There’s a delicious ache between my legs, a handsome, naked man sprawled out beside me, and I’m convinced this is the only way to wake up. This must be why Mo and Claire are always so damn happy in the mornings.

I stare down at Lincoln. His leg is draped over mine, a thick arm rests low across my hips, and his head is nestled between my bare breasts. He’s zonked out cold.

As he should be.

We went at it hard last night. He came home from The Barn at six o’clock with a cheese pizza and a two-liter of soda. We ate at the coffee table while he quizzed me on endocrinology, and then he carried me to bed where we made love not once, but twice before falling asleep in each other’s arms.

He did mention that he had to get up a little earlier this morning because he needs to make a stop by his dad’s, so I set an alarm. It’s not due to go off for another thirty minutes, but there’s no way I’m going to fall back asleep now—not with his warm breath blowing against my nipple and his hard-on pressed against my hip—so I reach an arm out and shut it off.

I run my fingers through Lincoln’s soft hair and watch his chest rise and fall. We’ve slept together countless times over the last few months, but I’ve never taken the time to sit back and just watch him. We’d occasionally wake up twisted in each other’s arms, but most of the time I’d wake up and he’d already be gone, or I’d be out of his bed long before his alarm was set to go off.

But I like it this way better.

Lincoln stirs beside me and pulls me deeper into his arms. I smile when he buries his face in my neck and hums deep in his throat.

“You smell like me,” his sleepy voice rumbles.

“Hmm. I wonder why?”

“You staying home and studying again today?” he asks, his hand sliding down my leg.

“Yes. But I’ve got a study group this afternoon. I probably won’t be home until late.”

“With Abby?”

“And a few other people from class.”

“Where?”

“Where we always study, the Houston Public Library.”

When I was in school I used to study at the college library in Heaven, but my study partners either live in Houston or closer to Houston than Heaven, which is convenient since I’ve been staying with Lincoln.

“Who will be there?”

“The normal group. Abby, Emily, Taryn, Jack, Tyler, and Phillip.”

Hooking his hand under my knee, Lincoln draws my leg up and back, draping it over his. His fingers slide between my folds. “Christ, you’re wet.”

I reach for his cock and guide it to my entrance. “And you’re hard.”

“I’m always hard when you’re around. What are you doing, babe?” he asks when I arch my back, allowing the tip of his cock to dip inside.

“I want you inside of me.”

His big hand kneads my breast, which is surprisingly sensitive. “Is my girl horny?”

“I’m always horny when you’re around.”

“No way in hell am I letting you go to a study group with a bunch of dudes when you’re turned on.”

“Are you jealous?”

“Fuck yeah, I’m jealous. I always hated when you went to those damn study groups. I’d be stuck at home wondering if they were looking at you and craving you the way I do.”

“They weren’t.”

“Bullshit. Today I want you to smell like me when you sit down at the table with them. I want them to know you’re taken and who you belong to.”

I don’t know why I like that so much, but I do.

“I want that too.”

He slides into me from behind, his thick cock filling me completely. But it’s when he rolls me over onto my stomach, pressing all of his weight down on me that I really feel the strength and power of his body, as well as the hold he has on me. My blood fills with an unfamiliar need, a need to be taken—owned. And I welcome the burn that simmers just beneath my skin.

With a hand on either side of my head, he props himself up and starts to push in and out of me, but it isn’t enough, so I tug on his wrist causing him to fall on top of me. Lincoln is huge, much bigger than me, and the weight of his body forces me into the mattress.

“Babe, what are you doing?”

He tries to push back up, but I don’t let him.

“I want you on top of me, Lincoln. I want to feel your whole body pushing me into the mattress as you fuck me.”

Lowering his lips to my ear, he nibbles the lobe. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

“Yes, I do. I don’t think you understand how bad I want you to claim me and fuck me and own me. I want it to hurt so bad it feels good. I want an ache between my thighs every time I sit down, knowing it was you who put it there.”

“I’ll crush you,” he whispers.

“No, you won’t. I trust you. Please. Please, just fuck me. Mark me. Show me how bad you want me.”

“I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.” In one thrust, his cock bottoms out against my cervix, and I try to arch my back, but I can’t because his two-hundred-pound body is forcing mine into the bed. I’m paralyzed, unable to move as he pounds in and out of me in harsh, unforgiving movements.

It’s raw and carnal and the best damn thing I’ve ever felt. He’s taking something from me he’s never taken before, and I happily let him. With each thrust, my hips are shoved forward, causing my clit to rub against the sheet, and I know I’m not going to last long.

One arm threads beneath my arm, his large hand gently curling around the base of my throat as he holds me in place while his mouth devours my neck.

“This pussy is mine, baby. When you’re with those guys, I want you to feel me here, to know who you belong to.” His thrusts become more aggressive. “Let me here you say it, Adley.”

“I’m yours!” I cry out in pure ecstasy as he drives my body higher than it’s ever been before.

The fingers around my neck tighten a little, and when he growls, “That’s right, sweetheart, and I’m yours,” I hurtle over the edge.

I cry out his name, begging him to fuck me harder. And he does.

I grab the pillow above my head and hold on for dear life as the first orgasm rushes through me. Color explodes behind my eyes. My vision blurs, my ears fill with white noise. Sparks of pleasure race through my veins, and each time my clit is forced against the sheet, a jolt of electricity shoots through me. It’s intense, and I’m not sure how much more of it I can take, but it doesn’t stop, and another orgasm washes through me. Tears leak from my eyes as Lincoln pounds harder and faster and deeper, and then his hips jerk once, twice, and a third time before his body goes rigid on top of mine.

His strokes slow as we work to catch our breath. “That was the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced.” He rolls off of me, pulls me against his side and presses a kiss to my head. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No.” I shake my head and relax against him. “That was…I didn’t know sex could be that good.”

I feel him grin against me. “I didn’t know we could be that good.”

“We should’ve been doing that the last five months.”

“We should’ve. Adley?”

“Yeah?”

“That was more than sex.”