"Didn't you say you'd take responsibility, Su Sheng?"
"Then now—see it through to the end."
Her back hit the mattress again, the wood beneath creaking faintly.
Her wrists were pinned high above her head, held easily in one of his burning hands.
His wings half-unfurled, curling around her waist like golden chains, locking her against the heat of his body.
"You're burning up," she whispered, breath ragged, vision blurring."Yu… you're fevered. You're not thinking straight."
His voice curled against her ear like fire through feathers.
"You lit this fire, Su Sheng."
"You said you'd shoot me.You said you'd avenge your master.But you never even tried to find out who I really was."
She bit her lip, eyes darting away.
He let out a low, dangerous laugh.
"Then I'll leave you a memory in the language you understand best."
And then he kissed her.
Hard. Deep. Possessive.Like a golden raptor in full dive, stealing the last of her breath, stripping her of the final pieces of resistance.
She tried to twist away—he kissed her harder.She tried to avoid his lips—he followed closer, fiercer, until there was nowhere left to run.
"Let go of me…" she gasped. "You—"
"What?" he growled between kisses."Didn't you say you'd take responsibility?"
"You shot me out of the sky—and now you want to escape?"
"You lied… from the beginning…"
"I gave you everything. Even my life to lie for."He pulled back just enough to meet her eyes. His gaze was molten gold, wild and shining."But don't regret it now—"
"You didn't wake a man.You woke the beast."
Then he lowered his head and bit her collarbone.Not hard enough to bleed, but deep enough to mark.His tongue followed, slow and deliberate, licking the earlier mark and adding a second one—deeper.Claiming.
She trembled, voice shaky. "You… you animal."
He looked up, smile dark and terrible, as his fingers reached her collar:
"I'm not just an animal."
"I'm the beast among beasts."
His hand slipped beneath her clothes, callused fingertips trailing fire along her waist.
His wings fell slowly—soft, golden, beautiful—wrapping around both of them like a private world.
The feathers brushed her bare skin—shoulder, neck, chest, lower still.
She gasped."Don't… don't use those!"
His breath hitched, hot and fast.
"The wings miss you," he said."They won't listen to me anymore."
Her clothes slipped away—inch by inch, kiss by kiss.
He removed each piece like a ritual, and for every part he bared, he kissed deeper, longer, as if he meant to consume her beneath his wings.
She bit her lip, resisting.
But he whispered between kisses:
"Don't hold it in."
"The more you hold back, the more I want to hear you cry for me."
"You're insane…" she choked, voice cracking, tears glinting in her lashes."What do you even want from me?"
He paused.
Then, in the lowest, most intimate growl, he murmured at her ear:
"You."
"Right now."