I GIGGLED HARD AS MY foot hit something, sending it crashing to the ground. Loud clattering rang in my ears and a hand covered my mouth. “Shhh . . .”

“Was that a lamp?”

“I dunno.” There was only enough light filtering in from the patio and festivities outside that I could barely make out Dodger’s face, let along anything in the room.

“My mom is going to kick my ass for that one.”

I sat up from the couch and gave him a playful smile. Grabbing his tie, I pulled him down until his lips were almost touching mine. “I’ll buy her a new one.”

“You’re impossible.”

I stuck my tongue out so quickly he didn’t know I’d done it until it swiped his lips. “Whatever. Impossible is me when I’m not drunk.”

Watching him while he sucked in his lower lip as if to taste me, I clamped my thighs shut. It turned me on.

“Challenging, is more like it.”

“I’m not a challenge.”

He smirked. “If you say so.”

Dodger tried to push into me so he could get over the arm of the couch. We were playing a little game of back and forth. I gave him a little room then pushed him away. It was something I’d always done with him from the moment I’d met him.

“I do say so.”

He pushed harder and came over the top of me on the couch. Backwards was the only way I could go. Lying down, I spread my legs to accommodate him, as he settled onto me. Dodger’s soft lips crushed mine in a furious kiss that told me he was ravenous for me. Good, that’s how I liked him. My teasing was going to break him soon if I didn’t give a little. And I would cave. I always did. He knew this. I actually questioned whether it was me teasing him, or the other way around. Either way, we both were getting what we wanted tonight. Actually, I was getting what I needed.

“This isn’t going to be very comfortable for you,” I said with humor in my voice.

“Why is that?” His mouth trailed down my neck.

“Because your long ass legs are still hanging over the side.”

He paused and lifted slightly to peer down at me. “Well then, I guess we better relocate to the bed.”

I cocked a brow. “Awfully sure of yourself, Mr. Brooks. Who said this was even going that far?”

A growl came from deep in his chest. “Macie, you had better believe this is going that far. It’s been too fucking long and I’m sick of the shit you throw at me.”

Now I was taken aback. Scooting back a little to feel like I was more in control and not completely at his whim, I said, “Wait, what shit?”

“Mace, all you do is talk your little teasing chatter trying to get me riled up. Wear your low cut shirts, talk to other guys trying to make me jealous, or pick a damn fight with me. That’s the shit I’m talking about. I’ve had enough of your games. We are either doing this, or we aren’t.”

Well, when he put it that way. “Are you seriously giving me an ultimatum right now? Nothing will sober me up faster, Dodger. You know I don’t take orders from anyone, especially you.”

He snapped. And not in the way I expected him to. Coming completely over the side of the couch, Dodger straddled me, rendering me incapable of moving or wriggling out from underneath him. “You will. This time, you absolutely will. And you want to know why? Because you’re mine, Mace. I’ve tolerated all I can at the moment, and now I’m done. You’re mine. And I do what I want with what’s mine. So if I say we are moving to the bedroom, then we are moving to the god damn bedroom. We both know you want this just as badly as I do. You think I can’t tell how turned on you are right now? You think I can’t literally smell how wet you are for me? That I can’t feel you squeezing your long beautiful legs together, holding back what you need?”

I bit my tongue to prevent moaning or letting out a remark that could possibly ruin this.

“That’s right, baby. I know. I know that everything you do is with me in mind. Deny and I’ll know you’re lying. So no more. You’re giving yourself to me, and you’re going to drop that fucking wall you’ve had up the past few months. You want to build it back up tomorrow, fine.” His blue eyes were shining intently as if trying to pierce through my façade. Dodger sat up ever so slightly, giving me a little room to shift my weight. “I’m going to move now. You’re going to stand up, walk your fine ass into the bedroom and undress as you go. I want to watch you do it all. It’s been too fucking long since you’ve let me see you, Macie.”

I barely rasped out, “Why do I have to take off my clothes? Why can’t you do it?”

“You have me so worked up right now, if I touch them, there will be nothing left for you to put on in the morning.”

Dear god, I could hardly breathe. The imminent satisfaction I knew I was going to be receiving from him was almost more than I could bear. I shivered. The booze pulsated through my veins, making me feel like forming even one sentence after what he said was impossible. It really had been too long. And Dodger was right. I did tease him. If I knew he would be around, I did everything I could to ensure I looked my best. I’d speak to guys just to piss him off, daring him to say something about it. Basically, I played every mental game I knew of to drive him crazy. He just confirmed that he knew it too. Must’ve worked because never in the entirety of our relationship had he demanded of me like he was right now. Time for him to pay me back. In my head, I mentally rubbed my hands together and laughed like an evil queen in a Disney movie. Game on.

Like a captor would do to his prisoner, Dodger slid off me. He calculated his movements, stepping around me and watching me like a hawk. He expected me to fight. Maybe he wanted me to. But I was done. Totally and utterly spent and for the first time I think ever, I was going to give myself over to another person. And what I mean by that is, emotionally, physically, and even spiritually. Dodger would have all of me tonight. I’d always blocked off some part of my emotions from him so I could falsely protect myself. His words, the atmosphere of Keegan’s wedding, the alcohol, and the way my body was reacting to him, this was a battle I knew I’d lose.

I sat up, never removing my eyes from his. He took a step back, making room for me. I followed suit and stood up. My legs were shaky. I couldn’t blame the liquid courage. This was all because of him. He stood there, handsome as ever, in his long sleeved white shirt, black slacks, and a tie that was haphazardly strung around his neck. His brown hair now a mess from my fingers running through it. Dodger’s lips stained slightly pink from my lipstick smearing across them. Head to toe, he was mine and I couldn’t be more turned on by it. He was damn sexy and I wanted him.

We were in the pool house of his parents’ place. It was rarely used except when company came over. I took the necessary steps forward, walking around the coffee table. There was a lamp on the floor along with several broken pieces of glass. Donna, Dodger’s mom, had kept the decorations simple yet tasteful. The pool house consisted of a living room, bathroom, a small kitchenette, and a bedroom. Basically a dressed up apartment. I’d only been in here once, but I knew which door I’d need to open when I got to it.

As I twisted, I moved my feet forward. I was currently wearing a strapless bridesmaid dress with an easily reached side zipper. My shoes were already long gone, as I had kicked them off underneath one of the guest tables out by the pool after dancing the night away. I brought my left hand up to the zipper, and slowly started the downward pull, making a show of my undoing it. Each step I took, Dodger was hot on my heels and matching my every move. The dress didn’t take long to slide from my body, exposing each part of me except for what my black lace panties were covering. My breasts were free, and my nipples hardened at the cool air. I made it to the door where the bedroom was and stopped.

Warm breath caressed my neck. He was directly behind me waiting for me to make my next move. Dodger was so close without touching me that my skin could literally feel him. It made me tingle and shiver. My god, when he finally put his hands on me, it was going to be electrifying.

“Open the door, Macie.”

I took small satisfaction that he sounded like he was on the brink of breaking the door down if I didn’t make a move, and soon. I did what he commanded. A beach theme bedspread covered the bed in the right corner of the room and seashells adorned the night stands. A few framed pictures hung on the walls of their family vacations to the Bahamas and Hawaii, making the room feel more like a home.

Taking a deep breath, I moved inside, walking to the foot of the bed. Deciding to make a show of things, I turned, giving Dodger a view of the front of me. Immediately his eyes roamed from my head all the way to my toes and back up again, pausing a moment on my breasts. Goosebumps covered my body, and I held back the need to rub my arms. I wasn’t cold. Not even a little bit. His eyes were searing my skin and my already damp underwear was becoming a pool of desire. I wasn’t sure at this point who was teasing whom the most.

He took one step into me, not yet touching me but close enough I could feel his clothing brushing my over-heated skin. Not once did I break eye contact though. I wouldn’t. If I looked away, I showed I was the submissive one. I wasn’t submissive. Never have been, never will be. I controlled just as much in the bedroom as he did. That’s what I loved about Dodger when it came to being intimate. Sex in the past, guys would readily give in to my dominance and let me lead in the bedroom. With Dodger, it was a power struggle. He refused to give me control no matter how much I tried to take it. It made our sex life explosive.

“On the bed, and open your legs.”

Good lord, he wasn’t fucking around. His demand was downright intimidating. I liked it.

I raised my brow, testing him without words. He glowered.

I did as he asked, but only because I knew if I didn’t, he would pick me up and put me where he wanted me. Control . . . I wanted the control. One upping him, I would do what he asked, but I would raise the stakes. Hooking my thumbs in my black lace panties, I slid them down ever so slowly over my hips. Taking pleasure in his eyes shifting from mine to the moving object. When the lace reached just above my knees, they fell to the floor. The air chilled my exposed breasts, causing my nipples to peak. His chest was moving up and down at a rapid pace, and what little of his pupils I could see in the faded light, were dilated and intent on their target.

Me.

Before any words could be exchanged, I climbed atop the bed and did exactly what he’d asked, word for word. My head fell back against a soft pillow and smooth quilting cushioned my bare skin. I spread my legs wide open for his viewing pleasure. Every little inch of my pussy was in clear view, no doubt glistening from wetness and begging to be touched. A deep guttural growl came from the man standing in front of me. I had him. The look in his blue eyes said I had him. The clenching of his fists said he was barely hanging on. And the bulge in his pants said he was moments away from busting through his zipper and fucking me until we both couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t wait.

“God damn it, Macie.”

I giggled and shrugged my shoulders. “What?” Innocent . . . I’d play the innocent card.

He brought one of his fisted hands up to his face and scrubbed it around trying to regain his composure. Give it up, Dodger. You’re under my thumb. “See what I mean by impossible?”

I busted out my good girl Georgia accent. “Why, whatever do you mean?”

Rough hands took hold of my ankles and yanked me clear off my pillow. Dodger pulled me until I was lined up to his pants zipper. He briefly released me, but his hands returned to my upper thighs, making quick work of moving toward my pussy. He stopped just shy of touching where I wanted him too. I shook slightly, unable to prevent him from seeing it. The side of his mouth tipped up in awareness. The ball was back in his court. He made a show of brushing his palm over my pubic bone, but giving no pressure, nor moving further down where my clit was dying for attention. If I was this close to bursting, I knew it wasn’t going to take much to make him come. He made a second sweep, causing me to grasp the bedding. I clenched my teeth.

“Dodger, I swear to fucking god, if you don’t cut the games right now . . .”

I didn’t even get a chance to finish that thought. His thumb went directly to my swollen clit. A swift flick, then slow steady circles. He leaned over the top of me, bracing his upper body on his arm by my shoulder.

“If I don’t cut the games right now . . . what? What’ll happen, Mace?”

Bastard had me. I was prisoner to his finger doing magical things to me and I wasn’t going to ruin it with a reply.

“Thought so.”

Dodger slammed his mouth down onto mine with a kiss that was bruising and beautiful. His tongue slipped inside my mouth dueling with mine. We were fighting for more. He could have swallowed me up in this very moment, and I’d willingly go down like a fine wine. It was amazing. I wanted to be closer. I wanted us to mold into one. I wanted him to press into me and get as close to me as humanly possible.

I gasped for air. “Dodger.”

His lips were leaving a trail of fire down my neck. “Hmmm?”

I swallowed, even though my throat was dry. “No more games.”

I felt a little nip of his teeth on my collar bone. “What games am I playing?”

My head was spinning with desire. I shook it back and forth, trying to regain some composure but it was a lost cause. Grabbing his head by his hair, I pulled him up enough to see his eyes. They were glassed over and hungry for me.

“I need you to fuck me. Now.” I saw the retort forming on the edge of his lips. Releasing his head, I dragged my finger down his face and paused on his mouth to quiet him. “No, Dodger, I mean it. I need you inside of me, now.”

My desperation was tangible. The room felt stuffy as a trickle of sweat rolled down my neck. Fuck the south and its unbearable heat. Dodger read me so easily. He nodded, and unzipped his pants. I didn’t bother looking down at him and what he was doing. My brain wasn’t functioning. I was running purely off lust and feel. I knew he was pulling himself out of his underwear and lining himself up to my opening. I knew just before he forced his way inside of me in one quick thrust that he felt what I felt. He paused to make eye contact. That was Dodger. He was the one that needed that. He needed that connection to feel that I was there with him. That’s where he held me—where his power was. In those blue eyes.

“Mace, you still on the pill?”

“What?” I tried to really hear the question, but frankly it seemed too serious to deal with right now.

“The pill. You still taking it?”

He placed the head of his cock on my clit and massaged it back and forth. I swear he just asked me a question.

“Mmm, yes,” I moaned in pleasure.

“Good.” Whatever he asked, he must’ve gotten his answer.

The first moment of him entering me was pain and pleasure. I hadn’t been with anyone since we’d broken up. Being abstinent for a year certainly did a number on my poor vagina. Apparently they weren’t kidding when they said you’d feel like a born again virgin. I wouldn’t be surprised if I were bleeding. I cried out in both pain and pleasure.

Dodger reached up and grasped my hand in his. His body rose above mine, hips thrusting, bodies colliding. My breasts were moving with each pounding and it only drove my need for him up even higher. I craved him. He was all around me, and I wanted to taste him. Reaching forward, I placed my mouth on his shoulder and bit down. I may have bitten too hard, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it amped him up and he was now pushing his cock so hard inside of me that my whole body was moving up the bed. Dodger growled.

The first orgasm that hit me was no gradual wave. It overtook my body like a possession making every nerve ending explode. I must have screamed because a rough, calloused hand covered my mouth, muffling the sound. I didn’t care. My eyes rolled back and I shook with a fierceness that I’d never felt before. My toes curled, and my knees clamped around his hips. I did everything I could to get him to stop while the sensations coursed through me. Unfortunately, he outweighed me by a good eighty pounds. Stopping him would be the equivalent of stopping a freight train with my bare hands.

“Oh shit, stop.”

“No.”

“Too much,” I ground out. “Too much.”

He chuckled. “Good.” He was unrelenting.

Dodger curled his hips upward, and his cock pressed against a spot that was already sensitive and swollen. I dug my nails into his back and hung on. The ridge of him inside of me stroked over the spot once, twice, three times . . . and that was it. The mother of all orgasms rocked me. I was only vaguely aware that he was in the midst of his own orgasm as he groaned in my ear. But I had no sense to even care. My body was writhing. I gritted my teeth, and I felt a gush of fluid as my pussy tightened around his cock. I lost all control. Never in my life had I felt pleasure like this. I imagine this was only a taste of what being high felt like, because I was on cloud fucking nine.

After shocks rippled through me and there was ringing in my ears. I laid there on the bed, gasping for air. My poor body felt like it had just been through a strenuous workout, and yet I’d barely done any work. I was exhausted and kept my eyes sealed shut. All of my synapses were slowly coming back online. Dear lord, how was this ever going to be topped?

“You okay over there? Can you move anything?”

I grunted.

Dodger laughed. “You’ve been laying there for a good five minutes motionless. I was about to check if you were still breathing if you wouldn’t have just moaned.”

I didn’t moan. Instead, I stayed still. The thought of lifting a finger right now might cause me to come again and I don’t think my poor over worked body could handle that right now. I had no clue I was capable of practically shutting down due to orgasming.

“Well, I’ll just assume you missed me that much.”

I pried on eye open and peered at him.

He grinned from ear to ear. “Is that another yes?”

Shutting my eye, I sighed. I needed every muscle to relax so when I could finally move and attempt getting dressed, I wouldn’t slither to the floor like I was mush.

“I knew it.”

He sounded so smug. “Get over yourself, Prince Charming.”

“Just saying, I managed to render you speechless and I thought I was going to have to call a coroner.”

“Dodger . . .” I said in warning. “I would stop while you’re ahead. I’d hate to see that ego of yours get squashed.”

I didn’t have to look at him to know that he was smiling down at me. “Oh, this isn’t ego, Macie. This is confidence. The way your body just responded to me was all I needed to know that you have been missing me just as much as I have you.”

“Again, I’d hate to trample all over that puffed up chest and bright grin you have going on over there, but there isn’t missing of anyone going on.”

Deny. That was the game plan.

In the aftermath of what had just happened, I didn’t need some soft little boy crawling after me because we’d just had great sex. Well, not just great sex. Probably the best sex I’d had in my life. But that wasn’t reason enough for me to proclaim that Dodger and I live happily ever after. That shit just didn’t exist in my world. It’s not that I was fucked up from past relationships, nor was it because my parents had split and I had a complex. Nope, my parents were still very much in love and together, and I had never been in a relationship where I was crushed and swore off boys. This was just the way that I was. I’d seen too many bad movies, too many good friends get hurt, and too many guys fuck things up by thinking the grass was greener on the other side. Bitch, I was the green grass. All the other grass was fucking brown for all I cared. There was no way I was going to let anyone take my emotions and rip them to shreds. I figured maybe someday I’d let that mentality go and settle down. But for now, this was how I lived my life.

“You can’t be serious?”

Okay, that was enough. I opened my eyes and looked right at him. “I’m very serious.”

He got up from the bed in all his naked glory. Jesus, he had an incredible ass. He bent down and grabbed his pants and started pulling them on. What the fuck was happening here?

“You know, Macie, this hard exterior you put on . . . I’m done with it. You wear it like it’s a second skin. It’s god damn ridiculous. And the even bigger problem is that you have sold this bullshit so many times that even you believe that it’s true.”

“What the fuck does that mean, Dodger?” I sat up in the bed and covered my breasts with my arms.

He was yanking his shirt on haphazardly. He stopped to look at me. “It means, I give up. You have pushed me away so many damn times and then cast your little line to reel me back in, that I can’t even count them anymore. I’m done with it. I’m not biting. I’ve always enjoyed a little bit of the playing hard to get, but this is too much. I’ve loved you, and done everything that I possibly can to prove to you that this,”—he motioned his hand between us—“was it for me. You’re my girl, Mace. What just happened wasn’t some fucking drunk accident. It happened because I wanted it, and you wanted it.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he hit me with a hard glare.

“No. I’m a grown ass man, and I’m done with the games.” Dodger was almost fully redressed besides the tie that I think he took off in the living room. He moved to stand in front of the door. “I love you. I love everything about you. But I don’t love what you put me through.” His shoulders visibly dropped. “When you’re done denying what I already know, and you’re ready to quit the god damn games, you know where to find me. Until then, I’m fucking over it.”

He grabbed the handle of the door and slammed it shut. What in the ever loving fuck just happened? How did we go from incredible sex, to me being left behind and being scolded? I blinked, staring at the door. Dodger sounded like a scorned woman. Okay sure, I missed him. And yes, I felt every bit of passion that happened tonight. But none of that equated to knowing he was my forever.

Forever . . .

The word rolled through my head. It wasn’t for me. Not right now. If Dodger didn’t like that, well that was just too bad. Sure, I’d thought I could spend forever with him a few times, but no way was I as sure as he was. Settling down wasn’t in the cards now or in the near future. I lived my life for me. I wanted to be free of commitment to him or anyone else.

I got out of bed on shaky legs. My dress was in a pile on the floor and my underwear was halfway under the bed. I quickly put it all on and decided to head back out to the party. My best friend had just gotten married and I needed to make sure that I was there when Keegan and Camden drove away for their honeymoon. Bridesmaid duties were calling me.

Before I left the room, I looked back at the bed I’d just fixed. “Sorry, Dodger. Nothing will make me settle down. Not right now.” And I left.