He laughed as though I’d said something so wrong that it had to be laughable. “Just take the damn jacket,” he said as he held it in his outstretched hand.

I took it from him and put it on. It was still warm from his body heat and immediately made the temperature outside more bearable.

My voice fell flat. “Thanks.”

“Why did you come up here?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Same reason as you, I guess. I wanted a quiet place to gather my thoughts.”

We both stood silently, looking out at the city for a while. Then I decided that I didn’t really have anything to lose by asking him a question that had been rattling around in my head since it had happened.

“Why didn’t you tell Adam about the stone room?” I asked him.

Michael didn’t answer. He didn’t even look at me. But I could see his shoulders and jaw tense up.

“And why—”

“Why can’t I get away from you?” he interrupted with a yell as he lunged at me and wrapped his hand around the back of my head and yanked me half-over the side of the railing. I tried to scramble back to solid footing on the roof and to grab the railing with my hands, but he was dangling me too far over the edge to be able to reach onto anything.

My backbone was pressed against the railing, and my feet were off the ground as Michael held onto me with one of his hands behind my head and one arm behind my back. His pelvis pressed against mine and kept me from dropping over the side of the building. I felt the rush of wind around me, and the fear of free falling to my death became a very real possibility as the scenario flashed across my mind.

“Michael, please!” I exclaimed as I looked into his feverish eyes. “Let me up. I’ll stay away from you, I promise. Just let me up, and you can pretend like I never existed.”

I tried to grab onto his forearms as the wind pulled his jacket off me and sent it hurtling down toward the streets below.

“That’s the problem,” he said. “I can’t pretend you never existed.”

His look intensified, and I stared at him in horror as I knew that he was about to drop me over the side of the building. But instead of letting me go, Michael pulled me up over the edge and into him. His arms held me like a strong cage as he kissed me, and even though I wanted to hate him more than anyone else in the world, I couldn’t help but kiss him back.

Just like it had been in the stone room, my body felt like it was igniting with a heat that defied the cold outside. We pushed our bodies together and pulled each other closer. As my heart pounded in my ears, I found myself wanting him more than I had ever wanted anyone before.

It didn’t make any sense, the relentless longing that I felt for this man that I hated so passionately. I had Julian and Adam, two men that wanted and protected me. But right then, all I desired was the one thing that I shouldn’t have…the man that might have been at the heart of my mother’s murder.

Michael kissed me with a fury that pushed everything else from my mind. I drank in the taste of his tongue and ran my hands down his torso and into his pants. He shook as I touched him and then lifted me up to set me onto his waist. I wrapped my legs around him and felt his hands press against my bare back as he carried me toward the glass-enclosed greenhouse in the gardens.

He kicked open the door, and we stumbled inside together, a mess of roaming hands as we tried to get closer despite our clothes. The little greenhouse was warm and carpeted with soft grass that he knelt onto as we both started to remove our clothes as quickly as we could possibly get them off. There was no teasing this time, no hesitation or waiting.

Only a burning, confusing wantonness deep within the pit of my gut.

And it seemed it was at the pit of his gut, too.

There was only a nameless, impassioned and unquenchable need that rose between us without a moment to wait. When he climbed over me, I spread my thighs and pulled his mouth back to mine. And as his tongue swept inside my mouth, I arched my back, and he pushed inside of me until he could go no farther. Taking what I had willingly given this boy I hated too much for words. I gasped into his mouth as he moaned. While the conflicted emotions inside my head fought with each other for control, I willingly and blissfully let go of my virginity as Michael moved inside me.

And the electricity that sizzled through my body would forever hold me hostage.

The way his cock stroked every single part of me at once left me breathless. The pain mixed with pleasure as he tore through the one thing I had held onto since my childhood washed over me and pulled me into another realm. His hands pinned me down. My legs locked around his waist. His growling and panting caused my nipples to pucker as his lips attached to my neck. I felt his girth thickening. I felt my walls pulsing. His tightly-wound curls raked against my swollen clit, which peeked out from between my dripping wet lips just for a taste of the action.

I never wanted it to end.

There, on the rooftop of the aquarium, beneath the light of the stars, I made love to the man who I knew in my heart was responsible for my mother’s death. Maybe tomorrow I would go back to hating him, and maybe even trying to kill him. But tonight, all I wanted was to feel him inside of me. All I wanted was to kiss him and stare into his tortured blue eyes and pretend that none of the rest of it was real except this moment.

“Sweet holy fuck,” he grunted.

My fingers intertwined with his. “Don’t stop. Please.”

“Couldn’t stop me if you tried.”

He moved faster and faster, his pace furious as the sounds of skin slapping against skin filled the space around us. Pleasure wafted through my body, curling my toes in my heels and brushing goosebumps all across my limbs. My jaw unhinged to cry out in pleasure, but his mouth captured my own. His tongue owned me, sliding over the roof of my mouth and causing my pussy to clamp around his dick.

And when he growled down the back of my throat, I felt myself unwinding.

“Yes, yes, yes,” I chanted against his lips.

He sucked on my lower lip as my breasts jumped with his furious movements. He released my hands and wrapped his own around my throat, pressing against my pulse points. My eyes bulged. The world began to fade around me. For the smallest second, I thought this was it. That he’d kill me while taking what he thought he had a right to.

What I had freely given to him in a moment of weakness.

“Come with me,” he commanded. “Do it now, beautiful.”

And at his words, my eyes rolled into the back of my head.

Fireworks exploded behind my eyelids as his movements became stuttered. My pussy milked his dick, pulling him deeper as his hands tightened on the sides of my neck. The heady sensation that rocked my body made me feel as if I were floating. I was no longer in control of my movements, or my sounds, or even my own mind. I lost control of my own body, succumbing to Michael’s powerful presence.

And when I felt him filling me, my body collapsed in glorious exhaustion.

When our trembling bodies were satiated—and the line between enemies and lovers had been crossed with a single act of ecstasy—Michael laid his body against my own and looked into my eyes with the same equal measure of turmoil that I felt.

Yet, when he smoothed my wild hair away from my forehead, I could’ve sworn I saw something akin to tenderness behind his eyes.

“I couldn’t stay away from you,” he croaked. “I tried.”

I swallowed hard. “I know.”

His eyes danced between my own. “Lisette, I—”

I lifted my finger and put it over his lips before he could finish talking. Then I leaned up to kiss him and felt him surge against me. I felt his cock stiffening once more as it grew against my walls again. His cock, still sheathed within me, rising and ready for another round. He wanted more, that much I knew. The kicker was, I wanted more as well.

But, his voice pierced the moment.

“I need to tell you something,” he said. “Please.”

It was the first time I had ever seen him look remorseful instead of arrogant. “I’ll understand if you don’t ever talk to me again. I’ll even understand if you do something horrible to me. But I can’t keep it from you now any longer.”

You killed my mother.

“You don’t have to tell me,” I said. “I already know.”

And even though I expected to see a look of guilt, or sorrow, or possibly even relief, all I got was a growing stare of wanton lust as he slowly pulled his cock out.