Her sweet innocence, all breathy and needy, slayed him. “Hell yes. I need you in my bed. Tell me you want me, baby girl.”

“Take me—”

He crushed his mouth to hers and lifted her into his arms. Her legs wound around him as he strode toward the steps, taking them two at a time. She felt fucking perfect, tasted like sweet desire and sinful pleasure. Devouring her mouth, he pushed his hands beneath her panties, stroking over her wetness, earning a lustful moan. She was so wet and ready, he couldn’t wait to get his mouth on her. He pulled her dress strap down her arm as he carried her into the bedroom, and heard a rip. She gasped.

“Wait. It’s new.” She tried to reach the zipper.

He set her down and moved behind her, unzipping the dress. It puddled at her feet, revealing bruises on her back and side, unleashing all the emotions he’d been holding in. Protectiveness and possessiveness battled for dominance. His chest constricted against that tangle of barbed wire he’d tried to avoid. But there was no more avoiding the sharp points digging into his flesh, claiming him as he was about to claim her. He reached around her from behind, palming her breasts, rolling her nipples between his fingers and thumbs, earning one sinful moan after another, and touched his forehead to the center of her back. The hatred he had for those fuckers who had hurt her carved through the darkness inside him. He imagined every slice severing a tether that had chained him down and had kept him from her. He fought against the hatred, pushing it to the cellar of his soul, focusing on the beauty who had come to him, chosen him over the man who was better for her. Fuck, that turned him inside out.

He pressed a kiss between her shoulder blades, all those unfamiliar warm feelings boiling and burning, until his entire body ached with them. He tore down her sexy black panties, leaving her in only her heels, and quickly shed his boots, socks, and clothes, needing to feel her hot flesh against his. He pressed his body to her back, his cock against her ass, caressing one breast, his other hand sliding between her legs. She was waxed bare, and the feel of her drew a growl from his lungs. “So fucking beautiful.”

He sealed his mouth over her shoulder, sucking and biting, as he ground against her ass and pushed two fingers into her slick heat, using his thumb on her clit.

“Oh God.” She grabbed his wrists, craning her neck to the side, giving him better access. “Don’t stop.”