I waited in the car while the driver turned up the radio station. I sat back on the vinyl seat and watched Lachlan turn the corner for the security gate to the Olympic village.

What was I doing? For an instant in the car I thought he had shown his true colors—the mean, doesn’t-give-a-shit, prick everyone had grown to despise. And then suddenly he softened. He kissed me tenderly. He apologized. He agreed with me.

I couldn’t figure him out. Really, I couldn’t figure myself out. Why was I still here? Why did I let him persuade me? Why did one confession turn me into putty? Why did I want him to hop back in this car and kiss me again?

I’d never met a man like Lachlan. He was irresponsible and selfish. He was a walking tornado, only the carnage was usually women’s hearts and not barn doors. I didn’t want to be one of those women. I didn’t want to leave Rio in pieces.

But I couldn’t stop the pull. I couldn’t deny the attraction. I couldn’t say no even when my mind and heart told me he was dangerous.

Because for three weeks, I could be his. For three short, glorious weeks, he wanted me. And no matter what the rationale was for protecting my heart or my spirit, I wanted that. I wanted him.

* * *

Lachlan and I walked into the hotel together. I heard the whispers and saw a few phones emerge as we passed by. But this was what we wanted. We needed him to be seen with one woman for the next three weeks.

The buzz would start today. The speculation would be out there, and that was okay. Eventually enough people would see us together. I liked how he held my hand firmly as if he was showing the world I was his.

“Which floor, love?” he asked.

“Seven,” I responded.

I don’t know why I felt so nervous. The time for nerves was last night when I stayed with him in the village. That part should be over, but it wasn’t.

As we approached the doors side by side, I retrieved the key from my bag.

“Here you go.” I handed him the key to his room.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Your room. We’re next to each other.”

He looked at me with confusion. He had one damn sexy face. It was enough to make me forget how to speak.

“Hmm,” he turned the handle. “Part of your professionalism?” He smiled.

I didn’t know whether to follow him or go in my own room. In a matter of seconds, he would discover our rooms were connected. And as soon as he twisted the knob, he would know I had already unlocked my side.

It wasn’t as if we were a real couple. We didn’t need to spend all our waking minutes together. We weren’t going to map out Rio’s tourist spots or go for a hike. We weren’t planning a day at the pool or beach. Those were the kinds of things normal vacationing couples did. There was nothing normal about our relationship.

I decided I’d try to get some work done.

I set up my laptop on the built-in desk. The air conditioning sputtered and churned overhead. I heard there were complaints from many of the athletes that the village wasn’t ready for them. I was glad I had a hotel room during the unexpected heat wave.

I had a few emails from Karen. My assistant had also sent an update on the sales numbers for last month’s adventure game. I exhaled as I scanned the spreadsheets. Shit. It wasn’t performing as well as I wanted. It made the pressure for the Kenzie game all that more critical.

I looked up when I heard a loud thump on the other side of the wall. I had no idea what Lachlan was doing over there. It sounded as if a caged animal was trying to break free.

I typed out a response to Sylvie, trying to ignore the sounds that were beating the wall.

I tried to read through a memo about the new launch schedule for the spring when the bookcase rattled overhead.

I pushed back from the desk and marched next door.

“What in the hell are you doing over here? I’m trying to work.”

Before I could dodge, a ball hit me on the shoulder. “Ouch!”

“Sorry, love.” Lachlan grabbed the ball from the floor and tossed it on the bed. “I didn’t see you.”

“What are you doing with that ball? Shouldn’t you be outside on a field?”

He chuckled. “The pitch. It’s called the pitch, not a field.”

“Oh.” I knew we had different terms for soccer, but I hadn’t bothered to study up. “We have dinner reservations later.”

“Sounds fancy.” He waggled his eyebrows.

“It’s a high-profile restaurant. We should have lots of visibility.” I had researched the best restaurants in Rio and made a reservation.

“Optics again?”

“Everything we do from now on is about the optics.” I sighed. We didn’t have much time to change the public’s perception of Lachlan. If it was going to work, we had to be in the public eye every day of the games. I needed to check the schedule for women’s soccer and a few other UK sports to make sure he attended in solidarity of the UK teams.

“What time?” he asked.

“I think we have three hours.”

I saw the expression in his eyes change. The playfulness disappeared and was replaced with a dark hunger.

I took a step back.

“Three hours for you to be mine before we go.” He snaked a hand around my waist.

“What? I’m in the middle of emails and mapping out our strategy. I’m lucky I got us those reservations.”

He spun me, pressing his lips into my neck. “This is how it’s going to work, Aspen.”

My legs buckled. His hands roamed over my chest, pushing my bra down. God, he worked fast.

“I don’t understand.”

“We’re going to go to dinner, but not before you’re properly fucked.”

I closed my eyes as my core tingled with excitement. His hands coasted over my hips, shoving my dress to the floor.

“Because I want everyone with a bloody camera to know you’re mine. I want them to see it when they look in your eyes. And I want you to know. I want you to still feel me when we walk down the street. I want you sore and aching from me.”

I moaned as he slipped his hand under the band of my panties, diving between my slit.

“Don’t you want that?” he growled. “You want my heat between your legs?”

I nodded, biting my lip. “I do.”

He rubbed and circled until I rocked into his hand, begging his fingers to release the ache building inside me. I didn’t give a damn about emails anymore.

He nipped at my ear, plunging a finger, hilting it as far as he could. I sighed into his back, riding out the rhythm.

“Get on the bed,” he whispered in my ear.

I did as he asked, moving to the center of the king-size bed. I watched with anticipation as he stepped out of a pair of jeans and threw his shirt on the floor. He had an unbelievable body. A body that had taken me to new heights this morning. A body that was getting ready to rip pleasure through me again.

He crawled toward me, stopping to kiss my ankle and tender spots along my leg. I shivered with each heated touch from his lips.

Everything he did made me wet. He eyed me with desire. He touched me with fever. He kissed me, moaning in a low, sexy tone, as if promising there was something even better yet to come. But I couldn’t process any of it. All I could do was exist in this haze of lust, skin, and sweat. I couldn’t think beyond Lachlan’s kisses. I couldn’t see beyond the blackness in his eyes. I couldn’t feel beyond the strokes of his fingers between my legs.

He snapped the lace along my panties and I felt a rush of cool air breeze over my clit.

“Oh, God,” I whimpered.

His wolfish grin was enough to make me think I was out of my league. This man was a sex god. He didn’t do anything by accident. No touch was by chance. No words were uncalculated. He had me exactly where he wanted. And he knew it.

“How much did you like what I did to you this morning?” he asked, tugging the panties against my thighs.

I licked my lips. “More than I can describe.” Good God, my voice was raspy and unrecognizable. Was it possible he had turned me into a sex goddess from one good roll in the hay?

He kissed the inside of my thigh, and I whimpered at the impact of his rough stubble. It was like the trailer before a movie. I knew what was coming next.

His lips moved to my folds, separating them with the tip of his tongue. I groaned as he worked the last bits of fabric over my ankles.

“So fucking wet, love.” He lapped between my legs.

And I lost it. I couldn’t say another word. I rocked and pulsed. Whimpered and moaned. While Lachlan owned me. His tongue claimed me. His mouth devoured me, sucking and licking until the vibrations started in my legs and ricocheted to my spine.

I fisted my hands through his dark hair, tugging for more. Needing to bring him on this ride with me. “Oh God,” I whimpered.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find balance or gravity. Every part of my soul was levitating as the orgasm possessed my veins and muscles with quick shocks that soon turned to soothing waves of heat.

His tongue fired over my clit again and I felt my body clench with another spasm as a second orgasm took over.

Lachlan’s mouth sank into mine, breathing heavy breaths with me as I writhed under the pressure of his body. I felt the sweet taste of my sex on his tongue. The warmth of his lips.

I thought I would explode from the sensations tearing through me. I no longer felt the swelling rush of the orgasm. Instead, something else had taken over. I was fueled by a new kind of need. A need for Lachlan to be a part of me. To give him undeniable pleasure. To give him something as epic as he had given me.

My body pulsed, knowing how much I craved him. Knowing that I needed his cock buried inside me.

I looked in his eyes, afraid to speak. Afraid to ruin the current running between us.

“Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” he whispered.

And I felt it. I felt beautiful and sexy lying in his arms with the anticipation of his promises ahead of me.

“But I’m not finished,” he growled.

My chest rose as he traveled toward my nipple and sucked it between his teeth. My back arched off the bed, straining to handle the pressure.

“All of this is mine.” He moved to the other side. “Spread your legs.”

I didn’t argue. I wanted to give myself to him. I widened my knees as Lachlan began to rub the tip of his cock between my folds, coating the head in my juices.

“You know you drive me fucking insane.” He pushed inside and I dug my nails into his shoulders.

He stretched my sensitive center. My head thrashed to the side.

“I want to fuck you like this, Aspen. With nothing between us. No condoms. No barrier. My cock fucking your wet pussy.”

He grinned, knowing he made me wetter just mentioning it. Could I do this? Could I throw the last bit of common sense I had out the window for this experience?

Lachlan’s hand moved between my legs and he withdrew, sitting back on his knees. He tipped toward the floor and I heard him sift through the bag close to the bed. I took a breath. Thank God I didn’t have to make that decision. He reared up, showing off the condom between his fingers.

“Next time, love.” He waggled his eyebrows.

I nodded, not able to comprehend next time. I wanted this time. I wanted this with him now. I wanted him to fulfill his promise and fuck me properly. It was such a perfectly British way to put it.

He rolled the condom on and rubbed the tip up and down between my slit.

“Please, Lachlan.”

“I own you, don’t I?”

I’d never been so exposed or vulnerable. This man ruled me and I liked it.

“All of me.”

He palmed my breasts, pinching and squeezing my nipples. I inhaled sharply, feeling the tightening in my core.

“Damn, everything makes you wet.” He grinned. “I like it. It’s fucking hot.”

And that was when he slammed into me. I screamed his name as his solid cock filled me with blinding ecstasy. I met his thrust with one of my own, desperate to pull him in. Desperate to cling to him, clench his massive shaft.

Sex with Lachlan was incomparable. We were in our own universe. We were lost in pure physical rapture. He pushed deep inside and I clutched at his shoulders. The sweat dripped from his throat and rolled along the smooth planes of his chest.

His hands traveled over my body, exploring my skin, caressing my curves. He kissed my neck and throat, biting my shoulder, licking the saltiness of my skin. And when his orgasm built, he looked in my eyes.

“Fuck, Aspen,” he groaned.

His muscles tensed, and with one forlorn look, I fell into his trap. I bought the sex pitch. I let go of the control I had over my body. He pumped harder and faster, driving a third orgasm into me.

“Lachlan, I can’t…” I didn’t know how to say it. I didn’t know how to describe it.

“Fuck, yeah.” He dove forward while I wrapped my legs tighter around his waist.

I felt his shaft pulse with aftershocks while the last waves traveled through him.

He collapsed against my chest, and I sighed with satisfaction.

“I can’t believe.” I gasped for air. “That was amazing,” I whispered.

He pushed off the bed. “I meant what I said, Ava. I want to fuck you with nothing between us. You’re mine.”

And I felt it. He had taken my body and given it a special gift. I didn’t want it back. It could be his as long as he wanted. Beyond the Olympics. Beyond Rio.

I smiled sleepily. We still had time before dinner. Enough for a nap while Lachlan drew lazy circles on my stomach.