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Then I take her mouth like I’ve been starving for it. No coaxing. No patience. A kiss that turns her consent into permission to ruin her. It drags a startled sound from her throat before she melts into it.

Her lips are softer than I expected. Warmer. Real enough to make my head go empty.

I kiss her like memory is optional and attachment would be a mistake. As if this is nothing but heat and hunger and the brief, brutal relief of wanting something I don’t have to explain.

I need the reminder. That I’m still in my body. Still capable of wanting something immediate and physical and uncomplicated.

With her mouth under mine, I can almost believe it.

I keep one of her wrists pinned as my other hand goes to the ties of her dress. I yank, and the fabric gives way beneath my hands. Soft, heated skin meets my palms. Her breath breaks, a low sound slipping free.

I strip the rest aside and let the night air claim her skin before I do. My mouth follows, unhurried but intent, claiming her tightly peaked nipple. One sharp pull that makes her jolt.

She melts against me, docile under my control.

“Please, Robert… I want you. I want you inside me.”

“You’ll wait,” I tell her low.

My hand moves with purpose, not curiosity. I’m not exploring her; I’m shaping her responses, drawing them out until her body answers the way I will it to.

When she presses closer, I shift my stance, easing my thigh between hers and holding her there. I don’t rush it. I make her feel exactly what I’m allowing—enough contact to pull a strangled breath from her before she forces it back down.

I give her nothing in return. Not yet.

I move her against me in slow, deliberate shifts—enough to make her breathing hitch and her knees soften—while I remain maddeningly composed on the outside.

Somewhere behind us, laughter drifts across the yard. The thought of getting caught like this sends an unusual thrill coursing through my body.

Then the reality of it bites. One wrong sound and it won’t be my name they carry around tomorrow. It’ll be hers. People love a scandal when it costs them nothing—love it even more when it costs a woman everything.

I won’t hand them that.

“Quiet,” I murmur, mouth near her ear. “Unless you want half the place wanderin’ over to see what you’ve got yourself into.”

She nods, biting it back as I crowd her space until there’s nowhere left for her to retreat. I hold her there, suspended in that space where restraint becomes agony and surrender tastes like relief.

Then I decide I’m done waiting.

We slip deeper into the shadowed alcove, and the dark closes around us. I turn her into the stone and crowd in, body to body, until there’s nowhere for her to put that need except against me. My mouth brushes her ear.

“Here,” I murmur. “Now you can beg where no one hears—except me.”

My cock throbs hard against my trousers, straining as I grind it into her hip. She gasps, her hands clutching at my shoulders, nails digging in through the fabric.

I yank her dress up higher, bunching the skirts around her waist, exposing the soft skin of her thighs and the heat between them. No undergarments—nothing to slow me down. My fingers slide between her legs, finding her cunt already slick and swollen. I rub her clit roughly, circling it with my thumb while two fingers push inside her, thrusting deep and fast. She whimpers loudly, head falling back against the wall.

“Let it out,” I murmur in her ear. “I want to hear it… want to hear how well you take what I give you.”

She jolts at my words, turning her face toward my neck like she doesn’t know whether to hide or chase it. Her walls clench around me, hot and wet, pulling me in deeper. I add a third finger, stretching her, preparing her for what’s coming. She’s dripping now, her arousal coating my hand, running down her thighs.

I pull my fingers out abruptly, bringing them to my mouth to taste her—salty, sweet, desperate. Then I unfasten my trousers with one hand, freeing my cock. It’s rock hard, the head already leaking as I stroke it once, twice, lining it up with her entrance.

“Get ready to take all of me,” I murmur, already closing the distance. “I’ve waited long enough.”

She obeys, her thighs trembling as I grip her rear and lift her, pinning her between me and the wall. With one brutal thrust, I bury my cock inside her tight heat.

Her breath punches out—eyes going wide. “Robert,” she gasps.