I want to respond to what he just said but how can I when he does things like this? The simple process of thought completely escapes me as I watch the slow trail of his tattooed hand slide down my chest. He’s wearing a watch, I note inanely, a large black-on-black skeleton watch that only seems to heighten the sensuality of what he’s doing. It’s a warm, rough palm gliding along fever-hot skin, and my breath hitches when he dips inside my shirt and cups a hand between my breasts. With his index finger near my right nipple, he slips beneath my bra and teasingly swipes over the hardened bud until I squirm. And my back bows as I thrust my chest into his hand. Wanting more of the friction.

“How far are you willing to let me take you, Aylee?” He breathes onto the shell of my ear, still slowly swiping over my tender nipple.

This time the question comes through with clarity, but there was really never any need for him to ask. He already knows my answer. “All the way,” I whisper, breathless with conviction that possesses my whole body.

He growls low in his throat at my response before covering my mouth with his. Pulling back, he moves around and swiftly tugs me from the chair, his skilled hands promptly gripping my hips, and he lets them slide down the sides of my thighs before bunching my skirt up my legs so that it won’t interfere with his next action. He displays his breathtaking strength once again and hauls me up his body. His hands immediately gliding down to grab the globes of my butt as I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms grip his neck. He takes us to his bedroom and sets me down on his bed. It’s all done in perfect succession. All done with care. He’s a predator on top of me. Large, formidable, and terribly, terribly hungry. And I’m the quarry, trapped, desirously anxious, and with my fate in his hands. But I’m eager, so breathlessly eager for his first, second, and third bite. I want to be devoured until there is nothing left of me, until I come apart in his arms

Throwing a doe-eyed look in his direction, I bite the inside of my lower lip, restlessly anticipating his next move. And that only causes him to lean in closer, hold me tighter. “You won’t be hurt, Aylee,” he murmurs next to my mouth, his hands threading in my hair, sliding down my back to expertly unhook my bra. “Never here.”

His fervency is unwavering but there’s a tenderness in his passion-drenched eyes that obliterate any last bit of doubt I may have unconsciously been harboring. Having discarded my cardigan back in his living room, he makes short work of my shirt and my skirt, tossing them somewhere into oblivion.

Vulnerability is the moment I’m left completely nude beneath the unerring, burning scope of his gaze. I can’t possibly imagine what he sees. But I know my body. I’ve memorized every tiny imperfection and I know it can never compare to the dozens of others he’s undoubtedly seen. I’m too skinny. Too fair. Lying down as I am, my breasts have flattened down to my chest from the unfair crush of gravity so that I feel horribly flat-chested. He doesn’t need to look too hard to make out the scars from my battles with my demons. My skin is littered with cuts, and the most recent ones between my thighs bring home the fact that my body isn’t made for intimacy.

“Goddamn.” Blinking at the words, I look at him. His eyes narrow, but they glint like diamonds on his face as he trails his gaze down the length of my body. Shivers ripple along my skin as though he just touched me. Goose bumps rise as I get caught in the intensity of his eyes. “You’re beautiful.”

My first and only instinct is to deny him. “No.” I smile weakly to fight the sting of tears behind my eyelids. “I’m not.” I reach for the sheets beneath us to cover myself but he grabs my wrists and pulls them over my head before I can, trapping them there with one manacling hand. He uses the other to cup my chin to look at him.

“You’re so fucking stunning.” It’s a fervent, uncontested assertion, and he bends over me to seal it with a kiss. It’s gentle and slow. So hot and carnal. It awakens an electric storm inside of me that crackles uncontrollably beneath my skin, shooting out sparks in every direction of my being. I come alive for him as he laps the inside of my mouth like he’s trying to savor my taste.

I’m so incredibly aware of how my body responds to him, and I begin to writhe beneath him. “So damn stunning to me.” I gasp and strain against him, dazed by the current of arousal buzzing through me. I don’t realize his hand is in between my legs until he hooks a finger between my soaking flesh and panties. He moves them aside with ease and very delicately slides the tip of his finger down and back up again, gently, slowly, teasingly playing in my slickness. I shudder as more heat melts my flesh.

Instantly my eyes are clenching shut, my kiss-bruised lips press up against his, needing his breath because mine isn’t enough. I wriggle to free myself of his grasp, needing to touch him, needing to wrap my arms around him to feel with my entire being how real this moment is. I need to know it’s not just a spectacularly vivid fantasy my mind is conjuring for my sake. “Maddox…please. I want to touch you.”

He shakes his head, and his grip on my wrists remain unyielding as he breathes harshly in my ear. “If I let you touch me, I’m going to bust.”

In saying that, he eases one thick finger inside my entrance and gives me exactly what I’ve been yearning for but haven’t been able to name until he shows me. “And we’re not even close to that yet.” A long, toe-curling moan slips from my lips as he rubs his thumb across my clitoris, while his finger moves in and out of me. I buck, driving his hand deeper as I jerkily move my hips, trying to find the rhythm of his finger.

His lips descend on my right nipple, taking the perked, dusky tip into his mouth. He sucks gently, circling it with the hot wetness of his talented tongue before flicking at it until I’m a writhing, shuddering mess beneath him. My body arches into the wetness, twisting and moving to receive more. I gasp and moan with a fluttering pulse and racing heart. He lifts his dark head and moves to the other breast, kissing and sucking all around until the crawling heat of his mouth finds the other nipple. He clamps it between his teeth and allows his tongue to swirl and stroke while carefully nibbling the hardened bud into a stunningly sensitive peak. I suck in a breath and then another, just when I think I can’t stand it, just when the coiling tension gathers like a volcano ready to burst, he pulls away, leaving me a delirious and frustrated on his bed.

Looking to my left, I see him rummaging for something in his bedside table before he turns back. Eyes like a hawk are train on me as he removes his clothes with speediness that astounds me. Shirt, jeans, and socks fly in the air. He’s masculine perfection in his fitted, black briefs. My eyes trail the length of his muscular physique before landing on the all-too-noticeable bulge tenting the briefs. I swallow hard. My soaking core pulses, clenching and unclenching my walls, and I’m not entirely sure if it’s from anticipation or fear. But then it becomes clear that it’s most definitely the former when he slides those briefs down his powerful legs to reveal the entirety of his gloriously hard nine-inch manhood.

Hard, dark, and raw desire strokes my insides like a lover’s tongue. Like Maddox’s tongue. Arousal drips between my already-soaking flesh just looking at him. I’m a willing pagan ready to sacrifice at his altar, wanting, needing, craving the invasion of his nine inches like life itself depends on it. What’s even more arousing is watching him grab himself, tear a small square platinum foil between his teeth, and bring the glistening condom to the bulbous head of his cock. Slowly he slides it down the veiny shaft before climbing back onto the bed. He stretches out over me and instinctively I tilt my hips up to cradle him. Bare skin to bare skin, we’re the same scorching temperature. Taking first my left arm, he drops breathy kisses along my skin, provoking a burst of goose bumps that cover me from head to toe. Setting that arm around his neck, he carries out the same heart-wrenching and tender action to the other arm, before bringing it to join the other one. He gathers me up close to him with raw, masculine need and I succumb to his power.