“I—”
He dropped the crossbow and ripped my shirt clean off.
“Cairo!”
“I dreamed about you the other night,” he whispered, pressing his mouth to my ear. “We were running through town. Well, you were running. I was chasing.”
My bra strap slipped off my shoulder. Helped along by Cairo.
“I caught you behind the Roadhouse. Nowhere left to run,” he said. “You pleaded with me to let you go, and I put you on your knees right there in the filthy alley. I pried those pretty lips open like this”—Cairo cracked my jaw—“and shoved my cock inside like that.”
His tongue found mine—tangling in a battle of wills. He demanded submission. Yanked it out of me like fevered moans, and in my fury not to give it to him, it didn’t sink in that I was kissing him back.
“Till you cried,” he whispered against my lips. “Like this.”
Cairo tweaked my nipple without mercy.
“Ah,” I cried, tears springing to my eyes as dampness spread in another part of me. My heart was racing, running, beating out of control.
Taking me in his mouth, he gently flicked my nipple—teasing it, tasting it, introducing it to one of its new owners. I sunk my fingers in his hair even before it came, knowing the reprieve wouldn’t last long.
Cairo scraped the helpless nub beneath his teeth, rougher treatment than the poor thing was used to. Pain and pleasure wracked me in equal measure, so tangled I couldn’t tell them apart.
Growls peeled from my wolf. He snapped, bit, sucked, and nipped my tender flesh—abandoning my breasts only to devour every part of me. Tangling in my hair, he tugged my head back and licked a stripe from neck to chin.
“Mine.”
“No, Cairo. You’ve been waiting for someone to say it, and now it’s all you’re going to hear. No!” I fisted Cairo’s silky, gold locks, half pulling them from the root. “You don’t own me. No Sharpe ever will!”
The slap snapped my head to the side. The shock of it released my grip.
“A Sharpe will make you beg to be owned, bitch.”
My chest heaved with ragged breaths. Shrieking, I swiped at him, and Cairo caught my hands, slamming them in the dirt. Crossing them above my head, he licked my stinging cheek.
“That’s it,” he said, collecting my tears. “So fucking sweet. You’re my Rain now. Say it.”
I met those eyes—shining even now. “No.”
I didn’t know where the others were. Maybe they were concealed in the trees, watching our battle of wills, and a battle it was. A down-and-out, fight-to-the-death, no-survivors for my mind, body, and soul, just as Cairo said. If I failed here, the Bedlam Boys would own me in every way that mattered—even if I one day got away.
Maybe I could’ve said fate and called him off, but deep down I knew that wasn’t victory. It was waving the white flag. I’d be admitting their scorching burned me, and I needed their permission to leave as much as their demand to stay.
Fuck no. The Bedlam Boys can try to break me, but if there’s one thing I know, it’s that fire doesn’t survive the rain.
“Say it,” Cairo hissed.
“No.”
Cairo slapped the other cheek, exploding stars behind my eyes.
“Ahh.” Pressure built between my legs, contracting the muscles in my lower belly and spreading through my body. I was a gasp away from imploding in on myself like a dying star. Holy shit. Is this normal?
Sweat slicked my skin. My nipple was raw and achy, but inside, for the love of everything, something was happening inside me.
I bucked, yanking at my trapped wrists, and thrashed to get him off. I needed to get out of here. Away from him. Any more, and the dam would break.
“Get off!” I got my foot between us, rearing to kick him.
Cairo twisted to the side and caught my leg as it went wide. He hooked me around his waist like he thought that was what I meant to do all along.
Frustrated tears leaked down my face. “Cairo,” I pleaded.
He responded instantly.
Cairo nudged my legs apart, pressing his thigh to my middle. My body took over. I rutted against him, moving in time with the cock digging into my leg. The friction rolled my eyes up in my skull.
“Say it, or I’m going to be angry with you.”
Going to? Every inch of me above the waist was sore. If this was him in a good mood, heaven help the world when he gets mad.
“The last man who tried to control me died tied to a stake. What was it I told you we had in common?”
His smirk glinted in the dark.
Why? It was undoubtedly the wrong thing to say.
“Are you a virgin, Rain?”
I fell very quiet.
“Answer me.” He let go of my hands and grabbed my legs, locking them around his waist. He skimmed the hem of my dress. “Did you let another man touch you? Did he take what’s ours?”