A heavy door slams shut down the hall, pulling me from a light sleep.

Jace is back.

Any second now, he’ll walk into this bedroom and find me naked. Then we’ll do all the ungodly things to each other’s body that I’ve been fantasizing about for years. I can hardly wait, and the idea that he’ll be in here soon makes my pussy ache and throb with need. Moving my hand down under the bed sheets, I slide two fingers between my folds to get the edge off, picturing Jace as he’ll soon touch me, or taste me, or skip to the part I’m dying to experience—his cock deep inside of me, making me whole.

But honestly, I’m also a bit nervous. Who am I kidding? It’s not just my nerves. It’s slight terror. The fantasy of my first time with Jace is so vivid, so entrenched in my mind that I’m not sure how reality will measure up.

How I’ll measure up, frankly.

Not that I have anything to prove, but in some ways, I do. I’m the one who showed up at his front door and threw myself at him. Now it’s time to deliver the goods. But doubt starts to wander in. My inexperience can’t have any appeal to him, so after pushing so hard for this to happen, the question that’s plaguing my mind is not whether I’ll disappoint him, but how much.

I sit up in bed, covers draped around my waist and legs as I look around the dark bedroom, eyes already adjusted to the dim bluish floodlight coming in through the closed blinds from somewhere outside the house. The bedroom door creaks as it slowly opens. He’s here. With a held breath, I pull the cotton sheets up to cover my breasts, and I wait.

“Last chance, Cherry,” Jace announces in a deep, somber tone. He stands in the shadow of the doorway. A light source from somewhere down the hall casts a long shadow of him into the bedroom. He doesn’t move, but I feel his presence across the room. It’s as though he can reach me from his spot, sending tendrils of his touch over to me from just his silent breathing.

“Sorry? I don’t understand. Last chance for what?” I ask.

“To walk away. No questions asked.”

“I’m staying,” I tell him, voice wavering. I can only hope he doesn’t interpret the sound of my voice as a change of heart. Because I may be terrified, but I’m more sure than ever that I want to be here.

He saunters over to the bed and takes a seat, bending one knee to comfortably turn and look at me. I only notice his fingers spread out on the fabric of the covers beside me when he forms his hand into a fist and tugs sharply at the material. The move drags the covers down the front of my body, leaving my upper body bare. Jace groans as he grazes his eyes from my face, down past my neck to my naked breasts.

“You don’t get to hide from me here, Cherry,” he says firmly.

“I wasn’t—”

“You also don’t get to speak…unless I let you. Understood?”

I want to say something, to object, but don’t. I just nod. Tonight may be the only time for us. And this was what I asked for.

Jace.

Good or bad.

Rough or tender.

Mean or kind.

He can say, do and be whatever he wants to me.

Because I want him to.

Jace gets to his feet. Looking down into my eyes from his spot at the side of the bed, he extends one hand toward me, palm up. I place my hand in his, and he helps me off the bed. As his eyes feast on every visible inch of my nakedness, his hand travels slowly up my arm, his hot fingers radiating waves of heat through my body. I’m shaking, but not from the cold, and not from his touch, but from the anticipation of what’s going to happen. No doubt, Jace can tell. He may not be able to read my mind, but my body language is as clear as day. But he’s got the slightest smile on his face, like a predator when it knows it’s won. I have to wonder whether he likes the smell of my fear.

I’ll find out soon enough.

Jace slides his hand past my shoulder and comes to rest on that spot where my shoulder meets my neck.

“Down on your knees, kitten,” he orders as he tightens his hold on me and applies some pressure to help me get moving.

Sinking down to my knees, I take the liberty of reaching my hands up to his belt. He covers my hand with his to stop me.

“Don’t move. Don’t speak. Don’t think. Not until I tell you,” he says sharply and shakes his head from one side to the other. “You’ll do what I say, when I say it, or you’ll be punished. Understood?”

I glance up at him and give an exaggerated nod. He’s made his point. His domain, his rules. Silently reminding myself that I’m here of my own volition and this may only turn out to be a one-time thing, I smile softly.

Then Jace undoes his belt, slowly sliding the black leather from each pant loop. He folds it in two, and holds the open ends together in his fist. Then he slaps the folded side in his other hand. The whipping sound snaps and ricochets around the room, filling the air with an echo that reverberates all the way to my core.

His nonverbal reinforcement of his promise to punish me should scare the hell out of me.

Yet it doesn’t.

It sends a thrill of raw need through my body like a shock wave. I can’t even begin to understand what’s happening to me.

My body tingles.

My nipples are hard as pebbles.

My core is throbbing.

My clit is swollen.

I’m dripping wet between my legs.

And Jace hasn’t even touched me yet.

If his goal is to arouse me, it’s working. Suddenly the realization that he knows what he’s doing sinks in. I can trust him, so I will. With my resolve in place, I close my eyes and take a breath. When I open my eyes again. I catch sight of Jace undoing the button on his waistband. Locking eyes with me, he slides down his zipper and frees his erect cock from his boxers.

It. Is. Massive.

I mentally try to figure out exactly how that huge, thick body part will ever fit inside me when I can barely fit two fingers inside. But yet again, my lower stomach flutters and my core clenches just from the sight of it, and my racing mind stills. I have to give him credit. Never before has my body been at this level of desire.

Then he runs a hand through my hair, gripping a handful tightly and guiding my head closer to his cock.

Parting my lips, I relax my jaw and open wide for him.

This is happening.