I stood in disbelief. Every time I thought I had him figured out, I realized I didn’t. There was an easiness about him blended beneath a layer of power and control. The boy I vaguely knew in Newton Hills had been suffocated by his last name. I didn’t know it then. I didn’t think any of us did. We didn’t know what it meant to be a Hartwell. Over time his circumstances chipped away at that side. He grew up under the shadow of his father’s influence. There were glimpses of light-heartedness. Glimpses of the boy who loved baseball. The one the girls chased after and doodled his initials in their notebooks.

That was the guy I drank two bottles of wine with. The one who flirted with me and laughed about Mrs. Wratchet’s horrible class. But the man I slept with—that was the possessive one. A man who was used to getting what he wanted in life and in bed. That was the man I married. The one with an elaborate plan to have everything he wanted, including me.

Tonight, I got to choose. What did I want? How did I want our relationship to exist? What was he to me?

My body had made it obvious. He made my pulse race, and my panties wet. I wanted him. I wanted his promises. I wanted the way he touched me. His kisses. His voice in my ear. To touch his chiseled body under the sheets.

I looked down at the enormous rock on my left hand. I’d never seen a diamond that size on anyone. Frannie would die when she saw it. It was Hollywood size. The kind of ring reserved for the celebrity section of a bride magazine.

And it was glittering on my hand. Snugly pressed under my knuckle as if he had given it to me during an elaborate proposal. This ring deserved something extravagant and over the top.

Jeremy’s bedroom door was open. I took a small step down the hallway. The room I had claimed was on my right, but I blew past it.

I stood in his doorway.

The lights were low, but I could see his silhouette lying across the bed. I shivered, anticipating what was going to happen next.

“Come here,” he growled.

It was as if my body floated across the floor. I was in his arms before I knew what happened. I was pulled to him like a magnet. There was an invisible thread between us that he used to reel me closer.

His fingers dug into my flesh. I found his mouth in the dark, inhaling his kiss as our tongues twined together.

He pulled me on top of him. Shit. He was already naked. I didn’t know if I was mad he had predicted what I would do, or turned on that he wanted me this much. He had an appetite for me that no other man had shown. His cock was always hard and ready for me.

He broke from the kiss. “I promised you something in the kitchen. I never break my word. Never.”

He pushed me upward so I was braced on my palms. He began to slide under me until his face was between my legs. He yanked on my pajama pants, sliding my silk panties with them.

I quivered and panted. “Jer,” I whimpered. My knees were shaky as he blew a hot breath over my folds.

“I love your pussy, Evie. So. Damn. Much.”

He ran a finger through my wet lips, separating them enough for me to feel the cool air around my clit. It hardened the instant he touched it.

His tongue flicked over it, again and again until my knees were wide and I had lowered my body to his mouth. I had abandoned shame. This man wanted me and I wanted his tongue to work its incredible magic on my body.

He growled as I rocked into him, aching for his tongue to fill me. He gripped my ass, until I was grinding his mouth with greedy dips, taking more of his tongue each time.

He sucked and slurped, lapping at my pussy like a man possessed. My breath was erratic and I pushed against the headboard until I was upright, sitting on my knees. I looked down into his sexy as sin eyes. I’d never done anything like this, but I was unleashed and wild. Jeremy between my legs made me want to do forbidden and dirty things. I tore the T-shirt off my head and let my breasts bounce freely. My hands traveled over my body, loving how I felt. So erotic. So turned-on. So full of orgasmic energy.

I twisted my nipples and cried out when I felt the first ripple of my climax. I did it again, as his mouth devoured me. His eyes never left mine as I came hard and violently in his mouth.

“Oh fuck me,” I whispered. “It feels so good. I can’t…” My head thrashed and I fell into the abyss. I tumbled and spiraled until the orgasm had reached every pore and vein in my body.

Jeremy kissed the inside of my thigh, nipping it lightly with his teeth. He had a wicked grin on his face. The kind that made my stomach flip and my pussy clench for more.

“Did you like that, Mrs. Hartwell?”

I nodded shyly, letting him roll out from under me.

I gasped when he placed my hands on the cold metal headboard.

He was immediately behind me, his hands cupping my ass as he spread me open and his tongue lit fire to my rosebud.

“Oh shit,” I hissed, bucking into the intensity.

His tongue pressed inside the tight ring of muscle and I whimpered, loving it. He twisted and explored while I tried to get my bearings.

One hand curved around my waist, sliding to my clit. I moaned when his fingers pushed inside me. His tongue was in deep and his fingers began to pump in and out.

“Jer, I can’t. Oh fuck me. It’s too much,” I cried while I thrashed under his control. “Don’t stop. Please,” I begged.

His tongue licked from my pussy to my forbidden hole and I sucked in a full breath of air, feeling the void his mouth had left. But within seconds, he plunged back inside my ass and I moaned with absolute pleasure.

I wiggled back, taking more, wanting more.

His thumb stroked my clit while his fingers fucked me. All the while I was going down in a blaze. The sheets were probably on fire. I’d lost all sense of reality.

When I was on the brink of my next orgasm, I realized how much he was giving me. How much freedom. The kind of sensual freedom I’d never experienced. He handed me the keys to a kingdom of sexual experimentation I’d always been too timid to try. Not any longer. Not as Jeremy Hartwell’s wife.

“More,” I cried, finding my voice. He didn’t think I was needy or desperate. “Jer, I want to come like this,” I breathed.

He growled, licking me with a new fiery rhythm.

“God, I want to be inside your ass.”

I shook my head. I wasn’t ready for that. One thing at a time.

“It’s ok,” he whispered. “We’ll get there. Enjoy this right now.”

He kissed my special hole once more before diving his tongue inside at the same time his fingers thrust as deep as he could make them go in my pussy.

“Fuck,” I moaned, letting the world fade away and the pleasure consume me. There was no way to describe the beautiful sensations bouncing between my core and my ass. All I knew was that my body zinged with it. It snapped with a new kind of electricity. I tried to hold on to it. To possess it, but the waves rippled and cracked until I was a sated heap on Jeremy’s pillow.

He flipped me over, kissing my legs and my stomach. He took a nipple between his teeth.

“Oh, Evie. You’re a fucking siren. Did you know that?”

I shook my head. “I’ve never done anything like that. What you did…”

“Are you ok?” He kissed my collarbone and shoulder. “Did you like it?”

“I liked it too much. I didn’t know it could feel like that back there.”

He pushed my knees wide as he settled to my overheated pussy. I hissed when his cock nudged against my swollen entrance.

“Good.” He grinned. “Because I plan on having that virgin ass one day.”

“It’s yours,” I whispered.

“And so is this.” He sliced inside me and I bowed from the bed, my back arching toward him. His thick cock stretched me fully. I felt delirious with him inside me. I said things I’d never say. I did things I’d never do. And somehow in his bed I felt safe and protected. Safe enough to give myself over to his control.

He began to pump in and out of me. Our breaths matched. He hooked his arm under my knee, angling deeper.

“Oh, Jer.” I looked in his eyes.

“You feel so good,” he growled. “So fucking good.”

His balls slapped against me and I knew he was motivated to go to new depths. To tie us back together after our fight. To make sure I never wanted to sleep in the guest room again. And holy hell, I didn’t. I wanted this. Nights like this. Sex like this.

I wanted Jeremy to give me everything he had, and in return he could have all of me.

He grunted as his thrust picked up in urgency. My head rolled into the pillow. My legs splayed open, offering him something I’d never thought I’d want to give another man. I was his.

He groaned. “I’m going to come, Evie.”

I dug my nails into his firm ass, urging him to fill me.

One. Two. Three. He roared as his climax hit him like a cannonball. He fired his seed inside me, rooting deep with possessive thrusts.

He collapsed on top of me. “Holy fuck, that was amazing.”

I brushed my fingers through his hair, letting it feather between my fingers as it fell back into place.

“It was,” I whispered.

“We’ve lost our damn minds, haven’t we?”

I nodded. “I think so.” What we were doing was dangerously close to something that felt real. Something that felt like it had legs and a body. And if we weren’t careful, would be the definition of a real living breathing relationship.

But I couldn’t stay away from him. I couldn’t not touch him. I couldn’t not kiss him. And there was no way to have his baby without the sex.

He kissed my neck and rolled to the side. I hugged my knees to my chest.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Trying to up the chances of getting pregnant. I read this helps. It keeps your stuff inside longer. I should stay like this for thirty minutes.”

“My stuff?” He laughed. “I can just give you more. Is come too dirty a word for your innocent mouth?”

“No. I can say it. But, it only takes one of your little swimmers.”

“Hey, there’s nothing little about my swimmers.” He placed a hand on my knee.

“Didn’t mean to insult your male ego,” I teased. “Maybe you skipped Sex Ed in middle school. Who knows what you know about getting pregnant.”

“I’ve avoided it my entire life. Condoms have always been my best friend.” He eyed me.

“And now?”

He turned toward me. His finger traced over my pointed nipple. “I never knew sex could be so good.”

“It’s that good?” I whispered.

He nodded. “Better than that.”

I swallowed. I wasn’t supposed to fall for Jer. He wasn’t that kind of husband. But I didn’t have anything to hold me back. And that terrified me.