I didn’t even hear our roommates come in. The wild partiers were as quiet in the room as they were loud down in the bar. But I knew they’d come home. Daylight poured in through the sheer blinds, and I slowly let my eyes adjust to the light, while images of bodies, still dressed and drunkenly heaved onto beds, came into view. It looked as though they’d all collapsed into bed. Shoes were still on feet, glow-sticks were still around necks, and I think Matt still had a beer bottle in his hands by the looks of it. But I took inventory of rising chests and snores, and everyone still seemed to be alive.

I wiggled and was immediately greeted with a masculine grunt behind me, followed by warm, hairy arms pulling me tighter against a hard chest. It only took a couple of seconds for me to remember where I was, and who I was with, and despite the circumstances of the last twenty-four hours, I smiled. I squirmed in his arms more and closed my eyes. And that’s when I felt it. That all too familiar prod, in the backside.

I swallowed, but then pushed into it and rotated my hips. He growled behind me. “Morning.”

“Morning,” I whispered.

“Sucks that we can’t take advantage of such a great hard-on, eh?”

I chuckled low in my throat and brought his hands down to my breasts. “Yeah…is it really that great?”

“Mhmm,” he hummed, thrusting it between my legs. “Super hard.” He nipped my earlobe.

I reached behind myself and fished him out of his boxers. It was great, big and firm and silky smooth. I wanted it. I needed it. We’d been through hell; we were shredded, we deserved to feel good.

“I won’t tell if you don’t.” I started to awkwardly stroke him while encouraging his curious hand to travel down and beneath my pajama shorts.

“You’re dirty.” His teeth grazed my shoulder. “I love it.”

“We need this.” Suddenly breathless, I let out a contented sigh when his fingers started rubbing circles around my clit.

“We do.” He bucked into my hand as I ran my fist up his length, from root to tip and back.

“Fuck me, Derrick…please.”

His voice was husky and rough behind me. “God, I love it when you beg.” He quickly pulled his hands from my body and shed his boxers, I shimmied out of my shorts and underwear but then resumed the spoon position. If any of the roommates did wake up, the spoon position would be the most inconspicuous, and we could probably get away with just closing our eyes and feigning sleep.

“Shit!” His breath was warm on my ear and neck, sending a frisson of need straight to my core. I squeezed my legs together, desperate for some friction. “Condoms are across the room in my bag.”

Fuck! “I, um…I have an IUD.” His fingers had found my clit again, and my eyes were threatening to roll out of the back of my head. “And…and I’m clean.”

“I’m clean, too,” he whispered, pushing himself further between my legs, demanding I let him in. And dear God, did I ever want to. “Just got tested.”

I swallowed. “O-okay.”

“You’re sure?”

I grinned and craned my neck around to look at him. “Fuck me, Derrick …please.”

His smile was pure masculine triumph, and he captured my pleas, fucking my mouth with his tongue. Deep and commanding plunges while his lips grabbed and pulled, claiming all of me. It was a messy kiss, not comfortable and incredibly awkward, but somehow it just added to the moment, to the forbidden exhibitionism of it all. I spread my legs for him; he found my cleft and thrust inside.

A room full of sleeping people, people we’d just met, and we were humping like dirty cavemen. Each finding solace and comfort in the body of the other. We’d lost so much. I’d lost so much, and not just yesterday. I felt like the last few years of my life had been filled with nothing but loss. First my aunt, then my grandmother, and then Ray. I needed to feel something besides grief. I needed to feel good. I needed to feel alive. And God, if Derrick didn’t make me both.

I pushed myself onto him, taking all of him, feeling him slide in and out of me, my body gripping him tightly. “Fuck, you’re so snug.” His teeth grazed my earlobe then traveled down my neck. The man was a vampire, and I loved it.

“Oh God,” I whimpered, moving my hand down so I could rub my clit, but he figured out what I was doing and batted my hand away.

“Let me do the work. You just enjoy.” He started to tease. Pinching and pulling, only to mix it up again and massage lovely little circles around my swollen nub, until I was seconds from combustion.

“Derrick, I’m close.”

“Oh God…” he groaned. “You’re fucking perfect. You know that?” His fingers picked up speed, while the rhythm of his thrusts began to falter, he was close. He pinched my clit. “Come for me, Piper, come hard, baby.”

Waves of pure, unadulterated ecstasy rippled through me as I tumbled off the cliff. He’d kept me riding that sweet paper-thin edge for so long that my body was positively screaming for release, and threatening to revolt if I didn’t get it soon. When he finally let me go, I was swept up in a vortex of sensations. All good. All amazing. My entire body, even my brain was on fire. It was all so hot. So forbidden. We hardly knew each other, we weren’t protected, we were in a room with other people, and yet for some reason, all those wrong and naughty things felt so incredibly right.

The orgasm continued to unfurl in my belly as I pulsed around him, drawing him deeper into my body, willing him to find his own release. And he did. Teeth found my shoulder again, and he bit down hard, muffling his snarls of satisfaction against my skin. I was excited to check the mirror later for bite marks. The sick and twisted part of me kind of hoped there’d be some.

He grunted a few more times behind me, his body trembling in the aftermath of his climax, while his hand came up and he cupped my breast. “You’re amazing.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re pretty amazing yourself.”

“Oh shit!” He had started to slip out.

I squeezed my legs together and cupped my mound, wondering how the hell we were going to get ourselves out of this situation. We were both naked from the waist down, and it was a twelve step walk to the bathroom, past the beds of dead to the world roommates. If I tried to get dressed under the covers, I’d make a giant mess. Crap! We’d been so caught up in the moment we hadn’t thought about what we’d do afterward.

“Wait a sec,” he said, sitting up in bed behind me and rummaging around under the blanket for his underwear. He pulled them on and slid out of bed, a still fairly impressive tent pitched in his front of his shorts. But he didn’t seem to care and walked right past the passed- out foursome and ducked into the bathroom, bringing back a wad of toilet paper. He handed it to me and I shoved it between my legs. I slipped on my underwear and shorts and quickly scurried off to pee.

I joined him back in bed a moment later, then suddenly I found myself beneath him. “I’m sorry I was such an asshole yesterday,” he whispered, biting my lip, which forced my eyes to roll into the back of my head.

I fluttered my eyelashes at him and let my arms float up to rest on his shoulders, my fingers playing with the silky soft hair at the nape of his neck. “It’s okay. Yesterday was rough.”

“It just takes me some time to process things. Study all the angles before I react. But I was a jerk, and I’m sorry.”

I rubbed my nose against his. “And I’m a hothead who acts first then thinks about it later.”

“Quite the pair, eh?”

I wrapped my legs around his waist. “Mhmm.”

“Hey, you two,” came a groggy voice from the bottom bunk of the bed across the room. Big black raccoon eyes with mascaraed lashes slowly blinked open, while blonde hair that looked like she’d stuck a fork in an electrical socket started to move as Elissa attempted to sit up. “Don’t be having sex while we’re in here, okay?”

Derrick’s body started to shake with laughter on top of mine. And soon I was trembling too. “Okay,” I squeaked.

* * *

“Let’s just fly up,” he said as we made our way to breakfast, choosing to eat at a restaurant outside of the hostel. We’d walked past a cute little kitschy bistro-type place when we were out for our wander the day before. The menu had been interesting, and we wanted to go back and try it.

“Up to Cusco?”

“Yeah. I know we’d both planned on busing up, but after everything that has happened,” he shook his head and clutched his camera bag to his chest like it was an infant he was deathly afraid of dropping. “I’d rather just get my ass to Cusco than sit on a cramped and stinky bus for a day and a night.”

I had to admit it, the idea of simply flying up there sounded awfully appealing. I wasn’t looking forward to an endless bus ride either. I’d done one from Boquete to Panama City, and it’d been bloody awful, cramped and bumpy, with terrible Spanish films playing on the televisions overhead.

I nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

“I’m going to go duck in and check out some new computers,” he said, switching gears and pointing to a shady looking computer store. “Maybe I’ll find mine. The robbers may have pawned the stuff to ditch it quickly.”

My face fell, but he just chuckled and pulled me close, planting an affectionate kiss on my temple. “Come in with me?”

My eyes flew down the road; I knew exactly where we were. I shook my head. “Uh, no…I’m…I’m going to go look for a…for a souvenir shop. Meet you back in here in fifteen?”

His eyes flashed fire for a quick second at my refusal. But then he tossed on a giant, panty-soaking smile and pecked another quick kiss on my temple (this appeared to be his thing).

“Okay,” he said, untangling our fingers and pushing open the door. I grinned at him and turned to go. A woman on a mission. And then I headed off.

I hit the buzzer for the door, and within two seconds it clicked open. Unlike the new hostel we were staying in, where the level of security rivaled Fort Knox, this place would let anyone waltz in, including shady maintenance guys.

There she was, again. Sitting like an idiot behind the desk. I walked up to her. “Do you remember me?” She squinted at me, and then it dawned on her. Her eyes going wide, while her hand jerked and she fumbled with the pen in her hand.

“Uh…Senora…Miss…”

I glared at her. “Have you found out who did it?”

She shook her head and started to stammer. “N-no.”

“Did you have something to do with it? Did you get a cut?” I started wandering around the little lobby, an old worn couch next to a stand of pamphlets, a potted plant sitting on top of her desk, next to a small clay cup of pens and scissors.

She swallowed, then her eyes darted to the boisterous group of young twenty-somethings who came bounding down the stairs. “P-please…” she murmured.

I cocked my head. “Please what?”

She shook her head. “Y-you have money. J-just go.”

What the hell did that mean? I have money? So, because I happen to have more than the average Peruvian, that gives them a right to steal from me? What the fuck?

I turned to the boys who were laughing. “You know this place is dangerous, right?” Four happy smiles vanished. I nodded. “Yeah, we were robbed here yesterday. First, they gave my room away. So, then I agreed to share with someone else. Then the pipes burst in our room. So, when we went out for a bit to let maintenance fix the bathroom, they, or someone else, used bolt cutters on our lock on the valuables cabinet and robbed us. Took my…” I hesitated. “Took my boyfriend’s laptop, his passport. Credit cards, money. My cameras.”

Their eyes went wide.

Gladys shook her head. “No…no…no robado.” What was this woman’s deal? Why was she so reluctant to admit that we’d been robbed? Why was she against having the authorities in the hostel? Something was seriously fishy.

“Yes!” I said with a hiss, spinning back around to face the woman. “Si, robado.” And then something came over me. Like I was suddenly possessed, my inner beast, my inner bitch came raging forward. All the loss I’d suffered and bared throughout the last couple of years came to a head, my arm came out, and I ran it across her desk, sending everything to the floor in a flutter. The clay cup crashing and smashing, sending pens everywhere. Damn, that felt good. I moved on. I flipped over the pamphlet rack, and then grabbed the potted plant and smashed it to the ground. I was on a rampage, determined to destroy, to ruin. To ruin her. Even if she was completely innocent in all of it (which I highly doubted, given her behavior so far), I needed someone to blame.

I continued on my path of destruction. The four backpacking boys just stood there with their mouths hanging open, watching as the crazy blonde chick trashed the hostel lobby.

But then I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Lady,” came a strong accent, maybe German. “I get that you’re mad, and you have every right to be. But she’s calling the cops. You need to go.”

The lightbulb flashed on, and I stopped. My heart was pounding while my chest heaved as if I’d just run a marathon. I was practically foaming at the mouth. I saw that her cell phone was glued to her ear, while her eyes darted around the room.

“Lady…you need to go.”

“Fuck!” And I sprinted.

“Whoa, whoa! Where’s the fire?” Derrick chuckled, after I smacked right into his chest, having bolted from the hostel and directly back to the computer place. He grabbed me by the shoulders, the humor in his eyes disappearing the moment he took in the panic on my face.

I swallowed. “We…we have to go.”

“Why?”

I looked behind me. “I kind of went back to the hostel and trashed the place. She called the cops on me.”

“You did what?”

“J-just the front room. Knocked some stuff over, broke a planter.”

Just then a big thick hand came up under my arm and began ushering the both of us down the sidewalk. I tried to dig in my heels, but the force of the man behind us was just too strong.

“You guys need to change your appearance and keep a low profile,” the gravelly voice whispered.

He turned a corner and then ducked us all into an alley. Only then did he let go of my arm. Derrick wrenched his body away and spun around to confront the man. “Dude…what the…”

“Shhh,” the mountain of muscles warned. We heard footsteps running down the sidewalk. The mountain turned his back to the street and pushed the two of us in front of him. The footsteps drew nearer, and then three police officers ran past.

“Are they looking for us?” Derrick asked.

“Yes,” Mr. Mountain murmured. He peeled off his hat to reveal a completely bald head. “Here, put this on. Can you tuck your hair up?”

I shook my head; my hair was too long. But I put the hat on anyway, pulling my ponytail through the hole in the back. “Why am I doing this?”

“You guys need to keep a low profile,” he said again.

“Why? Because I trashed a hostel lobby?”

“Yes.” His voice sounded like a Harley Davidson coming to life, while eyes as dark as midnight, blue and deep, stared back at me with unwavering focus and sincerity. His head was shiny and bald, but he owned it, and it looked good. Muscles rippled out of his tight black T-shirt, while two-day-old scruff clung to his chin, hiding a faint but long white scar that traveled up the left side of his jaw to his ear.

“What the fuck is going on?” Derrick asked impatiently, his wary eyes and “ready to bolt” stance saying he wasn’t yet entirely convinced this guy was here to help us.

Baldy rolled his eyes. “My name is Chase. I’m…” he paused. “I’m one of the good guys, and we’re here on a” — his eyes darted around the alley quickly — “sensitive mission. The hostel is a front for something. We’ve been bugging them for some time, trying to figure it all out.”

Holy shit. “A front for what?” I asked, suddenly happy as a pig in shit that I’d gotten out of there when I had.

He shook his head, big blond caterpillars practically kissing, he furrowed his brows so tight. “I can’t say.” And then it dawned on me. Had they been bugging the place yesterday when we were in the shower?

My cheeks must have gone fifty different shades of pink. “I didn’t listen to that,” he said matter-of-factly, reading my mind. “Besides, you’re not the first two people to get it on in a hostel bedroom.”

My face was on fire.

Derrick shook his head. “I still don’t understand what the hell is going on. Are you a SEAL? Joint Task Force 2? Who are you with?”

“You two need to go back to your hostel and stay there,” Chase said, evading his question. What was Joint Task Force 2?

I shook my head. “Derrick has to go to the embassy today to get a new passport. We were just going to grab breakfast and then head to the embassy.”

Chase’s eyes flew to each of our faces, and then he nodded once. “All right, but let’s get a move on. I’ll come with you.”

We started to move, Derrick managing to keep pace with our new bodyguard, but I was forced to trot at a steady lope to keep up. “So why are we in danger?” I asked, a tad out of breath from how quickly we were traveling through the streets.

“What was on that laptop?” He turned to Derrick but didn’t stop moving.

“Photos and articles,” he said dubiously. “I’m a travel journalist and photographer. I’ve been in Costa Rica and Panama for the last six weeks taking pictures of monkeys and sloths and writing about the nature sanctuaries they live in.”

Chase shot him a side-eye. “That’s it?”

Now it was Derrick’s turn to side-eye. “Yes. Why? You think they thought I had sensitive information on my laptop and that’s why they stole it?”

He rubbed the stubble on his chin, and it made a raspy sound. “Perhaps. I’m not sure yet.”

“What is the hostel a cover for?” I asked again, a painful stitch forming on my side. Luckily, I spotted the white and red symbol of the true North, strong and free, waving just up ahead. I could have cried, it was so beautiful. My flag. My home.

Chase made a low rumbling sound in his throat. “We don’t know yet. But we’re leaning toward money laundering and possibly smuggling of illegal goods. Maybe even human trafficking, or drugs; again, we’re not entirely sure. They’re good at what they’re doing and hiding their operation well.”

We came up to the guard gate in front of the embassy. He walked straight up and started speaking to the woman behind the Plexiglass. We were then asked to present all our identification, only Derrick didn’t have anything besides his international driver’s license, his last emergency credit card, and his travel medical insurance card. Apparently, that was enough, and we were eventually permitted access.

“You weren’t stopped by anyone in Panama and asked to bring anything in your suitcases, were you?” Chase asked after we’d all taken a seat in the unfriendly and very un-Canadian embassy waiting room. Seriously, had the decorator even bothered to Google Canada? Where were the images of lakes and rivers and the ocean? Leaping orcas, sassy beavers, and stoic elk? Instead, there was just an ugly-ass mosaic of random-colored tiles glued to the wall; it looked like something a six-year-old had reluctantly done at summer camp.

Both Derrick and I shook our heads.

“Did you leave your bag unattended for any prolonged period of time? Meet anyone suspicious? Tell them which hostel you were staying at?”

Derrick shook his head again. But my mind was back at my hostel in Panama City. Eduardo was Panamanian, and he’d suggested I go to The Inca Treasure because his brother-in-law owned or ran or managed the place. I couldn’t entirely remember the connection. But I’m not a seasoned traveler, and I took his friendliness as good ol’ hospitality, ignoring every instinct I had that the guy could be shady. I wanted to see the good in people. My job had groomed me to always look for the worst, to find flaws, and now that I’d left that world, I was trying to see the best. But when I thought more about it, I remembered that when I had been waiting for my cab to the airport, I’d needed to run to the washroom, and I’d left my bag in the front lobby under his watchful eye. Had he put something in my bag?

I reiterated all this to Chase, while Derrick’s eyes grew wider and Chase’s brows pinched tighter.

“You have no idea what he could have put in your bag?”

I shook my head, hoping to God it hadn’t been drugs.

“Well, it didn’t trigger the security scanners at the airport, so…”

I swallowed, fear and dread tasting metallic on my tongue. This was not at ALL how this holiday was supposed to go down.

“Or,” Derrick started, giving Chase a sidelong glance before focusing all his attention back on me, “we were robbed simply because we’re white and appeared to have money. No foul play, nothing smuggled.” He rested a hand on Chase’s shoulder, which appeared to make the bald, blue-eyed mountain very uncomfortable. “I know you’re trained in all this subterfuge and spy stuff, but in this case, when we hear hooves we need to think horses and not unicorns.”

Chase made a rude noise in his throat and inconspicuously shrugged off Derrick’s hand. Derrick wrapped the other arm around my waist and pulled me close. I didn’t hesitate, and I slouched into him.

“Well, either way,” Chase said with a surly scowl, his demeanor clearly rattled. I was going to guess he wasn’t used to people challenging him or touching him. “Keep a low profile in Lima, okay? Gladys called the cops, and she scanned your passport when you arrived, remember? They have all your information. And even if you are innocent, guilty of nothing more than breaking a potted plant, the authorities would love nothing more than throwing your white ass in prison to earn some bail money.”

At that moment, I cursed myself for not having gone into international law. So instead I just nodded. Derrick nodded, too, though his was far less emphatic than mine.

That seemed to be enough for Chase at the moment. “Where’s your new hostel?”

“Not far,” Derrick said. “About six blocks.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Derrick rolled his eyes and was about to say something snarky, I’m sure, but just then he was called to order and had to go and plead his case for a new passport.

“Are you two married?” Chase asked, startling me out of my fog. I’d been rehashing what I’d just done at The Inca Treasure, the adrenaline still pumping through my body. It had felt really good to trash the lobby. Cathartic.

“No.” I shook my head. “We, uh…we actually just met in the airport in Panama.”

I thought for sure the caterpillars were going to jump on his forehead and he’d spin around and give me a wide mouth and face painted with judgment. But the man didn’t even flinch.

“In this case, Derrick might be right. It may just be horses. But just be careful, okay? Do you have a phone?”

I shook my head. No, the bastards had stolen that too. Maybe I should go and buy a cheapy phone. At least while we had our bald bodyguard present we could wander around the city with a bit more ease.

He grunted. “’K, we’ll go get you a phone. And then I’ll put my number in it. If you find anything in your backpack, or someone suspicious contacts you, you’re followed or whatnot, you let me know, okay?”

I nodded. “Okay.”

I was busy studying the tile on the floor while Chase seemed completely content just sitting there looking straight ahead. I’m not even sure he was blinking. Was this part of training for whatever organization he was with? No blinking? I watched him out of the corner of my eye.

“Yes?” he asked slowly.

“Who are you with? Or if you tell me, will you have to kill me?”

He let out an exasperated sigh; his shoulders slumped just a fraction. “Have you heard of SEAL Team 6?”

I nodded.

“I’m not with SEAL Team 6.” He swallowed. “Let’s leave it at that, okay?”

Well, shit! That just prompted about one hundred other questions.

A few minutes later, Derrick re-emerged. “Well, they believe I am who I say I am. But it’ll be a couple of days before I can get a new passport, so I’ve got to stick around Lima for a bit.”

I fell into line with the two men after we’d reclaimed Derrick’s new laptop and Chase’s phone from security, and we made our way back out to the street. Derrick’s fingers linked with mine on instinct. How could it be instinct when we’d only known each other for twenty-four hours? But instinct or not, it felt good, and I held on to him, happy that I didn’t have to travel alone anymore, happy that I had someone to share this with.

Chase flanked me on the other side, and I felt tiny, like a child between two big sexy men. But as handsome as Chase was, as much as he radiated alpha-male waves out to everything with two X chromosomes, making them swoon and cream their jeans, I was more attracted to Derrick. The ball of energy around him wasn’t red like Chase’s, and it didn’t scream alpha to the rooftops. Yet, he was no less dominating, no less confident; it was just a quieter confidence, a more inherent and reserved dominance. People seemed to flock to him, but he didn’t demand their attention they way some alphas do. It just happened organically.

And besides, I was done being with a man whose job was dangerous and could get him killed. I’d lost Ray because his job had been dangerous, going out onto a boat in the middle of the ocean to collect samples. Who would have thought a biologist’s job would be life-threatening? And I’m sure if this Chase guy had a woman, she was saying a prayer or two every night because the man’s job was not safely pushing a pencil behind a desk, it was out in the field running intel on slimy drug dealers and human traffickers. No, Derrick was safe, his job was safe, and he made me feel safe, and that’s exactly what I needed.

* * *

We took our leave of the bossy bald bodyguard a little while later after both Derrick and I had gotten new phones and exchanged numbers with Chase. He even let us stop and grab breakfast, though we had to get it to go. By the time we had made our way back to the hostel, it was nearly lunch. We took our food up to our room, where thankfully all the other roommates were out. They’d mentioned going and doing a tunnel and cave tour, so we quickly ate our breakfast and then took advantage of the empty room (not that that stopped us) and humped like adrenaline-fueled bunnies. I’d hardly had a chance to finish my ceviche and undercooked French fries before Derrick was on top of me, peeling away my clothes and biting my neck, ordering me up onto all fours.

But as we laid there in post-coital comas, atrophy in our limbs and sweat on our brows, I felt something in him change. He didn’t move, he didn’t say anything, but the aura around him shifted, and he pulled away from me. He was mad. It was the same vibe I’d gotten after we’d checked into this place when we’d followed Elissa and Matt back, right after we’d been robbed. He was withdrawn and contemplating something.

“Derrick?” I whispered.

He made a noise in his throat but didn’t say anything.

“Y-you okay?”

I looked up into his face; he was staring straight up at the slats of the top bunk, a muscle twitching along his strong jaw.

“A-are you mad?”

More silence.

“Are you mad at me?”

A long, deep exhale. “What you did today was incredibly reckless, Piper.”

I turned to face him, angling myself up on my elbow so I was looking down on his face so that he couldn’t help but look up into my eyes. Those deep and stormy grays were fixing me with a steely stare. “What I did?”

“Going back to the hostel and antagonizing Gladys the way you did. You could have gotten seriously hurt; you could have gotten killed.”

My lips parted, and I went to say something, but the conviction, the fear, the anger in his eyes stopped me.

He swallowed. “Seeing the panic in your eyes like that, when you ran into me on the sidewalk after you left the hostel, and then finding out the cops were after you — you scared me half to death.”

We’d just met. He hardly knew me. Why was he getting so emotional?

He must have sensed my skepticism, because his face softened just a fraction, and his hand came up and cupped my cheek. “I know we haven’t known one another very long, but it’d seriously suck if you got hauled off to prison or stabbed in the street…” His lip lifted into a barely discernible smile. “Just saying.”

I rolled my eyes, but then his face grew hard again. He was seriously pissed, but seeing as we weren’t really together, and he wasn’t my boyfriend, the line where he could get legitimately upset was very fuzzy.

“Don’t do anything like that again, okay?” The edge to his voice was starting to dissolve. “I like you…and I’d hate for something to happen to you.”

My hand landed on top of his, and I closed my eyes and leaned my face into his palm, nodding. “Okay.”

His eyes took on a wicked gleam. “Save your inner beast, the one with the temper and the fire and the rage, for the bedroom, okay? Let your beast out on me.”

I lifted one eyebrow skeptically. Finally, he smiled. I was not a sex beast. I was not a dominant in any way, shape or form. I might be a hothead and have my bossy moments in my everyday life, but in bed, I was begging to be dominated.

“Go savage on me, woman. I can take it.” Big, straight, pearly white teeth glowed back at me, while his eyes twinkled with all kinds of mischief, the frustration from earlier having seemed to evaporate and join the smell of sex in the air.

I turned my head and took one of his fingers into my mouth, biting it just hard enough to hear him inhale.

“Yeah, like that…but really let those claws come out, let those fangs drop and go mental. Give it to me.” I lunged forward and nipped his chin, so far out of my comfort zone. But he was telling me to be a beast, so in a way, I was still obeying orders.

“More.” His free hand drifted down beneath the blankets to where I was once again growing wet and hot for him.

I grappled for his back and brought him on top of me, letting my nails rake him from shoulder blades to buttocks and back, all the while my teeth continued to drag along his skin, tasting him, claiming him. I clamped down hard on his deltoid when his fingers brushed my clit, and his mouth captured my nipple. The man was a multitasker, and I couldn’t have been more grateful. Playing my body like an instrument he’d known since birth, a prodigy, and we’d only just met.

I felt his cock prod the apex of my thighs, and I spread my legs wider for him, welcoming him home. He slid in with ease, my pussy clenching around him, reveling in the feeling of being full once again.

He started to hammer into me, splitting me open, while his pelvic bone rocked against my clit in an oh so wonderful way.

“Don’t fucking do that again!” He said with a snarl, rearing up and pulling out, only to slam back in, hitting my cervix and making me hiss in pain in the process. Wait. Wasn’t I the one who was supposed to release the beast? And yet here he was, as feral as they come and fixing to fuck or fight. I’m not saying I didn’t like it; this just hadn’t been the plan. I opened my mouth to say something, but he changed the angle, and all I could do was gasp from the sudden rush of pleasure.

He glared down at me. “Don’t be reckless!”

More hammering, more pleasure. He hit my cervix again, more pain. Yes. Oh God. Yes. Pain, pleasure, it all felt so good. It all made me feel so alive, so craved. He was punishing me for my behavior in the best way possible, making my body hum, making me scream for him and plead for forgiveness, for release.

He growled. “Say it! Say you’ll never put your life in danger like that again. Say it!”

I nodded and swallowed, our eyes suddenly locking, blue to gray. So much emotion poured out of him that I found myself verklempt and unable to speak. So, I just nodded again and again and again, until I felt like my head was going to fall off.

“I need to hear you say it, Piper!” His tone was thick with longing and need, only it wasn’t just the need to hear me come; there was a deeper need, a darker need.

“Yes,” I finally squeaked. “I promise never to do anything reckless like that again.”

“Good!” And then he picked up speed and vigor and fucked me until tears streamed down my cheeks and I’m pretty sure I met God.