The feel of his mouth on mine, his sleek skin and hard muscle under my fingers, the taste of him, the smel of him, his touch, his weight.

I started to tug down my own panties. Mace rol ed to the side, I lifted my knees and he took over, yanking my underwear down my calves and over my ankles and tossing them away. He rol ed to his back, bucked his hips, pul ing off his boxers and tossed them in the direction of my panties. Then he rol ed back to me, sliding between my opened legs, his hands came behind my knees, he pul ed them high and in one smooth, long, hard stroke, he drove into me.

It felt great.

“Harder,” I demanded, my voice low, my arms wrapping around his back.

“No, Kitten, I’l hurt you,” he replied, his voice rough, up on his elbows, his fingers sifting into my hair at the sides of my head, his thrusts firm and fantastic, but control ed.

I kissed him, he took over the kiss but I got what I wanted, his control slipped and he slammed into me harder.

“Yes,” I breathed when our mouths disengaged.

One of his hands went between us, and, right where I needed it, his finger honed in, pressed deep, circled, pressed deeper, circled more.

I felt it, it was coming.

My mouth against his, I caught my breath, holding back and then I whispered, “Mace, I’m –”

“Kitten, let it go.”

I let it go.

I came, hard and overpowering, my arms tightened around him, my thighs pressed into his sides, his mouth absorbed my moans as it overwhelmed me.

No other way to describe it, it was beautiful. It had always been beautiful.

Always.

I took his final strokes, my orgasm stil tingling, my head turned to the side. His face was in my neck, his breathing was ragged. I turned my face to look at him, his head came up and his eyes caught mine. They were hot on me, hot and aroused and intense and I felt like I was the center of the entire effing universe.

Man, he had great eyes.

I slid my fingers into the back of his hair, lifted my head and pressed my open mouth against his, my other hand going to his jaw. The moment I touched his face, he lost control and groaned against my lips.

For some reason, that was even more beautiful.

We were stil both breathing heavily, coming down but he rol ed immediately after he was done, taking me with him, resting me on my unwounded side, my leg curved around his waist.

I pressed my face in his throat and held onto him tightly while his hands moved lightly across my back and I made intermittent post-Mace-made-orgasm “mms” in the back of my throat. I never did “the purr” for anyone else, but then no one had given me an earth shattering orgasm like Mace did.

We caught our breath and I tried to catch a thought and found I couldn’t. Al I wanted was for time to stop and me and Mace to be there, on Daisy’s pul out couch, locked together forever.

Before I had a chance to recover, a chance to remember this was wrong and more importantly, why, his hand slid down my side to my waist, over my hip and then gently pul ed my leg from around him. He moved away, sliding down the bed and coming up on his forearm.

I laid there, head on the bed, arms cocked and resting in front of me, staring unseeing as I felt his fingers careful y pul the dressing away from my wound. I kept my head to the bed but I tilted my chin down to watch him. My eyes focused on Mace and I watched as he looked at the wound, his jaw getting tight.

Then…

No joke.

He gently replaced the dressing, pressing down the tape at is edges.

His head bent to it.

And, light as a whisper, he kissed me there.

I stopped breathing.

Effing, effing, hel , hel , hell.

He came back to me, his arms moving around me, one hand sliding over my bottom, the other arm wrapping around my waist.

He looked me in the eyes and said softly, “I’m guessin’

this doesn’t mean I’ve won.”

My sanity instantly returned, just as quickly as it fled.

I retorted, al bitchy (seriously, in my defense, I mean, hel o, he broke my heart once already, temporary insanity was one thing but taking him back was just plain loco),

“This doesn’t mean anything. As far as I’m concerned, this didn’t even happen.”

For some unhinged reason this made him grin like he found this a fortunate turn of events.

His mouth came to mine, lips stil turned up in a sexy smile, eyes open, gaze soft as it locked on mine.

I found I was holding my breath when he murmured,

“That’s what I thought.” He touched my lips with his, pul ed his head back a fraction and, stil smiling, he finished,

“Good to know you’re not gonna take the fun out of it, babe.”

Now what the hel did that mean?

No, no. I didn’t want to know.

Chapter Five

I Get It

Indy

“Come back to bed,” Lee said.

I looked away from the window to see Lee on his side, head in hand, in bed, the sheet down to his waist. I knew he was na**d under the sheet and I knew what that na**d looked like.

At the thought of it, I started to feel warm al over.

Hmm.

I walked to the bed and sat on the side.

“I don’t like it,” I told him.

“I don’t care. It’s decided,” he replied.

Boy, he was bossy. After al our time together, nearly a year, I hadn’t been able to get the bossy out of him. It was likely I never would. It was also likely I would never stop trying.

I made another attempt. “Maybe we should talk –” He moved. Quickly.

Hands at my waist, he twisted, taking me over his body, rol ing us both to the other side and I ended up on my back, Lee mostly on top of me.

“It’s decided,” he repeated.

“You didn’t ask –” I started.

“Listen to me, honey,” he said softly but his voice was determined. “I got the choice of puttin’ on a f**kin’ suit in a coupla weeks in order to meet you at the end of an aisle or maybe puttin’ on a suit to stand by your coffin. I pick the first.”

Okay, he had a point there. I picked the first too.

“How do the other boys feel about this decision?” I asked.

“Ecstatic. None of us particularly enjoyed the shot at, kidnapped, beat up portions of the Rock Chick Experience the first time around. We’re not fired up for a repeat performance.”

Okay, he had a point there too.

“Al right,” I said.