licked the spot, kissed it, then opened his lips over it and drew the tender skin into his mouth as he bit down on her.

She jerked against him as though electrified. Her hips arched into his, grinding against his cock, writhing beneath him. She was like a living flame in his arms now, and he was desperate for more.

Pulling back, he felt his teeth clench at the sight of the mark on her pale neck. It was deeper, the small bite darker, than he had intended. The fierce male pride that surged through him shocked him.

He stared down at her dazed face and wondered if this was what she had felt when she had seen her brand on him. This primal, overwhelming need to possess. For a man who had gone through life swearing to never possess anything that could be taken from him, it was a frightening feeling.

“I marked you back.” His voice was fierce, triumphant.

“You marked me long ago and just didn’t know it.”

Alex felt his abdomen clench at the declaration. If possible, he swore his dick thickened.

“You’re dangerous, baby.” He smiled down at her, hoping to take off the edge of near-obsessive hunger rising inside him as he levered up and forced himself to unbutton his shirt and shrug it from his shoulders rather than rip it off.

What the hell was wrong with him? He could be buried inside her now, pumping into that tight, hot little pussy and he was holding back instead.

It was that damned tenderness he couldn’t seem to push aside. He wanted her aware of him, so ready for him that when he took her, the pain would be minimal. The thought of hurting her sent shards of tension radiating through his mind.

“I love your body.” Her sigh was followed by the tentative touch of her fingers against his flexing abs. “So strong and hard. I wish I could wrap you around me.”

Christ. Her eyes. Those light green eyes stared up at him, wistful and filled with something that went deeper than hunger. It made him want to wrap around her, to become her personal shield, her blanket, her fucking life.

He was losing his mind to her.

He watched her, forcing himself to stay still as she pulled at his belt.

For a moment, regret flickered in her gaze as she pulled the belt free, and he knew what was going through her mind. She thought she was going to leave. Thought she was going to leave him. Oh, poor little Janey. She had another thing coming.

“Take your shirt off first.” He stilled her hands when she would have released his jeans. “I want to watch you take it off.”

She paused, blinked up at him, and her eyes darkened with a hint of self-consciousness. But she did it.

She reached for the hem of her shirt and slowly lifted it. Her softly rounded belly was revealed, her breasts, then she was tossing it from her head.

And Alex was still staring at her breasts. They were perfect breasts. Not large, just right. Swollen little mounds topped with pretty cotton-candy pink nipples that were stiff, hard.

“I want to suck your nipples until you come from it,” he growled, and a flush worked over her breasts and up her neck. He couldn’t tear his eyes away long enough to see her flushed face. Yet.

He loved her nipples. His mouth watered to taste them, to draw them in, play with the hard little tips with his tongue.

“Your nipples make me sweat,” he told her roughly. “I want to suck them so bad it burns me alive.”

As he watched, those hard tips seemed to flush further. Rising over her, he licked at first one, then the other as he toed his boots off and kicked them over the side of the bed.

He tore at the snap and zipper of his jeans, working them off as he sucked at each hard little point. She was going wild beneath him. Her arms hugged his head, trying to push all of her breast into his mouth.

Incredible. She was making him crazy with the taste, with each little cry that fell past her lips.

When he was naked, he tugged at her cotton pants, pulling her panties with them. He wanted her naked, wanted her bare. He wanted to cover her, wrap around her. God help him, he wanted to fulfill that need he heard in her voice for security, for safety. For pleasure.

Janey watched Alex’s face. Pleasure came in surprising ways, she had found. Not just the touch of his

hands, or his mouth, but the look in his eyes, the tight, hungry grimace that pulled at his lips.

When she stroked his shoulders, his lashes would lift. His cheeks hollowed as he sucked her nipples, but each caress she gave him, each new touch, brought him pleasure as well. Brought her pleasure.

It was so good. The sensations traveling from the hard tips of her breasts to her womb were sizzling. His mouth covered her nipple, his tongue rasped it until she was writhing beneath him, crying out his name in a need so vicious she didn’t think she could bear it.

She felt as though she were burning up. That the heat in the apartment was too high. That some internal thermostat had stopped working.

“Fuck, your nipples are good, baby,” he drawled, his voice rough, sexy, as his dark gray eyes stared up at her. “Hard and sweet.”

As he spoke, one hand smoothed down her side to her hip.

“Almost as sweet as your pussy was in that truck tonight.”

A shocking surge of pleasure clenched her womb, and he grinned with wicked, naughty intent.

“Are you wet, Janey?”

Was she wet?

“What do you think?” she cried out. “Alex, you’re killing me.”

She lost her breath as one finger, just one, slid through her cleft, gathering her juices and running around her clit.

“Ah yeah, sweet honey,” he whispered. “You’re so wet, Janey.” His finger ran down the cleft and circled the entrance to her vagina as his lashes dipped over his eyes. “So tight.”

His finger pressed inside. Janey gripped his biceps, felt them tensing beneath her and felt more of her juices meeting his penetration. Oh, it was so good. So much better than her own fingers. His calloused fingertip rasped just inside the opening, stroking her internal muscles as she clenched around it.

Janey turned her head, lips parted, pressing to that heavy muscle in his upper arm as he stroked her, stretched her. She was only barely aware of biting into the tough skin, drawing it into her mouth.

Oh, she was so going to mark him again. Because it was mark him or scream.

She screamed anyway seconds later as he added a finger, stretched her, pressing inside her and stroking her to insanity.

“You’re fucking tight, Janey. Do you know what this is going to feel like around my dick?” His voice was harsh, agonized. “You’re going to make me crazy once I get inside you, baby. Once this sweet pussy is gripping me, rippling around my cock like you’re rippling around my fingers.”

Her hips arched as she tried to drive the penetration deeper. She needed deeper, needed more of this exquisite, burning sensation. She could feel the small, tight thrusts through her entire body. Each lash of pleasure whipped through her veins, burned her deeper, hotter.

“Ah, sweet baby.” His head lowered, his lips roved over her breasts. He kissed, licked. He sucked at the mounds. Hard enough that she could feel it in her womb. Gentle enough that there was no fear, no pain.

There was just Alex touching her. Touching her as he never had, as she had never believed he would.

“Janey.” His voice thickened, became rougher. “Baby. If I don’t fuck you, I’m going to come on your bed.” He licked at her nipples again and his fingers pressed in farther, rotating and sending a flash of burning pleasure tearing through her.

Then another. Another. His fingers were sliding deeper, taking her, working inside her with slow, controlled twists of his wrist. Janey moved her thighs farther apart, her feet braced on the bed as she tried to thrust into each penetration. Tried to take more than he was allowing her.

“Do something.” Her head thrashed on the bed.

She was burning, burning inside and out. And he was as well. Her eyes opened to see the sweat as it ran in one small rivulet down the side of his face. His eyes were so dark, thunderous. His expression heavy with lust.

“Demanding,” he groaned. “Keep giving me orders like that, Janey, and I’m going to come before I get inside you.”

“Fuck me, Alex.” She stared back at him, lips parted, her breathing harsh. Heavy. “If you’re scared, baby, then lie back. I’ll ride you.”

Oh God, she hadn’t actually said that, had she? Teased him when she was dying for him.

He froze, his face tightening, cheekbones standing out in stark release as primal, primitive lust filled his expression. His cheeks darkened, his lips looked heavier.

“Hell yeah.” He suddenly grinned, and in that grin was teasing, wicked hunger.

She tried to hold him to her as he pulled away. Her hands slapped the bed as he eased from it.

“What?” she demanded roughly. “Where the hell are you going?” She came to her knees, struggling to find the breath to speak, to figure out why he had pulled away from her.

“Latex, sweetheart. I bet my left nut you’re not on protection, are you?”

Janey stilled, her heart suddenly beating rough and hard as he reached down for his pants and pulled a foil pack free.

She lifted her hand, then dropped it, watching him, heart racing; the need to do it for him was killing her.

She wanted to sheathe him. She wanted to touch him.

“You can, you know,” he said, his tone still teasing, but growing rougher.

Her gaze jerked to his as he held the small square pack out to her. “Get me ready for you, darlin’. Show me how much you want me.”

She felt her hands shake, excitement and fear pulsing through her. She had never done anything like this, had no idea what to do, how to touch him.

She reached out and took the small square of foil, then opened it carefully, until the latex disc was held gently between her fingers.

“Just roll it over my cock, baby.”

She moved closer, holding her lower lip between her teeth as she watched his fingers curl around the heavy shaft.

And stroke.

It was so sexy. She could barely breathe. Excitement was racing through her now, her juices weeping from her pussy. She wanted him inside her. She wanted all of him.

She pressed the rolled condom against the head of his cock and unrolled it down his shaft carefully, watching as his fingers lowered, gripped his balls, and a groan filled the room.

His other hand tucked around her neck and lifted her face for his kiss. His lips were hard, hungry. They devoured as she held on to him, her tongue meeting his, dueling with it as she lifted against him.

“Christ, you make a man crazy.”

He gripped her hips, lifting her against him as he moved to the bed again, propping himself back, arranging her legs to straddle his hard, muscular thighs.

Janey stared back at him in surprise. “What are you doing?”

“Take me.” He smiled back at her, the curve of his lips tight, his gaze so dark, stormy. As though some hard, dark core was being restrained, pulled back.

She could sense it, but she didn’t feel it. His hands were gentle, firm, and as he pulled her hips lower, she felt the broad head of his cock pushing against the entrance to her pussy.

“I want inside you so bad I’m about to explode just thinking about it.” His hands clenched on her hips, then slid to the curve of her ass. “Take me, Janey. Go wild on me, baby. Let me see all that fire you’re hiding inside you.”

Janey shook her head. She knew what he wanted. He wanted all of her. She could feel it. If she gave it all to him, then how would she survive when he walked away? Alex always walked away, she knew that.

No woman had ever held him more than a few weeks. No woman ever would. Especially not a traitor’s daughter.

“I’m not taking you, Janey.” His lips moved over her jaw, touched her lips. “If you want it, baby, you have to take it. Slow and easy, or hot and wild . . . Fuck.”

She couldn’t stay still.

Janey pressed down. She moaned as she felt the broad head part her, enter. She lowered her head, pressed her forehead against his shoulder, and pressed down more.