“You’re so wet, sweetheart,” he said.

She said the first thing that came into her poor, addled brain. “I’m going to kill you.”

He clucked his tongue.

Big hands lifted her h*ps and his c**k nudged at the entrance to her sex. The poor, desperate, throbbing, needy thing that it was. All she could do was dig her fingers deeper and hold on.

She moaned as his c**k surged into her. God, yes, she needed it, needed him inside her. The width of his c**k felt close to overwhelming with that thing filling her rear. Still vibrating. Her whole pelvic region seemed aglow with it.

“Fuck yes,” he groaned.

She could feel the hairs on his thighs against the backs of her legs, the press of his pelvis against her butt. The slap of his balls when he thrust harder, picking up the pace. It seemed she was oversensitive to everything. Nothing escaped her but her mind reeled, unable to focus on any one thing. Again and again he thrust into her. Her traitorous body pushed back, takingly him joyfully, wanting everything he could give her.

Nick pounded into her. Together, they set a feverish pace. Nothing mattered but coming, climbing that peak as hard and fast as possible. She was mindless in her pursuit of it, so damn close that it was all she could feel. The heat and sensation built until it burst wide open inside her. She shook and shuddered and shouted into the pillow. Hands pulled her back onto him as he pushed as deep into her body as he could get and came too. Those hands and his c**k were the only things holding her up. Then his c**k slipped free of her. His hands lowered her back onto the mattress. He collapsed beside her.

Nothing but heavy breathing.

A hand fumbled over her ass and the thing stopped buzzing. Probably for the best. Carefully he pulled it out of her. Her body was too tired to react. Her mind had been defeated. Nick was master of them all. Damn him.

A wet cloth smoothed between her tender butt cheeks.

“You okay?” he asked.

She turned her head. It was easier to breathe without her face in the pillow. “No. I think you broke me.”

He lay beside her, dark eyes searching her face.

“That would account for the f**k-drunk smile,” he said.

She tried to frown at him. It didn’t work. “You’re a bad man.”

He smirked.

“You’re my bad man.”

“Mm. I’m going to do that to you every time I catch you daydreaming about threesomes with other men,” he informed her. “And the plugs will get bigger.”

Like hell they would. Best not to tell him that, though. He’d only see it as a challenge.

She stretched lazily as gradually some semblance of life returned to her sated body. “To be fair, Nicky, you were one of the men in my imaginary threesome.”

He gave her a skeptical look, his brow arched high. Of course, since she had bisected the other brow he could really only raise the one. Lucky it looked good on him.

“Hey, I don’t want any other men.”

“No?” he asked, shuffling over until they were close as they could be.

“Nope. I don’t suppose you’ve got a twin, though?”

His hand clapped down on her butt cheek. It stung.

“Ow. Sorry. I’m sorry. Just joking.”

“And you actually wonder why I abuse your ass,” he said, ever the gentleman. One of his hands rifled around in the dreaded backpack once more. “I picked up some other things for you today.”

“Do I even want to know?”

“I don’t know. Do you?” he asked and carefully put a funky-looking pair of reading glasses on her. “There we go. How are they?”

She blinked experimentally, peered around the room. “Good, I think. Thank you.”

“Wear them the next time we f**k. That would be thanking me.”

“Aww. You say the sweetest things.”

“Don’t I? There was also this.” He set a blue velvet jewelry case on his bare chest. A ring-sized one.

“Holy hell.” Her heart lurched at the sight. It was the strangest thing. After everything they’d been through, she was going to lose it over a piece of jewelry?

“I saw it in a shop in town. Thought you might like it, so I grabbed it.”

Carefully, she popped the case but left it sitting on top of him. Of all the things he could have picked up for her, right on out of any shop window now that alarms and money and all the rest were gone, he’d gotten her this. A circlet of seed pearls surrounded a small winking diamond in an antique rose gold setting. It was lovely. Heartbreakingly perfect.

“Okay. What does it mean?” she asked.

“Huh?” His face blanked.

“Nick, you can’t just give a girl a ring without it meaning something. You do know that?”

His forehead furrowed up.

“I mean, it has to say something.”

“What?” he asked. “Why?”

“Come on, Nick. The ring says something. Work with me here, please.”

He looked at the ring like it had suddenly sprouted poisonous tentacles. “I dunno. I just thought you’d like it.”

Honestly, he was such an idiot. He could probably spend an hour explaining the vibrating butt plug to her, but he couldn’t even string together a sentence about the ring. Her mind was officially blown.

“Come on,” she said, voice sounding more than a little aggravated. “Surely there was more thought behind this.”

“So you don’t like it?” His big hand closed around the case and he went to put it away. Like he wanted to die. “It doesn’t matter.”