Page 57 of Property of Crypt Keeper

I watched her eyes darken and her pupils dilate. Those full lips of hers slightly parted as her snarky smile faded. She knew I was right, and she wasn’t sure how to process that.

“The only temptation I’m giving you, is this,” I corrected as I thrust up, causing my length to grind against her slit.

A moan slipped free as she circled her hips.

“Put my cock in that tight cunt and ride it like I know you want to,” I demanded.

Her nostrils flared and she practically snarled. Still, she reached her hand between her legs as she lifted up. In what I knew was an openly defiant move, she circled her clit several times before she did what she was told.

As I slid deep, we both groaned.

Though I knew I was destined for hell for the things I’d done in my life, in that moment, I was in heaven.

Unable to dictate a thing to my body, I mindlessly drove up into her wet heat over and over. The way we fit together blew my mind. The sensation of her slick core wrapped around my shaft had me ready to paint her insides with my cum.

Something warm ran down the side of my chest, and I knew her nails cut deep. I didn’t care. In fact, it drove my wolf wild. It took every ounce of willpower I possessed to hold off until she screamed the name I once told her never to call me.

“Gideon!”

As her walls clenched and pulsed, I emptied myself into her.

She collapsed on top of me, her face nuzzled into my neck and shoulder. Both of us panted as if we’d run a marathon. Neither of us spoke.

Though the first time was hard and fast, the next was unlike anything I’d experienced in my life.

The night blurred into heat and tangled sheets and whispered curses against skin. Not frantic this time—certain. Like something ancient had finally found its other half.

Later, long after the storm between us settled, Katalina lay curled against my chest beneath the dim light filtering through the window. Our hearts beat together. Perfectly synchronized.

With one arm wrapped tightly around her, I stared up at the ceiling while her fingers rested lazily against my ribs, occasionally tracing the lines of one of my tattoos.

Neither of us slept yet. Neither of us could. Because we both knew exactly what this was. The calm before the storm.

And tomorrow—tomorrow, we were going to start a war trying to uncover why Zara had been created.

If we both lived through it… then would be the time to address what was happening between us.

14

KATALINA

I stared at Gideon.

Gideon scowled back.

Then I looked down at the suit hanging from my hand. Then back at him.

“No.” His response came immediately.

Flat.

Absolute.

“No,” he repeated.

I crossed my arms.

“You are insisting on coming with me,” I calmly explained as if I were trying to explain something to a child, “which means you cannot walk into Black Hollow Curiosities dressed like a six-foot-four biker enforcer who looks like he eats people.”