I wake in dim gray morning light in Aidan’s arms.
My head rests on his chest. His heart thumps a slow, steady beat beneath my ear. He’s got both his big heavy arms wrapped around my body, holding me tight, even in sleep.
I take a moment to orient myself to this new version of reality where I’m waking up on a mattress on the floor with a man who lives over a bar and has more tattoos on his chest alone than everyone else I know has combined, and decide almost instantly that I like it.
Him, I mean.
I like him.
That surprises me. I’m not prone to liking people in general. I mildly distrust most people until I get to know them better, which is usually when I decide I don’t ever want to see them again.
Michael and I had that in common. A vague disappointment in and aversion to the human race as a whole. It’s a miracle he was so good at his job, considering he had to interact with so many people on a daily basis in his classroom.
Thinking about Michael sobers me. He’d be shocked if he could see me right now.
“What are you doing?” he’d cry, his brow creased in dismay. “The man probably doesn’t even have a college degree!”
He was a snob about higher education. It was a point of contention between us that I was satisfied with my bachelor’s degree in fine arts and had no desire to go for a master’s.
But of the two of us, I was the more practical one. And tighter with money. I couldn’t justify going further into debt for an additional degree that wouldn’t help me earn more. But to Michael, education was its own reward.
I found paying the bills on time plenty rewarding enough.
His voice thick with sleep, Aidan says, “You awake?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. I need to fuck you again.”
As I laugh softly, he rolls me over to my back and kisses my neck. “You’re not even awake yet, Fight Club.”
He lifts his head and gazes down at me with heavy-lidded eyes. “Fight Club?”
“That’s what I thought when I first saw you. That you looked like the founder of a fight club.” Then I grimace. “Is that bad?”
“No. Because I am the founder of a fight club.”
I gape at him. “Seriously?”
“No. I just wanted to see what you’d do when I said that.”
“Ugh. Your terrible sense of humor is showing again.”
“Can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
He is very, very handsome in the muted morning light. I reach up and brush a lock of dark hair out of his eyes, tracing my fingertip across his forehead and over a silky eyebrow. I whisper, “I like your widow’s peak. It’s sexy.”
“So’s your gorgeous ass.”
I can feel myself blushing. “Thank you.”
He rubs his cheek against mine, dragging his beard against it, and says into my ear, “Almost as sexy as that desperate little moan you make when you’re getting close to coming for me.”
I hide my face in his neck, close my eyes, and wish I could do something about how furiously I’m blushing. My face feels as if it’s on fire.
He chuckles. “Don’t be shy. I love it.”
Because I have no idea how to respond to that, I whisper, “Okay.”
Kissing my neck, he whispers back, “How do you want me to fuck you, sweet Kayla?”
Oh God. There isn’t enough time in the world to cover all of it. “Um…vigorously?”
He drops his forehead to my shoulder and dissolves into soft laughter.
“It wasn’t that funny.”
“I’m only laughing because that’s exactly what I wanted you to say.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” His voice drops. “Or in other words, rough.”
When I just lie there and stare at him in nervy silence, he says slowly and deliberately, “I’m gonna devour you, little bunny rabbit, piece by tasty piece. I’m going to eat. You. Up.”
A thrill goes through me.
It’s not fear. It’s closer to exhilaration, an unbridled kind of joy that I’m wholly unfamiliar with. The strangest urge to leap from bed and make him chase me has me saying breathlessly, “Not if you can’t catch me, you aren’t.”
His entire body tenses. His eyes, already so dark, turn black. His nostrils flare, and I swear to God, Aidan disappears, replaced in an instant by a predator.
A dangerous, beautiful predator, poised to shred me to bits with sharp teeth.
With a little scream of terror and delight, I roll out from under him and scramble to my feet. I run naked out of the bedroom and down the hallway, my heart hammering, his dark laughter ringing in my ears.
But there’s nowhere to escape to. His apartment is small, and I’m not about to run naked out into the street. So as he strides down the hallway, I look around wildly for somewhere to hide.
“Nowhere to go, little bunny,” he growls, standing at the end of the hallway and gazing at me with hunger in his eyes. He stalks closer, never taking his feral gaze off me. Between his legs, his cock is long and stiff, bobbing with every step. “You’re trapped. Surrender.”
I tell him an outrageous lie. “Sorry, Mr. Lion King. This bunny isn’t in the mood to be breakfast.” Then I run into the kitchen, putting the table between us, and wait to see what he does.
Well, he lunges, doesn’t he? Because that’s what hungry lions do.
He chases me around and around the table as I scream and do my best to outmaneuver him. But he’s so damn fast! When I pull out a chair to try to block him, he knocks it aside with a powerful swipe of his hand and sends it crashing against the floor. I turn and flee into the living room, but he catches me by the wrist and spins me around, yanking me against his chest.
He pulls my head back by my hair, crushes his mouth to mine, and kisses me ravenously.
I give in to it for a moment, calculating it will make him let down his guard, then break away. My plan is to run into the bathroom and lock the door behind me, but it’s shot to hell when Aidan tackles me from behind. We fall onto the living room rug and start wrestling for control.
It’s over in seconds. He’s much too strong. I’m no match for all those damn muscles.
“Such a wily little bunny,” he growls, eyes flashing. He grabs my wrists and pins them to the floor over my head, then straddles me.
Still squirming and trying to escape, I cry out in frustration.
His laugh sounds elated. “Bad bunny,” he whispers. “So bad.”
He kisses me hard, then flips me onto my belly so easily, it’s ridiculous. Then he flattens his hand between my shoulder blades, pins me to the rug, and gives me a stinging swat on my bottom.
When I yelp, he does it again.
“Ow!”
“Say you’re sorry for trying to run away, bunny.”
“No! I’m not sorry!”
As I hoped he would, he spanks me again, then slides his hand between my legs. He makes a low sound of pleasure in his throat.
“Not sorry, but steaming hot and slick. I think my little bunny needs to get fucked right here on this rug.”
When he slides a thick finger inside me, I groan.
He demands, “Tell me you want me to fuck you.”
I know this is all part of the game. I’m the mouse and he’s the cat, and he wants me to give him permission to rip my guts out and eat me. But mice don’t give cats permission to eat them, and neither will I.
“No!”
His chuckle sounds pleased.
He withdraws his finger from inside me and spanks me again, on both ass cheeks this time, stinging swats that leave me breathless and so turned on, I start to grind my pelvis shamelessly against the rug to try to find release.
Aidan leans down and bites my ass. It stings almost as much as the spanking did, and I love it.
“My bunny likes to get spanked, doesn’t she?”
“No! Let me go!” Panting, I squirm helplessly.
His voice low and dark, Aidan says, “Oh, I won’t be letting you go, my sweet little bunny. You’re never gonna get away from me.”
It shouldn’t excite me the way it does. The rational part of my brain knows that this is a dangerous game I’m playing with a man who’s all but a stranger, and I should end it now, before things go too far. I should tell him calmly that I’m afraid and I want him to stop, and I should walk out of this apartment and never see him again.
The only problem is that I’m not afraid.
And I don’t want him to stop.
And most of all, I do want to see him again.
I want him to take me out of my head and keep me there, because it’s a dark and scary place I’d rather not spend too much time in.
But there’s no way I can win this game by brute strength. He’s got me beat in that department. So this little rabbit is going to have to use her brains.
I stop fighting and say innocently, “Would it be okay if I used the bathroom before we do this? Sorry, I just realized I needed to go.”
After a surprised pause, Aidan says, “Sure.”
The moment he removes his hand from my back and swings a leg over me, I push myself up and leap to my feet. Grinning down at his surprised face, I say, “Sucker.”
Then I bolt from the living room.
He catches me before I’m even halfway down the hall.
Grabbing me by the arm, he does some kind of bending ninja move and throws me over his shoulder. As I squeal and squirm, he turns around and strides into the kitchen.
He drops me on my feet next to the kitchen table.
Gripping my upper arms and gazing down into my wide eyes, he whispers hotly, “Such a bad fucking bunny.”
He spins me around, pushes my upper body down onto the tabletop, kicks my legs apart at the ankle, and grabs my wrists in his hands, gathering them behind my back.
He thrusts inside me so suddenly, I arch and cry out in shock.
Bending over me, he growls into my ear, “You’re gonna take it hard as punishment for running away from me. Ready?”
“Yes!”
His groan of pleasure is the last soft thing he gives me.
Then he bites my shoulder and fucks me, driving into me hard, over and over, thrusting so powerfully, the table jumps and skips over the floor. His hands squeeze my wrists, his teeth scrape my skin, his grunts of dominance ring in my ears, and I can’t remember the last time I felt this free.
I rest my cheek against the smooth wood of the table, close my eyes, and surrender completely.
“Get ready to take my cum, baby. Open that sweet pussy wide.”
His voice is a harsh rasp near my ear. In response, I can only manage a low, broken moan. After two more hard thrusts, the motion of Aidan’s hips falters. He groans. Releasing my wrists, he digs one hand into my hair and the other into my hip and yanks me back savagely against his pelvis as he grinds into me and climaxes.
With my neck arched and my hard nipples skimming the table, I orgasm around his throbbing cock.
He collapses on top of me, pinning me down, and whispers raggedly into my ear, “Take it. Take it. Take it. Take every fucking drop, my beautiful bunny, and tell me you love it.”
On the verge of sobbing, I choke out, “I love it. Aidan, I love it so much.”
His breathless laugh sounds triumphant. “I know you do, baby. That’s my good little rabbit.”
Glowing like a rising sun burning through ancient darkness, I rest my cheek against the smooth wood and smile.
