“Woman, go back to sleep.”
A riot of emotions crashed through me. Hope was chief among them, but I couldn’t banish the strands of fear that I was getting in over my head.
Why was sleeping with someone, all curled up like this, more scary than all the sex we’d had? Because this was Lucas. And I was me.
What are we doing?
“Stop thinking so damn hard, and go back to sleep.”
I shifted again, and a rush of Lucas’s hot breath hit my neck before I found myself flipped onto my back and Lucas leaning on his forearms on either side of my head.
His knee slid between my thighs. “The only reason we should be awake in the middle of the night is because I’m deep inside you and you’re on the edge of coming.”
Heat pulsed through my lower body as I registered his erection growing against my belly.
Sex. Sex I could handle. It was everything else that confused me, scaring the hell out of me.
“Then what are you waiting for?” I lifted my hips to rock against him and twined my legs around his waist.
“Stop, Yve.”
I froze. “Then let me up.”
“I’m going to have to fuck you until you black out so I can get some goddamn sleep with you in my arms, I see.”
I had no time to process his growled statement, because my mind was trying to gauge what his hands were doing. In moments, my panties and the T-shirt I’d been wearing were both gone, and Lucas’s mouth was on mine. He devastated and devoured before moving down to my jaw, my ear, and then sliding along my neck to my breasts.
He covered my skin with hot, open-mouthed kisses, only lifting his mouth to murmur, “So fucking soft and perfect,” before sliding farther south down my body.
Somewhere along the line, Lucas had gone from being my hate-fuck to being my lover. When did that happen?
I didn’t get a chance to answer my own question because his lips closed around my clit and once he began to tease and suck and drag me toward the edge, I forgot to care. All I wanted was Lucas.
“I’m so close—”
He pulled away, even as I gripped the smooth silk of his hair. “You’re going to come with me inside you.” He repositioned himself over me, the head of his cock pressing against my entrance.
“Wait, condom?”
Lucas dragged his teeth along my collarbone. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how good it felt to be inside you without one. I’m clean. I haven’t been with anyone but you since that first night.”
“So am I, but—”
“You’re protected.”
“Yes.”
His green eyes, almost black in the dim light, bore into mine. “I want you bare, and unless you have an objection, we’re done with that bullshit.”
I considered it for only a split second before I shook my head. “No. Just hurry.”
Lucas pushed inside me—his eyes still locked with mine—with no barrier between us.
The way he took me was all consuming because Lucas Titan didn’t know any other way, or at least that was the theory forming in my passion-drugged brain. But this wasn’t the crazy, frenzied fucking of before. He held me close with every thrust, never letting go, never dropping my gaze.
When I finally squeezed my eyes shut, succumbing to the orgasm that dragged me to the edge, he growled one word against my ear. “Mine.”
As the pleasure shimmered through my limbs, I knew everything had changed.
“IF YOU WANT TO WORK at Dirty Dog today, then Jerome is staying there to protect you. I’m not taking a chance with your safety, even if you have no problem doing it.”
I faced off against Lucas in the kitchen. His arms were crossed and he was in full lord of the manor mode. I raised an eyebrow. “Jerome is my new bodyguard?”
Lucas dropped his arms. “Former British SAS. He might be old, but he’s still lethal.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
It only seemed fair to concede since Lucas had arranged for Jerome to find me something to wear. A white-and-orange striped dress and a pair of purple heels—both courtesy of Dirty Dog’s inventory—had been in the bathroom when I’d woken up this morning.
Woken up alone, as Lucas had already gone. Rather than spend any time freaking out over the fact that I’d woken up in his bed because he moved me there last night, I’d dressed and made my way to the kitchen—and this debate.
“But you realize he can’t babysit me forever.”
Lucas lifted a hand to my chin. “He can until the cops and arson investigators figure out exactly what happened and who was responsible.” He paused before he added, “I’m not going to lose you to something senseless when we both know I can protect you.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say, I don’t need protection. But the feeling of foreboding growing inside me contradicted that, along with warmth at the knowledge that Lucas wanted to protect me.
“For now,” I said with a frown.
“Stubborn woman.”
“Hey, I gave in. Don’t get used to it.”