You can’t cheat fate.

My survival instinct kicked in—because if he left me, I’d be broken, a shell of myself, forever replaying this dream I’d once had.

I backed up a step—a grifter sensing the biggest snare of them all—and muttered, “I’ll, uh, lemme go make a call.”

“You’re doing it again. The more I try to please you, the more you distance yourself. Tell—me—why.”

I just needed to hit the pause button for a bit. I forced myself to turn and walk away.

Something’s got to give.

I’d made it to the hall when he clamped my arm and pulled me around. I craned my head up to take in his fierce expression, his crazed eyes.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“I need a minute—”

“I can’t goddamned read you! Except for when I’m pleasuring you.” He fisted the material of my dress. “Then you let me see everything.” With a yell, he ripped my dress clean from my body.

I swallowed, shaken by the sudden ferocity of his emotions—of my emotions.

“Then you hold nothing back!”

“Dmitri, wait!”

My bra and thong joined the torn dress on the floor.

I cried out when he swung me up into his arms, cupping my ass in his hot palms. The intensity seething inside him should’ve frightened me; my legs locked around his waist, my arms around his neck, his shirt abrading my stiff nipples.

When he yanked his fly open and shoved his pants down his thighs, my pussy was already wet for him.

“You are maddening me, woman.” He planted me on his shaft, shuddering with every inch he forced inside me. “Ah, God, Victoria!”

I moaned as my slickened sheath welcomed him home.

He pressed me against the wall, his lips crashing into mine, his tongue seeking. But he hadn’t moved his hips.

Between kisses, he snatched off his shirt. With his bared chest rubbing against my breasts, he kissed me aggressively, tonguing me, as if his mouth fucked mine. But he still hadn’t thrust.

How was he fighting that primal need? He’d given me his cock, yet held it back from me, leaving me aching for more.

The point wasn’t lost on me.

He broke the kiss to run his lips up my neck. “You’re pulling away from me.” At my ear, he groaned, “Don’t.”

“I’m not—”

“Don’t lie to me!” He leaned down to lick my tits, nipping them with his white teeth, sucking the delicate flesh between his merciless lips.

As he tormented my breasts in a frenzy, I could only clutch his shoulders and beg, “More.”

He squeezed me, pinching my nipples hard.

I cried out, frantic for him to move inside me. “I need you! Please.”

He stood fully. Sweat dotted his skin, beading his upper lip. His hips slicked my inner thighs. “Look at my marks all over your breasts.”

I glanced down. Stark love bites covered them, circling my areolas. At the sight, I helplessly rocked on his cock.

“No!” He pulled me from the wall and slapped my ass. “Feel what it’s like to need more.”

“Ahhh!” The sting nearly brought me off.

He coiled his arms around me, tightening his ruthless embrace. “I am obsessed with you.” He said this the way another man might say, I am in love with you. “Feel the same way toward me! Want me like you want your next fucking breath!” When I leaned in to kiss his neck and taste his sweat, his head tipped back and he groaned, “Think of nothing but me. . . .”

“Please, Dmitri!” I could feel him throbbing inside me! I drummed my heels into his ass.

“You belong to me alone.” When he nipped my neck, my pussy quivered around his cock. “I want to belong to you as well!”

In spite of my emotions—or because of them—I was about to come, tension gathering inside me.

“Why haven’t you given me a goddamned ring?”

Because this dream had to end.

“Why?”

I threaded my fingers through his hair, tugging him to meet my eyes. It was on the tip of my tongue to cry, “Any move I make is the wrong one—because I’m falling in love with you!” But I couldn’t.

He could tell I was holding back. His fingertips bit into my ass, and his eyes went even wilder. “Fucking give me something!”

When I could only whimper, he abruptly pulled out of me, holding me poised over his cock.

I gasped. “Nooo! Come back—please!”

In a menacing tone, he said, “Do you feel empty inside? Cold?” He looked insane. “It doesn’t have to be this way, does it? What you need is so close you can feel it.”

I mindlessly undulated for him. “Dmitri?” I couldn’t think!

“You are so close to me, Vika, but just out of reach. When I would kill for this—” He rammed his cock home, impaling me.

“Ah, God!” My head lolled.

He bucked his hips, pounding upward. Then again. Deeper. And again. Deeper. He was punishing me, his muscles rippling as he fucked. “Give me something of yourself!”

My tits rubbed his unyielding chest. My pussy tightened around him, readying to come. Excruciating pleasure/pressure mounted. Between breaths, I cried, “Dmitri! It’s too much . . . too strong.”

What my body was about to do scared me.

What my heart was about to do scared me.

He shoved into me with all his might. “Give me something! Goddamn it, anything!”