“I think he cares about you so much that it scares him.” I send a quick text to Jack to let him know we’re okay and then one to Makayla to make sure she got out. “I told you he’s had a rough time with women. Everyone he cares about leaves him. After that much heartbreak, it’s not easy for him to dive in again.”

    Maybe it’s the same for Jack, but he was burned in a worse way—outed and shamed for who he was by someone he cared deeply about. Despite what he might think, what we have when we’re together isn’t just friendship, and it’s not just play like he does at the club. At least not for me.

    “Pen!” Jack jogs down the alley toward us. He has a cut across his cheek, and his left eye is swollen. Without slowing his stride, he wraps his arms around me and his momentum carries us into the side of the building with a thud.

    “I didn’t know where the fuck you were.” He holds me tight, his chest heaving. “Cora, Torment is waiting out front with Makayla. They can give you a ride home.”

    “What about the fight?” I say into his chest. He smells of whiskey and the faintest trace of cologne.

    “Torment stopped it and paid off the bar owner so he didn’t call the police, but we had to agree to leave.”

    “Is Blade Saw okay?” Cora straightens her dress. “Maybe I should go find him instead.”

    Jack frowns. “Probably better if you go with Torment and Makayla. Blade Saw needs a bit of time to cool off, and Makayla needs someone to run interference. Torment has decided she’s never going to leave the house again.”

    After Cora is safely out of the alley, Jack’s eyes harden. “What the fuck were you doing?”

    Puzzled, I shrug. “Dancing.”

    “Yeah, I saw how you were dancing,” he growls.

    It takes me a minute to get my head around what he’s saying, and when I do, my anger flares. “Seriously? I don’t play those kinds of games. I wasn’t trying to make you jealous, and I wasn’t trying to pick up other guys, although I should have since you keep telling everyone we’re just friends. I like you, Jack. I like spending time with you. I know you had a rough time, but I had a rough time, too, and it’s doing my head in trying to understand what we have together, because frankly, I don’t have sex with my friends. I trust you in a way I haven’t trusted anyone else before. I thought you trusted me, too. I want to be more than just your friend, and more than just a play partner, but if—”

    He pushes me against the cold brick wall and cuts me off with a kiss that I feel deep in my soul.

    “I thought I’d lose my fucking mind when the fight broke out,” he murmurs against my lips. “I beat on half a dozen guys looking for you. You are more than just a friend to me. It just took me a long time to see it.”

    Warm shivers run down my spine. I press my hand against his chest, feel his heart beat steady beneath my palm. His T-shirt is soft over hard muscle, cool over his heated body. His jeans ride low on his hips. He makes me feel bold, beautiful, and just a little bit wild. “I like that you came looking for me.”

    “I went a bit crazy.” He pulls me close, his arm around my waist. “Got wound up when I saw you dancing with Doctor Death, and then when I couldn’t find you…”

    “How wound up?” I slide my hand down to the belt he used to whip me in the office and then lower to the bulge in his jeans.

    “Fuck.” He groans. “Don’t—”

    I cup his groin and grind my palm over his erection, rock hard beneath his jeans. I’ve never been sexually aggressive, always letting my partner take the lead, but knowing Jack wants me gives me a sense of power I’ve never felt before—a power that sets my wild side free.

    “Is this for me?” I whisper. “Did you like watching me dance?”

    “Every fucking dude in the entire bar liked watching you dance,” he growls. “They were all watching you, wanting you, wanting what’s mine.” His hand slides down my thigh, and he teases the edge of my dress, slowly lifting.

    “And yet here I am. Outside. With you.” I lean up, press a kiss to his firm, hard lips.

    “Damn right you’re with me.” He returns my kiss, soft at first, then hungrier, his tongue delving into my mouth, leaving no inch untouched. He feathers kisses along my jaw, nibbles my ear, sucks at the pulse hammering wildly at the base of my neck.

    I part my legs, rock against his thigh. “I want you. Here. Now.”

    “So fucking sexy, my girl wanting me so bad.” He pushes up my dress and slides one finger along the lacy edge of my knickers. “You sure about this? Someone might come down the alley looking for us.”

    “I know.” I wrap my arms around his neck, arch my back so my taut nipples rub against his chest.

    Jack slides my knickers off, helping me balance as I step out of them. He shoves them in the purse I unwittingly dropped on the ground when he first found me and slicks a thick finger along my slit. “You’re so wet, so hot.”

    “For you,” I murmur. “I thought about you fucking me when I danced. I thought about the sexy bruises on my wrists, your cock driving into my pussy, your head between my legs.”

    “Christ. My girl talking dirty with her fancy accent. Drives me fucking wild.” Jack lets out a low groan and pushes a finger inside me. “You’d better have been thinking about me on that dance floor. You’re fucking mine.”

    “Yours.” The word is sweet on my lips.

    He twists a hand through my hair, tugs my hair back. “No one touches you. No one except me.” His cock, rock hard beneath his jeans, presses into the side of my hip. His finger pumps in and out, and I draw in a deep breath, inhaling the fetid scent of the alley. Dirty and dangerous. The kind of place a girl who wears kitten heels, floaty florals, and pearls shouldn’t go with the kind of man she shouldn’t be with—a man who can make her deepest, darkest fantasies come true.