“Deke?” Luc called from the door.

His cousin was asking what he planned to do. Deke whipped his head around to meet Luc’s dark, inquiring gaze. What the fuck could he say? The temptation to break his every rule gnawed at him. Kimber wasn’t someone else’s woman. If he fucked her now, she wouldn’t belong to another man who would take responsibility if something went bad.

At least in this moment, she belonged to him. Only him.

“I offered,” Kimber explained softly. “I asked him to make love to me. To be the first.”

Luc’s smile was damn near blinding as he entered the room, sat on the sofa, and grabbed Kimber’s hand. “It’s a lovely gift. If Deke hasn’t said it yet, he’s touched and honored.”

Deke shot his cousin a dirty glare. “I didn’t accept.” Brow raised, Luc took in their position, the way Kimber was all spread out and welcoming, Deke’s cock gloved up and ready.

Deke let out a shaky breath. The fact was, he hadn’t turned her down, either.

He had to do something. Now. The need bubbling in his gut was about to spill over. A feral desire pumped through his system, like a pure shot of adrenaline to his cock. His chest was so tight with need, every fucking breath was a struggle.

Trying to block out all the voices, the doubt, the fear in his head, Deke took his cock in his hand and leaned closer, closing his eyes.

His. She could be his. In the next ten seconds.

He hesitated. Swallowed. His mind raced. And then, once he’d taken her, claimed her, what would happen? What if… No, he couldn’t even think it.

“Fuck!” he snarled.

He tilted her up again, her legs now resting on his shoulders, and positioned himself and began to push.

Into her back entrance.

Kimber drew in a great, shocked gasp, her hazel eyes wide.

“Deke?”

“What the hell are you doing?” Luc barked.

Tensing a little more with every inch he pushed inside Kimber’s tight passage, the tendons in his neck standing out, the muscles in his arms shaking, assailed by the amazing sensations of being slowly enveloped by her tight, ready flesh, Deke could barely form a word. “Fucking her ass. Saving her life.” Luc looked like he really wanted to chastise him, but he didn’t. Good damn thing, too. The more he tunneled into Kimber, the more his brain short-circuited. Would he even hear over the gong of his rampant heartbeat? She was like a hot fist around his cock, clamping down more with every nudge into her.

“Deke!” she cried out.

“Almost in.”

Sweat rolled off him now. The urge to pound into her with long, punishing strokes assailed Deke. He refrained, determined to slow down and enjoy the heaven of being inside Kimber.

Short pants punctuated her breathing. “Stop. I can’t take more.”

“Please. Please, kitten. Oh, God!” He was going to die if he couldn’t bury himself into her, to the hilt.

But a look at her grimace, her closed eyes, had him backing away. Before he could withdraw, she reached out and grabbed his shoulders. Lowering her legs to his sides, she tilted up and wriggled. Unable to resist the hot promise of her, Deke thrust hard.

He slid in all the way on a long, dark groan.

“Kitten, yes. That’s it. Take me. Take everything I have to give you.” Kimber’s head fell back on a whimper, her auburn hair spreading out all around her. Damn, she looked like some fiery goddess of temptation, a siren luring him to doom, and he just didn’t care. At least he’d die happy, because as he thrust in once, twice, Deke realized that fucking her was one of life’s best experiences.

Then she reached up to toy with his nipples and whispered, “I feel you inside me, so hard. Yes. Oh… It’s like you’re going to split me in two. But the pain is so…wow.” She gasped as he crashed into her again. “You make me feel so alive.” That’s about all it took for him to lose control. He started pounding into her like a wild man, reveling in the exertion of his body, the yielding of hers, the little moans she made every time he sank in, sank deeper. The urge to come started broiling in his balls.

Dear God… He never fought off the need to climax this quickly. He prided himself on staying a good twenty minutes or more, but with Kimber, after three minutes, he knew he couldn’t stave off the inevitable. More blood rushed south, engorging his cock, increasing his sensitivity.

“Deke,” she pleaded. “On your knees. I need you to touch me…”

What? He couldn’t process her words for the tingles racing up and down his spine, the roaring in his ears. The eminent loss of control would be sweet—with an edge of intensity that would blow the top off his head.

“Please…” she pleaded.

“Back away and balance on your knees,” Luc snapped. “Kneel and pull her hips up to you.”

Their words finally registered. He changed positions, refusing to break stride.

“Luc…” Kimber turned to him, her fingers closing around her nipples to pluck at them.

Oh, fuck. The vision of her fondling her own breasts pushed him closer, to the place where need ruled every thrust.

His cousin slid to the ground beside them and palmed Kimber’s breasts, pinching the hard nipples that looked so red, so edible. Deke wanted to lean in and suck them, but he couldn’t, not if he wanted to keep fucking her. And he needed that.

Kimber was addicting. Knowing how heavenly it felt to be inside her ass, if she ever offered her pussy again, he’d take it. No questions asked. No hesitation. He’d plow right into her sweet, grasping folds and claim her.

Luc leaned in and sucked one, then the other of Kimber’s nipples into his mouth.

Even as his hand drifted south to thumb the hard knob of her clit and plunged two fingers into her sex.

“Yes!” she cried out.

Instantly, Deke felt her tighten on him, begin to ripple. Oh, hell, he couldn’t last through that, not for two seconds.

“Now, Deke. Now! Fuck me hard!”

The wild man inside him broke free of his last bit of restraint. His fingers dug into her hips as he lunged into her, one punishing stroke after the other. His cock leapt.

She moaned. He absorbed the fluttering pulses of her body, the hard squeeze of her walls.

Kimber screamed, her body spasming. Then, with a roar, Deke shoved into her one last time and came apart, exploding into a million pieces until he began soaring, light-headed. He saw white…and Kimber’s flushed face, mouth open as she cried out in satisfaction.

The ejaculation went on and on, the pleasure multiplied, magnified. It had never been like this. Deke felt suspended, like these timeless moments of ecstasy would last as long as he could stay inside her. Keep her close.

But reality quickly intruded.

He withdrew slowly, and the moment he did, emptiness beat at him, urging him to get hard again, get right back inside her, and never leave. Kimber was what he needed.

Take her. Claim her. Keep her.

And then what? He’d seen what happened next. Lived it.

Still had nightmares about it.

Shuddering, Deke backed away and removed the condom. He made the mistake of looking at Kimber’s face. Her uncertain smile tugged at him. Bullshit. It tore a huge hole in his chest. She wanted to know if he was okay. She wanted to know if she’d rocked his world. No and hell yes, in that order. And if she stayed another hour, she wouldn’t be smiling anymore. She’d be fucked—literally. Now that he’d been inside her, staying out of her pussy really wasn’t an option. If she was still here in an hour, she’d be flat on her back. He’d be buried balls deep. And it would be a huge mistake.

Sex with a virgin, even one as practical as Kimber, usually led to visions of romance and white lace and matching monogrammed towels. It brought heartache, pain, and tragedy. She had no way of knowing that. She’d offered herself to him spontaneously, and a terrible thought occurred to him: she had feelings for him, maybe even believed she loved him. She probably thought she could “fix” him.

Impossible. He wasn’t equipped to give her the sort of happily ever after she deserved.

Deke sighed. God, he felt like he was a thousand years old as he stood, snapped his pants, and put on his shithead hat. It was the only weapon he had to make sure he didn’t ruin her life.

He turned to his cousin. “You know, she’s a hell of a fuck, gives a killer blow job, can handle the needs of two guys, and barely break a sweat. Who knew that under that virginal façade and those fatigue pants there’d be a red-blooded woman?” Kimber stiffened and stared at him as if he’d transformed into a three-headed alien.

Luc frowned. “Watch your words.”

Oh, he’d watch them, all right—and make them as vile as he could stand to.

Kimber could not stay here. Or at least she couldn’t stay here and stay a virgin.

“Oh, no offense, kitten. I appreciate the offer of your virginity, but you should really save it for someone who wants it. You’re just not my type, you know.” She blinked, struggling to understand. “You said you wanted me. Too much.” Deke shrugged. “I had you. Your mouth, your ass. I ate your pussy, fingered it. I can live without fucking it.” God, had he ever told a bigger lie?

Hurt seeped into her eyes as she reached for her clothes and covered herself from his crude gaze. That expression gouged a hole in his chest. Damn! But she wasn’t packing her bags yet, and she needed to be.

“I know we told you to stay with us for two weeks, but I think you’re ready for whatever Jesse throws at you. I mean, if you want to stay to perfect your blow job, I’ll never turn down the chance to come in a woman’s mouth. Or if you want your ass opened wider so you can take more cock, I’m game to help with that.

Otherwise…I’m not sure why you’d stay.”

“Because she’s beautiful and special and we don’t just see her as another warm body,” Luc growled.

Deke tossed them a flippant gaze. “Sure. Yeah. I just figured… I felt done and assumed it was mutual.”

“Mutual?” Her mouth gaped open. “I just offered you my virginity! You said sinking into me would be heavenly.”

“That just shows your innocence. A guy will say anything to get laid when he’s hard.” He shrugged. “I get that your virginity is some sort of prize to you, and I’m sure it will be to Jesse. I just don’t like being the one to break a woman in. It’s messy, there’s always pain—not the good kind. They’re always too sore for round two anytime soon, and you spend the rest of the time in their mouth or their ass, then they complain about being sore all over—”

“Shut your filthy mouth!” Luc grabbed his arm and squeezed. He looked ready to throw punches, and Deke welcomed the thought of pain.

He tossed off his cousin’s hold and watched as Kimber put on her clothes like someone dressing to escape a fire. She couldn’t get dressed fast enough. “And that’s all I am to you? When you look at me, all you see is a virgin?”

“Now? Yeah. I’ve had every other part of you. What else is there?”

Kimber fisted her hands at her sides, her face flushed and incredulous. “What happened to a woman being about her smarts and her moxie and her sexuality?” He reached out to test her, to touch her, and was not surprised when she jumped away. “You’re smart and you’ve got backbone. You arouse me. Deep down, you’re a sweet girl.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“I like raunchy,” he said apologetically. “I’ve been chasing this stripper. Ask Luc, he knows her. She’s got enormous tits. Ah, and she wears garter belts. That’s so fucking sexy—”

“And you’re not interested in tutoring me anymore?”

“What do you think you don’t know? What else do you want us to teach you?” Deke watched her thoughts race across her face, like she was searching for something to say, something that would make him take it back and eat his words.

Finally, she sighed. “You’re trying to run me off because you’re afraid of my virginity.”

“Why would I be? It’s not going to reach out and bite me.”

“I meant emotionally,” she bit out. “I’m getting too close to your defenses, aren’t I?”

Luc sidled up to her and put his arm around her shoulder. “You’re right, sweetheart. He’s being an ass, and he’d better stop now.”

“Look you two, I’m being honest.” He turned to Luc. “Didn’t I tell you before she came that I was hot and heavy after Alyssa?”

“Of the two of us, Alyssa does not prefer you. And I have no desire for her.”

“With you out of the picture, she’ll have to look at me.” He tried to smile brightly.

Damn hard when Kimber looked crushed.

“I’ve heard she has a waxed pussy. Sweet!”

She flinched, then tears glossed her eyes, gathering at the corners, threatening to spill. Yeah, he’d caused it, but he couldn’t bear to look anymore.