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Damiano’s gaze is fixed on mine: utterly controlled. Dangerously calm. And suddenly his words from a minute ago replay themselves in my head.

You always need to be in control.

So do I.

Because when I fuck, I’m not negotiating for control.

He has no idea that the thing I fight hardest for everywhere else in my life is exactly what I want taken from me in bed.

There’s another slow stroke of his thumbs across another inch of skin, just enough to make the heat inside me coil tighter as my pulse begins to gallop.

“You have very bold hands for someone who just explained why fucking me would never work,” I breathe, swallowing as a warm knot tightens low in my belly.

“Physical restraint seems to be the only thing that gets you to hear what I’m saying,” he growls.

It’s ridiculous how my body responds to this man saying the words physical restraint.

Fuck, why does it sound deliciously obscene?

His gaze drops to my mouth, his eyes focusing intensely on my lips as I swallow and then quickly wet them with my tongue again.

The air feels thicker.

Hotter.

The low murmur of the pub fades away until all I can hear is my pulse pounding in my ears and the quiet scrape of his breath.

His hands stop. The sudden absence of movement makes me crave it again.

“You can keep looking at me like that all you like,” he murmurs. “But there’s no way you can look me in the eye and tell me I’m wrong about this. We’re both⁠—”

“But you are.”

His brow tug together.

“Wrong, I mean,” I whisper.

Everything stills as my throat works. His gaze sharpens until I swear I can physically feel it cutting into me like a blade.

“About what?” he murmurs, his tone like bone scraping over stone.

My heart hammers against my ribs.

Heat tingles and slides over my skin as I feel myself lean toward him, so close that my lips are almost brushing his ear.

“About me wanting to be in control when it comes to sex.”

Damiano goes utterly still.

So do I.

For a long, quivering second, neither of us moves.

“Sometimes…” My breath hitches. “Sometimes I want someone else to take it.”

His fingers tighten around my thighs like steel, and my pulse skyrockets. My throat bobs as my eyes lift slowly to his.

Instantly, need slithers through my center and coils tight when I see the spark of raw darkness in his irises.