And his eyes? They find me in an instant. Andfreeze.
He smells it. The ghost of another. Death’s touch still lingering like a bruise beneath my skin. I stare him down. “Thought you left,” I say quietly, voice steady.
His jaw ticks. “I did.”
“But you came back.”
He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t need to. His eyes drop to my neck.
The skin still tingles where Vale’s voice brushed it. “You let him in,” Riven growls, voice dark, thick with something feral.
“He didn’t hurt me.”
“That’s not what I fucking asked.”
I stand. I want to feel tall in front of him, even if I’m seconds from getting wrecked. “He didn’t touch what’s yours.”
Riven’s across the room in two steps, hand in my hair, yanking my head back until I’m forced to look up at him. “Yes,” he breathes, voice low and brutal, “He did.”
The kiss is savage. It isn’t foreplay. It’sretaliation.Teeth. Tongue. Heat. His mouth crashes into mine, and I taste metal…blood. Mine or his, I don’t know, and I don’t care. His fingers tighten in my hair. My scalp stings. “You taste like him,” he growls against my lips.
“No, I fucking don’t.”
“Then prove it.” He shoves me backward. I hit the wall hard enough to knock a picture frame loose. It crashes to the floor. I don’t look. I don’t breathe.
He’s already unbuttoning his pants, watching me with eyes that don’t blink. Thatburn.“You want soft?” he asks.
“No.”
He fists my hair, tugs hard until I drop to my knees. “Then open your mouth and prove it.” I do.
He slides his cock over my tongue with no warning, no hesitation. The taste of him is all salt and heat, already hard, already furious. He doesn’t give me a second to adjust.
He starts to fuck my mouth like he is well aware that it’s mine buthe owns it anyway. His hand never leaves my hair. His hips move with a punishing rhythm, his cock bruising the back of my throat again and again. I gag and moan at the same time, tears streaking down my cheeks. He doesn’t slow. “Look at me,” he snarls, voice wild. I do. My eyes are watering, chin soaked, jaw sore. And he smiles like a goddamn devil. “That’s mine,” he says, thrusting deeper. “This mouth. This throat. This fucking soul.”
I choke on him, spit trailing down my chin. My lungs scream for air. He pulls out only when my body starts to shake and my knees begin to buckle.
He drags me up by the hair, slams me against the table, chest pressed to the wood, my cheek hot against the surface. I don’t beg. I spread my legs. His fingers tear the panties from my body like they offended him. Then cold metal glints. My breath stutters. I feel the blade first.
A sharp point pressed at the top of my thigh. “You want to feel?” he asks, voice a growl against my ear. “You want to know the difference between death and me?”I don’t answer.
He drags the edge slow, a shallow line up my skin, just enough to raise blood. It beads along my thigh. And his tongue follows. I gasp, one hand clawing the table, the other fisting in my own hair.
He licks the blood clean. Not with hunger. With reverence. “You bleed for me,” he whispers. “You break for me.” He shoves two fingers inside me without warning. I scream. “Say it.”
“Fuck… Riven…” He curls them, finds that spot that makes my vision go white. “Say you’re mine.”
“I’m yours.”
He withdraws. “Louder.” He slaps my ass, hard, handprint blooming across my skin.
“I’m yours!” I scream.
He presses the blade to the small of my back, not cutting now, justreminding.Then he enters me.
His cock splits me open like he’s trying to carve his name inside. I brace on the table, fingers clawing atwood, sweat slick across my back. He fucks me like he’s mad at Death for ever thinking I could be touched by someone else.
His other hand wraps around my throat and pulls me up, flush against him. “I want you to remember this,” he growls. “Next time you feel cold. Next time he fucking whispers your name. I want you to remember who you scream for.” And then he fucks me harder.
