“The Botanical Gardens?” I said once we arrived at our destination. “But it’s dark and you can’t see anything.”

“It’s also quiet and private,” Gage pointed out, grabbing my hand and setting the pace while our driver lugged our food and a blanket.

“Are we allowed to be here at night?” I asked in a hushed tone, afraid of getting busted.

“I can go wherever I please,” he answered as if permission were a non-issue. I guess when you had enough money to grease any wheel, you could go wherever you liked.

“What’s it like to know that you don’t have to follow anyone’s rules?” I asked with a thin veil of sarcasm. “I mean, must be nice to know that rules don’t apply to you.”

Gage shrugged in answer as we went deeper into the Thain Family Forest area. The darkness was eerie, the light of the stars casting a ghostly glow on the black oaks and hemlock.

Landon and I had come here when we were first dating but I hadn’t been back since.

I drew a deep breath, willing to admit that even though it looked like a murder landscape at night, the smells on the night air were a welcome change from downtown.

One thing I had to get used to when I moved from the country to the city was the horrid smells that assaulted your nose from morning until night.

From the homeless pissing in the alleys to the street vendors selling their dirty water dogs, the smells were only intensified in the hot, humid air of the summer.

It was a relief to enjoy the clean scent of nature.

We arrived at a small clearing and our driver spread our blanket, arranging our food, then without much word, left.

“Are we totally alone?” I asked, shivering a little. “This looks like the perfect place to be murdered in.”

“True enough. They wouldn’t find our bodies until morning,” he agreed, shocking me with his brief show of humor. “Relax. We are well-protected but we have our privacy as well.”

“Did you hire the Secret Service or something?”

Gage chuckled. “Something like that.”

The questions just kept mounting.

But for now, my stomach didn’t care about mystery — it just wanted food. “So what’s in the bag?” I asked, eager to eat. “I’m starved.”

“Good.” He pulled our trays free and handed mine to me. I wasted no time in seeing what he’d decided I would eat. Please don’t be anything with fish, I prayed. But as I opened my tray, I laughed when I saw what was in it. He grinned at my response. “I hope you like cheeseburgers.”

“You ordered cheeseburgers from an uppity Italian restaurant?”

Gage answered around his bite, “Leonardo’s has the best chef in town. I know he can make Italian, but if he’s really good…he should be able to make anything. And I prefer cheeseburgers.”

His answer tickled my funny bone. “I would give anything to be a fly on the wall when he got your order for a motherfucking cheeseburger. Classic!”

Gage chuckled and enjoyed his burger. Who was this guy? No, seriously. I hated mysteries.

“You’re right…this is pretty damn good,” I agreed, my mouth full but I shook my head as I said, “I still can’t get over the fact that you made a fancy chef make you a cheeseburger.”

He responded with a sexy-ass smirk that sent ribbons of something ticklish down to my toes.

“You weren’t born in New York, were you?” I surmised.

“No.” His gaze met mine. “But neither were you.”

“Stalker much?”

Gage’s deep throaty laugh was sexy as fuck. “I guess I deserve that,” he conceded but didn’t apologize. God damn, everything about him was hot. Even when he was being a dick. “I don’t let people in very often and when I do, I have to be sure that they’re not going to become a problem later.”

“Later, as in…”

“When I turn them loose.”

“I thought you said you’d never done this before,” I reminded him with a coy grin.

“I’ve never brought anyone here,” he sidestepped my statement, balling up his trash and stuffing it into the bag. “This is my thinking place.”

“You come to a public park at night to think?”

Gage nodded, realizing that it sounded odd. “Yeah, there’s something about this place that calls to me. I come at night because that’s when it’s closed. I don’t want to deal with other people when I’m trying to think.”

“Okay, I’m just going to come out and say it…you’re fucking rich…you can buy a park like this and go sit in it all you want. You don’t have to come to a public park at night to do the same thing.”

“Somethings aren’t meant to be bought.”

That was the strangest thing to come out of his mouth seeing as he’d essentially purchased me. “So people don’t rank as highly as a bunch of trees in your opinion?” I asked.

“Not really.”

I tried not to bristle. At least he was honest, right? “You’re an odd duck,” was all I trusted myself to say but I was learning quickly how intuitive he was. He reached, pulling me into his arms so we could lie and stare at the stars. I was already softening. “Tonight, the stars are the brightest,” he said.

“That’s helpful, seeing as we’re surrounded by pitch black forest,” I said wryly. “Did you plan this night specifically for that reason?”

“It did come into play,” he admitted with a somewhat shy grin and I softened even more. Why did he have to be so damn good-looking? I mean, like, poster boy for the hot, untamable bad boy billionaire? I didn’t even know that was a thing until Gage.

“So here we are…two city transplants, in the dark, staring at the stars with full bellies and you’ve already stated you don’t do small talk. Now what?”

Gage rose up on his elbow to stare down at me, his gaze taking in everything as if committing to memory my every detail. For the briefest of moments, I almost thought I sensed something familiar but it was gone in a heartbeat. “Take your shirt off,” he murmured his command. I swallowed and wriggled out of my blouse. He nodded with approval, his body tensing. “Now your bra.”

I closed my eyes and released the clasp, freeing my breasts.

The way he sucked in a sudden breath made me tingle all over. I knew without having to feel or see that he was hard already. I could tell by the way his stare glazed and the way his breath turned shallow that he was hard as rock.

I waited, my own breath compromised. When his mouth closed over my nipple, I arched, a moan spilling from my lips. Gage suckled me like a baby but his hands touched me with the urgency of a man.

“Gage,” I groaned as he moved from one breast to the other, sucking and teasing as his hand found my wet slit. He pushed my skirt above my hips and yanked my panties down. I didn’t have time to gasp before he was feasting on my clit, seeking out that tiny pleasure button with the diligence of a man on a mission. And, Holy fuck, I didn’t mind one bit.

I was dangerously close to cumming and he knew it. The bastard was purposefully driving me to that destination but planned to punish me if I arrived. I tried to do what guys did — think of anything that was the opposite of sexy! — but just when I thought I had a handle on the situation, Gage switched up his efforts and pushed me harder.

“Please!” I begged, barely able to get the word out, breathlessly crying out, “Oh my God, Gage, please let me cum!”

“No,” he answered, pulling away, leaving me aching with need and practically bawling my eyes out for release. I squeezed my thighs together but he flipped me over onto my belly and delivered a sharp whack, hard enough to sting. “I said no.”

I gulped back the yelp and nodded miserably but when I heard his fly pop, hope had me lifting my ass, desperate to feel him inside me again.

I’d never been so cock hungry in my life.

“Who’s pussy is this?” he asked with silky intention in his tone as he dragged the head of his cock against the cleft of my ass, pausing to nudge at my opening. “Who do you belong to, Mari?”

I shivered. “I belong to you, Gage.”

“Good girl.” His cock delved into pussy just enough to wet the tip with my juices. “What do you want, baby girl? Tell me, what you want.”

“I want to cum,” I mewled, too desperate to care what I sounded like. I was already writhing, begging for his cock. I would do anything to feel him split me apart. “Please…”

“You don’t like to beg, do you?”

“No,” I answered, my cheeks heating instantly. I shot him a dark look from over my shoulder. “You’re a bastard for making me.”

“I am a bastard. Best you remember that.”

I thought for a horrifying moment that he was going to leave me unsatisfied but he shoved his cock inside me, taking my breath away. It was a brutal invasion and yet so incredibly pleasurable at the same time.

Ripples of sweet sensation rocked my nerve endings as he rode me hard without mercy. My G-spot swelled with each thrust until I was dangerously close to cumming and squirting.

But when Gage bit out between thrusts, “Cum for me, baby girl,” I groaned with relief as I gratefully gave in to the bone-melting pleasure controlling my every thought.

And I came hard.

So hard, in fact, it almost hurt.

I clenched down, gripping his cock with my pussy and he came seconds later, filling me again with billionaire baby batter.

Gage rolled away, gasping, and for a long moment, we lay there, side by side, the silence broken only by our harsh breath, and I thought to myself, Holy shit…this could become addictive.

And the realization following…

Who am I kidding? I’m already addicted.