It was a monster.

I ran and ran.

But I wasn’t fast enough.

The heavy thuds of his long strides drew closer, closer.

The jittery panic of trying to flee but knowing I’d already lost swamped me. The sand was too thick. The air too humid. My dress too tight.

No, no—

Violent arms wrapped around me, jerking me to a stop. His teeth were on my throat a second later, sinking deep, his tongue licking my sweat, my horror.

I wriggled and squirmed as he dragged me against his heaving body. He felt taller, stronger, bigger—a man in his sexual prime.

His hands fisted my breasts, one on each swell, pinching my nipples and kneading the weight with savage fingers. His mouth never unglued from my throat, his breath scalding my skin from his nostrils, his hips rocking, always rocking, undulating us together.

With a snarl, he swept one hand to my throat, and the other dived between my legs. The dress refused his possessive grab, the material straining tight.

Grunting something I couldn’t understand, he grabbed my chin, snaking his fingers to cup my cheeks and jerking my head to the side. The second he had me prisoner, his mouth smashed onto mine. He kissed me all while holding me from behind. His tongue plunged into my mouth, diving deep, making my legs buckle.

Stars burst behind my eyes as he sucked on my tongue.

Firecrackers exploded as he forced my mouth open wider and kissed me until I drowned.

I’d never been kissed like this.

Kissed as if we had only one purpose on this planet. No rules, no shame, just heat and the undeniable need to fuck.

He held nothing back this time.

He poured everything he was down my throat, making me gag on his hunger.

Even when he’d yanked me from the bath and kissed me before giving me to a guest, even when he’d kissed me on Serigala, he hadn’t allowed me to feel this. To feel what he did. To witness how dark his desires had burrowed.

This kiss had no boundaries or confines.

This kiss was just teeth and tongue and spit.

I moaned as his hand on my chin kept me completely at his mercy, kissing me stupid, dragging forth a stampede of creatures. Not just butterflies, not just fireflies or moths with their papery, tickly wings.

Sully made my body become an arc. A broken, shipwrecked arc rapidly filling with teeth and fang, claw and venom, twisting and clenching with so many different beasts. My stomach was a riot with hoofed and horned prey, my heart torn to pieces by carnivores.

A loud rip tore through the heavy humidity.

The tightness of my dress fell away as Sully clawed at the expensive gown, inserting his hand into the split he’d made, grabbing my pussy with trembling, greedy fingers.

He grunted as he discovered how wet I was, how my thighs were coated in lust for him, how this entire chase and hunt and conquest had made me naturally starving for him.

I didn’t need elixir.

I didn’t need safety or Scott or sanity.

I needed him.

His unshackled desire allowed me to be honest too.

I’d never felt this way about anyone, ever. Misplaced, definitely. Moronic, undoubtedly. But utterly inescapable.

Two fingers speared inside me.

“Oh, fuck—” I cried out into his kiss, consumed by his touch around me, within me, upon me.

My voice triggered something in him, and he thrust his touch deeper into me, his kiss turned feral, and he hauled me from the sand so I hung completely at his mercy in his control. He held my weight with one arm around my waist while his other hand remained buried between my thighs.

An orgasm bubbled in my blood, already gathering pressure to pop. He marched us forward, tripping and stumbling, his tongue lashing mine with every step, his thumb digging into my clit.

Shade fell over us, the sun blocked by the palm tree he pressed me into. The rough bark scraped my chest, making the gemstones of my gown dig deeper into my flesh. He let me go, dropping me to the sand and ending our nefarious kiss.

With a fist planted between my shoulder blades, he kept me prone against the palm tree. Ants crawled over the bark, investigating my sudden intrusion. The fronds above bristled and whispered in the muggy breeze. And I quaked with understanding that this was where Sully would take me for the first time.

He’d reached his limit.

We had no walls for privacy, no bed for protection, not even a fantasy granted by Euphoria.

All we had was uncontainable desire and the open island around us.

The rustle of clothing sounded as he shoved his trousers and boxer-briefs off. I dared to look over my shoulder, drinking in the majestic sweeps of his chiselled chest, the flexing muscles of his arms, the impressive erection between hardened thighs.

He truly was dazzling.

A spectacular Viking who’d not only stolen my life but my heart and soul too.

He noticed me staring, standing unhinged in his nakedness.

Our eyes snagged, grey-fire to blue-fire.

And his hand snaked out to grab a fistful of my hair. He shuddered as my strands cascaded over his wrist. I shivered as he pulled tight, activating another wash of instinct of predator and prey.

Stepping into me, he pushed my cheek back against the tree.

The fact that he didn’t talk to me made everything so much more intense. I wasn’t a person to him right now; I was merely a vessel to spend his need.

With one hand buried in my hair, his free one fell to my pussy again, finding the hole he’d made in my gown, fingering me, spreading my desire. My hips arched, my body burned. He kept me trapped against the palm tree even as he stepped into me until his heat wedged entirely behind me.

His nudity burned through the jewels on my dress.

I mewled and spread my legs.

With a primitive roar, he ripped at the hole he’d made, grunting in triumph as the dress tore and tore. It cut into me as he yanked harder, destroying the train, ruining the tightness, making the beautiful gown hang off my hips in tatters.

The second he’d ripped enough to expose my naked ass, he kicked my legs farther apart, fisted my hair until my eyes watered, and then he mounted.

There was no foreplay.

No whispered sonnets.

No promises of forever.

Just him and me and a brutal, primordial thrust.

I screamed as his hard length pierced my body, plunging as deep as he could go.

He filled me so deep, so quick, tears spilled in ecstasy.

My cheek bruised and scraped against the palm tree as he drove into me. A single thrust that made us both grunt like animals.

I had never been so full, so wanted, so consumed.

He withdrew until his tip hovered at my entrance. A shuddery breath away from disengaging. He paused in torture, punishing both of us until a haggard groan spilled from his lips and he drove back inside.

Over and over.

Thrust.

Thrust.

Thrust.

He fucked me against the palm tree until blood oozed on my cheek from the abrasive bark. He absolutely controlled me. I had no way of escape. My only task was to accept his brutal invasion and let him feast.

And feast he did.

He devoured me.

His teeth found the crook of my shoulder and sank deep. His chest echoed with gruff grunts each time he rutted into me. He strained against me, clung to me, bit me, and fucked me, and somehow made me feel like the most powerful woman in the world.

His thrusts grew shallow and quick, his teeth clutched harder, his fist pulled my hair, his first release stormed through him with thunderous need.