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Far too many damn clothes.

My hand fumbled for the corner of the chair we’d been sitting in. I clutched it, desperately holding on, barely resisting the urge to beg him to take me completely right then and there.

As if my desires were written across my flushed skin, he clenched a hand into my hair again, drawing my face backtoward his with a grip just shy of painful, and said, “You want me to bend you over this chair, don’t you?”

My knees buckled at the low, hungry growl in his voice.

I didn’t manage a coherent response.

“Soon enough,” he promised, sweeping me into his arms, carrying me to the nearby bed and tossing me onto it. His hands fell again to my hips, peeling off the rest of my clothing and jerking me toward the edge of the mattress in the same motion.

His mouth crashed to mine, the force of him making the bed and the floor underneath creak and groan. I hooked my arms around his neck, pulling myself upright and more fully into the kiss. As his tongue went deeper, my hands strayed lower, fumbling with the drawstring of his pants.

He laughed with his mouth still against mine, the sound vibrating down my throat. “So eager,” he murmured. “I appreciate the enthusiasm—but you aren’t supposed to bethinkingof anything at all.” He caught me by my arms, his strength overtaking mine easily and pressing me back down toward the bed. “Isn’t that what you said you wanted?”

My words caught in my throat as his golden gaze burned into mine, but I managed a nod.

“So that means I’m in charge.” His fingers raked along my arms, caressing and guiding them up above my head, pinning my wrists against the mattress with one hand. The other hand smoothed its way down the length of my body, settling with a light, teasing amount of pressure between my thighs. “And you don’t move without my command.”

I was too transfixed by the feel of his fingers moving, playing at my entrance, to reply.

“Agreed?”

The thought ofagreeingwas both thrilling and maddening. His touch was growing more precise, deliberate taps and circles and pinches against that most sensitive bundle of nerves Ipossessed, and I would have doneanythingin that moment if it ended with him inside of me—yet I wasn’t sure I couldmanage what he asked. To not think, to relax as if the world outside didn’t exist, to trust him to carry me completely away from it…

Aleks let out a quiet, dark laugh, clearly sensing my questions, my building vexation. “Why doesn’t the challenge burning in your beautiful eyes surprise me?”

“I’ll never be done challenging you,” I informed him, breathlessly.

“Gods, I hope not.” His smile turned wicked. Any answer I might have uttered was cut short by that expression, and by the realization that he was dropping to his knees, aligning his mouth so it could follow the pleasurable paths his fingers had been mapping out. “But maybe, just this once…trust me, and I’ll make it worth your while.”

Trust me.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d trusted anyone this way—if I ever had. When you spent most of your life feared and hated, you became wary by default. For so long, there hadn’t been anyoneworthtrusting with such conviction, with such potentially devastating certainty.

Not until him.

I exhaled a shaky breath. “You make a convincing argument with your head between my thighs like that.”

His smirk somehow turned even more devious. He dipped his head lower, pressing a kiss to my center—a slow, lingering kiss, the tip of his tongue dipping inside of me and drawing a faint, needy sound from my mouth. His gaze stayed on my face the entire time. “I could stay here all night, trying to convince you,” he said, planting a far more innocent—but no less searing—kiss on the inside of my thigh.

I studied his face a moment more. The familiar strong lines juxtaposed against the faint dimples. The particular softnessthat came over his eyes when he looked at me, andonlywhen he looked at me. Every little thing I’d fallen in love with. Every unspoken promise I’d somehow started to trust.

Slowly, I let my head sink into the mattress. My eyes closed. My arms relaxed at my sides, and he immediately claimed them, pressing them against the bed, holding me down as his mouth came back for more. His tongue worked tirelessly between my thighs, darting and licking until I was soaked and squirming beneath him.

He pinned my hands more firmly into the bed. My legs moved where my arms couldn’t, spreading further and encouraging him to taste me more fully, more deeply.

“There it is,” he mumbled, approvingly. “Open wider for me.”

My hips lifted as I obeyed, pressing myself harder against his mouth. He seemed to lose control for a moment, his hands moving away from my arms and digging into the fleshy backs of my thighs instead, lifting me even more completely to him. The savageness of it brought a cry of near-release to my lips.

He jerked away, his composure quickly returning.

I let out a protesting whimper, but he merely leaned up, kissed my pouting lips and said, “It’s much too soon for that.”

He rose to his feet, pulling me with him. The room spun slightly around me, making me feel like I was floating.

“The chair,” he reminded me, his harsh, lustful tone causing chills to erupt across my body.