He nipped her bottom lip. “You can trust me to be honest. How can we do this right if we don’t talk stuff through?” He sounded so emotionally mature, he wanted to call his mom and tell her about it. Ugh, maybe not thinking about his mother when he was in Natalie’s bed would be wise.

“Part of me loves that you’re wild because it’s who you are. But I have... I just don’t have the best feelings about that sort of life. I don’t mind wild, I just like it in private.”

She had said this all to his ear, and he gently touched her chin to get her gaze. “Thank you for saying that. What happened to you? Something in college? You seemed nearly as wild as me back in the day.”

She sighed. “In a manner of speaking. But it was more that I figured my shit out in college. Not having choices or options is to lack control. Lacking control makes me feel helpless. It leaves a person vulnerable.”

“So you put yourself in a place where you could give yourself control and you make your own choices.”

“This is a weird conversation to be having right now.”

“We’ve already established that you’re weird and tragically broken, Nats. Keep up. So. Control?”

“I spent a lot of time responsible for other people. From a very early age until I got the hell out of there at seventeen. That was a step, a huge step in yes, taking back control and owning my life and my future. And then later, I also found a measure of safety and a huge helping of control when I chose to make firm boundaries in my life. My private stuff is for me. That’s how I want it. That’s how I need it.”

“Okay. Well, tell me about your childhood.”

She grabbed his shirt and pulled it off. “I’d rather f**k.”

“Come on, talk to me.”

“I’ve talked all I want to right now. I’m nearly naked. We’re in my bed. Alone in my house. Show me how wild you are, Paddy.”

He wanted more from her, but he could see she was past her comfort zone. Desire drove him hard. So hard, he should have feared it. So hard, he let her change the subject.

He shifted enough to land her on her back, and he loomed over her, quickly getting out of his jeans and shorts. He kissed up her ribs and across her belly, up the valley between her br**sts, pausing to lick the curves there. He drew his tongue up her neck, closing his eyes at the hum of pleasure she gave him in response.

He took her lips, and she wrapped herself around him, her thighs around his waist, ni**les against his chest, arms around his shoulders so her nails scored into his back.

He hissed and she arched, brushing the heated silk of her panties against his naked cock.

He took her bottom lip between his teeth and pulled. The rush of heat at his c**k made him even harder. “Someone likes it a little rough.”

His lips found the place where her pulse thundered, the sweet spot just below her ear. He swirled his tongue there and gave her the edge of his teeth before he moved down to her ni**les.

He pushed her br**sts together so he could easily travel back and forth between both ni**les. The sounds she made tore at him, tore at his self-control.

“Please f**k me!”

“I was going to make you come first.” He worried her nipple between his teeth.

“Yes,” she muttered, holding his head in place. “Coming is mandatory, obviously. But you can do it while you’re in me.”

“You’re bossy.”

She squirmed, getting a hand between them and grasped his cock, fisting it a few times. Reason and patience scattered like birds.

She reached out, one-handed, and rustled through a drawer in her bedside table. Finally, she cheered and held a foil packet aloft. “Victory!”

He laughed, taking it from her and using it quickly. Then he didn’t bother stripping her panties off; instead, he shoved them to the side and thrust into her body in one stroke.

She sucked in a breath, nearly choking at how good it felt. At the dark thrill of being handled like that. He was rough. Not to harm, but like he couldn’t stop himself because he wanted her so much.

This was wild. And she was a grown woman who liked what she liked. He made it easier to do that. When she was in a relationship, she had a high libido and most definitely Paddy matched her in that department What they had when they were like this was wicked-hot chemistry. It made her feel so alive.

He put most of his weight on his forearms, resting his forehead against hers for long moments. He looked right through her. She wanted to close her eyes against it, but it was too real; she was so connected right then, it would have been a lie.

“You said you were going to take care of it yourself. The last time we were together, I mean. You should do that now.”

Maybe she should have blushed or been embarrassed. But that didn’t happen. The burst of heat wasn’t from embarrassment, but desire.

He pushed himself to his knees, holding her calves around his butt. She was totally open to him. Above her, he was like an inked, pierced sex god. She was honest-to-goodness having superhot sex with a rock star, and it was everything others had it cracked up to be.

A lock of his hair fell forward over his forehead as his gaze seemed to burn her skin. She slid a hand down her belly as he leaned in enough to roll and tug one of her ni**les.

Her hand went under the material of her underpants, and she gasped when her fingertips made contact with her clit.

“Jesus. I’ve never seen anything hotter than this right here. Your hand moving as you touch yourself. Your skin flushed. Nipples hard and dark. Your body keeps gripping my c**k so hard, I see stars.”