“I think you need to be my personal barber.”

“Certainly the benefits would be better than the person down at Gene Juarez. Or they’d better be.” She smiled at his reflection and then she got that look he loved so much. “Before you shower again, I should make you extra dirty.” She let her robe slip down off her shoulders to pool at her feet and he was on her in two steps. He grabbed her, moving back to the bed quickly, falling to it still holding her.

He kissed her hungrily, taking in her taste, never getting enough.

She let him lead, though she wrapped her thighs around his waist to hold him close. He had zero complaints with that. Then again, he rarely did when it came to Raven.

“I want you to ride my c**k awhile,” he spoke, lips against her neck. “And then, because I’ve wanted it for a while, you’re going to suck me off.”

She shivered and he pulled away to look into her face, needing to see if he’d pushed her too far. If it was too soon.

Clearly it wasn’t either of those things. Her eyes had gone half-lidded and her mouth parted just slightly, lips wet from his kisses.

He rolled and she shimmied down. “I don’t want you suited up.” She slid her pu**y over his cock. She’d very seriously asked him to take care of getting tested and he had. She had as well. The world had changed since he’d dated, before Charlotte. But it had been the right thing to do. “I’m on the pill and I want to feel you.”

He nodded and she got to her knees to guide his c**k to her pu**y and slide down, achingly slow, onto him. Hot. So hot he nearly lost his mind and came right then. He got his control back as he held her, his fingers digging into the flesh and muscle at her hips.

He watched as she licked her fingers and played them against her ni**les and then down to her cunt, spreading her labia open with one hand to expose her clit and that hoop.

“So f**king sexy.”

She smiled, so open and beautiful, even as it was carnal.

And his.

“I love to see you like this. So sexy it blows my mind. There’s never been anyone like you.” He reached up, grabbing her br**sts and tugging on her ni**les. They’d left the chain behind, along with all his favorite toys. The last week had been exhausting for both of them. But they’d recharged each time they came back to this room and closed the door.

He learned more about her than how wet she got when he used the paddle or how she squirmed and sort of squealed when he plumped her clit between his fingertips while he f**ked her from behind. This week she’d let him help. This week he’d learned about the spine of steel that made up the core of the woman he loved.

He didn’t need chains or paddles for that part. But he sure as hell planned to use them when they got back home.

“Can I come?” Her voice halted a few times before she got all the words out. From the way her inner muscles fluttered he knew she was close.

“Yes.”

She kept her gaze on his face but he alternated between her eyes and her fingers on her pu**y. When she climaxed, her head tipped back as she groaned. A pretty flush worked up her body from her thighs, over her br**sts, up her neck. Her ni**les hardened impossibly more, darkened.

In one move he grabbed her hips and pulled her up, off his cock. “Suck me.”

She lay on her back as he knelt next to her, running his c**k over her mouth. She opened her eyes. Lazy, pleasure-stunned. Her tongue darted out, slid against his skin.

“Hands above your head. I’ll put my c**k where I want it to go.”

She whimpered and obeyed, her gaze still on his face.

“Yes, like that.” He tapped his c**k against her lips and she opened, taking him inside. Christ, that was good. He pulled out again and tapped; she opened, repeating her last move. This time she turned her head a little to the side, taking him in deeper as he f**ked her mouth in earnest.

Her fingers gripped the blankets as she moaned around him, bringing him right up to the edge. He let himself stay in her mouth a few strokes more before pulling back, chest heaving.

“Open your legs.”

She did and he found his way to her cunt again, sliding into that glorious, slick heat. She wrapped those long legs around him again, holding on, rolling her hips to meet his thrusts.

He wasn’t long for it and he dipped down to kiss her, tasting that combination of his skin and her honey. He groaned and came so hard his teeth seemed to tingle.

“We both need to shower now.” He winked, kissing her again, helping her to stand.

“It’s worth it.”

23

He was used to her now, he realized. Used to her in his bed in the mornings. Used to her in his car as he drove. She was all slow sensuality, and now that they were back on her home turf, her accent had deepened, which he really found hot.

She’d pointed out that she knew the way to her tiny little hometown better than he would. And then he pointed out that she drove like a maniac and he liked being alive, thankyouverymuch. She’d snorted but got into the passenger side of the rental and curled up in her seat.

“Fine, but I get to control the music.”

Which wasn’t a hardship.

She hooked her iPod into the car stereo system and hit shuffle. Ahh, Frank Ocean. Just the thing as they hurtled down the road toward a childhood she’d packed away and left at the back of her closet nearly twenty years ago.

He didn’t talk to fill the silence, instead he relaxed into the driver’s seat and headed in the right direction. He’d been so patient with her it had been a total miracle to her. He didn’t want anything from her but everything. As opposed to men and women wanting her body, or to control her choices, or to demand she unload her whys and why-nots on their schedule.