God awful, except for Anika.
I’d seen her across the banquet hall and I’d known then, stepsister or not, that I was a fucking goner. She was it.
“Yellow dress. That fucking dinner. I wanted to be inside you before I ever knew your goddamned name.”
Her body tightened with a half-gasp, half-laugh. Sultry and dark. I loved this side of her. I loved learning her, feeling her. I loved being the one to make her find her power. And her pleasure.
“That first night, you were so mean to me. I went back to my room and cried.”
I slid my hand up to her throat, placing just enough pressure on her windpipe and jugular to make her remember exactly who was in charge.
“I know. I fucking watched you.”
She sucked in a breath of surprise and then relaxed into me, like suddenly everything made sense. “Were you always watching?”
Every movement, every emotion. Everything. “Fucking always.”
She hesitated before she spoke again. I felt her eyes on me, but I didn’t meet them. Not yet.
“So then why were you always so mean to me?”
Now I did look her in the eye, turning her face toward mine with my fingertips on her jaw. This part was complicated even for me to understand. But as I looked her in the eye, it all became fucking crystal clear.
“Looking at you hurt my fucking heart. I was like a wounded animal.”
She understood at once. I could see that by the flash in her eyes.
“I couldn’t fucking look at you; I couldn’t even talk to you. I didn’t want to make small talk with you, Anika. I didn’t want things to be fucking ordinary with us. I loved you. I wanted you. I needed you. And if I couldn’t have you like I wanted, it was better not to have you at all. From the first moment, no other women existed. Only you.”
Her pretty eyes fluttered shut, her lashes kissing her cheeks. Nudging me with her nose, her forehead, she said all that she needed to say. That she understood. That she was here. And that we were together at fucking last.
I worked on her clit with more focus, feeling her heartbeat in her throat. I got her close to orgasm, but I didn’t let her spill over the edge. She needed to understand my power from the inside out.
And I was still pissed off with her. Running away like she had that day, she could have fucking died. I could have lost her forever. Just the thought of it filled me with white-hot anger, and I tightened my grip on her throat, making her gasp.
“Don’t you ever run away from me again,” I told her. I slid my tongue down the shell of her ear, making sure I scraped her hard with my stubble.
She whimpered, actually fucking whimpered, as I ran my tongue back up her ear. Again, her grip on my thighs tightened. “It wasn’t you that I was…”
Bratty and mouthy. She was going to have to learn to obey me and learn it fast. I shifted her clit from between my fingers, adding my thumb, and told her what I thought of her fucking excuses with a merciless pinch.
She cried out in pain, bucking against me, as the scent of a fresh trickle of her wetness met my nose.
“Don’t you ever…” I snarled in her ear.
“Never,” she panted. “Never.”
With that, I released the pinch, and she hissed out a breath. I watched her pin her tongue between her teeth. She moaned, almost a cat-like purr.
“Feels good, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” she gasped, surprised. And pleased.
I went back to stroking her, now using my middle finger while keeping her folds parted with my first and third. I was close to her opening, really fucking close, but I wasn’t going to penetrate her. Not yet.
“And it’s not just the running away that pisses me off,” I told her. “It’s that you were so fucking unprepared. No provisions. No decent weapons. What the fuck is that?”
“I wasn’t… I don’t….”
“Save it,” I said, working her cunt up into a froth before yanking my hand away. She whined in protest, but I was two steps ahead of her. Gently but firmly, I grasped her by the back of the neck and pushed her forward. “Get on your knees.”
This time, there was no back talk. Progress. She did just as she was asked, placing her knees on the saddle pad, her ass in the air. Sweet little feet pushed together, toes curled. I got on my knees behind her and slipped my left arm between her thighs and stomach to keep her steady. For one second, I took in the scene. My stepsister. Buck naked, on her knees in front of me. Waiting for me to do whatever I wanted.
Sometimes life fucking sucked. But sometimes, I was seriously goddamned grateful to be alive. Her glistening pussy was all the meaning I’d ever need to find in life.