“You’re still here.” I stepped toward her, not caring that Pika flew from my finger and flapped around my face like a tiny annoying shadow.

She didn’t look at me, preferring to follow the feathered fiend and his aerial acrobatics. “You have a pet?”

I shoved my hands into my pockets. “He’s not a pet.”

“Pet. Pet. Pet!” Pika shouted, darting to the floor and then to the ceiling. He knew he had her utmost attention, and he loved being the main event. He’d continue showing off until his wings fell off or he flew into a wall.

Which he had a tendency of doing.

“He can’t be wild.” Her eyes narrowed. “He talks and clearly adores you.”

I shrugged. “He goes where he wants and hangs out with who he chooses.”

“Sounds like he has more freedom than anyone on this island.”

“He does.” I ran a hand over my mouth. “Even more than me.” For the first time in my life, I had no fucking idea what to say. The usual commands and curses would fit. I could order her from the bath, make her hurry; prove I was still in control. But…there was something different between us. Something languid and expectant…a pause in the next paragraph.

She didn’t rush to fill the silence, and I drowned beneath white lightning possessiveness. Had I really agreed to let that asshole Grammer fuck her? What had I been thinking? It ought to be me with that right. She belonged to me, goddammit. And I wanted her. So. Fucking. Bad.

Moving toward her, I couldn’t ignore the chugging of my heartbeat as lust I’d done my best to ignore smashed through my walls.

I’d thought keeping my distance would eradicate whatever curse she’d put on me.

It’d only made it stronger.

Fuck.

She huddled in the bath, sinking into the warmth until only her eyes were visible. The dark stone blurred her body, hiding her in shadows and illusion.

I fought against every fucking urge not to snatch her and take her for my own. Instead, I swallowed back starvation for sex, and grunted, “Why are you a vegetarian?”

A question that’d driven me mad. A question that kept me up at night and refused to let me masturbate in the morning. A question that could ensure her safety or her damnation.

She popped back up again, sucking in air, her eyes glowing grey with perplexity. “You want to know why I’m a…vegetarian?”

I nodded, gritting my teeth so I didn’t do all the debasing acts currently running on a highlight reel inside my mind.

Slowly, she shrugged. “Why is that important?”

It’s important.

Highly fucking important.

I shrugged, nonchalant and cold. “It’s not. Just answer the damn question.”

She flinched at my curt command. Droplets decorated her eyelashes like tiny diamonds. She blinked, scattering them onto her cheeks. “I’ve never liked the taste of meat. I just…one day, I decided I didn’t want to eat it anymore.”

I didn’t like her answer. It revealed nothing about her. It didn’t show me what I was beginning to suspect about her. The horrible conclusion that we shared yet another similarity. Our tempers, our desire to control until we couldn’t anymore, our stupid morals that got us into this fucking mess.

“That’s it?” I encroached on her, towering over her while she hunched in the liquid, water licking every inch that I wanted to.

“What else is there?” Her question was timid but also laced with fire.

“If you can’t answer that, then—”

“It was a moral obligation,” she blurted. Her gaze followed Pika as he hurtled himself toward a small orchid plant potted on the vanity. He slid down one of the slippery leaves, crashing into the centre of the foliage. “It’s recognising that a life is a life. There is no difference between flesh, feather, or fur.”

Well, fuck.

She’d just ruined any future she might’ve had.

“Stand up.” I moved until my shoes clacked against the quartz bathtub.

“What? No. I’m naked.” Her arms wrapped around her breasts.

“So? I’ve seen you bare. I’ve had my fingers in your cunt.”

“But…” Her cheeks pinked as if there was a difference between letting me see her naked while under the influence of elixir versus now when she was innocent and safe in the bath.

My temper ticked tighter and tighter the longer she refused. My lust amplified until I shuddered with need. I should leave before I did something that would null and void the agreement I had with Grammer. I should fucking walk out that door and not come back.

But…

This girl.

This confusing, disorienting, dangerous girl.

I wanted a taste.

Just one tiny taste before I handed her over.

“You should’ve done what I said.” My voice massacred each and every syllable. Before she could fight back or argue, I bent down, shoved my hand into the delicious thick wetness of her hair and jerked. I yanked her from the sweet-smelling water. I fisted her hair and used it as a rope to wrench her onto her knees in the bath.

And then, before I could stop myself, I pulled a little harder, bringing her mouth to mine, slamming our lips together with pain and pressure.

She cried out.

I groaned.

I hadn’t kissed anyone in a very, very long time.

An eternity really.

And this wasn’t a kiss.

This was domination. This was taking. This was beyond any fucking kiss that ever existed.

Her lips tried to stay locked against mine, but I’d never been good at asking permission. I took what I wanted. I carved out my own rules on a slate tablet and enforced every commandment.

This girl would obey me.

Fuck, she had to obey me. Otherwise…

I stabbed my tongue past her lips and into her mouth.

Her teeth tried to bite, but I jerked her head back, clamping my free hand around her throat. Trapped, I had her completely at my mercy as I plunged my tongue in, over and over, tasting her, destroying her, destroying myself.

Water sloshed all over my trousers as she fought to get free. Her chest pumped with erratic oxygen. Her body floundered in the bath.

But I didn’t let go.

I just kissed her deeper.

I let myself have one thing of hers. To be the first to kiss her. To be the first to steal her soul.

Her hands clawed at my tie, forcing me to bend deeper.

For every attack she punished me with, I retaliated tenfold. I licked every dark place inside her. I wrapped my fist deeper into her hair, holding her forever. I tightened my hand around her jaw, feeling our tongues nudge against her cheeks as she fought to remove me from her mouth.

Only…our fight somehow turned into a desperate war. Her teeth caught my tongue, drawing blood. My teeth caught hers, threatening payback.

My heart pounded. My back ached. My entire bottom half was drenched.

And I couldn’t get enough.

Jerking hard, I pulled her from her knees to her feet. She rose from the bathtub like some nymph from the sea. Water sluiced over her, swirling over tight nipples and gliding through trimmed pubic hair. Her flat stomach, her long legs, her delicacy and strength and—

I didn’t stop kissing her, biting her, fucking drowning in her.

My hand dropped from her jaw to her throat and down to her breast.