She exhaled and hadn’t known she’d been holding her breath. He had told her he loved her first. He’d put himself out there, but somehow, she hadn’t considered that it was really true. How could it be? What was she giving him? She didn’t even have a high school diploma. How could he possibly love her? How could he need her the way his eyes said so starkly that he did?

“Damn it, Cat, give it to me.” Now it was a demand. A growl. Dominance winning through all his lazy sensual facade.

He’d given her two orgasms but her body was so greedy that she needed more. She was on fire. An inferno. The growling demand nearly sent her over the edge. She loved his voice. Loved it when he narrowed his eyes and focused with ferocious, furious intent. Her body always responded, going hot, blood rushing through her veins. She came alive.

Her hands gripped the headboard tightly. She needed to hold on to something. Anything. Because what she was about to do was enormous to her. That last piece of her. The one she’d kept for herself. The one she protected. He was demanding it. He knew. Somehow he knew, and he wanted all of her. He wanted the last piece of her that she’d been guarding. Holding safe.

She moistened her lips. “I do, Eli. You know I do.”

“You do what, Catarina? Say it, damn you. Do you think I’m going to accept less than all of you? Say it out loud. Right now. And know what it means.” His voice had gone harsh. Low and harsh. Velvet soft, but filled with iron. Steel. He wasn’t going to back down and his mouth and hands kept the fire inside her roaring.

Catarina knew she was going to give him what he wanted. What he demanded. There was nowhere to hide. He didn’t let her. She felt stripped down. Bare. Completely vulnerable, and it had nothing at all to with the way he held her body open to him. She could easily give him her body. Even maybe her heart. But he demanded her soul.

His teeth nipped. A sharp, stinging pain. All the while those golden eyes blazed into hers. Intense focus. A leopard’s stare when he claimed his prey.

She swallowed again and let go. Let herself fall. “I love you, Eli. You know I do. I love you with everything in me.”