panties, traveling past my navel. My breath caught as Ethan traced my bottom lip, and I recognized his studded leather belt.

He bound my hands and moved over me. Hard, calloused palms smoothed up my bare ribcage, thumbs slowly circling my navel as his breath raised goosebumps at my exposed throat.

“You want to guess how many times I pictured you naked that last year we worked together, waited until after close to go upstairs and draw you spread out over my bed just like this?” He grazed the rim of my areola with a single fingertip, the touch so light I shuddered in delicious agony. “This puts everything I imagined to shame.”

“Please,” I breathed, arching into his touch.

He sucked hot kisses down the column of my neck, tongue flicking across his bite scar at the base of my throat. My wolf came alive, the tether between us sharpening, tightening until I was trembling from my fingertips down to my toes.

Ethan palmed me, hands warm and rough, tongue flicking the wet tip of my breast. I twisted in the restraints, skin humming in anticipation. He moved over me so his mouth was poised at my throat, laving and teasing so that twists of pleasure arced through my belly with every sharp tug of his fingers. I cried out as his teeth sank into my shoulder, shivering at the rush of ecstasy through the bond. Growling, Ethan slid down my body to tear my panties away. He parted me with his thumbs, the flat of his tongue rolling in smooth strokes, the hard stud of his piercing causing me to see sparks.

I released a strangled cry. Rough, warm hands held me down as stars burst on the backs of my eyelids, the tantalizing combination of pleasure and pain, of being bound and consumed, inch by glorious inch, tipping me over the edge. Ethan kissed a slow trail up my body when it was over.

“You still up for more?”

I let my gaze lick over his naked form, the chiseled lines of his chest, the tight muscles of his abs, and further down where his cock stood at attention. “Hell, yeah.”

I nipped his pec and he groaned, our tongues dancing as he fumbled briefly in the nightstand, then moved over me. A shiver ran through me starting from the tips of my toes all the way up to the nape of my neck. I arched in the restraints, marking the broad line of his shoulders with my teeth.

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this. Pictured the day I would make you mine.” Pressing his lips to the scar at my throat, he entered me and withdrew, dipping and teasing, giving me only a taste. “You want this, Hayden?”

“Please,” I breathed, close, so close.

Reaching above me, Ethan unhooked my bound hands from the carabiner chained to the wall and flipped our positions so I was straddling him.

“Ladies first.”

After, we lay entwined, sweaty and sated, the bond glowing warm as sunlight. Head pillowed on Ethan’s chest, I pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw. His heart thrummed beneath my ear, the muscles of his abdomen flattening and cratering as I stroked his bare stomach.

My phone buzzed.

“Just ignore it.” He lifted a strand of hair off my forehead, twirling it around one finger.

It buzzed again. Pushing up, I swiped the screen. Ethan followed, kissing my bare shoulder as I checked the message.

The unfamiliar number stared up at me, this time along with a text.

Got to you. I’ll get to her, too.

Then

Ethan

HOURS AFTER THE FIGHT with Ben and Sofia I’d been dreading for months, I was perched on the edge of my bed, sneakers double-knotted and trash bag packed, when my little brother’s scream broke the stillness of the night.

We’d been staying with the Caldwells for just over a year. In that time, I’d stopped hiding food in my room, still wouldn’t let anyone touch me, and had clung to the car door like a lemur the one time Sofia tried to make me talk to a counselor.

And stupidly, had let my guard down.