Untamed

Chapter 10

The room still throbbed with the remnants of what they had done. Her skin glistened, flushed from his touch, every nerve raw from the storm he had dragged her through. The sheets tangled around her hips were damp, clinging, stained with sweat and sin. She clutched them to her chest as if the thin barrier could restore some part of the pride she had already surrendered.

He didn’t let her breathe. Not really. He sat back, shirt undone, his chest rising with steady, predatory calm. He watched her with the sharp, unblinking focus of a hunter who had already taken down his prey but wasn’t finished devouring it.

“You think it’s over now?” His voice was low, smooth, and cutting all at once, filling every inch of the silence she was desperate to control.

Her breath shuddered in her throat. She forced herself to meet his gaze, though her body betrayed her with every tremor. “You had what you wanted.” She lifted her chin, the gesture regal despite her nakedness, despite the marks his hands and mouth had already left across her skin. “That doesn’t mean you have me.”

The corner of his mouth curved, slow and cruel.

“No,” he murmured, the shadows clinging to him like a cloak. “That was just the beginning.”

Her pulse spiked. She drew the sheet tighter, one tug from his hand ripped it away. It fell uselessly to the floor. Her gasp was sharp, her arms folding instinctively across her chest, but his hand caught her wrist and dragged it away.

“You gave me your body,” he said, fingers gripping her jaw, tilting her face up. His eyes gleamed, not just with lust but with something darker, hungrier. “Now I’ll take the rest. Your pride. Your defiance. Your surrender.”

Her breath came fast, her body trembling with the terrible, undeniable truth of his words. She turned her face, lips pressed tight against his hand, but he pressed harder, thumb brushing across her lower lip until it parted under his touch.

“You should hate me,” he whispered, his mouth brushing her ear. His voice sank into her veins like poison laced with honey. “You should fight, curse me, run.” His lips grazed her skin, the faintest scrape of his teeth following. “But you won’t. Because you want this as much as I do.”

Her eyes fluttered shut, body betraying her, arching into his shadow. Her silence screamed louder than any confession.

“Say it,” he demanded, voice dark steel. “Say you don’t want me.”

Her eyes snapped open, fire sparking even through the tremor of her lips. She wanted to say it. She needed to. But the words lodged in her throat, strangled by the hunger he had carved into her.

His smile deepened, wicked satisfaction curling at the edges. “That’s what I thought.”

With a swift, practiced motion, he seized both wrists and pinned them above her head against the mattress. She gasped, tried to twist, but his grip was iron. His weight pressed into her, hard and commanding, his body caging hers like it was the only place she could ever exist.

“Defiance looks good on you,” he murmured, lips brushing down her throat, leaving trails of heat across her skin. “But surrender will look better.”

Her chest heaved, breath ragged with the war raging inside her. She twisted beneath him, sparks of pride flaring with every failed attempt to push him away. He tightened his hold, savoring her resistance.

“You can fight me all night,” he said, his voice steady, calm, like a truth carved in stone. His lips ghosted across her collarbone, each word punctuated by a kiss that was more a claim than a caress. “I’ll savor every second. But eventually…” His teeth grazed her skin, sharp enough to draw a shiver that rattled her bones. “…you’ll beg.”

“Never,” she whispered, the word breaking against her lips like a prayer she didn’t believe.

“Never?” His chuckle was low, dangerous, vibrating through her chest. His tongue flicked against the hollow of her throat, followed by the nip of his teeth. “We’ll see.”

One of his hands left her wrist, gliding down the length of her arm, lingering against her side. His palm dragged across her ribs, over the curve of her waist, slow and merciless, claiming every inch as his. Her body betrayed her with every arch, every shallow breath, every tremble.

“You burn for me,” he whispered, his voice a dark brand pressed into her soul. “You can’t hide it. You don’t even want to.”

Her eyes closed, her head falling back into the pillow. A tremor tore through her.

“Open them,” he commanded.

Her lashes fluttered, her gaze snapping back to his without hesitation. And in that instant, he saw it—the fracture in her armor, the crack in her defiance. Her pride had begun to crumble.

“You’re mine,” he said, every word deliberate, heavy with truth. “You always have been. You just didn’t know it.”

Her lips parted, trembling on the edge of denial, but before the words could come, his mouth crushed against hers. It wasn’t a kiss. It was ruin. His tongue forced past her lips, his teeth scraping, his hunger devouring. She gasped into him, her body arching, trembling, unraveling as the fire consumed what was left of her resistance.

When he pulled back, his breath still mingling with hers, his words sealed her fate.

“Some of the best things in life are taken. And I will take every part of you.”

Her silence was no longer defiance. It was surrender, raw and undeniable, written in the way her body clung to his, the way her breath caught as though she couldn’t survive without him.

And he smiled—the devil she could never resist.