ROBBY STEPPED INTO THE bathroom with his face schooled into a neutral position, but my mark felt his volatility. That effect of standing too close to a tornado gripped me, and I tensed. He rolled his hand in an indication for me to drop my pants so he could inspect the damage.

“You’re still aggravated with me.” I kicked off my shoes and dropped my pants, stepping out of them and turning so he could look at my covered tattoo.

“I still think you should have taken them out.” He crossed, and peeled off the breathable plastic sheet and dropped it into the garbage. “You’re going to need to get in the shower, so...” He cocked his eye at me and stripped his own shirt.

“Is it that bad?” I tried to arch my back so I could see it, but I could only make out the top part of the tattoo.

“Eh, but it should be cleaned again.” He took off his shoes and socks, and then his pants followed.

“I should have gotten this on my hip instead,” I muttered as I turned my backside toward the mirror. There were clear scabs on the tattoo and one of them had split and oozed milky-white. Although the skin around the tattoo looked a little inflamed, the only really gross part was the oozing scab. “It’s not fair that you don’t have the same issues.” I waved at him, and he rolled his thigh so I could see his perfectly healed tattoo.

“Wolves heal fast.”

I stripped my shirt and bra, and stepped into the shower. He followed, turning the water on and waiting until the temperature was warm enough to not make our teeth chatter, but cool enough not to impede my healing skin. He turned me in to the water and then moved me out of the spray just as fast before he took the antibiotic soap, knelt behind me, and started the gentle cleaning of my butt cheek.

“I would have killed far more people than those vampires will had I let my phoenix loose.”

His hand paused and he looked up at me. “There’s always collateral damage.” He shrugged and went back to work gently soaping up my tattoo.

“That would make me no better than the monsters we hunt.”

He pressed his head against my hip. “You know just as well as I do there will always be innocents who are harmed by our inaction.”

His blue eyes rose to mine. “If I had followed you to your room that first night, none of this would have happened. I would have claimed you then, and that would have set us on a different path.”

I huffed down at him. “Claimed or not, Cassius would still have found me, and he would have killed you without a second thought. And who’s to say the academy wouldn’t have executed me anyway?”

He bit his lower lip. “I wouldn’t have let them.”

“You wouldn’t have had a choice.” I ran my hand through his hair. “I should have told you about Cassius the moment I found out. All this is on me. Not you.”

He rinsed off my ass and stood, towering over me. “That’s my point. Inaction always seems to bite us. What are we going to lose by not acting when we had the opportunity?” He cupped my cheek as he chewed his bottom lip with worry.

I stepped close and hugged him. “We aren’t going to lose a thing.” But even as the words tumbled from my lips, my stomach tightened. His words wormed their way under my skin, leaving an itch more pressing than that of my healing tattoo.

He lifted my chin and for the first time since we returned, he leaned down and delivered a kiss as if his libido won out over his fears.

I was not prepared for the searing heat that accompanied the kiss or his wandering hands as they caressed my breasts in a teasingly light touch. His hardness pressed against my stomach, and I pulled away from his mouth.

He pushed me against the wall and dropped to his knees again. But this time, he took my breasts in his mouth before driving lower. I don’t know whether it was the shower or the physical fight downstairs that revved him up, but I wasn’t going to argue. He lifted my leg over his shoulder and attacked my pussy like a parched man attacks a bottle of water.

I ran my hand into his damp hair and closed my eyes at the sensation, and was immediately taken back to a similar situation against my bedroom wall. I gasped and my eyes snapped open. I blinked, trying to get myself back into the here and now with Robby and not the memory of Cassius doing the same thing before he turned me.

Robby paused and looked up at me with his bright-blue eyes filled with a question I did not want to answer. I did not want him knowing I had a flashback of Cassius—that would be an instant mood killer for him.

I shifted so more of my right cheek was against the wall, using my tattoo to explain the sudden flare of discomfort.

“Sorry,” he said with that tilted smile, but he went right back to his ministrations, but using a much gentler touch as he caressed my ass and ran his knuckles along my opening.

I kept my eyes open and on Robby, vowing not to go back to the past. This was now, and Robby had initiated this. He deserved my full attention and oh, he got it, especially when his fingers joined in on the fun, filling me with a deep ache for more. The buildup was slow and maddening, like he wanted to control my every sensation. My hand tightened on his hair as I tumbled over the crest with a soft moan.

His finger dipped in deep, and my body shuddered with the release. A moment later, he was in me and on his feet, holding my thighs as he rode me against the wall. The taut muscles in his arms glistened with the drops from the shower spray, and he grinned at me in a way that told me this was going to be punishing and satisfying at the same time.

And he lived up to it, keeping his eyes on mine as his hips pounded into me. There was no closing eyes and tilting heads back to moan our satisfaction. This was an intense stare down, as if we were both breaking barriers that Cassius tried to build between us. Just as the vein in his temple started to stand out, Robby captured my mouth in a kiss that muffled his groan. He didn’t stop pounding me against the wall until his breath became ragged and his tongue slowed the dance with mine.

He broke the kiss. “Fuck,” he whispered and pressed his forehead against mine.

“We just did,” I teased.

He smiled the way the old Robby used to, with that impish light dancing in his eyes. He still hadn’t let me down, and I crossed my ankles behind him, twirling my hips. I was not ready for him to leave me.

“I am not sure my legs will hold for another round,” he said.

That was when I became aware that he was trembling. “But I am comfortable.” I pouted and batted my eyes.

He snorted a laugh and shifted his grip. Pain flared in my ass cheek. “Not so comfortable now, are you?”

“Ouch,” I whined, but didn’t let go. Instead, I pushed him inside me farther, grinding hip to hip.

“You want to go again?” He pursed his lips. “On your hands and knees, and I’ll oblige.” He lifted his hands away from my ass.

I clung to him, using my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck to keep my hold. Something about that glint in his eyes made me hang on. Although that was the way he had made love to me the first time and marked me, the memory of Cassius burned through that sweetness, souring me to the position. Plus, Robby didn’t know. He didn’t know that was how Cassius had painted my walls with my blood.

I forced myself to unclasp my legs.

Robby uncoupled from me and stepped under the water stream as he gently stroked himself, waiting for me to comply.

“It’s a dominant-submissive position.” I sucked on my lower lip as I watched him stroke himself back to life.

“Yes.”

His single-word answer had me raising my gaze to his. “You want me to submit to you?” My voice cracked as all sorts of emotions welled up inside me.

He nodded slowly with his head tilted to the side, as if gauging my reaction.

“I submit to no one.” I steeled my back as my anger flared.

“Oh, you’ll submit to me.” He just kept stroking as he stood under the warm water.

“And if I don’t?” I slammed my fists into my hips, glaring at his audacity.

“Then you’re cut off for the night, and your itch still needs scratching.” He grinned. “You’re slinging those pheromones, in case you’re wondering how I know you’re still horny as hell.”

Damn him, standing there flaunting his desires in such a way that my body responded.

Still, I hesitated.

His grin faded as he studied me, and his hand slowed to a stop.

“That’s how Cassius...” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

“I know.”

The chill in his tone caught me off guard.

“You forced me to face my ghosts. It’s your turn to do the same.”

“How...” I couldn’t spit the words out of a mouth that had become an absolute desert.

He cocked an eyebrow and resumed stroking himself.

Oh. Cassius must have expanded on our escapades to needle him while he had him locked up. I shook at the thought.

“Hands. And. Knees.” Robby wasn’t relenting. In fact, he seemed to be hardening more by the minute, as if the idea of dominating over me was what was turning him on.

Slowly, I surrendered because deep down, I knew Robby would never harm me. I stepped in front of him, meeting his gaze, and bit my tongue from begging him not to do this to me. I forced myself to put my trust in him and turned, sinking to my knees and then my hands.

He pushed my knees farther apart with his foot and then knelt between my legs and gently massaged my ass, soaping it up again. But this time, he slid his soapy finger inside my anus with slow and deliberate strokes and his other hand explored my pussy with the same deliberateness.

I glanced over my shoulder at him, and he smiled at me.

“I won’t hurt you,” he assured me. “But I am claiming you as mine in every way that you let him.” His voice went from smooth to growling, and his teeth appeared.

My heart lurched in my chest as two of his fingers stretched me wider. I had let Cassius do things that were considered taboo. Although Robby and I had explored all sorts of positions in my house, he had not breached my ass with more than a finger. And he was huge in comparison.

He pushed his fingers deeper as he played my clit, as if he were strumming strings of a guitar. The heat of the shower played with his movements, and my body responded in more ways than just the warmth spreading through me. Robby was much more patient and kind than Cassius had been. Robby waited until I was panting and dripping wet before he lined himself up to my anus. His fingers never stopped playing, either, and his slow entry had me coming.

He took his time, riding me slowly in and out, as if anything harder would break me. “God, you feel so fucking good,” he groaned.

When he slipped his fingers into my pussy, the sensation of being full tripped off another set of orgasms.

“That’s it, baby. Keep coming until you scream my name.”

I glanced back at him, and his head was tilted up and his eyes closed, with an expression of absolute ecstasy plastered on his face. His canines were still on display, as if his wolf had taken over. His eyelids fluttered open, and that piercing blue shot right to mine with a ferocity that promised a lifetime of fiery lovemaking.

“Harder,” I whispered. I wanted all of him.

He smiled and nearly pulled out, but just when I started to whine at the sensation, he slammed into me, balls deep, making me gasp. He paused. “Like that?”

“Yes,” I breathed out in barely a whisper. He made this experience incredible. Everything Robby did to me surpassed Cassius. Every nuance of movement and the promise of satiation from Robby was excessive. His love for me throbbed in my shoulder, echoing his heartbeat.

His thumb passed over my clit as he slowly pulled back again. His eyes nearly glowed. His grip on my right hip reached near pain, but he held me in place so I wouldn’t chase his exit. “Finger yourself,” he commanded and pulled his hand away from my pussy.

I did as he asked, sliding two of my fingers inside me while I pressed my wrist to my clit, applying pressure.

“Can you feel me?” He resumed a slow cadence with his hips.

“Yes.” He filled me, and I stroked the outer wall of my vagina with my knuckles, heightening the sensations triggering my body to grip him and my own fingers.

“Oh my fucking God,” Robby gasped and sped up his movement. “Whatever you are doing, do not stop.”

I was basically fucking myself with my hand in time with his thrusts and the sensation of being filled to capacity made every nerve ending even more sensitive. A low, keening moan of his name started in the back of my throat as heat engulfed me.

Robby went faster, rocking my body with the force of his thrusts.

“Fuck!” he cried, arching so as much of him was inside me as possible. The power of his orgasm set off mine, squeezing all my muscles around him and my hand.

Hot cum dripped down my wrist, and he groaned, pumping the last of his release into me as I shuddered through my own aftershocks.

Robby gently pulled out of me and sat directly under the shower spray. “I think you actually stopped my heart.” He let out a soft laugh.

I curled up on the shower floor and glanced at him. My entire body had somehow turned into a wet noodle. I couldn’t get up even if the house were on fire.

Satiation turned to worry on his face. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. I just don’t want to move now.”

He reached up and flipped a switch, and the water went from the pulsing shower head, to a rain shower head above most of the shower. Warm water fell on us, washing away our sweat. “We can sleep here if you want.”

I glanced at his tired eyes.

“Sleeping in a shower while it is on is not the smartest move, especially if we are coma-bound.” I lifted my head and looked at my left hip. “Besides, I think you need to put another sheet thing over my tattoo.” I met his gaze.

He nodded. “But we can just relax for a little while until I’m sure my legs will hold my weight. Okay?”

I smiled and laid my cheek on my folded arm. “I’m good with that.”

“Are you sure I didn’t hurt you?”

“Yes. I am sure. You just drained me of all my strength.”

He chewed on his lower lip, as if something weighed on his mind. My mark burned, making me shift. When I met his gaze, I knew what the questions were behind those suffering eyes.

“What is bothering you?” I propped my head on my hand.

He looked at his hands and then back. “It’s ludicrous.” He glanced at the ceiling with a sharp chuckle. “I can feel the love you have for me, and I’m still doubting it.”

“Because of Cassius.”

He nodded.

I forced myself back onto my hands and knees, and crawled over to where he sat, situating myself in his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “I’ll put it in terms maybe you can understand. If someone else had kidnapped me and Cassius when we were dating and did what he had done to me, wiped my memory and ordered me to drain Cassius, he would have died at my hands. You know why?”

Robby shook his head.

“Because he never had a piece of my soul like you do. You’ve had it since the day we met.” I laughed. “Actually, maybe even longer than that, because when I met you, that ache inside me that I had always had went away. You made me whole.” I cupped his cheek, making him look at me. “And your touch is more amazing than anything I’ve ever experienced. The way you love me...there is nothing that could ever compare to that. Nothing on Earth or in Heaven.” I took a breath. “You are my world.” I shrugged a shoulder and snuggled against the side of his throat.

For the first time since we escaped from Cassius’s, Robby did not flinch away from me.

“I love you down to the very essence of my soul,” I whispered.

“You are my soul,” he replied and kissed my cheek.