I jolted as fists pounded on my door.

“Damn it, Ruby. Open up!”

God. Ryan. They must have told him. Why would he have come here?

I opened the door, but what greeted me wasn’t the Ryan Steel I knew. His hair was unruly, his shirt untucked. He had a feral and crazed gleam in his dark eyes.

“How could you?” he said. “How could you not tell me?”

“I…” I had no words. He was right. I should have told him everything. “We didn’t know each other very well. We didn’t—”

“Fuck that noise, Ruby. We had something special.”

Had? Was it over? Probably. He had every right to end it. Every right to hate me. “Well…you know now.” What a stupid thing to say.

“I know. What innocuous words those should be. Knowledge should be a good thing, shouldn’t it?” He waved the DNA test papers at me. “This is knowledge. Knowledge I never wanted.”

“Ryan, come in and sit down. Let’s talk about this.”

“I didn’t come here to talk.” He grabbed me and pulled me into him.

“What are you doing?”

“This.” He crushed his lips to mine.

I’d kissed Ryan many times before. Sometimes the kisses were passionate with ferocity, sometimes gentle and loving. This was neither.

This kiss was punishing.

While his urgency and physical manner scared me, I couldn’t pull away. Not now. Not after I was partially responsible for how he was feeling right now.

After a few seconds, he was the one to pull away. “Goddamnit, Ruby, kiss me back.”

Hadn’t I been?

No, I’d been cowering, trying to release the tension, trying to resist the urge to pull away. Being forced into something did not sit well with me, given my history. Probably even not given my history.

But this was Ryan Steel. The man I loved, though he didn’t know that yet. In my heart, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.

So I opened to him, let him plow into my mouth with his tongue.

Yes, this was punishment, as sure as if he were taking me over his knee and spanking me. He was blaming me for what he knew. Blaming me for my part in it.

And he was right.

I’d take his punishment. Endure what he had in store for me. And hope like hell we’d be okay afterward.

He deepened the kiss, groaning into my mouth. It was primal, driven solely by instinct, and a few minutes later, when he broke the kiss with a loud smack, we were both breathless.

“Bedroom?” he rasped.

I pointed to the closed door off my living room. He pushed me toward it and opened the door. My double bed wasn’t made. I wasn’t much of a housekeeper, and my tiny apartment was smaller than his bedroom. But in Ryan’s current mood, he no doubt wouldn’t mind.

He pushed me onto the bed. “Take off your clothes.”

Rattling commenced in my nerves. I didn’t move.

Show Daddy how much you love him. Now take off those clothes.

“Did you hear me? I said take off your clothes.”

I closed my eyes and exhaled. He’s not your father, Ruby. He’s the man you love. He’s hurting. He needs you. He won’t hurt you.

I began to unbutton my crisp cotton shirt, my fingers shaking. You can say no, Ruby. You can stop this at any time.

But did I want to? I could say no, and I felt sure he would stop.

Sad truth.

I didn’t want to say no.

I wanted this as much as he did, maybe even for the same reasons. Anger. Punishment.

I was angry at this outcome too, that Ryan Steel had been misled his whole life about his true parentage. I was angry at myself for not insisting he be told ahead of time.

I was angry at my father for making me afraid of men for so long.

Ryan Steel was not a man I was afraid of. He was a man I loved, and I would give him anything—anything—within my power if he needed it.

Right now, he needed my body.

I’d give it willingly, and I’d show him just how willingly.

Instead of going to the next button, I pulled the two sides of my shirt apart, ripping the buttons and sending them flying through the air, clattering to the hardwood floor.

Ryan’s eyes burned darker.

I had pleased him.

And that fact thrilled me.

“Now the bra. Let me see those tits.”

I couldn’t rip off my bra, but I unclasped it as quickly as I could, throwing it to the floor as my breasts bounced gently against my chest.

Ryan sucked in a breath. “Your shoes. Your pants.”

My sensible shoes were loafers, and I kicked them off and then removed my socks. As I began to work the button on my pants, I realized something.

My pussy was throbbing. Throbbing in anticipation of being taken forcefully by Ryan Steel.

It wasn’t just that I was in love with him, that I was attracted to him. It was the anger that was fueling our passion, our desire.

I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but it didn’t matter. I was all in. I’d been all in since I’d given Marjorie that hair sample.

I slid my pants over my hips, following with my cotton panties. When all my garments were strewn on the floor, I sat in front of the man I loved, naked and vulnerable.

Was I frightened?

Hell, yes.

But also turned on as hell.

“Spread your legs. Let me see your cunt.”

I resisted the urge to shudder at his graphic word. Instead, I obeyed, and he knelt at my bedside.

He stuck his face in my pussy and inhaled. “I’m going to eat you out, baby. I’m going to suck you dry and make you come and come and then come again. You’re going to come so many times that you’ll be begging me to stop. But I won’t stop. I won’t stop until you can’t take it anymore. Until your body is so sated that you go limp. You got that?”

I nodded, shivering…waiting. Waiting for his tongue, his fingers…whatever he wanted to put into me. I was up for it.

“Do you know what a turn-on it is?” he said. “That I’m the only one who’s been inside this luscious pussy? That I’m the only man who’s taken you?”

I nodded, not sure what else to do.

“No one else will ever taste this pussy,” he said. “Not while I live.”

What? I couldn’t make sense of the words. I was too busy waiting for him to lick me. I was on edge, so ready to come. It wouldn’t take much.

“Tell me,” he said. “Tell me no one else will taste this pussy.”

“What?”

“Damn it, Ruby. Say it.” His eyes were dark, feral.

“No one… No one else will taste…”

“This pussy. Say it.”

“Th-This pussy.” Though I’d thought it, I wasn’t sure I’d ever said that word aloud before.

“Good. Now lie back. Get ready. You’re going to come.”

And as soon as his tongue hit my clit, I did.