Ivan scrambled off of the back of the couch and rocketed across the room in the direction of his food dish.

“Damn cat,” Aldo muttered before he crushed his mouth to Gloria’s.

This was where she usually lost the battle. He’d dig deep, pull back, and make very civilized, careful, beautiful love to her. It was incredible. But she’d had tastes of what he held back and Gloria wanted all of him.

“Here,” she told him.

She saw it in the flaring of his nostrils. The immediate denial, the need to control the situation. To take care. Biting her lip, Gloria unclasped her bra and slid the straps from her shoulders. She took pleasure in the automatic clench of his jaw, the way his hands tightened to fists at his sides.

“Gloria.”

“I’m not just a good girl, Aldo. I want you to show me everything.” She tucked her thumbs in the waistband of her skirt and watched him as she slid it down her thighs revealing the fact that she’d neglected to wear underwear.

He came at her, a shark locking onto its victim. She prayed he’d never regain his legendary control because the way he was looking at her right now stole her breath.

“Pants,” she said, surprised by the sharp tone.

One hand on her naked body, Aldo worked his belt free, and Gloria lent him a hand with the rest. Pants, socks, sexy-ass red boxer briefs. Everything landed on the floor. Muscle, ink, hard, hot body. His cock was already hard for her.

Aldo was a spectacular specimen, and she wondered how he could see anything else in the mirror.

“God, you’re hot,” she breathed.

But there was no time for conversation because he was taking her down to the floor in a desperate embrace turned tackle. The hardwood bit into her palms and knees.

“I need you to be sure,” he told her, his voice a gravel road.

“I’m sure, Aldo. I trust you.”

He swore. “If you change your mind, tell me to stop, and I will.”

“Trust me not to break.” She was bared to him, her back arched, her core begging for attention.

He ran his hand down her from neck to hip in one long sweep of heat. It felt so good she purred like a damn cat.

“Okay?” he asked.

“If you ask me that again, I’m putting my clothes back on, going home, and buying a shower massager.”

He growled from behind her. And then she felt the delicious stroke of his tongue between her legs, the press of his face against her ass. She was so vulnerable in this position. He pushed her knees wider as his tongue probed and danced over her neediest flesh.

Her legs trembled, quaking as desire woke.

“You look so fucking sexy, so ready for me,” he murmured, brushing kisses along the insides of her thighs, over the round cheeks of her ass.