“If you were with someone else, yeah. Letting them take you into a strange building at night would be crazy. But you’re with me.” He squeezes my hand. “And you’re not going places with other guys anymore. Not even as friends. Are you?”
His possessive tone causes a lustful twist beneath my belly button. There’s a part of me that knows I should pump the brakes on his ownership of me. I’m not like this. I don’t let anyone treat me like property. Collier tried to do that very thing before and I refused to allow it. In fact, it outraged me. With North, though…I like the way he claims me. I want to be claimed by him. To be unquestionably his. Is it okay to be possessed by someone as long as you’re choosing to be? Yes, I think so. And thank God for that, because I’m not sure I could deny what’s happening between us even if it was wrong.
“No,” I say to his back. “I’m not going anywhere with other guys anymore.”
“Say the rest.”
My nipples turn to spikes. “Not even as friends.”
“Good girl,” North says, stopping abruptly, turning and pulling me up against him. I expect to be kissed and I’m dying—dying for his mouth. So I’m surprised when he touches something behind me on the wall and the lights come on.
A gasp turns into a laugh as I register our surroundings.
We’re in a giant, windowless space.
There’s a pool. Several of them. Steam rises from their surfaces.
There are big, oversized lounge chairs around the perimeter of the room. Stacks of fluffy white towels on racks. The gentle hum of jets releasing bubbles beneath the water.
“What is this place? A…bath house?”
“More like a fancy club. I found it by accident. There isn’t even a sign downstairs to mark the entrance.” He looks around with a raised eyebrow. “I think it’s in Southie for a reason—whoever comes here wants to be off the radar.”
“Oooh. You think a lot of clandestine meetings take place in these heated pools?”
He shrugs. “You can’t wear a wire if you’re naked.”
I laugh, letting him pull me along slowly. “Do you come here a lot?”
“Only when I’ve had a particularly bad fight and I need to soothe a muscle or something.” We stop at the edge of a small, ornately tiled pool, steam rolling off the surface to curl around us. “Or if, say, I meet the girl of my dreams and want to impress her.”
“Who me?” I say, acting surprised.
“Yeah,” he rasps, brushing back my hair. “You, Grace Foster. Only you.”
I lean into his palm when he cups my cheek. “Well you’ve already succeeded. This is the best date I’ve ever been on. Eating spaghetti, meeting your sister. Doing science? The whole day, everything about it, has been perfect.”
He hums, tracing the line of my mouth with his thumb. “We haven’t even gotten to the best part yet.”
My breath runs short. “Are we? Going to get to it?”
“If we don’t, I’m pretty sure I’m going to die, so yeah. We’re getting to it. I just…” He blows out a breath that stirs my hair. “This is important. You’re…God, you’re so important. I’m making sure I do this right. I’m making sure you’re locked down before we go any further.”
A breathy laugh puffs out of me. “How much more locked down can I get?”
North’s eyes track over my face, his gaze taking on even more intensity—and I didn’t think that was even possible. But now? His energy is…adult. Male. Dominant. A little dark. And it excites me. Beyond my wildest imagination. “I’m going to undress you while we talk, Gracie.”
Oh my God.
What is coming?
My knees are trembling, but I nod.
Jaw clenched, North crouches down and unstraps my sandals, the delicate leather looking extra dainty in his scarred hands, and he removes them. Then he drags his fingertips up my legs from ankle to the hem of my skirt, slowly tugging the garment down to the floor. My tank top has been tucked in all day and I stupidly try and smooth out the wrinkles, but North catches my wrist, kissing my firing pulse and holding it away, his golden eyes captivated by my sheer, sapphire blue panties.
“Bet those were expensive.” He leans in, his hot breath feathering my stomach. Lower to my mound, his lips nudging me there. “Good. Only the best for this pussy.”
Letting go of my wrist, he hooks a finger into the waistband of the underwear and slowly, slowly, tugs the blue material down to mid-thigh, stopping to exhale shakily at the sight of my bare sex, before continuing. I can barely breathe while stepping out of the panties, and that’s before he stands, so tall I have to tip my head back, his hands gathering the hem of my tank top and peeling it upward, over my breasts. His eyes never leave mine as he strips off my top, those thick fingers going to work on the front clasp of my bra.
And then I’m naked.
Totally exposed, while North is still dressed, shoes and all. I’m vulnerable and achy and shaking, but not because I’m cold. No, it’s warm and humid in this place. It’s…I think it’s my body’s awareness of what’s coming.
North captures my chin and tilts it up, golden eyes boring into mine. “Give me permission to touch you—any part of your body—at any time. I want that trust. I need it.” Before I can answer, he lays a kiss on me that is so sexual, I whimper around his seeking tongue, my head growing dizzy from lack of oxygen before he pulls away, rolling his forehead against mine. “I want you to trust me—completely—to know when we need to fuck. When it’s been a hard day or you get wet out in public, if I pull you behind a parked car and unzip my pants to service you, I don’t want you to question me. I want you to trust that I’ve weighed the risk and that I’m going to keep you safe. That I would die for your safety. If you’re sad or stressed out, I want you to trust me to hold you and care for you, without sex. To know when it’s time to be between your legs—and when it’s not. I just want absolute fucking trust from you, Gracie, and I don’t know…I don’t know.” His fingertips dig into my hips, his forehead grinding on mine. “I’ve never felt like this before. It’s new. I don’t even know if it’s bad.”
Goosebumps occupy every inch of my skin. My head is spinning from his words. His confession. Our bodies crowd closer automatically and I feel his erection against my stomach, hard and long. There’s a voice in the back of my head whispering, you’re not a girl anymore. Not after tonight. And I know that to be true. Something is happening here. Maybe it’s premature, maybe we’re inspiring complicated, adult-level emotions in each other, but it’s too late to turn back now. We’re in the thick of it. “It’s not bad,” I gasp against his mouth, trying to recall every single detail of what he said. “I want t-to give you that trust, too. Making the decision once and then having it out of my hands…it’s exciting. It’s a relief. And I do trust you enough to give you that. To give you…control. Of what we do and when. Oh my God. It sounds crazy saying it out loud. It feels like I’m not supposed to, but I want it so bad.”
“I know you’re not supposed to.” His palms slide down over the cheeks of my backside and clutch roughly, making me whimper. “I’d knock a man’s teeth out if I heard him asking a girl for this…total permission. But it’s me and you, Gracie. I can’t stop. I look at you and I’m just honest.” His exhale is jagged. “I want no barriers between me and your body. It’s mine.”