The sleepy glaze cleared from her eyes, and they sharpened as memories no doubt flashed through her mind. She glanced around, and he could almost see her trying to piece together what had happened since she passed out. “Helena healed me?”

“Yes.” He kissed her, craving her taste. “I brought you here. Needed to know you were safe.”

Sensing he expected judgment for taking her away from her pride, Mila petted his chest. “I get it.” In his shoes, she wouldn’t have acted differently. Her cat roused, rumbling a growl as Mila felt the echo of the bullet penetrating her chest courtesy of fucking Rosemary. “Where is the little bitch?”

“Your pride mates detained her, but the police probably took her into custody.”

“I’ll call my parents in a little while and get an update.” Mila fell silent as he flicked open the top few buttons of the shirt she was wearing. He carefully danced his fingertips over the little spot on her chest where the bullet had hit her, as if he needed to be mindful of a wound. “It’s gone, Dominic. I’m healed.” But he still touched her like she was something fragile, like if he wasn’t careful, she might suddenly be gone from his arms. “I’m okay.”

A breath shuddered out of him. “You almost weren’t.”

The note of shame in his voice made her snap, “Oh, hell no. You don’t get to feel guilty.” Her cat would have rolled her eyes if she could have. It was just typical of a dominant male to shoulder the responsibility.

“I left you.”

“You went to make me coffee.”

“If I hadn’t, I could have pushed you out of the way and grabbed the gun.”

Mila shook her head. “She had it hidden in a paper bag. I highly doubt you would have guessed she was armed.”

“But I’d have recognized her.”

“You sure? I only saw a picture of her from an online article, but she looked a hell of a lot different today.”

“She looked like you,” Dominic pointed out.

“Yeah, I noticed.” Damn if it wasn’t fucked up that the woman had changed her appearance to match Mila’s.

“I’d have known her scent. I could have—”

“For all we know, she’d been watching and waiting for you to leave my side before she entered. When she first walked into the barbershop, she didn’t home in on me. She glanced around. She could have been checking that you were a fair distance away before she struck.”

“And if I hadn’t been in the break room—”

She put a finger to his mouth. “Stop. I’m fine.”

He swallowed. “I thought you were gonna die right in front of me. I couldn’t do shit about it.”

“You kept her attention on you. You distracted her. It gave me an opening. I couldn’t have caught her off guard and kicked her hand if you hadn’t.” Mila palmed the back of his head and pulled him closer. He buried his face in her neck and locked his arms tight around her. She sifted his hair through her fingers, soothing him. “Shake off the anxiety, Dominic. I’m okay.”

Lifting his head, he kissed her. It was soft. Deep. Reverent. Mila could almost feel his need to take her, assuring himself she was alive in the most basic way. She was totally up for that.

Needing more, Mila bit his lip, trying to provoke him into upping the intensity. It didn’t work. His hands drifted over her, gentle and oh, so careful as they explored, seduced, and aroused.

Even when he finally sank his fingers into her pussy, building the friction inside her, he kept his thrusts slow and easy. Frustrated, Mila clenched his fingers with her inner muscles, hinting for more.

He didn’t give it to her.

Mila felt his rock-hard cock throb against her, felt how tightly his muscles were bunched as he fought to hold back. But even when he rolled her onto her back and lined up his cock with her pussy, he kept his control perfectly in check. She didn’t like it. Wanted to feel alive, not be handled like she was breakable.

With a surge of strength that surprised them both, Mila shoved him back and got to her knees. “You don’t get to treat me like I’m delicate. See me, Dominic. Not the blood, not how weak I was earlier, not flashes of what happened in the barbershop. See me as I am right now. I’m here, I’m fine, and I’m horny as fuck.”

“Mila—”

“You don’t want soft and slow any more than I do. Take what you do want, Dominic. Fuck me how you really want to fuck me. Remind us both that I’m alive.”

His mouth set in a harsh slash, he fisted his hands. “Stay on your knees. Turn around. Grab the headboard.”

Well. Mila did as he ordered. Her pulse quickening, her nipples tightening, she waited to see what he’d do.

“Spread your thighs wider. That’s it.” Pressing his front to her back, Dominic dipped the head of his cock between her plump folds. So slick. “Just remember . . . you asked for this, baby.” He snapped his hand around her throat and rammed into her, groaning as her hot, soaking-wet pussy squeezed him tight. “Take all of me, Mila.” He slammed home again, burying himself balls-deep. “Fuck.”

Even as her quaking pussy burned in the best way and felt deliciously full, Mila hissed at his blatantly dominant hold. “Let go.”

Instead, Dominic flexed his grip on her neck, gritting his teeth as her pussy rippled around him. She liked him holding her this way, she just didn’t want to admit it. He caught her earlobe with his teeth and bit. “You told me to fuck you how I really want to. This is what I want. My hand collaring your throat while I take what belongs to me.”

His fingers digging into her hip, he fucked her hard. So hard he had to be hurting her, but he couldn’t stop, and she didn’t ask him to. “Mine.”

Gripping her shoulder with his teeth, Dominic slid his hand up from her hip to close around her breast, wanting to feel it bounce in his hand as he furiously pounded into his mate. He felt every moan, groan, and whimper all the way to his balls.

Mila wished she could say she wanted him to release his grip on her throat, but there was something heady about feeling all that dominance, strength, and power . . . and knowing he’d never use it to hurt her. With his teeth digging into her shoulder, one hand collaring her neck, another holding her breast in a proprietary grip, and his cock tunneling through her body again and again, she felt utterly possessed.

Mila swallowed as his hand released her breast and slipped down her body. One touch to her clit and she’d go off like a rocket.

He gave her inner thigh a sharp slap. Mila hissed at the sting, but the pain radiated up to her pussy and made it spasm.

“Fuck, you like that.”

She gasped as he did it again, but he spanked higher up her inner thigh this time. Again, the burn settled in her core.

As a rush of hot cream bathed his cock, Dominic swore under his breath and pounded harder, faster. Stuffed her full over and over. And he knew he’d never get enough of her. Of this.

His gaze landed on the little spot in the crook of her neck that he’d raked his teeth over more than once. Each time he’d looked at it, he’d thought it a good place for a claiming mark. And now, with his senses swamped by Mila, he had to grind his teeth against the primitive drive to bite down on her neck and claim her permanently as his own.