He bit and then licked her ear. “Your nipples just got hard.”

She shook her head.

“No?” His free hand skimmed up her belly and over her left nipple. “Liar.”

“They’ve been hard. I liked what you did with the hair. You came to the Ditch tonight to see me.” She had to hear it from him.

“Yes.” He bit her neck.

“To wallow in all those women to taunt me?”

He spun her and she threw her arms around his neck. His mouth crushed hers, his tongue demanding entrance as she gave over right away. He left her dizzy and breathless.

He was like a really fantastic roller coaster. She wanted more and more.

The kiss ended when he wrenched away. “To see you. I came to see you. The women were there already.”

She bit his lip hard enough to make him yelp.

One hand on her hip, PJ glared his way and used the other finger to point. She stepped close enough to touch, poking him in the chest over and over. “Don’t you be flip. You came to my bar and then let women rub all over you and you wanted me to see you and get jealous. And what? To chase you? I’ve been chasing you, Asa. From day one.”

He took her hand in his and kissed her fingertip. “You’ve got a temper. I can respect a woman with a temper. Also, you make it look really good.”

Oh, this man. She was in so much trouble. But she wasn’t ready to give in just yet. “I’ve had enough. Just in general. I like you. I think we have great chemistry and you are fantastic in bed. I’m young, but I’m not dumb. Got me?”

He nodded. “I came to your bar and then let women rub all over me to get your attention. But then you were there and I saw other guys around you and it sucked and my crafty plan went to hell because it was me who was jealous.”

“Come here.” She beckoned with a crooked finger.

He stepped to her again. “Am I safe?”

She tiptoed up, shaking her head. “Not at all.”

“Good.”

She licked over his bottom lip before pulling her shirt free from her pants.

He took over, unbuttoning, bending to kiss the skin he exposed and then undoing another button and driving her crazy once again.

His beard tickled against the curve of her breast where the edge of her bra met her flesh. “Back at the Ditch you saw me way before I came over, didn’t you?” he asked.

Her breath caught as he dragged the edge of his teeth over the nipple he’d exposed as he pulled her bra down.

“Yes.”

He hummed, sliding his lips across to her other breast as he also managed to get the rest of the shirt unbuttoned and off.

“It made me crazy.” He dropped to his knees, hugging her around her waist before he rid her of her bra and then kissed down her ribs. “I don’t much like to share.”

She yanked his hair to tip his face to hers. “Keep that in mind the next time you’re in a bar surrounded by women who aren’t me.”

He kissed his way over her belly as he pushed her pants down and off, along with her socks and panties.

“Yes indeed. Makes a man proud to be alive.” He looked her up and down as he stood.

“What does? Also, you’re still wearing clothes.”

“Your fucking spectacular body. And yes, I’m wearing clothes because I want it that way.”

Oh. God, that was sort of hot. Okay, really hot. Was it bad that she found it hot? Who the hell knew? She found it hot and went with that.

He took her hand, tugging her across the beautiful hardwood floor. “Did you do this yourself? The flooring?” she asked.

“When I ripped out the carpet that had been here, this was beneath it.”

“It’s beautiful.” The room was very much Asa. Gray and chocolate bedding on a big platform bed. The art on his walls was distinctively modern. She skidded to a halt and then turned to look at the painting on the far wall.

“This is fantastic. Who is this artist?”

Asa joined her. “Nathan Altman. This is a reproduction; the original is in a museum, where it belongs. This one is Self-Portrait. I also have The Watchmaker downstairs.”

She loved the way he talked about art. Loved the passion and awe in his tone.

“I like waking up to see it every morning.”

“I can’t believe I’ve never seen this painting before. I’m totally ignorant about art, apparently.”

He turned her, leading her to a giant set of dressers. He opened a top drawer and pulled something out.

This was better than Christmas morning. She couldn’t wait to see what he had in there.

He turned. “This came in the mail yesterday.” He gripped the handle of a black-and-wine-colored crop so hard it creaked, and then looked up at her.

All the spit in her mouth dried up when he stepped back, drawing the flared end of the crop over her nipples as he did.

A flick of his wrist and the snap of the leather sounded over her nipple. Shock urged her to move back but she held on, and the pleasure of it seemed to drown her.

He cursed under his breath and moved to the other nipple. This time she leaned into it. Heat at first as she hissed. And then it wisped away, replaced by a surge of pleasure.

She moaned and he kissed her over and over. Long, drugging kisses until she wondered if she was going to turn to goo right then and there.

“Bend and brace your hands on the footboard.” He stepped back and she swallowed, moving on still-gooey legs.

The whick as he snapped his wrist and the crop split the air seemed to scatter sensation over her skin. The breath gusted from her lips as she gripped the footboard.

“You’re going to kill me.” He drew the crop over the skin at the backs of her upper thighs and up over each ass cheek.

“H-How so?”

And then bright, sharp pain as the crop made contact with her thigh just below her right butt cheek.

“Because you’re so fucking beautiful.” He placed a hand at the middle of her back, pushing her down, thrusting her ass out farther. “Trust me now.”

“I like all you’re doing. You know, in case you were curious. And I do trust you.”

He kissed her back, and the next time he made contact it seemed to send the energy forward from where he struck the backs of her thighs straight to her pussy.

Again.

And again.

And again, though he bent to blow across her skin, heated by the crop’s strikes.

“Stay right here,” he whispered against her flesh before he moved away, back across the room, and then approached again.

With her eyes closed she could take the sounds of his clothing and picture him undressing right behind her. Looking at her all offered up like a dessert.

Asa had to pause to take his clothes off and get his control solidly back in place. He was so hard his cock tapped his damned belly. Precome beaded at the slit. He hadn’t been this hot for a woman… well, since the first time they were together.

But this was different.

The backs of her thighs and the cheeks of her ass were red and she hadn’t just gone along with it because he wanted it.

He tossed himself onto the bed and held a hand out to her. “Come up here and sit on my face. I want to bury myself in you.”

Her gaze, which had been lazy, sharpened as she scrambled up to the bed with him.

She kissed his ankle first. And then up to his knees. Up his thighs and to his balls.

He hissed as she licked down the center and then up the line of his cock to the piercing.

“This is a new one.” She tugged one end of the heavier-gauge barbell he’d put in before leaving for the Ditch.

“I think you’ll like how beads feel when I fuck you.”

She looked up his body, still licking over his cock. “You knew this was going to happen when you came to my bar.”

“I sure fucking hoped so.”

“I love that you dressed your penis up for me.”

He shook his head, smiling. “Come on up here.” He was close enough as it was, but with her mouth on him he’d never last long enough to fuck her. And he most certainly planned to do just that.