My heart is slamming against my ribs. I clutch tightly to my shoes to keep my hands from shaking. The fear of being attacked was very real before the rote reaction took over. I never thought I’d actually have to use that self-defense shit, but when we were kids, my twin brother, Bryan, made sure to teach me everything he’d learned.

And now? I’m almost positive that Gavin is on board with me, but God help me if he’s not. I might combust.

“You want to tell me what that was?” Gavin asks as he slides his warm palm around my waist.

Well, there’s my answer. He’s with me—at least for the time being.

“Uh … that was me, not letting anyone take advantage of me. What did it feel like to you?”

His hand is splayed low across my stomach, fingertips brushing along the top of my panties, tracing the band through the fabric of my dress. He pulls me tight against his front as we wait to cross the street and leans down, so his lips brush the shell of my ear. “It felt a lot like you know exactly what you want and what you don’t, killer.”

The light changes, and Gavin’s hand slides around to my back—more like my ass—guiding me across the street. I make a beeline for the stairs leading up to my unit, turning as I reach them. Firmly placing my hands on his chest, I stop this show, needing to get a feel for what’s about to go down.

“You know what’s going on, right? No repeat of that non-performance from last night?” I narrow my gaze on Gavin’s face.

With his hands planted squarely on my ass, he presses my hips into him and growls, “Yeah, I think I’ve got you covered.”

He slides his hands down under my thighs and lifts me while climbing the steps. When we get to the door of my condo, he releases his hold, and I slowly slide down the front of his body. Every hard plane of him traps me against the door to the condo, his forearms framing my head. His lips skim, nip, and taste me from that spot below my ear and across the sensitive skin of my neck, devouring me.

“Key?” he rumbles out as his attention moves to my other side. The pressure as his knee pushes between my thighs makes me gasp as I reach behind me for the keypad by the door. “Gracyn, give me the key.”

I push against the wall of Gavin’s chest and turn just enough to enter the code and unlock the door. “No key, just a code.”

The condo is mostly dark and silent. Faint lines of light filter through the blinds, illuminating the space just enough for us to pick our way through to my room.

I reach back, grabbing a fistful of Gavin’s T-shirt, and pull him along behind me. As soon as he clears the threshold, I slam the door and back him up against the solid surface.

I don’t understand what this infatuation with him is. It’s got to just be lust. Spring break, no-strings-attached lust. I lift up on my toes and kiss along his jawline as I slide my hands down his torso, seeking out the button of his shorts. As I fumble clumsily, pushing the bottom of his T-shirt out of my way, Gavin shoves himself off the wall and spins us around, pressing into me instead.

“You think you need to be in control right now?” he asks, reaching behind him and pulling his shirt off. His skin glows in the soft light. Lean muscles are highlighted, each dip and groove accentuated by the shadows.

Honestly, the last thing I want is to be in control of anything. I want to let go. I want someone to move me, take me. Not in a creepy way, but just so I can surrender this ridiculous need to always be in charge. It’s the how that escapes me.

So, I bolster myself, speaking in half-truths, “I do. You’re the one who dropped the ball last night. Not sure I can trust you to get this done right.” I pop open his shorts, trying to cover the battle waging inside me with false bravado that I slip on like a silk robe.

The sound of his zipper scraping open echoes through the small room. My hands wind inside his waistband, sliding around his bare hips until I take a firm grasp of his ass, pulling him into me. This is what I need—this being in command—no matter how much I would love to just let go.

Gavin works the sides of my dress up until the skirt is bunched up around my hips. His callused fingertips scrape across my skin as he slides his hands up beneath the fabric, mimicking my movement, my grasp. My hold on him.

“Listen, sunshine, I like where you think you’re going with this, but, uh, you’re going to have to let me drive.” He accentuates his words with a very determined press of his hips, pinning me in place against the door.

And that press? Sweet mother of God.

“You think you can handle that?” He brushes his lips against the shell of my ear, and no matter how hard I try to hold it back, a shiver runs through my body, raising chill bumps on my skin. Pebbling my nipples.

With that transfer of power, I truly just become putty in his arms. He challenges me not just physically, but he also pushes against my mental shit. Past my walls. Through the barriers I usually keep firmly in place.

Gavin slides his hands under my thighs and lifts me like it’s nothing. Just like he had me last night, pressed deliciously between the wall and the hard planes of his body. And then he starts moving, grinding into me. His hard cock applying pressure in all the right places.

A moan escapes my lips, and that just seems to drive him harder, making him more determined.

Dear God …

“Yes.” I didn’t mean for that to be out loud, but the growl he lets out tells me he heard it.

There’s no hiding now. No pulling control back. At least, that’s what I tell myself because maybe, just maybe, I really do want to let go this time. Maybe I’m ready to let someone else be in charge. And, hell, this is nothing more than a hook-up, right?

I roll my head to the side, granting Gavin the access to my neck that he’s been after. He licks and nips from my jaw to my collarbone, paying special attention to that spot right where my shoulder meets my neck.

“I need more. More … please …” I beg breathlessly. “Please …”

Somehow, he keeps me propped against the wall while sliding himself down the front of my body until he’s on his knees in front of me. A shudder drives its way through my body as he buries his face in my core. Hot, breathy groans and the rasp of his scruff against my sensitive skin have me squirming and gasping, fingers twining through his hair. I’m not quite sure whether I’m holding him to me or pushing him away. Gavin licks and sucks at my clit through the lace of my panties until I’m panting and writhing, bucking against him, his name fighting for flight from my lips. But I can’t give in, not yet. I can’t let him know he’s getting to me, making me lose control.

“Stop fighting it, Gracyn,” he growls, lifting me as he stands.

He turns and stalks to my bed but doesn’t set me down. Instead, he just stands there, palms on my ass, licking his lips. Eyes glinting in the light from the streetlamps outside the window, his gaze bounces back and forth between my eyes. The intensity is more than I’m comfortable with, causing me to doubt myself.

Can I really do this? I feel like I’m baring myself to him, opening up in a way I don’t think I ever have before.

“Put me down.” I shift and wiggle, trying to break free from this vulnerability. It’s like he’s not just looking at me, but through me, into me.

He presses his teeth into his full bottom lip, slowly shaking his head back and forth.

“Gavin, put me down.” I try to sound stern and serious, but I can’t, and I fail miserably. I don’t really want him to put me down. I want him to take me places I can’t even imagine.

I want him to just take me.

“Please,” I whisper, my voice quieter this time, holding absolutely no conviction.

This power struggle has my head spinning. I’m not sure which way to go—give in to her, let her have that feeling of being in charge, or stay in the driver’s seat. Something’s different; something’s holding her back.

I take another step forward, my knee resting at the edge of the mattress. “Gracyn, I’ll put you down”—she squirms and wiggles, tensing up, and I grip her sweet ass tighter—“when I’m good and ready.”

I slant my lips across hers and drink her in. The taste of her plump lips, the way she melts into the kiss, finally giving in, drives me, pushing me to push her.

Moving my knee onto the bed, I lay Gracyn in the middle of the rumpled sheets. As soon as her back hits the mattress, she plants her palms, trying to prop herself back up. I wrap my hands around her wrists and bring them up, softly pinning them to the pillow above her head.

“Gracyn, do you want me to stop? All you have to do is say the words. Tell me to stop if you don’t want this.” I breathe the words against her jaw as I trail kisses toward her ear, burying my face in her hair.

She responds with a moan and a thrust of her hips. Her legs wrap around my waist, pulling me in closer.

“I need words, need to hear you say them.”

“Yes.”

“Yes what? Yes, you want me to stop? Or yes, you want this?”

She grinds against my cock, rubbing up and down my length, surrendering but still not answering the fucking question.