I gasped at the sudden bruising of his lips on mine but a wild thrill arced through me. My hands still tied, I could do nothing but take what he was giving.

My knees weakened as his tongue found mine.

Heat flooded my insides as everything became warm and slippery.

My nipples hardened to peach pits, aching to be touched.

If Damon were to reach between my legs he’d find me wet and ready.

I may be a virgin but I knew arousal.

I knew that Damon turned me on but I couldn’t explain the attraction.

Damon was everything I didn’t want in a man.

A fighter. A lug. A man who saw the world in black and white. A man who’d been willing to give me to the devil to save his own skin.

But those giant hands cupping my behind, drawing me closer, grinding me against the hard shaft contained behind his zipper…I wanted to melt.

Again, that safe feeling — which didn’t make any sense — enveloped me like a cocoon. He was big and terrifying but in his hands, I felt nothing could harm me.

Except him.

Suddenly, I was hoisted on his hips, my legs wrapping around him and locking — a perfect fit.

We were headed back to the bed.

I knew I should stop what was happening.

It was all happening too fast.

“Stop,” I whimpered, even as he brought me to the bed and my hips lifted so he could shimmy my jeans free.

If he heard me, he didn’t respond. His eyes were glazed, riveted by the dainty shield my panties provided. But did I want him to stop?

Logic said, yes; Desire said, don’t you dare.

No one had ever looked at me like Damon was right at that moment.

His breath shortened and his fingers clenched as if he didn’t trust himself not to rip the bikini bottoms from my body.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he breathed, almost as if he couldn’t control the words that’d fallen from his mouth. “Fuck me.”

Uttered like a prayer or a condemnation, it didn’t matter. The shiver dancing on my spine swallowed my protests.

There was nothing false about Damon. If he was pissed, he showed it. He didn’t dance around, he went straight for what he wanted.

And he wanted me.

That heady feeling returned, making me giddy all over again.

What was I doing?

This was insanity.

I tried to close my knees, tried to remember that I didn’t want to lose my virginity this way, especially to him but his warm breath on my belly stole the air from my lungs.

Damon gripped my hips and drew me closer to that hungry mouth.

He inhaled sharply as he brought me to his lips. My jaw fell slack as his breath tickled the strawberry blond curls dusting my mound.

And then with the softest touch, his tongue delved between my two halves, shocking me with pleasure.

His grip tightened on my hips, bruising, but his tongue swept away any notion of pain.

The shock of illicit pleasure blasted through my nerve endings.

His touch was hard but his tongue merciless.

I writhed but there was no escaping his mouth.

But the shameful truth? I didn’t really want to escape.

No, I wanted to revel in what he was doing, losing myself so that he could find me again.

I died a million times over, helpless to stop, desperate for him to continue.

“D-Damon…”

My body tightened and began to shake as my toes curled and everything clenched.

Stars burst behind my eyes and I couldn’t help the cry that followed as wave after wave of excruciating pleasure crashed all around me.

Damon shamelessly planted his face in my pussy without a moment’s hesitation.

I was dripping, the moisture trickling between my ass cheeks, soaking the bed beneath me.

What the hell was wrong with me? My hips lifted, begging for more.

He was merciless — just as I knew he would be — and I shuddered with wild need.

Blindly ravenous. Needing my juices as if they would keep him alive.

Jesus, I was being consumed by this hulking beast of a man and it was incredible.

“D-Damon…” his name exploded from my mouth, a stunned gasp. I was dying from the pleasure robbing my senses and rendering me stupid.

My bones had melted into the mattress, everything throbbed and pulsed with its own exquisite beat.

I heard the sound of his buckle coming off, followed by the slither of his jeans as they dropped to the floor, rousing me from my orgasm-induced coma.

Was he? Of course he was.

I focused my bleary vision and saw Damon, all that hard muscle and corded sinew, criss-crossed with scars, old and new, and then, saw his cock, jutting from a nest of curly dark hair.

My eyes widened as I came to my senses quickly.

“Wait…” I tried saying but he was on me again, this time when his mouth covered mine, I could taste my own flavor on his lips. I should’ve been disgusted but it aroused me even more.

The blunt head of his cock pressed against my wet center, prodding, searching, and I stiffened against the intrusion.

Think Charlie! Is this how you want to remember your first time?

I wanted my first time to be with someone I loved, cared for, and who felt the same about me.

Yeah, maybe it was old-fashioned and completely unrealistic but I wasn’t ready to let that illusion go. Not yet.

“Damon, please…stop! I’m a virgin!”

Time screeched to a halt as Damon heard me.

He blinked against the carnal haze. “A virgin? You mean…?” Flustered, he braced himself on his arms above me. “How…I mean…you’ve never?”

“Yes, as in I’ve never had sex,” I finished for him, blushing hard. I shifted and winced, my tied hands starting to lose blood flow. “Please…don’t force me to do this.”

“I’m not a fucking rapist,” Damon said but I wasn’t sure if he was saying it for my benefit or his.

Things had gotten out of control between us and neither of us knew how it’d happened.

But I couldn’t let him take my cherry.

“Fuck,” he groaned and pushed himself up, his cheeks flushed. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!”

And then grabbed his jeans and belt, stalking from the room, leaving me there on the bed, with my panties on the floor and my arms still tied behind my back.

My heart thundered in my chest as tiny pulses of pleasure continued to echo through my nerve endings as I tried to process what’d just happened between us.

I think a handshake would’ve been far safer.

Definitely less fluid-y.

Well, hell.

Now what?

I sure as hell hoped that he didn’t think we were dating now.