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She shivered again.

His fingers tightened on her wrists. Then circled both of them. “Is this scary?”

She looked down to where he clasped her. His long, strong fingers were dark gold shackles around her lighter skin. “A little.”

“Enough to stop?”

“
No
.” The force of her protest came as a surprise. She shot her gaze up to his, knowing she likely looked like a fool, though she couldn’t stop. He fixated her, the complete combination of everything that was right and wrong, like looking at the sun without eye gear. What a beautiful way to burn out her senses.

“Please,” she implored. ”Don’t make me keep thinking about this. Don’t make me keep choosing.”

“Not an option.” His eyes darkened to amber embers. “You have to choose, Rose. You need to. I want to dominate you, not force you.”

The way his voice dropped on that sentence, dipping each syllable in thick, sensual intention, coated her whole body like melted butter. She flashed her tongue out as if needing to taste the stuff too. And was unable to fight the temptation anymore.

“And if you were dominating me right now, what would you do?”

A sound between a rumble and a hum vibrated from his throat. Five seconds later, he snared both her wrists in one of his hands, jerked them high over her head, and used that leverage to shove her down to the bed. As he followed her down, he shoved the insides of her thighs with the outside of his own. Inside another five seconds, she was captive and spread for him.

And instantly wet for him.

His gaze dropped, skating over her nose, then down to her mouth with hungry intent. Her lungs ached in response. She couldn’t get enough air. And she never wanted to again.

“I’d probably do something like this,” he murmured. “And then something like…this.”

He took her lips then, going slow and sensuous for all of two seconds. That was more than fine with her. She didn’t know if she could take the love-me-tender approach for longer than that. She purposely drove him on with a moan that bordered on protest, knowing what his mouth was capable of inciting in her now and needing more, so much more, of that force. As lightning sizzled the air with electric heat, she sucked his tongue hard, a negative charge needing its positive. Mark’s hand corkscrewed tighter on her wrists. With his other hand, he pulled her chin down, opening her wider for the stabbing invasion of his mouth. Their noses slammed. Their breaths mingled. They tore and tugged and bit at each other. She couldn’t get enough of him; there wasn’t enough, no matter how hard or urgent or fervently she tore at him.

Thunder boomed through the room, as if the universe confirmed what she already knew. The switch of hesitation had been flipped. No turning back now. No wanting to. No needing anything except how this man ignited her.

They finally pulled back from each other with protesting groans. She stared in fascination as Mark released her and reared up. Veins stood out against the muscles of his torso. His mouth was parted; his teeth were bared. He was a living embodiment of untamed lust…and her deepest fantasies.

Three words came out of him with hard command.

“Strip. Everything. Now.”

He shoved back to give her room. Rose still trembled, but obeyed as fast as she could. The blouse was the easy part, since he’d already taken advantage of its design tonight. When she rose up on her knees to slide off the skirt…that was when her hesitation sneaked in. She wasn’t naive. She kept some of the jiggle in check with a jogging addiction, but her backside wasn’t ever going to grace a Victoria’s Secret runway. Okay, so he’d seen the goods before—but what happened in the fitness room seemed an accident, a dream. This was more real. More significant. More of what it was. A choice. A huge one.

“Rose.” His husky murmur came as soon as she slipped the skirt to the floor. “You’re so fucking stunning.”

She attempted a little smile. She was totally unsure how to respond, what to do. Even if she did, she wasn’t sure she could move anyway. His stare burned every inch it scanned, making her even more aware of her nakedness, paralyzing her with its heat.

“Stay right there, pet. Spread your knees just a little more, then get your balance.”

That took care of wondering what to do. Only now, thanks to his unfaltering tone, she actually felt the cream of her pussy flowing and drenching her folds as she complied. She couldn’t help but roll her hips, gasping with her growing arousal.

“Very nice, honey. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Lace your fingers together behind your head. Straighten your spine. Show me those beautiful breasts. Don’t ever be ashamed of your body when you’re with me.”

 “When you’re with me.”
The words sang through her senses as she moved into the position he detailed. The statement, and the way he’d said it with such surety…they implied things, didn’t they? Like maybe there’d be more nights like this. That this was just the first of many things he wanted—no, expected—her to remember when they were together. Even the consideration of such a thing filled her with a joy as she spread wider for him, uncovering her heart, just a little bit more, just as she bared her body.

Mark easily closed the distance between them. He spread his fingers, raking the tips up her stomach, ribs, then higher. Rose’s breath hitched. Her pulse spiked. She shook again as he curled a slow smile. Once his hands were at her breasts, he cupped them possessively. The swells rose and fell against his fingers as he tugged her nipples to attention, playing along their hard plateaus with little scrapes of his thumbs.

Her sigh became a gasp of desire—and amazement. She’d experimented a few times with touching her breasts but had no idea they could feel like this. She never thought that a knowing tease on her nipples would have repercussions deep in her womb, igniting her with waves of such exquisite pleasure. It was beautiful, wonderful magic.

“Time to wake her up completely, Rose.” He said it as he pinched her tips even tighter.

“W-wake who u-up?”

“You already know.
Her
. The Rose inside you. The one who’s wanted this for so long. Who’s yearned to be at the mercy of a man, to feel him pushing you like this. Demanding more from you like this.”

As he drew the last word out with carnal languor, he turned his fingers into dual clamps, squeezing the tips of her breasts without mercy. In an instant, taunting pleasure became shooting pain.

“Shit!” She dropped her hands and shoved at him instead. Why her pussy pulsed even harder, she had no damn idea.

Mark responded with a narrow glare and a cautioning tilt of his head. He doubled the pressure on her nipples. She keened, then glared.

“Get those hands back up behind your head, pet. I won’t ask again.”

She had no idea why she complied. But something deep in his voice spoke to the darkest chemistry of her body, driving her arms back up. She shook from the confusion of it. “What the hell is wrong with me?” she pleaded. “This is wrong! I shouldn’t want this!”

“Really?” The man had the nerve to smile as if she’d simply admitted a craving for peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. Without saying another word, he released his hold, then slid off the bed and stood behind her. He pressed close, reaching to cup a hand over the tight curls that shielded her sex. With knowing confidence, he wove two fingers through her slippery tissues. But he didn’t stop there. He twisted his wrist, working his long digits inside her, chuckling in response to her gasps. “Your body tells me differently, Rose. Fuck, you feel so good. So tight and wet again.”

He shifted closer, his breath now a harsh but warm wind along her back. It was barely a hint of the fire he delivered next. With his free hand, he gave a quick smack to one side of her ass. Rose cried out from surprise more than anything, a sound that softened to a sigh when he soothed the sting into sweet, arousing flames. After he did the same thing to the other side, she started writhing in need, grinding herself on the fingers still exploring her deep tunnel.

“Your body’s screaming at me again, honey. You’re soaking me. Clenching me.” He sidled closer, pressing his hot, slick torso against her. “You don’t just want this. You need it. You love that moment when the pain becomes fire, when the resistance turns into acceptance. When you know you’ve taken it, absorbed it, are stronger because of it. And you
are
strong, my Rose. So resilient, radiant. You captivate me with the strength of your surrender.”

His words…his tone…his touch… It was an onslaught of adoration she’d never experienced from anyone. It was exactly what he’d promised. Transformation. Rose sagged beneath him, the last clouds of her resistance turned into the rain of her tears. She unclasped her hands from her head and roped them around the back of his instead. She needed him close, yearning to meld him and the truth he spoke into her heart forever.

“Yes,” she said on a bare breath. “Yes…Sir…please…”

His beard scrubbed the top of her shoulder. “Please what?” he prompted. “Tell me what you need, honey. I’ll give it to you. Anything.”

She swallowed hard. Could she really do it? Really ask for the very thing she’d shunned from herself for so long?

But the alternative—a life without it—was now a worse thought to bear.

“More.” It fell from her like a dead branch being cut off her psyche, freeing her soul, galvanizing her body. She sobbed harder. “More,” she repeated, pushing her backside at him to stress her meaning.

Aside from a thick breath, Mark didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. She knew he’d heard and understood. He proved it the next second, by dragging strong, sure fingers along the first ass cheek he’d spanked—then slapping it again. The stroke was firm and steady, just like the flowing caresses that came after. He repeated the treatment to her other cheek. She gave a long sigh of thanks, now thinking of all his words as the pain evaporated into warm steam along her skin.
“You’ve taken it, absorbed it, it, are stronger because of it.”

And yet, she wanted more. No, not that. Mark had pegged it right, hadn’t he?

She needed it.

“Again.” The entreaty didn’t even sound like part of her, yet never felt more intimate to her soul. “Please. Again. Harder.”

Smack.

The impact of his flesh to hers reverberated in the room, a whip of sound against the sough of the rain. She let out a moan, still struggling to process how her body rebelled against this, but her spirit reached so greedily for it.

Smack.

“Oh God!” Both sides of her ass now prickled from the contact. Yet she still needed more. Still craved to know what
more
felt like. Still longed to discover those parts of herself that could take it, and what her body would do with the victory of it. “Please…”

He slid his hands to her nipples again. As he pulled both buds with hard tugs, he joined a stern direction to her whimper. “No more words, pet. I’ll give you what you need. Your submission is now focusing on my words, on what I’ve told you. Absorb them. Make them part of you, then give their power back to me with your entire body.”

Yes, Sir.

She gave it to him with her soul as he delivered tougher spanks, this time to both sides of her ass at once.

“Good girl. Now lean forward.” His voice was low and precise, completely claiming her will because of it. “Your head on the bed. Your arms and hands stretched flat over it. Don’t shift from that position or I
will
find a way to bind you.”

Thank you, Sir.

She threaded it through her sigh as she shifted into the position, then endured the stings of his next two slaps. They were even harder. Even louder. Even more arousing as the pain dissipated, swirling into tight tingles.

Please, Sir!

She punched it into the falsetto of her scream after his next two strikes. Their impact went deeper than her skin, making her shake, forcing her to twist her hands into the bedcover. Mark barely massaged away the pain before dealing it again, a groan erupting from him now. His voice was a deep, feral creature of its own as he ordered her to breathe, to accept, to take it. And God, how she wanted to. There was no way to ignore how her body flooded for more, the way her racing blood centered itself in her core, clamping her pussy, making her yearn and burn and need him.

“Fuck. My sweet pet…”

Her world tilted, and her mind spun with his swirling, sweeping touch along her enflamed backside. He made the roller coaster go even faster with his long, sure fingers, teasing them into the valley between her thighs after every third or fourth circuit. She rolled her hips, her body needing him deeper, harder. Her throat convulsed and let out a catlike cry as she struggled to hold her pleas in check. “Fuck!” he repeated. Right after that, there was the scrape of his zipper coming down. “I’m nearly exploding because of you, Rose.” After a discernible crinkle of foil and another tight groan from him, she felt the press of his thighs against the back of hers. Then,
oh God
, the steel-hard, latex-covered length of his shaft parted her folds from behind, seeking entrance into the part of her that quivered for him the most.

“I’m going to fuck you like this, honey. Dig in and hang on, because I’m going to give you more of what you need as I do. Prepare your pussy. And your ass.”

He was a man of his word. The moment the head of his cock connected to the depths of her sex, he squeezed her right ass cheek and then smacked it, solid and swift. With his left hand, he took care of alternate strokes to the other cheek. It was agony, glory, sanity, and senselessness all at once, and she never wanted it to end. Forget even attempting to think clearly. Her body was in command now. No,
he
was in command now. He filled her. Consumed her. As his cock conquered her from the inside, his touch overpowered her from the outside. He was everywhere, bringing the intensity, the fever, the
more
for which she’d yearned her whole life. The experience she’d given up on ever having. The man she never thought she’d find. Who knew that flying to an island would really bring her an unexpected treasure?