I run my tongue over the seam of his lips. “How do you show me I’m yours?”

    “I beat the shit out of anyone who hurts you or gets the fuck in my way. Then I convince you to get my name tattooed on your ass so you can be returned to me when you’re lost.”

    I brace myself, waiting to feel his cock inside me, but he is in a rare talking mood, and all I get is the barest taste of what is to come.

    “Why get a tattoo when you have Ray? How did he find me?”

    “He has a friend who was able to track your license plate and credit card.” He nips my earlobe, grinning when I suck in a sharp breath. “At first, he didn’t want to share his information. Obviously that was unacceptable.”

    “Obviously.” I run my hands down his back, feeling his muscles bunch and flex when he glides his cock along my slit. Teasing. Tantalizing. But not giving me what I want.

    His smug expression leads me to make a wild guess that’s not so wild. “How long was the fight?”

    “Three and a half minutes.”

    “From all those bruises on your face, it looks like you took quite a few hits.” I lean up and press a kiss to his bruised cheek.

    “Fuck yeah. He’s an underground fighter. Means he fights dirty. But I was an underground fighter too, back when Redemption was just an empty warehouse.” He kisses me softly on the lips. “And I needed a win to find my girl.”

    “So you won?”

    He twists his lips to the side. “Not exactly. I got him in a bulldog choke, but he wouldn’t tap out. Torment had to end it. Ray wants a rematch when we get back.”

    “Ray doesn’t take defeat lightly. Actually, I don’t think he has ever been defeated.”

    His expression becomes thoughtful. “It wasn’t until I was in the vehicle coming down here, listening to him curse up a storm, that I realized no one at Redemption treated me any differently when I showed up at the gym. I’d hidden that side of myself, carried the shame for so long, I didn’t know how I would cope. But they accepted me just like you did. So now everyone knows I’m a sadist. Maybe it will deal with the problem my manager had with me being perceived as a nice guy.”

    An idea takes root at the back of my mind, but before I can tell him, he sits back on the covers and flips me over, positioning me on all fours, my chest down on the covers and my ass in the air.

    “Don’t waste any time asking if I want to be sexed up in this position.” I look back over my shoulder and glare. “See a woman you want to fuck. Flip her over and do the deed.”

    “Is that supposed to be a joke?” He shoves my legs apart with his thick thigh and leans over me to press his lips to my shoulder.

    “We’ll see who’s laughing when I run off with another man who doesn’t treat me like a toy.”

    Jack laughs. “Not gonna happen.”

    “No?”

    He feathers kisses across my shoulder to my nape and then down my spine, making me shiver in delight. “You’ll always choose me,” he continues.

    “How do you know?” Tightness builds inside me, heat pooling in my stomach. I slide my hand between my legs and slick a finger over my clit, seeking the release I so desperately need.

    Jack gives a low growl and presses me down, cheek to the bed. He grabs my hands and yanks them back, securing them at the base of my spine. “No one can give you what I can give you. No one can hurt you the way I hurt you. Do you know why?”

    I swallow hard. Tremble. “Why?”

    “Because no one can love you the way I love you.”

    Hope flares bright in my heart. “You love me?”

    “Yeah, darlin’. I love you, and now I’m going to show you by making you scream my name so Blade Saw and Cora next door know it, too.” His hand cracks across my ass, sending fire skittering across my skin. Before I can catch my breath, he fills me roughly, slamming his pelvis against my ass. Pleasure ripples through me, and I lose the last threads of that thought to focus on the feel of him inside me, filling me with his heat. He alternates thrusts with slaps, pulling me against him as he pumps into me hard and fast.

    Pain and pleasure become one. He slides his hand over my hip and pinches my clit. With a low, guttural groan, I clench around him. My climax hits me like an explosion, and I cry out, lost in a pleasure so intense I am dizzy with the rush.

    “Fuck. I’m going to come.” Jack releases my hands and plunges deeper, thrusts harder, digs his fingers into my tender ass. He stiffens and chokes back a shout as he throbs his release inside me.

    He collapses over me, kisses my back, my shoulder, nuzzles my neck, threads his fingers through mine on the bed.

    “I have an idea,” I whisper.

    Jack gives a satisfied rumble. “I have lots of ideas when it comes to you.”

    “I mean I have an idea to save you.”

    He drops to his side, turning me so I am cradled against him. “You already saved me.”

    “Well, now I’m going to save you again.”

26

    Sadist! Sadist! Sadist!

    RAMPAGE

    “Where is she?” I stare at the door to the Redemption meeting room, willing Penny to appear. I’ve been dragged over the coals for the last half hour in the team meeting, as everyone from my agent to my manager to the MEFC crisis team fights about the best way to salvage my career.

    “Don’t worry.” Torment pats me on the back. “She’ll be here. Penny isn’t the kind of person who would let you down.”

    She’s also not the kind of person to give a secret away, so I have no idea what she has planned for today that she promises will save my career.