Everything about him felt exactly as it should. He was no longer Cain, the serial killer that the FBI wanted. He was no longer the man who kidnapped me and could slit my throat in my sleep. Right now, he was simply the man I was falling for whether I wanted to or not. If I’d been walking on a tightrope, then I’d just fallen off and was plummeting toward an unpredictable finale. I could land on my feet or break every bone on impact.

“Tell me you want me,” Cain said as he broke the kiss and pushed my head to the side so he could nip at the area.

There was no hesitation this time. “I want you.”

“Do you give yourself over wholly and completely?”

I paused. “Can we work up to that?”

The smile he gave me would’ve stopped the Devil in his tracks.

“Oh, my sweet Sunshine, you’re already there. You just need to say the words.” His biceps and shoulders flexed as he pushed himself up to hover over me. “I can’t fuck you unless you say the words.” Leaning on one hand, he slowly wrapped his fingers around my throat, and it reminded me of a boa constrictor getting into position to crush its prey. “Say you give yourself over. Say you want to stay. Say you want to be here with me.”

The thread I’d been hanging from finally broke in my mind. My heart had wanted this almost from the moment we met, but my mind had kept the door slammed closed because he wore a monster’s face. But it hadn’t mattered because he had been leaning against it as he relentlessly tapped from the other side for days. My mind was tired of fighting, and I licked my lips as my mouth opened and the words he wanted to hear came tumbling out.

“I give myself over to you, and I want to stay.”

His blue eyes seemed to grow dark and more intense. A small noise came from him that sent a shiver up my spine and had my back arching off the ground. Cain ripped open the front of the nightshirt, the seams easily giving way with the brute force.

There was no stopping the scream that ripped from my mouth as he dropped his head and sucked one of my nipples into the heat of his mouth, and swirled it around with his tongue. They were still sensitive from the earlier teasing, and his mouth was demanding as he sucked, drawing them into hard peaks.

“I need you to know I won’t always be this nice to your body. I have certain needs that have to be tamed.” His eyes were feral as he lifted his head. I was beyond turned on, like a powerline hit by lightning.

“Do what you need to,” I said, shocking myself further when I realized I meant it.