He made a face as if he was thanking God and murmured, “I’m all yours, sweetheart.”

Sweetheart.

My lips found his and I deepened our kiss while I fucked him harder and we rode out our release.  After hours of build-up to this orgasm, it gripped me hard and we came together.  I screamed out Donovan’s name and after he’d come, he moved his mouth to my neck and marked me there.

When he lifted his head, his eyes held his need, and he said, “My turn now.”

“Baby, I hate to break this to you, but we need to take a breather in-between, otherwise you might send me and my pussy insane from all the pleasure.”

He raised his brows.  “Really?  And what do I get in return?”

I grinned, loving the playful nature he didn’t show too often.  Nibbling along his bottom lip, I murmured, “Sex anywhere, any way you want it tomorrow.”

“Fuck,” he said.  “How the hell can a man say no to that?”

“He can’t.”

Smacking my ass, he said, “Okay, get off.  I need a drink to deal with this setback.”

I crawled off him and settled myself against the headboard so I could watch him move.  His muscles never failed to turn me on.  I could stare at them all day.  Being the woman he’d chosen to share them with made me very happy.

When he returned five minutes later, he had a bottle of scotch and two glasses from downstairs with him.

“You stealing from my bar, baby?” I asked.  “Cause if you are, I’ll have to think of ways to punish you.”

His nostrils flared and his breathing picked up.  His face was a wild mask of desire as he growled, “If anyone’s doing the punishing, it’ll be me, sweetheart.”

Oh, fuck.

My powerful man had no idea how much he affected me.

Everything about him affected me.

His words.

His body.

His beautiful soul.

Everything.

We stayed in that moment for a while.

Eyes never leaving each other.

Our breathing all over the place from the desire surrounding us.

Donovan eventually broke the spell and poured our drinks.  He passed me mine, and surprised me with a change in conversation.  “Who’s Julian?”

Shit, a name I hadn’t heard in forever.

A man I hadn’t thought of in nearly as long.

A person I didn’t want to think of.

My heart rate picked up as the memories flooded my mind.  I gulped my scotch and turned my gaze back to Donovan.  “Julian was a motherfucker I should have known better than to get involved with.”  I gulped more scotch.  Fuck, I hated dredging up memories.

He sat on the edge of the bed, his concerned eyes focused on mine.  I loved the way he looked at me when he was worried about me. Sometimes, his eyes could be so soft for such a hard man.  “Tell me about him,” he murmured.

I tipped the rest of the scotch down my throat, took a deep breath, and shared the darkest moment of my life with him.

“After Annie and I left home, we had nowhere to go, so we had to stay with friends for awhile.  I had no work experience at all. I mean, I never had to work while I was at school because my parents gave me whatever I wanted.  So, I struggled to find a job, which meant we couldn’t afford rent.  Like I said, some friends did let us stay but we wore out our welcome eventually and ended up living on the streets.  I met Julian at a café one day when I was applying for a job, and he took us under his wing and helped us get back on our feet.  He found me a job with a bartender friend of his and he gave us a place to stay.”  I stopped to take a breath and put my glass out for a refill.

Donovan filled my glass again before saying, “I’m not gonna like this story, am I?”

I shook my head.  “No.”

He poured himself another drink and drank half of it straight away.  “Fuck.”  His features had hardened, and I wished we’d never started this conversation.

“We eventually started something.  To me, it was just sex, not a relationship.  Julian was the third guy I’d ever slept with and he showed me a whole other world of sex.  He liked it rough, and I discovered I did, too, so we were a good match.  Julian made it clear he wanted to keep sleeping with other women, and I had no issues with that.  I was young and wanted to see what was out there.  I thought him sleeping around meant I could, too.  Turns out I was wrong.”  I stopped again to drink some more scotch.  My chest had tightened and a chill ran through me thinking about this.  I raised my eyes to Donovan’s and let the care I found there help me get the rest of the words out.  “He’d been getting rougher with the sex, inflicting a lot of pain, and I had started to pull away a little.  I can handle rough, but only when there’s some emotion involved.  With Julian, there was nothing.  It was just fucking and pain while he got off.  One night, I was at work and a guy I’d never met flirted with me.  Julian saw it, and when we got home, he let me know just how unhappy he was that another guy had shown interest in me.”  My voice caught in my throat.  “He beat me so badly I ended up in hospital for days . . . He tried to kill me, but Annie saved me . . . she hit him over the head with the baseball bat he kept in his bedroom and got me out of there.”  My heart beat fast in my chest and my mind swam with the bad memories.  I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut and pretend none of this was true.  I’d never told anyone this story; Annie was the only person who knew about this.