Her kiss is a punishment, and her anger a live thing, pulsing in a fuck-you rhythm with every sweep of her tongue against mine.

But I don’t care.

Yes, in the long run, I want more from Dakota than a hate fuck, but even billionaires know that beggars can’t be choosers. I’ll take what I can get and be prepared to beg for a second chance again later, after I’ve reminded her how good I can make her feel.

We kiss on the way in the gate and across the snow-covered paving stones, up the steps, through the lobby, and into the elevator, which I manage to summon without pulling my lips from hers.

“Clothes off now. Fast.” I drag her out of the elevator, one hand fisted in her hair while the other pinches her nipple through her sweater. Her coat is somewhere in the lobby, along with mine and the sweater she clawed off of me as soon as her hands were free of her mittens, and the rest of her needs to be bared to me as soon as possible.

“Get it through your head, Garrett—you aren’t the boss.” She tears at my shirt with enough strength to send the top two buttons flying, a turn of events that is sexy as ever-loving hell, making it impossible to resist whisking her feet out from beneath her with a sweep of my leg.

Her breath rushes out, but before she can scream—or fall—I catch her, guiding her down to the plush carpet in the hallway and straddling her hips, pinning her to the floor beneath me as I set to work unbuttoning the rest of my shirt.

“You didn’t use to play rough without permission.” Her tongue slips out to dampen her lips as she watches my fingers move, her gaze making the cool hall feel sauna hot.

“It isn’t playing rough if I catch you before anyone gets hurt.” I jerk off my dress shirt, tossing it to the floor, where my undershirt soon follows.

“No games, Garrett,” she says, eyes flashing. “No games and no rough stuff. Do you understand me? This is a vanilla fuck, nothing more.”

“Nothing’s ever vanilla with you, Kitten.” I brace my hands on either side of her beautiful face, kissing her slow and deep before whispering against her lips, “But consider yourself understood. No rough stuff, just me making you come so hard you’re going to need to be carried to bed afterward.”

I pull her sweater over her head and pop the front clasp on her bra, disposing of the last barrier between my mouth and her tits before kissing a path down the curve of her neck.

“We’re doing this here?” Her breath catches as my lips replace my hand and I suckle her taut flesh into my mouth. “In the hallway?”

“Why not?” I flick my tongue across her nipple, relishing in equal measure the sweetness of her skin and the soft moan she makes. “There’s no one here but us. We’re completely alone.”

“Trying to scare me?” Her nails rake through my hair to dig into the skin at the back of my neck.

I smile against her breast as I pop the button at the top of her jeans. “Not at all. Just letting you know you can scream as loud as you want and no one will hear you.”

She makes a husky sound at the back of her throat, the same sexy laugh that always went straight to my dick.

“Some things never change,” I murmur, guiding her zipper down.

“And some things do,” she says, her tongue greeting mine as I reclaim her lips.

I slide my hand inside her panties, cursing as my fingers reach where she’s hot and wet. “But not this. God, I love how turned on you get, Kitten, the way your pussy begs for it.”

“That’s the only begging you’re getting tonight.” She rocks into my touch, breath coming faster as I slide one finger, and then two, deep into where she’s already pulsing for me, so close to coming I can taste it.

“That’s good enough.” I drag my teeth across the soft undercurve of her breast before putting them to use on her nipple, biting down hard enough to make her cry out.

“Jesus, Garrett.” Her nails dig deeper into my neck and then my shoulders, clinging tighter, tighter, as I coax her closer to the edge, fucking her with my fingers as my thumb glides over her clit. “Oh God, don’t stop.”

“Now who’s the bossy one?” I ask, but I don’t stop.

I don’t even think about stopping. I can’t wait to hear her cry out, to feel her pussy tight and slick on my fingers. Can’t wait to bring her over and start the climb all over again because I am a collector of fine things, and Dakota’s orgasms are one of the finest.

“Yes, yes,” she chants, bucking into my hand as her spine arches. “Oh yes!” On the last “yes” her pussy locks down so hard I can feel her inner walls gripping my fingers, making my painfully hard cock pulse with jealousy inside my jeans.

But it isn’t even close to time for him to make an appearance on the scene. The rest of me hasn’t had nearly enough opportunity to get reacquainted with Dakota’s sinfully sweet body.

“Haven’t even gotten your pants off yet,” I say into the curve of her neck as her trembling begins to subside. “That’s something we need to fix right away.”

“Oh, yes, please,” Dakota says, her shiver of anticipation making me smile.

“You’re much more agreeable after you’ve come.” I pull her jeans down her legs, disposing of her snow boots and socks while I’m at it. “Has anyone ever told you that?”

“Fuck you,” she says, but there’s a playfulness in the words that wasn’t there before, making me hope I’ll be able to get through to her, one orgasm at a time.

“How about I fuck you instead?” I draw her panties down her thighs, holding her gaze as she glances down to watch. “Fuck your pussy with my mouth to be precise.”

Her breath shudders out. “I wouldn’t want to deprive you of something you love.”

“That’s very generous of you.” I slide my hands under her thighs and around to grip her hips, ensuring she’s at my mercy, pinned tight with nowhere to run.

“I’m a generous woman.” Her lashes flutter as I press a kiss to her thigh, so close to her pussy I can smell salt and hunger, that almost fermented scent that makes my tongue ache to be buried in her cunt.

“You are,” I agree. “And I’m going to give you a chance to prove it. Spread your lips for me, angel, show me every inch of you.”

“You’re being bossy again,” she warns, but her fingers are already sliding down, pressing lightly into her skin as she opens herself to me, exposing the swollen pink of her.

And she is beautiful. Beautiful and shameless and so sexy all I want to do is rip open my jeans, shove them down around my thighs, and get my dick buried in her as soon as possible. I want to ride her, fuck her, own her, make her come on my cock until she’s begging for my fingers in her ass and my teeth on her neck, until she’s wild with pleasure and so open to suggestion that I’ll be able to make her come with a word, a whisper against her sweat-slick skin.

Instead, I lean in, brushing my lips ever so softly above where her clit strains toward me.

“Oh, Garret, no,” she says, breath rushing out. “Don’t, please. Not that.”

“Oh, yes…this,” I murmur, teasing my tongue in a light circle around her entrance, humming in pleasure as I get my first salty-sweet taste of her. “It makes you come so hard, Kitten.”

“You just want to break me.” She shivers as I kiss her again, this time right above the tight ring of her ass.

“A little bit,” I confess. “Just enough to make it feel so good when I put you together again. Trust me, beautiful. I’m going to make you feel so fucking good.”

I seal the promise by tilting my head and kissing her cunt the way I kissed her mouth, tongue pressing deep into her slickness, claiming every inch of her I can reach and then pulling her hips tighter to my face so I can go deeper. I ravage her pussy with my mouth until she’s bucking into me, seeking the release that’s so close, so close, oh so close.

Only then, when she’s calling out my name, her heels digging into the carpet on either side of my chest, do I pull away, leaving her writhing on the floor.

She curses and reaches for me with a clawed hand I easily bat away.

“Play with your tits,” I order as I tug open my belt. “Make your nipples harder for me, Kitten.”

This time, her eyes narrow, but she doesn’t hesitate. Her hands come to her nipples and begin to pluck and tease. The sight of her slim fingers shaking as she gets herself even hotter is sexy as fuck, but it’s her obedience that blows me away, assuring me it isn’t too late for us to reclaim what we lost.

“Good girl.” I shove my jeans and boxer briefs down and off, disposing of the last of my clothing before I settle between her thighs, determined to reward her handsomely for the hope she’s given me. “Do I need to pull out, beautiful?”

Her head jerks back and forth. “No, I’ve still got an IUD. Just fuck me, Garrett. Please. I need you inside me.”

“Soon, baby.” I grip my furiously swollen length, guiding the tip of my cock through her slick folds, up to circle her clit.

“Inside me, Garrett.” Her nails claw into my biceps as her hips buck sharply upward, trying to force me lower. “Please. Now.”

“Soon.” Sweat breaks out between my shoulder blades as I apply the faintest pressure to the bundle of nerves at the top of her, holding back even as my dick begins to throb with something closer to pain than pleasure.

Yes, I’m desperate to thrust inside her, to shove so deep my balls kiss the seam of her ass, but I need her submission more. I need to hear her beg for it, beg for me.

“Please, oh please,” she pants, her brow furrowing and her eyes squeezing shut. “It feels like I’m dying, Garrett.”

“You’re not dying.” My lips curve grimly as my balls throb out a similarly sad tale, insisting they won’t survive if they don’t find relief soon. “No one ever died from a lack of dick, Kitten.”

“You’re such a bastard. I swear, I—” Her words break off in a gasp as I slap her clit, bringing my shaft down three times in swift succession before resuming my feather-soft brushes across her nub, smearing pre-come across her delicate flesh as my cock weeps sad tears of its own.

“Name-calling won’t get you what you want, sweetheart,” I warn, voice tight with the effort of maintaining this slow, steady torture. “You know what you need to do.”

“Not fair.” She whimpers softly as I reach up, pinching her left nipple between my fingers. “This isn’t fair.”

“I never promised to play fair.” I transfer my attention to her other breast, brushing lightly back and forth with the pad of my thumb.

“And I never agreed to play at all,” she says.

I pause, my hand going still. She’s right—we agreed to keep this vanilla. But before I can figure out how to gracefully reverse course, Dakota lifts her arms over her head and says, “But okay.” Her fingers curl into fists as she adds in a huskier voice, “I’ll beg for it if that’s what you want. I’ll beg because I need this so bad.”

“How bad?” I fit my cock to her entrance, heat flashing across my skin as my hands find her wrists, encircling the slim bones, pinning her beneath me.

“So fucking bad. So insanely fucking bad.” Her lashes flutter as I push deeper, until her slick walls grip the head of my cock, giving me a taste of the paradise that’s about to be mine.

“And who do you belong to, Kitten?” I ask, even though I know I shouldn’t. “At least for tonight?”

“I belong to you.” She arches beneath me, breath coming faster as I begin to move, fucking her with slow, shallow strokes that only add fuel to the fire. “I’m yours. Please. Do anything you want with me, but please fuck me first, Garrett. Please, I need you so much, I need—”

Her words end in a sharp cry as I drive in deep, thrusting forward until my pubic bone grinds against her clit. I devour her second cry with a kiss, laying claim to her mouth. I fuck her with my tongue and my cock, riding her harder as she comes for me, determined to make her go at least one more time before I lose myself.

“Again, beautiful,” I order as she bucks beneath me, her wrists pressing into my hands with enough strength to make me work to keep her pinned and at my mercy. “I need you to come for me again.”

“I can’t,” she says, gasping as I glide deep and hold still inside her, exchanging my rolling thrusts for a shallow rock of my hips. “Oh God, Garrett. What are you doing to me?”

“The things you like.” I nudge her clit with my pubic bone, coaxing her closer, closer, until she’s panting and her lips part in that O shape I know so well. “Now, baby.” I bend to take her nipple in my mouth, sucking her deep and doing some begging of my own against her damp skin. “Now, sweetheart. Oh please, now, come for me now.”

A moment later, just as my balls clench and my own release becomes an unstoppable force, her inner walls lock down, squeezing my dick so tight I can’t help but cry out her name.

My head falls back, and a roar of pleasure erupts from deep in my chest as my cock jerks inside her, my release sending everything I feel for this woman spilling out of my mouth and into the air in a mixture of sweet and filthy words I know I won’t remember later.

I’m not usually the kind of man who loses control in the heat of the moment—even moments like these—but it’s been so long since I’ve felt anything like this, the unspeakable bliss of being buried deep in a woman who means everything. Absolutely everything, because I know first-hand that life isn’t worth living without her.

“Fuck, I’ve missed you,” I murmur against her neck as we lie tangled together on the floor afterward. “So much.”

She hums softly. “I’ve missed this.” Her fingers glide over my ass, down between our still joined bodies to cup my balls. “And these.”

I curse, my brow furrowing as she rolls and tugs, sending a fresh surge of longing rushing between my thighs.

“Do you still get hard again almost instantly?” she asks, lips curving as my cock answers her question for me. “Oh, good. I’m not ready to be finished yet.”

“No?” I pull back, gazing down into her hooded eyes as her finger teases back and forth across that sensitive skin between my balls and my ass, making my cock swell faster, thicker. “Then what are you ready for, Ms. Fleming?”

“On top maybe,” she says, biting down on her bottom lip. “Or from behind with your hand in my hair. I like it when you pull my head back right as I’m about to come.”

I curse again, and she laughs, a wickedly lovely laugh that I silence with a kiss, and then another as I set about marking off the items on her wish list, as well as a few of my own.

By the time I carry her to bed nearly an hour later, she’s semi-comatose with pleasure and muscles in my hips I’d forgotten I had are aching with use, but it’s a good ache. A perfect ache.

Almost as perfect as the ache that fills my chest when Dakota curls against me and falls asleep, her cheek above the heart that will always belong to her.