“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.