The sound of Zi Yu's boots echoed through the marble halls like a death knell as he strode toward his private chambers. Two years of battle had chiseled his already handsome features into something sharper, more dangerous—like a blade honed to perfection.

He dismissed the bowing servants with a flick of his wrist, his eyes burning with a primal hunger that had nothing to do with food or drink. The moment he saw her standing there, waiting for him, something snapped inside him.

Without a word, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her roughly against his body, his free hand tangling in her hair to tilt her face upward. His lips crashed against hers with bruising force, tongues clashing in a battle he immediately dominated.

"You think I've forgotten how you taste?" he growled against her mouth, his fingers digging into her jaw to keep her in place. "Two years of imagining this moment, of remembering how tight you feel around me..."

He backed her against the wall, his body pinning hers as his hand slid beneath her silk gown, cupping her breast roughly through the thin fabric. "Did you touch yourself while I was gone? Did you think of me when you came?"

His knee forced its way between her legs, pressing upward as his lips moved to her neck, biting hard enough to leave a mark. "Mine," he muttered against her skin, his voice dark with possession. "Every inch of you belongs to me, and I'm going to remind you exactly who owns this body."

The candlelight caught the dangerous glint in his eyes as he ripped open her gown, exposing her to his hungry gaze. "Two years was too long, my sultana... but I'll make every second count now."