His grip was iron around her throat—firm but not cruel. Possessive. Hungry. A warning, not a punishment.
"I told you," Rafael murmured against her ear, voice low, silken with threat, "never run from me again."
Aurora trembled, not just from fear… but from the way his breath skimmed her skin, the way his body pressed into hers like she was already his again. Her back hit the wall of his bedroom with a soft thud, her heartbeat galloping in her chest as his scent filled her senses—dark cologne and sin.
"I wasn't running," she whispered. "I was breathing."
He chuckled, deep and rough, lips dragging across her cheek. "Then I'll teach you how to breathe through me."
His mouth claimed hers before she could reply, devouring. Hungry. She whimpered, arms caught between them, but she didn't resist. She couldn't. Not when his tongue invaded like a storm, tasting her like he'd been starving.
He pulled back just long enough to hiss, "Clothes. Off. Now."
Aurora's breath hitched. Her fingers shook as she obeyed, lifting the thin black slip she wore over her head, baring herself inch by inch to the man who owned her nights.
Rafael didn't move. He simply stared.
His jaw clenched as he took her in—her flushed skin, her bare breasts, the swell of her hips. Like he wanted to devour her and destroy her in the same moment.
Then, he undid the first button of his shirt.
And the next.
Slowly. Like a predator drawing out the kill.
"On the bed," he ordered, voice sharp. "On your knees. Face the mirror."
The full-length mirror across from the bed caught everything—the tremble in her thighs, the way her back arched when she climbed onto the silk sheets, the gleam of her exposed skin.
She watched herself, watched him behind her, stripping down until only desire remained.
He knelt behind her, his large hand sliding down the curve of her spine. "Look at yourself," he growled. "Look at how wet you are for the man you claim to hate."
Her cheeks burned, but her eyes stayed on the mirror as his fingers slid between her thighs, parting her.
And then he was there.
Thick. Hot. Hard.
He didn't tease. He pushed inside in one long, ruthless stroke, forcing a cry from her lips as her body stretched to take him.
"Rafael—"
"Say it louder."
"Rafael," she moaned, arching back into him, helpless against the rhythm he set—deep, brutal, relentless.
The mirror fogged with heat, her reflection flushed and undone.
He fisted her hair, yanking her head back as he drove deeper. "You like being used like this, don't you?"
She hated how true it was.
"Yes," she gasped. "I—I don't want to… but yes."
"That's because your body belongs to me."
She shattered around him with a cry, legs trembling, voice breaking. He followed with a guttural curse, spilling into her with possessive heat.
But he didn't pull away.
Instead, he bent over her back, breath hot against her ear. "You're not going anywhere, Aurora