She clawed at his hips, pulled him close between her spread legs, and rocked on his hard cock, hitting the perfect spot. Even between their pants, he knew how to move, where to touch, how to turn her on.

He kissed her hard as the grip on her hair tightened further. He pulled—and she gasped. The shock of pain and pleasure always hit her like a surprise, and she loved it. Gage didn’t wait. Didn’t negotiate. He took her exactly how she liked it.

“You drive me crazy.” He bit her tongue. “So fucking crazy I want to remind you who’s in charge.”

“Yes, do it!” She grinded her hips against him. She was wild for him. Desperate. He looked like her personal Army of One, and she needed him.

Her eyes snapped open. She looked him over—a wall of muscle, glory, camo, and the face paint? He was rugged and “her type” to the Nth degree of hotness.

“You did this on purpose.” She shoved at his chest, but he gathered her wrists and locked them behind her, wedging them between the tree trunk and her back.

“You dressed like this on purpose. Tried to get me to give in to you,” she said.

With his free hand, he unbuttoned her jeans and tugged them down. Once they bunched around her thighs, he pushed them to the ground with his foot, then locked her legs at her ankles. With his weight on her pants, the bunched cloth acted like cuffs. She was standing, legs spread, and couldn’t move.

“Just because I happen to look like your own personal fantasy, doesn’t mean you should hold it against me,” he said. “Besides, isn’t this what you wanted?” He unfastened his pants.

Yes, but he’d made her give up a real detail about herself. “I want you. But you…you’re…”

“Not playing fair?” he finished.

He reached into his pants, gripped his cock, and ran the head along her folds. She groaned. “Kind of like that little stunt you pulled the other night with your ‘quick meal’?”

He had her there. She might have used that to her advantage, like Gage was using his camo and manliness to his. And she was melting for him.

“Please take me now,” she begged as the hot crown of his cock barely nudged her opening. She lifted her hips to try to take him into her body, but he stilled her.

“We haven’t had a dinner date yet. And fucking in the woods doesn’t count as romance.”

Her eyes met his. “Then what…”

He thrust hard against her, running his big rod along her sex, and her head fell back. Her legs and hands were pinned. His big palm pressed against her stomach to keep her from moving. He had her in every way. And he wasn’t going to take all of it.

The thought sent fire raging through her; a cocktail of frustration mixed with lust and pent-up need.

“Feels like a compromise,” he said. The way he worked his hips was out of some manual for How to Be a Sex God without Actually Having Sex.

The velvety head of his cock briefly prodded at her opening, then ran up and down between her folds, hitting every nerve ending. He pumped faster against her clit before sliding back down to her opening, but never breaching.

He was spreading her moisture, using nothing but his impressive cock, and she was on the brink of coming from him not fucking her.

“You’re evil,” she said, but when he thrust up, pressing hard against her clit and rubbing wildly, she lost her voice.

“Really? Because it sounds like you’re enjoying this. Perhaps a thank you is more in line.”

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you. Please…” She tried to wiggle and get more, but it was no use.

“Please what?”

“Keep doing this. I want to come so bad.”

“I want you to,” he rasped in her ear. “Because you’re going to make me come, too.”

He yanked up her shirt, exposing her stomach, and moved faster. “Do you have any idea what you do to me? Making me crazed with needing to be inside you, and you’re going to make me come without even getting the chance.”

She knew the feeling. He had more restraint than she did, because she was ready to hand over anything he wanted if he’d take her deep.

The fire in her veins boiled and climbed from her toes to her breasts, snapping flicks of pleasure along the way. Her orgasm swept her up, took her over, and she couldn’t breathe. Didn’t want to. Didn’t need to. Because Gage was right there to breathe for her. Catch her. Consume her.

He groaned low, and the hot lash of his release hit her stomach as he moved up and down. After several deep breaths, his hold on her loosened. They both looked at his seed marking her. He smiled like he’d won some victory, and truth was, he kind of had. Gage exercised control in a way she’d never seen—and now she was marked by him.

He kissed her once, tucked his cock back into his pants, then reached in his pack and grabbed a wet wipe. He cleaned her stomach, then pulled her pants up and fastened them.

“I’ll be honest, sweetheart. This is the best mock rescue to date.”

She took a deep breath, trying not to let frustration override the bliss. But Gage was winning. She was ready to give in to whatever he wanted if it meant she got to have him.

Stay. Strong.

Be the fantasy. Not the reality.

“Well,” she said casually and picked a piece of bark off of her shoulder. “If half of your team responds the way you do, they should be here in no time.”

His eyes turned dark as he warded off a snarl. She was being bratty, but she didn’t care. He was messing with her sexy time and holding his body hostage against her.

She needed to make him break, and fast—before she broke first.

He was back against her in a millisecond. His big body pressed hard against her front and the tree against her back.

He cupped her face, and his fierce gaze was so wild and desperate, she couldn’t tell if he was mad or terrified.

“This is the last time.” He kissed her bottom lip. “The last opportunity.” Kiss. “Chloe, will you have dinner with me?”

She leaned back enough to meet his eyes once more. Gage McGraw, the man who issued orders and expected to have them followed, just asked her.

All the venom she’d built up, the wily exchange of wills, all fell between them. The only thing left was Gage gazing at her like he really saw her. And she couldn’t deny him.

“Please.”

That was her undoing.

“Okay,” she whispered.

A huge smile split his face, and he kissed her. Once hard and fast, the next soft, then small, light brushes of his lips, until finally he took her mouth completely.

“I promise romance isn’t as bad as you think,” he said.

Chloe somehow doubted it. Especially because she had no idea what she was doing. But she was sure of two things. One, she was getting in way over her head. Two, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself.

Chapter Five

Gage’s phone pinged with a text message from Chloe.

What’s your favorite dessert?

He stopped rolling the cuffs on his blue button-up and responded easily with the truth.

You.

Funnily enough, he was a bit nervous. While part of him had been confident he could eventually get Chloe to cave and go on a date with him, another part of him thought it’d never happen. But it was happening. Tonight.

After their little escapade in the woods, he’d replayed in his mind over and over the one word she’d said when he’d asked her again for just one date.

Okay.

She’d said okay. Now it was his shot to show her how much more they could be. And why he wanted to keep coming back to this town and to her.

His phone pinged again.

By the way, don’t worry about picking me up. I’ll meet you at the restaurant.

He almost protested, because walking to her door and getting her was part of the date. Granted, he’d never been strictly traditional, but with Chloe, he wanted to do things right—take her hand as she got out of the car, open the restaurant door for her, pull her seat out. But he was walking on thin ice with a date in the first place, and he didn’t want to push his luck. If she wanted to meet him at the restaurant, he wouldn’t push the issue.