“Hi,” she said because suddenly she was fourteen and tongue-tied as she walked past the cool boys.

“Hey yourself. C’mere and kiss me because my lips are one of the few parts of me that isn’t sore.”

She used the low wall that made up his drive, which put her face-to-face with him. “Does this hurt?” She indicated the beginnings of a bruise on his cheek.

“Yes. I’ll ice it later.”

She leaned in and kissed it gently. And then to the cut where his temple and eyebrow met.

He groaned, sliding an arm around her waist to stabilize her balance.

She kissed other parts of his face before taking his free hand from her waist and kissing over his knuckles. These would be sore, she knew. Gloves didn’t prevent that.

Duke’s life was full of punches and fast machines. Fast people. Sometimes if you didn’t slow down, you missed the tenderness.

She didn’t have a lot of anything when it came to money or property, but tenderness toward him was easily given.

“We should go inside. I have a few other places you could kiss and make better,” he murmured, and she tracked her way back to his mouth.

“I suppose the neighbors might frown on me kissing your cock right here in the driveway,” she teased.

“Probably. You want to grab Ginger first?” He tipped his chin toward her house. That’s when she noticed something taped to the door.

“After,” she replied, distracted. Things stuck on doors were usually junk, but they could be eviction notices and other legal trouble. She didn’t want to deal with any of that right then.

“I’m so glad you said that.” He led her to his place, where the moment he closed and locked the front door, she found herself backed to the wall, his body pressing tight to hers.

All the breath left her lungs as he was everything she could see and feel.

“What’s a nice girl like you doing with her pussy pressed up against my cock? Hm?”

She swallowed hard, licking her lips.

“Your eyes, so big, just waiting for me to do whatever I want. Isn’t that right?”

Suddenly feeling a little tipsy, she nodded.

“I’m sweaty and sticky and I smell like cigarettes and violence.” His words held more than one meaning, and though she knew she should pretend not to see that, she couldn’t.

“I know.” Carmella licked up the side of his neck. “And you taste like a man who likes to fuck nice girls.”

He snarled, turning to meet her mouth with his own. Kissing her in a gnash of teeth and tongue. He ran his hands all over her, yanking her shirt up and her bra down.

Those hands knew just what to do. Just how hard to tug her nipples, how long to squeeze them to make her even wetter.

He jammed his thigh between hers, pressing it to her until a ripple of pleasure burst through her.

“Nice girls with dirty imaginations.”

He brought it out in her. He made her this way. Made it safe to be this way.

He kissed her neck as he pressed his thigh against her clit. “Do you think you can come this way?” Duke asked, his voice a dark invitation.

Could she? Who the fuck knew? It felt good and he’d addled her brains so she nodded like she was sure.

“All right. Ride me then. Take your pleasure and then I’m going to fuck you right here.”

Yeah, that worked.

She gasped as he worked some sort of sex magic on her nipples with his mouth.

The neighbor across the street must have come home because suddenly a slow beat blared through the air. Carmella latched on to the rhythm because she’d made a promise that she could come after all. And she wasn’t a quitter.

She dug her fingers through his belt loops for purchase as she undulated, closer and closer.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

At some point she realized she was saying it over and over until finally that spark caught and orgasm burst through her gut. Only Duke’s hand at the back of her head kept her from the goose egg she’d surely have gained when she arched and whacked the door.

“Don’t lose focus now. Pants off so I can get inside you.” Duke’s voice pulled her back from that blissful post-climax place and she realized he’d pulled his jeans open, had his cock out, and had just finished rolling the condom on.

“Fuck yeah,” she managed to say while she nearly fell over getting her jeans and panties down and off.

Duke felt like he’d been hit in the head a lot more than he had. She was so fucking hot. So beautiful and carnal and open to him.

Carnal, yes, the perfect word. He hadn’t expected her reaction to his post-fight state, but once he’d taken in her eyes, the way her breath hitched when he teased, well, he was all in.

She was disheveled, the gloss of a recent orgasm on her lips and in her gaze. And when she saw his cock and gave him her fuck yeah, it was all he could do not to dive into her pussy and never leave.

Though she was short, she was strong, so it wasn’t as hard as it might have been to lift her up and then down onto his dick as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

He was driven to fuck her. Driven to mark her. To possess her and the trust he’d shaken up before.

“Slow down, baby. I want this to last.”

She shook her head, leaning the top part of her body away, against the door at her back.

“Now. I want all of you right now.”

How could he refuse such a request?

He let her writhe when he slid his cock against that spot inside her. Each time he pressed deep, he stroked it. Soon, her breath was a hiccup of sound, pleasure, and need all bound up, tied to his pace.