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‘I was having a perfectly fine time until you decided to get chatty.’

She was mortified that he knew it was her first time.

‘Perfectly fine?’ His eyes smoked. ‘Well, that’s not—’

The last word was lost as he let his tongue talk in a different way. A better one. Emotion built. And so did the hunger. Until she was driven to move faster, to take more. She needed to finish. She needed him to destroy her. Breathless, unable to resist muttering his name. Rolling his hips, he ground against her with relentless, teasing movement and the waves of heat tumbled over her, growing bigger and hotter until she couldn’t think of anything but him.

‘Better now?’ he grunted. ‘Better than fine?’

Better than anything in her life. She grabbed him and slammed her mouth to his—kissing him with all her untaught passion. Matching every ounce of his unleashed energy with her own. It didn’t double, it had an exponential effect. Until she was panting too hard to be able to kiss. Until he was pounding into her over and over and it was every bit the bliss she’d secretly dreamed it would be. Better than bliss. She arched to meet him again and again, every gasp a moan of pleasure.

‘Yes, Tilly.’ He groaned. ‘Yes, Tilly.’

She flung her arms flung wide, her body flexing up—suspended in an endless instant of unbearable tension until she screamed and convulsions of ecstasy finally claimed her. Through the waves of joy she felt him thrust deep and his body shuddered as he roared her name.

Then she couldn’t catch her breath. He was pressed heavily on her and he wasn’t moving. Which, honestly, was good because she was spent. Every cell sang as if bathed and shimmering in warm delight. She had no idea how to process what had just happened.

Eventually she realised she was on the ground. She’d just given him her virginity in an explosive, physical rush on a scattered bale of hay. She wriggled. His arms tightened.

‘You’re not getting away without an actual conversation.’ He braced on his elbows and relieved her squashed lungs, but he didn’t let her go.

She closed her eyes so she didn’t have to see the anger she’d just heard.

‘That shouldn’t have happened like—’

‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled, trying stop tears prickling her eyes.

‘Wh—’

‘I’m sorry,’ she interrupted again, needing to say it before she lost courage. Too humiliated to look him in the eye. ‘I know you only kept going because you felt sorry for me. I shouldn’t have begged you like that.’ She’d sounded pathetic. He’d pitied her and now she was mortified.

‘You think I felt sorry for you?’ he choked out. ‘Tilly, you have no idea—’

‘I shouldn’t have put you in that position. It wasn’t fair. You wanted to stop and I pushed you into it.’

‘You pushed me into it?’ He lifted away from her entirely. ‘I’ve tried to stay as far as fuck away from you as I can and now you know why.’

Tilly flushed as he yanked his jeans back up. He’d not even been fully naked.

‘And don’t insult either of us by insinuating that I screw any woman who asks because that is not the case.’ Wild-eyed, hair tousled—by her—he rose to his feet in a quick, smooth motion and started off down the long corridor.

After a split-second, Tilly scrambled up and stormed after him, uncaring of her nudity. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Seriously?’ He whirled back to face her. ‘You know.’

Her heart pounded. ‘Maybe I want to hear you say it.’

Maybe that made her insecure but she needed the words. She really needed to be sure.

‘Now you want to hear me?’ His eyes widened with outrage. ‘You want to hear it from me when you’re the one gagged. You’re the one suppressing every damn emotion you’ve ever had.’ He crossed his arms. ‘No. You tell me, Tilly.’

Heat scorched through her as she raked her gaze down his body and realised he wasn’t just furious, he was also aroused. Magnificent and needier than she’d ever imagined.

‘You want me,’ she breathed.

‘Yes.’

‘You wanted me even…’