The fire in that woman is unmatched. It only required the right tinder and spark. Luckily for me, I learned the basics early on—flint, steel, and paper stolen from the butcher’s Dumpster. It was enough to keep me warm on the rare nights it got cold enough to freeze this city.

If I’d had Keira Kilgore, there would have been no need, because together we would have burned this town to ash.

You know what happens when you throw gasoline on a fire? You get a raging inferno, and that’s what happened tonight.

At least until I pulled out and my cum dripped from between her legs.

Fuck.

I’ve never gone without a condom, even in the days when I shoplifted them because I didn’t want to choose between sex and food.

Keira looks at me like I just put the spawn of the devil inside her, and maybe she’s not that far off. “Why would you do that? How could you not use a condom?”

She’s making this out to be my fault? Obviously, because when the devil’s in the room, who else could there possibly be to blame?

“I planned to bury my cock in your throat and make you swallow every drop, but you fucked that up all by yourself.”

The mouth in question, the one that still hasn’t touched my dick, drops open. “You’re saying this is my fault?” She points to herself and shakes her head. “You’re such an asshole.”

No other woman would dare toss as many slurs at me as she has, but for some reason, it amuses me. Most of the time.

“Well, at least I’m the asshole who’s always worn a condom. You’re not catching shit from me. You can trust me on that.”

“Trust you? Never!”

My temper blazes out of control. I just came harder than ever before in my life, with the woman who made me wait the longest, and I don’t even get to enjoy it for more than a few seconds after my dick stopped pulsing because she’s losing her shit over this condom business.

Then another thought occurs to me. I’ll admit, I could have handled it better, but the woman pushes me to the edge.

“I’m more worried about what I could catch from you. Your shit-bag husband fucked anything that moved.”

Her indrawn breath borders on homicidal, and given her temper, I’m not ruling it out as a possibility. Especially because she can’t form actual words to reply.

“At least tell me you’re on the pill. Having a fucking kid is not in my plans.” I’ve never taken such a stupid risk before. A kid would be the ultimate weakness.

Finally, Keira’s able to speak. “Thank God I have an IUD and we don’t have to worry about that.”

The way she says it infuriates me to the point where my temper turns ice cold. If I lash out right now, she’ll never recover. So, like the devil masquerading as a gentleman, I grab my suit coat off the chair and toss it to her.

“Cover yourself up. No one sees those tits, that ass, or that pussy but me.”

Her green eyes blaze like melting emeralds. She wraps the coat around her body, straightening that steel spine with her unbreakable pride again.

“Go fuck yourself, Mount. Because that’s the only way you’re coming again in this bargain.”

At that moment, I’m so far beyond anger, the urge to laugh at her comment rattles through me, but I don’t. She stalks from the room, wearing my suit coat like a grain sack and nothing else. V will be outside the door, ready to escort her back to her room, so that’s not something I have to worry about.

No, the only things I have to concern myself with are how fucking wrong she is, and how I’m going to find a way into that tight pussy again. The alternative is not an option, and her willingness is non-negotiable. That’s one thing I won’t compromise on.

---

When I step into the palatial shower in my master bath a half hour later, the only thought on my mind is how fucking sweet it’s going to be when I get what I want. Again. And again. Keira can lie to herself all she wants, but I know the truth.

“Fuck.” I bite out the curse as I step under the spray, and water hits the teeth marks on my shoulder and the claw marks on my back left by my little Irish hellion despite her earlier injury.

She was fucking magnificent. No, not past tense. Is. Even as she walked away wearing nothing but my coat, she held her head high and proud. Most men won’t look me in the eye, but this woman isn’t afraid to declare all-out war.

If she thinks her cursing me to hell is going to make me more likely to let her go, she’s delusional. She amuses me. Challenges me. And goddamn, she enrages me to the point where the only thing I can do is fuck her into submission. Which, luckily for both of us, she needs, whether she realizes it yet or not.

I replay the scene in my head from tonight, from the moment she stepped into the dining room in that dress. Her amazing tits on display just the way I wanted them, the slits up both sides of the skirt showing off her legs with every step.

I close my hand around my cock as I picture her walking toward me like a queen deigning to allow a peon an audience.

She calls me arrogant, but every time she raises that haughty chin of hers, I want to take her over my knee and spank her ass, which makes my dick even harder.

I don’t need to get myself off in the shower. It hasn’t even been an hour since I came, but I can’t stop seeing and hearing her in my head.

“Go fuck yourself, Mount. I’ll never get on my knees for you.”

Oh, but you will, Keira. You will. And I will make sure you enjoy every fucking second of it.

With one hand pressed against the stone wall of the shower, I grip my cock tighter and stroke it as I picture those pissed-off red lips turning pouty and soft after I’ve gotten her off enough times that she begs me to stop because she can’t take any more and promises me anything in return. That’s when they’ll be wrapped around my cock.

My balls tighten at the mental picture, and I stroke harder and faster.

Fuck, I don’t even need her on her knees. She can hang that thick mane of red hair over the edge of the bed, and I’ll fuck her face and teach her to take every inch down her throat without gagging.

My cock pulses, my orgasm bearing down faster than I expect considering that I just came. But it’s not me. It’s the thought of her moaning as she sucks and tongues my shaft every time I pull out until I blow inside her mouth and watch my cum drip from those stubborn lips.

Mine.

As my cum splatters the rock wall in my shower, I swear to myself it’s the last time. She’ll never deny me again.

She may have marked me tonight, but I marked her first.

Keira Kilgore needs another lesson in what it means to be owned by Lachlan Mount.