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.