Oh no . . . That was . . . It wasn’t gonna go in. I hadn’t realized they got that big. I mean, you couldn’t see them in pants. If they were that size all the time, you would definitely see them. You wouldn’t be able not to stare at them. And I saw something silver near the head just before the condom slid down over it. Was he? No . . . Could he have a piercing there?

His hard warmth covered me, and his mouth began kissing along my collarbone then up my neck before he stopped and nibbled my ear.

“Trust me?” he asked gently.

Yes, I trusted him with everything. He was my only safe place. The one person who cared. I nodded and turned my head so I could see his blue eyes. “Always,” I replied.

He closed his eyes tightly for a moment, then opened them again and leaned in to kiss me. His hand slipped down my stomach, and those talented fingers began teasing me. My legs fell open, and I moaned. He always made everything feel so good. I wanted to tell him I loved him. I wanted to scream it, but I knew this wasn’t about love for him. He wanted me. That was it.

A pang centered in my chest, and I pushed it away. I refused to let that ruin this. I refused to let anything ruin this. I wanted my first time to be with Krit. I wanted every time to be with Krit, but I would take whatever he was willing to give. He had opened a world for me that I wasn’t willing to let go of until he walked away.

“So wet,” he murmured as he slid his finger inside me. “And you taste like the sweetest honey, I f**king swear. Everything about you drives me wild, Blythe. Everything.”

His voice had gone deep and raspy. It sent chill bumps all over me as his hot breath tickled my skin. “I need inside you. I’ve got to be buried inside you. I can’t wait, love. I can’t f**king wait any longer.”

He shifted and placed his hands on the bed beside my shoulders as he stared down at me. I lifted my gaze to meet his just as the tip of his c**k touched my entrance. The stretch as he lowered himself and sank farther into me burned, but instead of being uncomfortable, there was only pleasure from it.

His slow entrance stopped as he leaned down to kiss me again. This time with a gentle stroke of his tongue. I opened for him, but just as his tongue slipped into my mouth, a sharp pain sliced through me and I cried out, grabbing his arms. I knew it was supposed to hurt. I had read enough to know what had just happened, but for a moment I forgot. Krit moved his mouth from mine and buried it in my neck as he kept his body frozen over me. He hadn’t moved again.

“Tell me,” he said in a tight voice as if he was also in pain. I hadn’t read where it hurt the guy. Did I miss that part? Was I hurting him? Did I need to do something?

“Does it hurt you?” I asked, sliding my hand into his hair and trying to soothe him.

He moved his head and lifted it to look down at me. He didn’t say anything, so I reached up to cup his face with my hands. I didn’t want to hurt him. If he would just tell me what to do to ease his pain, I would.

“Blythe,” he said in low whisper, and inhaled sharply through his nose. “You,” he said, then stopped and let out a small laugh. “I’m never gonna be the same,” he said, then lowered his mouth to mine. I clung to him, kissing him with all the love I couldn’t say out loud.

His h*ps lowered more, and then I was full. Completely. We were joined, and nothing had ever been so right. He started to move out, and I broke the kiss to stop him from leaving me. I wanted him to stay inside me longer. “Don’t go,” I begged.

Krit rocked his h*ps until he was back inside me fully. “Nothing. Fucking nothing could get me to go anywhere.” His voice sounded hoarse as he began to move again.

Pleasure slowly built as his h*ps began a steady rhythm. I lifted my legs and wrapped them around his back, wanting to hold onto him in case he ended this before I was ready. His eyes flared, and he moved a hand to grab one of my thighs and squeeze it. “I’ve never,” he started to say, then stopped.

He had never what?

“You’re so tight, love. Nothing like this.” He was panting now.

The muscles in his arms flexed with each move of his hips. The friction brushed the sensitive spot just above where he was connected to me, and my body started humming. It was building again. The release I had almost had earlier when he had been kissing between my legs was coming back, but this time something was different. When he was completely inside me, he hit a spot that sent a small shock through my system.

The more he hit that spot, the more the frantic need clawed at me. I had wanted to watch him as he moved inside me, but my focus was going. The thrill was pounding in my temple, and I couldn’t hold him tightly enough. Scratching. Oh no, I was scratching him, but I couldn’t stop it. The clawing was inside me, and I wanted that.

“That’s it, baby, come for me.” His words heated my skin as his mouth latched onto my nipple. The world blew apart, and somewhere in the distance, I heard screaming, but all I could do was hold on as my body soared and floated into heaven.

Krit cried out my name, and I held onto him the best I could while my body drifted back down onto a cloud. The heaviness of Krit’s hard body on top of me, pinning me to the bed, was perfect. I wrapped my body around his and inhaled oxygen again as my mind began to function once more.

We lay that way for several wonderful minutes. Krit would press kisses to my neck where his head was still tucked. His breath soothing my heated sensitive body was an added bonus. I felt like every part of me was a live wire. One touch, and it sent a zing through me.

“Blythe,” Krit said as he lifted his head.

“Yeah,” I replied, reaching up to brush the hair that had fallen in his eyes from his forehead.

“You need to know something.”

No. Not yet. I didn’t want him telling me that this was a one-time thing or about what he did with other girls. I knew that. I just . . . Not yet.

“Let’s not. Okay? I know it’s just a thing. I’m not expecting more. Just not yet,” I said, wanting to bask a few minutes longer in his arms.

His eyebrows lowered, and a frown etched his once well-sated face. Crap. I’d said the wrong thing again.

“This,” he said, pressing into me again, “is not just a thing. Fuck.” He leaned down until his mouth was at my forehead. “That’s my fault, isn’t it? You just gave me the most precious gift in the world, and you think it’s just a thing for me.”

I didn’t respond because I wasn’t sure what to say.

“Blythe, love, what I was going to say, what I need you to know,” he said, moving so he was once again looking into my eyes. “I’m not sharing. You’re mine. No one will touch you but me. I have an addictive personality. I always have. And you just became my number one addiction. I’m gonna want this. A lot. I’m needy and demanding, and now you’re the only one who can meet that need.”

KRIT

She let me take care of her. I had carried her into the bathroom and stood her in the shower under the warm spray of water and cleaned her tender skin. She’d held onto me, and a soft smile had touched her lips the whole time. She didn’t argue that she was fine. She didn’t laugh or push me away. She let me.

I had never had anyone to take care of. I had tried once before, and Jess hadn’t wanted me to take care of her. She’d pushed me away and let me know I wasn’t who she wanted or needed. It had hurt and only been yet another slap in the face. Women wanted to f**k me. They didn’t want anything more.

But Blythe, my Blythe, she let me take care of her. She seemed to glow under my attention. This was what I had been waiting for. I had thought Jess had been my answer. But she’d had a taste of this with someone else, and she knew I wasn’t it for her. I felt like sending her a f**king thank-you card. What if Jason Stone hadn’t come along and stolen her heart? Would I have missed this because of Jess? Would Blythe have never come into my life? The idea of not having her rocked me.

Once I had her clean, I wrapped her in a towel and carried her back to the bed. A small red bloodstain was on the sheets, and again the possessive monster inside me threw back his head and roared his pleasure. I stood there holding her and letting the proof I was the only man to be inside her wash over me.

Blythe turned her head, and I felt her stiffen in my arms. “Oh, I can clean that up,” she said, starting to wiggle.

I pulled her tighter to my chest. “No. I’m going to dry you off and hold you some more. I like seeing that blood. I did that,” The pleasure in my voice made Blythe smile.

“Okay,” she replied. “But you have to sing tonight. What time is it?”

Shit. I’d forgotten about that again. Glancing at the clock, I had thirty minutes before I needed to be at Live Bay.

“You’re going,” she said with a determined look on her face.

I wasn’t going to argue with her. She would be upset if I missed a show again for her, and Green would be royally pissed. “Then you’re going with me. I’ll go get dressed, and you get your sexy ass ready,” I told her as I sat her down on the edge of the bed.

She nodded, then she bit her lip and glanced back at the blood.

“Keep looking at those sheets, baby, and we won’t leave this apartment,” I warned her. My need to hold her and touch her and make sure she knew just how much I cherished her was killing me.

She jerked her head back around and her eyes went big. “Sorry. Go! I will get ready.”

Chuckling, I bent down and kissed her head before heading for the door.

“Oh my god! Oh, Krit! I am so sorry!”

I stopped and turned back around. Blythe was covering her face, and it was etched with horror. I hated seeing her upset. Two strides, and I was back in her face, pulling her hands away. “Love, what’s wrong”?

“Why didn’t you tell me,” she moaned pitifully.

“Tell you what?” I asked as my gaze quickly ran over her, looking for something that could have upset her.

“Your back,” she said, looking up at me. “I scratched it up. I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t. I can wash it for you and get some salve.” She started to get up, but I grabbed her legs and pushed her back down.

The fact that I had scratches on my back that Blythe had put there made me insanely happy. “I’m marked,” I told her, and pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth that was currently frowning. “By you. I love being marked by you. It’s sexy and it’s hot, and you gave them to me while giving me a pleasure that I didn’t know existed. So, don’t apologize for my scratches. I f**king love them.”

I kissed her tenderly on the mouth and stood up before I pushed her back onto the bed and forgot I had a gig that night.

* * *

Keeping my focus on the crowd was tough. I kept looking back to see if Blythe was there. Green and I were going to end up in a real fight this time if I didn’t stop, but my need to have her near me was f**king with my head.

Trisha’s familiar blond head moved through the crowd and toward the stage door. Shit. She knew what my problem was, and she was going to take my distraction away. Turning to look back at Blythe, I debated leaving the song and going to keep Trisha from taking her, when a smile lit up her face. She liked my sister.

Trisha was talking to her, and Blythe’s pleased look kept me from going over there and demanding she stay near me. She would be fine with my sister. I would then have my attention focused on the crowd, especially the crowd where Blythe would be sitting. Blythe glanced over at me, and I nodded once to let her know it was fine.

She beamed a bright smile that squeezed my heart, then walked off with Trisha. We ended the song and Green walked over to me. “Thank f**k for small miracles,” he muttered before taking a swig of his water. “And your back looks like the possessive monster must have just hit a new level of insane. If those claw marks are what I think they are.”

I didn’t even look at him. I kept my gaze locked on Blythe walking through the crowd with Trisha. She was taking her back to the table where Rock and Dewayne were. Thursday nights were date night for Rock and Trisha. Most of the time they came here, and Preston and Amanda kept the kids. The only other times Trisha and Rock were able to come were when the kids stayed the night with friends.

Blythe took a stool beside some brunette I didn’t recognize, a girl who was leaning over to Dewayne a lot. He didn’t do dates, so she was probably another woman trying to reel in the ever-elusive Dewayne Falco. But then, not everyone knew his story. If they did, they’d not even waste their time.

Chapter Nineteen

BLYTHE

“I was kinda hoping you’d leave her back there. Watching Green lose his shit and punch Krit in the middle of a performance woulda made tonight a helluva lot more enjoyable,” the guy who Trisha had introduced as Dewayne said. He also shot me a wink before taking a drink of his beer.

Rock laughed, and Trisha shot him a warning glare. The massive muscular man she was married to immediately stopped laughing and leaned over to press a quick kiss to her lips.

“Married, kids, and he’s still pussy-whipped,” Dewayne said

Rock tensed up, and his eyes zoned in on Dewayne. “Don’t talk about my woman’s pussy,” he warned.

The girl who Trisha hadn’t introduced but appeared to be flirting with Dewayne giggled beside me.

“I’m sorry, but could we not say that word since it is mine y’all are talking about. Jeez, I bring Blythe out here to rescue her from Krit’s obsessive staring, and she has to listen to this crap.”

“You were backstage with Krit?” the brunette beside me asked with a touch of disbelief in her tone.

I turned to her, and the wide-eyed shock on her face was enough to remind me how out of my league I was with Krit. When I was alone with him and he was telling me all those sweet things about being addicted to me, I had hope. But when someone who looked like the kind of girl Krit normally spent time with was around, I wasn’t so sure of my future with Krit. “Yes,” I said, hoping it didn’t sound like a question.