As if he’d heard her internal plea, he drew down his zipper and rolled on the condom he’d removed from his pants pocket. In one swift motion, he dragged her off the counter onto his waiting erection. Lucy screamed in her throat at the sudden fullness. Matt bit into her shoulder and groaned, but wouldn’t allow her to wrap her legs around his waist, pushing her knees down when she attempted to bring them higher.

With their height difference, her toes barely scraped the floor, Matt’s erection the only thing keeping her upright. She screamed at the sensation, her bound hands scrambling behind her for purchase, but they weren’t close enough to the counter. He wrapped her hair around his fist to keep her still, and even the sting of pain was welcome. The anchor she desperately needed. It distracted her from the fullness that had become the center of her universe, filling her, supporting her entire weight. Her nerves felt strung as tight as piano wire, body screaming for relief. Words with no meaning fell from her lips, most of them his name.

“Who decides when you need to be f**ked, Lucy?”

“You,” she sobbed, attempting to plant her toes on the floor and failing. “You decide. Please.”

“Please, what?” He bit her ear and tugged. “Please prop you up against the counter and pound into you like the madman you’ve turned me into?”

“Yes. Yes.”

“When I’m ready.” His teeth grazed her bottom lip. “I’ve been imagining you bound and begging every minute since I met you. Maybe my whole life. And I’m damn well going to enjoy it.”

In a move of desperation, she tried to climb his body and wrap her legs around him once more, but he pushed her sweat-slicked knees down. The heavy fall of her legs impaled her on him even further and another scream ripped from her throat. She tugged at her restrained hands and saw Matt’s eyes flare, a groan escape him, when she couldn’t get free. It ratcheted her need even higher, tightened the growing ache in her belly. The realization that she could orgasm just like this, watching Matt want her, flitted through her buzzing head. She forced herself to still, even though her breaths were coming out sounding more like gasps. Tension built in her belly and she let her head fall back, still being held up by Matt’s grip in her hair. She could feel her climax looming like an oncoming storm.

“No, you don’t. Not until I allow it.” He tugged her head back up with a growl. At the same time, he walked her backward toward the counter. As soon as the hard surface met her lower back, she wrenched her legs high and circled his hips with a cry. She was heedless of anything but chasing relief. The feel of Matt’s unyielding body. Again and again, she rolled her hips, her thighs shaking from gripping his body so fiercely.

“Ah f**k, baby, I love it when you work me like that.” He pressed his forehead against hers and drove into her hard. His gruff moan filled her ear. “Christ. This is why I make you wait. One thrust and you’re already clamping down around me. It makes me goddamn crazy.”

When he stilled inside her after only that single drive, she cried out. “No. No. Please don’t stop.”

Desperate, mindless, she kissed him without holding anything back. Showing him with her mouth how badly she needed him to move. Requiring oxygen, she finally broke away. “Harder. More. I want all of you. Everything.”

Matt’s eyes were intense, breathing harsh. “When you kiss me like that, I’ll do anything you want.” His throat worked. “Maybe I should have kept that secret to myself.”

She struggled to focus on his words. “No. I like knowing you have a weakness.”

He shook his head. “You have no idea, do you?”

Lucy was growing restless. His body was locked inside hers, thick and throbbing. Her nerve endings snapped everywhere their skin touched. The longer he remained unmoving, the more the ache grew. It was dense and demanding, crying out to be assuaged. On top of it all, possibly more potent than anything, were his eyes. They were coated with lust, but somehow darkly excited by the control he had. In turn, it made her feel powerful. Made her question who was really in control after all. With that thought in mind, she arched her back on the counter and tossed her head back, putting her stomach, her br**sts, her throat on display. Tempting him.

Matt growled. “Mine.”

“Prove it,” Lucy whispered.

Chapter Seventeen

Possessiveness, furious and consuming, laced through Matt’s system. She was spread out in front of him like a goddess and he had the honor of being buried inside her. Every second that passed made him hotter, heightening the anticipation of that moment when he would f**k her into the screaming orgasm she deserved. He’d taken her too quickly the first three times and he’d regretted it afterward, wishing he’d taken time to savor her. Even now, his body shook with the need to slide his c**k out and ram it back into her slick heat. Knowing she’d love it, would whimper and writhe for more, only made it twice as difficult to deny the urge.

The physical nature of his need was only heightened by the connection he felt to her. Beauty shone out of her and wrapped around his throat. She was the one thing that had been missing his entire life without him realizing it. How had he been walking upright, talking, accomplishing things this long without her?

Savor. He ran his fingertips up the center of her body to tease her ni**les. “You asked me what the extent of my need for control is…” Unable to stop himself any longer, he eased his hips back and rolled them forward, memorizing the way her hands clawed at the counter, her lips parted on a moan. “When I walk in the front door after a shift, Lucy, I want your mouth on mine before I even get my jacket off.”

Matt let one hand circle her delicate neck lightly as he drove into her again. And again. He couldn’t stop now, not with her clenching around him like that. Not with her tasty little ni**les pointing straight up as her chest heaved, her body undulated.

“I want to punish you in the mornings, so I can spend the day thinking about your sweet, pink ass, thinking about ways to soothe it when I get home.” He reached behind him and grabbed her ankles, raising them above her head. His Lucy liked that. It put him right where she needed him to be, bumping against her luscious clit. He could see the tremors race across her abdomen, feel her feet flexing in his hands. God yeah, she was close.

“Faster, Matt,” she gasped. “Please, please.”

A growl broke from his throat. He’d never get used to her begging for him. Or the fact that she loved doing it. Loved submitting to him the way he needed.

“I want to tie your delicious little body up and f**k you. For hours. Until the goddamn sun comes up.” He rolled his hips inward, then pressed down, rubbing the base of his erection against her sensitive bundle of nerves. “I want to fall asleep with your gorgeous ass cradling my satisfied dick. Your br**sts in my hands. I need it, baby.”

“Yes.”

The way she continued to encourage him…warmth expanded in his chest. Made him want more of her. Damn. He couldn’t go as fast as she needed at this angle. With each drive of his body, she inched back slightly on the slippery surface. With a growl, Matt yanked her off the counter and wedged her against the cabinet, supporting her hips with his forearm so she wouldn’t be hurt. The position bent her in half and put her ankles up around his ears. Matt shouted a curse at the ceiling it put him so goddamn deep. Every slick inch of her was like a manacle around his driving cock.