Rule's Seduction (The House of Rule 4)

He shut and bolted the door, and before she could even take a breath, he placed his hands on her waist and swiveled her until her back was against the wall. His hips came forward with a forceful, sexual maneuver and pressed against her stomach, his erection undeniably hard and ready. Her eyes flew to his face; she saw his jaw clench, one hard, masculine hand sinking into her hair as his other arm wrapped around her waist like a band of steel.

Nerves and sexual attraction hit her hard, making her stomach flip. He watched her with a dark, impenetrable gaze while his fingers tightened around her scalp. His words when they came were short and clipped. “I need to warn you about the way I fuck.” He bared his teeth and a frisson of shock bled down Erin’s spine as he continued, “The last thing I want is for you to run screaming from here, as if you have no control over the situation.”

She sucked in a steadying breath at both his words and the sheer seriousness of his tone. The realization hit her that the abrupt change in his personality was because they were completely alone now. “Okay,” she managed.

He braced his legs and gritted his teeth, coming impossibly closer, even though he’d already obliterated any personal space she might have had left. His eyes narrowed as his nostrils flared, his words coming swift and forceful, “I’m going to fuck you like I mean it, sweetness. It’s not going to be soft and gentle and romantic—I’m not into shit like that. I’m going to strip you bare-assed naked and I’m going to fuck you like I’ve been dying to since I first saw your reflection in that mirror.”

Whoa. Erin’s knees began to shake more violently as her brain short-circuited so much that she could barely speak. “Okay,” she managed, belatedly becoming aware of the enhanced danger she was in since he’d secured the lock on the door.

“If I get too rough—”

The startled breath she took brought his words momentarily to a halt, even as his grasp tightened. His eyes sharpened menacingly and when he began speaking again, he did so with a slow, implacable cadence that demanded she understand. “If I get too rough, all you have to do is tell me to stop.”

She felt her heart racing, a reaction to both his demeanor and the situation. “And you’ll stop?”

One side of his mouth quirked, almost in humor, but not quite. “You’re not going to want me to stop—I’m only telling you this so you’ll be able to enjoy it. If you get scared, you might freak—might think you have no control—but I’m telling you that you’ll have all the control you’ll want or need. Got it?”

At that, Erin found it impossible to speak so she only nodded her head. She swallowed hard, aware that her pulse had escalated to a new high as she braced herself for whatever was to come. She took another breath and waited—hopefully, for the best sexual experience of her life.

A woman could always hope.

****

When the woman plastered to his body nodded silently with a half-glazed look in her eyes, Max felt a surge of aggression rise up in his bloodstream that was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. He could definitely see that she was trying to play the part of a worldly, experienced woman, but he didn’t believe it. Her chin lifted a fraction, her eyes managed to stay on his, but he wasn’t falling for her feminine display of bravado.

No, even though it wasn’t his intention to scare her, he was scaring her—and goddamn if her reaction wasn’t making him hard as a rock. Every sane thought he’d ever had seemed to vanish in a split second as he held her with a grip that he knew was too fucking strong. But screw it—he couldn’t help it. All he wanted was to sink inside of her. He wanted her. Erin Rule. Her femininity was unquestionable, the slight hesitation in her manner just enough to set off the hunter within him. It had all been a front—her confidence, her assurance. Once he’d slammed and locked the door, her brash poise had disappeared, replaced by a display of feminine vulnerability and need that was drawing him in like a siren’s call.

She was pure femininity—pure perfection. And by God, he wanted that shit for himself.

Revenge shouldn’t taste so damn sweet—shouldn’t look so sweet, staring back at him with wide eyes. If there had been any residual doubt—he immediately put it to rest. She was going to belong to him. He wasn’t going to argue with himself anymore. He’d been intrigued with her from the beginning—goddamn it—he deserved her. Erin Rule was his due. He’d take her, just as he’d planned. But now he knew the taking would be supremely sweet—something he would look forward to day in and day out, for a long, long time.