She reminded herself of Kevin’s shortcomings as a lover and vowed she wouldn’t say a word to him about them either during or afterward. He wasn’t a naturally selfish person. How was he supposed to know about foreplay when he’d had all those women servicing him? And a little slam, bam, thank you, ma’am would be a good thing. Those feverish nighttime images that had been robbing her of sleep would finally fade in the harsh glare of reality.

“Inside.” He jerked open the cottage door and gave her a push.

She had no choice in the matter. No choice at all. He was bigger, stronger, apt to turn violent at any moment.

Even for an imaginative person that was a stretch.

She wished he hadn’t let her go, but she liked the way he’d braced his hands on his hips. And his glare definitely looked threatening.

“You’re not going to start giving me crap about this, are you?”

This posed a dilemma. If she said yes, he’d back off. If she said no, she’d be giving him permission to do something she knew she should resist.

Luckily, he wasn’t done being angry. “Because I’m sick of it! We’re not kids. We’re two healthy adults, and we want each other.”

Why didn’t he stop talking and just drag her to the bedroom? If not by the hair, then at least by the arm.

“I’m packing all the birth control we’re going to need …”

If only he’d said he was packing a gun and he’d turn it on her if she didn’t lie there and let him do what he wanted. Except she wanted to do a lot more than just lie there.

“Now, I suggest you march your little butt right to the bedroom!”

The words were perfect, and she loved the way he jabbed his finger toward the door, but the expression in his eyes was beginning to look less like anger and more like caution. He was getting ready to back off.

She hurried to the bedroom. She couldn’t make too much of this, couldn’t let it be too important. She was a beautiful slave girl forced to give herself to the ruthless (but gorgeous) man who owned her. A slave girl who needed to get her clothes off before he beat her!

She pulled off her top so that she was standing before him in her bra and shorts, which weren’t really shorts but gauzy harem pants. Harem pants he was going to rip from her body if she didn’t take them off first.