“Okay,” I whispered. My eyes locked on his lips, and I mentally pleaded with him to kiss me. After spending so much time with him and knowing that he was looking out for me and my safety, I couldn’t force myself to deny I wanted him. “Walk me upstairs?”

Indecision flitted across his features, his eyes darting from my lips to my eyes and back again. Oh. My. God. He was struggling to fight his attraction too. My tongue sneaked out to moisten my lips as he watched, his eyes darkening.

Without answering me, he opened his door and rounded the car to help me out. Taking my hand in his, he led me up the stairs to my door where he took the keys from my hand and let us in.

Carla jumped up from the couch, a little startled to see a behemoth man walking in ahead of me. “Shit, you scared me,” she cried out, her hand flying to her chest like she was having a heart attack.

“Sorry. Carla, this is Xavier. Xavier, this is Carla.” I gestured between the two.

Xavier held his hand out to Carla and she practically melted under his sexy grin.

“Okay. Well.” Carla cleared her throat and snatched her purse off the table. “I’m just going to go. I’ll… uh… see you tomorrow.”

Before I could say goodbye she was out the door like a tornado.

“You sure do have quite an effect on women,” I commented as I set my own purse down on the table.

He shrugged as if it was no big deal but let out a little chuckle. The sound of his mirth did funny things to me. Warmth spread in my belly, and my breath faltered at the same time my heart beat wildly in my chest. The realization that we were very much alone save my daughter asleep in her room had lust slamming into me like a freight train.

My mother once told me that opportunities are never lost. Someone will always take the one you miss. I thought of the girl who had been with him that night at The Den and I knew being with him was not an opportunity I wanted someone else to take. A place deep inside me whispered the forbidden words I had tried to avoid.

I want him to be mine.

His eyes bore through me as I closed the distance between us. With my hands on his chest, I lifted up onto my tiptoes until our mouths were so close that we were practically breathing the same air.

“Kiss me,” I whispered. His eyes flashed and his hands gripped my waist almost painfully. What he didn’t do was kiss me.

“Kiss me,” I said a little louder that time.

I shifted closer so that my breasts brushed his chest. When he still didn’t give me what I wanted, I decided to take it instead.

My hand slipped up his chest and neck, and into his hair.

“I don’t want to be lonely tonight,” I whispered while pushing his head down to mine at the same time I pressed my mouth to his. His lips were warm and hard against mine, as I licked them wanting entrance.

Xavier growled low in his throat. His mouth opened over mine and he devoured me. What had been in my control up until that point was now very much in his. All I could do was hold on to him for dear life as he spun me around so my back was against the counter, his hands gripping my ass roughly.

He made love to my mouth with such efficiency that my legs gave out and I was lightheaded from a lack of air. With his mouth still on mine, he lifted me up with strong hands, setting me on the counter and spreading my legs wide enough for him to fit between them.

One hand tangled in my hair, angling my head right before his mouth slammed down on mine. His tongue sought entrance, which I gladly granted him. I craved more of his taste as I solicitously rubbed myself against him from my perch on the edge of the counter. His other hand went between my legs and into my shorts where his finger hit my sweet spot on the first try.

I moaned in his mouth, sucking on his tongue in response to how good he was making me feel. My hips rose of their own accord, seeking more contact, which he gave me when his finger delved inside my pussy, spreading my wetness over my clit before plunging back inside.

With one hand planted on the counter for support, my other found him through his pants and began rubbing his huge erection. He was so hard I felt myself shudder with my impending orgasm.

My soul soared the second he touched me. This right here was what I wanted. What I had been searching for since I was fifteen and alone in this cruel world. Someone who made me feel completely alive. Like nothing could ever touch me.

We were so right together that I knew it could never be wrong.

He tore his mouth from mine, his hand stopping the magic it was working between my legs, even though his finger still applied pressure against my clit, which was throbbing with need.

“Is that what you wanted? For me to lose control?” His heated words were punctuated by a thrust of his fingers inside me.

“Yes,” I breathed, needing more of him but not getting it when suddenly his body wasn’t against mine anymore. I blinked at how quickly he put distance between us, my body still protesting the lack of fulfillment on his pleasure-filled promise. My mind raced to fight the haze of lust he had me under.

What the fuck just happened? My brain screamed.

“I need to be in control, Aurora.” His jaw ticked and his fists clenched as anger poured off him in waves. “The minute I’m not, I’m dead and some sorry motherfucker is taking my place. Only he isn’t going to have a hands-off policy, and you’ll find your cut won’t be as hefty as you’re used to. And the streets, baby? They’ll become your best friend. Before you know it, you’ll be taking it up the ass, feeling the hard fists of your Johns. All the while you’ll wish you were someone else.”

“Alyssa.” For some insane reason, I was choosing to focus on what he called me rather than the cruel and frightening picture he was portraying. What I knew the life of a prostitute looked like for so many women less fortunate than Xavier’s girls.

“What?”

“Alyssa. My name is Alyssa,” I repeated, stronger than last time.

He shook his head and gave me a sardonic look. “No, it’s not, baby. Alyssa died the minute you walked through the door and into my den. You’re Aurora now, and you better not fucking forget it.”

“Fuck you,” I yelled. My chest heaved and I felt tears burning behind my eyes.

That’s when he delivered his killer blow with a ruthlessness I should have expected. His eyes were cold, no emotion in them whatsoever, when he said, “That’s where you went wrong. I don’t fuck my whores. At least I know now that my clients are getting a hot little pussy with how responsive you are.”

He may as well have struck me with how betrayed I felt. His words felt like a knife in my chest. No matter what I told myself, what I chose to believe, all I was to him was a whore. Nothing more than a device for him to make money with.

Lost in the anguish his words caused, I was left speechless when he turned and walked towards the door, ready to leave without another word. My body ached for him at the same time my mind spun with all the things I wanted to say to him to send him away. To kick his ego the way he had just kicked mine. His rejection was too much for me to handle.

Xavier was at the door when I lashed out in anger. “They aren’t getting any pussy from me, though, are they? Not quite a whore when they can’t fuck me! Right?”

He paused with his hand on the doorknob, and I waited to see what he would say to that. After a moment, he opened the door, giving me one last cold look before he was gone.

The next night, I walked into The Den on a mission.

All night long I had seethed while thinking about what a smug bastard Xavier had been. The way he’d so quickly lit my body on fire, making me want him with a ferocity I had never experienced with another man, only to leave me frustrated and alone. The memory of the cruel words he had spoken added fuel to my anger.