A line of people wait outside the club to be let in, lingering and smoking. A well-muscled bartender checks IDs at the front door. We wait in line, and as Damien’s hand rests on the small of my back, a rush of tingly excitement runs through me. My heart beats harder than it usually does.

Because this is date number ten.

Sure, we might have fudged the numbers slightly. Maybe the dinner we just had shouldn’t count as a separate date.

But you know what? This man has freaking earned it.

More importantly, I feel like I know him very darn well. He’s already tried to kill a man for me, told me about his male stripper double life and how he is into BDSM. I know about his crazy ex.

What other secret could he come out with that would shock me at this point? Did he actually kill someone?

I glance at Damien for a moment. His eyes are sharp as he says something to Axel that I don’t understand because I’m focused in on his beautiful jawline, sexy stubble, and deep café-colored eyes.

If there’s one area he’s shied away from, it’s talking about his parents. I wonder why.

I let my hand slide down the T-shirt on his back and run it along his ass. Damn, the thing is like a shelf, it’s so upright.

I can’t wait to grip it as he fills me up. A shiver runs through my spine for a moment as I think of the words he growled to me at the dinner table.

After we fuck again, I’m going to own your pussy. I’m going to fuck you so deep, and so hard, you’ll never be satisfied with anyone’s cock but mine. Are you sure you’re ready for this?

I was caught so off guard I couldn’t even respond. Damien’s sometimes soft and nice, and I forget how much of a crazy man he can be.

I smile softly at him, then lean in and kiss him on the cheek.

He makes an ‘mmm’ noise, the same way he acted when he took a bite of the ribs at dinner. “What was that for baby?”

I shrug. “No real reason. I just wanted to.”

The couples in front of us are admitted to the club and we move up again until we’re only a few people from the front.

Damien cups my head gently around my ear and leans in. “Well, you just wait until we get inside and I show you what I want to do to you,” he says in a low gravelly voice.

My body quivers and I’m about to respond, but the bouncer cuts in and asks us for our IDs, then lets us inside.

The music is loud and the place smells of beer, perfume, and salty sea air. People shout in each others’ ears to be heard as the DJ blasts the latest Latin beat.

Ax is closest to the bar, and he grabs us all the same drink for simplicity’s sake—tequila and Sprite. We huddle up and put our arms around each other, and Damien shouts through the noise, no doubt about to make another one of his classic toasts.

“Y’all are my fucking people!” he yells. “Ax, you’re my fucking man. Amelia, I haven’t gotten to know you well yet, but trust me, the way you and Axel get along I know you’re the fucking shit. And Krista, well, you’re the sexiest, sweetest girl I’ve met. Fuck yeah, guys, thanks for coming to fucking Central America so we could get away and have a good time!”

“To tequila and Sprites!” Amelia adds. “I’ve never had one of these before.”

Ax drops his jaw. “Never?! I’m sorry...I don’t know if we can be friends anymore.”

Amelia shrugs. “Fine. I never wanted to be friends anyway.”

“Fuckin’ right,’ Ax says as he pulls her into him. “You just wanted to be my slampiece. I knew it all along.”

We all suck down our drinks and I contemplate the meaning of ‘slampiece.’ I’m assuming it just means a sidepiece but this is something I want clarification on from Damien.

The music gets louder and I’m about to ask him, but he whisks me away as the next song starts. The dance floor is crowded and our bodies crash against others, although I don’t notice anyone else much. The world around me is a blur and Damien and I become the only ones in the room despite the hundreds of people around us.

The beat drops, he pulls my body into his, and I almost drop my drink. He steps back with a giant smile on his face.

“We should probably finish these,” I say.

He nods, and doesn’t make the same face I do as I suck down the rest of my drink, though it’s really not so bad, since the Sprite makes it taste sweet. He takes my drink and sets it aside with his, and then deftly spins to meet me back in the middle of the dance floor. Over his shoulder Axel and Amelia are making out again.

Damien takes hold of the small of my back and pulls me into him so that I have no choice but to press up against his muscled abs and chest.

“You look sexy as fuck tonight,” is the last thing he says before we make out, the music vibrating through me. I can’t help but bounce the lower part of my body a little bit to the cumbia beat as our tongues dance too.

Damien’s skin is hot to the touch as I run my hand along his bicep. My hips gyrate into him at the pace of the beat, and I feel his swollen cock aching to escape through his shorts.

He’s huge and hard as he drives his tongue into my mouth, and I’m overcome by all of the sensations around me.

The pounding beat of the music.

The taste of our tequila-infused tongues.

The feel of Damien’s flat stomach as I run my hand along it.

My desire to keep sliding my hand down his abs, between his legs to grab his cock.

I’m about to mutter something about how bad I need him, when I’m jolted from my elevated state by a woman knocking into my hips.

“Watch it,” she mutters loudly, and the blood flows out of my face when I realize who the voice belongs to.

It’s Rhonda, and she’s got about ten pounds of mascara on to go with a dress that barely reaches the top of her hips.

Adrenaline, anger, and jealousy course through me. Rhonda runs her tongue along her top lip as she literally eats Damien with her eyes.

“Can I help you?” Damien asks.

“Where were you? We were waiting for hours for you to come to the bonfire tonight! And then I run into you here, dancing the night away like you don’t even give a shit!”

Damien wraps his arm around me and lands his hand on my ass. He’s being extra possessive of me tonight in public, which isn’t normally like him.

And I have to say I like it a lot.

“Rhonda, what the fuck are you doing here? Honestly. Why are you messing with us?” Damien shouts loudly, over the music.

She takes a deep breath, looks at me, then cups her hand to Damien’s ear and says something that makes his eyes go wide.

He shakes his head, then says something back to her, yelling in her ear because it’s so loud.

My muscles tight, I bop to the music, still having no idea what either of them is saying.

Don’t seem jealous. I repeat my mantra in my head.

Damien’s obviously trying to tell her nicely to F off and not make a scene.

There’s nothing between the two of them.

Damien grabs the top of my ass harder, and I stifle a moan.

Rhonda purses her lips and nods, her face rife with disappointment.

She sticks out a hand toward me.

“Nice to meet you,” she says. “Have a good night.”

My heart hammers hard in my chest, and I search her face for the subtext of what she and Damien said to one another. I get nothing. Her face is blank, almost gentle.

What the fuck did they talk about?

I want to ask Damien, but as soon as Rhonda walks away he attacks my body with a renewed force. You would have thought I was the one who just ran into my hot-as-hell ex.

In a way I’m glad there’s no time to talk right now. I’ve got a serious buzz going, and why ruin it by trying to talk about a serious topic in the middle of a loud club?

After a song or two, Damien takes me by the hand and leads me through the double doors to the outside dance floor. A warm sea-salt breeze wafts through the air, and the song Get Low comes on.

I let out a laugh.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I giggle.

“It’s our song!” Damien grins. “I think you should be the stripper this time. If you can handle it, that is.”

I roll my eyes at his blatant attempt to get me to be his personal stripper. But hell, if I’m being honest there’s nothing I want to do right now then strip for him. Except we’re in front of all these people.

I spin around and press my ass into his hips, twerking into him. I look over my shoulder to see the man with a wide smile plastered on his face.

He takes hold of my hips and we grind along until the end of the song, Damien’s thick hard cock pressed up against me through his shorts. Finally Damien spins me around, pulls my face to his and gives me another kiss.

“Let’s get out of here,” he says.

“I thought you’d never ask,” I respond.

I can tell Damien feels the same sense of urgency I do as we leave. We can’t help but stop every sixty feet to make out on the walk home, but we also want to be in the comfort of a bed for what’s about to happen.

We arrive back at our cabana on the water, and the dead silence contrasts with the loud party vibe of the club.

We’re finally all alone here.

Before we go back inside, Damien cups my head, gripping a bunch of my hair in a knot, and asks me one last time.

“Baby, you sure you’re ready for this? Once I let go, there’s no telling what I’m going to want to do to you, how hard I’m going to want to take you. I want you so. Fucking. Bad.”

My skin tingles, still hot from our dancing at the club.

“I want it—all. Everything you can give me,” I purr. “But…”

“What’s the matter? You okay?”

I pause for a moment. “I’m just trying to process everything that’s happened here. The collar, Rhonda…what did she say to you in the club?”

“She said you seem like a lovely girl. And she was sorry for coming on so strongly earlier.”

“Seriously that’s it?”

He nods. “That’s it.”

The light from the stars and the moon reflect on the water and in his dark eyes, and he focuses on me with examining pupils.

“You’re intimidating to a lot of women, Beautiful. I think she was overcompensating for some reason. I only want one person, and she’s standing right in front of me.”

He takes hold of my hand, and electricity sparks through my body.

I swallow and drink in Damien’s sexy aura. “Okay. So what’s my prize now?”

“Well, you’re about to get it. Congratulations on making it ten dates.”

I grin. “Has it been ten dates?” I say, not one hundred percent sure we’ve even counted correctly. “Well congratulations to you.”

He opens the door and leads me by the hand inside.

In the bedroom, we stand next to each other, and for a moment I’m in awe of the connection we’ve built. I help him take his shirt off, and run my hands over the tattoos on his arm. I know a few of them, but I’ll have to get to know the rest of them.

Damien kisses me on the forehead, then lifts the summer dress off of me, leaving me in just the bikini top and bottom I wore underneath.

I arch my head back as he spreads kisses on my neck and undoes the back of my bikini top until it falls to the ground. Running his tongue down the front of my chest, he ends it’s path on my nipple and sucks gently, flicking his tongue over the hard pink tip while he fondles it with his hand.

The mystery of Damien has always been his ability to be the both the toughest man I’ve known and the gentlest.

As he caresses my body and I tingle with pleasure all over, my worries about us melt away. Sure I want to know what he and Rhonda talked about. But that jealousy has converted into an intense need inside me.

“I want you, Damien,” I moan. “I want you inside me.”

He lets off my nipple for a moment and caresses my hair behind my ear.

“You’re going to get all of me inside you,” he growls. “But we’re going to start slow tonight, and I’m going to lick every inch of your body before that happens.”

I try to form a response, but it’s unintelligible as Damien’s mouth covers mine again.

He growls as he trails kisses down my chest again, then picks me up as though I’m a feather, and kisses my stomach and hips.

Chills run over my skin, and he sets me down on the bed.

I lift my hips up to get my bikini bottom off, and Damien takes his board shorts and briefs off, leaving his cock hanging free as he kneels on the bed close to me.

I reach a hand out to stroke his base, but I can’t reach him.

“Come closer,” I whisper.

He scoots closer to my head, and I lean forward to come within range of his cock, propping myself up on my elbow.

Maybe it’s the angle I have laying on my back, or maybe it’s how long he’s been waiting for this. I don’t know. But his cock looks enormous, and he’s smiling down at me like he knows it, the cocky bastard.

My heart thumps so loudly I bet he can hear it as I wrap my hand around the base of him.

Damien groans loudly.

“Fuck me, Beautiful.”

I grin up at him as I hold onto his engorged dick, hard as steel. My mouth waters at the sight of it.

He reaches a hand beneath my panties, and touches my slick opening gently. I stifle a moan.

“It’s okay,” he says with his eyes searing into me. “You can be loud with me. Don’t hold back.”

“I’m not holding back,” I mutter. “I’m just worried.”

He furrows his brow in concern. “Worried? Why would you be worried? Everything okay?”

Falling back to the bed, he lays on his side, his hard length resting on my leg.

I gasp as I feel the weight of him hit my leg.

“It’s nothing,” I swallow. “I’ll be fine.”

“You don’t look fine. Look, Krista, I’m obviously horny as fuck right now, and you are too, but that’s not why we’re doing this. We’re doing this because...I fucking want you. You. No one else. If you need another ten dates of no sex…”

“It’s not that,” I whisper. “I’m worried about something else.”

“Well, what are you worried about?” he asks softly as he caresses my hair, reminding me how gentle he can be in spite of the fact that he’s one of the most dangerous men I’ve ever known.

“I’m worried about that,” I nod toward his cock. “Fitting inside me. I’m so tense right now.”

His concerned frown turns into a smile until he’s laughing out loud.

“Krista...oh God. I thought you were worried about something serious.”

“This is serious. How the hell are we supposed to do this when I’m…”

He puts a finger over my lips, to shush me. Before I can complain, he’s kissing me from my jaw to my chest to my stomach, sliding down my body until his mouth is on my inner thighs, lips softly grazing my sensitive skin.

He positions his entire body so he’s kneeling between my legs.

“I’m sorry. What were you saying?” he smirks, holding one of my legs in his large hands.

“Shut up and keep kissing me, you fool,” I say through hazy eyes.

He does just that, teasing me by slowly tonguing my inner thighs until he reaches my clit.

“Fuck,” I mutter as he runs his tongue over my core. “Second time today. I feel so spoiled.”

Glancing toward me, he barely lifts his tongue off me while speaking: “Good thing I like spoiling your sexy ass.”

I don’t stifle the next moan that comes out of me as he slips a finger into me, then two. He curls them up toward my g-spot and I clench my hands around nothing.

He works his strong long fingers inside me for what seems like a long time. The way he plays me with both his digits and his tongue works me on the road to release.

I clench and spasm and the words leave my lips as I come. “Please Damien, fuck me.”

Slowing his fingers inside me but not taking them out, he lifts his face up. “Yeah? Is that what you want? Just a few minutes ago you were saying you weren’t ready.”

“Shut up with the jokes and fuck me silly, you crazy man.”

He grins, not making a move for a minute as I lie on my back, a second wave of pleasure coming through me.

“Please, Damien. I need you now.”

Finally he gets off the bed, finds a condom and rolls it on with practiced expertise. I spread my thighs for him, and he kneels between them. He holds the base of his cock and I help slowly guide him inside me.

The first couple of inches go in, and I wonder how we did this so easily on the couch.

“Sorry I’m so tight,” I mewl, holding on to one of his biceps.

“Baby, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’re so beautiful right now.”

For some reason the “beautiful” comment relaxes me, and I let out another moan as I take a few more inches of him.

“Oh God, that’s good,” I say.

“Fuck yes,” he growls.

For a few minutes he thrusts slowly in and out of me, so slowly it’s almost comical, but ends up being really fucking romantic. I love the way he feels sliding in and out of me, almost in slow motion, with his big thick cock.

Our hips start to gyrate in unison a little bit faster. He palms my ass, and helps me take him all the way.

“Holy shit Krista,” he bellows, and leans his chest forward, falling onto my breasts. He kisses my lips.

“Harder,” I whisper.

“You sure you’re ready?” he says with a slight grin, teasing me.

“For the love of God just fuck me hard,” I beg. “Please, Damien. I need you now.”

He doesn’t respond verbally, but thrusts faster.

Harder.

Deeper.

He pounds into me with his big thick cock and soon the predominant sound above all is the slap slap slap of our skin.

“Yes. Yes!” I scream as I dig my nails into his back.

“Fuck, yes,” he growls. “Goddamn you’re so fucking tight, Krista. And you’re fucking mine.”

“Yes,” I mutter, as he grabs my ass, adjusting the angle so I take him even deeper. “I’m yours. I’m your little...”

I shudder, losing my train of thought. I clench my pussy around him and ecstasy takes me over.

“Coming…” is all I manage to whisper in his ear as another deep thrust from him brings me my sweet release.

It’s the night air. It’s how his body felt grinding on me. It’s him saving me and waiting to fuck me again.

My orgasm is all of those things combined, and I come so hard I’m surprised an orgasm this powerful is possible.

I melt into a separate being, and I’m white hot, and all I want is for Damien to feel the same thing I did. “Fuck me hard Damien. Fuck me with your huge stripper cock.” I don’t even know what I’m saying as he pounds me.

“Fuck, Krista…” He growls and yells, and I stare into his deep brown eyes, feeling his cock twitching as he comes deep inside me.

When it’s over we’re both panting, and I can still feel his length inside me. Slowly, he pulls out.

“Fuck baby, that was...that was crazy,” he mutters.

“You saying I’m crazy?”

“Yeah,” he says between breathes. “And so am I. Want to do that again?”