She put her hand on his chest, the gesture infinitely soothing. He liked her touching him. God help him, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever get enough. He’d take and take from Mia until there was nothing left. Until she became a Lisa and could endure it no longer. He never wanted another woman to feel as Lisa had evidently felt. It was far better to take his pleasure and move on. The very thing he accused Lisa and his father of. Maybe he was no better than they were after all.

“Not everyone will betray you, Gabe,” she said quietly. “There are many who are loyal to you. You can’t control everything. You can’t control how someone feels about you. Or what makes them tick. You can only control how you react, how you act, how you think and feel.”

“You’re amazingly wise for someone as young as you are,” he said wryly. “Why do I just feel like I’ve been schooled by someone fourteen years younger than me?”

She leaned over, surprising him with her kiss. Her lips lingered over his, warm and so damn sweet. Her bare breasts brushed over his chest, and God help him, his dick hardened instantly.

“You’re too hung up on this age thing,” she murmured. “Maybe I’m just smart.”

He chuckled and then claimed her lips again, his body already revving to life now that she was pressed against him again. But she hesitated and pushed back against him, her face going serious. He didn’t like that. He wanted her next to him, but it was clear she had one more thing she wanted to get off her chest.

“We need to get something straight now. I get the point you were trying to make to your dad. Giving me a heads-up wouldn’t have been out of line, just so you know. It pissed me off to see you wrapped around Blondie, and if that kind of crap ever happens again, I’ll walk out just like I did tonight. Only next time you won’t be able to sweet-talk your way back into my good graces. I get that you have all the power in this relationship, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stand by and watch you feel up another woman while I’m forced to watch.”

She regarded him warily, like she was certain what she’d said was going to make him angry, but he threw back his head and laughed. When he looked back at her, she looked bemused and a little disgruntled over his reaction.

“You’re cute when you’re pissed,” he said, still grinning. “Maybe you aren’t as smart as you think if you agreed to this insanity.”

“Or maybe it’s the best decision I ever made,” she replied, her tone suddenly serious, her eyes regarding him somberly.

“That’s debatable, but I’m not going to spend time questioning my good fortune,” he said.

He wrapped his arms around her and rolled her beneath him, his cock already probing between her legs. He hoped to hell she was ready for him, because he couldn’t wait. Couldn’t spend another second outside her body.

But something about the conversation, the look in her eyes, the way she seemed so accepting, made him hesitate. Damn it, he’d take it slow this time. Give her what she deserved instead of a hard fucking that made him little better than an animal.

He didn’t have to be this cold, mistrustful person. For once he could concentrate on someone else’s pleasure instead of being selfish. For Mia he could do this. He wanted to do it. She deserved nothing less.

Instead of plunging into her, he kissed her. Softly. Without as much aggression as he had before. He nibbled delicately at her lips, feeding on them, coaxing her to open under his advance. His tongue swept over hers, teasing, flirting. Just the briefest touch and then he followed it with another. And another.

He slid his mouth down her jawline to her ear where he toyed with the lobe, swirling his tongue around the shell and then sucking lightly just below on the sensitive skin of her neck. He felt her shiver, felt immense satisfaction that he was bringing her pleasure.

Chill bumps rapidly broke out and raced across her flesh, hardening her nipples until they poked at his chest.

Unable to resist that particular temptation, he kissed a line down her chest, between her breasts, and then he lapped at the underswell, getting closer and closer to her straining peaks.

“Gabe…”

His name came out as a breathy sigh, and it had a volatile reaction to his already-aroused body. The head of his cock was nestled in her sweet heat, but he hadn’t pushed in yet. He wanted to make damn sure she was just as aroused as he was, and then he would take his time. He wanted her as wild for him as he was for her. He’d settle for nothing less.

Reaching between them, he grasped his dick and rubbed up and down her damp folds, over her clit and then back to tuck barely inside her entrance. He licked at one nipple, running his tongue slowly and leisurely across the puckered bud.

“You like this?” he murmured.

“Oh yes,” she breathed. “Suck them, Gabe. I love it when you put your mouth on my breasts.”

God he loved it too. He trembled he was so on edge. He needed her. Needed to possess her. He wanted to drive deep and hard, remind her without words who she belonged to. It was hell battling those instincts, but he forced himself to maintain control.

He nipped gently at one nipple and then followed it with a light lick before finally sucking the crown into his mouth. He held it there, working it with his mouth, enjoying the feel and taste of her on his tongue. There was nothing sweeter. Nothing as exquisite as having her underneath his body, his mouth and hands on her, tasting, touching, exploring. And she was his. All his. He could have her any time he wanted as many times as he wanted. It was like putting a feast before a starving man and telling him to have his fill. He wanted everything at once. To lose himself in her and forget everything else.

Her hand slid into his hair, gripping his scalp, her nails digging in as she held him to her breasts. It was the first time she was remotely aggressive in bed, and he liked it. He liked it a damn lot. It told him she was there with him, sharing this mind-blowing, crippling obsession. He wasn’t alone.

She arched her hips, pushing herself at him, trying to maneuver his dick inside her. Wetness bathed the head of his cock, and he knew she was more than ready, but he still didn’t make that final move. He wanted her mindless. Wanted to bring her pleasure like she’d never experienced.

Kneeling up, his erection bobbing, he kissed a path from her breasts to her belly. She flinched and moaned when his tongue delved into her navel. He played there a moment, enjoying her restless movements as her desire rose.

He kissed his way to her pelvis and then over to one hip where he lavished her skin with sweet, gentle kisses. He ran his tongue down her leg, to the inside of her thigh and precariously close to her pussy. But he stopped before he reached her most intimate flesh.

Her sigh of frustration made him smile.

He sank his teeth lightly into the inside of her thigh and then followed it up with a soothing swipe of his tongue before venturing lower, grazing his teeth down the inside of her leg, past her knee and lower still to her ankle.

Her toes were tiny, painted pink, a delightful shade that complemented her well. He sucked her big toe into his mouth and suckled at it as he’d done her nipples. Then he treated each toe to the same, working his way across her foot.

“God but you make even the simplest things unbelievably hot,” she choked out. “I’ve never had my toes sucked. I would have said gross, but your mouth is pure sin.”

He gazed at her over her raised foot. “Gross?”

“Forget I ever said anything. Carry on.”

He laughed and then lowered her leg and began all over again at her other hip, licking and kissing a path to those tiny, delectable toes. He sucked each and every one into his mouth, licking the pad and then sucking more strongly.

He loved that she was unapologetically feminine, and yet she had a strong personality and she didn’t take shit lying down. She was going to be a challenge. A welcome challenge, and a change from the women he was accustomed to. She may very well keep him on his toes over the coming weeks.

He wanted to spoil and pamper her shamelessly. Let her indulge in all the girlie delights she wanted. He wanted to see her smile—be the one who made her smile. He wanted that shine in her eyes to come from him. If that made him a selfish, egotistical, self-serving bastard, he could live with that.

He took hold of both feet and pushed forward, doubling her legs and then spreading them as he knelt between her thighs. She was splayed wide open to him, the soft, pink flesh of her pussy glistening in the low light.

Resting one foot against his shoulder, he reached and trailed a finger down the seam of her pussy and then slid it inside, feeling the snug tissues hug him. Sweat broke out on his forehead. He wanted inside her so badly he was about to come.

He leaned down and licked from her entrance to her clit in one rough swipe that had her bowing off the bed. Her cry escaped. His name. An urgent demand for satisfaction. He could sense that she was at the end of her patience, and that was fine with him because he couldn’t hold off another second.

Moving in closer, he grasped his erection and fitted it to the mouth of her pussy. For a moment he toyed, sliding it in and out the barest inch until she growled at him in frustration.

A smile curving his lips, he eased forward, inch by inch, enjoying the thrill of her enveloping him and pulling him deeper.

“You’re such a damn tease,” she said crossly. “God, Gabe. Fuck me already!”

He let her legs fall and then leaned over her, angling himself so he could thrust deeper. He kissed her, still smiling. “So demanding,” he mocked.

She reached up, grasped his head and yanked him down into a forceful, demanding kiss that firmly proved his point.

He plunged through her wetness, sliding past swollen, tight tissues until his hips met hers.

“Fuck me, what you do to me,” Gabe said in a tortured whisper.

She wrapped her legs around him, hooking her ankles at his ass. She lifted herself upward, wanting more. Hell, he wanted more. It would never be enough.

Planting his hands on either side of her head, he began to pump in and out. He pushed and undulated deep, holding himself there at the deepest possible point before sliding back out, retreating, only to advance again in an erotic, tantalizing rhythm.

“Tell me what you need,” he managed to grit out. “How close are you, Mia? What do you need?”

“You,” she said simply, that one word tearing to the very heart of him. “Just you.”

He didn’t have to tell her to give him her eyes. Her gaze was solidly fixed on him, sweet and understanding, the glow of arousal warm in her depths.

He sped up his thrusts, plunging, rocking against her. She fluttered and convulsed around him. He felt the start of her orgasm as she rippled along the length of his cock and then squeezed him so tight that it initiated his own.

It was like being turned inside out. The rush was nothing he’d ever experienced before. The ultimate adrenaline surge.

The first jet of semen erupted from his body, painful and so intensely pleasurable that he lost sense of everything but his dick diving into her over and over. She was limp on the bed, her eyes on him when she came—as her chest rose and fell in rapid succession. Even when the last of his release had left his body, he still fucked her, not wanting that feeling to go away.

Her arms circled his shoulders and her hands rubbed up and down his back, her nails lightly scouring his flesh. He moaned and shuddered from the toes up. He pushed inside her and stayed, lowering his body so it rested atop hers.

He slid his hands underneath her ass, pulling her tighter against him, not wanting to lose that connection. If it were up to him, he’d remain a permanent part of her, his dick wedged in her pussy. There was no better feeling on earth.

“Mmm, that was decadent,” Mia said in a sleepy, completely satisfied voice.

He had nothing to say because there weren’t adequate words to convey just how wrecked he was right now, and he didn’t want her or anyone to know just how vulnerable he felt at the moment.

He kissed her temple, careful not to move so he remained inside her. He wasn’t leaving her until he had to. It was twisted, but he liked the fact that she was apparently every bit as possessive of him as he was of her.

She was snuggled tightly into his body and they were still connected, their bodies entwined intimately. He thought she’d already drifted off to sleep when he heard her quietly say his name.

He picked up his head just enough that he could see her, and he thumbed a thick strand of hair from her forehead.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked. They’d already talked about way more than he was comfortable with. And something in her gaze told him this wasn’t something small.

“The contract,” she whispered.

He tensed and then levered himself upward even more as he stared down at her in question. He was still hard inside her, still solidly a part of her and he remained that way, wanting her underneath him, pinned down and possessed by him. Especially if they were going to discuss the damn contract.

“What about it?”