His jaw tightens, his eyes darkening.

“Prove it to me right now, or I’m walking out of that door, and believe me when I say you’ll never see me again.”

His movements are like a flash of lightning.

His hands in my hair. The bookshelves digging into my back. His bare chest against me. My lips crushed beneath him.

I can taste the lust on his lips.

It’s intoxicating.

The kiss is everything. It’s the verbal affirmation of the very thing I just demanded he prove, and I’m drowning beneath his determination. I’m drowning in his desperate exploration of my mouth.

“Believe it yet?” he rasps against me. “Believe that I’m not fucking lying to you when I tell you I want you?”

I stare into his eyes defiantly. “Kissing wasn’t what I meant.”

“Not all fairytales end as expected. Not everyone has a prince inside them.”

“Belle never fell in love with the prince. She fell in love with the Beast.”

He holds my gaze for one long, torturous minute, and then tugs me away from the shelves. His hand tightens around mine and he tugs me after him down the hall toward the master bedroom.

He kicks the door shut behind him, and I can barely register the blue and gray color scheme before he’s spinning me and grasping my waist. He clasps the zipper at the back and undoes it, then pushes on the waistband. It falls to my feet, and he grabs the hem of my blouse.

My heart is on double-time. My lungs are demanding oxygen quicker than I can breathe it in. I’m tingling everywhere as anticipation dances across my skin. I can barely control myself as Carter’s deft fingers work the buttons of my blouse until its undone and falling off my shoulders. Or maybe he’s pushing it off. I don’t know anymore. It’s feeling after feeling and each one is stronger than the last.

He stands in front of me, and I force my eyes from his chest, up along the stubbled line of his jaw and the chiseled ridge of his cheekbone to where his eyes are focused intently on me. His look is chilling yet heated at the very same time, and I suck my lower lip into my mouth.

His gaze drops as I release it, dragging my teeth across it as I do so.

As if that movement were a switch, Carter snaps.

His hands dive back into my hair, and in the same movement, he kisses me. His lips are hungry as they move across mine, and I grasp his sides to keep standing as he walks with me. The backs of my calves hit the bed and we fall in a tangle of limbs and dueling tongues.

Need rushes through me, and I grasp at his back as he covers my body with his.

This is nothing like the first time.

That was fun. Easy. Playful.

This is carnal. Raw. Desperate.

And dammit, as he pulls back and I gasp for air as his mouth travels down my neck, my heart pounds a little harder—for him.

Not for the lust. Not for the sex. Not for the undeniable feeling of being wanted. But for the man—whom I hardly know—that’s making me feel all these things.

And there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.

Carter tugs away my bra and immediately closes his mouth around one of my nipples. His tongue traces shapes over the hardened point as his thumb does the same to my other. Fuck me. It’s like they have a direct line to my clit. I’m hyper sensitive of every movement he makes as he switches his mouth to the other side and slides his hand down my body.

My skin burns wherever he touches me. It’s like every fingerprint he leaves behind is a flaming ring of fire that brands me. His mouth is the same. The teasing trail of kisses he peppers down my stomach as he leans back onto his knees has me writhing beneath him.

As his hands travel down, his fingers loop in the sides of my underwear and slide them down my legs. I bend my knees, and his grasp from panties to thighs is immediate. He wraps his arms around my thighs, holding my legs wide open, and yanks me down the bed.

His mouth is on me before I’ve had a chance to gasp, and holy fuck, yes, his mouth is on me.

His wicked tongue works my clit. Flicking and circling and rubbing with each kiss he covers my pussy with. I can’t stand the assault he’s unleashing on me, and I go from my hands in my hair, to grasping sheets, to winding my fingers in his hair. The only sound in the room is of my heavy breathing, interspersed with my helpless moans.

It feels so good.

He lets me go as abruptly as he took hold of me and stands. I run my fingers through my hair, my chest heaving. I manage to look down in time to see him stepping out of his pants and boxers and leaning over. The sound of a drawer opening and closing breaks through my breaths, and Carter leans over me, a shiny foil packet in his hand.

His eyes are bright, but there’s a darkness hinting in their depths. It intrigues me and excites me at the same time, especially when he rips the condom packet open with his teeth. His gaze never falters as he spits the corner of the packet out to the side and pulls out the rubber inside. He stands, and I bite down on the inside of my cheek as he takes his long, hard cock and rolls the condom over it.

There is something stupidly sexy about watching a man touch himself, even if he’s just putting on protection.

In fact. That is the fucking sexy part.

He scoops one arm behind my knee as he falls back down, bending my leg right up. My thigh is as flat against my stomach as it can go, and he lifts my butt, leaning over me until his cock brushes my wet pussy. “Believe me now?” he rasps into my ear. He slides his hand into my hair and cups the back of my head. “Did I lick your pussy enthusiastically enough for you, baby?”

I nod and push my hips down as far onto his cock as I can. His low, devilish chuckle makes me tremble even harder.

I know it’s coming, but I still cry out anyway.

My pussy aches as it stretches to accommodate his large cock, and I grasp desperately at his back and shoulders as he waits it out. “God,” I whisper.

“Not my name but I’ll take it,” he laughs quietly, tightening his grasp on my leg. “Fuck, Bee.” He eases out of me and back in again. “I fucking love your pussy.”

Fuck yeah, I like her right now, too.

He pulls my face up and kisses me and picks up the pace of his thrusts. Heat swamps me as the teasing of his tongue and the deep strokes of his cock inside me combine together in a deadly hit that feels like it should be some kind of a dream.

Each kiss gets harder.

Each moan louder.

Each thrust deeper.

I’m spiraling out of control as we move together. I don’t even know if I am moving. I think it’s all him. I think it’s just Carter, pounding into me, tilting my hips up and down and sideways and arching my back and nipping my lower lip and chuckling into my ear. I think he’s doing everything, but that’s because all I know is him.

All I can see, smell, taste, feel, hear… It’s him. Just him.

He releases me, pulling out of me, and flips me onto my front with no effort at all. I reach around the back of my neck and sweep my hair to one side so I can look at him.

With a wickedly sexy grin on his face, he pushes me onto my knees, then slaps one hand across my ass. I flinch as the sweet sting travels across my skin and prop myself onto my elbows.

He wastes no time spreading my ass cheeks and pushing his cock back into my pussy. He’s deeper here, and I bury my face in the covers as my body convulses with pleasure. I feel him, rather than see him, as he leans fully forward. His hot breath skitters across my ear as he says, “Do I want you enough now, Bee?”

I nod. Yes. I feel it. I believe it.

Now I want all of it.

I clench my pussy around him. He hisses out a long breath and straightens again. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He slaps my ass right before he slams into me and a breathy moan falls from my lips.

Those are the last words he says as he focuses on drawing every last bit of pleasure from me.