And there he is, the bona fide sex maniac that I know so well. “If you behave,” I whisper.

He lets out a deep chuckle and I look out of the windshield, and my eyes widen in shock. “This is your new house?”

“Yes.” He pulls the car into a large circular parking area and turns the car off.

“Holy shit, Elliot.”

He leans over and kisses me. “Come.” He gets out and opens my door, and takes my hand and leads me up to the veranda of the grand house.

It’s huge and like something out of a movie, and it’s pitch-black inside.

“Put your phone light on for me.”

I fumble with my phone and put the flashlight on and shine it on the door.

He takes a set of keys out of his pocket and, in the distance, I hear the sounds of animals in the fields that surround us. I look out into the deserted darkness. It’s a little bit scary out here, if I’m honest.

He puts one key in and it doesn’t turn, so he tries another. “Fucking keys,” he whispers.

I smile as I watch him struggle; so unlike him to not know how to do something.

“Do you want me to try?” I ask.

“No,” he snaps. “I’m perfectly capable of working a lock, Kathryn.”

“But are you?”

He glances up, unimpressed.

I giggle and hold my hands up playfully. “Okay. Sorry, boss.”

He struggles with the key and I run my hand down his back and over his tight ass. “That’s more like it,” he mutters as he keeps trying. “Keep doing that.” He fumbles some more. “Why are there so many fucking keys on this ring?” He jiggles the huge door with force.

“You must have a lot of doors.”

“That are about to be kicked in,” he snaps in frustration. The door finally gives way, and he pushes it open. It lets out a long, slow creak as it swings and I shine my phone light inside.

“Where are the light switches?” I ask.

“Who knows?” He takes my hand and leads me inside. “Shine the flashlight on the walls.”

I giggle as I do as I’m told. This is so unexpected. “There they are. Next to the door, imagine that?”

Elliot flicks them on and the room is brought into the light. I look around at the grandeur and my mouth falls open.

“Elliot,” I gasp.

“You like?” He smiles softly as he looks around.

“Oh my God, I love.” I look around in awe. “This is incredible.”

I turn back to see Elliot staring at me intently, and my heart constricts. I wasn’t lying before, I don’t know what this is between us.

But it makes me feel everything.

The good, the bad, and the ugly . . . but mostly, alive.

I twist my fingers in front of me. “Thank you for inviting me to stay here on your first night . . . it means a lot.”

“Well.” He shrugs casually. “I need someone to use as a shield, on account of the ghosts.”

I giggle and step toward him and he takes me into his arms, and we kiss.

Ever so gently, he melts toward me. The emotion bounces between us like an echo.

And I know it shouldn’t, but this feels real.

A frown crosses his brow, and he pushes the hair back from my forehead as he looks down at me. He presses his lips together as if stopping himself from saying something out loud.

Why does he do that?

“Do you need to eat . . . or?”

“I don’t know what I need anymore,” he whispers as he stares at me.

“I do.” I take his hand and lead him toward the stairs. “Where is your bedroom?” I ask.

“Upstairs somewhere, I have no fucking clue.”

I giggle and he pulls me back by the hand and I slam into his body, and he kisses me.

Hard and urgent and the emotion behind it tears my heart wide open.

He leads me up the grand double-width staircase, and when we get to the top, it falls into pitch-black darkness again. “Are there really ghosts here?” I whisper.

“Relax, nothing’s as scary as you.”

I scare him . . . I knew it.

I’m not imagining it, there is something here between us.

“I think my room is this way.”

“You really don’t know where your room is?” I laugh.

“The removalists put my bed up for me while I went to the art auction. I was only here for half an hour before I had to go.”

I giggle and we turn right and walk down to the end of the hall. He flicks the light on and a huge bedroom comes into view. It has ornate ceilings and beautiful original chandeliers, bay windows with window seats and so much character I could die. There is a large timber four-poster bed in the middle. This place looks as if it’s straight out of a romance movie.

“It’s a little dated,” he murmurs, and it’s apparent he’s uncomfortable with it the way that it is. He’s used to having the best of everything at his fingertips.

I gasp. “Are you kidding, it’s incredible.”

He walks me backward to the bed, and lifts my dress over my shoulders and throws it to the side. Silence falls between us as his eyes drift down my body. I can feel the heat as his gaze sears my skin.

I stand before him in my underwear, vulnerable and at his disposal, and when his eyes rise to mine, they are blazing with desire.

“Did you miss me?” I ask.

He takes my face in his hands and kisses me deeply, uninhibited and wild.

We kiss again and again and I feel his hard length as it pushes up against my stomach.

He can hide his emotions from me all he wants . . . but his body doesn’t lie.

It can’t, he has nowhere to hide.

Literally.

As we kiss, he takes my bra off and then slides down my panties, his hands roaming all over me as his kiss deepens. He grabs my behind and lifts me to rub me over his hard cock.

His breathing becomes labored, and holy hell . . . how this man makes me feel.

I don’t know if I’ve ever been with a man who physically affects me this way.

I take his shirt off over his head and then undo his jeans, and our tongues dance together.

The arousal between us is at fever pitch.

I slide his pants down and his cock springs free. He smiles against my lips and I give an excited giggle as he picks me up and my legs go around his waist.

We fall down onto the bed as we keep kissing, his body cradled in between my legs, and he slides his length through my wet flesh.

He stares down at me and I smile up at him in awe.

The tip of him slowly slides in and my breath catches as I lift my legs.

He closes his eyes and pulls out.

“What are you doing?” I stammer.

“Condom.”

“No, El.”

“Stop,” he snaps as he climbs off me.

He’s lost trust in me.

Back to square one, fuck.

He fumbles through his wallet and pulls out two condoms and I watch as he rolls one on, and when he turns back to me his demeanor has changed. My sweet El isn’t here anymore.

Elliot Miles, the hard-ass fucking machine has arrived.

Not that I’m complaining, I love him too.

He lies over me, and instead of the intimacy we shared only moments ago, he lifts my legs so that my knees are up near his shoulders. With dark eyes he rubs the tip of his cock back and forth through my wet lips.

“You want this?” he whispers.

I nod, unable to answer.

“Answer me,” he barks.

“Yes,” I whimper.

Satisfaction flickers in his eyes and he pushes himself in. Hard and unapologetic, my body struggles to take him. He pushes harder. Pinning me to the mattress.

I whimper again and he turns and kisses my knee, his tongue softly lapping at me. “Open,” he commands in a whisper against my skin.

“I’m trying.” I wince.

He pushes forward again and rotates his hips. “Try harder.”

A flutter of arousal shimmers through the sting and I smile softly. “That’s it.”

He rotates his hips again and my back arches off the bed in approval.

“Yes . . .” I pant. He pulls out and pushes back in and I moan. “Oh God.”