63

Sienna lingered by the bedroom door, hugging her body. It wasn't the cold penetrating her skin, but her residual fear of him. Adrian. Her tormentor.

Even though he'd saved her, seeds of doubt remained in her mind. Maybe it was all a trick devised by the pair to torture her further. The idea seemed ridiculous, but when you sat down and looked at it, the whole thing was insane. How could she be expected to judge what was real and what was the product of their cruel mental games?

"Well?" Adrian asked. "Are you just going to stand there all night like a scared little doll?"

"Can you blame me?" she asked.

Adrian tutted, sat up and pulled back the sheets revealing his perfectly sculpted abs.

"Don't you want to pick up where we left off?" His lips curled into a cruel smile.

As he stared at her, his pupils dilated, making his eyes look black and almost demonic.

"Take off all of your clothes," he uttered. The words echoed around her brain, whirling like a tornado of razor blades.

He was doing something to her—using some sort of controlling power. When she looked down, her hands were around her shoulders, slipping down the straps of her dress.

'How? How is this possible?'

As her dress fell to the floor, leaving her almost naked, she felt tears build up in the corner of her eyes. She stared at him.

"Please, Adrian. Please—" she mumbled as her fingers fumbled at her bra latch.

"You don't want this?" he asked. "But you begged for it, don't you remember? You were so desperate to be my slave."

"That was before you—" Sienna started.

"Before I locked you in the cupboard?" he finished. "Damien ordered me to do that. You wanted to be my slave, but I was forced into doing his bidding. It was a matter of doing as he commanded or watching him kill everyone I'd ever known and loved."

Sienna blinked away her tears, looking down at her bare feet. "You seemed as if you were friends. As if you liked him. Adored him even."

Adrian threw back his head and laughed so hard it caused her to jump. "I despised him in the beginning. I was jealous of his power and strength, and the fact that he could hurt me made me rage. But over the years, I grew to love him. He had this way of making me feel like I was in charge. Like I mattered. When I was with him, I was everything. He made me feel like I existed, and when he wasn't there I—"

"You were nothing," Sienna finished. She understood all too well because he had made her feel the same way.

She smiled. It felt slightly better knowing she wasn't the only one. She wasn't alone in her pain and humiliation.

"You stood up to him," Adrian said. "You know that's pretty badass, right?"

Sienna laughed and sniffed, feeling the tears dry up. She shuffled across the room and perched on the corner of the bed. As soon as her body was in his range, he pulled her in.

The feeling of his warm body pressed up against hers ignited a response she hadn't been expecting. Her body was responding to his, becoming hot and tingly.

In her mind, she didn't want him near her, but her body was fighting her to disagree. As he pinned her to the bed, she arched up to press against him, desperate for contact.

He nuzzled her neck before kissing her, and though she tried desperately to get Damien out of her head, she couldn't help but compare their kisses. Adrian's kisses were hungrier—almost as if he wanted to consume her whole. Now that she knew about his secret, his animalistic qualities made perfect sense. Something about this was thrilling to Sienna. Damien hadn't felt anything other than human—a human with perfect technique. But then, could a mind reader be anything but perfect?

Her breathing became heavy as he kissed her from her neck down to her breasts. A cry of shock and pain escaped her lips as he bit at her nipple.

He looked up and flashed her a cheeky grin. "I like it when you scream."

Sienna writhed beneath him—a lacklustre and half-hearted protest.

"Go easy on me," she pleaded. "I was almost murdered today."

"You want me to be kind to you?" he asked with false sounding sympathy.

Sienna nodded, giving him the most pathetic puppy dog eyes she could muster. "Please be gentle with me."

"Aww." He looked down at her with genuine sympathy for the first time. With one large hand, he spun her onto her side and shifted into a spooning position. "I'll only hurt you a little."

She felt his teeth sink into the flesh of her shoulder as he entered her. It stung at first, and she almost cried out until the waves of pleasure distracted her from the pain.

Her body moved in time with his as if by its own accord. As she neared orgasm her breathing became ragged, and her muscles tightened. His body responded in kind, tensing up and pushing deeper inside her.

As the pair came together, he dug his teeth into her, filling her with a mixture of pleasure and pain that was like nothing else she'd experienced.

The pair rolled over onto their backs, panting and melting in the heat.

Sienna turned to flash him a half-smile, poking at the wound on her shoulder.

"That was going easy?" she asked, brows raised.

"Sure." Adrian chuckled. "You're still in one piece, right?"

He sighed deeply. "Ready for round two?"

"Shouldn't we get some sleep?" Sienna asked. "I mean... we are on the run from a murderous dragon monster."

"Werewolves don't need as much sleep as humans," Adrian told her.

Flashbacks from the time he'd forced her to stay up all night sent a chill down her spine. She couldn't cope with that treatment. Not in her current mental state.

"Well... I'm human and I need to sleep," she told him in the firmest voice she could muster up.

"You know I can just force you to do whatever I want," he pointed out.

Rolling onto her side, Sienna shuffled up to him. She reached out for his hand and held it tightly inside her own while staring into his eyes.

"Adrian, I know empathy isn't your strongest life skill, but I'm asking you to try. Just try to see me as a living, breathing, thinking entity. Please. If you're planning on treating me horribly, I'll leave now and take my chances with Damien."

It was a bluff, of course. Damien would literally eat her alive. Nothing she could say or do would derail his vicious hatred of her.

"Damien will rip out your still heating heart and char your bones," Adrian pointed out.

"I gave him my heart once," Sienna said as she rolled over and closed her eyes. "I gave you both my heart and you both stamped it into dust. Enough is enough. If either of you wants my heart you can pry it from my cold dead hands. It's mine now."