“I’m compromising,” he said, his eyes still fixed on hers, even as his hand drifted to the chain, the back of his fist pressing against the bottom of it, just below her bra, forcing her to lean more heavily into the door. “I gave you options, didn’t I? A peaceful one, and a fun one.”
“Why bother if this isn’t fun?” She hadn’t meant to sound snarky, but something in her tone carried a hint of sharpness, and his eyes glittered in a brief flash of humour before dropping from her face to survey the chain.
Or her boobs.
It was hard to tell.
“You’re right.” He bent down and grabbed her hips. “I only consider options I like.”
He curled his fingers into her bralette as he pressed the flat of his tongue against her skin, right at the bottom of the chain. He lifted, dragging his tongue to the middle of her chest as he yanked his fist back, tearing her bralette so that his journey to her clavicle would be unbroken. He shoved her into the door as he licked all the way up to her neck, pausing at her ear as he pressed the length of his body into hers.
He was breathing heavily, and she wasn’t breathing at all.
She had gripped fistfuls of his jacket sleeves, trying to pull him in tighter, her body soaking up the heat and comfort of him being so deliciously close. Sato wasn’t someone she thought she could ever find comfort in, but her half-formed bond didn’t care. It was reminding her that she had felt hollow for weeks, starved of all the love and devotion her mates should have been showering her with—
Hold up, what the heck?
“You bled.” He growled the words against her throat, his body vibrating. “He tasted your blood, didn’t he?”
Before she could react, his teeth were grazing the skin of her neck, just below her ear. She froze, her breath a raw scrape. “Don’t.”
“You’re mine,” he muttered against her skin.
“I can’t let you.”
“Why, baby?” He purred the words in her ear, so un-Sato-like that her eyes fluttered closed and a rush of heat pooled low in her belly, forcing her to clamp her legs together.
Holy crap, he needed to never do that again.
“I can’t belong to any of you,” she squeaked as he pulled back slightly, his Alpha ring swollen, his expression tight as his nostrils flared. “There are ten of you. It’ll never work.”
He gripped her hips, drawing her tight to his body. “I can smell how much you want me to do something.”
“It’s the bond.”
“Lie,” he snarled, pushing her back into the door. “Time’s almost up, little rabbit. My ability is chaos. I cause it. Thrive off it. Can’t live without it. Stay if you want a taste. Leave if you’re scared.”
She surveyed his face, her mind turning over at his admission. Chaos suited him. So did the glint in the darkness of his gaze, telling her that he wanted her to leave.
He wanted her scared of him.
And suddenly, her connection to Sato made sense. She did want a taste of chaos, but she didn’t want to admit it. And he wanted to chase, to hunt, to force it out of her.
He couldn’t hide the need even if he tried. It was in every line of his expression. It was in his cloying perfume as it both warned her away and tried to cajole her closer. It was in the dark thump of his emotion against her chest.
She had never felt an Alpha’s need before, because need wasn’t usually a negative thing, a dark thing.
Until Sato.
His need was pushing against her like all the other dark, dirty sentiments people didn’t want to keep.
They complimented each other, in that way.
Her breath hitched, her head suddenly dizzy with the realisation, but she was no closer to having any idea what to do about it. Sato stirred up something dark and wrong inside her, a kind of morbid curiosity that made her want to cover her eyes and bare her neck, hoping for the best.
But that was suicidal.
She looked down at the torn lace still covering her chest. “What do I do?”
“Go without,” he suggested, knowing she wasn’t talking about the scraps of lace that were barely covering her nipples. “Take the rest off. I couldn’t give a fuck about movie night.”
She gave him a wry smile, even though it didn’t look like he was joking. “You’re terrifying.”
“And you’re quite literally tempting fate.” He tugged on the frayed edges of her bralette, hastily tying them in the smallest knot before he sucked in a deep breath and took several steps back from her. “How much did that cost?”
“I don’t know. My father’s team has been organising my wardrobe.”
He wiped a hand over his mouth. “Sleep in my room tonight.”
She laughed hollowly. “What would be left of me in the morning?”
His eyes flared, like he thought she meant something different, and his voice was husky when he spoke again.
“You’ve slept with me before. I’m one of your surrogates. You clearly need a surrogate right now.”
“I haven’t slept with you alone, and nobody knows that we shared a bed on tour except Cian.”
“Bring a friend.” His grin was humourless. Lethal. “We’ll call it a sleepover.”
“Is this some kind of ploy? You guys don’t want to leave me in Dorm O with Eve back?”
“Don’t speak the name of the dead girl,” he growled roughly.
“That’s not an answer.”
He ran a hand along the back of his neck, and then shrugged. “Yes, it’s a ploy. It was supposed to be Theodore’s ploy. I just don’t want to break his fingers again, so I’m asking you first.”
“What?” She peered at his face, trying to find even the slightest spark of humour. There was nothing. “What the hell?”
“He had his fingers inside what was mine.”
“I’m not yours!” She advanced on him but held herself back right before she could shove against his chest.
“You smell like mine. You taste like mine. You even sound like mine when you’re trying to insist you aren’t mine.” He leaned down, planting his cold expression a few inches from hers, his attention on her dishevelled clothes. “You definitely look like mine right now.”
She quickly pulled her dress back into position, twisting her arm behind her back to yank up her zipper. He watched, cool and calm, and then he brushed past her, pulling open the door.
“Glad we sorted that out,” he said, before striding out.
She gave a shaky smile to the cameraman who flashed his phone screen at her enthusiastically, probably trying to show her that she had lasted more than three minutes, but she couldn’t focus on him as she made her way back to the stage. The second she saw Kilian, she felt her whole body relaxing, and she wanted to hurry right over to him, but then Theodore caught her attention, a question in his stormy eyes as he ran them over her, checking that she was okay. She wondered if she could cuddle up in his lap the way she did with Kilian.
Of course not, she immediately chided herself. He might have privately offered to help her ease her bond, but publicly, he had a girlfriend. Even though people probably guessed that he was surrogating for her, it would likely become a problem if they started flaunting it.