He bands his arm around my hips and seats himself deeper, causing me to suck in a sharp breath. But the look in his eyes seems to reach deeper still. Dark-blue tornados of lust. His lips part as he pulls back and sinks in again, stealing my breath with the perfectly overwhelming way he fills me.

Emotion seizes my throat. It’s as if the second I let him inside me, everything changed. Our bodies fused and the chemicals in my brain rewired. Now all I can see is his face, gorgeous and vulnerable, as he slowly begins making love to me. All I can feel is this electric frenzy that drives his thrusts and my gnawing hunger for more of them. All I can think about is how perfectly we fit. How perfect this could always be…

I let my whirling thoughts run wild and lose myself in another velvet kiss. Kase’s thrusts are agonizingly slow. He makes me feel every inch of him, every tender drag against where he’s torn through my virginity, every dizzying blow when he reaches the deepest part of me.

I fit my heels into the indentations of his taut ass and add pressure to his next thrust. I feel possessed, crazed with how badly I want to be consumed by this man. “Kase, I need more.”

His muscles tense, but he keeps his pace. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

I dig my fingernails into his shoulder and arch into him. “Yes, you do.”

A low moan rumbles through him. “June… Not tonight.”

“I’ve waited this long. Make me feel all of it.”

“Fuck,” he breathes against my neck. Then he glances between us where he withdraws slowly to the tip. “God help me, I want to hurt you in all the best ways.”

I spread my legs infinitesimally more, as if somehow I can bring him into me again by sheer will. The yellow lamp on the bedside table casts shadows on us, darkening his eyes behind the short curtain of his wavy locks, bringing every ridge of his abdomen and defined muscles into stark relief. He’s beautiful and intense and so much more than I ever imagined he could be. And right now, tonight, we belong only to each other.

“Are you sure that’s what you want?”

Another heat wave starts in my cheeks and warms me down every limb. Why does the idea of unleashing the beast in him make me melt this way?

Who the hell am I?

“Don’t hold back,” I whisper.

He slips out of me completely and starts moving down my body. I make a small sound of protest. I claw at his shoulders to draw him back to me, but he’s too powerful and too fast. He brings his mouth down on my pussy before I can argue. Maneuvering his tongue and teeth and fingers, he teases and taunts until I’m grinding against every touch.

I writhe and whimper. His mouth is magic. Kase is magic…

“You want to come?”

“Yes,” I moan, tugging his hair, desperate for the last few strokes that’ll push me over the edge. I’m so close. So incredibly close…

“Not yet.”

I let out a small scream when he unlatches from pleasing me and slides up my body again.

“What are you doing to me?” I can’t hide my desperate tone. I need him to finish me. I need…something.

He grabs my thigh, pushes it to my chest, and lines his cock up to me again. “Getting you ready.”

“For what?”

“For this,” he says the same moment he slams into me.

I cry out when every inch of him fills me at once. He withdraws quickly and slams home again.

I grab his arms and stare up at him, trembling. His gaze never wavers. His body is a column of raw determination.

He powers into me without restraint. It borders on painful. It’s exactly what I asked for, but it awakens something new. A kind of pleasure that nearly paralyzes me, like the heavy beat of a drum deep in my belly, growing impossibly stronger with every hard drive of his cock. I can feel my whole body tighten around him.

He brings our chests together and fists my hair in one hand, causing a slight sting. “Can you feel me now, baby?”

“Oh my God, yes.” My fingernails dig deeper into his hot flesh. My eyes close and roll back at once. I twine my limbs around him, as if I might fly away if I don’t hold on.

He doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t slow down or ease up. I don’t want him to.

Every punishing thrust bumps his pelvis against my clit. Enough to remind me of the orgasm he licked me toward, enough to make his cock inside me all the more intense, but not enough to push me over.

“Please… please…” I say the word over and over, like a chant in time to his rough drives. Like a prayer asking for all the things he’s promised me since coming back into my life.

“Tell me what you want.” He caresses my cheek on his way to my nape, using his grasp there as leverage to fuck me harder.

I’m not sure how to ask for what I want. I’m reaching for something more, something nameless that feels just out of reach. I’m trembling. I can barely breathe, let alone give him a coherent answer. I feel fractured, cut up between all the sensations he’s inspired, but never pulled completely under. And that’s what I need.

“Make me come. Please… Kase…”

He lowers his head and kisses me roughly. “Love when you beg,” he rasps, his breath hot against my lips. Only then do I notice the sweat beading along his brow and the tense line of his jaw.

When he lowers his hand between us and strokes my clit, my whole body tenses.

“Jesus Christ,” he mutters, closing his eyes.

Stars dance in my vision. The combination of his cock pounding into me and his fingers working their magic are too much and everything and not enough all at once. Every cell in my body reaches for climax.

When his eyes open again, I’m lost, reeling. The rapture sweeping his features is more than my heart can handle.

“June…”

Our lips brush. We breathe each other’s air. The orgasm is a hurricane of sensation, more powerful than I’d ever realized could be possible. It takes me under, and I cry out. A long, hoarse sound that mingles with his as I lock down tightly onto him.

He stills inside me, thick and deep and pulsing, and for one lucid moment, I hate the condom between us.

He rests his forehead against mine. Our ragged breathing fills the air. Our bodies are slick with sweat and arousal. Little shocks of pleasure ripple through me, as if my body can’t let go of the feeling all at once. I wish I never had to give it up at all…

“Thank you,” I say, emotion knotting inside me.

He shakes his head slightly. His chest still heaves as he catches his breath. Taking my hand, he kisses my fingertips and drags them down, molding my palm against his racing heart.

My own twists. Every second takes me down from the physical high, but another kind of high takes its place. The warm buzz of Kase in my world transcends the physical. And now I worry I may have given him more than my body.

I may have just given up my heart.

* * *

Sweat cools on my skin as I stare at Kase’s bedroom ceiling. Locusts chirp through the window. I can hear the shower in the hallway bathroom running. As the water crashes intermittently, I imagine Kase soaping up his glorious body. I should be in there doing it for him. I said I’d join him in a few minutes, but I seem paralyzed here. I can still feel him everywhere—the rhythm of our lovemaking, his gentle strength, the nearly blinding orgasm that tore through me.

I draw in a deep breath, sit up, and swing my legs off the side of the bed. I run my fingers through my tangled hair and shiver when a cool mountain breeze flows inside. Kase is probably wondering where I am, but I’m too in my head right now. What happened between us has me undeniably shaken. My muscles are weak, and I worry that my legs won’t carry me downstairs. But I need air. I need to think…

I pull on my shorts and T-shirt, not bothering with anything else, and head downstairs. I open the fridge and quickly decide I’m not hungry. I grab a glass from the cupboard and go to the living room, where I’d noticed a liquor shelf earlier today. The half-empty bottle of Angel’s Envy catches my eye. I’ll be twenty-one in a few months, and my father has always trusted me to use discretion when it came to an occasional drink. So I pour a couple fingers of the amber liquid, trying not to think about how Julie remembered Kase’s drink of choice a few days ago. What irritated me before burns me now. I don’t want anyone knowing Kase the way I do.

God, I need to get a grip. How did I get here so fast? From being eager to fulfill my father’s dream of expanding the hotel grounds to falling hard and fast for my high school crush? To the point where I can’t imagine not having him in my life now. I can’t stomach the idea of anyone else looking at him and thinking they could have him the way I just did.

I go to the back porch and take my spot on the swing again. The night is navy blue, nearly black. Fireflies sprinkle little bursts of yellow light across the field. I sip my liquor, hoping it calms my racing thoughts and fierce feelings for Kase.

Why did tonight have to be so perfect? No one’s first time is this good. I’ve heard enough horror stories from the girls at work to know this. Why does Kase have to fuck like a dream? I already want more. And after the aggressive way he took me, my body has no business craving another round so soon.

“Hey.” Kase, wearing only a fresh pair of jeans, steps out on the porch, his hair still wet from the shower.

“Hi,” I say as he approaches.

He sits on the other side of the bench. “Are you all right?”

I take a deep breath. “I’m fine.”

“You disappeared on me. Now I find you here drinking hard liquor. Something’s wrong.”

I laugh softly. “I just experienced the most intense orgasm of my life. I’m…a little overwhelmed. I just needed some air.”

His shoulders soften. He takes my legs and turns me so they drape over his thighs and I face him. He strokes my calves in silence for a moment. “You sure that’s all?”

He takes my glass and brings it to his lips, never breaking eye contact. Swallowing, he touches my wrists, still pink from where he held me firmly earlier. “Was I too rough?”

“You were perfect. You’re an amazing lover. Everything I imagined you could be and more. I think that’s what’s terrifying me right now. I don’t want to feel so…”

I take the glass back and swallow my next thought with the burning liquid. I drain the glass and set it to the side, praying for clarity. I’m pretty sure Kase obliterated any chance of that, though.

“I don’t want to be that girl who confuses an amazing physical experience for something more. I’m just finding it a little difficult right now.”

He frowns. “I just made love to you. It was incredible, for both of us. And now you’re trying to talk yourself out of feeling emotional about it?”

I sigh. “Basically.”

“Then what’s the point?”

I meet his confused frown. “We have an arrangement, Kase. A business deal, and I have to remember that’s what this is about.”

All humor flees his features. He looks down, his lips tight, before meeting my eyes again. “Is that what you think this is about, June? Business?”

No. But I’m not ready to fall in love with you…

I shake my head, running from the dangerous thought. “Everything’s mixed up right now.”

He takes my hand, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles. “That’s how life gets sometimes.”

I sigh again, and he pulls me toward him so I’m settled on his lap. I relax in the warmth of his arms. He kisses the top of my head when I lean into his broad chest.

“How about we enjoy each other for the rest of the time we have and not worry about what it all means? Just let ourselves do whatever feels right, feel what we want to feel, even if it’s a little scary, and trust that things will sort themselves out in the end.”

He’s saying what I want to hear. Letting myself disappear in the moment with him and forgetting the consequences of what we do here is tempting. The way things are going, I don’t ever want this time with him to end, so I’m willing to pretend it won’t.

I feather my fingertips across his bare chest, memorizing every contour as I go. “Okay.”

But a seed of fear takes root beside my optimism. The further I fall, the more I stand to risk.

He touches my chin, guiding my gaze to his. “Tonight was about more than money and land. I’ve wanted this as long as you have. You need to know that.”

The look in his eyes leaves no doubt. I believe him. I just don’t trust the way we feel about each other will lead anywhere good when this is all done. But when he kisses me again, slowly, tenderly, all I know is the here and now. And right now, he’s everything. And there is no end.

When I break away to catch a breath, we’re entwined and panting. He’s hard beneath me, and I’m rubbing against him like a cat in heat. Jesus, how can I want him again already? Then it occurs to me that I haven’t cleaned up since our last round.

“I should shower,” I say, leaning away.

He hums and pulls me back. “Nah. You smell like sex and biscuits. I love it.” With his arms wrapped around me, he licks my neck, sucking on a spot below my ear that gives me goosebumps.

I giggle and push on his chest. “Knock it off. Let me get cleaned up.”

He groans and finally releases me from his embrace. “You’re right. We should get some rest. I have to get up early, and you’ll be sore if I take you again tonight.”

I bite my lip and regret that he’s probably right. I’m already a little sore, but I’m willing to ignore that to feel him moving over me again. As long as we’re pretending we have forever, though…

I bring us chest-to-chest, lose myself in another kiss, and convince myself this truly never has to end.