“Never.”

I snatched her lips and kissed her roughly while she clung to my scalp, her fingers digging in. My mouth went deep over hers.

The sounds of us, her gasps, my grunts, the smacking of our bodies …

“You, all for you.”

She screamed out her orgasm, her legs locking around my hips.

I let out a shout as I came inside her, the most intense pleasure I’d ever felt shuddering through me, a wave of heat and desire and need that culminated in one burst of sensation. My body rippled and jerked with aftershocks, and I panted over her, my chest heaving like I’d run a marathon.

HE HANDED OVER my skirt and shirt, a little smile on his full lips as he watched me dress. I took my time, liking his hot gaze on me as I slipped them back on, my legs and arms loose from our crazy sex.

“Orgasm aside, I’m really pissed at you right now.”

He speared me with a cocked eyebrow as he adjusted his shorts. “Do I have to ask?”

“That fight,” I called out, getting worked up again at his blasé attitude. “You’re taking a huge risk for money, I get that, but if you get caught you can go to jail. It might be hard to run a business from a cell, Declan.”

“You’re gorgeous when you get your knickers in a twist, you know that?”

I crossed my arms. Why was it so hard to be mad at him? He raked his gaze over me and rubbed his jaw, that intense look on his face like he was going to devour me. Again.

He grinned. “I almost got my arse kicked, and I don’t even give a damn because we’re going back to my flat for the next round. I want you naked and in my bed, and I’m going to make love to you until you aren’t mad at me anymore.” He reached out and tentatively touched my face with his swollen hands.

Well. I couldn’t say no to that.

WE DROPPED DAX off at the Tau house and then went to Declan’s apartment. He immediately went to the bathroom to clean up the blood and wash out the cuts. Dax and I had tried to get him to stop by the ER, but he refused, saying he’d had worse, and in the long run, it meant less questions being asked.

Speaking of questions, even though we’d had make-up sex in the alley, I still didn’t know where things stood between us.

I’d been rummaging through his fridge when I heard him shout from the bathroom. I tore open the door and found Declan pouring a bottle of antiseptic over his hands. Bruises that I hadn’t seen in the alley before, ugly, purple splotches, decorated his ribs and back.

Anger filled me. Dammit, I wanted to kill the Yeti. Declan wouldn’t even be paid for this fight. My hands fluttered around him. “You can’t do this again. Please tell me you won’t.”

“We’re getting in this shower together, and there will be very little talking involved.”

Oh, he was frustrating. I put my hands on my hips. “No.”

He didn’t say anything as he packed up his gauze and put it back in the cabinet, his face a mask. With his back to me, he shoved his shorts down, his back rippling with hard muscle as he bent over to turn on the shower. Water beat down, tapping on the ceramic.

“What? You’re just going to ignore me now?” I huffed, part of me lusting after his body, the other part of me wanting to smother him with my pitiful nursing abilities.

“If we’re going to do this thing …” My voice trailed off when he bent over to get a towel, his forearm brushing against the skin on my shoulder. I hissed. God, he was beautiful.

“And I know you’re trying to distract me, so just stop being all sexy and listen to me—”

He stepped in the shower and closed the glass door, effectively cutting me off.

I huffed and paced around, mulling.

Why was he so stubborn?

I came to a stop. It was no wonder we were in love with each other; we were just alike, neither one of us willing to budge.

I stopped in my tracks. My heart jackhammered. Love? Had I just thought love ?

I realized a thousand things at once, as if they’d been there the entire time, just waiting for me to see them. Of course it was love.

Loving Declan was like the rain storms I loved to dance in. Crazy and unpredictable, sometimes turbulent, sometimes gentle. I didn’t know if I was going to be struck by lightning, but one thing was for sure, I wanted him anyway. Fighting and all. Somehow we’d make it all work. If he could accept my past and love me anyway, then I sure as hell could handle whatever the future brought for us.

I’d wasted so much time with my one-night stands and rules about life. It had never been about proving to myself I could be normal and have sex and not let Colby win. For two years, I’d been punishing myself. I’d hunkered down in my grief and tried to end it all. Why had I let a mere boy destroy me?