The water sluices over my skin, hot and steaming. Like it’s purifying me. Taking me away from what happened at the party.

Fists flying, bone crunching against cartilage. My brother’s face, bleeding. Not by my hand — or I don’t think so, anyway. I can’t remember. It all fades when I think about it too hard. I didn’t even want to be there, in the fluorescent lit hotel ballroom, even though it was a party for my college graduation. For my new job at Cochran Securities. None of it seemed like an accomplishment, especially not the job. I’m Pierce Cochran after all, and it’s not exactly surprising that my father hired me at his firm the second I got out of school.

Everyone I loved was there. My mom, my dad. My younger brother, Logan, who got out on leave for this very occasion. And Arie. Beautiful Arie. Teasing lips and sweet, wide eyes. She was the only one I wanted to see.

The blood runs through my fingers.

When I walked in the room, I wished I was anywhere else. I set my own ass up for all this bullshit. The fight, the harsh words. The embarrassment. If I had to guess, this is why I’m currently standing in the shower of my hotel room, washing blood from my fists.

My hands ache. My shoulder muscles are in knots.

I close my eyes and lean my head against the shower wall. It’s cool against my throbbing head. I try to piece together the events of the night. But it’s all smoke and haze, slipping through my fingers like the red blood and water of the shower.

There was whiskey, then more whiskey, and gin with Dad. The final encore was a trio of vodka tonics. That really fucking finished me off. The alcohol took things from reasonable to unreasonable. And Arie. I kept staring at her. Watching her. Going over the supple lines of her body in my mind. I went to her and tilted her head towards mine, telling her that tonight was the night. It needed to be the night. But we fought, like we always do about this one damn thing. She’s been saving herself for marriage, and I’ve been patiently waiting for almost ten years for her to give it up. I think I stalked off to play pool with Logan when she told me ‘no,’ yet again.

Pool with Logan. Lining up my shot and trying to get just the right spin, then whiffing royally thanks to my drunken vision. Logan snickers, then takes aim, sinking three balls with a satisfied grin. He’s kicking my ass, and I hate losing to anyone, let alone my little brother.

Then I look up and see Arie slowly slipping off her sweater, exposing her smooth, glowing shoulders, and the curve of her firm breasts under a thin blue sundress. She’s driving me crazy, making it impossible for me to focus on the damn game. She looks at me with a stare so dirty, I could have fucked her right then and there; I imagine filling her perfect little mouth with my thick cock.

And seconds before, she’s telling me we were waiting. Still waiting.

She does this to me, especially when she’s been drinking. She teases me, even though she has no intention of following through. She makes me want to just… throw her down on this pool table and fuck her in front of everyone. And yes, I know just how messed up that is.

Everything that happened after that is a blur of fists flying and breaking glass.

Two frat boys I don’t recognize saunter into the hotel bar where we are having my party. They’re definitely not with us; they look like they’re on vacation from Iowa, or another flyover state. They definitely aren’t from the city.

The heat of the water burns against my broken, bruised skin, but it eases some of the pain in my throbbing muscles. I watch as blood pools at my feet, and my mind starts to put the pieces of the puzzle back together.

Did I hit them first, or did they hit me?

The guys walk right up to Arie, and they start chatting her up. One pushes a lock of her curly black hair out of her face, while the other runs a finger down the bare skin of her arm. My vision starts to go cloudy with rage.

I set my cue down on the side of the table and take a step in their direction.

Logan puts a hand on my arm. He tells me to stop and take a breath, to think through what I’m about to do, but when I lock eyes with Arie, I know there is no going back. Then I see one of the frat guys reach down and grab her ass.

And I see red.

The last thing I remember before waking up on my hotel bed is the sound my fist made when it connected with the taller kid’s jaw.

Even without clear memories, my body bears its share of physical reminders of what happened. My abdomen and chest are covered in bruises, and I can feel more on my back from where I was probably sucker-punched in the kidneys. I begrudgingly turn off the water, and grab one of the plush hotel towels to dry my hair. When I brush the towel against my head, it hurts, and when I pull the towel away, it’s stained with blood. I reach up and find shards of glass in my hair, as if a beer bottle were broken over the top of my head.

I probably had that coming.

I walk out of the bathroom naked, with every intention of just collapsing back into bed and dealing with my pissed off family in the morning.

But then I freeze.

Arie is swathed across my bed, asleep, her little blue sundress creeping up her beautiful thighs. One glance at her like that and I’m already thinking about all the different ways I could fuck her. I don’t know if that was her intention, but now it’s all I can think about. A soft groan escapes my lips, and Arie opens her eyes, smiles mischievously, and stretches seductively.

“Hey, baby,” she whispers sleepily as she brushes her hair away from her face. I can’t stop staring at the way her filmy dress hugs her curves in all the right places, the way tendrils of her hair fall onto the slope of her shoulders, against the line of her neck. My defenses are collapsing.

“Shit, Arie,” I mutter. My teeth are clenched tight.

I don’t need this tonight. My body is aching, and I know I’ve made some stupid decisions my father will make me pay for tomorrow. But as I walk up to Arie, as I tower over her and see the way her small form is shadowed in my massive frame, I feel myself getting hard. My cock throbs. I reach out and touch the curve of her cheek, soft and warm. She leans into me.

“Pierce,” she says in a hushed voice. Her eyes sparkle, but we’re both on our way to sober right now. There’s something different about this time.

Goddamnit. I’m drawn into her cool blue gaze, and I have to struggle with my self-control not to just grab her, throw her down, and fuck her senseless. Arie raises an eyebrow in a clear effort to appear seductive, but she begins to blush, and she breaks eye contact with me out of nerves. Somehow, this is even hotter. Even the makeup she is wearing can’t hide her shyness, her doubt, the fact that she doesn’t know if she’s making the right decision.

It’s all turning me on so much, I think I’m going to lose my mind.

“What are you doing in here, Arie? This isn’t a good idea if we’re just going to end up in the same place we always do,” I growl. I know I’m being a bit of a dick, but this hasn’t exactly been my night and I’d rather just go to sleep if she’s going to leave anyway. But suddenly, she reaches up and grabs my hand.

“Thank you for protecting me tonight,” she says. Her voice is barely a whisper, but now, I can hear a hint of arousal behind it. She swallows hard, and I see that hint of nervousness again. “I was thinking — we’re getting married soon, anyway. Right? You’re the one for me, and I’m the one for you. And all that.” She blushes deep red when she says it.

I take another step toward her.

“What are you telling me right now, Arie?”

“What do you think I’m telling you, Pierce?” she teases. Arie leans back on the bed and spreads her legs ever-so-slightly, revealing a pair of pink lace panties. The corner of her mouth tilts up in a playful smile, and I am completely overwhelmed by lust. I’ve been in love with Arie since I was seventeen years old, but all I feel for her in this moment is pure, unadulterated lust.

I stare at her beautiful body and let out an exhalation of air before I slide on top of her. I lock my hands on either side of her, trying to sort out where my common sense has disappeared to as my cock hardens and the desire to slide inside of her pulses through me.

Arie stares up at me with a determination in her eyes that I have never seen before. She lets her hands drift down my torso, touching me as if we are meeting for the first time. Gingerly, she pulls the towel away from my hips. My cock is already hard, straining, the skin tight and hot. Her eyes grow wide when she catches sight of it.

“It’s big,” she murmurs. “Really big.”

I wait, and try to breathe in deeply as blood flows to my cock. I can’t imagine anything in the world that could convince me to pull away from her in this moment. And when she bites her lip, when she gasps as her hand drifts over my shaft, I’m an absolute goner. I imagine letting her stroke me, coming all over the expanse of her perfect, pale body. My balls filling and releasing.

But tonight is about something more than that.

I take her by surprise, falling on to the bed next to her and crashing my mouth down onto hers, pressing passionately against her, and tracing my tongue around the lines of her perfect lips. She moans and claws at my chest, grabbing at my neck, like she’s trying to pull me in even closer to her, eliminating all of the space between us. When I pull away, she moans as if I’m denying her oxygen.

“This is what you want, Arie? Are you sure?” I ask, still somehow shocked she’s in my bed right now. As I look down into her crystal blue eyes, my girth throbs. It’s so hard it’s almost painful.

“Yes,” she whispers. “I’ve been thinking about it. It’s all I think about. Maybe if we just get it over with, we won’t be so focused on it anymore. You are my forever guy, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” I say. I brush my thumb over her bottom lip. “I’m your forever guy.”

I push my pulsing length against the warmth of her panties. She’s already wet there, like she’s been considering it ever since the moment she told me to buzz off. Getting wetter and wetter until she couldn’t stand it anymore. “You want me to fuck you tonight, Arie?”

“God, Pierce, I said…” she starts. “Fuck. Yeah I do.”

My fingers press against the wet fabric of her panties. There’s heat there, almost molten hot against my hand. I close my eyes and open them again. I’ve imagined this moment a thousand times, and I want to make sure I’m not dreaming.

“You feel so good, baby,” I say. I stroke her with more pressure, moving down to her pussy, and she starts to melt. I pull her panties to one side, sliding my fingers over her slickness, up to her clit and down over her delicate folds. She shudders, hips arching up beneath my hand, like she’s pushing against me, begging for more. Needing it. I slide the lace of her panties down to her knees, and she kicks them off. They land in a crumple at the foot of the bed, and she laughs. A blush rises over Arie’s body, making her turn the most beautiful shade of pink. I let my hand hover over her sex again, and I realize that all the pain has vanished from my body. There’s a doctor’s cure. A goddamn beautiful woman giving it up for the first time. Wet and ready, the hem of her dress pulled up over her hips.

“You want my fingers inside you?”

She nods, pink spreading to her cheeks. “I do.” She arches her hips toward my fingers. “Please.”

I bring my hand to her again, and I thrust two fingers inside of her, unable to control myself. I growl, pressing the base of my palm hard against her clit. Her voice comes out in a soft, strangled moan, and she throws her head back, hands finding her breasts, fingers tugging at her nipples. They’re stiff beneath the fabric, like tiny bullets. I feel a pearlescent bead of precum at my tip.

I work my fingers inside of her, listening to her moan. The soft rise and fall of her breath tells me when she’s getting close, and I pull away, leaving her empty on purpose.

“And you want me to fuck you? To come inside of you?”

She nods. “Yes.”

“I don’t know if I believe you,” I growl into her ear. “It’s been almost ten years, Arie. Why now?”

I plunge my fingers inside of her again. She’s tight. I groan. I’ve known this part of her body many times. I know how to make her come for me, body shaking. But I’ve never entered her, not truly. Never made her mine. I watch as goose bumps spread all over her skin, highlighting her increasing arousal. She gasps for air, as if she can’t breathe, and she licks her sweet lips as she considers my question. I study her beautiful face closely, as if she’s a stranger in my bed. With each passing year, Arie hasn’t aged; she has always looked fresh and young and new. It makes me want to protect her. And ruin her. In equal measure.

Arie’s eyes are closed tight as she processes her pleasure, and she tries to stifle a whimper.

“Things change, Pierce,” she chokes out. “Like I said, I’ve been thinking about it forever. I want it now.”

Arie’s hips begin to writhe from her excitement and she squeezes her thighs together snugly. I nuzzle my nose into the curve of her neck, taking in a deep breath of her as she moans with pleasure. She smells like gardenia on a warm, summer day and it’s more intoxicating than all the liquor I had at that stupid party.

All I can think about is filling her up with my cock, taking her over and over again, letting her feel just how hard she is making me. I want her to know what she’s been missing all these years.

“I’m going to make you scream tonight.”

I don’t know what comes over me, but I reach down and rip her dress off her in a single motion. Arie gasps, but I cover her mouth with my own as I keep caressing her sex, parting her slick folds, making her moans flood into my mouth and increase my hardness ten-fold. I show her no mercy as my fingers explore the soft, warm flesh of her wet pussy.

Our tongues dance as she shivers beneath touch, and I have to pull away to watch her body react to me. I trace my fingers across her warm flesh, watch her squirm when I blow cold air against her neck. I am barely suppressing the urge to bite and mark her flawless skin, to make sure the whole world knows she’s mine.

Arie’s long black hair fans out all around her, framing her face like a dark halo. I snap away her bra, and her beautiful breasts, the breasts I’ve imagined a million times, fall free. My cock stiffens as I take in the curve of her full, voluptuous form. She opens her eyes and stares at me with overwhelming passion.

“Keep touching me, Pierce. Never stop touching me,” she sighs as she closes her eyes again.

I take hold of her chin and tilt her face up so she has to make eye contact with me. For a moment, she looks like a movie star, a painting, an angel glowing from the inside out. I can’t believe this is my Arie.

“I don’t believe you’re ready for this,” I say, hating myself for holding back. This is what I’ve wanted for ten years and I’m going to fuck it up, the way I fuck everything up. There is no reason Arie should still be with me. She’s too good for me. I’m a useless asshole, and everyone knows it. Everyone but Arie.

She just smiles and shakes her head, as if she’s lost in a fog of sex and desire. She isn’t going to back down.

“I'm not kidding,” I say, “I’m not sure what you want but I don’t think you're not ready for this.”

“Shut the hell up and fuck me, Pierce,” she says in a voice more self-assured than I’ve ever heard come out of her.

That’s all it takes to scramble my brain beyond reason.

I move in close, so close we’re almost touching, and I feel the heat behind the warmth of her full lips.

“Your wish is my command,” I say with a growl.

She slides her hand down the rippling muscles of my chest, pausing on my abdomen, drifting lazily over the bruises that have formed from my fight earlier. When she wraps her tiny, soft-skinned hand around my stiff cock, it sends signals to my brain that propel me into a state of pure lust.

I groan as she grips my shaft. In one quick movement, I lift her up with one arm wrapped around her back so I can support her voluptuous frame. I take hold of one of her breasts and cup it firmly, squeezing it, then I lean down to lick her erect nipple.

She moans raucously and begins to stroke my cock with even more eagerness. Her body tenses up, and I set her down on the bed so I can bury my face between her full breasts, comforted by the warmth of her fullness. I tilt her breasts together so I can suck both her nipples, letting my tongue trace them as I pluck them with my teeth, and she writhes underneath me.

Arie caresses my cock to the point where I think I might come in her hand, and my body reacts in kind. My cock is practically burning with pleasure, twitching wildly against her palm, as she coats the head with my own fluids.

I can’t take any more foreplay. I grab her thin wrists and pin her down to the bed. I use my hips, and line up my cock between her waiting legs, pressing the head against her honeyed inner lips. She pants, and her mouth opens every-so-slightly, her breasts heaving with every moan she emits. I can’t help but grin at the anticipation that flickers across her face.

Her sparkling blue eyes go wide as we register what is about to happen. The earth stops spinning and I feel a wildness coiling inside me. Every ounce of self-control is long gone. My whole body is wracked with desire for her.

I take hold of her shaking thighs and thrust toward her soft center in one smooth motion. She cries out and waves of passion spread through every inch of me. She is so tight that I can only get my tip inside of her. If I push any deeper, I know I will lose control and explode inside of her immediately. But I don’t want this to be over right away. Not by a long shot. I want to take my time with her.

I push inside of her a little further and her whole body contracts. I watch as her full lips quiver in a combination of pleasure of pain. Her eyes are clamped shut, and her breath is coming hard and fast. Her pussy feels like it’s on fire.

“Does it hurt?” I ask. I’m panting, holding myself still, beyond all reason. Part of me wants to force myself inside, feel how tight she really is. But I wait. I love this woman, after all.

Her face contorts but she says nothing. Her silence is all I needed to keep going. I probably should slow down, should take her inexperience into account. Instead, I push deeper into her warmth, welcomed by an overwhelming wetness that is only making me harder. I hold her arms over her head, and kiss and bite at the perfect skin of her graceful neck.

“Tell me how it feels,” I whisper into her ear.

“It… it…” she stutters.

“Tell me,” I say again.

The muscles in my stomach shake violently, as her pussy tightens desperately around my cock. I go mad, grabbing her full ass and plunging all of the way inside her. Her eyes open, and go wide, and she cries out. Her pussy grips me like a vise, pulsing around my cock. She’s all smooth walls and hot wetness. I could stay here forever, living in this place that she’s given to me, and me alone.

“Tell me now,” I demand. I pull back and thrust inside of her again, groaning.

Arie bites her lip, hard, to hold back a building scream. I thrust again, harder this time. I don’t care about anything else. All I care about is making sure she knows she’s mine. Arie moans beneath me. I feel more in control of anything than I have in my whole life, as I thrust again and again, without mercy. Arie scratches her nails down the length of my back and let’s out a long groan.

“It feels so full. Oh God. It’s so good. It feels like I’ve been empty all my life and now — shit, don’t stop.” Her eyes meet mine, her lids hooded with lust.

I take that as my cue. I thrust again, falling into a delicious rhythm. Skin against skin. Warm, hot. Every movement an answer to my prayers.

“Pierce, oh God, Pierce,” she breathes. She babbles, and some of the words sound like my name. Her rapturous cries alone are almost enough to make me come. I pause and bring my mouth to her nipples again.

“I can feel you all through me,” she pants.

“You're so fucking tight,” I say, grasping for purchase on the headboard. I pull back, then thrust forward and fill her pussy again. Her burning, soft warmth encircles my painfully hard cock and sends a flash of light to my head.

“Fuck me, Pierce!” She screams. “Oh, God, Pierce!”

The headboard slams against the wall as I power into her. Her beautiful black hair falls around her face as she screams my name in violent throes.

“Pierce!”

The lamp on the bedside table falls over, and the light bulb shatters. I let loose a torrent of curse words. But it’s not enough to stop me — I am intent on possessing her, and taking her virginity. I slam my cock in and out of her pussy as if it is mine for the taking. I cannot stop fucking her. I am intoxicated by the way her entire body pulses as I rhythmically push and pull inside of her, feeling her fitful shudders of desire.

Suddenly, there is a flurry of knocking on the door outside. It’s insistent, but not enough to distract me from the task at hand. Arie doesn’t even seem to hear it; she just wraps her legs around my waist as I shove inside of her again and again, grunting like a maniac.

The knocking becomes more furious, and now angry voices are shouting my name. It sounds like they might knock down the door, and I’m not about to give up this moment for anyone. I wrapped my arms around Arie’s waist and pick her up as I stand up from the bed. Then I walk her around to the other side of the bed, get down on my knees, and set her down on the floor on her back. She still doesn’t seem to be fully aware of what is going on outside the door, and I’m glad for that.

I lean down and kiss her slow and deep, sliding back inside of her, feeling her wetness.

“Fuck me, Pierce!” she cries out.

My vision becomes blurred by a lusty fog, and her ecstatic moans make it more difficult to hear whatever is going on outside of the door. I feel like it is only a matter of time before they bust inside, but so far, so good.

I probably should care that a group of men are shouting my name, and identifying themselves as the police. But I don’t.

Being inside of Arie feels too amazing; I grit my teeth together and close my eyes, hoping to shut out the world. I don’t want to be interrupted, don’t want this moment with her to end. She hugs around my neck, and I feel like I am stretching her to her breaking point. I can feel the tight clenching of her pussy warning me she is about to come, and come hard, so I shove myself balls deep into her warmth, and I feel a familiar fluttering in my sensitive cock.

“Mr. Cochran! We are coming in! This is your last chance to open the door of your own free will!” The voice on the other side of the door is pissed, at the end of its rope. But I’m also at the end of mine and nothing is going to stop me right now.

I lower my face to Arie’s, and I see she is totally lost in her own world, too far gone in a haze of pleasure.

“Oh God, Pierce,” she cries as she comes. “Come inside me. Please — fill me up — ”

“Shit,” I groan. “That's it, baby. Come for me.”

The door flies open as she rides my cock to the end. I can’t do anything but let loose a long, guttural howl as I release inside of her. We both explode in ecstasy, just as a pair of handcuffs slam closed around my wrists from behind.