I wasn’t sure when my dream turned from reciting the poem “If” while standing naked in Times Square to something a hell of a lot more erotic, but I wasn’t about to complain. Not when I had a tongue flicking back and forth across my clit at just the right speed to keep me moving steadily toward climax.

Erik’s tongue.

I’d know it anywhere.

My eyelids fluttered as a ripple of pleasure washed over me. I didn’t need to look down to know what I’d see. Sandy brown hair brushing the insides of my thighs. My legs propped up on broad shoulders. A pair of bright blue eyes that would sparkle as he inevitably peeked up at me to see my responses. I wasn’t an artist like Jace or a photographer like Alix, but I knew my fiancé’s body well enough that I could see every line of it in my mind’s eye.

“Mmm…” I moaned as his tongue moved lower, and the sound echoed strangely in my ears.

It sounded too…real.

As it often happened in a dream, thinking about it being a dream startled me awake. But the sensations continued. The hands holding my hips in place were still there, hot against my skin, the grip tight enough that I knew I couldn’t break free. The mouth between my legs was still hot and slick against my sensitive skin.

I pushed aside the covers, and drank in the sight of billionaire Erik Sanders going down on me like it was the first time. He was one of North America’s wealthiest men, known for his philanthropy as well as his physical appearance. Basically, he was the man straight men wanted to be, and straight women wanted to fuck.

But he was mine. All mine.

I didn’t consider myself a possessive person, but when it came to Erik, all bets were off. And I knew he felt the same way about me.

He slid a finger inside me, and I let out a shuddering breath in anticipation. I didn’t have to wait long as he curled his finger and found my g-spot, stroking it with just the right amount of pressure.

Some people thought that having sex with the same person over and over eventually got boring, but I didn’t get it. Erik knew all of my erogenous zones, and he didn’t fumble around trying to figure out what to touch and how. He was the only man I’d ever been with, and I was more than okay with that. I didn’t want to explore other possibilities. He was the only person I wanted.

“Erik.” His name was a plea, and he knew exactly what I was asking for as I reached down to bury my fingers in his hair.

“Not yet, sweetheart.”

I growled in frustration, earning a low chuckle that vibrated against my skin.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make you fly.”

A different sort of flush spread across my skin as a memory came forward. The first time we’d been together, I’d used a line from Erik’s first book, one about making me fly. Every so often, one of us would use a version of it, and I’d be right back there, looking up at him as he showed me the reality of things I’d only read about before.

We hadn’t been in love the first time we’d come together, but I’d still felt a connection between us, even back then. Now, it was beyond a mere connection, beyond even intimacy. When we were together, even if he wasn’t inside me, I felt like we were the same person, felt the same things. It wasn’t anything I could put into words, but I knew Erik could if he tried.

His finger slipped out of my pussy, and then the tip pressed against my anus. My eyelids fluttered, and I raised my hips, the motion causing my silk nightie to slide farther up my torso. His tongue went back to teasing my clit as he eased his finger inside. The slight burn made me moan, but I welcomed the fire, let the heat spread.

“Take it off,” Erik ordered as he worked a second finger into my ass. “I want to see you play with those pretty nipples, get them all nice and hard for me.”

I pulled my nightie over my head and then cupped my breasts. My thumbs caressed the bottom curve of my nipples, then moved over the tips. I shivered from the contact, then moaned as Erik’s fingers stretched me, preparing me for what I knew was coming.

I’d never imagined that I’d be the type to enjoy the bites of pain that Erik inflicted, the little jolts that came with being spanked and flogged, and all sorts of other delicious things, but from the moment we’d come together, it’d always felt right.

“Pinch them.” His voice was rough, but the bite he gave to my inner thigh was rougher.

I did as I was told, arching my back as pain flowed up from my leg and down from my breasts to meet low in my belly, coiling there as Erik coaxed me to the edge again.

“Please.” I wasn’t too proud to beg. Not when everything in me was throbbing with need.

“Not yet.”

His hands moved to my hips, and he flipped me over before I could protest. I barely prevented my face from hitting the mattress, and I had no time at all to brace myself before he buried his cock in my aching pussy with one deep thrust.

“Fuck, sweetheart, you always feel so fucking good.” He curled his body over me and nipped the back of my shoulder.

The heat from his skin covered me, licking across my body until my muscles quivered. His hands slid around my sides, caressing my ribcage before moving to my breasts. He tweaked my nipples between his fingers and thumbs, twisting and tugging harder than I had, finding that perfect balance of pain and pleasure.

“If we didn’t have such a busy day ahead of us, I’d keep you here like this, naked and waiting. Maybe tie you up.” His teeth scraped the edge of my ear, sending another shiver through me. “I’d make you scream and cry and beg…and then I’d make you come so many times that you’d forget your own name. Take you in every way until you’d feel me for days.”

“Fuck,” I breathed. Every inch of me was so sensitive that the places where we touched felt like electricity racing through my cells. But not in a bad way. In a way that made me understand why Mary Shelley had used lightning as the means for her mad doctor to bring his creature to life.

Erik was still talking. “But since we have plans later, I’m just going to fuck your ass until we both come, and that will have to be enough.”

I turned my head until I could see him over my shoulder. “It’s never enough.”

He gave me that smile that tightened all the right things. “No, sweetheart. It never is.”

And then he started to move. Deep, sure strokes that reached all the way into the core of who I was. Being with him wasn’t merely physical. Even something as simple as a chaste touch was special. The way he knew how to move so that he rubbed right against my g-spot, it was more than anatomy. He knew me in a way no one else ever had, or ever would.

“You’re allowed to come whenever you want, sweetheart.” His voice was rough, telling me just how close to the edge he himself was. “But as soon as you do, I’m taking your ass.”

A shudder ran through me, pushing me closer to the edge. Sometimes it was hard to believe that it hadn’t been difficult for me to wait twenty-two years to have sex. From the moment Erik first touched me, I’d wanted him. Almost a year and a half later, and my desire for him had only grown.

He straightened behind me, one hand going to my hip, the other coming down with a resounding crack on my ass. I cried out, my eyes closing as my head fell forward. A second blow followed the first, then another, and another…and then I was coming.

Erik cursed as my muscles contracted, squeezing his cock as he pulled out. I was dimly aware of his arm wrapping around my waist, pulling me up until my back was against his chest. I shivered as the blunt tip of him moved between my cheeks and found that ring of muscle. He’d stretched me, but his shaft was so much thicker than his fingers that it still hurt as he pushed inside.

But it hurt so good.

“Breathe, sweetheart,” he murmured in my ear.

The instructions weren’t really necessary. We’d done this before, but him telling me what to do, controlling the situation, that was as much a part of the process as anything else.

The edges of my orgasm that had started to recede came rushing back as he sank deep, blurring the sensations until I fell headlong into that wonderful place where everything else faded away and my world consisted only of my body and his.

He grabbed my braid, twisting it around his hand so he was able to yank my head to the side, exposing my neck. As he started to drive up into me, each stroke hard enough to lift me off my knees, he fastened his mouth to the side of my throat. Teeth worried at the skin even as he sucked it into his mouth, and I knew if I didn’t stop him, he’d leave a mark.

“Erik.” His name sounded more like a question than a warning. “I can’t wear a scarf with my bridesmaid dress.”

The last word came out with a half-strangled moan as he thrust into me hard enough to make my vision spark.

“I know.”

His fingers curled around my neck, not tight enough to restrict my air flow, but I knew the strength he possessed. It was just one of the reasons the trust between us was so important. I knew he’d only give what I could take, and he knew I’d stop him if I couldn’t take it.

“I don’t want you to cover up my marks,” Erik said, his voice taking on that dangerous quality I loved so much. “I want everyone to know that you belong to me. Not because you have a ring on your finger and not because we have a wedding planned, but because I’m the only one who gets to touch you, mark you. You belong to me…and I belong to you.”

I nodded, my heart giving a painful thud at his words. I’d never imagined I’d inspire this sort of passion in anyone, let alone a man like him.

His grip on my neck tightened just a bit as he resumed his oral assault. His free hand moved between my legs, fingers pressing hard against my swollen clit. I closed my eyes as multiple sensations threatened to overwhelm me. The burn in my ass as he slammed into me again and again. The pressure of his hand on my windpipe. His mouth leaving bruises on my skin. His fingers moving in rough circles.

Pain. Pleasure. Everything in between.

I heard myself whimpering, begging. The sounds that came out of my mouth were barely words, but I couldn’t get myself to form anything coherent as I exploded in a white-hot burst of pleasure so intense that I blacked out.