“Show me how wet you are for me,” Ash panted after he pulled me into the empty hallway.

He made me so wet. His casual touches in the middle of a crowded party, the PG-rated kisses, all it made me do was think of more. Now that I knew how good he could make me feel, all he had to do was run a hand across the small of my back and I felt it deep in my core. Now, I was glistening and slick for him.

I slowly pulled up my dress as he watched. Then I slid down my panties to my thighs so he could see my slippery sex.

“So pretty,” Ash admired me. “Touch yourself, baby. Show me how you want it.”

I brought my fingers down. He liked to watch me touch myself. And it turned out I really liked showing him. Boy, did it feel good to be bad.

Slowly, I slipped my fingers into my folds, stroking myself, letting a moan slip out. I pressed against my clit, getting turned on as much by my fingers as by his reaction. He looked like a man possessed, fixed on my fingers slipping in and out of my pussy, licking his lips. His hand against the wall, his knuckles turned white as he gripped it. I could picture his hand against my wrists, holding me there roughly as he drove into me. It made me moan again as I worked myself.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked, low and rough.

“You.” I knew he wanted more, he wanted details, but I still felt shy sometimes. I still needed coaxing from him.

“Doing what?” he demanded.

“Fucking me.” My hand started working faster, pumping two fingers up inside, hitting my clit as I did it. My fingers weren’t anywhere near as large as his amazing cock, not as long or as thick, but they made me think of what it felt like. I tilted my head back against the wall and closed my eyes, imagining it was his cock inside me plunging, thrusting. I could smell him, so masculine and musky. I could feel his heat as he stood so close, studying my every move.

“Do you want me to fuck you against this wall, Anika?” he whispered so low and sexy.

“Yes,” I whined, my hand moving frantically against my pussy.

“Do you want it hard, baby?”

“Yes, please, please,” I begged.

He gripped my wrist and pulled my hand away. Then he brought my fingers up to his mouth. I opened my eyes and watched him suck on them with a deep growl of primal satisfaction.

“You taste so good.” He licked my fingers. “So wet for me. I’m going to slide right up inside you, aren’t I, Ana?”

“Yes,” I hissed in anticipation.

“Are you going to be able to keep quiet while I fuck you? You remember you have to be quiet. Can you do that, Ana?” He unzipped the top of my dress and pulled it down off my shoulders, then tweaked my nipple, hard. “I know you like to scream. You need to, don’t you baby?

“Yes,” I moaned.

He unzipped his pants and I couldn’t suppress a moan as his cock sprang out, huge and hard, veins bulging along its length. I saw a drop of precome on his thick tip and I licked my lips, imagining the salty taste. He brought his hand to his cock and pumped it for me to see.

“Ah!” I gasped, spreading my legs wide for him, wanting him to fuck me right then, no more waiting.

“You don’t want to wait, do you, my Ana?”

“No,” I whined.

He pushed me against the wall, took one of my breasts in his mouth and sucked hard. I smacked my head back against the wall again, the pain blending with the pain of his teeth on my nipple, then the sweet sensation of him licking and laving me. I bit my lip and moaned.

He grabbed hold of my ass and positioned me up where he needed me, then brought his cock right to my entrance.

“I don’t think you can be quiet. I think I’m going to have to keep you quiet.” And with that, he clapped his large, rough palm over my mouth and shoved his huge, thick cock straight up inside of me, deep. He was right. I couldn’t keep quiet. It felt too good, too much of a rush direct to my clit, and I screamed, muffled by his hand as he took me.

“That’s it, baby,” he encouraged me, loving how much I loved it, how much I needed him to fuck me, rough and wild. He pounded into me, slick and slapping, ramming me up against the wall. I wrapped my legs around his hips and held on as best I could, and he supported me with his hand, pinning me against the wall.

I loved the way he stretched me, owned me, possessed me. I’d never felt so controlled and yet so safe as I did with Ash. With him, I could let go completely, give in entirely to the sensations. I didn’t have to worry about a thing, I could just feel.

And with his hand over my mouth, I didn’t even have to worry about staying quiet. It heightened my senses, to have him clamping his hand over my mouth, made me feel all the more claimed. Like he’d stolen me away to take me completely.

I could feel the orgasm building up from deep within me, quivering and growing, pulsing and raw. I clawed at his shoulders and hips, mewling under the palm of his hand.

“Hold your tits so I can see them,” he ordered me. I loved the rough tone of his voice, his commanding authority. I brought my hands to cup my breasts and held them in my palms, displaying them for his enjoyment. He thrust into me again and again, a grunt of male approval deep in his throat.

“Pinch your nipples, baby. Make it hurt,” he growled. I brought my fingers down to my erect tips and did as I was told, pinching the tender, swollen flesh. The pain and pleasure blended together, so intense my eyes rolled back in my head.

“Yes,” he hissed, fucking me, pounding me. “Yes, come for me.” He read my body, the tense shuddering, the urgent panting and I came on command, my orgasm ripping through me fierce and fiery. I screamed into the palm of his hand again and he kept it over my mouth, hard and possessive, as waves of pleasure rocked my body.

“Fuck,” he called out as he came deep up inside me, pumping his come into my quivering, needy pussy. “Ana!” He thrust up in me, deep, then once more before he sank his head down to the sensitive hollow of my neck. He licked and sucked me there, breathing heavy, marking me as his woman, cradling me.

He took his hand off my mouth and caressed my hair, kissing my jaw, my mouth. “You’re so beautiful,” he marveled. I don’t know how he did it, but he always managed to sound amazed, as if seeing me for the first time. As if he couldn’t believe he was so lucky to be with me.

“Wow,” I sighed, finally feeling a bit of strength return to my legs. I still needed his support, but I could start to stand again.

“This is how I like you, Ana.” He chuckled and caressed my bare breasts. “Unable to talk, stripped and wobbly, my come dripping down your leg.”

“Oh my God.” I laughed, blushing slightly at his words. Even though we’d been together a year now, even though he had me doing the nastiest stuff with him, he still managed to embarrass me. But I loved every second of it.

“You love it,” he teased, reading my mind.

“I love it,” I agreed.

Somehow, together, we managed to get me looking presentable again. Ash might like me looking like I’d just received a proper fucking, but that wasn’t any way to look at the annual Kavanaugh holiday party. Two years running. Actually, last year he’d just given me a blistering orgasm with his wicked fingers. A prelude of all that was to come.

But I didn’t want to mess things up with his family. So far at least, they seemed to like me, the ones I’d met, anyway. I had yet to even meet the woman his father had married late in life, who I guessed was still technically his stepmother? I didn’t know the legal description of their relationship, all I knew was the reality which was non-existent. As far as I knew, they never spoke.

He rarely spoke to his mother, either, though we did have a stiff, formal visit with her over Thanksgiving. I knew Ash’s paternal grandmother was the British royalty, but his mother was the one who acted like it, receiving guests in her formal drawing room, sitting so stiff-backed and going on and on about her prize roses and hounds I’d had to stifle a yawn more than once.

But I’d do anything for Ash, and having been raised on a steady diet of family and then more family, I did think it mattered to have a relationship with them. Thankfully, with some of his family members it came easy. Gigi, his sister, was a darling, so light and pretty and sweet and happy at first I’d wondered if it could be real. But so far it seemed that way. She really was as lovely as the first impression she made. I didn’t know his younger brother Heath yet, but I liked how much he’d helped Ash out when he’d needed a friend. I was grateful he’d been there, a person to turn to in his pain. And as for Ash’s grandmother? She set a new standard for me, showing me exactly the sort of person I hoped I’d be able to become when I grew older.

We headed back into the party, right on time for Ash to hop on stage and sing a few numbers from his new hit album of standards. Leave it to Ash Black to entirely reinvent himself as a classic crooner and still have the world falling at his feet. I didn’t think that was the end of the rock star. If I were a betting woman, I’d say it was more than even odds he’d come up with something hard-hitting and rocking out in the next year or so. But I was so happy for him that he’d explored this side of himself, too. That he’d felt free and comfortable enough to do it. I hoped I had something to do with that.

He strutted on stage and gave me a wink. And by my side, a massive bear of a man appeared, as if keeping watch over me while Ash was busy. Ash gave him a nod of thanks.

Heath. I wondered if Ash had asked him to hang out with me while he sang?

“Hi there,” I said, feeling slightly intimidated. Ash was a large man, but his brother made him look almost slim. Heath put the barrel in barrel-chested.

He nodded at me. Big Man No Talk. OK. But he didn’t give off a scary vibe, just Mountain Man. Who happened to be at a black tie affair.

“Enjoying the party?” I asked, half making conversation, half seeing if I could get him to crack a smile. I didn’t exactly get a smile, but I did get a quick side-glance as if to check whether I knew what an idiotic question I’d asked. “I know you’re not,” I whispered in confirmation.

“Not my thing,” he agreed in a deep voice.

I smiled, thinking of Gram’s decree. Married within the year. Some woman was going to have fun with him. He was all the cake you could eat and more.

But not for me. My cake was up on stage about to launch into a little number he’d first debuted at the annual holiday part last year.

“I’ve got you under my skin.” Ash gave me a smile as he sang and it made my heart somersault. Wow, did he have a way with words. And with his hands and lips and body. Heat stole through me, remembering our stolen moment outside the ballroom.

I couldn’t believe I had him, really had him as my own. When he’d asked me to marry him, I’d been literally bowled over. And when I say literally, I meant it. I’d lost my balance.

Thankfully, we were just in my parents’ dining room. It had happened back in September. We were in New York so I could help some of the library branches with back-to-school initiatives. Ash’s generosity knew no bounds. He’d created the fund he’d originally agreed upon, to restore and keep the SoHo branch running for 20 years, and then kept right on going, establishing a whole foundation to supplement children’s programming in library branches throughout the city. I felt like a kid in a candy store, I had so many ideas and now had the means to help bring them to life. And even better than that was getting to go into other branches and talk to the long-suffering librarians about their wish lists—then wave a magic wand and expand their collection, or double their staffing, or fix their lighting, or whatever had been plaguing them for years on end. It was the best job in the world.

That and songwriting, of course. Now that Ash and I were together, that happened spontaneously, naturally, all the time. Sometimes naked. We made music together the way we talked, the way we made love. It was a natural expression of how we felt, and we didn’t have to think about it, it just happened when we were together. I didn’t know what exactly would come of it, but I did know I was excited to have the opportunity to find out.

And my parents, well, they were over the moon happy. I was so glad Ash proposed to me at my parents’ house, so they could be part of it. He’d asked my dad for his permission and then waited until after a Sunday family dinner. Then he’d dropped down on one knee and I could barely tell you what he said after that because it was as if all the blood rushed up into my head and the ocean was roaring in my ears and I was crying and then I wobbled right out of my seat and fell into his arms and we sort of tumbled-kissed-hugged together in the dining room.

“Does that mean yes?” Ash asked, laughing and hugging me.

“Yes,” I confirmed, wiping tears from my eyes.

“She always makes me wait.” He shook his head, referencing the fake proposal when I’d been so star struck and terrified on the stage in front of a live audience of thousands. I much preferred the real proposal in my parents’ dining room.

“You need anything?” Heath’s rough, deep voice boomed at me in the middle of Ash’s next song. Yes, he’d definitely been asked to keep an eye on me while Ash did his set. So sweet.

“No, thanks. I’m doing great.” And I meant it as I stood and swayed to the music, smiling up at my rock star fiancée. I had all I’d ever wanted. I didn’t need a thing.