She needed the control. Needed the anchor it gave her so she wouldn’t be swept away like last time. This was temporary. A fling, an affair. And she needed to be able to walk away from it, from him, heart intact.

Noah’s fingers dug bruises into the flesh of her hip. “Cat.” Her name from his lips made her toes curl with pleasure. There was so much in that one word. Need, desire, an ache, an echo of something so much deeper than she expected. It jettisoned her away from her anxieties from her agenda. Nothing else mattered.

Cat made a grab for the jeans she’d flung on the end of the sofa and fumbled through the pockets before finding the condom she’d stashed there. The foil crinkled between her fingers as she worked it open. She couldn’t wait. She’d wanted to torture Noah to the edge before riding him into oblivion, but she couldn’t take the empty ache in the depths of her core. He’d fill it. He’d fill her.

She rolled the condom on, sliding it down his thickness, and Noah groaned. Still holding her underwear to the side, he lined himself up with her entrance. She wasn’t ready for him, wet but still so tight. As she slid down to sheath him, that edge between pleasure and pain cut at her with silver blades. Pain, fullness, and all-consuming pleasure. She was stretched tight around him and still hadn’t taken all of him in.

Noah gripped her by the hips and, with one hard yank, settled himself all the way inside her, her ass resting against his thighs. She was stretched beyond her limits, and it took more than a deep breath and then another to let herself start to relax around him.

He was panting beneath her—they both were—as if they’d run a mile at a flat-out sprint.

“God, did you get bigger since last time?” Cat gritted out.

“Just relax,” he ordered, breath ragged. “Relax and give me a minute, or I’m going to fuck you too hard before you’re ready and you won’t be able to walk tomorrow.”

It was the threat that did it. Cat never backed down from a challenge. She wanted that feeling, that soreness tomorrow. Wanted to be reminded of Noah every time she took a step.

“Do it,” she begged. “Take me that way.”

She didn’t need to say it twice. With his grip painful on her hips, he guided her up and slammed her down on his cock, jarring her. She cried out. “Again.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, whispering the words.

“So sure. Need you.”