Renee tensed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Robert felt himself begin to swell at her unconscious movements. "Nothing. Not a damn thing. Just be still." He slowly pulled out of her, bringing the soiled condom with him. He swiveled his big body and grabbed a tissue from the bedside table and removed it.
"There. Happy now?" His short, salient words abraded her raw feelings. She jerked away from him.
"Yes. Just great." She pulled the edge of the duvet up and over her, covering her naked body from his view.
He watched her with dark, inscrutable eyes. "You're wasting your time. I've already seen it all." His voice was flat, unemotional.
A new kind of tension invaded her body as he continued to watch her. The butterflies in her stomach were set loose when he reached up a hand and gripped the duvet between her breasts and tugged.
; She held on tight.
"Let go." He could easily take the covering from her, but he wanted her to give in to him.
She shook her head and held on.
"Renee. Sweetheart. You don't think this can go backwards, do you?" His hand released its grip and slid up to her exposed collarbone. His finger moved back and forth. "It already happened. It's going to continue to happen. You need to understand that." His hand moved to the back of her neck and brought her mouth up to meet his.
The kiss he gave her was tender, unexpected. So completely different from anything he had shown her tonight. Her thoughts turned off as she was inundated by his touch. An insidious weakness invaded her system. Her eyes closed and her body trembled as she felt light sips taken from her mouth. His lips moved to her cheek, up to her forehead, and then to her ear.
Her breathing fractured. Her hands slowly released their grip on the duvet, and moved to curl around his head.
Robert knew the moment she gave in to him, and blood rushed to his groin, hardening him again fully. His eyes opened, and his mouth moved down to her breasts. She was still lusciously tangled up in her lacy bra, and a streak of pure, unadulterated lust hit him.
He put his head to her breast, and sucked the nipple into his mouth. He stabbed his tongue at her. The sweetness of her body went to his head like a shot of whiskey. He moved his mouth to the soft fullness of her breast and began sucking, intent on marking her. Strong, insistent, he continued to suckle her until she began undulating against him.
Never releasing the ambrosia in his mouth, he moved between her thighs and began pushing her legs apart.
Renee surfaced from the arousal that gripped her when she felt him pushing into her. She frantically began trying to scoot away from him. She felt a moment of true hysteria when he seized her wrists and lifted them over her head. She opened her eyes and saw the fierce, masculine beauty of his face.
His lips were drawn back from his teeth and a drop of sweat slid down his cheekbone. Strength radiated from him. She had to break through his domination. "Stop. Robert. Stop."
He showed no sign of hearing her or stopping and Renee began to fight. She pushed her wrists against the hands holding her and tightened her body against him. "Stop. Get a condom. God, Robert, stop." She shouted the last words.
Robert surfaced from the haze enough to understand her. Resentment once again ripped through his guts and he was incensed at the need for restraint. He was fully jolted into awareness by her stiff body under him, and her face turned completely away. He ripped himself off of her and stood by the bed.
Goddammit! He had done it again. Felt it again. The need to do her without birth control was elemental. Primal. Stupid. What the fuck was wrong with him? He never had sex without protection. Refused to even think about it. And now here he was, desperate to feel her naked. He wanted to be naked in her, against her.
He looked down at her, lying there so helplessly, her hands moving to cover her face. His eyes slid over her body. Dark, purple bruises covered her right breast.
He felt a kick to his gut when he saw the damage he had done to her. And why he had done it. He wanted to mark her. Brand her. Screw her without protection. The knowledge should have cooled him down. It didn't. It only provoked him.
He turned away and rolled on another condom. She was getting her way again. But not for long.
His time would come.
****
Five weeks slid by.
Renee was thrown whirlwind into a pattern that contained a working and sexual relationship. She couldn't fight him on it, because she couldn't fight herself.
Her days were spent learning the minutiae of the job Mrs. Argenot was passing on to her. Her nights were mostly spent at Robert's house.
The first week had been rocky. Getting him to use a condom was a battle every time. His argument was always that he was clean, she was clean, why use one? He was broodingly silent when she brought up pregnancy, and she had the uneasy feeling he didn't care if she got pregnant or not. Finally, during a heated row about condoms, she found out the reason why. It turned out to be the same simple reason why there were so many unplanned pregnancies in the world. He didn't want to wear one. He wanted to feel her flesh against his. It had little to do with the pros and cons of birth control. It was more basic than that. More primal. Animalistic. He hated anything separating them.