HE HAD BARELY SHOVED her into the room and quickly shut the door before she whirled on him and screeched, "I. HATE. YOU." She enunciated every word she spat at him and punctuated it with a shove to his chest.

He had reached his limit when her words and the stabbing, burning pain they caused slammed into his chest, and he lost control, speeding past his limits, causing him to snap into action. Cole grabbed her arms and yanked her to him, and when her eyes snapped to his, she couldn't have torn them away from his if the building were on fire. She didn't even realize he was forcing her back until she bumped into the solid wall and gasped.

Cole dropped her arms and wrapped his large, rough hands around the back of her head, and still holding her gaze, daring her to look away, he lowered his mouth to hers. Then, just before they touched, he whispered, "Liar," and before she could respond, he was kissing her refusal away.

Years of longing, love, betrayal, and heartbreak rose to the surface as they both lost control.

When he pushed her even deeper into the wall and she gripped his hair, Cole finally released her head and reached down, instead tightly grabbing her denim shorts-clad ass and boosting her up so she could fold her legs around his waist. She quickly wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could, removing any distance between them. He leaned even harder into the wall, and she moaned deep in her throat as his chest ground into hers.

That noise. That sexy noise coming from the woman who owned his heart and soul but didn't want him, the woman who, God help him, he had loved since he was thirteen years old, after so many years of torture, that noise was his undoing and released a beast.

A beast that lashed out and shredded any tiny bit of control he had left.

Those years of heartbreak, anger, guilt, and betrayals, of losing the person he loved most while she resented him and then, once faced with the damning evidence he couldn't deny, hated him... All those years had just struck flint over a gasoline-fueled pyre, and there was no turning back.

They were mindless, completely overcome and past the point of return when their already frantic movements got even more so as they fought to outrun reality. When he released her and tugged at the bottom of her shirt, she let go of him with her hands, and without taking her mouth from his, she helped him as he wiggled the shirt loose and past her breasts.

He tore away from her mouth only long enough to pull the shirt up and over her head. She lifted her arms expecting him to throw the garment to the floor, but instead, she found her arms trapped, the tee wrapped around her arms from elbows to wrists. When he threaded his fingers through hers, she held on to him with her legs only but started to strain against him as his mouth met hers once more. He nipped, nibbled, and licked her mouth to get her to open, but she refused, so he changed tactics. While still holding her hands with his, he took his mouth from hers and instead began an erotic assault on her skin. He nibbled his way from the edge of her lips to the lobe of her ear. She began to squirm, whether in pleasure or in an effort to escape, he didn't care. He was determined for her to finally see that they still belonged together, that even if he had broken her heart more than once, he could make her love him again. He had to.

He let go of her hands and quickly pulled the length of her tee down her arms and behind her head, which made her arch and shove her breasts at him. His hands went back to her ass to help balance her, so he gripped the edge of the lace cup of her bra and pushed it down with his chin, then teasingly licked her nipple, which became erect instantly. He blew gently on it, and when she instinctively pushed her breasts further toward him, he let out a satisfied groan and forced himself to ease back and take a deep breath. He was on fire for her.

Silent and unmoving, she stared down at him and waited, suspended in the air as she was in time. He looked up at her, arms trussed in her top, breasts pushed out for him, and watched as she exhaled the breath she had been holding. There were no thoughts, no feelings except for the primal desire to keep going, and while they maintained eye contact, she leaned her head over him, using the cascade of her hair to hide them away in their own little temporary oasis. And this time it was her who brought her lips back to his. 

He turned, and with her legs still wrapped around his waist, braced her back while she pulled her arms out of her shirt and reached behind her to unhook her bra.

They fell, and she landed on her back on the bed. The moment was all that mattered to her. Damn the consequences. He pulled away from her only long enough to rip his shirt over his head before leaning back down to her.

He rained kisses all over her body, which had changed into a work of art during their years apart. When he braced himself up on his arms slightly so that he could swirl his tongue around her belly button, he surprised a breathless laugh out of her that turned into a moan as he nipped down to the waistband of her shorts. She lifted her hips and rubbed her warmth against his chest.

His forehead rested against her pelvic bone as he gasped for breath and desperately tried to calm himself. He couldn't force her, and she had plainly stated that she didn't want this. So, he was surprised at her words when she groaned out in sexual frustration, "Cole La Barron, I swear to heaven above that if you stop now, I really will kill you!"

Now she surprised a laugh out of him, and he met her eyes with her warmth still pressed against him and saw that she was serious. So, he went for it. He sat up long enough to unbutton her shorts and help her shimmy out of them. He didn't even bother to undress any further; still wearing his jeans, boots, and spurs, he unbuckled his belt and jeans snap and shoved his jeans and boxers down just far enough to get what he wanted. He met her eyes and smiled a smile they hadn't shared in years right before he lined his tip up to her and slammed inside. Giving them both a feeling of being home for the first time in almost a decade.

As he thrust into her, he knew he would stop at nothing to get her back. He had royally fucked up with her and nearly cost them everything. Now, he’d be damned if he was giving her up again.

When he slammed into her one final time and she convulsed around him as he throbbed through his release, he knew she didn't stand a chance.