“Stop being a teasing prick!”

He tsked, smiling. “Now that wasn’t very nice.”

“So? Are you suddenly sensitive?”

Chuckling, Nick drove one finger inside her. She gasped and arched. “No, baby, but your body clearly is right now.” Her low growl made him chuckle again. As her walls began to flutter around his finger, he withdrew it. “Fight it.”

“You total ba—” She broke off as she was suddenly flipped onto her stomach and a hand twice came down sharply on her ass. She jerked and gasped as the burn turned to the most delicious pain, making heat explode in her stomach and bloom lower. Glancing over her shoulder, she scowled.

“I’ll do it again if I have to,” Nick warned her, blowing on the red mark left by his hand—a brand. “What you haven’t quite accepted yet, baby, is that this body is mine. All mine. You’ll only come when I’m finished playing with it. Of course, if you really want to come that badly, one little word will be enough to get you what you want.” When he flipped her back over, he collared her throat and gently but firmly pressed her down onto the mattress. Keeping a tight grip on her throat, he used his free hand to thrust a finger inside her. “For someone who doesn’t like waiting or being spanked, you’re pretty damn wet.”

Shaya growled at the combination of amusement, appreciation, and smugness in his voice. “I won’t beg. And I don’t like being spanked for having my own mind.”

“Really? Look how wet you are.” He brought his finger to her face, showing her how coated it was in her own juices.

Two can play the sexual torment game. Hoping to drive him to the edge, Shaya flicked out her tongue and licked his finger.

His grip on her throat flexed. “Sly little bitch.”

She did it again, this time closing her mouth over his finger and sucking.

“Fuck.” He forcefully thrust his tongue into her mouth in a mimic of what he intended to do to her body. He pinched her nipple hard the way she liked it, again wrenching that amazing f**king sound from her throat. Then he was sucking the taut bud into his mouth, loving the taste and texture of her. “If you want to come, all you have to do is say please.”

“Keep dreaming, Beavis.” She wanted to slap herself for how breathy she sounded. Oh, she was pathetic.

Nick shrugged carelessly. “If that’s the way you want it.” Then he drew her nipple into his mouth and suckled.

For what could have been hours—Shaya had absolutely no idea—he tortured her. Tortured her until her entire body was trembling and covered in a fine sheen of sweat. He’d worked her into a sensual frenzy until she was so sensitive that the slightest contact had her arching from the bed. She hadn’t thought it was possible to feel so empty. She had never been more aware of that part of her body. But no matter how much she whined or cursed him, he wouldn’t let her come.

“All you have to do is say please, baby,” he reminded her before biting the curve of her breast and sucking to leave a mark. “One word…and you can have what you want.”

Shaya tried to ignore his seductive voice. Tried to ignore his mouth on her breast and his teeth plucking at her ni**les. Tried to ignore it when he thrust against her and pinched her clit. Tried, but wasn’t successful. Maybe she should just say please this once. She wouldn’t really be begging, she would just be repeating what he asked her to say, right? That wasn’t the same thing at all.

Watching her squirm and writhe and hearing her seductive moans, Nick knew he wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer. Looming over her, he fisted his other hand in her hair and wrenched back her head, forcing her to look at him. His eyes pinned hers. “Say it, Shay.”

“Please.”

He smiled at how begrudgingly it was said. “I don’t think that was very sincere. You know what I want from you.”

She did. It wasn’t about the begging, it was about what the begging signified—he wanted her to submit, to accept that she was his.

Nick kissed and bit his way down her body and settled between her legs again. Her sweet scent lured him like nothing else could. “Don’t make me leave you hanging and come all over you instead. Don’t think I won’t do that.”

Oh, she believed him. The promise to do that was right there in his expression.

He flicked her clit with the tip of his tongue. “Say it. Now.”

She quivered at the dominance coating that demand. After a long pause, she submissively went lax. “Please.” Suddenly his mouth latched onto her clit at the same time as one finger plunged into her. Her entire body seemed to convulse as her long-awaited orgasm hit. She cried out and clenched her fists hard around the bars of the headboard as it tore through her. Once the aftershocks eased, she sagged into the bed, feeling drained.

“Look at me, Shay.” The second she met his gaze, he slammed into her, groaning as her muscles tightened around him. “Fuck.” Jaw clenched, he f**ked her hard and deep, pounding her into the mattress. After only three harsh strokes she came, but he didn’t let up. He continued pumping his hips at a frantic pace that had Shaya crying out and clinging to him, just like he wanted. “Your pu**y is squeezing me so tight. Like it never wants to let go.”

That’s probably because it doesn’t, thought Shaya. The feeling of finally having him inside her was incredible. He was heat. He was strength. He was intensity. She shaped his back with her hands, liking how his sleek muscles bunched under her touch as he pumped in and out of her. The ravenous hunger that had been haunting and riding them for so long was now finally being quenched and slaked…and it felt a hundred times better than she could ever have imagined.

“Only I can make you feel this way, Shay. Only me, only your mate.”

She heard what he didn’t say; that it wouldn’t matter if she refused to accept his claim and lived her life with someone else—never would anyone fit her or satisfy her the way he did. She knew that was true. It had never felt like this before. Not once. This was what it was to be truly taken. As much as she feared the power it gave him, he did own her on some level, and she would always belong to him whether he was in her life or not. “That works both ways, Beavis.”

Nick bit her lip. “Yes, it does.” He groaned as she clawed at the skin of his back. “That’s it, Shay, mark me.” He groaned again as she dragged her claws across his upper back, deep enough to leave permanent brands there. Satisfaction filled both him and his wolf—she might not intend to officially claim him yet, but she cared enough to leave her brands on him.