My brain completely short-circuited at the first touch. The only thing I recognized was heat—against my lips, across my chest, inside every inch of my skin.

Natalie drew back from my mouth before my brain could process what was happening and lowered to her heels. Cool air brushed my lips, and her hand—her warm and soft hand—slid from my nape to my shoulder and down the sleeve of my jacket, leaving behind a trail of fire that shot straight into my blood.

Her tongue darted out of her sweet little mouth to lick those succulent lips that only seconds ago had been pressed to mine. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, dropping her gaze to my chest. “I thought if I kissed you, maybe…” She swallowed and trembled against me. “I thought it might change something.”

Her strained voice kicked my addled brain into gear, and I immediately registered the loss of her heat. My body responded on instinct, fueled by a week of lust and desire and hunger I could no longer contain.

I captured her hands at the wrists and pushed them to the base of her spine. The clutch fell from her fingers to clatter against the floor of the car. Her gorgeous blue eyes widened with both shock and a hint of fear, but it didn’t stop me.

Grasping both of her hands in one of mine, I lifted the other to hold her jaw still and pushed her back against the wall, pinning her between it and me. She tensed, trapped and unable to move, and the moment her mouth opened on a gasp, I dove in, claiming her lips, her teeth, her tongue. Devouring her as I’d wanted to devour her from the first moment I’d seen her sitting demurely in the Covet lobby back in New York.

Liquid heat seeped into my lips, enflaming the lust scorching every part of my body. I licked into her mouth, kissing her deeper, tasting her panic, tasting her fear, tasting her heat and desire and that wicked attraction I’d been fighting for so long. I wanted to consume it all. Was greedy for everything I could take from her. But more than anything I knew I craved her submission. That darkness inside me thirsted for it like a parched man wandering alone in the desert. And as I kissed her and begged her to bend to my will with my lips, I knew nothing else would satisfy me. Not her kiss or her body or even her pleasure.

Something in her shifted. I felt it in the rush of heat at her wrists where I held her. I heard it when she groaned into my mouth. I felt it as her wicked tongue stroked mine, so warm and wet and erotic, it shot ribbons of electricity straight into my cock that made me instantly hard. But it wasn’t the submission I demanded. As she pressed her succulent breasts against my chest and shifted her mouth beneath mine, I realized it was the fiery defiance she’d showed me time and again. And while that spark of rebelliousness lit me up like a firework and made me abso-fucking-lutely obsessed with her, it also flipped the regulator on my hunger—at least enough so I didn’t shove her skirt up to her hips and fuck her right here against the wall.

I tore my mouth from hers and sucked in a shaky breath. Releasing my hold on her wrists and jaw, I pressed my hands against the wall on both sides of her head, but I didn’t move. My knees were too weak—every muscle in my body was fucking weak from her luscious kiss—and I didn’t trust my legs not to give out.

My chest rose and fell with my deep breaths as I struggled for control. Hers were just as fast and shallow, telling me she was as shaken as me. Thankfully, she kept her gaze fixed on my throat, as if afraid to look at me, and I drew a breath of relief, because if she gazed up at me with longing and desire, I knew I’d buckle beneath the weight of my lust.

“Natalie,” I said in a raspy voice. “You have to leave.”

Her soft fingers landed against my ribs, and Holy mother, her touch felt like flames burning through my dress shirt to lick a path of wildfire all across my skin. “That didn’t feel like you want me to leave,” she said in that breathless, sexy-as-shit voice I’d caused. “That felt like you want me to stay.”

Fuck me, I did want her to stay. I wanted her to stay and taunt me with her cheeky disobedience. I wanted her to challenge me with those gorgeous eyes so I could bend her will to mine. And then I wanted to consume her so completely with my hands and mouth and body that I ruined her for anyone else. So she would always know she belonged to me.

The force of that yearning was so strong, it pushed me away from her, away from what I was moments from taking whether she wanted to give it or not. Swinging my hand out, I hit the button to start the elevator once more. The motor hummed beneath our feet. Still shaking, I swiped her clutch from the floor and handed it to her, then I brushed a hand down my face and forced myself not to look at her or smell her or—fuck—need her.

“Luc—”

“No.” Shit, my self-control was seconds away from shattering, and I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t drag her any deeper into this nightmare that was my life. She might think she was strong enough for it, but she wasn’t. She didn’t have a clue what lurked in the darkness, and I had just enough willpower left to keep her from finding out. “Tomorrow you’re leaving.”

“But—”

“No argument,” I snapped. “You’re going back to Idaho, and that’s the end of the discussion.”

I still had no idea how I’d make her stay there. She was right—if she wanted to leave, I couldn’t stop her. But I couldn’t keep her with me any longer. Not if I wanted her to stay as innocent and pure as she’d been when I’d met her.

Her mouth closed, and from the corner of my vision, I saw the way her spine straightened and her shoulders lifted in another sexy-as-hell show of defiance. But lurking in her eyes I also saw the bite of rejection.

Sonofabitch. I hated how harsh my voice sounded. I hated that because of me, she was hurting. But I needed her to get it. I needed her to be safe, and she never would be with me—not just because of my family and their sick agenda, but because of me.

The things I required from a woman—submission, surrender, obedience—were not things Natalie James was built to give. She was not submissive. She was fiery and independent and defiant and strong-willed, and I liked all those things about her. I didn’t want to corrupt her. I didn’t want to taint what made her special. Which meant I needed to get the hell away from her before I lost the last hold on my sanity and said fuck it to her safety and future and what she wanted and seized every damn thing I craved.

The elevator doors slid open, and I stood still as she stepped off the car. But I couldn’t keep my gaze from darting toward her. Heat and need and a bitter disappointment rocked inside me as I took in the sleek curls hanging down her slim back, as I watched her wicked hips sway as she moved, as my eyes latched on to her luscious ass rounding out the back of that fucking hot dress.

My mouth watered. It took every bit of willpower I had to tear my gaze from her. Swiping at the sweat beading my forehead, I followed her out of the hotel, thankful she wasn’t fighting me on this. Hope surged inside me that she’d finally realized I meant business and wasn’t going to push back—but it was quickly banked by a sharp stab of regret right in the center of my chest at the thought of her leaving tomorrow.

I pushed that feeling down, knowing I was doing the right thing. Vincenzo waited for us at the curb. Somehow, I made it into the car without touching her. I even managed to feign interest in my phone on the drive to the party so I wouldn’t have to talk to her. As we neared the mansion on the outskirts of the city where the party was being held, though, anxiety trickled in to mix with the regret. She was still my responsibility tonight. I had to make sure the events we’d experienced earlier in the day were not repeated.

“You may mingle at the party,” I said in a low voice, staring at my phone, still unable to look at her. “But you’re not to go anywhere without me.”

“Is that an order, Mr. Salvatici?”

My head lifted at the teasing tone of her voice, and I finally glanced across the seat where she sat a foot away from me. A sly smirk pulled at one side of her lush mouth, and the sparkle in her blue eyes was every bit as challenging as it had ever been.

That fire I thought I’d doused came raging back, flashing with a sudden burst of heat that stiffened my cock. I fought against the sudden urge to grab her and drag her onto my lap so I could wipe that smirk from her lips with my own.

“Yes, Ms. James.” It took every ounce of strength I could muster to glare at her so she would know I wasn’t playing. “It is an order. Do not cross me tonight. I’m not in the mood for your insolence.”

The car came to a stop in front of the illuminated Mediterranean villa set at the top of a hill, but Natalie didn’t turn to look. Pursing those gorgeous lips still swollen from my mouth, she lifted her hand in a mock salute. “Yes, sir, Mr. Beast. I wouldn’t dare do anything to frustrate you.”

My gaze tightened on the mischief brewing in her eyes. I saw no disappointment in those deep blue pools that I’d ended our kiss. No anger over knowing I was sending her home in the morning. And I saw absolutely no fear of me or the situation or of what I was trying to protect her from. I saw only trouble.

Vincenzo opened her door. She swung her legs out of the car. Before she could push to her feet, though, I grasped her hand to stop her. “Natalie.”

She glanced back at me. “Yes?”

“I’m serious about tonight. Stay in the same room with me. Wherever I go, you follow.”

“Should I bark when I follow or just stay two paces behind?”

I would have laughed if I weren’t wound tight as firecracker. “Two paces will suffice, like a good assistant. Because that’s what you are. That’s all you are,” I added to drive the point home.

She stared at me for several moments, then softly said, “We both know that’s not all I am.” Her gaze skipped over my features, no longer brimming with mischief but filled with compassion. So much compassion, it would have rocked me to my knees had I been standing. “I’m a lot more to you. You proved it in the elevator. I’ll leave tomorrow if that’s what you really want me to do, Luc. I won’t fight you on it. I just hope…” She hesitated and looked down at where I held her, but when her eyes slid back to mine, I saw the dampness in her gaze. “I hope someday someone makes you see yourself the way I see you. I’m just sorry it couldn’t be me.”

She gently pulled her hand from my grip, and I let her because I suddenly couldn’t breathe.

She moved up the steps to the first landing and turned to look back at me. My heart pounded hard as I slowly unfolded myself from the car and buttoned my jacket. But my eyes never left her. Not when I climbed the steps to reach her, or when she smiled at a woman to her left and launched into a conversation I had no desire to join.

“The way I see you…”

My pulse raced, and prickles of heat rushed all across my skin. I didn’t have a fucking clue how she saw me. I only saw how I’d treated her—rudely, as beneath me, then, when I’d finally changed my tactic, indifferently.

“See? Not a devil. My knight in shining armor.”

Her words from earlier slammed into me, jumpstarting my heart until it beat with long, deep, penetrating vibrations I felt everywhere. My gaze shot up to where she already stood at the top of the steep steps that led into the mansion, and a wave of electrical energy surged outward from my heart, charging my cells like a flat-lined patient jolted awake by a defibrillator.

I don’t know how I made it up the steps. I sensed lanterns and candles around me, illuminating my way, but all I could see was the light in Natalie’s gentle eyes guiding me toward her. All I could hear were her words in my head telling me I was not a devil. All I felt was the hard, bruising rhythm of my heart—a heart I feared she had finally shocked to life.

She disappeared into the house before I could reach her, and I was too rattled to try to stop her. The main room was packed with people dressed to the nines, chatting and laughing and mingling. Someone pushed a glass of champagne into my hand. I muttered “Grazie,” and searched the crowd for Natalie but couldn’t see her. Panic slid in to squeeze my heart as I scanned faces.

I’d told her to stay close. She knew not to get too far ahead of me. Hand suddenly shaking, I wove to my left, toward an archway I’d seen a few women disappear through. Just as I reached it, Natalie appeared with that same mischievous smile she’d flashed me in the car.

“You look worried, Luc. Everything okay?”

She stopped in front of me, and even though she was close and I knew she was safe, the pressure in my chest remained. “I told you to stay in the same room with me.”

“I had to use the ladies’ room. I figured that was allowed.” She pulled something from her clutch and slipped it into my jacket pocket. Then she reached for my champagne and downed half the glass, never once looking away from my eyes. “This is good.”

Fuck me… This woman was making me absolutely mad. And something in the back of my mind warned I was fighting a losing battle trying to stay sane.

I looked down at my pocket. “What was that?”

A playful smile tugged at her lips as she drained the rest of my champagne. “Just a little going-away gift. I figure since I’m leaving tomorrow, you might need something to remember me by.”

She stepped around me and headed into the chaos of the party. Confused, I turned to watch her and slid my hand into my pocket. My fingertips passed over a lacy scrap of fabric.

Heat swept through my whole body. Pulling my pocket open, I looked down, just to make sure. A tiny black thong rested in the bottom of my pocket, the sweet, spicy scent of her sex drifting up to greet my nose.

The last thread of my self-control snapped. Just shattered under the weight of my crushing desire and overwhelming hunger.

My gaze found hers through the crowd. She lifted a new glass of champagne and mock-toasted me with eyes as wicked and hot and taunting as I’d ever imagined them. Then she brought the flute to her mouth, sipped, and lowered it as she licked her lips in sensual invitation.

Everything stilled in that moment. The sounds of the party faded from my ears. The people around us disappeared until the only thing I saw was her. All the doubt and worry silenced in my head, and a slow calm settled over me. One that released every bit of tension in my muscles, soothed my roaring pulse, and dissolved the last, lingering pressure in my chest until only one truth remained.

Natalie James was mine. Tonight. Fuck the consequences and what they meant for the future. I had to have her.

She’d called me a beast. I could only hope she was prepared for the beast she’d just unleashed inside me.