Heart thundering, I withdrew as her warm blood splashed over my tongue, coating the inside of my mouth. I started to let her go, but then…
The taste of her hit me in a stunning, unexpected burst of sensation. Sweet. Fresh. Power. My mouth was still fused to her throat, and her blood flowed freely. The pain I’d caused had retreated the moment my fangs left her flesh. Now, my bite would create a wholly different kind of storm within her. In me.
Her taste was lush and rich, utter decadence. Her rapidly building arousal was pure sin. The heat of mine burned as I drank greedily. I groaned, lost in it all as I held her to me, but the taste of her…
Her blood, it was an awakening. There was something about it. Something in it. The inside of my mouth tingled. My skin hummed. There was something in her blood that shouldn’t be there. That couldn’t be. It was a charge of energy. Power. The pain of the wound was nowhere near as fierce.
Good gods.
That could only mean one thing.
She was—
Shock ripped through me. I tore myself away from her in disbelief.
Poppy stumbled, catching herself. She turned to me. I stood there, trembling as I watched blood seeping from my bite.
My chest rose and fell rapidly as she lifted a hand to her throat. She took a step back, and the shock of what I’d discovered faded.
Poppy was mortal, but her blood was also of my people. Atlantian.
“I can’t believe it.” I ran my tongue across my bottom lip, tasting her. Tasting the truth. My eyes closed as a groan of pleasure rumbled from my chest. She was half-Atlantian—and that part of her was fucking strong.
In an instant, so much made sense. My eyes opened. “But I should’ve known.”
I did now.
Once more, everything changed. I was on her before I could take another breath. I took her mouth with mine as I fisted her hair. Relief crashed into joy—brilliant and airy. There was a way out of this for her, one that would truly ensure her safety.
But right now, relief and elation weren’t the only things pumping through me—through her. Need and want came together. I kissed her as I wanted to from the first. No hiding my fangs, concealing who I was. And Poppy kissed me back just as fiercely, as desperately. She clung to me as I took her to the snow-covered ground, my mouth never leaving hers. Part of that was my bite. Once the pain left, pleasure came, but that only partly fueled her hungry little kisses as I rolled my hips against hers. I nipped at her lip, drunk on her breathy moan, on how she moved beneath me, rocking her hips, straining for more, wanting more.
From me.
Poppy wanted me.
That hadn’t stopped when she learned of my betrayal. Our attraction couldn’t be denied, but I needed to hear her say it.
Ending the kiss, I lifted my head to see her. “Tell me you want this.” I rocked against her. “Tell me you need more.”
“More,” she whispered.
“Thank fuck,” I growled, reaching between us, too needy and too fucking eager to be inside her. Because she knew. She knew the truth of me. There were no lies between us. I had to be inside her. Now. I grabbed the front of her breeches and yanked. Buttons sprang free.
“Goodness,” she gasped.
I laughed, shoving her pants down. I bared one lovely leg. That was enough. I lifted my gaze to hers. “You know this shirt was beyond repair, right?”
Her brows pinched. “Wha—?”
Curling my hand in the front of the bloodstained shirt, I ripped it open, baring her breasts to me. Fuck. I tore open my breeches as my gaze hungrily traveled across her creamy skin, dampened by the falling snow that found its way through the trees. Her plump nipples, a darker pink, were hard and puckered. I saw the dried streaks of blood leftover from when she was attacked. I froze. I’d come so close to losing her…
“I will kill them,” I swore. “I will fucking kill them all.”
Poppy shuddered as I claimed her mouth, settled myself between her thighs, and sank into her slick, tight heat. Her kisses muffled my shout. I went at her, fast and hard, and it was fucking mind-blowing. The way she met each thrust. How she clutched at me, my shoulders, my hair, and any part of me she could get her hands on. The snow fell harder, heavier, as if it were answering our fierceness with its own.
But I wanted this to last.
I drew her tongue into my mouth, obsessed with her taste, then left her lips. Kissing my way down her throat, I came to my bite. A growl of raw satisfaction escaped from me as I licked the tiny punctures, grinning as she gasped and strained against me. Her grip on my shoulders tightened as I swirled my tongue over the bite.
But I couldn’t stay there.
If I did, I’d reopen the wounds and drink more of her. I couldn’t do that. She had my blood in her, but I’d been greedy earlier, and she had been so gravely wounded before.
Kissing her throat, I lifted my head. Our gazes locked. Her eyes were wide and a stunning shade of green as the snow dotted the loose strands of her crimson hair.
Gods, she was…she was so godsdamn unexpected in every way. So beautiful. So brave. So vicious.
Trailing my hand down her chest, I cupped her breast as I moved in and out of her, each thrust nearly undoing me and unraveling her. She felt too hot, too wet, and too damn good. My mouth returned to hers. She was just as hungry, as greedy. She lifted her hips, urging me deeper, harder, faster. I held back, a laugh giving way to a groan as she cried out in frustration.
I lifted my head. “I know what you want, but…”
She pressed her hips fully against mine, and I shook. “But what?”
My jaw hardened as I locked eyes with her. “I want you to say my name.”
“What?”
I moved against her in slow circles. “I want you to say my real name.”
Her lips parted on a sharp inhale.
I stilled inside her, heart pounding. “That’s all I ask.” My voice dropped as I toyed with her nipple. “It’s acknowledgment. It’s you admitting you are fully aware of who is inside you, who you want so badly, even though you know you shouldn’t. Even though you want nothing more than to not feel what you do. I want to hear you say my real name.”
“You’re a bastard,” she whispered, rolling her hips against mine.
I grinned. “Some call me that, yes, but that’s not the name I’m waiting to hear, Princess.”
Her lips pressed into a firm, tight line.
“How bad do you want it, Poppy?” I asked.
She gripped my hair, yanking my head down hard enough that my eyes widened. “Bad,” she seethed. “Your Highness.”
That was not—
Poppy lifted her legs, folding them around my waist. Before I could even fathom what she was up to, she rolled me onto my back. She planted her hands on my chest and rocked back as if to rise, taking me so deeply inside her that I forgot my fucking name.
“Oh.” Poppy gasped, breaths ragged.
I stared at her through half-open eyes. “You know what?”
“What?” she whispered, her body twitching all around me.
“I don’t need you to say my name,” I told her. “I just need you to do that again, but if you don’t start moving, you might actually kill me.”
A sudden laugh left her. “I…I don’t know what to do.”
That soft chuckle. Those even softer words. My chest felt too fucking full as I grasped her bare hips. “Just move,” I told her, showing her what I meant. I lifted her up the length of my rigid cock and then brought her back down. “Like that.” I groaned at the heated friction of our bodies. “You can’t do anything wrong. How have you not learned that yet?”