I could tell I was getting close when his hips bucked unconsciously against my face before he drew back, pulling his length from my mouth.

“I wasn’t done,” I protested.

Rix kept his hold on my hair and tilted my face up to meet his gaze. “I don’t want to come in your mouth. I want to sink into that tight pussy of yours again with nothin’ between us. Haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.”

I considered pouting, but I could work with that. “Then I want to be on top.”

A lazy smile spread across his face. “I did give you the reins, so it’s only right that you ride me.”

He shoved his pants the rest of the way off his hips and moved to sit on the bed. Sliding up to the head, he propped himself on a pillow, right in the middle.

I couldn’t get over how beautiful he was. He’d hate that I called him that in my head, but it was the truth. The caramel tone of his skin, the black and gray ink covering his arms and chest. The heavy muscles underlying it all.

He was a masterpiece in his own right. It only made sense that I’d been compelled to paint him, and my hands were once again itching to hold a brush.

Later. Right now, I was going to take my pleasure and make this man see stars. Maybe forget every woman who ever came before me.

“You waitin’ on something, duchess?”

Shaking my head, I reached behind me for the zipper on my skirt and slid it down. It fell to the floor and I stepped forward. My bra was next, discarded beside the growing pile of clothes.

Crawling up the bed to straddle him, I pressed a kiss to his chest, over his heart. Another to his neck, his jaw, and then his lips. All that leashed strength beneath me, and it was mine.

He was mine.

SHE DIDN’T LOOK LIKE THE duchess I called her. She looked like a queen. Hair, black as night, spilling down her shoulders. Her breasts were high and firm, the perfect size for my mouth.

I’d told her she could take the reins, and I’d meant it, but I couldn’t stop myself from touching her. My hands on her hips as she settled her pussy over my cock. Hot, slick heat had me fighting the urge to lift her and impale her on my dick.

Yes, I’d wanted women before, but never had I wanted one like this. With Valentina, all bets were off. All rules were broken. All standards crushed. She was just so much more. And she was mine.

Her fingertips started at my jaw and trailed down my neck, skimming across my collarbone to my chest, down my abs and then over to my fingertips, before sliding back up my arms to my shoulders. She curled her hands shut, gripping me as she shifted forward and rocked on my cock.

Fuck. I wasn’t going to last nearly long enough to do this justice. She’d already had my dick in her mouth, and when she’d done that, I’d been almost unable to hold myself back. A lifetime of fucking her wouldn’t be enough, especially one predicted to be as short as mine.

That thought pushed from my head, I kept my grip on her hips, helping her move against me, angling my hips so her clit dragged along the head of my cock. She was already flushed, her pupils dilated, and her breathing heavy. My woman was close to the edge too, which meant this might not be the longest ride ever, but it would be fucking explosive all the same.

“I want you,” she whispered, releasing my shoulder to wrap her hand around my cock and angle it toward her entrance.

The perfect searing heat stole my senses, and it took everything in me to let her keep control when all I wanted to do was lift up and plunge deep inside her. But Valentina didn’t make me wait long. She slid down my cock, inch by fucking inch, moaning and squeezing with every move.

The moment took on a sheen of perfection I’d never before experienced. Valentina’s beautiful face, flush with passion, her need for me and my cock written on every feature. Everything about her tied together to make the sexiest package I’d ever encountered.

My thoughts scattered when she froze, my cock buried in her tight little pussy, and she began to rock forward and back, working her clit.

Oh, we can do better than that.

I reached out a hand to wrap around her hip, my thumb centered on her clit and pressing down. It was like hitting a detonator.

“Oh my God.” She moaned, hips bucking into my hand as her muscles clamped down around me. “I can’t stop it.”

“Don’t stop, baby. Come for me.”

With her head dropping back and muscles shaking, I tightened my grip on her hips with both hands, keeping the pressure on her clit as I lifted her and lowered her on my cock, my hips pumping up with each movement.

“Can’t stop,” she whispered, her nipples tightening just before she tensed again. I wanted to make her come over and over again, just so I could see her face like that.

My own climax slammed into me without warning, and I couldn’t hold it back.

“Fuck,” I roared into the room, pulling her down hard on my cock as I came.

I loved her.

And that changed everything.

RIX HAD UNLEASHED SOME KIND of wildness inside me, and I didn’t want to rein it in. I fell asleep wrapped in his arms, but didn’t stay asleep for long because it seemed I’d unleashed something in him as well. He woke me twice in the night, the first time with his mouth on my breasts, and the second time as he slid inside me. I loved it. Loved him. And I didn’t want to spend another night without him in my bed.

The third time, it was the sun streaming through my window that woke me. Flicking my eyes open, I noticed the lack of heat at my back immediately. All night, I’d been held inside the safety of Rix’s arms, and I missed it.

Has he left?

Still half-asleep, I rolled out of bed, my muscles languid. I found my robe on the back of my bathroom door and slipped it on. My house was quiet. Making my way down the stairs to the kitchen in search of coffee and the man who should have still been in my bed, I stopped short when I saw a note on the counter.

Had to go take care of something. I’ll be back when I can. Didn’t want to leave you this morning.

It was unsigned, but Rix didn’t need to sign a note for me to know it was from him. The timer on my coffeemaker tripped and the delicious scent filled the kitchen.

While I sipped, my brain sped from one possibility to the next. The daring woman who’d made an appearance last night wanted to come out to play again, and I was embracing her. I’d finally shed the remaining threads of victimhood and I was whole. Rix hadn’t healed me, but he’d given me the motivation to heal myself.