Growling, he stepped forward. To stop her, probably. But probably not. She stepped forward, too, meeting him in the middle, all but launching her body against his, reinvigorating his shock and delight. She pressed her breasts into his chest—how he’d missed them. As she jumped up to wind her legs around his waist, he took her to the ground. Their lips crashed together once again, their tongues dueling. What he felt...

A mad rush of desire...rapture...homecoming?

“I want you on your back,” he rasped, the admission scalding his throat.

“Yes! Please!”

Though he knew it was wrong, he rolled and pinned her with his weight. He waited for her regret, but she seemed to revel in his dominance, running her hands all over him.

Magnificent female. He kissed her until he’d stolen her breath, and she needed his to survive. When he fisted the hair at her nape, angling her face to deepen the kiss more than before, she rewarded him, sucking on his tongue. When he gripped her ass, forcing her hips to lift and her core to cradle his length, she whimpered in thanks, and Bane comprehended an undeniable truth. He was seconds away from stripping her bare and sinking inside her. Taking her virginity. Willingly bedding a royal.

What would happen afterward? Would she choose to return to Zion?

Bane swallowed a roar of denial. Nola could be the hand of his vengeance, or a scorned ex-lover, but she couldn’t be both. Queens were notoriously selfish, greedy and possessive of their property, more so than beasts. He needed her focused. And unharmed.

Though his shaft throbbed, and Bane was desperate for release, her passion nearly burning him alive, he found the strength to sever contact a third time and shoot to the other side of the cave, putting distance between them. Along the way, he spotted a pair of gauntlets. Feminine, delicate. Exquisite. Reminded him of Nola. He shoved the pieces into his pocket. Foolish. Did he return the metal gloves, though? No.

“Bane?” She stood and stumbled in his direction. The way she looked at him, as if he epitomized her every secret desire, it did something to him. Made him want ridiculous things. A fresh start. A long-term relationship. Pleasure instead of revenge.

Obviously, arousal made men stupid.

Had Nola surprised him today? Yes. She’d resisted the urge to order her new pet to perform ridiculous tricks, faced his anger head-on, refusing to back down, and revealed a heartbreaking past. Her unshakable loyalty to Vale was admirable, and her uninhabited passion would haunt him for the rest of his miserable life. But he’d told her the truth—one day soon, she would cease being this amazing woman and become a living nightmare.

A living nightmare who held his fate in her dainty hands.