“Jake.” There was uncertainty in her voice as she blinked up at him, a tinge of fear in her eyes. Her body was flushed, excited, and he scented her arousal, spurring the leopard to new heights of lust.

He knew he should slow down, reassure her, but the leopard wouldn’t allow it, driving him now, past all sense, uncaring of anything but claiming her, tying her to him. He had waited forever, burning night after night, until he lived in a kind of hell.

He went to the floor, yanking her knees apart, jerking her body to him across the polished wood, and he lowered his head and stabbed his tongue deep into her hot, creamy center. Emma bucked, screamed, tried to writhe away, pushing at the floor with her heels in an effort to crawl out from under him. He growled again, his head jerking up, eyes burning at her, his fingers digging deep into her thighs, preventing her from moving an inch. She was so wet, so ready, her body already clenching, spasming, desperate for his.

“It’s too much, slow down,” Emma entreated, her hand fisting in his hair.

The pain in his scalp only spurred him on. He growled again, heightening the sensations with vibrations as he began to feast on her. Her taste was wildly exotic, and the blood rushed to his cock, straining his shaft to such unbearable fullness he thought he would burst. More cream spilled from her and he lapped at it like a starving cat as she moaned and writhed under his assault. Another hot, desperate growl rumbled deep in his throat as he devoured her. His teeth scraped at her clit. She drove her hips up and he caught her thighs, dragging them wider apart to give him better access. When he suckled on the small hard bud, she bucked wildly against his mouth, her cries turning to sobs of pleasure as he threw her into an intense orgasm.

“Jake . . . stop . . . I can’t do this. I can’t take any more. You have to stop.” He was going to kill her with sheer pleasure. She needed to slow down, catch her breath. He was going to drive her insane. “Jake.” She tried to gasp out stop, but it was already too late.

He didn’t stop. Instead his reaction intensified. His tongue flicked the sensitive bud over and over, driving her higher, making her burn hotter, until the knot of nerve endings felt on fire against his tongue. She pushed at him, thrashing now, her own voice a hoarse sob as she tried to loosen his merciless grip on her thighs. Her ragged breath and bucking body drove his own lust higher. His leopard leapt and roared, clawing at his belly, demanding more of her addictive taste, wanting to mark her everywhere so she could never again attempt to deny who she belonged to.

His tongue stabbed and flicked, plunging deep, refusing to give her a moment to recover, deliberately controlling her. Her wild thrashing only fed his cat’s need for dominance, and he slid his mouth from her, licked the slick wetness coating her mound several times and then settled his teeth on the inside of her thigh, once again marking her.

Her eyes went wide with shock as the pleasure-pain threw her into another orgasm and he immediately feasted, driving her back up until beads of perspiration dotted her body and her hair was damp.

Jake rose to his knees, staring down on his prey, fighting the ache in his jaw and the pain in his body. She looked beautiful. She was wild, her body an inferno. He could feel her heat as he pushed the broad, flat, so-sensitive head of his cock into her slick entrance. She closed around him, gripping him hard, so tight. He stayed still, showing her his power over her.

This was no quick lay. He meant to mate with her, to take her for all time as his own, to show her who she belonged to and leave his mark on her. She hissed at him, pinned to the floor by his larger, stronger body, her nails digging into wood, her breasts a temptation, her voice a pleading sob in spite of the fact that she struggled.

He stretched her, knew his entry skimmed the borders of burning pain, but it couldn’t be helped. She was so tight and he was thick and long. She gasped, her eyes going wide.

“Mine.” He growled the word, rocking forward just a little, watching the pleasure flare in her eyes. “Mine.” Meaning it. Wanting her to know he meant it. There would be no going back after this. “Dare to tell me you’re not. Deny it, Emma, if you can. Fucking try to tell me you want another man. Or admit the truth. Admit it’s me you want and no other.”

His eyes dared her to defy him. His hands gripped her legs tightly as he paused, lodged in the entrance of her hot, slick opening. Fear skated through the deep green of her eyes. Her sheath clenched tightly around him, grasping at him, trying to pull him deeper, and he fought not to give in, to slam himself home. Something wild and wickedly primitive in her wanted—even needed—his brutal possession; he could read that much. But she was afraid. She wouldn’t just give herself to him, although every single cell in her body screamed for him, screamed for more. She just wasn’t certain she could handle more.

Emma shook her head. “Yes,” she hissed, “but not like this. You’re too big. You’re . . .”

“Exactly like this.” He gave a small push with his hips and slid in another inch, watching her face, the pleasure rippling over her, the burning discomfort showing in the way her hips tried to pull back. “Any way. Every way. Say it, Emma. Say you’re mine. Say you want this. Say you want me.”

He wasn’t going to let her come back to him later and say she hadn’t agreed. When she remained silent, staring up at him with that mixture of lust and fear, he pulled back just a little and felt her grasping at him. She cried out, her body following his.

Satisfaction settled the hard knots in his belly. “Fucking say it.”