Cassie put the finishing touches on her makeup and sat on her couch, waiting for Patrick’s arrival. She’d put on her favorite little black dress and those new red shoes she’d gotten for her birthday, giving her the extra boost of confidence she needed. A bottle of wine was chilling in an ice bucket on her coffee table, two glasses beside it, and her recent purchases were on her nightstand.

A quick knock sent her pulse hammering. She checked her reflection in the foyer mirror before putting one hand on her hip and opening the door.

Standing in her hallway with his coat folded over one arm, he was sexy as always: navy slacks, that massive chest framed beautifully by a white button-down, heather-grey vest and pocket square. But his clothes were nothing compared to his grin—sultry like a fox, sly and ready for the hunt.

“Hey sexy.” Patrick pulled her to him, kissed her like he was a betting man and she was his lucky pair of dice. He didn’t just kiss with his mouth either. He devoured her with his entire body, hands in her hair, hips grinding against hers.

“Miss me?” she breathed against his lips.

“Incredibly.”

“It’s only been a few days.”

“A few days too long.”

She closed the door behind them. She took his coat and folded it over a chair, then led him toward the couch. Her place was small enough that it wasn’t a far walk, but he tangled their fingers together anyway, as if he didn’t want to stop touching her for a second. Sparks chased down her spine. She motioned to the chilled bottle.

“Would you like some wine?”

“I think I can allow myself a glass.”

“Only one?” She’d need more than eight ounces of liquid courage if she was going to bring up what she wanted him to do to her tonight.

“I always only have one drink. It’s my rule.”

Really? “I’ve never noticed.”

He shrugged, the move casual and distant, his face twitching into that mask of indifference for a brief second before he worked it back into a smile. “Let’s hear about this meeting.”

When they’d settled on the couch and she’d poured them each a glass, she said, “Things are finally turning around. The partners are happier with me, thanks to this huge case I brought in.”

“The bankruptcy case you mentioned, I assume?”

“Yeah. Totally fucked company, but if I can fix it, I’ll finally make partner.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed.” That mask seemed to slip back on, but then he put down his drink, brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingertips. “Now about those toys you mentioned.”

“Getting straight down to business, aren’t we?”

“Mmm-hmm.” He ran the pad of her middle finger over his bottom lip and licked. Pleasure jolted through her. “I want to see them.”

“Now?”

“Yes. Now.”

Cassie didn’t need to have been a submissive to obey that command. Eager and full of nerves, she stood, knowing he was watching her hips sway as she went into her bedroom. She returned with four objects and sat back down beside him. Patrick plucked them one by one from her hands.

“A ball gag, a bullet vibe, an anal plug and a bottle of lube.” He examined the gag, rolling the ball around. “My, my. Someone was busy this afternoon.”

“I was. Are you pleased with my purchases?”

“Depends on who the gag is for. You did say I’d be prettier if I didn’t talk so much.”

She laughed, momentarily regretting having said that.

“It’s for you to use on me. They all are, if you’re up for it.”

“I’m very up for it. That being said…” He turned the plug over and pressed his fingers around the widest part. “This was a bit ambitious. You’re not ready for something this big.”

Cassie frowned. “How do you know?”

He reached around behind her with his free hand until his palm found the bottom of her dress. Lifting it up, he grazed over her rear.

“You’re pretty tight, my dear. A plug this big needs working up to.”

Frustrated and disappointed, Cassie lowered her gaze. It was embarrassing how inexperienced she was compared to him. If she’d known she needed working up, she wouldn’t have bought it.

Patrick put the toys on the coffee table and cupped her face, drawing her eyes back up to meet his. “Hey, no pouting. This is uncharted territory for you, and your eyes are bigger than your…back door.”

A small giggle bubbled up from her chest. And having his large, warm palms on her cheeks was comforting. It settled her, like The Hug had. “I suppose you’re right.”

“I know I am.” He dropped one hand down to where it had been, a teasing squeeze to her other cheek. “Don’t worry. We can still play that way.”

Cassie felt her smile return. “Oh yeah?”

“Definitely. There’s plenty I can do with my fingers.”

His middle finger found the space in question, pressed down and slid back and forth. The sensation was a shock—violating but strangely pleasurable. Her eyes fluttered shut, her mouth dropping open around a silent oh.

“I think you like that,” he said quietly.

She nodded and held on to him while he played, pressing, rubbing, circling. A little more pressure, and she gasped and fisted his shirt. Patrick chuckled, then stopped his ministrations to reach out and retrieve the gag.

“And this I think we’re both going to like.”

She shivered as he dangled it from his fingers. He was already driving her to the point of utter powerlessness. What else could make her feel as helpless as having her ability to protest muffled?

“Tell me what you fantasized about doing tonight, Cassie.”

“I want…”

I want you to take me. Force me. Show me your strength and I’ll surrender to you.

She struggled with the words, because for all they’d done together, for all the badassery she knew she had, she still didn’t know how to ask to be violated.

He leaned in to kiss her neck. Cassie jolted at the bristles of his facial hair, the wet sensation of his tongue on her skin.

“If you don’t tell me your fantasies, Cassie, I can’t live them out.”

God, she wanted to live this out. She was safe with him, but she wanted the illusion of not being so. And he would make that happen, if she asked him to.

“I want you to be mean like you have been, but more. I want it to be hard. I don’t want to be able to say no.”

“Jesus.” His head lolled back against the couch, and he reached down to adjust himself.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Not at all. It’s sexy as hell. The shit you like, it makes me crazy. But I need you to be more specific.”

“So I don’t end up getting upset again.”

“No, silly. So I don’t do anything that gets you upset again.”

“Oh.” The fact that he was taking responsibility floored her. Patrick twirled the gag around his finger, waiting.

Specifics. Okay. She could do this.

“I want you to use the gag on me, and play with my ass, and maybe even scare me a little. Make me want it, even when it seems like I don’t. Make it so good I can’t help but come.”

“Tall order.”

“You asked for specifics.”

“I did. And you gave me exactly what I wanted—a very detailed fantasy.” There was a heated glint in his eyes. “But you need to be able to show me if you’re not okay. Hard to say a safeword with a piece of rubber shoved in your mouth.”

She looked around. On her desk was a stress ball she’d had since law school. She pointed to it. “I could hold that. Throw it if I get scared.”

He glanced over, then gave her a quick nod. “Get it. Then lie on your bed. Face up.”

She scrambled to her feet, clumsy in her excitement. Patrick went into her bedroom, unbuttoning his shirtsleeves as she retrieved the ball. He put it with the rest of the toys at the foot of the bed, then pulled his vest and shirt off, revealing that broad, powerful torso. Just watching him, she could already feel the bulge of his shoulder muscles under her hands, the sheer size of him as he pressed her to the bed, chest hair scraping over her nipples. She liked that there was nothing manicured about him under his clothes. That for all his grooming and wealth, beneath it all he was simply a man.

“Towel?” he asked.

Cassie nodded toward the bathroom. He returned with dark blue terrycloth, dropping it on the bed as he loomed over her and crashed his mouth against hers. Hot and fast, tongue darting into her mouth in short, teasing moves, he kissed her like she was fresh fruit off a vine. Her head was spinning when he stopped to take off her dress. He didn’t rip, but was rough as he yanked it down her arms, her bra and panties next. Nuzzling her exposed breast, he bit until she hissed, then licked over the pain he’d caused. Cassie dug her heels into the blanket.

“My shoes…” she said when he’d gotten her naked.

“Leave them on.”

“God.” Cassie arched her hips toward him. “Please.”

He ducked back and knelt on the floor instead. She scowled at him, and his grin was infuriating. “What? Did you think you were going to get what you wanted so easily?”

He gripped her thighs and spread them open. She struggled, trying to break away and drag him back up but his thumbs dug painfully into her.

“Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be, Cassie.”

There it was—the power and danger she needed, the hint of a fight in his voice.

“And what happens if I do?”

“The more you protest, the more I’m gonna take what I want instead,” he said. “And what I want is that.” He fit his mouth against her sex, sucking lightly on her clit.

Sensation shocked through her, and Cassie gave up the fight. Two of those big, warm fingers slid easily inside her and curled upward as he flicked his tongue over her tight mass of nerves, and Cassie bowed off the bed, defenseless to the crush of pleasure. This was perfect. He was perfect. How had they avoided this for so long?

One of his hands came down hard and flat on her side. She squeaked in surprise at the sudden smack. “What are you doing?”

“Whatever I want.”

“I thought these were my fantasies we were acting—oh shit.” He did that thing that made her crazy again, rubbing so fast and hitting so deep and making her so wet she wanted to hide her face in embarrassment.

“Little whore doesn’t know what she wants, does she?” He slapped her again. Sucked harder. Fingered faster. She couldn’t take it. She was almost there. “Asks for one thing, then complains when she gets it.”

He slid his fingers free, and Cassie groaned at the agony of being that close to release, then left hanging at the edge. He discarded the rest of his clothes, and she took in the perfect planes of his chest, his thick legs dusted with hair and long, hard cock. He smiled at her as he stroked himself. Longing stirred, hot in her belly, as he fanned his hand open, his palm running along the underside of his dick.

“You like watching me?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she said, entranced.

“Something we have in common. Because I’m about to enjoy watching you too.” Patrick stopped stroking. He reached for the gag. “Open.”

A heady thrill shivered through her. She sneered up at him. “You’re gonna have to make me.”

He paused, something like hesitation passing over his face. Cassie pinched her brows together and gave a tight shake of her head.

Don’t break the spell.

Make it feel real.

He blinked in understanding, then his posture transformed. Shoulders back, arms taut, he bent down and glared at her. His angry look made something sharp leap in her stomach. “Then I guess I will.”

In swift moves that didn’t give her time to think, he dropped the gag, then gripped her hands and shoved her on her back. She thrashed but he held her down.

“Don’t fight me,” he said. “Or there will be consequences.”

Fight me, is what she heard. Then enjoy the result.

Cassie tried to wrestle him off, but he was stronger, and oh, that feeling of him grappling her still. With his legs jamming her against the bed and one thick arm like a steel beam across her chest, he smiled.

“What a pathetic little fighter you turned out to be. All bark and no bite.”

She snapped her jaw at him—the only recourse she had. Patrick’s brow lifted, a teacher scolding his pupil. “You gonna bite me like the little bitch you are?”

Heat flashed through her. Keeping her immobile with one arm, Patrick reached down with the other and played with her clit. Cassie wilted beneath him, conceding the fight because it felt too good not to. The pads of his fingers swirled and stroked, up and down, around and around. It was unfair how quickly he’d found all her buttons, how easily he could crack her open and make her beg for more.

His hand slipped lower and plunged inside. Cassie’s head fell back on a groan.

“You’re a mess,” Patrick said with a laugh. “A beautiful, drenched, horny mess.”

She arched toward him involuntarily, needing more, but she wouldn’t let him win completely. “Is this what you call consequences?” she asked through clenched teeth.

He chuckled, then withdrew his fingers and slapped her clit. “No, this is.”

The smack ricocheted through her in a bullwhip effect, pain that reverberated from that tiny point into a warm, heavy pleasure. But she didn’t have time to absorb the sensation. Seizing her by the crown of her head, Patrick gripped her hair, brutal as he jerked her upward.

“Be good now,” he warned, letting her go to retrieve the gag. Cassie shivered as he thumbed along the side of her jaw, coaxing it into her mouth. It felt bigger than it looked, and fear pulsed through her until he whispered, “Breathe.”

She did—one inhale, one exhale, adjusting to the invasive feeling. The ball was punched open with holes she could take in air through, and once he’d fastened the strap, he sat back on his knees to look at her.

“You have no idea how sexy you look, all helpless like that.”

Her heartbeat kicked up a notch. She could feel wetness everywhere. Between her thighs. On her chin from her own sloppy breathing.

“So pretty with something shoved between her lips.” Patrick tweaked each of her nipples, rolling them between his fingers and thumb. “Unable to be her rude, bitchy little self.”

Her groan came out muffled around the gag. Patrick slapped her breast, then picked up the stress ball.

“Exit,” he reminded her, and pressed it into her palm.

Cassie nodded, and they stared at one another for a moment. Something passed between them, although she wasn’t sure what. Affection? Respect? She wanted to try to say it, to spit out the words wreaking havoc in her head, but she couldn’t, rendered silent by a toy he’d put there.

With a lethal calm to his voice, Patrick leaned in and hissed, “Now, up on your hands and knees before I force you there.”

The threat in his words had her shaking harder. Cassie turned over and held herself up on all fours.

“Trembling like a little flower,” he said through harsh breaths. “Trust me, my dear. You haven’t begun to shake yet.”

When he knelt behind her, she heard a cap pop open, and then cool, thick liquid drizzled over her backside.

“I’m gonna have a little fun now, and if you don’t struggle, you might enjoy it too.”

Anxiety and excitement mounting, Cassie clutched the ball and pushed back against him. He spread his fingers across the middle of her back and pushed her downward until she was stretched out on the bed.

“Legs open,” he instructed, and she widened them as far as they could go, her head to the side on the pillow. Cassie closed her eyes as Patrick stroked between her thighs and back into where she was aching.

Heaven. Agony. So much and not enough. She moaned into the gag, feeling herself get even sloppier.

“Your pussy is so greedy,” he said, thrusting in and out. “So sloppy.”

She trembled, surrendering to it all. Her jaw hurt but the rest felt so good—the pressure of his elbow on the small of her back, his incessant plunges inside her. She spread her legs wider and rocked against the comforter, needing friction at her clit.

“So desperate to come you’re fucking the bed.”

She exhaled hard. Patrick’s free hand crept downward until one finger—his pinky?—made a lazy path through the lube on her cheeks, searching, seeking. He slipped it along her back opening.

“Now, you’re gonna take this,” he murmured. “And I’m going to stroke that tight little ass of yours until you’re coming all over my fingers.”

Cassie held tightly on to the stress ball. Her breathing sped up, and she tried not to clench as his finger slipped past the first tight ring of muscle. It burned, but along with it came a deep plunge into her pussy from his other hand. He slid a little deeper into her backside, and she let out a long, muffled groan.

“That’s it.” He sounded almost amazed. “There you go. I knew you’d like it.”

She did. It felt strange and violating and wrong, but incredible at the same time, and her discomfort dissipated as he found a rhythm. One finger, then the other. In and out, working in opposition. His forearm pressed into her lower back, forcing her to take, to feel.

“Now, what was that you said before, about not being able to help but come?”

He stopped fucking her with his fingers and twisted his body around. Cassie heard a buzzing sound. The bullet vibe switching on.

Easing his hand beneath her, he fitted the vibrator against her clit. The quick, steady pulses rocketed through her, but Cassie’s gasp was silenced by the gag. She was sweating now, her hips bucking. Patrick’s pinky rode even deeper into that unfamiliar back passage as he penetrated her with his fingers once again. Cassie whined loudly. He was kidnapping her body, her mind lost to the way he was working her. Her face was a mess—she could feel drool everywhere—but she couldn’t care, not when it felt like this.

She was seconds away from coming when Patrick bent lower and whispered, “Take it, whore, and come. I don’t care if you want to or not. We both know you’re going to.”

Cassie broke apart, the climax so intense she screamed around the gag. Patrick pushed her down as she writhed, forcing her to take more. She clutched the pillows and arched away in an instinctive reflex, trying to escape from the vibrations, but he made her endure it until another orgasm seized, hot on the tails of the first. When he finally, mercifully, slid his fingers free and removed the vibe, Cassie sagged against the bed.

“That looked like you enjoyed it immensely,” he mused as he toweled off his hands.

Her throat was too raw for her to reply. It was the closest to her fantasy she’d ever experienced, but it was missing something. Missing the fear, missing the sense she couldn’t escape, that she was being taken against her will.

What the hell was wrong with her?

Suddenly she couldn’t catch her breath. The shame at wishing he’d been even harsher made tears spark in her eyes. She tried to stop them, but the dam was broken, and she couldn’t hold them back.

She shoved the stress ball in his direction and pinched her eyes shut.

“Okay, shhhh. Hold on, I’m taking the gag off.”

He unlatched the strap, and Cassie yanked the gag out of her mouth, curled into herself and started to sob. The only respite was the warmth of his body as he wrapped the towel around her and tucked her head beneath his chin.

“I’m here,” he said. “I don’t know what I did wrong, but I’m here.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” she babbled, her voice scratchy. “That was great. Incredible, actually.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“Because of the things I want. They’re fucked up.”

“What—orgasms?”

Cassie snorted despite her tears. “No, it’s…”

She teetered on the edge, the words waiting to come out the way you’d wait to careen off a cliff. Sharing this awful truth with anyone, let alone Patrick, had always felt impossible. But this was all just sex, wasn’t it? And there was something about being with him that felt anonymous. A step outside reality where she could whisper her sins to the darkness, and he’d absolve her of them, taking her secrets with him when their time together was done.

“…My fantasies disgust me.”

Cassie knew he’d heard it—the meekness in her voice, the sound of her armor peeled away. But he held her more tightly. “Why?”

“Because I want to be treated as an object. You don’t think that’s fucked up?”

“Should I?” He rubbed soothing circles over the towel. “We like what we like. It doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with us.”

Us. That helped a bit. Calmed her at the same time as it bolstered her nerve.

“I’ve always been ashamed of the things that turn me on.”

“I don’t see what there is to be ashamed of.”

She wiped her face and looked up at him. Hiding had always been easier than trying to trust someone, or even understanding her desires herself. But here, in his arms, she felt safe enough to try.

“Because I want to be taken against my will. That’s the messed-up part. I’m a woman. I’m a lawyer. I’m half Cuban, for fuck’s sake. Everything I’ve ever known tells me I shouldn’t want what I do.”

Patrick went strangely still. “You’re half what?”

“Cuban,” she repeated.

He leaned away from her. His expression wasn’t what she expected—blinking and stunned, and not in a good way.

“But your last name. Allbright, it’s American.”

“German, technically. My dad’s a native Floridian. My mother is Cuban.” She was annoyed, but his disbelief wasn’t a surprise, so she did what she always did to prove it. “¿Te he sorprendido? Pobrecito bebé, deja que mamá lo bese.”

Did I surprise you? Poor little baby, let mommy kiss it.

As quickly as if she’d stung him, he pulled away and swung his legs over the bed.

Cassie’s skin prickled as she stared at his bare back. “What just happened?”

“I need a minute.”

“For what?”

“Hearing you speak Spanish—it…took me by surprise, okay?”

Wait, seriously? Everything she’d said and he was freaking out because she was biracial?

Cassie’s armor began clipping back into place. She sat up and wrenched off her shoes, not wanting to be anything resembling sexy anymore, at least not for him. “Was discovering I’m technically a minority such a blow to your rich-white-man frame of mind? You can’t believe you’ve been fucking a half brown-skinned girl this whole time?”

“Jesus. No, that’s not it at all.”

“What is it then?”

“I’m—I just…fuck!” He jumped to his feet. Cassie thought he was going to leave when he tugged on his boxers, but then he began to pace, marching back and forth in silence. She threw her shoes to the floor and hauled the blanket up to cover herself, kicking the toys off until they hit the ground with a thump.

She crossed her arms. “You have two options, Patrick. Explain yourself, or get the hell out of my apartment.”

“All right!” Patrick stopped pacing. “All right,” he said more softly. “I’ll tell you everything.”