“There are rules, remember?” I think I hear a smile in his voice. The confidence of a man who thinks that he has won. “You’re mine, Nikki. Whenever and however I want. And wherever,” he adds, cupping my breast in his hand and squeezing my nipple between his thumb and forefinger so hard that it makes me gasp as pain mixes with pleasure and rockets through me all the way to my sex. “And where I want you is with me.”

“I am always with you,” I say, though I have to fight to form words. I open my eyes, my body on fire and desperate for his touch. I want his hands on me. I want his cock inside me. I am his and I want to surrender to him right there, to let him have me however he wants.

I want all that—but I also want to win this battle. And so I draw in a breath and say, slowly and firmly, “But I’m not moving in with you.”

He grabs my arms and pulls me to him. “Dammit, Nikki, this isn’t a game.”

I raise a brow. “Isn’t it, sir?”

I see him flinch, then the jerk of his arms as he releases me, pushing back so that he can stalk away from me.

I exhale, regretting my moment of bitchiness. “Damien, I’m fine.” My voice is gentle but firm. “That letter gives me jitters, too, but it’s just mail and bullshit. No one’s in the condo. I mean, Jesus, you’ve turned this place into a fortress. Just give it a rest, okay?”

“The hell I will,” he snaps. “I want you safe. Nothing is going to happen to you. I’m not losing you the way—” He cuts himself off and I’m left gaping at him.

“What? Dammit, Damien, is this about Sofia? You think her having gone missing has something to do with you?”

“I don’t have a clue why she’s gone missing,” he says.

“And it’s driving you crazy. And you aren’t telling me a goddamn thing.” I want to be understanding, really I do. I get that the situation is eating at him. His friend has disappeared. Some asshole is stalking me. And some potentially malevolent benefactor arranged for the dismissal of the charges against him in the worst way possible. He’s trying to grab control of all that, and it’s just slipping through his fingers. I get it; I do.

But at the end of the day that doesn’t change a thing.

“Do not fight me on this, Nikki.”

“Hell yes, I’m fighting. Why bother to put the gate around my apartment if you’re not going to trust that it will do its job? I mean, I don’t like getting nasty mail any more than you do, but for all we know it was mailed from Antarctica.”

He strides to me, all power and control and cool masculinity. He reaches out and his finger brushes my cheek, the shock of his touch sending sparks through me. “I don’t like being defied,” he says.

I suck in air, determined not to melt or back down. “I don’t like being bossed around.” I shift my feet, mentally planting my stance along with my posture. “You’re not winning this one, Damien. Deal with it.”

His finger trails down my neck to the collar of my T-shirt. “Do you have any idea how frustrated I am right now?”

I shudder, the light pressure of his touch sending all sorts of decadent promises swirling through me. “I know what you’re doing.” My words tremble. “It won’t work.”

“Won’t it?”

I close my eyes, shivering as his fingertip follows the curve of my breast. “I’m not giving in.”

He fists his hand around the collar of my shirt and tugs me close. “I’ll have you safe,” he murmurs. As he holds me in place with one hand, with the other he captures my waist.

He eases me backward, and I feel the bed press against the back of my thighs. My body tingles with awareness, but also with something new. This is the Damien I know so well, but there’s a quality to his touch I haven’t felt before. A take-no-prisoners attitude that excites me, making my inner thighs tingle and my cunt throb for his touch.

“I want to cup my hand around you,” he murmurs, sliding his hand over my sex as if in illustration, and then making me gasp when he uses that grip to lift me up onto the bed, the pressure from his thumb on my pubis and his palm over my sex so intense it send tremors though me, like portents of an explosion to come.

He lays me out on the bed, one hand stroking circles on my sex and the other cupping my breast. I moan, my hips gyrating to meet him, my back arching up to increase the pressure of his hand against my painfully sensitive nipple. “That protective bubble you mentioned? I want to keep you locked inside. Whatever it takes,” he says. “You can’t possibly know how much I need you.”

“I do.” I am not entirely sure how I manage to form words. Whatever game we are playing, I have conceded long ago. Whatever he wants from me, he can take. All I want right now is his touch.

Despite the heat in his eyes, the small shake of his head is almost playful. “It’s too big, too powerful. There is no start and no end, nothing with which I can measure the length and breadth of what I feel for you. I look at you and wonder how I can possibly survive the riot of emotions within me.”

“You make it sound almost painful.” My words are soft, gently teasing.

“You and I know better than anyone how pain and pleasure walk hand in hand. Passion, Nikki, remember? And with you, it fills me.”

I swallow, undone by both his words and by the intensity with which he is speaking them.

“I want to hold you close. To cherish and protect you. To draw you in until we are so close that I am lost within you. I want to take you to bed, to watch the way your skin tightens beneath my fingers, the way your body awakens under my touch. I want to trail kisses over you until you are lost in so much pleasure that you don’t know where you end and I begin. I want to tie you up and fuck you until there is no doubt that you are mine. I want to dress you up and take you out, and show you off, this beautiful, vibrant, brilliant woman. Everything I’ve built? All my companies? All my billions? They have no value compared to you.”

I open my mouth to speak, but he hushes me with a gentle finger to my lips. “So no, Nikki. I will not take chances with your safety. I will not fight. I will not be defied. You don’t want to move in with me. That’s fine. I’ll move in with you.”

“Wait.” I shift, trying to prop myself up on my elbows. I’m still floating in a sensual haze and not at all sure I heard him right. “What?”

“You heard me. End of subject.”

“Damien, I—”

His hand is still on my cunt, and he slides a finger under my thong and inside me. I throw my head back and moan, only to be silenced by his firm, hard kiss. “I’m going to tie you up now, Nikki, and there will be no argument, no retraction. Are we clear?”

I nod helplessly. Liquid desire pools between my legs, making me hot and needy. My nipples tighten and my skin seems to vibrate simply from the pressure of the air against it.

“But first, I need you naked.” He slides his hand out from between my legs, and I mourn the loss of contact. Then he takes the hem of my T-shirt in his hands and skins it off me. He runs his finger over my bra, and I sigh from the delicious sensation of his fingertip gliding under the edge where my breast is bursting against the cup. “I like this,” he says, his voice soft. “I think we’ll keep this on. Now turn over,” he adds, making a circle with his fingers. “On your hands and knees.”