But as he takes me against the wall with powerful thrusts, I can’t swallow my moans fast enough. He keeps his hand against my mouth to muffle my whimpers.
“That’s it,” he says, low. “Show me how much you like it. How you can’t fucking help but like it.”
I wrap my trembling thighs around him tighter, our slickness making it hard to hold on. The dress’s slits tear. The gown was already ruined—shredded by the rough stone wall, soaked in my desire.
His fingers dig into my ass as he thrusts hard and hot. Our skin slaps together even louder than my muffled moans. I can feel every inch of him sliding in and out of me. It triggers some madness in me that shuts off my brain and turns me into an animal. Gripping his shoulders, I lift my hips to match his thrusts.
“Nod your head,” he orders. “Show me you like it.”
My head bobs against his palm. In reward, he adjusts his stance and thrusts into me even deeper. I feel swollen, needy. A storm is growing in my lower half that I can’t stop. My thighs tighten as I rock my hips faster, calling to the storm. Wanting it. The heat is building so much that I can feel it coming to a head, and my pussy tightens around his cock.
“No,” he growls. “Not yet.”
He slides all the way out of me. He removes his hand from my mouth just in time for me to give an angry protest.
“Basten, please!” I pant, angry with him for making me beg.
“I said not yet.” He carries me to the bed, where he drops my ass down on the fur coverings. He stands over me, gazing at my splayed body in the torn, ruined dress, and then shoves my knees apart, putting my core on full display.
He drops to his knees at the foot of the bed, his lips parted, and as it dawns on me what he has in mind, my eyes go wide.
“Oh no,” I say. “Not that. It’s too much. I can’t take it!”
The last time he licked my pussy, I shattered into a million pieces. I’m afraid this time, I won’t be able to put myself back together again.
He gives me a pitiless look as he lowers his mouth to my core. “Talk less when I fuck you.”
He’s merciless as he licks and sucks my swollen core. His tongue laps at my outer folds, caressing the curves. He lays his tongue flat to lick me from bottom to top, then captures my clit between his lips and sucks.
I cry out, then clamp my hand over my mouth to keep myself quiet. My heart is scrambling wildly. Any minute, Rian could come to the door looking for me. Or Brigit could enter through the servant’s door to prepare the room for the night. We can’t be caught. There’s no telling what sick game Rian would punish us with.
But the pressure is building too fast. The storm is coalescing, aching to burst. Basten pushes a finger inside me, stroking my insides deeply while simultaneously sucking on my sensitive bud.
That’s all it takes. The storm bursts. A wave of dousing pleasure drenches me like I’ve been swept underwater. My brain goes numb as I’m caught in the storm’s thrall. I’m weightless, like campfire embers coasting toward the stars.
My head falls back against the quilt, throat opening to let ragged breaths tear out of me. As my knees fall to the side, my body utterly spent, Basten wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and then unbuckles the baldric belt around his waist that holds up his sword, the last of his armor. He lets the sword clatter to the floor.
I realize why when he crawls on top of me with a look that tells me he isn’t even remotely finished with me, and that he needs full range of movement to accomplish what he has in mind. My breath catches in my throat.
“I can’t come again,” I pant. “Not yet.”
“You can, sweetheart. You will.”
He starts kissing the hell out of me. Arching my back, I lean like a cat into the hard planes of his muscles. He wraps a hand around my bowed back, then without warning, flips me over until I’m on my stomach.
“Basten! What are you—” My words die as he shoves the torn skirt out of the way, exposing my bare ass to the room’s cool air. He grabs my hips and lifts them high so that I’m on my knees with my elbows on the bed.
His hands knead my ass cheeks, holding my hips prisoner with an iron grip. I realize he wants to fuck me like this, rutting from behind like an animal.
“This pussy belongs to me,” he growls. “Do you understand? No other man touches it. Not Rian. No one.”
A flare of anger makes a part of me struggle against his grip while, at the same time, another part of me wants to move closer to claim his cock. “My body is my own, you bastard. I’ll do whatever I like with it.”
“Not this. It’s mine.”
He rubs my entrance with the tip of his cock, and by the gods, this angle elicits a whole new wave of sensations. My traitorous body is gushing again for him.
He teases me with the tip of his cock pressed a little deeper into my swollen heat. “Tell me you want me, Sabine.”
“I want you to fuck me,” I bite off angrily, twisting my head so I can glare at him. “That’s all it will ever be.”
He pushes in another inch, so shallow it’s torture. He knows exactly what he’s doing. There’s a dark, hungry depth to his voice as he says, “Tell me that you love me.”
My heart thrashes like angry hooves against a stall door. How dare he, with his cock in me, say such a cruel thing?
I gag on my shock, spitting out, “I never said that!”
He rests a hand on my lower back, holding himself back from thrusting into me as he clearly wants. “You don’t think I know what love looks like? Come on, little violet. I can read you like a book. You love me. You have for a while. Admit it, and I’ll have you seeing stars.”
His gruff voice is softer, coaxing. That same damn tone he used when he promised he’d run away with me. And I hate Basten for this more than anything else. For these fleeting glimpses of vulnerability that he offers so stingily. Moments when I can see the real him, the one he hides from everyone but me.
“Say it, Sabine. Say you love me. That’s all you have to do.”
His voice is so tender yet so commanding. His tone makes me want to trust that I can believe him, but I’ve fallen for this before. He’ll show me snatches of this side of him, tempting me with the authentic person I know is buried there, but then the moment I lower my walls, he’ll throw his own back up.
“I hate you,” I breathe, eyes squeezed as tightly closed as my jaw is clamped. “I hate you so much it hurts. What I hate most is . . . I’m in love with you.”
A ragged exhalation shakes out of him. His body shifts behind me, his hands firming over my curves. His cock strains at my entrance.
“Good girl,” he breathes.
He gives me his whole cock, thrusting all the way in. I gasp, leaning forward on my elbows as my vision blurs. He drags my hips back and sinks into me again. And again. His strokes are fast and worshipping now—a reward for giving him what he wanted. As much as I’m choking on anger, the feeling between my legs wins out. I push my hips back against his thrusts so that his cock hits the tingling place inside my channel. He reaches around to caress my breasts, fondling the nipples.