It’s been five years since I’ve seen her.

Five years since Gabriella James damn near destroyed me with her betrayal, sending me to hell in a cage.

I’ve crawled free, escaped the mob, opened a night club, and continue to battle my demons through underground fighting and sex. But now Gabriella’s back, begging for absolution, wanting my forgiveness. All I want is what she’s denied me for all these years — her body.

Sex. That’s all we’ll ever have.

Because Gabriella is still keeping secrets. I see it in her eyes.

I don’t trust her, and I’ll never forgive her betrayal.

But that won’t stop me from taking her.

Over...and over...and over...

“Leave the clothes,” he reiterated.

She shook her head, her grasp on her jeans tightening. “Humiliation wasn’t part of this bargain. I’m not walking out of here without any pants on.” A shadow crossed his face even as his lips firmed into a straight line.

“Humiliate you? You think I want to give every motherfucker out there material to go home and fuck their fist to? Let them look at those thighs and imagine them wrapped around their waist? Their head? No, Gabriella, my intention isn’t to humiliate you,” he murmured, the silken tone all the more dangerous.

“My sole focus is hustling your pretty little ass next door and upstairs as fast as possible. Whatever you think about me, I’d never place you in harm’s way, and that includes exposing you. Now,” he lowered his face until she could easily detect the green flecks in his golden eyes. Something flickered in those eyes. The same thing that, for just a moment, softened his mouth so he appeared almost...vulnerable. Hungry. No, no. Need. Like he needed her to walk out of this room with him. But in the next instant, the emotion disappeared behind a shuttered mask.

“Are you in...or out?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she dropped the clothes and walked to the door, that brief flash of...whatever accomplishing what the pretty little ass and the possessive tone he’d uttered it in couldn’t.


Naima Simone’s love of romance was first stirred by Johanna Lindsey, Sandra Brown and Linda Howard many years ago. Well not that many. She is only eighteen…ish. Though her first attempt at a romance novel starring Ralph Tresvant from New Edition never saw the light of day, her love of romance, reading and writing has endured. Published since 2009, she spends her days—and nights— creating stories of unique men and women who experience the first bites of desire, the dizzying heights of passion, and the tender, healing heat of love.

She is wife to Superman, or his non-Kryptonian, less bullet proof equivalent, and mother to the most awesome kids ever. They all live in perfect, sometimes domestically-challenged bliss in the southern United States.