Dumbfounded, Ryan could only stare at her. Uncle? One of the most influential millionaires in the country? For fuck’s sake, he was pretty sure a few countries. He didn’t quite know all the ins and outs of Donovan Lewis’s empire.

“You’re rich?”

She laughed. Well, it was more of a squeak than a laugh. “I wouldn’t go that far. The Lewis name has money. My parents do.”

“And they didn’t help?”

She looked down, her eyes trained on his chest. “Not really their kind of deal.”

“You’re a Lewis?”

She nodded. “Casey Lewis.”

“Casey Lewis.” The name felt wrong on his tongue.

“Colorado,” she said hoarsely. “Denver.” Her voice grew a little stronger. “I’m not that girl anymore.”

He frowned and tipped her chin back up so he could look into her eyes. “Why Donovan?”

“He has contacts everywhere and he has a way with taking care of details. And not asking a ton of questions.” She averted her gaze. “I was ashamed of what I’d gotten myself into. Of the man I let myself get involved with.”

Before Ryan could press the point, she touched his cheek. “I want to be with you too. I know I haven’t always been straightforward about that, but I swear I do. More than I thought was possible. I just need to talk to Donovan first before you shout it to the world. Is that okay?”

“Why?”

“Because this life means everything to me. You guys and my job. I never thought this was what would make me happy, but after…” Her lips thinned. “Donovan picked me up and handed me this life. He gave me the chance to start over.”

Ryan’s chest tightened. Anger filled his mouth and swelled his tongue like acid. “No matter how you tiptoe around it, this guy hurt you.”

“No. No, Ryan. You need to believe me on this. He didn’t hurt me like that.” Finally, her gaze met his again without him forcing the issue. And he hated that he had to force her to do anything. Not if this pain was in her past.

She went on her toes and cupped his face. “He’s nothing like you. What was between us, what we did…it was nothing like how you take care of me.” She pressed her lips together and shut her eyes so tight that his gut churned. Then she opened them. Those unbelievably huge, fathomless dark eyes wrecked him, laying him bare. “He only took. You only give.”

He crushed her to him, his mouth slanting over hers. Her arms slid under his, her hands cupping his shoulders as he lifted her onto her toes. He broke away, dragging her breath into his lungs. She filled him in so many fucking ways.

“You’re everything, Denver.” She would always be his Denver. A different first name couldn’t change who she was to him. Nothing could. “You have to know that.”

“Show me.”

He swung her into his arms. She was solid, warm, and fit him so completely. He nodded to the fluffy gold and navy spread on the bed. “I want you in the middle of this bed. Spread out for me.”

She reached down and flipped the corner back enough for him to push the rest with his knee before he set her in the center. He flicked the pillows away so she was flat on her back.

He knelt over her. “What do you need?”

“You. I need you to help me put it away.” She sucked in air. “This room is full of ghosts.”

Tamping down on his frustration at needing to know more took all his effort. But this was about her. Everything was. “Nothing but us here now, Colorado.”

She nodded. “Make me yours.”

His cock tightened painfully. Despite what he’d learned and all his questions, he couldn’t help wanting her this way. Just as he knew there was a part of her that would always crave him taking control. And he wanted to be the one to give it to her.

Always.

He flicked open the tiny buttons of her lightweight shirt. The baby blue color made her skin seem even warmer. All that honey-gold flesh waiting for him.

He palmed her breast, her nipple tight against the heel of his hand. He rubbed it across the tip roughly. The lace of her scrap of a bra barely held her. She was round, firm and just enough to fill his hands. Her breasts were perfect. But he didn’t want a peek through cotton.

Nothing but endless skin would sate him tonight. No quick fuck against a wall. No fierce bump and grind in a bunk, praying no one would come back to the bus while they were together.

None of that would do tonight.

He inched down her thighs, tightening the cage around her legs until they were clamped shut. At least for now. Soon he’d have her wide open. But first he needed her clothes off. He shoved her shirt off her shoulders and flicked open her bra so both of them slid away. He eased the elastic off her ponytail as well until there was nothing but a wash of sable hair across the white sheets.

“Fucking beautiful.”

She lifted her chin, watching him with huge eyes full of passion and bravery. She shuddered under him and he lowered his mouth between her breasts. He dragged his chin down the skin there to her ribs and down around her navel. She arched under him, her fingers going into his hair.

He wasn’t quite sure he could handle her touching him yet. He was already riled up. Protective instincts he didn’t know he owned were bucking under his skin, trying to tear out of the marrow of his bones. He wanted to demand the backstory living in her breath, haunting her eyes. But he knew for now she needed this more.

He needed to connect to her.

She needed to know he’d do anything for her. His only demand would ever be her pleasure and her love. But small steps were necessary for this woman. Now that he knew some of her past, he was starting to understand.

Tonight he would show her pleasure and love without end.

Starting with his tongue and her skin. He traced along the line of her jeans before flicking open the button so he could peel them from her. Endless inches of soft honey-scented skin were his to taste. But first he would tease. His breath fanned over her tightly shorn pussy. The little strip of dark hair arrowed down to her pink slit.

He breathed her in. Already wet for him and he hadn’t really touched her.

She looked down at him, her hands fisted beside her thighs. He wished for ties right then. To open her up for him.

He didn’t really have anything in his bag except for the cuffs they’d played with, but they seemed too hard. The metal too intrusive for this moment. He needed something softer.

He trailed his lips along the bowl of her flat belly and up over her ribs to her breasts. He braced himself above her with one arm and his wrist brushed against the pillow.

“Hmm.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her voice was little more than a breathless groan.

“What’s your word tonight, Colorado?”

“What?”

“Your word.” He changed his stance so he was kneeling between her legs this time. He rose up and lifted the pillow.

She swallowed. “Oh.” She looked around the room and settled on the pillow in his hands. “Gold.”

“Good.” He reached inside the pillowcase and dragged out the pillow, tossing it to the floor. The nice thing about a king-size bed meant king-size pillows. The case was long and soft. Just what he needed. He folded it lengthwise until it was one long column of sateen material. He grasped her wrist and brought it to the outside of her knee.

Her gaze zeroed in on the pillowcase. “God, yes.”

He smiled as he wrapped the material around one knee then tied it to her wrist with a link in between. Almost like a handle with a knot for him to hold on to, but not cut into her flesh. “We’ll see if you’re still saying yes when I’m done with you.”

She frowned as he opened her thighs, doing the same to her other wrist and knee with another pillowcase. He grasped the knot in the little space between until she was pinned to the bed. Until her legs were spread wide for him and there was nowhere for her to go.

“Good?”

She swallowed and nodded.

He lowered his mouth to her breast and drew her nipple between his lips. He rolled it as he watched her reaction. She stiffened and hissed as he sucked it hard and let it free with a pop.

He blew lightly on the tip, watching as it tightened even more. He did the same with the other and slowly moved down to her ribs, and then the soft flesh at the back of her thigh that was exposed with her spread-eagle position. There wasn’t an inch of her that wasn’t at his mercy.

He dragged his chin along her thigh to the seam where her thighs met. To his ultimate goal.

He let one knot free for a moment and dragged off his T-shirt. He wanted nothing between them. Just skin and her moans. Because he was going to taste her until there were no words left.

The pulse of his cock behind his jeans would have to wait. If he took his jeans off now, he’d be lost to her. To her pussy right in front of him.

All he wanted to do was slip inside her warmth and fill her until she was brimming with his cum. But that was what he wanted. Not what she needed.

He lowered his mouth to the soft flesh right under the tiny strip of hair. He circled his tongue along the skin just above her clit. He teased her there until her pussy swelled and her lips were shiny with wetness for him. She squirmed, but he didn’t go where she wanted him.

Denying them both.

As much as it hurt him, he remained patient. He dragged in a deep breath of her honey scent and the richness of her pussy. Then he lowered his mouth to her center and dragged the flat of his tongue along her entire slit. She bucked off the bed with a cry and he unleashed his carnal knowledge of her body. Every secret he’d learned over the last few weeks was his roadmap. He dove deep inside the walls of her pussy and drank her down.

She quaked around him.

Her moans grew to screams and he didn’t stop. He didn’t stop until her thighs were trembling and his chin was soaked. The knots dug into each of his palms as he held her wide open and skipped past his own madness and swallowed hers. She broke and sobbed. She pushed at his bonds, trying to close her legs, but he held strong.

The word didn’t come. Her safe word. Just her screams of his name into the high ceilings of their room.

He finally pulled back for a breath. The wildness in her eyes matched his. He flicked open the tie at one wrist, then her knee, tossing the pillowcase aside.

All it took was one leg of freedom. She wrapped her leg around him and tried to pull him down on her. She was restless and her movements jerky. She was in that in-between world. The one that was fast approaching for him. Where it didn’t matter how it happened, but he had to come.

He had to be inside her.

She reared up off the bed and jerked at her remaining bonds. He slipped his finger through the knot and it gave way. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. She pulled him down on her and he grunted as his straining cock slammed between her wide-open legs. Her warmth bled through his denim.

He reached between them to get the zipper down.

To get inside her.

He didn’t want ties or bonds, he didn’t want anything but her and him.

Not even a condom.

He looked down at her. “Denver.”

“Pill,” she muttered. “Safe. Inside me. Inside me.” She chanted it over and over again.

He couldn’t have denied her a single thing. Then, or ever.

He shoved down his jeans and shorts until his cock sprang free. He had to push it down to get near her. It was curved up and so tight to his belly it ached. He swirled the head along the slick center of her and he hissed at the first contact of warm, wet flesh.

As much as he wished he had the control to tease her some more, he was beyond that right now. There was nothing but her vising pussy taking him inch by inch until he was seated completely. His balls slapped against her body and he threw his head back, every muscle locked so he wouldn’t come right away.

She wound her legs around him and took him deeper. Held him tighter. The heels of her feet dug into ass and then he was gone. He drove into her, his cock pistoning again and again. Until his brain was a roaring mass of insanity and she melted around him.

He curled his arms under her and clasped her shoulders just as tightly. He pressed his mouth into her neck and roared her name as his balls tightened and his need to come rolled over him like a melody trapped inside his head. She was the only one who could make all the chaotic notes inside him into the perfect rhythm. It demanded freedom to become the song of his heart, and he let it go.

He came so hard his thighs cramped and the room went dark with it. Then there was peace. A moment of absolute clarity and connection. He could do nothing but hold her closer.

Rolling them onto their sides, he yanked off his twisted jeans and shorts, then fisted her hair to drag her mouth to his. The kiss was fire and clashing groans before it slowly eased into a meeting of lips and breath. Each inhale centered him and each exhale seemed to calm her as well.

She curled into him and he held on to her until her body went slack and her breath evened in sleep. He continued to hold her until sunlight tinged the skyline from black to a soft, buttery yellow. Until he couldn’t hold out against the emotional exhaustion crashing into his body’s pressing need for sleep.

And even then, he didn’t let her go.