The more time that ticked by without her, the more anxious and tense I became. I stood with Axel in the center of the launch event, shaking hands and accepting praise for the new Intelli Surface products. It was a moment I’d been building toward, something I’m proud of. But I couldn’t enjoy it.

Not without Arden.

“She’s gonna be okay.” Axel’s voice in my ear makes me jump. My fucking nerves are frayed, frazzled.

On edge.

My face is granite when I answer, my voice the rough surface of unforgiving stone. “You don’t know that. You didn’t hear her.”

“I caught the tail end,” Axel argues. “But even if I hadn’t, I’ve seen you two together. You should have told her about Poppy. You know that. But this isn’t going to be the end of you two.”

No. It’s not. I won’t let her go. Not because of this.

“I need to see her. I need to make her understand, Ax.”

His hand lands on my shoulder. The gesture is supposed to comfort me, but it doesn’t. Not this time.

“And you will. Just give her the time and space she asked for. You can talk to her tomorrow, man.” Axel’s tone turns wry and amused. “It’s not like she can’t survive a night without being in your sight.”

His words were supposed to make me feel better.

So then why did they send a stake of dread straight through my heart?

I shake my head. “Nah, Ax. I’m not waiting. We wrap shit up here, and then you’re driving me to her house.”

My brother’s exaggerated sigh of impatience doesn’t do anything to dissuade me. “Now, where’s that fucker Manheim when you need him? Point me in his direction. I want him to make sure everyone gets out of here safely, not getting behind the wheel if they’ve had too many.”

“You know most CEO’s don’t consider that their responsibility, right?”

I shrug. “I’m not most CEO’s.”

“No, you’re not. I don’t see Manheim, though. Want me to grab Mandy? She’ll have all the marketing stuff to get straightened out after the event’s over anyway, right?”

I nod, giving him permission to pull the Head of Marketing over.

After explaining to Mandy that I need her to preside over the end of the launch event, to which she readily agrees, Axel and I climb into his SUV and head toward Arden’s neighborhood. It doesn’t take more than fifteen minutes to get there at this time of night, but my fingers drum against the dashboard the entire time Axel drives. I can’t shake the feeling that I never should have let Arden walk away from me, and the longer I go without being around her, the more wound up I become. When Axel’s car slows, my hand lands on the door handle.

His hand on my chest makes me pause. “Her car’s not here, man. And the place is completely dark. Any chance she wouldn’t have gone home?”

Not home? Fuck. “Where is she?” I mutter, agitated fingers smoothing over my hair. “The studio. If she’s not at home, she’s at the studio. Let’s go there.”

The big engine rumbles as Axel pulls away and we make our way back to the historic downtown. This time, he pulls to a stop in a spot at the curb in front of The Art Of Java. I’m already standing on the curb beside my car door, shifting impatiently from foot to foot when Axel joins me at my side. Someone bumps my shoulder as we head for the front door to the shop, setting me off-balance, but it takes me less than a second to right my senses.

“Watch it.” A gruff voice growls the words as the offender continues walking, and I feel Axel stiffen next to me.

“Don’t,” I order him.

“Some asshole suit,” he mutters, the anger barely concealed by the grit of his teeth.

“We look like asshole suits right now.” I point out the obvious, pausing when we reach the shop door.

“Lights are on in back.” My brother’s observation makes every muscle inside me twitch with the desire to already be standing in front of Arden.

Not for the first time tonight, I wish I’d brought Nitro with me. I don’t want to have to depend on Axel. Not for this.

Pulling to a halt, I tip my head toward Axel. “Do you still have a cane in the back of your car?”

“Yeah. Want me to get it?” The shock is evident in his tone.

I nod, and the disturbance in the air around me signals his disappearance.

I don’t take my attention away from the door in front of me while I hear the sound of Axel’s car unlocking behind. It’s like there’s a chance if I stare hard enough, the pure blackness I see will disappear and Arden will be standing in front of me. But no matter how long I keep my gaze locked, all I see is black.

When my brother is beside me again, he places the cane in my palm and wraps my fingers around it. He drives my hand, touching the ground and the door directly in front of me. Finally, he steps back.

“Want me to wait here?”

I open the shop door with my left hand and lift my chin in response to Axel before passing through the threshold and letting the door swing shut behind me. I stand there, completely still, the way I’ve learned when I need my other senses to work overtime.

A soft noise drifts up from the back of the shop. Bunny? I open my mouth to call out to her when another sound roots me to the spot.

A sniffle.

A shudder rolls through me as pain fills my chest. When her quiet sob hits my ears, awareness as sharp as blades slice through my consciousness, and I’m moving before I realize it.

I round the side of the counter, moving faster than I should be without sight but not giving two fucks about it. When I reach the room where I know Arden hasn’t worked on her sculptures in a very long time, I pause.

The room is filled with the sound of her crying, and I know she hasn’t noticed me standing there yet because there’s no change in the noises she makes. I listen for a few seconds, my head tipped to one side. I did this to her. Fucking hell, she’s crying because of me.

Then something taps my subconscious, making me listen harder. Her sobs don’t sound sad, they sound…afraid.

“Arden?” My voice leaks out like the crack of a whip, when I intended it to be gentle.

She gasps, and I move further into the room. When I reach the place I know she sits, the stool in front of the sculpting wheel she showed me once months ago, I drop to a squat in front of her. Placing my cane down beside me, my hands land on her sequin-clad thighs.

“Baby.” I hide the broken, gutted sound of my own voice. Instead, it comes out strong, steady. For her. “What’s wrong?”

She sniffs, sucking in a breath I can feel roll through her whole body. “I—what are you doing here, Flash?”

She tries to hide the relief in her tone, but I can hear it. “I needed to see you. There’s nowhere else I could have been tonight, Bunny. You…this thing between us? It’s everything.”

There’s a moment of hesitation before her hands land on either side of my face. She leans down, her breath on my face as welcome as the sunlight would be to my vision. “I’m glad you came. I’m… God, Flash. I’m sorry about the way I left you earlier.”

Shaking my head, I swallow. When I find my voice, it’s thick with emotion. “Don’t be sorry, baby. You have nothing to apologize for. I should have told you. It’s that simple. I fucked up, but I swear to you, I won’t do it again.”

She tugs me up until I’m standing, her soft, slender frame flush against me. I cup her face, my fingers diving into her hair, before I dip my head and take her mouth. She’s sweetness and sin at the same time, and all I want to do is drink her in. My hands slide down her body as my tongue drives into her mouth. Her taste is like a drug for me…the more I have it, the more I have to have it. A tiny moan escapes her, and I swallow it as her hands smooth out against my shoulders.

I hitch up her dress, the silky fabric flowing through my fingers like water. Sliding my palms over the thong I wanted to rip off her earlier, my fingers grip her flesh. My mind races with nothing but thoughts of her, flashes of the way my mind’s eye sees her. Sexy, innocent, beautiful, mine.

This woman is mine, and nothing’s going to change that.

“Flash,” she whispers, as she presses her breasts against me and her fingers tighten on my shoulders. “I need you. Right now. Show me that…that I’m not going to lose you.”

The raw vulnerability in her voice almost levels me. Every part of me clenches tight with emotion, but I brush my lips gently against the shell of her ear before I whisper, “You want me to fuck you, Arden? Here?”

She nods, a gasp falling from her mouth.

“Say the words.” My voice is nothing but a growl as I reach for the zipper on my dress slacks.

“Fuck me, Flash. Please.”

Those words on my girl’s sweet lips break something inside of me. Something I’ve tried my best to keep caged. But every time I’m with Arden like this, every time she so willingly accepts every part of who I am, and every time I hear her sexy little noises and feel the way she presses that body against mine, that beast claws its way a little closer to the cage door.

Whipping her around, I press my hand down on her bare back until she’s leaning over her sculpting wheel. The panties stretch to their limit as I give a sharp tug, then they’re nothing but two scraps of fabric in my fingers that I toss to the floor. My pants and boxer-briefs drop to puddle around my feet as I fist myself in one hand and grab her around the waist with the other.

When I rub the tip of my cock against the seam of her ass, she pushes back against me. When I slip two fingers inside her wet pussy and then swirl them around that swollen little clit, she moans my name. And when I enter her in one hard, quick thrust, she cries out.

That’s all it takes to unleash the beast.

I pound into her, again and again. Filling her up and taking it away, only to fill her up all over again. I honor her request, making sure she knows that she has this, has me, for as long as she wants it. She thinks she’s the only one afraid of losing this?

Fuck. The idea of anything happening to take Arden away from me, especially my own mistakes, scares the living shit out of me. My body quakes with everything I feel for her as I show her exactly what having her means to me.

When I feel my balls draw up tight with the impending eruption, I pinch her clit between two fingers and drop my forehead to her back as she screams.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

With a roar, I empty everything inside of me inside of her in answer to the orgasm that clenches her pussy around my cock. I squeeze my eyes shut and watch as stars explode in a darkness that’s just a little bit more light than usual.

We lay there for a minute, panting, as we both come down and our heartbeats slow. When I slide free of her, pulling up my pants and allowing her dress to slide back down over her perfect hips, I cage her against the pottery wheel with my arms and kiss the back of her neck, her shoulder, her ear. Brushing her now-falling hair to one side, I whisper words I feel deep in my soul.

“I love you, Arden Fontaine. And leaving you will never be an option.”

* * *

It’s only hours later, in the warmth of my bed, that I remember the awareness that prickled me back at the studio.

“Baby,” I murmur into the soft skin of her shoulder.

She wiggles, pressing her round ass against me, and I bite back a groan. “Mmm?”

Ignoring the fact that my cock is twitching with interest, I stay focused on the question at hand. “Earlier, when you were crying? You weren’t sad. You were scared.”

She freezes. Even her breathing stops.

The usual sounds in constant rotation around me disappear, leaving nothing in my focus but her. I suck in my own breath and hold it, waiting for her next words. Trying my best to keep my rage at bay. Because whoever scared her that way? Enough to make her cry? Enough to feel like she needed to hold it in?

That person is going to fucking pay.

Her voice quivers around the words. “I have to tell you something.”