Liam looked at her with a fierce stare, barely managing to hold back his urgency as he savored the control she slowly surrendered to him. He intended to nurture and strengthen the new connection between them, starting here and now. He’d do whatever necessary to allow her trust to grow so she would seek him out for all of her needs. That he expected her to. He hadn’t wanted anyone like this in years, maybe ever, and he was determined to make her crave him.

Somehow, she’d become important—like warmth and food and air. Liam didn’t understand it and he didn’t want to rationalize it. He just couldn’t deny how deeply he wanted her. Even if her need for him was only physical for now…well, one step at a time.

As she cried out again, Liam knew the time to claim her had come. This was his chance to make her see him, feel the promise of what could be. He had no intention of wasting it.

He slid a finger inside her ass, waited until she pushed back, tentatively seeking. Then he gave her more, easing in another with teasing strokes. She groaned, her eyes still pinned to him in the mirror, glazed in a smoky blue. And he watched her, listened to her roughening breaths, waited for her to relax upon his fingers. Finally, she did, sweetly giving him more of her trust.

Attempting to stretch her sinfully narrow opening, his cock wept, hungry to replace his fingers. The need inside him started to snarl and growl. He dragged in air and forced himself to be gentle.

“Breathe. There’s a good lass. Trust that I won’t hurt you. I feel your need growing. Give it all to me. I promise you, I will indeed put that fire out. Then I’ll stoke it again.”

She gasped, mewled, skin sheening under the lights, eyes closed. So sensual…

Removing his fingers, he gathered more lube, generously slathering her slightly expanded opening. “Just a little more. You’re ready.” Inserting his fingers again, he spread the digits wide, gliding his knuckles back and forth against her thinning rim.

Attuned to her every nuance, from her soft whimpers to the way her eyes fluttered open and closed as she desperately tried to focus on him, Liam exercised every ounce of his patience. Pleasure played across her face with abandon, thrilling him. Very soon, he’d fill her wee, lush body to the brim with exquisite need and drive her to orgasm under his command.

“That’s it. You’ve got my cock bursting at the seams, desperate I am to be inside you,” he whispered for her ears only as she breathed out her pleasure, her muscles rippling and clenching around his fingers. “There… Stay with me, Raine. We’ll do this together. Let me help you touch the stars.”

Plucking a condom out of his pocket, he tore into his zipper, then slid his trousers down. With his teeth, he tore into the foil package and slid it over his turgid shaft, biting back a groan. Dripping more lube onto his cock, he stroked the slick gel over it, coating the latex completely.

“Look at me. Focus on me now and me alone. Don’t look away. I want to see your eyes as I fill you. I intend to watch you come for me.”

Her eyes widened, but still contained a dreamlike blue haze. Removing his fingers, he wrapped his fist around his throbbing shaft as he set the crest against her readied opening. So small, so delicate everywhere. Pulling her cheeks wider still, fighting every god-given instinct to plunge balls deep, he sucked in a stuttering breath and eased the bulbous tip inside, as far as her tight band of muscle allowed.

Suddenly, she gasped. Apprehension filled her eyes when he met them in the mirror. Desire lurked there, too. “Shh...there now. Don’t fight me, lovely. Take a deep breath. As you release it, push back and let me in. Let me turn it into the most glorious pleasure you’ve ever felt. Can you do that for me?”

Liam paused as he waited for her answer. Reaching beneath her, he stroked her clit again. The moment throbbed. He itched with the need to press in and drive into her welcoming softness and be burned alive. He resisted and watched her in the mirror. A movement in the glass caught his eye. Hammer.

The hot, fierce eyes that glared at him promised retribution. Another problem for another time. Raine needed him now.

Lowering his gaze to her once more, he teased her clit with another light stroke as he sank a bit deeper inside. Finally, she relaxed, pushed back to him. And he slipped past her tight ring of muscle and began to fall into her.

Oh, fuck. The burn, the grip, the perfection of her flesh…Liam couldn’t hold in a groan as he pushed into her, little by little. Filled her. Melded with her, not stopping until his balls rested against her weeping cunt, until every inch of his cock filled her blistering ass. Her hiss turned to a sigh as he claimed her.

He gave her the briefest moment of respite, then he began to thrust in slow, friction-filled strokes. The sweet burn soon had her trembling on his cock and wailing for relief. Biting back a curse, and fighting the urgency gathering in his balls, he gritted his teeth and focused on Raine.

She welcomed him as he plunged into her over and over again, trying to burn himself into her soul. She came alive, grew wild. With every sensation he drew forth, she melted and gave up more control to him. He felt the fragile connection he forged all the way to her glorious soul.

Brimming with thrill, he laid over her back, dragging his lips across the curve of neck. He raked his fingers through her drenched folds and over her hard clit.

“Now you’re mine, lass. Feel my cock stretching you, filling you. This is the cock that will grant your every pleasure,” he growled hungry and raspy in her ear. “Feel my hands on you. These are the hands that will mold you, stroke you, guide you through the journey you’ve been craving.”

Raine didn’t answer exactly. She tossed her head back, eyes a wild blue, and cried out.

Excellent. Gorgeous. Now to crawl in her head some more. “You’re so hot and tight, lovely. I could stay buried inside you ‘til the end of time and not get my fill.”

She moaned and rocked her hips, eager for more, her little whimpers driving him higher.

“Yes, that’s it. This is where I belong. Now that you’ve let me in, I’m going to consume you. Let the sensations set you ablaze. Take everything I give you.”

Watching as he stretched her more with every thrust, groaning with a pleasure he’d not felt in too long, he drove his cock deeper, filling her tight passage again and again.

As he pinched her clit between his fingers, she cried out, “Liam!”

That desperate plea, that longing in her voice, called to his Dominant soul. She’d screamed his name. Not Hammer’s, but...his! The man wasn’t even on her radar right now.

He wanted to cradle her close, protect her from heartache. So deep inside her, he longed for things he had no right to ask of her. But that wasn’t going to stop him. She’d trusted him, given him her power. He was going to use that. The conflagration threatened to consume them both with its intensity. And at this moment she was his to will, to own.

“Tell me how it feels.”

“It stings. Burns. I feel stretched so wide.” She hissed, then wriggled her hips, arching her back, forcing Liam to slide even deeper and moan as he greedily claimed the new space she’d granted. “Yes! It’s... I...” She clutched the table in a white-knuckled grip. He saw her soul as she met his gaze with pleading eyes, panic-stricken as her orgasm threatened to consume her. “Liam? Please.”

Every pulse, every squeeze, every tremor that rippled along the length of his cock was exquisite agony. She relinquished all control, and he reveled in his possession of her. His balls drew up hard, primed to erupt.

“I knew you would feel like this, lass. So tight. Fuck, so perfect. And the taste of your surrender is headier than anything I imagined,” he whispered against her ear. “Let yourself go and fly. Come now, Raine!”

As if they’d choreographed it, as if he’d timed it perfectly, she did. Her panting little cries filled the room as her body bucked, jerked. Then she screamed, and Liam soaked in her power as she soared with rapture. He gasped for breath and self-control as she shattered all around him, but orgasm barreled toward him like a freight train. He tensed, gritting his teeth, desperate to stay lost in the moment just a bit longer. He gloried in every pulse of her body, was captivated by each cry from her lips. He couldn’t look away from her blossoming under him, opening to him as if he was the sun.

At the thought, he fell head first into an exquisite abyss stronger than anything he could remember. The wonder of it—and her—nearly brought him to his knees as she continued to convulse, milking his cock with the blistering power of her pleasure.

Raine dug her nails deep into the padded table as she screamed again. Thrusting and grunting powerfully, he rode the waves of her delirium to a blissful, shuddering end. Everything and everyone fell away except Raine as he poured himself into her, wishing he could mark her with his seed instead of the condom he filled.

Slowly recovering from the earth-shattering climax, he saw Raine blink, breathe…then close her eyes with a little smile. He kissed her shoulder and wrapped his arm more tightly around her. Mine!

Hammer’s stare in the mirror scorched him. Liam glanced up and tensed. He refused to allow Raine to shoulder Hammer’s rage or guilt herself.

“Eyes on me,” he whispered roughly as he withdrew from her body and uncuffed her. “You’re so gorgeous. You pleased me so much. I’ve got you...”

She sagged against the bench, and Liam stripped off his condom and tossed it in the nearby bin before he zipped his trousers, patently ignoring Hammer. Instead, he picked up her baby-doll and eased her into the garment, then back into his arms. The crowd melted away as he swung her up against his chest, gratified when she clung to him, burying her face in his neck.

“That’s a love. Let me get you back to my room where I can take care of you.”

As she nodded tiredly and kissed his jaw, he smiled in triumph. Already she sought him for comfort and put herself in his care. He’d known she’d bloom under affection.

Then a wave of anger and pain emanated from the man he’d called friend for a decade. It reached inside his chest, yanked and twisted. Gouged deep. Liam did his best to ignore it. Hammer had made his choice. Liam would rather have saved the girl than lost them both.

And now he was wondering if he’d somehow lost his heart in the process.

He studied Raine as he walked from the room, his eyes softening on her sheer beauty. She was his…at least for now. But she’d warned him where her heart was. When he’d been scheming to win her solely to prod at Hammer’s possessive streak, that hadn’t mattered. Now? He grimaced. Raine was like smoke, seemingly so real when captured in his arms and searing his lungs. She stole his very breath. Yet something about her was elusive. Only time would tell how this played out, but right now, he refused to let go. And he’d not give her up without a fight.

Chapter 6

Fuck me running.

Hammer couldn’t believe his best friend—no, his ex-best friend—had the balls to trick Raine into a training collar. Not only that, but he’d claimed her virgin ass in the middle of the goddamn dungeon, right before his eyes. The cold-hearted fucker. Liam knew how he felt about the girl, even if he hadn’t admitted it in so many words. And the Irish prick had still taken Raine from him.

That knife in his back would leave a deep, bloody wound for a long time.

Even as he’d watched Liam sink deep into Raine’s backside, Hammer’s own cock had engorged. Fuck, she’d looked beautiful in her submissive surrender—everything he’d imagined she would be once she finally started to trust and let go. But in his fantasies, she’d always come undone under his hand, by his cock. Tonight, he had to face the reality that she’d given herself and her power to Liam. And just how the hell had the asshole managed to coax her so quickly? Like he did everyone else—he’d fucked with her head.

So now Hammer could no longer chide or punish, praise or stroke the beautiful girl without crossing a terrible line. Jealousy sludged through him like ugly black tar, hardening his veins, darkening his mood.

He turned away from the padded bench on which he witnessed Liam give Raine such sexual splendor. It didn’t matter what the fuck he looked at. He saw her anyway. Her phantom cries rung in Hammer’s ears. The memories sucker punched him.

God, would he ever be able to look at this part of the dungeon again without wanting to kill that fucking O’Neill bastard?

Worse, Hammer couldn’t deny that while Liam had heaped pleasure on Raine, thoughts of how incredible it would feel to have his cock buried deep in her little cunt while Liam squeezed in and out of her tight backside crept through his brain. It wouldn’t have been the first time they’d shared a woman.

But no. That was impossible. The risk of damaging Raine—of losing her forever—was too high. All it would take was once. The moment he started pounding his cock into her tight, hungry body, he wouldn’t stop.

He refused to risk another colossal fuckup like Juliet’s.