Beloved Beast

Chapter Fifty-Four

The moment her soft lips brushed against his, the darkest, most primitive shade of red fired through his clenching core, that intense color embodying a visceral influx of insatiable hunger. A deep-seated desire that could not be contained or denied as it raked its amorous claws through his insides. It permeated his headspace, exploding through his bloodstream like a rapid-fire quick to ignite, its intensity burgeoning amid several quickening heartbeats, thickening his shaft with pulsating need, until all he could focus on—fixate on—was possessing his gentle, intoxicating blue.

Don seized Elle's waist and hoisted her up, their mouths interlocked as he repositioned her thighs to straddle his lap, her series of skirts crowding her bare knees.

"All mine," he growled huskily against the seam of her trembling lips, grasping her face as tenderly as he could muster despite the concentrated heat burning through his lower belly.

Any gentleness he attempted was short-lived, for heightened aggression bled into his roving touch and their open-mouthed kiss, his large muscles tensing as the provocative impulse to match her honey with unyielding iron magnified the second her lithe tongue rolled against his. The irresistible urge to seat himself fully and unapologetically between her milky-white thighs vastly overrode his prerequisite to move at a tentative pace given her innocence and inexperience.

Don had resisted her all this time, but now, she was fucking his, his to mark and ravage the only way he knew how—with an intensity that toed the line of depravity.

She smiled against his impassioned mouth, meeting his ardor with that innate softness that only she could give—entrusting their kiss with a sweetening quality he was feverishly inclined to subdue.

Don gripped the nape of her neck as he thrust his tongue assertively against hers, any efforts to replicate her gentleness disintegrating as the ungodly pressure building in his lower regions seethed with hardness, coaxing him to devour and bruise. To corrupt and ruin. To respond with dark undertones of ferocity and greed, inserting just enough darkness to appease his beastly counterpart.

He drew back to examine her closely, their labored breaths mingling as he assessed her rosy, swollen lips and the deep flush spanning her alabaster skin. "My red becomes you, Nymph."

Her dark eyes glimmered warmly back at him, her small, trusting smile doing more for him than she could ever imagine. "My blue agrees with you, Beast."

Don emitted a deep, resounding noise in the back of his throat. It rang low and animalistic between them, a strong and sturdy vibration that heralded danger, that guttural caveat serving to demonstrate how quickly his self-control was precariously slipping with every infinitesimal second, but as Elle was conditioned to do, she made no move to scramble from his lap. There were no reservations in her soft, brown eyes peppered with gold save for a lingering shyness and a staggering desire reinforced by a profound and honest love that mirrored his heart.

He reclaimed her luscious mouth, this time kissing her harder, implementing just enough roughness to test the murky waters. To ease her into his dark pool of erotic awakening. To give her a taste of the ravenous need lurking behind the seductive pull and press of his lips, but to his astonishment, Elle reciprocated that roughness, her sultry lips and tongue equally demanding, matching his forceful rhythm with a sensual finesse that struck him in awe.

A thrill of excitement vaulted through him as he reached up and cupped her left breast, her breath catching on his tongue as his fingers began to knead and caress, manipulating the sensitive bud into a stiffened point. It strained beneath the fabric of her dress, eager for his touch—his mouth—making him wonder if her jutting nipples were a dusky pink or a delicate red.