Strays

Chapter 15 *Edited*

His lips chased me down, his saliva and blood trickling into my mouth as he arched up over me and took control of the kiss completely. Before I knew what was happening, I was enveloped in his heat, his scent, his power, and it wasn't supposed to happen this way, but the fury in my blood was too much, too strong, building into something twisted and dangerous until —

My whole body caught fire.

It wasn't like before; nothing I'd felt before came even close to this. Flames burst beneath my skin, a jarring blend of panic and hunger writhing in my gut. His tongue drove into my mouth and my body lit up with unwanted heat, and I was powerless to stop it. I tried to fight back in kind, my teeth scraping his tongue, my own tangling with his as I attempted to redirect the kiss through the haze of desperation building inside me.

Fight, Juliet, fight —

I scored my fingernails along his neck, down his spine, digging deep and feeling his flex and shudder against me. The scent of fresh blood hit me over and over and I relished hurting him even as the hand not tangled in my hair slid down to grip my hip tightly in retaliation, the bite of pain rocketing through me.

The sensation tipped my rage up another notch and I was slammed with another wave of pure, vicious hunger. It was stronger than before, cutting through everything else until it was all I could feel. I whimpered and his mouth grew more aggressive against mine. He kissed me over and over, biting my lips and soothing away the blood with his tongue until I could taste us both in the back of my throat, and I hated the shock of heat the thought sent through me.

When he used the grip on my hip to push even closer to me, I could feel him straining against his jeans, pushing between my legs. Just like before, it hit me that this was really happening and alarm bells started to ring in my head.

I knew what 'fighting' like this led to.

That little voice in the back of my head was screaming to submit, to obey, but the hunger was too strong, the heat to powerful, and this time I just

Couldn't

Stop.

Heat pooled between my legs and I angled my hips instinctively, lifting up off the floor. He growled again, the hand at my hip gliding down to hitch my leg up roughly over his waist. When he ground himself against me, the shock of sensation was borderline painful, ripping a whimper from my mouth. The tingle in my gums became a vicious ache.

The tension building low in my belly was growing more violent and painful by the second. It was almost too much, he was almost too much, and as the panic hit my system memories assailed me: jumbles of images, flashes of that night, the bunker, another face, another body arched over mine and the way my skin screamed with every touch because it was almost too late, but nonoican'tthinkaboutthat —

And then, almost as if he could sense the direction of my thoughts, Michael's mouth broke away from mine. I arched instinctively, my vision swaying as I glared up at him hatefully, because the ache inside of me was too savage, too hungry, and I hated him for stopping, for doing this, for —

I thought I heard him mutter, "Fuck," under his breath before he gripped my hips with both hands, reaching for my jeans, and then he was tugging them swiftly down my legs. My ass hit the cold tiles but I barely felt the sting of icy stone over the scorching need in my skin. And still it didn't fully register what was happening until he'd undone the zipper on his own trousers, rising up over me and then, in one swift stroke, Michael Rosario thrust deep inside me for the first time.

My lips parted in shock.

I blinked up at him, paralysed, my vision slowly coming into focus as my body adjusted to the invasion of his. He was staring down at me, his brow furrowed heavily and a strange expression lit his bright, amber eyes: like he was torn between anger, incredulity, and pain.