“Let’s go to bed.” He then led me out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom. “Get on your hands and knees,” Rhys commanded, causing me to shiver. Normally, I wasn’t in to being told what to do, but the fact that it was him made all the difference.

After I dropped the towel, I climbed onto the bed and crawled toward the center. When I reached it, I gazed back at him over my shoulder. I couldn’t resist wiggling my ass at him. “Come on, Rhys. Don’t make me wait for it,” I urged.

“Do you like it hard?” he asked, as he eased down onto the bed behind me.

“Hmm, yes.”

When he smacked my ass cheek, the sound reverberated around the room, causing me to jump out of my skin. “You like that, too?”

“Yes,” I hissed. Peering over my shoulder into his lust-filled eyes, I commanded, “Do it again.”

This time he smacked my opposite cheek, and I moaned, my fingers gripping the sheets. I knew I couldn’t wait any longer to have him. “Please, Rhys.” I felt his weight leave the mattress and then he was rustling in the nightstand drawer for a condom. Thankfully, it wasn’t too long before I felt him positioning the head of his c**k at my entrance.

When he plunged deep into me, we both cried out. There was nothing like the feel of having Rhys inside me. All the nights of fantasizing about him converged on this moment. I tightened my walls around him, causing a groan to rumble through his chest. The sound caused even more moisture to pool between my legs. There was something so erotic about hearing his sounds of pleasure and knowing I had caused them.

As my long hair fanned out over my back, Rhys reached up to tangle his fingers in it. When he jerked my head back, I moaned and bit my lip. Bending over me, Rhys leaned down to where his lips brushed against my face. “You do like it rough and hard, don’t you?”

“Just with you. Only with you,” I panted, turning my head so that my face could rub against his. And it was the truth.

“That’s right. Only I get to take you like this,” he replied. I could tell my words had stroked his ego that he was the first one to really be like this with me, just like with the orgasms. But what he still was missing was that I could let myself go and feel so deeply because I truly loved him with every fiber of my being. As he continued pounding into me, our shower soon became a waste as our bodies became coated with the sheen of sweat caused by our exertions.

I gasped when Rhys pulled out of me. Glancing over my shoulder, I watched as he rocked back on his knees, resting his feet under his bu**ocks. He reached for my h*ps and eased me up onto my knees as well. When my back was tight against his chest, he reentered me. The sensation was almost overpowering. He and I both groaned at the depth he reached as he entered me.

As Rhys started slowly gliding in and out of me, I started to see the benefit of this position. He was able to reach around me to cup my br**sts and pinch my ni**les, or he could dip his hand down to stroke me between my legs. As my head fell back against his shoulder, I brought a hand up to tangle through the strands of his dark hair.

My heart melted when Rhys dipped his face down to meet my lips in a frantic kiss. The instant he plunged his tongue into my mouth, I came. “Rhys! Oh God!” I cried, as my walls shuddered. As I was still riding my orgasm, Rhys eased me down onto my stomach and began to pump furiously until he came.

Once he was finished, he eased out of me. I felt so physically wasted that I could barely hold my head up. After Rhys disposed of the condom in the wastebasket beside the bed, he urged me to get back up. “No, no more. I can’t now. I’m too tired.”

He chuckled. “I was trying to get you up so we could get under the covers.”

“Oh,” I replied, before I sat up. Rhys tugged the comforter and sheet back, and then I dove underneath them, stretching out on the luxurious cotton. Rhys slipped in beside me and spooned up against my back. His breathing began to grow shallower and shallower, until he was finally asleep. Feeling utterly satisfied, I found myself falling into a deep sleep, enveloped in the warmth of Rhys’s strong embrace.

I knew I loved Rhys before tonight. But, after making love with him, I was completely gone. He had always owned my heart. Now he owned my body as well.

Chapter Nine

As the morning sunlight streamed across my face, I shifted in the bed. When I started to roll over to get the sun out of my eyes, I found myself entangled in a mass of dark hair. I tried desperately to process where I was and who I was with. And then I realized it was Allison lying beside me. My mind was assaulted with John Milton’s phrase, “Hide me from day’s garish eye” and its somewhat bastardization of “everything looked different in the garish light of day.”

Fucking hell, what had I done? Somewhere between the tequila and what had happened with Ellie, I’d completely let my guard down and allowed myself to give in to the worst temptation. A reel of X-rated images flickered through my mind of doing body shots off Allison, making out with her in the pool, and then taking her to my bed.

The realization crashed over me, causing me to shudder. I’d f**ked Jake’s little sister. I’d f**ked her in multiple positions and had used way too many condoms. I’d defiled a perfectly sweet and angelic girl who had been the only bright spot in my world, besides Ellie, the last few weeks. Bringing my forearm over my eyes, I groaned. How could she ever forgive me?

“Hey, are you okay?” a small voice asked beside me.

Drawing my arm away, I met Allison’s expectant gaze. Even though she should’ve looked ridden hard and put up wet after all we had done, she was so f**king radiant she glowed. The sunlight hit the back of her hair and shot down her body, illuminating her small curves under the stark white sheet.

With a tentative smile, she placed her hand on my chest over my heart. “Talk to me, Rhys.”

At that moment, former coherent thoughts seemed to evaporate instantaneously. Just the sight of Allison stirred something within me. Fucking hell. No! I could not go there again. Groaning once more, I pulled myself up in the bed and leaned back against the headboard. Desperately I searched to find the right words in this moment. “God, Allison, I’m so, so sorry about last night.”

Her brows lined in confusion. “Why would you be sorry?”

I furiously rubbed my face. “I took advantage of you when you were just being kind and compassionate. I got you drunk. I—”

She interrupted me by bringing her hand over my mouth. “Stop it. There is nothing to apologize for or to beat yourself up over. Last night was about two consenting adults. And I certainly remember giving my permission.”