He held me tighter, his fingers sinking like keys into my arms, turning a lock, keeping me bound to him and useless.

Chloe’s mouth hung wider. “Wow, Elle, I never knew—”

“Never knew she was the sexiest woman alive?” Penn snarled with sudden viciousness. “Never knew she was one of the richest women alive? Never knew that she was ten times the fucking woman you’ll ever be?”

I stood stunned.

Why did he fight for me?

This was too much. Too fast. Too scary. Too far out of my comfort zone.

Yes to marrying him?

I never agreed to that.

I’d agreed to sex.

Stupid, silly, sensual sex.

And now, it’s time to say no.

I tore myself from his embrace, my body shaking. “Stop. That’s not true. Don’t spread such lies.” I stared helplessly at Chloe whose face had turned snow white. “I’m so sorry. Ignore him. I don’t know what’s gotten into him. We’ve only just got together. We’re not engaged. He’s not—”

“What my fiancée here is trying to say—” Penn interrupted. “Is she’s too kind-hearted to rub her success in your face even though you do the same to her. I don’t need to hear stories of what it was like to grow up with you. I see her, and I see you, and I understand the shadow you made her exist in. But not anymore.”

His teeth flashed as he snarled. “I’m stealing her from you now. From all of you. She’s mine. And it’s a sad loss that you never figured out what an incredible creature you had under your noses the entire time.”

Greg sidled up, hate stares fired at Penn. “You don’t know jack, dipshit. Elle and I were raised together. I know her a fuck load better than you ever will.”

“You’re the blindest of them all.” Penn pointed at him. “I don’t care how long you’ve known each other. You fucked up.” He laughed low. “You’ll never get her back because she’ll never be the same once I’ve had her.”

My cheeks turned into flames of hell. I ducked my chin, doing my best to hide. I wanted the club to vanish and Penn to disintegrate into dust.

Words and curses tangled to spew at him, but he pulled me from the crowd, away from cringe-worthy declarations, away from high school trolls and wannabe boyfriends, and through the nightclub to the fresh air outside.

I managed a few gulps of oxygen before he yanked me down the alley between the nightclub and a restaurant and slammed me against the brick wall.

Quicksilver memories of another alley and another man tried to twist my present with my past. Garbled commands, ripped clothing, fists flying in the dark.

Nameless shot bright into my thoughts.

His black hoodie, his closed-off answers, his mind-melting kiss.

And then history had no power as Penn’s lips crashed over mine and he replaced my remembered kiss with a savage one.

He kissed me and then he kissed me.

Each swipe of his tongue blasted through my decorum, dragging alive the sexual being who’d never been allowed to evolve.

His right hand bunched my dress up my leg. My brain tried to split—to focus on the foot traffic only a few feet away and not on the blistering heat of his fingertips on my inner thigh.

And then nothing else mattered as his touch found my core, pushing against my underwear.

He didn’t ask permission.

He didn’t pull back to see if I was okay with this.

He merely kissed me and fingered me over the lace.

All I wanted to do was to let go. To trust in the magic he created in my blood and allow him to be as arrogant as he wanted. To take charge.

But I couldn’t.

I couldn’t let him get away with what he’d said. His lies. His verbal bashing to people I had to converse with.

He was far too brash and daredevil for my world.

His mouth kept working mine, dragging a moan deep from my lungs.

I had a second before I drowned under his powerful wave and lost myself. A second and then I would be gone, and I couldn’t blame anyone but myself.

So I bit him.

My teeth sank into his lip, not holding back as I did the only thing I could to slow things down and breathe.

He stumbled backward, holding his bottom lip where a bead of blood welled. “Fuck.”

My ribcage rose and fell. I sucked in gasps, giving in to the slight hysteria he’d caused. I held up a shaky finger. “Don’t touch me.”

“Touch you? Fuck, I own you.”

My braid caught like Velcro on the bricks behind me as I shook my head. “No. You don’t.”

His eyes etched with black. “You said yes, remember?”

“Yes to a beneficial sexual relationship. Not to damn marriage!”

“That’s what’s got you afraid? Marriage?” He chuckled “I have no intention of marrying you.”

I frowned. “Then why lie about it?”

“Why not?” He shrugged. “Why do other people have to know exactly what we do and who we are? Why do they have to hear our truth when they’re so fucking fake themselves?”

I hated that he had a point.

He placed a hand on the brick wall by my head, his body swaying into mine. If he touched me again, I doubted I’d have the willpower to stop him for a second time. My clit still throbbed from his touch, the echoing bands of release a phantom cry in my veins.

“Stay back.”

He lowered his head, a tight smile on his lips. “Fine.” Holding his hands up in surrender, he kept his distance but didn’t move away. “What will it take for you to let me touch you again?” His voice dropped to sand and sleet. “Because I really want to touch you again.”