His heart swelled with pride. She was shy with him. A little scared. She had courage and had shown him more than once that she could stand up to him, but she’d chosen to obey his orders. She’d given him her trust again. He stood there a long time, one hip against the doorjamb, his gaze devouring her while emotions he’d never felt before threatened to overwhelm him.

He took his time cleaning his cock and thighs before going to her. She didn’t move when he put a knee to the bed and then straddled her thighs. “You asleep, Francesca?”

“Not yet. Just drifting.”

The drowsy note in her voice had his cock coming to attention. “Keep drifting.” He bent to press a kiss between her shoulder blades and then he reached down to run his fingers down her left arm. “Give me your hand, dolce cuore.” He shackled her wrist with his fingers and she turned it over.

Stefano pulled the ring out of the box sitting on the end table beside his bed and slipped it onto her finger. It looked good there. Perfect. A claim to the world that she belonged to him. If the world couldn’t see the necklace of love bites, or the brands he’d put on her skin with his teeth, then his ring would have to do.

She pulled her hand to her face the moment he released her. He felt the sharp inhale as she took in the exquisite diamond surrounded by glittering smaller ones, smaller, but no less beautiful. “Stefano, I can’t wear this.”

“You’ll wear it.” He began to massage her shoulders and back, using firm, hard strokes to ease the tension out of her muscles.

“It’s too expensive. What if I lose it?”

He liked that. She wasn’t afraid of wearing it to proclaim to the world she was his, only that she might lose it.

“Then I’ll buy you another one. You’re mine and it matters to me that everyone knows you belong to me. I don’t want other women like Janice or Doreen to make you doubt what I feel for you. When you’re not right beside me, I want you to have absolute confidence that you’re all I’m thinking about. You’re the one woman I care about.”

Her face was turned to one side, but he saw the small smile forming on her soft lips. He slid off of her, his hands catching her around her waist, pulling her up onto her knees and then pressing her chest to the mattress with one hand, leaving her ass in the air. He knelt behind her, his hands rubbing her bare cheeks. He was extremely fond of her ass, that firm, rounded, almost heart-shaped butt with a small dimple that he couldn’t help leaning into to bite.

She cried out, but she didn’t move from the position he’d placed her in, and when he pushed his fingers into her, he found her slick with her special brand of honey. “I love that you’re ready for me, Francesca,” he confessed.

“I think I’ll always be ready for you, Stefano,” she admitted. “Just the sound of your voice makes me wet.”

She couldn’t say things like that to him without his cock getting so hard it hurt like a bear. He pressed the broad, weeping head of his cock to her hot entrance and waited a heartbeat. Two. Savoring the moment. Loving the look of her. “I want my seed all over you and in you,” he declared fiercely. “I want to cover your back, your ass and your breasts, Francesca, and then rub it in. I want to fuck your mouth and come down your throat. I want you every single way I can have you. Does that scare you?”

There was a pause. A silence while his heart slammed hard in his chest and his cock throbbed with the need to be inside her.

“Only because I don’t know what I’m doing yet and I don’t ever want to disappoint you,” she replied softly.

He slammed into her. Deep. Watched his cock disappear into her and it was hot just holding himself there, very still, while his cock pulsed deep inside her. Taking her this way allowed him to go even deeper. She pushed back. Wiggled. Reminding him she wanted more. He laughed softly and swatted her heart-shaped ass just to see his handprint there, another brand. “Eager little thing. You can just wait. I’ll give you whatever you’re going to get when I’m ready.”

“Macho much?” she muttered.

He flexed his fingers on her hips. He loved when she defied him. Or talked back. He loved when she submitted her will to his. He loved her sexy body and the fire she surrounded him with. He really, really loved how fucking tight and scorching hot she was. He eased back, deciding to take his time and make this last. Then he heard her sharp gasp, the ragged little protest as she tried to chase him with her hips and he took her in another brutal, merciless assault. He hadn’t meant to, but her little sexy moans and whimpers, the pleas and soft little sobs, robbed him of control every time.