Lust & Lies Box Set-Sexual Awakenings, Excess, Predator & Prey

She was right. I could ruin her.

No matter how careful I was, it wouldn’t be enough to save her if things went wrong in the States and word got back home. I could leave and forget my foolish plans for stolen moments with her. I could give her any number of reasons to end our time together and be a better man for it.

But I wasn’t a better man. I couldn’t be. And that decision was made long before I met her.

I removed my shoes as I watched her. Her silky red hair lay against the pillow, and her eyes fluttered within a dream.

She had given her body to a man for money and gave it freely to me without regard to the price she would pay. Like me, she made no apologies for the actions that led her to the woman she had grown into. She was no whore; she was untouchable. A self-made picture of perseverance that drew breath and exhaled fire. A phoenix.

My phoenix.

I tried to wipe the foolish sentiment from my thoughts as I sat next to her on the bed. She slept soundly. I studied the rise and fall of her chest before my gaze drifted to her face. She winced, and then all her features slid back into place. Whatever dream she was in was no doubt a battle. The woman was in a constant state of unrest.

I slept in pitch black.

And that was the part of my soul that refused to apologize for the man I had grown into. No matter what act I committed, guilt eluded me. And I’d spent that decade of my life testing my limits. To others, I seemed ruthless. To my clients, invaluable.

And Taylor appealed to every part of me.

Even the man who would burn down a village to prove a point.

I was that man, and I wanted this woman. But I had years of scattered ashes in my wake. And though she’d risen from hers, I washed daily in mine.

“Daniello.” Somewhere in my dream, I felt his arms grow tight around me.

“Sleep.”

His scent filled the air around me. I inhaled deep and let out a slow breath. My eyes threatened to water, and I knew it then.

It wasn’t just his darkness, the intrigue that surrounded him. It was Daniello.

I gripped his arm and pulled it further around me, and he reacted by closing all of the available space between us and kept me tight in his grip.

“Did you think of me?”

I choked down my budding emotion. “Often.”

He turned me over to face him as the morning sun streamed through the windows, showcasing his perfection. His dark hair was still neatly manicured and encased his sharply etched jaw. Brown eyes doused with uncertainty glittered over my face. He was gloriously naked, the evidence apparent against the outside of my thigh. He moved to hover above me, his needy cock at my entrance, his lips inches away. “Tell me to leave.”

“I can’t.”

He closed his eyes briefly. “Tell me to go. You know this will only end bad.”

“Then let it end badly.” His mouth was on mine before I finished the sentence. He invaded my body, hungry and demanding, pulling out only to get my lips to beg and then throwing his hips so I felt every steel inch of him. I screamed out his name as we lost ourselves, completely immersed in satisfying our need.

We feasted and fed until we were both full.

Daniello lay in a sweaty heap as I moved to take a shower when he gripped my wrist. “My cum is still spilling out of you. Be still, Phoenix.”

I raised a brow. “You want to cuddle, tough guy? I don’t cuddle.”

The lines in his face went hard. “Fucking do it!”

“What!?” I ripped my wrist away from him and stood my ground.

“Goddamn woman,” he barked as he yanked me down to lay with him. I laughed at his outburst as he nailed me with angry eyes. We lay there quietly as a silent war raged on inside him. He looked up at the industrial ceiling in confusion as I nudged him with my elbow.

“What is wrong with you?”