His torso swung back, his mouth snapped shut and I knew.

G.o.d.

I moved toward him because he was at the door, my head was down, my mouth repeating, "I need to leave."

I didn't make it. He didn't step out of my way this time. He wrapped his hands around both my arms and moved me back five feet into the room.

I tore free and stepped three wide strides to the side, lifting a hand his way.

"Don't touch me!" I hissed, and this time his head jerked.

"Hanna-"

"You had threesomes!" I cried.

"I told you, baby, we do not wanna go over past s.h.i.t."

I threw out both hands. "Now I understand why," I shared. Then I asked, "Are you going to want to do that with me?"

"f.u.c.k no," he clipped.

"And I'm supposed to believe that?" I pushed.

He leaned toward me and bit out, "f.u.c.k yes."

"How?" I snapped. "She's right, you like it wild. When is vanilla going to wear off, Raid?"

Suddenly he smiled huge, white and amused, and if I wasn't mistaken, he looked like he was fighting laughter.

"This isn't funny!" I yelled because it dang well wasn't!

"Honey, you're wrong. You thinkin' you're even close to vanilla is G.o.dd.a.m.ned hilarious."

"Unh-hunh," I mumbled disbelievingly.

His body started visibly shaking.

Yes.

With laughter.

"This isn't funny!" I shrieked.

Raid crossed his arms on his chest, tried to fight back his smile without hiding he was fighting it back and began.

"Hanna, baby, I told you we do not wanna go over past s.h.i.t and I was right. We really don't. But you've worked yourself up so you give me no choice."

I didn't like this start, but had no chance to share that because Raid kept going.

"Meg spends her days at a s.h.i.t job she hates and spends most of the rest of her time working out and starving herself, so she's usually in a b.i.t.c.hy mood because she pretty much hates her life, but definitely needs a sandwich. Contradicting that s.h.i.t, she doesn't have a problem pouring alcohol down her throat and smoking a s.h.i.tload of gra.s.s, which gives her the munchies she refuses to give into, thus the vicious cycle with her bein' a b.i.t.c.h and makin' the mellowing qualities of pot lost on her."

"Raid-" I snapped to get him to shut up because I did not want to know any of this, but he talked over me.

"What I'm saying is she's a party girl, up for anything, and she was up for anything with me. When she was able to tamp down the b.i.t.c.h, we had a good time. Maybe she'll get a guy who's into fake t.i.ts, lots of hair and women who care more about having a toned body than they do about having a decent state of mind so he'll put up with the b.i.t.c.h to have her brand of fun, but that guy isn't me."

"Raid!" I yelled this time, but he kept right on going.

"You wanna hear this or not, honest to Christ, if you didn't ignite for me our first time, and you were vanilla-you are fabulous, baby-but you would not be here right now. With you I got the whole package. If I had it with her, she'd be here, not you."

"This isn't making me feel better," I informed him.

His amus.e.m.e.nt died and he shot back, "Then how's this? You ignite for me, but more, you make me ignite for you. And no woman, not in my whole G.o.dd.a.m.ned life, has made me ignite the way you do."

Wow.

I knew he did that for me, but I had no idea I did it for him.

I shut my mouth.

"You get my teeth, Hanna, *cause makin' my own personal Peggy Sue go wild for me drives me f.u.c.kin' crazy. You do it for me like no woman before you. I lose control because you make me and you get my teeth, and what makes that s.h.i.t better is you love havin' my mark on you."

I fought back the desire to touch my skin, knowing, since it happened before, I'd have to choose my top for that day carefully. Because his mark was always mild, but it was there and he was right.

I loved having Raid's mark on me.

He was far from done and he also saved the best for last.

"She doesn't do it for me, Hanna, because I didn't fall in love with her when I saw her across a street, hair shining in the sun, laughing. You do it for me because you were that girl across the street, your hair shining in the sun, laughing, making me fall in love with you, and I didn't even G.o.dd.a.m.ned f.u.c.king know you."

Did he just say that?

"Oh my G.o.d," I whispered.

"Yeah," he agreed.

He just said that.

"Oh my G.o.d," I repeated.

"Yeah, honey," he again agreed.

"I-" I started, but again he spoke over me.

"So thank f.u.c.k, my mouth on yours, you explode and let go and latch onto my d.i.c.k while I'm drivin' your car and dig your nails in my back when you come for me, *cause, baby, that means you give it all to me. Not one woman in my life gave it all to me and not one man can expect that. Hope for it. Yeah. Get it. No. You give it all, so that means I've got it all."

I stared at him.

He let me for a while then he went on.

"Now, I can share what came before you, and I had fun, Hanna. I make no apologies. But I think it's best we leave it where it lies. *Cause all you gotta know is it's gonna be you-and only you-until the day I die, because life did not lead me down the wrong path when I fell in love with a girl who had the sun shining in her hair who would eventually not do it for me. You're not just enough for me. You're everything I want. So that works for me."

When he stopped speaking, unfortunately, I started.

"Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s are fake?" I blurted.

"Absolutely," Raiden replied.

"You're in love with me?" I kept blurting.

"Absolutely," Raiden replied.

We stared at each other while my heart raced and I fought panting.

Then, not finished blurting, I shared, "I beat you. I fell in love with you when I was six and I didn't know who you were."

I saw the tension flow out of his body. His neck twisted, head dropping forward, eyes closing, and he stood in silent contemplation for a moment before he lifted his head, looked at me and said quietly, "Okay, baby, you win."

"Absolutely," I replied.

It was then Raiden Ulysses Miller scorched me a second time, but I didn't battle this blaze. There was no pain. But that didn't mean I didn't end up branded.

"I told you I didn't dream as a kid of bein' a cop or an astronaut, but I gave a lot of thought to the woman I'd want in my bed. I grew older and gave more thought to that woman, but it was also about the woman I wanted in my life. And she was you. Then I met you. And now, every day I wake up I cannot believe my luck because you're here."

Was he for real?

"How can you take a totally insane situation that should never happen, was intense and humiliating, and turn it into something I never want to forget in my whole life?" I asked.

"Because you love me," Raiden answered.

"Oh, right. That's how," I muttered.

His fire burned white-hot.

"Get over here," he growled.

I got over there.

The instant I did he crushed me in his arms, buried his face in my neck and I went up in flames.

It felt great.

Late that evening...

Wearing a tank and pajama shorts, I lay astride Raiden in my bed, my eyes watching my fingertips exploring his collarbone as I felt his fingertips exploring the skin of my thighs.

"Are you really going to make her life a misery?" I asked his collarbone.

"Meg?" he asked me, and I looked at him.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Yeah," he confirmed, and I tipped my head to the side.

"Really?"

"That situation was intense It embarra.s.sed you and it should never have happened. She should never have walked in there in the first place, but she did. I gave her a chance to walk away, she didn't. Now she's gotta learn a lesson."

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"Somethin' that'll make her learn that lesson."

"Raid-" I started, but his hands lifted up and gripped me at my hips.

"You don't f.u.c.k with me," he declared firmly. "She f.u.c.ked with me."

That she did.

I said nothing.

"And she f.u.c.ked with you," he went on. "She saw you were freaked and she went in for the kill. You don't f.u.c.k with me. You absolutely do not f.u.c.k with you."

"Okay, but that led to us-"

"No, Hanna. No." He shook his head on my pillow. "Love knowin' you love me, feels good you knowin' I love you, but that was ours to share and we would have eventually done it anyway. But what I share with you in bed is mine. It's yours. It's ours and no one else's. She watched me take you, and I don't give a s.h.i.t she was only there at the end, that's not hers to have. She doesn't get to hear the words I say to you when I'm inside you and she doesn't get to hear what you whisper to me. And no one, but no one, gets to share in you comin' for me."

I had to admit, he was right. I didn't like that she got that from us either.

"So she pays back," Raiden declared. "She hates her job, she's not gonna have it much longer. She likes to haunt a certain bar, she's gonna find herself not welcome there anymore. She rents, her landlord is suddenly gonna rethink her tenancy. Next time she wakes up and feels like bein' a b.i.t.c.h, she'll think again."

I felt my eyes get big.

"Are you seriously going to do all that?"

"I am seriously gonna do all that."

"Holy Moses. Now I feel sorry for her."

"You should, baby. She's a sad, lonely b.i.t.c.h who needs to eat a sandwich and get a life."

It was mean, but he was funny so I started giggling.

Raiden smiled as he watched, his arms moving to circle me.

When I quit giggling, he remarked, "Speakin' about people f.u.c.kin' you. You're gonna be getting a check from Bob."

I was confused. "Bob?"