Daniel made no attempt to ignore their intimate position, however, his gaze lighting on everywhere their bodies touched. His breathing accelerated, only this time it couldn’t be attributed to his nightmare. Against her thigh, she felt his erection swelling larger and more demanding with each breath. No longer able to ignore the dizzying lust clouding the air between them, she gave in to the urge to press a kiss to his chest, then raised her head to look at him.

“Daniel?” Her voice sounded husky, unfamiliar. “What do you need?”

For a moment, she thought he wouldn’t respond. Then slowly, his hands sank into her hair, gripping the back of her head. “Again,” he said.

She took his one-word command as permission to kiss his chest again, loving the way it rose and fell faster and faster beneath her lips, encouraging her. She used her tongue to bathe his hot skin, then scraped her teeth over the damp flesh she left behind. Daniel’s shuddering groan told her he liked that. His hands guided her lower, toward his belly, but stopped her before she could reach the part of him obscured by the sheet. Her mouth hovered just over his rigid abdomen.

“Lick. I want to see your tongue on my stomach.”

Story was forced to press her thighs together to assuage the fierce throbbing his demand created, but she did as he asked. Her mouth moved over him, nipping and licking his stomach like she couldn’t get enough. And she couldn’t. He tasted like spicy hot male. After one taste, she craved it like a drug. Her tongue began tracing a path down, past his navel, but he stilled her progress and guided her upward instead. She made a sound of complaint.

“What’s wrong, gorgeous? You need a taste?”

“Yes,” she whispered shakily.

Daniel groaned, his hips tilting upward. “No. I can’t allow it yet. I haven’t worked hard enough for the privilege of your lips sliding down my cock.” With renewed determination, his hands urged her head higher until her quick exhales of breath landed on his chest once more. Heat pounding through her in waves, Story leaned close to kiss him again, when an imperfection on his otherwise flawless chest caught her attention. Raised, puckered flesh the size and shape of a quarter just above his right pectoral. A bullet wound?

As Story’s questioning eyes shot to his, Daniel froze beneath her. His expression grew shuttered, guarded. When he spoke, his voice sounded like it could cut glass. “Looks like you got stuck with damaged goods. Disappointed?”

She flinched, knowing he didn’t refer solely to his wound. That he’d been damaged in a different way, too. Had he been shot in the line of duty?

No, she instinctively knew there had to be more to the story. He wouldn’t be reacting this way otherwise. Mere seconds before, he’d lain before her so exposed. How quickly he’d built a wall between them. Too bad she was just as determined to tear it down.

“I’m relieved, actually. Perfect is boring.”

Daniel’s eyes widened, nostrils flaring. His hands flexed at the back of her head. Story finally gave in to her earlier urge and straddled his hips, a shaky sigh escaping her when the damp material of her panties slid over his straining erection. Beneath her, his chest heaved in anticipation, eyes crackling with heat as they devoured the sight of her naked br**sts. Having a man like Daniel beneath her daunted and thrilled her at once. A sinfully beautiful male, aroused and ready, just waiting for her to make a move. It filled her with power. Heady, intoxicating power. She leaned down until her lips were a mere inch from his. Her hips swiveled against him once, twice, their groans mingling between them. “Do your worst.”

Before the words fully left her lips, Daniel sprang from his prone position, throwing her down on the mattress and bringing his weight down on top of hers. A string of chaotic thoughts raced through Story’s conscience before her panties were ripped from her body and his mouth opened over hers, tongue licking inside to kiss her greedily.

This is how he hides. The women. The sex. He’s hiding.

Seconds later, she’d been completely robbed of her senses, oblivious to anything but the feel of his hips wedged between her thighs, the only barrier a pair of cotton boxer-briefs he wore.

When Daniel pulled away, Story sucked air into her lungs, trying to regain some semblance of thought, but his mouth descended on her br**sts and thwarted her efforts. He swirled his tongue around her nipple, then sucked the peak into his mouth, the vibration of his moan resonating through her. Looking down, she marveled at the ferocity in his expression. Until she saw him shirtless, his sheer size and strength hadn’t fully registered, but atop her smaller, more delicate frame, it occurred to her how much control he had of the situation. She’d put herself completely at his mercy. It thrilled and excited her.

His mouth trailed across her heated skin to her other breast, where he gently bit the underside, then blew against her nipple, watching hungrily as it puckered for his attention. He rewarded her by flicking his tongue against it in short little stabs until she dug her hands into his hair, demanding he cease his torture. Daniel complied by drawing the sensitive bud into his mouth, hands skimming down over her belly to cup her in his palm. She let her thighs fall open in wordless invitation. Anticipating her movement, he’d sunk two fingers inside her before her knees even reached the mattress.

Arching her hips, she moaned. She knew he’d found her wet, could feel the liquid warmth coating her core. Desperate to have Daniel inside her, she rolled her body, pushing her br**sts closer to entice him.

He reached onto the nightstand and pulled a foil packet from a paper bag she hadn’t noticed before, and ripped it open with his teeth. “The first time I made you come in this room, I asked you how you wanted to be f**ked. Do you remember that?”

His voice had deepened drastically since the last time he spoke, resonating with lust. After he rolled on the condom with one hand, he crooked the fingers of the other, still lodged inside of her, and rotated, finding a spot she hadn’t known existed and stroking it with his middle finger. Story’s hips came off the bed and she cried out, muscles tightening deep within her. A few more seconds of his expert touch and she would orgasm. But he stopped stroking the spot just before she peaked, laughing under his breath.

“We were interrupted before I got my answer. I’d like it now. How would you like me to f**k you?”

“Any way. Every way,” she breathed, her body’s demands leaving little room for thought.

His hand stilled completely and she made a sound of protest. “Be specific. I can make you cry and shake in any position, but I want you to choose.”

“Behind me. I wanted you behind me,” she heard herself say.

With a growl, Daniel flipped her onto her stomach and yanked her hips up into the air, so she rested on all fours facing the headboard. The foreign position increased her feeling of power despite its submissiveness. Imagining Daniel seeing her like this, naked and bent over for him, made a tremor of excitement race across her skin.

She felt his breath against her neck, his massive erection slipping through the dampness between her legs, gliding over her clitoris, teasing it. Starting at the base of her neck and ending just below her ear, his tongue licked her flesh, a hum of approval deep in his throat.

Then he spoke directly against her ear. “Are you ready to scream, gorgeous?”

With a single thrust of his hips, he buried himself deep inside her. She screamed his name, her hoarse cry mingling with Daniel’s shouted expletive. He didn’t stop to savor the moment, however, his hips angling upward and pounding into her in a demanding rhythm, sliding against her exactly where she needed it.