Chapter 43: A Mark Without a Heart
"Mark me," Victoria whispered against his ear, trembling and desperate. "Please, Zayn. Make me yours. Like you always promised."
Zayn clenched his jaw. Guilt washed over him with those hollow promises. No, not hollow, they were real once, but they were born out of fake bonds he believed he had with Victoria.
Mate marks were not meant to be done twice. It wasn’t unheard of, nor was it unprecedented. But it was greatly frowned upon with good reason.
He had marked Lily in a desperate attempt to save her life. But deep down, he could not ignore the emotions that it had stirred. The mark was sacred. An unbreakable bond.
It wasn’t supposed to feel this hollow or dirty. Victoria knew this too. She knew it and she was weaponizing it against him.
The room hung heavy with the scent of Victoria’s desperation.
Zayn sat stiffly on the chair, his broad shoulders tense beneath her weight. She straddled him boldly, her hands sliding along his chest, her hips grinding down against the growing hardness between his legs.
She wanted him badly, and the only way she knew how to capture him was with her own body.
Her desire for him was a fierce, all-consuming need that eclipsed all other thoughts and considerations.
In her mind, the most potent and perhaps the only effective means of ensnaring his attention, of forging a connection, would be to bind him to her physically. She believed that offering herself, her body, was the key to capturing his heart, or at the very least, his unwavering focus.
If she couldn’t capture his heart yet, she aimed to conquer his body first. Her strategy, born from her need and desire, was to turn the physical attraction into a lasting bond.
But he hadn’t moved. He hadn’t kissed her back. He was resisting, and it drove her mad.