“Good,” he snarls as he pushes in deeper. “Because I wouldn’t stop if you asked me to. I couldn’t stop. Not possible.”

I smile, resting my cheek against the door. That’s an absolute lie. Alex would stop in a heartbeat if he thought he was hurting me, but he’s fueling our passion with his own brand of dirty talk, and it makes me slicker and my flesh welcomes him in deeper.

After pulling out and then giving one more hard push, Alex is seated in me to the hilt and I can feel the stinging nip of his pants zipper on my skin.

He groans in satisfaction and I hear a tinge of triumph in it. I smile even brighter, because there is something immensely fulfilling for a woman to know that she has the power to turn her man into an animal.

There is nothing for me to do. I concentrate on standing in my high heels as Alex starts to drive in and out of my body. He’s relentless, slamming into me with such force that he’s banging me into the door. Anyone walking down the hall has got to know someone’s ha**ng s*x on the other side.

Alex brings one hand to a breast and plucks at my nipple while the other goes in between my legs to stroke with sure fingers. He’s so huge, and I concentrate on the feel of him inside of me as he pounds on and on and on.

“God, you feel good, Sutton,” Alex snarls by my ear, just before reaching down and biting me on the soft skin between the base of my neck and shoulder.

My entire body bucks against the sensation, and he soothes me by running his tongue along my tender skin.

“You drive me crazy,” he pants, banging into my body harder and wringing out the most unladylike grunts from deep within me.

Everything becomes overwhelming to me all of a sudden. The feverish need Alex has for me, the feel of him burying deep into my body, the fact that we are making a lot of noise and assuredly someone has heard us, the way he talks dirty to me with almost a starving compulsion. It all comes crashing down on my senses and my entire body starts to tighten. With just a light stroke of his finger against my clit, I fall over the edge and cry in release as my orgasm explodes outward. My legs buckle and Alex quickly grabs on to my hips, holding me up.

“Fuck, that was sexy,” he says in awe and slams into me once, twice more, and then he stays deep as he says, “I’m coming. Oh, f**k…fuck…damn, Sutton.”

He continues to mutter curses, punctuating each one with another thrust of his h*ps into me. He seems to cl**ax forever, and it’s thrilling to me to feel this uninhibitedness that I’ve not seen before…at least not to this extent.

Alex completely let himself go and it’s like he has never wanted anything more in his life than me at that moment, and it makes me immeasurably joyful inside to think that.

When he stops shuddering against me, Alex pulls back and slips out of my body. I feel the rush of his se**n start to pour out of me and slide down my inner thighs. I hear him zip his pants up, but I still keep my eyes closed.

Stepping into the bathroom, Alex grabs a towel and returns. I haven’t moved, unsure as to whether my shaking legs would support me, so I keep my knees bent and balanced while my palms keep me leaning against the door.

Alex kneels on the floor and gently cleans himself off me, rubbing softly between my legs and making me gasp because I’m still very sensitive. When he’s done, he drops the towel to the floor and lifts me in his arms. Walking over to the bed, he lays me on it and stands over me.

He just stares at me for a long moment as I lie there, his face almost impassively blank. Then he crawls onto the bed, in between my legs, and makes his way up my body. But when his head reaches my stomach, he stops and drops down on me gently, laying his cheek against my belly, and curling his arms underneath me to hold me tight. Rubbing his stubble against my sensitive skin, he says, “Best birthday present ever.”

Reaching down, I run my fingers through his hair and giggle, “You didn’t get the present I wanted to give you.”

“I got the present I wanted, though,” he counters.

“You mean you didn’t want a blow job?” I tease.

“Every guy always wants a blow job,” he sets me straight. “But I needed to be inside you so bad…I couldn’t control myself, Sutton. I’ve never been turned on like that before. I felt like an animal.”

Gripping his hair, I pull slightly so he turns his face and looks up at me. “I like you like that. I like the animal side of Alex Crossman.”

He grins at me then raises up, supporting his weight on his arms. “Let’s take a shower, then maybe you can give me my birthday present.”

“Now you’re talking,” I tell him as I push back on his head, urging him to get up from the bed. He doesn’t get up though. Instead, he places his lips in between my br**sts, right in the center of my chest.

He gives me the lightest of kisses there, then looks up at me. “Seriously…you being here is the best present ever.”

I can’t respond to him. He’s looking at me with such happiness, such sincerity, I’m afraid that if I let any words out of my mouth, I may tell him that I’ve fallen in love with him. That would be foolish to do, because I know he doesn’t feel the same way. I know he cares—a lot. But he’s still holding back from me, and until such time as he opens up all the way, I know love is not going to be part of the equation.

Long after we shower and long after Alex’s knees almost buckle while I lick and suck every inch of him, we lie in the bed facing each other and talk. I fill Alex in on how Garrett schemed with me about his birthday, and I can tell he’s touched that he had a friend care enough about him to get his girl on a plane to visit.