“Gabriel, my love, my love…” Celia did not even realize she chanted his name until he abruptly tangled a fist in her hair, turning her head until her lips were accessible. The riding crop clattered to the floor. He kissed the very breath from her as he plunged into her body over and over, the size of his cock burning and stretching her at this angle. Almost painful but divine as well. Two sides of the same coin. The light and the dark melding together into one.

She exploded around him as he groaned in appreciation. When he bit the back of her neck, the sharpness of his teeth was insignificant to the sense of belonging flooding her as he climaxed deep inside her. And when her shaky legs refused to hold her upright, Gabriel was there as he’d promised.

Catching her in the darkness and making her world brighter than the sun.

She did not remember Gabriel untying her hands. She did not remember the moment he removed the blindfold from her eyes. One minute she was hanging from the post, the next she was in their bed with Gabriel tending to her so gently she wanted to weep again for reasons she didn’t understand.

Her shoes were slipped off her feet, silk stockings rolled down and tossed aside. Gabriel wiped her down with a cool cloth, slipping into the nooks and crannies of her body while she drifted in a pleasant haze. When she began shaking, he wrapped the coverlet around her and held her tight until the tremors passed.

Then he laid her back on the pillows and settled between her thighs.

“I need you again, mon coeur,” he whispered against her lips. “I’m a monster, but I cannot help myself. I cannot get enough of you.”

Celia nodded, too depleted of strength to protest. She wanted him again as well, even if she could not muster the strength to say so.

Her arms looped around his neck as Gabriel took his cock in his own hand, rubbing against her folds and spreading her moisture over himself before surging inside her.

It feels so right. So good. This is where I’m meant to be. Here. Here with him. Gabriel. My love. My love who dragged me out of the darkness.

“You are mine, Celia. I will keep you safe from anyone and anything who would do you harm.” Gabriel’s hips tilted, his cock going so deep she moaned. His way was eased by the slickness of her desire, but she felt so full of him it was difficult to breathe. “Do you understand? You. Are. Mine.” Thrust. “Mine.” Thrust. “Mine.”

Celia cried into his shoulder, her backside burning as the motion of their bodies slid her back and forth on the sheets. It hurt, but she didn’t care. She was his, and as he took her with a violence tempered only by his innate gentleness, she accepted that, too.