Did he feel it too?

Was he growing drunk on the raw chaos between us? The feeling of no longer being human, but a vessel for bottled up need.

Need and fear and turmoil.

“Don’t think about what will be…just focus on what is now.”

I trembled as he once again brought the elixir to my lips, hovering the poisonous liquid over me. I clamped my mouth shut, shaking my head.

“Everything has an expiry date, Jinx. Happiness or hardship. It’s all the same. Nothing lasts forever.”

Our eyes locked again.

For a second, it looked as if he’d tear me from the harness and take me somewhere where he could finish what he’d started when he dragged me from the bath. His control frayed at the edges, showing the cost this preparation had taken. But then ice froze his lust, and cruelly, he pressed the bottle between my lips and tipped.

The splash of flower-infused, sugary liquid coated my tongue.

He pinched my nose and prepared to slap his palm over my lips.

I managed to spit out a small amount. Just a tiny bit. It oozed down my chin as his anger exploded, and his hand suffocated my face with fury.

I didn’t wait until I almost passed out from lack of oxygen this time.

I knew I couldn’t win.

I’d been taught this lesson.

I’d rebelled a little by spitting out a few measly millilitres.

Who knew if it would make any difference to the longevity of the drug, but I’d won a tiny victory, and he’d win his.

Narrowing my gaze, I arched my chin and swallowed.

Instantly, he let me go as if I burned him from the inside out.

He stood ever so close, his chest pumping with breath. His suit looking rumbled and dishevelled from bathwater splashing him.

His gaze locked on the trickle of wasted elixir on my skin, smearing with oil, destined never to poison me.

A blackness descended over him.

A split-second decision that derailed both our lives and made them immeasurably harder.

“Goddamn you.” Launching at me, his fingers weaved into my hair just as his mouth crashed against mine.

Chapter Thirty-Two

A SECOND MISTAKE.

A second kiss.

Come on, be honest.

It wasn’t my second mistake where this damn girl was concerned. I’d been fucking up ever since she arrived.

But did it stop me?

Fuck no.

Dragging her into me, I yanked at her hair—the hair I couldn’t seem to stop fisting—and kissed her deeper. She didn’t retaliate or respond, too shocked by my pounce, too stunned to fight.

Piercing her lips with my tongue, I finally woke her up. Finally shattered her shock that she was being kissed. And thoroughly.

The strange taste of elixir on my tongue.

The smear of rebellion that she’d tried to spit out.

I didn’t know what my intention had been. To lick it off her chin and shove it into her mouth with my tongue? To feed it to her? To ensure she drank from me until she savoured every fucking drop?

But…it’d backfired.

I didn’t take my own medicinal creations purely for one reason. My system reacted too well. And fuck me, this latest version was strong.

Too strong.

I could see that now. Taste it. Feel it.

Fuck, I could feel it.

It soaked into my tongue, mingling orchid extraction, aphrodisiacs, hallucinogens, and a complex blend of chemicals with her own intoxicating, mind-numbing flavour. It saturated my blood. It shot around my veins. The tingling, fiery, snarling power branched off to attack my heart, my belly, my cock.

Potent.

Powerful.

It made every part of me a machine just for sex. To fuck until I couldn’t move. To consume everything about this girl until neither of us existed.

While my mind raced, doing its best to outrun the minor trace of elixir already hijacking my body, I ground my hips into Eleanor’s oil-smeared nudity.

She’d been sufficiently prepared.

She was ready to play.

Yet…here I was destroying her.

She fought a little, her head vying for space while my mouth continued to condemn hers. I kissed her wetly and hotly, desperate for everything all at once.

I wanted that perfect reward when she kissed me back in the bath. When she forgot herself just for a second and gave in.

I waited.

I kissed.

I thrust into her, unable to stop myself.

The elixir’s strength magnified, making me lose myself to lust. Pulling away, I panted as I held Eleanor’s cheeks and studied her.

Desire-wet lips. Glazed gaze. Pebbled nipples.

Her body had already undergone the insidious pull of elixir. Yet she fought it. Her face screwed up as she shook her head, denying the licking, whispering tugs of need.

She’d been able to fight the elixir in my office for a good six or seven minutes.

Today, it wouldn’t be that long.

The more you took it, the faster its effects.

I could be patient.

Fuck her.

Okay, so my patience had died the second I’d made the mistake of licking her.

She shuddered in my hold. The muscles in her belly contracted. Her legs pressed together. Her hands balled as her head fell forward, sending a cascade of hair over my suited arms.

“Don’t fight it. There’s no point.”

“There is. There is a point,” she snapped through gritted teeth.

“You can’t win.”

“That’s not the point!” Her grey gaze glowed with fury. “I hate you.”

“I don’t care.” Planting my mouth over hers again, I swallowed up her hate. I ate her fury. I drank every drop of loathing she could conjure.

And finally, fucking finally…the rigidity in her body turned to liquid invitation.

Her spine relaxed, her hips rocked, her mouth opened with a sigh of disbelief and disturbed passion.

I groaned.

She moaned.

We attacked each other.

A kiss was just a kiss…but this?

It was fucking explosive.

Her hands clutched at my lapels, dragging me into her. My fingers slid from her strands, dropping down her spine to knead the fullness of her ass. I hoisted and jerked her into me, aggressive and possessive, driving the rock-hardness of my throbbing cock into her.

I wanted to be inside her.

I’d never needed anything more.

Her tongue tangled with mine, sending another electrical storm through my belly and into my balls.

Fuuuucck, she could kiss.

Just as violent.

Just as messy.

Sliding and nipping, plunging and taking.

We were perfectly matched. Her height to my height. Her tenacious desire with my wrathful hunger.

She crawled up me, whimpering and squirming, rubbing her clit against my leg.

Splaying my hands on her hips, I rocked with her, encouraging her to smear my exceedingly expensive suit with her wetness.

Her head fell back as I dropped my fingers between her legs, spearing two deep inside her.

“Oh, God!” She went tense and floppy all at the same time. Bowing into my touch. Giving herself entirely to me.

She was no longer frigid. She was fully participating.

I bent to bite her nipples. To suck. To claim.

My thumb found her clit, pressing cruelly as my lips tracked quick and questing back to her mouth, finding her panting and delirious.

I kissed her brutally hard as I drove two fingers deep into her.