Something wakes me.

Slowly, I become aware through the groggy haze of sleep, and I lift my left wrist to my ear and reach to press the button that will tell me the time. When I realize my right hand is all wrapped up in something soft and warm, a smile tugs at my lips and my heart thuds deep inside my chest.

Lowering my watch so that I can press the button around Arden’s slender, soft form, I raise it back to my ear in time to learn it’s still a few hours before dawn.

Pausing, I listen, my ears straining for any sound that would have woke me.

Then I go still, my body tensing as the round curve of Arden’s ass presses back against me.

My cock is instantly hard and nudging her, and a soft, breathy moan rasps into the air around me. My world might be dark, but the sound of her voice, especially now that I know what it’s like when she’s aroused, is like a beacon in a damn harbor.

It calls out to me, and I’d find her, even through a motherfucking hurricane.

My hand slides up from her flat belly to palm her lush breast, and I find her nipple peaked and hard. Like she’s waiting for me.

I still don’t know whether she’s asleep or awake, but I know one thing for damn sure. My girl—and yeah, that’s what she is now, whether we’ve had the conversation or not—is needy, and I’m here to fix that anytime it’s a problem.

I tweak her nipple, rolling it between my fingers, and she pushes back against me again, harder. Her voice, that sexy, throaty tone I tried to resist at first, covers me in silk, and my blood pulses in my ears. There’s nothing but her, and that should scare me, especially since I’ve become hyper-aware of my surroundings and my surviving senses. But I’m too far gone for this woman to be worried.

“Yes, Flash, mmm.” Her words are a sleep-filled murmur, and I realize she really is only half-awake, if that.

I can change that.  I’m a fixer, and right now? I’m going to make sure every need she has is met.

I slide my other hand up the side of her smooth thigh, burning a trail over her hip, until my fingers reach the velvet lips of her pussy. She’s hot, impossibly fucking hot, and my fingers are instantly soaked by her arousal.

I can’t stop the growl that erupts from my chest and rumbles against her ear as my mouth finds her heated skin. “So wet, sweetheart. So ready for me. In your sleep? Goddamn, that’s sexy.”

My cock grinds against her ass, practically begging me to ease the ache building, brimming, almost bursting inside.

Arden gasps, and her body tenses for just a second before she moans, this time pushing back against me with awareness and purpose.

“Flash? Oh, God…I thought I was dreaming. You…I need…” Her words fall away as I slip two fingers inside her.

My thumb strokes a slow circle over her swollen, throbbing clit, and my teeth graze her neck as I whisper roughly in her ear, “I know what you need, Bunny.”

I fuck her slowly with my fingers, savoring the feel of her, the sounds she makes, as she rides my hand. It’s the first time—since I was a teenager, I think—I could come just from touch alone, and I dip my head and sink my teeth into her shoulder just to keep from coming.

“Please, Flash,” she begs, and fuck me, I shouldn’t love the sound of her begging this much.

But I want her needy, and begging, and all twisted up beneath me until I know that I’m the only one who can put her back together. This woman, who’s been so strong, so held together with the most fragile kind of glue; all I want is for her to feel safe enough to fall apart in my arms.

And trust me to heal the pieces, over and over again. As often as she needs me to.

I pick up the pace, thrusting my fingers faster inside her as I allow the hand at her breast to cup her harder. As my thumb presses down firmly on her clit, I feel her clenching around me. My fingers are drenched with her pleasure as her legs start to shake.

“Come for me, sweetheart,” I urge, needing it just as bad as she does. “Let me have it.”

“Flash!” She finds the back of my head, her fingers tugging at my hair as she breaks, her gasps filling the room before she goes limp in my arms.

Like she thinks I’m done with her.

“That’s my girl,” I murmur, kissing her neck as I release my hand from her pussy and grip her knee.

Lifting her leg to settle over mine, I enter her from behind with one quick thrust, and my cock surges, growing even stiffer as I’m soaked with her wetness.

“Fucking hell.” I groan, going still inside her, just to savor the way she feels wrapping around me, like honey on a clover. “You’re gonna destroy me, you know that?”

Her breathless voice finds me as she thrusts her ass back against me. “Good. Then it’ll be a mutual destruction.”

Fuck. This woman.

“Move, Flash. I need you.”

I pull out of her slowly, biting my lip against the tug and release of her body to mine, the perfect way we fit together. Bodies were made to fit this way, I know this, but I’m still blown away by how well she sheaths me.

Sheaths me. Fuck.

I freeze. “No condom. Shit, baby. I’m sorry,” I breathe.

She grabs the back of my head again, tilting her face up and finding my lips. Hers are slick, and my mouth opens hungrily to taste her, groaning at the wet slide of her tongue against mine.

When she pulls away, I’m almost dizzy with my need for her. “Don’t be. I’m not. Now, make love to me, Flash. Please.”

It’s the hoarse little “please” that breaks the dam holding back the last strands of my restraint. I forget about condoms, I forget about being gentle. I forget about everything, except the basic need to make her mine.

One hand gripping her hip, I pull out and slam into her, savoring the pleased cry that bursts from her when I do. Again and again, our bodies meet, and the air is filled with the sounds of our fucking.

Of our…lovemaking? Something inside me twists with the slightest twinge of fear at the thought, but I don’t let it stop me as Arden takes over my brain, my body, and my heart.

One thought fills my head as my body draws tight and I roar my release into her hair, filling her with everything I have inside me.

Mine.

Mine.

Mine.