Page 31 of No Darker Temptation

Dresser abandoned, he walks us over to the bed by the windows and tosses me onto the mess of bedsheets and pillows. He all but tears out of his suit jacket and waistcoat and I get to my knees on the edge of the bed to help him the rest of the way. I remove his shirt and unbuckle his belt. He practically gropes me in search of the zipper to this dress and I almost tell him it’s on the side but don’t get to.

He grips it by the front with enough force to knock me off balance and tears it clean down the middle. My once beautiful gown is now a heap of berry-colored satin discarded somewhere in the darkness. I’d reprimand him for ruining it but he kisses me with a hunger that ignites a fire in my belly and spreads to the heat between my legs. He removes my strapless bra and underwear and has me on my back in seconds.

“I hope you know,” he tells me as he stands at the edge of the bed and unzips his pants. “That if you’ve been with anyone else⁠—”

I shake my head frantically. “I haven’t.”

“If you had, they’d be dead by morning.”

My eyes narrow. “You haven’t been with anyone else, have you?”

He chuckles as he hooks an arm under my left knee, pulling my legs apart so he can press a kiss against the inside of my thigh. “As if I could.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you have ruined me for all other women.”

He presses a kiss between my thighs and my breath catches.

“Please tell me this room has⁠—”

“I’m on the pill.” I grab his face and bring his mouth down to mine. “I can’t believe you didn’t bring a condom.”

“I hadn’t planned on it. Consider me very pleasantly surprised.”

He settles himself between my thighs, aligning our hips while he keeps one arm hooked under my leg, holding me at an angle that bears all. Without warning he seats himself inside me and the abrupt invasion steals the air from my lungs.

He moves fast and hard, hips meeting mine with enough force to push me several inches away from the edge of the bed. A keening sound leaves me when his mouth latches onto my breasts, sucking on each nipple until they’re hard and swollen, aching from his touch. My nails carve harsh, angry paths down the length of his back as he rams into me, purposefully at first, then his movements become harsher and more erratic as tension begins to coil tight at the base of my spine.

“You have no idea,” he whispers against my skin. “How good you feel.”

I lift my hips to meet him and a deep sound vibrates within his chest but he presses his lips together. We kiss and it’s messy and heated. Our tongues fight for dominance over the other, teeth meeting teeth with bruising force. Alejandro lifts my leg until my ankle rests on his shoulder and he’s stretching me in ways I wasn’t sure I was capable. The next time he pushes inside me I scream, a mix of pleasure and pain sending lightning through my body.

“Oh my God,” my nails did into the flesh of his biceps. “Do that again. Please, do it again.”

He does as I ask, thrusting with renewed vigor. “Do you know how often I thought about this? How often I fantasized being buried deep inside you?”

He pushes inside me again, hitting the spot that makes my blood sing. Tears roll down my temples.

“Alejandro.” I bury my face in the crook of his neck, fingers tangled in his dark hair. “Please…”

Alejandro’s hand dips between our bodies. He grazes the sensitive nerves at the apex of my sex until my legs are trembling. “Tell me what you want. I’ll give it to you.”

“Keep going. Please, keep going.”

He lowers his mouth to my ear and says, “Tonight, I’m going to come so deep inside you I’ll be seeping out of your pores and even you won’t remember what life was like before you were mine. Because I own you now. Body and soul.”

One last thrust is all it takes to send me over the edge. I’m sobbing, moaning, writhing beneath him as he rides me into oblivion, one orgasm bleeding into the next. He finds release a few moments later, a deep, guttural sound carving itself out of his chest.

I’m seconds from collapsing, ready to let the exhaustion pull me under, when he flips me over and pushes my face into the mattress. “Pay attention,” he says. “You’re going to want to remember the position I put you in next.”

The sun wakes me first.

I fell asleep facing the windows and didn’t close the curtains last night. Not like I had an opportunity to do so.

I hear the shower running and distantly register the sound of something vibrating. With one eye open, I squint around the room in search of my phone and find my purse on the nightstand along with a glass of water and an Advil. Thank God.

My head is pounding.