up at him, her fingertips dancing lower. “You told me to tell the truth.”
“I didn’t realize I’d be letting the dam loose.” He caught her fingers and kissed them. “Don’t stop.”
She couldn’t even if she wanted to.
“I want you to take my shirt off.”
His fingers ghosted alone her spine, the calluses sending shockwaves across her skin.
“Kiss my neck.”
His arms twined around her, lifting her off the ground as she fumbled with his trouser zipper.
“Touch me—”
She was his mate. That was miracle enough. That he listened to her every shameless, whispered plea, and obeyed, his eyes black with desire and his breath hot on her skin? It shouldn’t have been possible. Nothing she wanted so much should have been possible.
She slipped one hand under the band of his briefs. His hips bucked, fingers tightening almost painfully around her waist as she wrapped her hand around his cock.
He was hard. That shouldn’t have been a surprise. What surprised her was the thrill that went through her as she felt him in her hand, thick and urgent and wanting.
She kissed him until he moaned and pumped her hand up and down his cock until whatever words he’d been about to say came out in a jumbled gasp against her lips. “What was that?”
“I can’t take this much longer.” He jerked against her again. “God, Delphine...”
She stripped her pants off one-handed. He slid his hands over her ass, pulling her up so she could wrap her legs around him. His cock pressed between her legs, sending shivers of anticipation into her core. She ground against him.
“Bed?” she suggested.
“Is that what you want?”
Somehow, through the very determined messages her body was sending her and the messages his body was sending her, too, she sensed the hesitation in his voice.
“Honestly?”
“Honestly,” he breathed, easily, as though her voice had never made him double over in pain.
“Honestly, I’m easy on where.”
That smile again. He picked her up and she kissed the side of his neck, his earlobe, wherever she could reach until he put her down next to the sofa.
“Here?” she asked.
“Last night—” He cleared his throat, embarrassment mingling with desire. She leaned against the back of the sofa and put his arms around his neck, keeping him close.
“Tell me,” she whispered. “Fair turnabout.”
He acknowledged her point with a quick smile. “Sleeping here last night, knowing you were just in the next room, surrounded by your scent all over the cushions and the blanket... it was hell.”
“You didn’t sleep well either?”
“You too?”
“I didn’t even get to smell your scent on the bed,” she grumbled.
“I hadn’t slept there yet.”
He pushed her against the back of the sofa, kissing her deeply. “Let’s change that,” she whispered.
Hardwick picked her up and was about to lay her down on the sofa, but she wriggled out of his grasp. She didn’t know why. This was wrong-right and exciting and everything she wanted, and what she wanted was—
She almost groaned with the arguing wants inside her. She wanted now. Here. Everything. All the years she’d spent bottling herself up meant there was so much she’d never tried.
She could start here. They could start here.
“No. Here,” she said, turning around so that she was leaning over the sofa, Hardwick pressed hard against her back. His cock jutted against her ass. “Please?”
His hands slid onto her hips. “This is what you want?”
“Yes—”
“Tell me.”
“I want you to take me. Like this. Hard. Please.”
His fingers dug into the soft flesh of her waist. He kissed the back of her neck and she twisted so she could capture his lips with hers. She bit him—gently. Hard enough that his cock jumped.
“You’re incredible,” he breathed. “I never thought—”
“Please,” she begged, and his words dissolved into a low chuckle.
“As my lady wishes.”
He slid one hand down between her legs and parted her folds. Delphine bucked, despite herself; it was so long since anyone had touched her like this. And Hardwick was like no one else she’d ever been with. He pushed one finger inside her.
Delphine moaned. It felt so good, but... “That’s not enough,” she complained.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
Still riding high on sensation and the wonder of the light burning in her chest, she didn’t stop to wonder why the next words that came out of her mouth were: “I don’t care. Hurt me. Anything. Please.”
Hardwick growled something wordless against her shoulder. She gasped as he removed his finger and repositioned himself, both hands back around her waist. She reached back and wrapped one hand around his cock, guiding