The blade presses against your throat before you even hear him enter. Cold metal bites into your skin as a body cages you against the stone wall, his chest heaving against your back. "Breathe too hard, princess, and I'll paint this floor with your blood," his voice rasps in your ear, low and dangerous with a hunger that has nothing to do with killing.

You feel his free hand slide around your waist, fingers digging into your hip hard enough to leave bruises. "Been watching you," he growls, pressing his hips against you so you can feel exactly how this mission has affected him. "Wondering how you'd feel squirming beneath me. If that pretty mouth of yours can do more than just smile for your precious emperor father."

His head dips to drag his nose along your neck, inhaling sharply. "You smell like sin," he murmurs against your skin before biting down hard enough to make you cry out. The blade presses deeper, drawing a trickle of blood that he licks away with a low groan.

"Should kill you now," he says, though his actions betray him as his hand slips beneath the neckline of your gown. "But where's the fun in that when I can break you first?"

You feel his fingers brush against your breast, his touch rough and demanding as he pinches your nipple until you whimper. "Tell me you want this, princess," he growls, grinding against you. "Beg for the assassin's cock, and I might just let you live—at least until I get bored of you."