CHRISTIAN

Stella didn’t move, though a hint of desire darkened her eyes at my velvet command.

“What’ll you do if I don’t comply?” Her tone remained light, but the electricity in the air intensified until it seeped beneath my skin and crackled in my veins.

My smile took on a more dangerous curve. “Stay in the water and find out.”

I’d give her ten seconds before I went in after her.

It’d been forty-eight hours since our last real interaction, and I already craved her closeness like an addict hungering for his next hit.

I’d given up any concept of distance between us. I wasn’t just fascinated with her—a puzzle to solve. Obsession felt simple to me now.

I needed her.

“You need to work on saying the word please. I promise it won’t kill you.”

Despite her dry observation, Stella finally moved. Her tall, slender frame cut through the shallows with fluid grace until the water cascaded off her and left only tiny, glittering droplets behind.

She stopped in front of me, so close I could smell the faint scent of coconut sunscreen and green florals mixed

with the salty kiss of the ocean.

I didn’t believe in paradise, nor did I believe I could reach it even if it existed, but she smelled exactly like how I imagined paradise would smell.

“Can’t promise something that’s yet to be tested, sweetheart.” I brushed my fingers over the sun-warmed jewels draped around her neck.

Seventy thousand dollars for one moment alone with her.

It was worth it.

The rhythm of her breaths stuttered. “You’re telling me you’ve never said the word please.”

“Never needed to. People do what I want anyway.” A chuckle vibrated in my chest at Stella’s adorable grumble.

“I should’ve stayed in the water and made you say please before I got out. Teach you a lesson.” She eyed me with curiosity. “What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you had work.”

“I finished.” Not all of it, but the rest could wait. “I couldn’t leave without visiting the set at least once.”

“I don’t know if watching me stand and pout is exciting,” she laughed. Her arms tightened over her chest, but neither of us made a move toward her clothes, which lay folded on a towel a few feet away.

“I could watch you count every grain of sand on the beach and it would be exciting.”

I wasn’t a patient man, nor was I one who dealt well with restlessness. That was why I enjoyed puzzles so much. They fed me the stimulation I required to stay sane, because God knew I couldn’t rely on other people to keep me interested.

Stella was the only exception. Her mere presence fascinated me more than any rambling monologue on film, travel, or whatever the fuck people liked to talk about.

Her laugh faded into a hitched breath at the conviction in my voice.

“But if you want to know the truth…” My hand skimmed from her necklace onto the delicate slope of her shoulder. “I didn’t come to watch the photoshoot.”

A gentle shiver rippled through her body when my touch trailed down her forearm.

“Then why did you come?” Her question expanded between us like it was the most important thing on the beach.

“For you.” I lingered on the soft, bare skin above her elbow. The sun blazed overhead, but it was nothing compared to the sparks igniting in the air. Thousands of embers peppered my skin and lit a trail of fire up my arm and into my chest. “Drop your arms for me, sweetheart. I want to see you.”

It was the closest I ever came to begging.

Silence shrouded us and suffocated any remaining traces of lightheartedness. In its place was something dark and textured that weighed heavy on my shoulders while I waited for Stella’s response.

The delicate column of her throat jumped as her eyes held mine.

Her eyes had always been her most expressive feature, like clear, jade-colored windows into her innermost thoughts. Every fear, every desire, every dream and insecurity.

For the first time, I couldn’t decipher what she was thinking by looking at her, but I could feel the indecision twisting her inside.

We’d been inching toward this line in our relationship since we signed our agreement, but we both knew that if we crossed it, there would be no going back.

My pulse slowed to match the interminable wait.

Then slowly, ever so slowly, Stella lowered her arms, and my pulse shifted from slow motion into high gear as it throbbed to the frantic rhythm of my heart.

I didn’t take my eyes off her face until she stood with her arms at her side and a ruddy flush beneath her tan. Only then did I allow my gaze to slide down and bask in the sight before me.

Firm, lush breasts tipped with sweet brown nipples that I ached to taste. Delicate curves and graceful limbs that dipped and rose beneath miles of luminous skin like a roadmap to a heaven I would never reach. And a tiny scrap of white fabric that covered her most intimate spot.

My cock turned to stone while a beast stirred in my chest, snarling at me to take her and mark her until it was clear to every single person who she belonged to.

Me.

Stella’s breaths left her in shallow puffs as she shifted beneath my scrutiny. She was clearly unused to someone staring at her for so long, but when she moved to cover herself again, I stopped her with a grip on her wrist.

“Don’t.” Desire roughened the edges of my voice. “You don’t need to cover yourself in front of me.”

“I don’t…I’m not…” Her throat moved again with a visible swallow. “It’s been a while since someone saw me like this.” Embarrassment coated her admission.

The fierce flame of possessiveness burned in my gut, a thousand times hotter than when I’d caught Ricardo staring at Stella after the shoot.

Of course, I knew she must’ve been naked in front of other men before—just as I knew I wanted to peel the skin off said men’s flesh and leave them to rot beneath the hot sun for daring to lay their eyes on her.

No one would ever be worthy of her.

“Define a while.” My lazy request didn’t hide the undercurrent of danger running beneath it.

Wariness flickered to life in her eyes. “Years.”

The beast in my chest was fully awake now, and it wanted to press further. Demand the name of every fucking

man who’d touched her so I could pay them a nice follow- up visit.

It took a good amount of willpower, but I caged those desires.

I was putting her on edge, and I didn’t want to waste our last day in Hawaii focused on insignificant people.

I may not be her first, but I would damn well be her last. Because once I took her, I would never let her go.

“I see.” My voice softened into velvet again. “And when was the last time someone touched you like this, Stella?”

I stroked her breast, mapping out the soft swell with my palm before I grazed a thumb over her nipple. It hardened instantly, and a smile ghosted my mouth at her sharp inhale.

“I…I don’t remember.”

Beads of sweat bloomed high on Stella’s forehead when my touch roughened, and I pinched her nipple hard enough to elicit another, even sharper gasp.

Her hand shot up to grasp my wrist. “Christian.”

My name fell off her lips in a sweet, breathless plea, but it might as well be the shot from a starting pistol.

One word, and the full force of my desire snapped from its leash.

I wanted to swallow the sound of my name from her mouth, see if she tasted as sweet as she made it sound or if it was dirty and wanton, like sin made verbal. More than that, I wanted to bury myself inside her, paint her with my cum, and ruin her so thoroughly it made the fall of the angels look like child’s play.

I would never make it to heaven, but that didn’t matter as long as she ruled beside me in hell.

Stella was made to be my queen.

Towering cliffs bracketed the beach, their steep walls worn smooth by the elements, and a gasp escaped Stella’s throat when I pushed her against the nearby rockface.

My cock throbbed in sync with my pulse as I hooked a finger inside the string-tied waistband of Stella’s bikini bottom and tore it off with one sharp tug.

A tortured groan rumbled in my chest at the sight of her already wet and glistening for me. She looked like a mythical goddess against the dark rock, all sinuous limbs and brown skin. Jewels encircled her neck where I wished my hands were, adorning her, caressing her, owning her.

The throbbing intensified until it was all I could see and hear.

I wanted to fall to my knees and worship her with my mouth. To touch her, taste her, fucking drown in her.

Every need and fantasy rushed through me at once, but there would be time for all of them later.

I finally had her in my hands, and I wasn’t going to rush any stop along the way.

“You’re fucking drenched, Butterfly.” Lust rendered my voice unrecognizable as I dipped a hand between her legs. Her head fell back against the wall, and a moan scattered on the wind when I played lazily with her clit, circling and rubbing the swollen bud until her juices slicked my fingers. “Do you like this, hmm? Being spread wide and finger fucked where anyone can see you?”

No one would. And if they did, I would kill them before they could leave with memories of her naked form embedded in their brain.

Stella was mine and mine alone.

She was panting so loudly the sound almost drowned out the roar of my pulse.

I’d never lost control during sex. My previous encounters had been transactional, outlets for physical release and nothing more.

With her, I was undone before we’d even begun.

“I asked you a question, Stella.” The silkiness of my statement betrayed the ruthless game I played with her

arousal, pulling her to the edge and withdrawing just before she tipped over the edge. “Answer me.”

“I…” Stella’s pants reached a fever pitch when I pressed against a particularly sensitive spot. “I don’t…”

“Wrong answer.” I collared her throat with my other hand, pinning her against the rocky wall while I pushed her legs wider with my thigh. I kept the pressure of my thumb against her clit and slid a finger inside her tight, wet heat.

Desire flamed hotter with every inch deeper I went and every pant of her breath against my skin.

I wanted to swallow every gasp and feel every sigh against my lips until I consumed her and made her mine in every fucking way.

“I’ll ask you again.” I pushed my finger to the hilt and withdrew it slowly, wrangling the loudest moan from her yet. “Do you like being finger fucked out in the open like a good little slut?”

Stella squirmed, her body instinctively rebelling against the onslaught of sensation, but her struggles were futile against my iron grip.

“Yes.” Her admission spilled out as a choked sob. “Please…oh God…”

Her head tipped back again as I dragged my fingers out and rubbed a lazy circle on her clit with my thumb before I slammed them back in.

Stella wasn’t a screamer, but her little gasps and whimpers were the sexiest things I’d ever heard.

She writhed against the rock, her lids heavy and her mouth half-parted in a ceaseless moan. One hand splayed against the rock while the other fisted my hair hard enough to sting.

Lust soaked the air so thoroughly it would only take a graze to light the match on the gasoline of our desire.

Thin sheens of sweat that had nothing to do with the tropical heat misted our bodies, and the open nature of it

all—the wind on my back, the ocean mere steps away—only heightened the eroticism.

There was nothing artificial about this moment. It was real and raw and so fucking perfect I wanted to keep us here forever, troubles in D.C. be damned.

“Scream for me, sweetheart.” I pushed a second finger inside her, stretching her. My cock ached to replace my hands. I was close to losing it, and she hadn’t even touched me. “Let me hear how much you love this.”

The wet, filthy sounds of my fingers pumping in and out of her told me what I needed to know, but I wanted to hear her.

I wanted her to let go.

The volume of Stella’s moans grew, but she still held back, her muscles visibly taut from the effort.

“Please,” she whimpered. “I can’t…I…”

“Let go, Stella.” My mouth grazed her ear. “When I tell you to scream, I want you to fucking scream. Or I’ll bend you over and spank your ass raw until you beg me to let you scream.”

A surprised but wicked smile touched my lips when she clenched around my fingers at the threat.

I increased the pace of my pumps while I lowered my head and drew her nipple into my mouth.

I groaned.

She tasted just as good as I’d imagined. Sweet and perfect, made just for me.

I laved and sucked, teasing the tip until it hardened into a diamond peak. I moved on to her other breast, alternating back and forth and licking and suckling like I was a man starved.

I couldn’t get enough.

The taste of her against my tongue was fucking heaven. Silky and addictive, like a shot of pure lust into my bloodstream.

I gently clamped my teeth around one of her nipples, flicked a firm tongue across its sensitive tip, and tugged at the same time I pressed against her clit.

After a breathless, suspended moment, she finally shattered.

Stella’s cry of release drenched the air as she came in a shuddering, toe-curling orgasm that vibrated against my body.

I lifted my head, ignoring the insistent ache in my groin to soak in her dazed expression.

“Good girl,” I murmured, withdrawing my hand.

We remained in our positions while Stella caught her breath—her back pressed against the rock, my body curved over hers in a protective shield.

She turned those slumberous green eyes on me, looking so innocent and content it formed an iron fist around my heart.

“Kiss me.” Her whisper washed over my skin and tightened my muscles until every molecule of my body hummed with anticipation.

I shouldn’t, for both our sakes.

Giving her release was one thing. Kissing was a whole other.

I could own every orgasm. I could stay buried inside her to feel her trembles as she gave in to me. But a kiss? It would touch a part of me I’d kept buried and hidden.

A kiss with her wouldn’t be just a kiss. It would be my fucking end.

A shadow of uncertainty passed through Stella’s eyes at my hesitation, and it was that split second of darkness that killed me.

She’d lived her whole life feeling unwanted by those closest to her.

I couldn’t make her feel the same way.

Not when I needed her more than my next breath, and not when I would rather cut off my arm than deny her

anything.

My resistance crumbled like a sandcastle at high tide.

I let out a low curse before I groaned, fisted her hair, and slammed my mouth down on hers.

Despite what I’d said about love being a drug, Stella was my greatest high.

A temptation with no escape. An obsession with no end.

An addiction with no cure.

 

 

STELLA

Christian kissed the way I imagined he fucked: hot and commanding, with a whisper of sensuality that softened its ruthless edge.

It made every kiss I’d had before look like an imitation, because Christian Harper’s mouth on mine was nothing short of a revelation.

The defenses I’d constructed around my heart crumbled.

I was tumbling, dizzy with his taste and the way he gripped the back of my neck, every ragged inhale and sighed exhale an exchange of parts of me I didn’t know I had to give.

He molded me against him and stripped away my layers, one by one, until there was only me left.

No walls, no masks.

For the first time, I felt free.

I tangled my hands in his hair right as he hooked his hands beneath my thighs and lifted me without breaking the kiss. I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist and shivered when I felt the hardness of his arousal against my stomach.

I didn’t care much for sex. My previous experiences with it had been lackluster, and I only did it because I held onto

hope that one day, I would understand what all the fuss was about.

But at that moment, the only thing I could think about was whether Christian was as skilled in bed as he was with his fingers.

When I tell you to scream, I want you to fucking scream.

Or I’ll bend you over and spank your ass raw until you beg me to let you scream.

The memory of his words spread liquid fire through my veins.

He swept his tongue along the seam of my lips, demanding entry again, and I granted it. A sigh of pleasure drifted from my mouth to his when his thumb caressed my nape and he devoured me so thoroughly that I didn’t know where I ended and he began.

He tasted like heat and spices, a combination so addictive I could easily spend the rest of my life consuming him and only him.

A sting of pain sharpened the pleasure when he nipped my bottom lip and smiled at my surprised gasp.

“You asked for a kiss, Stella.” Christian’s rough voice scattered tingles through my stomach. “This is how I kiss.”

The words touched my skin like open flames.

I drew his bottom lip between my teeth. Gently tugged.

And released.

“Just the way I like it,” I said.

His resulting groan brought a smile to my face. I normally wasn’t this bold, but I loved the idea that I could make Christian Harper lose control.

“You’re going to be the death of me.” He lifted one hand and rubbed a thumb over my cheek, his eyes darkening as the shadows rose to the surface. “You never should’ve let me kiss you, Stella. Because one taste isn’t fucking enough.”

His words and the touch of his gaze warmed me more than the tropical sun. “Who says it has to be one?”

He let out another groan before he kissed me again, hungrily and thoroughly, like a man starved.

The delicious slide of his tongue against mine renewed the ache between my legs, and everything fell away except for the heat of his skin, the race of my heart, and the firmness of his touch.

I’d never wanted someone as much as I did Christian, and the press of my bare breasts against his torso made me all too aware of the choice I’d made when I dropped my arms for him.

Risk over safety. Desire over comfort.

No regrets.

It wasn’t the dirty words or sinful desires. It wasn’t the way he’d fucked me with his fingers or wrapped his hand around my throat.

It was the kiss and the way it made me feel, like I could be the truest version of myself.

I sighed with pleasure at the skilled command of Christian’s mouth.

I could have stayed there forever, wrapped in his arms on that secluded beach, but the air grew cooler and the setting sun stretched long shadows over us.

“What time is the wrap party?” he murmured, cutting through the haze in my mind.

Oh no. I had nearly forgotten about the Delamonte wrap party tonight. “Um…” I fumbled for the answer. “Eight.”

“It’s almost seven.” Christian ran his thumb along my hip. “We should head back soon.”

“Right.” I masked my disappointment as he helped me to my feet.

“You really love that dress,” he remarked as I pulled on my swimsuit and slipped the lemon-print cotton dress over it. It was one of my favorites. “You’ve worn it five times since spring.”

My breath caught, then escaped in a surprised laugh. “I didn’t know you noticed what I wore.”

“I notice everything about you.”

This time, my breath vanished entirely, replaced by a smile that felt impossibly big and a light-headed giddiness that threatened to lift me off the ground, if not for the way Christian kept me anchored by his side.

I didn’t reply, but the high carried me back to our hotel.

Yet as I began to prepare for the wrap party, that giddiness gradually faded, leaving a void for my doubts to creep in like unwelcome guests.

I’d kissed Christian. Christian, my fake boyfriend.

Christian, the man who’d told me straight out he didn’t believe in love.

Christian, who set my heart on fire even as a voice in my head warned that the fire could destroy me from the inside out if I wasn’t careful.

Not only had I kissed him, I’d asked him to kiss me after I let him bring me to orgasm on a beach during a work trip.

What have I done?

This was why I shouldn’t be left alone with my thoughts.

I ruined every good moment by overanalyzing it to death.

I put on my earrings.

It’s fine. Everything will be fine.

“You look beautiful.”

My heart skipped a beat. I turned my head, and my doubts retreated into the shadows once again when I saw Christian leaning against the doorframe, watching me get ready.

The slumberous heat in his eyes lit a trail of tiny fires across my skin while the memory of what we did earlier pulsed between us like a living thing.

If we hadn’t needed to leave the beach…

“Thank you.” My voice came out huskier than normal. I turned back to the mirror and lifted my hair off my neck. “Zip me up?”

The soft falls of his footsteps matched the thuds of my pulse.

“I love this dress on you.” His gaze slid over my silk dress in an electric caress.

Breathe.

“I thought you don’t believe in love,” I teased.

“You’re right. That was the wrong word.” Christian touched the small of my back while his eyes met mine in the mirror.

“Because love is ordinary. Mundane. And you, Stella…” The soft rasp of the zipper filled the air as he dragged it up my spine in one exquisitely, torturously slow glide.

My breath left my lungs at both the sensuality of the movement and the raw intimacy of his next words.

“You’re extraordinary.”