Color rushed to her cheeks and she glanced downward. He found her shyness both endearing and heartbreaking. It hurt that the woman who used to undress so boldly before him was now self-conscious, as if he were a complete stranger.

He moved to her and her head yanked up, fear now crowding behind the nervousness. She licked her lips, poised to voice an apology for her hesitation. He could read her as surely as if she’d already said the words aloud.

He simply shook his head and then pulled her into his arms. He lowered her head so he could whisper in her ear. “Don’t be afraid of me, Ren. It would kill me. I’ll never hurt you. I would rather be alone with you so that we could rediscover each other in private, but this is Lucas’s requirement and the only way I could have you.”

She relaxed into his arms and rubbed her cheek along his shoulder, a motion so achingly familiar that it damn near gutted him.

Instead of having her carry out his command, he began to undress her himself. The last thing he wanted was for her to be on edge around him. Anything he could do to assuage her fears and uncertainty, he’d do.

He held his breath as he untied her top and let it fall away. She went to pull at her skirt, but he put his hand on hers. “No. Let me. I’ve decided I’d like to do it myself.”

Her fingers shook as she let her hand fall to her side.

His knuckles graced the softness of her belly as he lowered his hand to catch at the waistband of the frilly skirt. Unsure of who he was teasing more, her or himself, he inched the material down until finally it billowed to the floor at her feet.

There she was, adorned only in lacy black lingerie, looking so sensual and utterly beautiful that he couldn’t breathe. He didn’t want to breathe. He just wanted to stare and drink her in until he was high on nothing but her.

She lifted her chin, and for the first time since he’d commanded her, she returned his gaze head on. She was as aroused as he was. Satisfaction was a savage thrill that coursed through his veins like a potent drug. She wanted him. There was no disguising the truth in eyes that never lied.

“Take off the panties. Just your panties,” Cole whispered, barely about to speak around the knot in his throat.

Her thumbs tracked down until they caught in the thin string of the delicate lace. She did a little shimmy with her hips to ease the scrap of material down her legs and he nearly swallowed his tongue.

Soft, creamy skin. Smooth legs. Hips with just enough curve to be damn sexy and an enticing place for his hands to rest.

At the V of those perfect legs was a tiny triangle of trimmed, dark hair and it fired his imagination. Did she keep her lips smooth and bare as she had when they were together?

He’d never forget the first time she’d shyly presented her newly waxed flesh. He’d spent hours touching, licking and coaxing her to orgasm after orgasm.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Lucas move. Just shifting one leg over the other, but it brought reality crashing back. Total buzzkill.

He was expected to perform. To another man’s standards. It made him want to bare his teeth and snarl like a predator issuing a challenge. If only it were that simple …

He turned away from Ren, leaving her standing in only her bra. He pulled a condom from his pocket, resentful of the need to use one. Lucas probably had her bareback on a daily basis. If Ren were Cole’s he sure as hell wouldn’t have anything between his dick and the pure sweetness of her flesh.

He lowered himself onto the armless leather chair and let his legs sprawl apart. Then he held the condom out to her and motioned her over.

She came without hesitation and stood before him, waiting his next instruction.

“Unzip me, suck me hard and then put the condom on.”

Her eyes narrowed to half slits and they burned with sudden fire. He smiled secretly to himself. She still loved it when he talked crudely and explicitly to her.

She went gracefully to her knees, her hair falling forward over one shoulder. Her hands smoothed up his legs, a subtle tease, before she unbuttoned his fly and slowly lowered the zipper.

She pulled at his underwear, slipping the band over his rigid arousal until finally he was free. His dick popped out and into the warm clasp of her hand. As soon as she gripped him, he damn near passed out.

He’d told her to get him hard, but from the moment he’d stepped out of his front door to see her getting out of the limo, he’d been nothing more than a walking, talking erection.

She lowered her head and gently tucked him into her mouth. He moaned, not keeping his pleasure from her. She made a sound of appreciation around the head of his dick and then sucked him deeper.

“That’s it,” he murmured. “Good girl. That feels so good. Deeper. Now hold it. Yeah, just like that.”

He felt her quiver around him, her soft sounds of pleasure spilling from her throat. She’d always loved when he was vocal during sex. Loved when he told her exactly what pleased him.

He pushed his fingers into her hair, pulling the strands back so he could see her cheeks puff out and then suck in around his cock. Her eyes were half closed, satisfaction glowing brightly in their depths.

He could hardly believe that she was here, between his knees, her mouth around him. It was a scene from his deepest held dreams, the ones he wouldn’t admit to himself in the light of day but would look forward to each and every night.

It should irritate him or somehow make him feel much younger and less mature than his thirty-plus years that for all practical purposes he’d pined for this woman for ten years. But all he could think was that finally, finally she was here, with him, where she belonged.

He tightened his hold in her hair and then gently pulled through the strands so they spilled over his hand like a midnight sky.

“You decide when it’s enough,” he said in a low voice. “After you put the condom on, I want you to straddle me and take me inside you. If you aren’t ready, tell me so that I can better prepare you.”

He could hardly wait to have her in his arms. All of her. Her astride him, his dick embedded deeply in her body, his arms full of lush, beautiful woman.

She worked him in and out of her mouth several more seconds and then carefully eased her lips over the crown and then away, leaving his cock slick and shiny with her saliva.

She opened the condom and deftly rolled it down his rigid length and he stared at it, hating every inch of the latex as it sheathed him. Then she rose, standing before him in just that wicked sexy bra that barely covered the tops of her nipples.

He held out his hands to take hers and helped her position herself astride him. She settled onto her knees on either side of his hips and then reached down for his dick.

He shook his head and pushed her arm back up. “Put your hands on my shoulders and hold on.”

He reached down to position his cock at her opening, rubbing up and down her slit to tease her. She let out a small sigh and briefly closed her eyes.

“Open your eyes,” he said in the same measured tone he’d used with her thus far. “I want to see you when I slide into you, Ren. I want you to see me and know who it is inside you.”

“I would know,” she whispered.

He smiled.

He eased his hips up the tiniest bit so that the head of his cock was lodged just inside her. Then he met her gaze and issued his next command.

“Take me.”

Her eyes widened, the pupils flaring. A shudder rolled through her and her fingers bit into his shoulders.

“That’s right, Ren. I want you to fuck me. There’ll be plenty of time for me to do the fucking. For now I want you to ride me.”

She let out a small whimper as she began her downward slide. She opened around him and he let out a strangled moan as she fisted him in her hot, velvet glove.