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“Not what I asked. Do you regret kissing me, Brielle? Tell me.”

“No,” I whispered brokenly.

“Good. Now. What do you want?”

I gave him a helpless look. “I don’t know what you’re asking.”

“Do you want me? In your bed. In your life. Do you feel the same pull to me that I feel to you?”

“Oh, God…” I hadn’t even admitted to myself how much I really wanted Dane. Not just in a sexual way, though there was plenty of attraction. I genuinely admired the man. But standing there, this man’s giant frame caging me in, I couldn’t deny how right he was. “Yes.”

“Yeah?” His mouth was right at my ear, and his hands bracketed my face so I couldn’t look away. “You want me to leave? You want me to stay away from you?”

“No,” I said, the word a threadbare whisper. “I want you here. With me. I want --”

“Say it,” he ordered, and I felt his breath on my face, soft and seductive.

“I want you.” It hurt, how hard it was to admit. “I want you. And I don’t want you taking chances with your life. I can’t be the reason you die or go back to prison. I already ruined you once, and I won’t do it again. I won’t.”

I don’t know what I expected him to do, but Dane stepped closer, until his hips pressed mine into the metal wall behind me. My hands automatically went to his chest. I loved the warmth radiating from him and found myself leaning in and sliding my hands up to his shoulders.

“Be sure.” The words came out low, barely a sound at all. “You want this, you start it. Because if I start, I’m not stopping.” Even as he spoke, he reached up to flip off the shop light above, plunging the area into shadows, likely to obscure security cameras.

What else could I say? “OK.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and met his mouth with mine. I kissed him tentatively at first, then, as he thrust his tongue into my mouth and groaned, I surrendered. Dane must have read my body language because he immediately took charge.

When he growled, it vibrated through my whole body. I wanted to slap him for turning me inside out, and then I wanted to ride him until we both lost our fucking minds. For now, though, I licked his open mouth and took what he offered.

I lost every ounce of sense I had. Dane pressed his hips against mine, pinning me to the wall. He pried my hands from around his neck to pin them in one hand above my head. He trailed kisses down my neck to my collarbone just above the neckline of my T-shirt. Every nerve ending in my body seemed to fire all at once and I shuddered, my clit throbbing in time with my heart.

Dane pressed soft kisses along my jaw, my neck, my throat, until my head thumped back against the wall and I gasped. Grabbing a fist full of my hair, he forced my head to the side so he could graze his open mouth in a line from my ear to my shoulder. I arched into him, a strangled sound coming from my throat that I would have found humiliating in any other situation. It was like someone had uncorked a bottle. All the emotions I’d spent every day since that fucking trial trying to suppress erupted in one explosive burst.

Dane kissed down the column of my neck, using his teeth lightly at the hollow of my throat. I shivered and whimpered each time he nipped my skin. The heat between my legs was almost unbearable. I needed friction. I wanted to feel him driving his cock inside of me so badly I could almost feel the fullness inside my pussy.

“You don’t want me to fuck you, say so now, Brielle,” he growled at my ear. “If you don’t, I’m going to turn you around, remove your sweats and any underwear you have on, and I’m going to eat your sweet pussy until you beg me to fuck you.”

“Oh, my God!” The words were ripped from me on a gasp. Then his name… “Mághnus…”

A deep shudder ran through Dane and his arms tightened around me. “Woman.” His voice was rough and wild, like something had set him off. “Say my name again.”

I sucked in a breath. “Dane?”

He growled and bit down on my throat, a punishment. “Say. My. Name.”

I blinked, then let out a relieved breath. He meant his real name. “Mághnus.”

He groaned, almost a prayer, and then spun me around so quickly I yelped. Dane’s hold on me was solid, and he pressed me against the wall without hurting me. His body molded against mine and I felt his cock pulsing against my ass.

“Dane --”

“No!” His command was sharp and biting. “Outside. Around the others. You can call me Dane. But when we’re alone, especially when we fuck, you will call me Mághnus.” He nipped my earlobe. “Understand?”

“Yes,” I whimpered.

“Good,” he praised. “Don’t move. Stay where you are until I say.”

He backed away far enough to be able to drag my sweats and panties down my legs with slow, deliberate movements punctuated by kisses down my ass and thighs. I thought he’d want me to step out of them, but he stilled me with a slap on my ass.

Before I could more than suck in a breath to scream, he shoved my cheeks apart and snaked his tongue over my pussy. “Fuck! Dane!”