Charlie left me behind, all piss and vinegar and fired up ire but she wasn’t going to get far on foot.

Lucky for her my truck was parked out back.

I took one final look around the small house, knowing after this moment nothing would ever be the same.

I didn’t know if Charlie understood what she was taking on, or if she knew how tasting her had left a mark.

It’d been stupid of me to lose myself like that but Charlie was in my veins like an exotic drug and I was already hungry for more.

And I knew without having the wherewithal to explain that I wouldn’t let anyone else touch her.

Charlie was mine.

The possessive voice in my head clashed with the gut instinct telling me to ‘stop playing hero and leave the crazy chick to her suicide mission’ but in the end, my feet took me in the direction Charlie went.

“I’m parked in the back alley,” I said, passing her as she stood on the sidewalk, stalling. I cast her an amused look. “Unless you want to walk.”

Charlie scowled but quickly caught up, sliding into the truck and settling on the passenger side.

My truck wasn’t winning any beauty contests but it got me from Point A to Point B.

Her expression at my interior told me she wasn’t surprised at the condition. There were food wrappers, old sports drink bottles, forgotten protein bars stuffed in the crack of the seat and change floating around the floor.

Yeah, it was pretty much a dumpster.

Material things had never interested me. My truck was just my ride. All I’d cared about was making it out of this town.

“If I’d known I was going to have company I would’ve cleaned up the place,” I joked, semi-serious. I’d never been embarrassed — hell, never gave it a second thought — by my ride but suddenly I noticed that it stunk like dirty balls and sweaty jock straps.

She ignored my comment, already chewing her lip. She seemed to do that when she was nervous or her mind was spinning.

“What do you know about Davonte’s business dealings?” she asked, going straight to business.

I shrugged, uncomfortable. “Not much. I mean, I’ve heard rumors that he deals in drugs and shit but who doesn’t? This is Detroit. Everyone’s got a side gig going on. That’s just the nature of trying to stay alive in this place.”

“What’s your side gig?” Charlie asked.

“Some nights I bounce for Jimmy’s Pub,” I answered. “Puts cash in my pocket when times are lean.”

“Well, at least you’re not selling coke to third graders.”

“Like a third grader could afford coke,” I retorted, making a small joke but Charlie wasn’t laughing. I withheld a sigh. This chick was all work and no play. Maybe that was a good thing, I realized. When Charlie was being a bitch, it made it easier to forget how much I wanted to taste her again.

She and I had unfinished business.

I knew the only way I was going to be able to get her out of my head was to fuck her but Charlie being a virgin complicated things.

I didn’t want to take her cherry — she deserved better than me.

But that prickly feeling returned with a vengeance at the idea of anyone but me touching her in that way and I was stymied by my own reaction.

Freshly irritated, I said, “Look, I’ve heard a few things about Davonte running shipments through a small strip club, a real shithole of a place, but that’s all I know.”

“What’s the club name?”

“Pussywillow.”

“Then, I say, let’s start there. We need to find a place to lay low until tonight. I might have an idea where we can crash.”

“Yeah? Where?”

“My friend’s father lost his job and the house went into foreclosure. They’ve since moved out of Detroit but I know the house is still empty. We can hide out there. No one will think to look there.”

But I had a different idea.

“Fuck that. We’ll freeze to death,” I told her. “I got cash. We’ll stay in a motel.”

“Are you crazy? Someone will see us,” she disagreed with a worried frown. “Davonte’s got eyes all over this town.”

“So, we’ll go where Davonte isn’t welcome.”

“Such as?”

“Davonte has enemies. He ain’t much liked by his rival, Terrance Johnson. Johnson owns a few gyms, bigger than McConnell’s and more spread out. He and Davonte have been at each other’s throats for years, cutting into each other’s territory.”

“Why don’t we go to Terrance and see if he wants in on this action,” she asked.

I shook my head. “Terrance is no better than Davonte. They’re both dogs, willing to eat their own mother to make a buck. I wouldn’t go nowhere near Terrance but I do know that Davonte will keep his guys out of Terrance’s territory.”

“So where does Terrance claim?”

“Downriver.”

She made a small face. “Are you sure we should go there?”

“We’ll be safer across enemy lines than sleeping with one eye open on Davonte’s stomping ground. It’s our best option at this point.”

I didn’t really want to mess around with Terrance Johnson any more than I wanted to be on Davonte’s hit list but I didn’t have many viable “would rathers” available so beggars couldn’t be choosers.

Charlie must’ve realized I was right because she quit protesting. It was easy enough to find a small, no-name motel that accepted cash and asked no questions and by that night, we were stuffed into a tiny shithole motel that wasn’t much to look at but it seemed clean enough.

At least clean enough by my standards.

Charlie…maybe not so much.

“One bed?” Charlie noted with distress, then looked to me with suspicion. “Did you do that on purpose?”

“I said, ‘I need a room’ tossed down some cash and he threw a key at me. I didn’t specify one bed,” I told her but I was eyeing that bed as if it were the enemy just as much as she was eyeing me. “Look, nothing will happen. I ain’t into deflowering virgins. I like my women more seasoned.”

Her cheeks flared with heat but she lifted her chin and said, “Good. Because I like my men more…civilized.”

“And how exactly would you know that?” I countered, amused by how quickly she got her dander up. “You don’t have a clue as to what kind of man you prefer between your thighs.”

Probably wrong choice of words.

Immediately, the memory of her sweet taste jumped to mind and I hardened like a goddamn stone.

I turned away as if irritated. “See? That’s the problem with virgins, yapping away about shit they know nothing about.”

“I might be a virgin but I know what kind of man I’m attracted to,” Charlie said to my back.

Her words stuck to my skin, causing a growl to erupt. I returned to face her.

Charlie’s breath hitched but she held her ground as if I didn’t cause the color to flare in her face, staining the porcelain skin a delicate pink.

“Yeah?” I asked, deceptively soft as I closed the distance between us. “And what kind of man would that be, princess?”

I towered over her but I could feel the energy between us crackle with raw electricity. She was as wild as she was mouthwatering.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice tremulous. “Stop it.”

I wasn’t in a habit of pushing where I wasn’t wanted when it came to women but I knew Charlie was talking shit.

She didn’t know what she wanted.

Her golden eyes dilated as I invaded her space, her soft lips parted almost in invitation, yet the words coming out of that mouth remained sharp.

“Perhaps you’ve forgotten how my foot feels buried in your nuts?”

I chuckled in spite of the imminent danger of never being able to father kids. “Oh, I remember. Perhaps you’ve already forgotten how my mouth feels against your clit?”

“I haven’t forgotten.”

The reluctant admission plucked at my ability to simply tease. A hunger ripped into my guts, fierce as fuck, and I needed to taste her or I would die.

Her back against the dingy wall, her neck craning to hold my stare, I dipped to take her mouth.

Jesus, had sugar ever tasted so sweet?

Her tongue sought mine in a delicate invitation and I didn’t hesitate.

Hoisting her onto my hips, I pressed her hard against the wall, sealing my mouth to hers.

She tasted of wild honey and untamed dreams.

I groaned, grinding my rock-hard cock against the softness of her mound.

She shuddered helplessly in my arms but the sound coming from her lovely throat was just as hungry as mine.

Maybe a motel room had been a bad idea after all.

I wanted to throw Charlie down on that bed and obliterate her virginity, take what I knew in my bones belonged to me.

I wanted to sear my name into her memory so that no matter where she went, I would follow.

It was pure insanity.

I’d fucking lost my mind in a short span of time.

It was Charlie.

All Charlie.

I’d gone thirty-five years without losing my head to a woman but locking eyes with this little firecracker had unsealed something wickedly intense and I couldn’t seem to fight it.

Panic at my own loss of control roughened my voice as I broke the kiss, my hands clutching her plump ass as if my life depended on it. “Who the fuck are you, woman? And why can’t I get enough?”

Charlie, her eyes clouded with a sensual haze, could only shake her head, equally tilted by the nuclear energy between us. “I…”

“Fuck that. Don’t answer. I don’t think I want to know,” I cut her off, my tongue in her mouth, tasting, needing, demanding. I gave her little option but to submit as she softened in my arms.

I struggled against the cocooning heat, insulating us against the world, against the consequences.

Stop. She’s a goddamn virgin.

Don’t take her cherry.

Nothing will ever be the same.

But just the thought of being the first to breach those milky white thighs, to part those strawberry gold curls and sink into that soft womanly flesh…it was more than I could stand.

My thoughts swam, there was no more blood flow to my brain.

My cock was harder than it’d ever been before, as if preparing for the most epic moment of its life.

And those desperate mewling noises as Charlie clung to me, the heat of her pussy right at my groin…it was more than I could handle.

Charlie could protest that I wasn’t the man she wanted but her body said otherwise.

And I was about to prove it to her.