Something stirred me from sleep, and it took me a moment to realize it was Ryland.

He was hovering over me, kissing his way along my throat. On instinct, my hand came up and threaded through his hair. His moved between my legs and started to rub against my panties.

“I like this,” he groaned.

He’d only touched me for a minute, and already I could barely string together a coherent sentence.

“What?”

“Having you in my bed whenever I want,” he murmured.

I thought that was the whole point of the game. But right then, I didn’t really care. All I cared about was the heat his hands created on my body. The ache between my thighs that burned only for him.

I ran my hands over his muscular back, and he leaned down and nipped my lower lip.

“Tell me you like it too,” he insisted.

There was something in his voice that told me this wasn’t an order. He really wanted to know if I liked it. The hormones surging through my body gave me permission to be honest.

“I think you already know the answer to that,” I whispered.

He stopped and held me captive with the intensity of his stare. “I want to hear you say it.”

His entire being was like a vortex, pulling me in and devouring me completely. How could I ever deny him?

“I like it,” I admitted. “But I like it better when you treat me badly. It makes me remember not to get too close to you.”

He smiled, and I was mortified. God, I couldn’t believe I’d just said that to him.

His eyes drank me in, inch by vulnerable inch, committing it all to what was no doubt a photographic memory. The places where I was soft were what he lingered on the longest. Where a spark of the familiar fire that was always present inside of him flared to life.

His fingers continued to rub me through the fabric of my underwear, leaving me just on the edge of sanity. I needed more.

At this point, I would have let him string me up and whip me all night long if it was what he wanted to do. I half expected it. So when he reached down and gave me a gentle kiss, it surprised me. It lacked his usual roughness and held the promise of something more. Something dangerous.

He kissed his way down my belly, and I arched into his touch. When he got to the apex of my thighs, he nuzzled against the fabric of my panties and inhaled.

“You smell so fucking good,” he whispered.

I moaned, and he lifted my hips and slid my panties off. I expected him to tease and torture me the way he always did, but he didn’t. He leaned forward and lifted my thighs over his shoulders, burying his face between my legs.

I jerked and bucked against him, squeezing the covers in my fists.

“Ryland.”

I was panting, desperate, and it was driving him crazy.

His tongue lapped at my clit while he stuffed me so full of his fingers I couldn’t breathe. I sucked in mouthfuls of air as I clamped down around him. Shockwaves of pleasure ricocheted through my body, plunging me into the hypnotic state only he could induce.

He groaned and nuzzled against my thigh before collapsing beside me. I reached for his arm, wondering what he was doing. I blinked up at him, his eyes soft and calm, his breathing even and relaxed. Ryland was comfortable being still, I’d come to realize. That was when he was in his element. He wielded that stillness like a weapon, making me wait in agony for my next fix.

“What about you?” I whispered.

He smiled. “I want you to ride me, baby girl.”

“Oh.”

His request made me nervous, being on display for him like that. I didn’t even know how to do what he asked. But I didn’t want to displease him, and that’s how I knew I was lost.

I crawled up his body, pausing to kiss him in places like he’d done to me. I wanted to see how he would react. When my lips dragged across his abs, and he shivered, I smiled against him. He was giving me free rein, and I kind of liked it.

I straddled his hips and positioned myself against his cock. It lay hot and heavy against his belly, and I had the strangest urge to rub against it. So I did.

When I slid my arousal against him, he groaned. It spurred me on, and for a while I just enjoyed rocking back and forth along his length, teasing him for a change.

“Jesus,” he rasped. “For someone so innocent, you know how to drive me crazy.”

I grinned, and he clutched at my waist. “Let me inside of you, Brighton.”

His voice was desperate, pleading. And I had no choice but to put him out of his misery. I fisted his arousal in my hand and guided him inside of me.

A strangled noise left his throat when I rolled my hips back and forth, and his head fell back against the pillow. God, he was beautiful. A beautiful monster.

I had to touch his face, I couldn’t help myself. My fingers feathered over his jaw, and he turned to the side and sucked them into his mouth. I whimpered, and he rocked his hips up to greet me.

He took my fingers from his mouth and guided them down to my clit.

“Play with yourself,” he ordered. “I want to watch.”

I did as he asked, closing my eyes, so I didn’t feel like I was on display. I was still grinding my hips against him, and he was allowing me to set the pace. His hands strummed over my body, touching all of his favorite places. My breasts, my throat, my lips.

I shattered around him again, and he pulled me forward and started to thrust into me at his own pace.

“Mark me,” he whispered on a ragged breath.

I didn’t ask how. It was an automatic response. I was quickly learning I’d do anything when he sounded that way. Like I was making him lose control.

I nuzzled into his shoulder and then bit down. He hissed in a breath of air, followed by a long, pained groan as he flooded my belly with warmth.

“Fuck, Brighton.” He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. “What are you doing to me?”

 

***

 

When I woke up, I was still splayed across Ryland’s chest. He hadn’t even moved me. His hand was stroking my lower back, his eyes fixed on the ceiling.

We were cuddling.

It was surreal. It was completely insane. And yet, I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to.

“What are you thinking?” he asked in a sleepy voice.

There was a beat of silence before complete nonsense burst from my mouth. “I want to know more about you.”

I didn’t know where it had come from. And it had the immediate effect of making him stiffen beneath me, so I hurried to explain.

“Anything you want to share,” I amended.

He relaxed a little and started to stroke me again. “Like what?”

“Like… how did you come to be Ryland Bennett, CEO?”

It was good a place as any to start.

Ryland was quiet for a moment, and he didn’t take his eyes off the ceiling.

“My father was a businessman,” he explained. “I always admired him for it, for how hard he worked. But the truth was, he was too soft. He didn’t have the heart to do business. You have to be able to dissociate on some level, and he couldn’t do that. So his business failed.”

“But you can do that,” I whispered.

It wasn’t a question.

“As much as I admired him, his choices ended up costing him everything. It motivated me to take a different path.”

“Well, it worked.” I tangled my legs up in his and nuzzled against his chest, comforted by the vibrations as he spoke. I liked that he was opening up to me if only a little.

“Are you happy?”

“What do you mean?” he looked down at me.

“I mean with your life. Are you happy with the way things turned out?”

Something strange passed over his features, and he tightened his grip on me but tore his gaze away.

“Happiness is an illusion, Brighton. It’s only something people think they can have. It’s fleeting. It can be taken away at any moment.”

My grip on him tightened too, and I wasn’t sure why.

“If that’s true,” I whispered. “Then what’s the point?”

He didn’t answer. I didn’t expect him to.

I changed the subject.

“Why did you pretend like you didn’t remember me?” I asked. “The first day I saw you again.”

This time, he didn’t hesitate to answer. “I thought it would be easier for you.”

“How?”

His eyes found mine again, and I had to remind myself to breathe. It was so easy to get lost in those blue depths. To feel like this was where I belonged, wrapped in his arms.

“I didn’t want you to expect things from me that weren’t possible. Things a girl like you probably wants from a man. Things I can’t give you.”

I fluttered my eyes closed and focused on the beating of his heart.

It did exist. I knew he had one. So why was he making it sound like he didn’t?