Her eyes went wide with shock and fear. She shook her head frantically. “I don’t want this.”

“Baby.” Gentle male amusement. He couldn’t help it. “You’re already wet and hot for me. What kind of man would I be to leave you like that?”

Panic spread in her eyes. She swallowed hard. “I know. It’s just that you can’t do it like this.”

He loved that about her too. Her soft little admission. “I know.” She didn’t think to deny her state to him. She simply admitted it without even blinking. And then her soft trembling. “You can’t do it like this.” It. She couldn’t say fuck and she wouldn’t say making love. And that was just it. He didn’t want to fuck her. He wanted to make love to her.

He kissed her. He loved her mouth and he loved kissing her. He poured love down her throat. His love. His rough, not so easy to live with, but all-encompassing love. He’d never given himself to a woman before and he never imagined he actually would. He had some stupid, lunatic idea that she would love him and he would cherish her. Care for her, but there would be some part of himself he would hold back. There was no holding back and he didn’t even know when it happened. He didn’t care. He kissed her with love. His love.

He knew she tasted it because he did. She drank it down her throat, let it settle in around her heart. He doubted she knew what it meant, or what it was going to change between them, but that didn’t matter either. He kissed her over and over, long, telling kisses that left him stripped bare, utterly naked and vulnerable to her. Showing her what she meant to him. Without words. He’d never been good talking, but he could use his mouth and his hands and his body to show her what she was to him.

She was everything. Her mouth moved under his. Accepting. Catching fire. Letting him take her in a kind of surrender. He persisted. He didn’t just want surrender. He wanted her. Catarina Benoit. The woman hiding inside a frightened girl. His little runaway. She’d been ripped from her childhood and exposed to a monster. And then when she’d taken a chance, opening herself up to him, Eli had betrayed her.

Baby, I’m taking you back. I want your heart and this time, I’ll safeguard it for you, I promise.