Holy shit. I slapped him. I actually slapped him.

Before I can snatch my hand back, Mount captures my wrist.

“Only you would dare.” His voice rumbles even deeper than before as I attempt to dart around him, but he snatches my other hand and pins them both against the wall over my head. “Fucking hellion.”

His declaration from moments before roars through my mind like a freight train at top speed.

“I want to spank your ass for putting yourself at risk, and then I want to fuck the hell out of you so there’s no question in your mind about whether I want you. Maybe then you’ll finally realize who you belong to.”

I should be feeling terror as this brutal man pins me against the wall, but raw emotion claws at my insides, and it has nothing to do with fear. No, it’s anticipation at the thought of him following through on his threat.

He’s turning me into someone I don’t recognize.

“Let me go.” I voice the demand, but there’s no power behind it.

He lowers his face to mine and whispers a single word. “Never.”

Mount’s mouth collides with mine, his teeth closing over my bottom lip and tugging at it with a sharp nip. When my tongue slips out to soothe it, he steals inside, angling his head to gain better access.

The kiss is pure chaos. A wild, angry tempest of a storm. It strips away all my inhibitions and sparks a recklessness in me I don’t recognize.

With my wrists pinned over my head and his chest pressed against mine, he owns my mouth, taking it over and over with certainty, but completely lacking in the clever skill I would have expected. This is no tried-and-true move he’s cultivated over the years. This is something completely unpracticed and unhinged.

I said I’d never kiss him. What the hell am I doing? He’s breaking all my rules. Stealing every bit of my control over my body and my emotions. How can he do this to me? I can’t pretend I don’t want it. Want him.

Before I realize what’s happening, Mount tears us away from the wall and backs me up against my bed before we both topple onto it. His heavy weight lands on me, sending a feeling of satisfaction screaming through my blood.

I struggle, tugging at his grip, but I’m not seeking freedom from him. I want the freedom to touch him. I want to bury my fingernails in his shoulders again, uncaring that my brain has lost its capacity for rational thought in favor of this animalistic craving.

He tears his mouth from mine, looking as crazed as I feel. “Tell me you want this as bad as I do.”

I wet my lower lip, loving the sting his teeth left behind, as I pretend to pull myself together. One coherent thought breaks through the primitive need firing in my blood, and I pull back an inch so I can see his face clearly.

“You have to promise me something first.”

He says nothing as his dark gaze drinks in my features. His pulse pounds in his throat as his lungs heave. The scent that I remember all too well wafts over me. Finally, his eyes lock on mine.

“Promise you won’t let anything happen to my family. You won’t let Brett or anyone else hurt them. Ever.”

The muscle in his jaw ticks, but he pauses only a single beat before replying. “Done.”

His lips crash against mine again and I pry my hands free, grasping his shoulders and lifting my hips to press against the bulging hard-on barely contained by his suit pants. My new piercing sends jolts of sensation streaking through my body.

“You make me fucking crazy,” he says on a breath as he reaches down to capture one breast in his big palm, teasing the nipple into a taut peak through my blouse before pinching it between his thumb and forefinger.

Pleasure rushes from my nipple to my center, and I buck harder against him. I let out a moan because, holy hell, it feels more incredible than ever.

He releases my nipple and lifts up just long enough to shove my skirt up my body and tear my thong free with a single snap of the lace band. I tense, expecting the next onslaught, but he goes still.

“Say it.”

My mind, devoid of rational thought, can’t grasp the question. “What?” I ask, looking into his intense face.

“Tell me you want this. Right here. Right now.”

I lift up, again seeking pressure, but he holds me down with a hand wrapped around my hip.

“Please—” I stop short because I don’t want to beg.

“Please what?”

“Fuck me!”

Much like he had the night he shattered the dishes and crystal in the dining room by sweeping them off the table, my command unleashes Mount’s primal nature.

“Thank Christ.”

His fingers find my center, already soaked, and he plunges one inside.

It’s not enough. I need more. I want his touch on my clit and the heightened sensation from my new jewelry. And then I want his hard cock filling me.

“More.”

His dark eyes blaze with possession. “I’ll give you every fucking thing you need.”

He thumbs the jewel at my clit as he finger-fucks me to the verge of orgasm, stopping just before I fly over the edge.

“No!”

Mount rips off his belt and releases the button on his pants before tearing down his zipper. His cock springs free between us and he fists it with one big hand, giving it a hard tug. “Don’t you tell me no.”

“Fuck you!”

He shakes his head as a wicked smile curves across his lips. He jacks his cock again before positioning the head against my opening. “No, Keira, I’m the one fucking you. The only one.”

I buck upward, trying to seize control of this power struggle and force him inside, but his hand prevents me from getting more than just the tip.

“Tell me you want my cock. Only mine.” He growls the demand through clenched teeth, like his grip on his sanity is slipping as fast as mine.

“Yes! Give it to me!”

With a roar, he buries himself inside me. He releases one of my wrists but keeps the other pinned over my head. As he drives into me, his mouth finds mine again, taking more than I ever expected to give, and giving me back something I never knew I needed.

His dominance is unquestionable as he powers inside over and over, each stroke giving me exactly the friction I need on my piercing to come.

“Not yet,” he orders.

“I can’t wait.”

“Yes. You. Will.”

Each word is punctuated by a thrust, but no matter what he says, I can’t stop myself from coming. I scream, his cock pulsing inside me as his orgasm is torn from his body at the same time as mine.

His one hand stays clamped around my hip, and his heart pounds in his chest hard enough to reverberate through my entire body. A bead of sweat from his forehead lands on my chin and slides down my neck.

I don’t know what happened in this room, but for the span of time it lasted, the only person who existed in my world was Mount. Everything and everyone else fell away.

Finally, he releases my wrist. I draw it to my chest, wrapping my fingers around where he gripped it.

“You hurt?”

I shake my head and whisper, “No.”

His forehead lowers toward mine, filling my lungs with his unique, addictive scent. “I swear I thought you knew it was me that night at the masquerade.”

The change of subject drags me out of this refuge and into reality with a cruel, abrupt jolt.

“How could you have possibly thought I wanted you—”

Before I can finish my sentence, his expression shutters, going completely blank before he levers himself off my body.

I was going to add because I didn’t even know you existed, but he’s already out of sight and my bathroom door slams behind him. I hear the toilet flush and then the taps turn on.

Moments later, Mount fills the bathroom doorway, his pants zipped and his shirt tucked in. His features are as forbidding as they’ve ever been. If I hadn’t been under him only minutes ago, my lips still bruised from his mouth, I’d have no clue he was the same man who just made me scream in ecstasy. His face is that horrible mask of granite. He’s completely shut down.

“Get yourself cleaned up. We’re leaving, and you still have a story to tell me.”