Taboo: A Dark Romance Boxset (Stud Ranch 1)

The elevator pings and as soon as the doors open, I sweep out of the elevator, unlock my door with my keycard, and take Miranda straight back to my bedroom where I lay her down on the bed.

She immediately curls onto her side, back to me, her knees up to her chest.

Just watching her sends a sword through my chest.

It’s the same position I found Chloe in that day.

For a second I can’t breathe. Can’t move. Can’t fucking do anything.

Monster.

I take a stumbling step back from the bed.

Jesus, what was I thinking, bringing her back here? I hurt her, obviously she wouldn’t want to be alone with me.

I take another step back but then she lifts her head off the bed and looks over her shoulder at me.

“Hold me?” she asks, her voice barely a whisper.

My chest clenches in gratitude and relief and lo—

I all but launch myself onto the bed and curl my body in a shell around hers. She starts to cry again and I wrap my arm around her waist. She clutches me, her nails digging into my forearm like she’s so terrified I’ll disappear, she has to hold on to me for dear life.

I want to ask her what’s wrong—no, I want to demand it. But I’ve never seen her so fragile. It’s a word I would usually never associate with Miranda Rose. She’s usually got that shield of armor that’s ten feet thick.

But not with me. Every time we’re together, I get to glimpse more and more of her.

And tonight, for one reason or another, her defenses have collapsed completely.

My cock stirs in my jeans but I move my pelvis back from her ass. I don’t want her feeling my need, or to know that even now when she’s so clearly distraught, I still want to fuck her.

It’s the vulnerability and the honest, beautiful core of her that’s attracted me from the start. I never needed her beautiful body or her perfect face—it was this, her willingness to crack open and let me connect to this intimate, vulnerable part of her that attracted me the most from the beginning.

I’m not sure she even realizes what a gift it is to a man like me, who kept himself set apart from human emotions for years.

“Do you know how rare and perfect you are?” I whisper.

She turns her head, her mouth dropped open and I can see by her look that she thinks I’m crazy. I can’t stop myself from dropping my mouth to hers.

I intend it to be a gentle, reassuring kiss.

But nothing’s ever simple when it comes to this woman, is it?

She flips in my arms and grabs my face, devouring my mouth and cementing the front of her body to the front of mine.

She groans into my mouth when she feels my hard-on, thrusting her hips up to grind against it.

I growl and with every ounce of discipline I have left, I pull back from her. “No, Miranda, we don’t have to. You were so upset earlier. We can just talk, or hold each oth—”

She cuts off my words with another hungry kiss. And then she reaches down between our bodies and grabs my cock through my jeans. She whispers, voice heavy with need. “Please, Dylan. I need you inside me. Don’t make me wait.”

Well fuck, if she puts it that way…

Still, the memory of her calling red and the look on her face. I breathe out hard and then roll us so that I’m on my back and she’s on top.

“Put me inside you if you want me.”

Her hands are frantic on my pants, unbuckling and then unbuttoning them. When her hand closes around my cock, I can’t help hissing and throwing my head back into the mattress.

I lift up my hips as she yanks my jeans down a little.

And then, fuck, yes, she’s on top of me, centering me on her hot cunt and lowering herself on my shaft. I can’t help grabbing her hips and thrusting up into her as I drag her down until I’m bottoming out inside her. Even with her on top, I still can’t give up control.

But she doesn’t seem to mind, letting out a mewling noise and thrusting her breasts out, the most magnificent fucking image as she rides me.

I don’t know how or why, but everything that seemed complicated or impossible moments ago all fades away the second I’m inside her.

Of course we’ll work through this, her body says as it receives mine so eagerly. You were made for me.

She lifts off and then rocks back down over me, her breasts jiggling as her body shudders.

My cock hardens and elongates inside her. It’s different from earlier in the alley. I’m not playing a part.

Do I still want to hurt her? I look up at the beautiful goddess above me and all I feel is the overwhelming and absolute need to… protect her.