“Amanda, there’s nothing wrong with you liking it.”

“I never said I liked it,” she replied too quickly, blushing furiously in her epic-fail attempt to stare him down.

“Women don’t make the kind of love you did last night after being deeply offended. You were amazing.” He winked at her.

Amanda blinked, and her eyes filled with tears. It was like he was poking fun at a weakness in her. She wasn’t supposed to be acting like she’d be willing to let him do it again, let alone at his discretion. She was supposed to be breaking up with him, telling him to find some crazy party girl who lives her life with all bets off, a girl who likes it rough.

“Oh, baby. It’s okay.” As soon as Chase saw her well up, he put down his coffee and rose, going to her. He cradled one side of her face in his hand, gently kissing her other cheek. He wove his hand in her hair and swiped at her tears with his thumb before kissing her again. He was sensitive, but also familiar, and inadvertent chuckles continued to roll out of him. She was tousled and muddled and fretful, all swallowed up in his bathrobe. She was completely irresistible. Heaven help him, how was it possible to be more infatuated with her? He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her.

“The first time is always overwhelming, so many emotions and sensations going on. It’s a lot to come to grips with. Not to mention I probably wore you out and you’re exhausted. I don’t blame you for being confused. It’s gonna be all good, I promise.” His voice was a mellow coo even with the underlying chuckle.

“You sound so sure of yourself.” She wept angrily into his chest, further distressed that she couldn’t ignore how secure she felt in his arms. “You’re always so sure of yourself, it’s just not fair.”

“I just trusted you with the only secret I have; does that make you feel on more solid ground?”

She stopped weeping, lifting up her head. “This is your secret?”

A loud laugh erupted with his exhale. “How’d you hear about it?”

It was true. There was a definite ring of scandal to it. It was the kind of quirk that if found out would stick him into that category of smarmy bad-boy pro athletes who never quite shake the status. Chase was the spitting image of virtuous morality. He had easily kept this side of himself from her until she demanded he show it. Or maybe not so easily. He had become increasingly irritable, which had prompted her to push for an explanation. One she acted completely out of character to get, which coincidently summed up how she conducted herself since their relationship started.

“People with reputations for my sort of thing usually end up wearing it as a moniker, whether they want to or not. I’d like to keep this one to myself. I’d appreciate it if you did, too. No matter which way you end up going.”

“Going?” she repeated. It was one thing for her to consider leaving him, but his mentioning it didn’t sound remotely the same.

Chase took her hand and, grabbing her coffee cup with the other, led her over to where he had been sitting. He placed her mug on the island in front of the chair next to his and sat back in his own, watching her climb up onto it. Once she was seated, her feet dangled almost a foot off the ground.

Good God, she thought as she settled and folded her hands in her lap, is everything in this house tailor-made for a giant? Or did she just feel suddenly small and childlike? He wasn’t reading the paper anymore. As she got into her chair, he had gathered them and put them to the side. His eyes were still bright, but no longer teasing. She had his full attention.

“You probably have a lot of questions. What do you want to know?” Chase said seriously. “Ask away.”

“This is a sex thing for you?” Amanda dove right in.

“Mostly, but not always,” he answered before narrowing his eyes at her. “I certainly wasn’t turned on while you were hurling obscenities at me.”

She flushed anew at the change in his tone before remembering that he was the one with the explaining to do. She threw the inquisition right back on him. “If it’s a sex thing, why didn’t you tell me about it before? We’ve had lots of sex. You really could have inducted me into your inner circle in a way slightly less jarring.”

Chase shrugged and for just a moment looked boyishly contrite. “You really didn’t seem the type or pick up the vibe. Girls with a taste for it usually tip their hands pretty quick. I don’t even have to make like it’s my idea. They practically throw themselves over my lap when I even hint at it. Girls who aren’t into it are pretty clear it won’t be happening and that’s fine, too, but I have to admit, I lose interest. I never expected finding you would hit me so hard. I’m just so smitten with you. I didn’t want to take the chance of scaring you off. And you never misbehaved. Although”—his eyes began to gleam—“you zeroed right in on my biggest pet peeve. Ladies should talk like ladies. You timed it perfectly; my palm had really begun to itch. You’ve always made me work for it, why should this be any different? After last night, I’m confident you felt the vibe just fine.”

Amanda tried to sound offended, and couldn’t quite pull it off. “You think I provoked you on purpose?”

Chase smiled again, but he was regarding her closely. “I don’t think any of that really matters now, does it? It happened and you stayed. And I’m so glad you did. Like I said . . . amazing.”

“Are there any other surprises? Like is this an ass thing for you? You know, a fixation? Are you going to want to . . . ?” The question trailed off and her eyes grew wide.

Chase chuckled at the transparent look on her face. “Relax, angel. I crossed that one off my bucket list a long time ago. It was overrated. Of course, if it’s something you insist on trying, I’ll be happy to oblige, but it’s really not on my radar. I’m not interested in your gorgeous booty for that.”

“How’d you manage to keep it a secret?”

This time he laughed, deep and rich, in reaction to just how fast she wanted off the anal topic. Then took a moment to consider just how truthful he should be. There was no need to tell her about pain sluts or women so turned on by it, they often wanted more than even he felt comfortable giving. “It’s not the kind of thing people generally shout from the rooftops. But to give you the short version, a lot of one-night stands with horny groupies, women who drink too much and think too little. They come on stronger than a freight train when I’m on the road. I threaten, they request, everyone’s happy.”

Amanda’s mouth formed a thin, tight line and then twitched it from one side to the other. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work at all.

Chase grinned at her, delighted. “Security sweeps everywhere I go since I met you. As soon as you stop being stubborn and come with me on the road, you can tell me if they’re not doing a good job and I’ll fire them. And I’ve never brought a woman here.”

“Never?”

“Not for that,” he clarified with a wry grin. “Even if you believed only half of what you’ve heard, that still makes me fifty percent playboy. But I’ve always been careful about the women I have my picture taken with more than once. Women greedy for fame often don’t have a moral compass, and it’s hard to tell the difference. And this is my thing, the only thing I have that I can call my own. A lot of responsibility comes with being on a box of Wheaties. I may have played around a little at my places in Tampa and California, with women who had as much to risk as I did, but not here. This is where I call home. I made up my mind a long time ago that there was only one girl who would go over my knee here. I’ve spent a long time looking for you. I can’t believe you fell right into my lap.”

He indulged himself in a chortle at his own pun before grinning at her, his eyes shining like a kid who had gotten everything he wanted for Christmas. “Baby, I got it so bad for you, I can’t even stand it. You’re my total package.”

It couldn’t be happening. He was the walking, talking, living definition of the total package, with the possible exception of being able to go from zero to Neanderthal in under a minute. And he had just confessed he was mad about her, had been searching for her even.

“This is like the most jacked-up version of Cinderella ever,” she finally said.

Chase laughed again, and then settled his gaze back on her affectionately. “I never thought of it like that.”

“Maybe you’d prefer to hear my Superman theory?” Amanda giggled at the mental picture of him in full costume, swooping down and adjusting bad attitudes, one naughty girl at a time.

He actually looked like he was considering it, but he was really just enjoying the relief of those blue eyes looking at him playful and flirty, and all the things that look really meant. “Cinderella works for me. I have no problem getting in touch with my feminine side. And after all, I would like to believe I’ve found my princess. So now you know. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I should never have tried to keep it from you. But it’s who I am. I think it’s who you are, too, if you’re willing to trust me and explore it. I promise you, it can be downright fun. A steady partner in this particular crime is all new to me, too. We’ll figure it out. I have no desire to make you a submissive who does everything I say. Lord knows I have enough to do running my own life. You turned into an exceptional woman without my help—if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There’s no dungeon here where I want to tie you up and make you suffer. No deep, sinister plot. The worst thing that’ll ever happen is that every now and then, like last night, you may end up taking one for the team.”