Rolling his eyes, he muttered, “Only you could laugh about something so painful.” His smile returned. One eye was obscured by his inky hair, decorating his sexy features in a way that made me want to flip him onto his back and repeat what I did last night.

“Come here.” I held my breath as Arthur obediently propped himself up with a straining bicep and hovered over me.

Pulling him down, I tilted my head and trembled as his mouth met mine. Our tongues danced in unison, listening to the same silent tune.

It began with me kissing him.

But it didn’t end that way.

Arthur submitted, then dominated, switching the kiss into a soul-searing possession. His tongue dueled with mine with slow, deep sweeps—trading the sine wave of bliss for something filled with dark overtones. His hunger and need smeared my senses, until all I craved was sex.

Rough, dirty, delicious sex.

I whimpered as he sucked my bottom lip; my hands tangled deeper into his hair.

His answering groan quavered through me, tightening my nipples and sending sensitivity scattering over my skin. I melted into opulence.

“I’ll never forget you again,” I whispered as he pulled away and pressed butterfly kisses down my neck.

“I’ll make sure you never can.” Swirling his tongue around my nipple, he bunched the sheets toward the end of the bed. His fingers landed on my knee, pressing, teasing, moving in infinitesimal increments up my inner thigh.

“You’ll never forget how it feels when I touch you.” He pinched me, wrenching a breathy moan from my lips.

“Never.”

His teeth graced over my breast. “You’ll never forget how it feels when I taste you.”

I smashed my face into a pillow as he sucked greedily. “Never. I promise. I promise forever.”

His fingers crept higher up my thigh—they were the epicenter of the quake he’d conjured inside me. Aftershocks radiated upward to my core and downward to my toes. I shivered.

I froze.

I waited.

I wanted.

I need him so much.

When his finger finally found my folds, I bowed off the bed, only to be slammed down again by his lips on my chest.

My mouth parted as he pressed inside me, inserting two long fingers in an effortless slide. “You’ll never forget how it feels when I fill you.”

I ceased to make sense of the desire fogging my head. Every inch of need from last night rushed back, compounding lust upon lust.

I cried out as Arthur’s hot mouth landed on my throat, sucking and biting, driving me insane with sharp teeth. His fingers stroked my inner walls, twitching in the perfect way to draw slipperiness and sensation.

“Is this my payback?” I asked, squeezing my eyes against the new onslaught as he rubbed my clit.

Laughing quietly, he worked his way along my collarbone and dropped farther down my torso. Kissing each rib, he replied, “You controlled me last night. You took what you wanted from me and I didn’t complain.”

I snorted. “I took nothing. I did it for you—to give you pleasure.”

He shook his head, the dark strands tickling my belly as he scooted between my legs. “You did give me pleasure, but you also enjoyed dominating me.” Blowing a breath on my exposed pussy, he whispered, “It’s my turn.”

Pressing me back on the mattress, he shoved the sheets onto the floor and sat on his haunches.

My heart stopped.

His cock stood straight up from between his sculptured legs. The mermaid tattoo seemed to have an extra twinkle in her eye, just like Arthur.

“I’m going to show you how much last night meant to me, Buttercup.”

I shivered, raising my hands above my head on the pillow. Boldly, I spread my legs, displaying everything I was to this man. My breasts—one burned, one inked—my stomach with its color and scars. I let him drink me in. “I’m not going to argue.”

He smirked. “I’m glad about that; otherwise I’d have to get my tie.”

I clenched. “On second thought …”

Shaking his head, mirth suffusing his gaze, he imprisoned my hips. His fingertips bruised my skin, sending flares of heat through me.

Arthur Killian was polished ruthlessness and savage lawlessness. He camouflaged himself with an urban gloss that fooled no one; he was never fully able to hide the untamed animal inside his heart. But where an animal was vicious and controlled by instinct, he was also loyal, affectionate, and kind. An animal had no secrets—it bared its soul, loved unconditionally, and had no defenses when it came to its mate.

I’m his mate.

And I was helpless to resist him when he drugged me so completely.

His vivid green eyes gave me no room to hide as he inspected every fraction. His fingers toyed with the trimmed curls between my legs. His lips seduced me with a lazy smile speaking of carnality and destruction.

“You’re breathing very fast, Buttercup.”

“I can’t help it.”

His eyebrow rose, willing me to go on—to divulge secrets of my own. I had no more walls, no more black holes in which to fight for answers. I owed him every memory, every thought. “The way you’re watching me. The way you’re touching me. It’s driving me insane.”

He bit his lip, eyes darting between tattoos and scars. “Having you in my bed is more than just a miracle; it’s a goddamn phenomenon. Forgive me if I look at you as if you aren’t real.” His voice dropped, filling with awe. “It’s because I keep thinking none of this is real. That the headaches are a sign of my insanity. That I’ve left reality behind and found salvation in hallucinations.”