Chapter 10
DONOVAN
I stare at my laptop screen, jaw tight as the encrypted message comes through at two in the afternoon.
This is the third shipment in two months with discrepancies. Either our suppliers are getting sloppy, or someone’s skimming.
Both options are unacceptable.
I pull up the transfer records, cross-referencing them with the manifests Marco sent. The math is simple. We paid for a specific amount. We received less.
Me: Find out who. I want names by tonight.
Marco: On it.
I close the laptop and lean back in my desk chair. This is my job. The corporate side of our operations. Making sure money flows where it needs to flow, that our legitimate businesses provide cover for the less legitimate ones, that everything balances on paper even when it doesn’t in reality.
Dad handles strategy. Kai handles enforcement. I handle the infrastructure that keeps it all running.
Usually, I’m good at compartmentalizing. Business is business. But today, I can’t focus.
Because Samantha is in this house, and I can’t stop thinking about her.
The way she looked at breakfast this morning. The way she laughs at Kai’s jokes. The way she and Dad have been circling each other all week with an energy that makes the air feel electric.
I noticed the shift between them. I’d have to be blind not to.
And instead of being bothered by it, I’m jealous that my father got there first.
I need to clear my head.
I change into swim trunks and head to the pool house, grabbing a towel on my way out. The pool house is separate from the main residence, connected by a heated walkway. Floor-to-ceiling glass on three sides, heated pool, hot tub, sauna. One of my favorite places on the estate.
I push open the door and stop.
Samantha’s in the pool.
She’s doing laps in a black one-piece swimsuit. She moves through the water like she’s been swimming her whole life.
I close the door behind me and set my towel on one of the lounge chairs.
She reaches the wall and surfaces, pushing wet hair back from her face. Then she sees me. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know anyone else was here.”
“Don’t apologize. It’s a shared space.” I move closer to the pool edge. “How’s the water?”
“Perfect.” She treads water, looking up at me. “You’re welcome to join.”
I dive in without answering.
The water is exactly the right temperature. Warm enough to be comfortable, cool enough to be refreshing. I surface a few feet from her.
“You’re a good swimmer,” I say.
“High school swim team. It’s been a while, but muscle memory, I guess.” She pushes off the wall and floats on her back. “I forgot how much I loved this.”
We swim in silence for a few minutes. Her doing lazy laps, me doing actual ones, burning off the tension from Marco’s message and everything else.
When I finally stop, she’s sitting on the edge of the pool, legs dangling in the water.
“Rough day?” she asks.
“Why do you say that?”
“You were swimming like you were trying to outrun something.”
Perceptive. I pull myself up to sit beside her. “Work stress. It happens.”
“What kind of work stress?”
I glance at her. “The kind I can’t talk about.”
“Classified billionaire problems?”
“Something like that.”
She smiles, and water drips from her hair onto her shoulders. I watch one drop slide down her collarbone and disappear into her swimsuit.
Focus, Donovan.
“How are you settling in?” I ask, redirecting.
“Good.” She kicks her feet gently in the water. “Your family has been incredibly welcoming. Especially after Logan left.” She looks at me. “Is that weird? That I’m relieved he’s gone?”
“No. Logan’s exhausting. I’d be relieved too.”
She laughs at that. “You’re his brother. You’re supposed to defend him.”
“I’m his brother. I know him better than anyone.” I lean back on my hands. “He was never right for you.”
“That seems to be the consensus.”
“Because it’s true.” I turn to look at her. “You’re too smart for him. Too interesting. He couldn’t keep up with you even if he tried.”
She goes quiet, fingers tracing patterns in the water.
I’ve been holding back all week. But right now, sitting here with her, water dripping down her skin, I’m done holding back.
“Samantha.”
She looks up, and I see it in her eyes. She feels it too. This pull between us that’s been building since that morning in my office when we talked about innovation and human progress.
“Donovan—”
I kiss her before she can finish the sentence.
She makes a surprised sound against my mouth, then she’s kissing me back.
I slide back into the water, pulling her with me. She wraps her legs around my waist, and I press her against the pool wall.
“We shouldn’t—” she gasps when I move to her neck.
“Probably not.”
“Your father—”
“Isn’t here.”
She pulls back enough to look at me. Her pupils are dilated. “What are we doing?”
“What do you want to be doing?”
She stares at me for a long moment. Then she kisses me again, and that’s all the answer I need.
A growl rips out of my chest. I drag her into the deep end until the water hits her shoulders.
We break apart only long enough for me to yank the straps of that black one-piece down.
Her breasts spill free into the cool air and straight into my hands.
I get my mouth on one nipple immediately, sucking hard while water laps at us both.
She arches with a sharp moan that echoes off the glass.
“Fuck, Donovan.”
I switch to the other breast, biting gently, tongue flicking until she’s writhing. My hips roll forward on instinct. The hard line of my cock grinds against her through our suits. She feels it and rolls back shamelessly, thighs tightening around my waist.
“Been hard for you all week,” I mutter against her throat. “Every time you walked past me.”
She moans again, rocking harder, the slick drag of wet fabric driving me insane. I pin her to the tiled wall and grind, letting her feel every inch of what she does to me. Water sloshes over the edge with every thrust of my hips.
Her head falls back against the tile, mouth open, eyes half-lidded. I suck another mark into her neck and keep grinding, the friction almost painful now.
I need more.
I lift her clean out of the pool, water cascading off us both, and carry her dripping to the nearest wide lounge chair. I drop her on her back.
Her soaked swimsuit disappears in one violent tug. My trunks hit the floor. I stand over her for a second, letting her look—water streaming down my chest, cock heavy and aching for her.
Then I’m on her.
I spread her thighs wide and drive into her in one brutal thrust.
She cries out, back bowing off the cushion. Tight, hot, fucking perfect. I don’t give her time to adjust. I set a punishing rhythm, hips snapping, the chair creaking under us.
“Fuck, you feel good,” I growl.
I lean down and take her mouth again, swallowing every moan. One hand pins her wrists above her head. The other grips her hip hard enough to bruise.
“You like this cock?” I demand.
“Yes,” she gasps. “God, yes.”
“Say it louder.”
“I love your cock, Donovan. Don’t stop.”
I pound into her, the lounge chair groaning under every thrust, when I feel her start to tighten in that telltale way.
Not yet. I want this to last.
I pull out abruptly and she whimpers at the loss.
I grip my cock, slick with her, and slap it down hard against her swollen clit. Each wet smack makes her hips jerk and her breath hitch.
“Open,” I order.
She scrambles to turn her head toward me.
I straddle the chair, knees on either side of her ribs, and feed my cock between her lips.
She takes me deep instantly, moaning around the taste of us.
I brace one hand on the cushion and reach back with the other, finding her clit again, rubbing fast, tight circles.
“That’s it,” I growl. “Suck me while I make this pretty pussy wetter. You’re so fucking good, Samantha. Look at you taking everything I give you.”
She moans louder around my cock, the vibration shooting straight through me.
Her hips rock into my hand, greedy. I keep the rhythm merciless until her thighs start to tremble, then I pull out of her mouth with a wet pop and slide back down her body.
I drive into her in one stroke and fuck her hard, chasing that edge.
“Donovan—” she gasps, nails clawing my back. “I’m gonna come, I’m—”
“Do it,” I snarl. “Let me see it.”
I pull out at the last second and watch.
She explodes.
A hard, pulsing jet of liquid shoots from her, soaking my cock, my stomach, the cushion beneath us. Another follows, then another, until I’m drenched and staring in stunned awe. Nothing could have prepared me for the sheer force of it.
“Holy fucking hell,” I breathe.
She’s still shaking when I grip her hair and tug.
“Come here.”
She drops to her knees on the tile in front of me without hesitation, mouth open, eyes glassy. I fist my cock and pump twice before I come, thick ropes painting her lips, her chin, dripping down onto her tits. She licks what she can reach, humming like she loves the taste.
I haul her up by the arms, crash my mouth to hers, tasting both of us, and then I walk us straight backward into the pool.
We hit the warm water naked, my cum streaking down her skin as the water swallows us whole.
I cup her jaw as we float on the water, my thumb brushing her swollen lip. “Whatever game you think you’re playing with this family,” I say quietly, “be careful, Samantha. We bite.”
Her pulse jumps under my fingers.
“I’m not playing any games,” she whispers.
I hold her gaze for a long second.
“Good,” I say finally. “Keep it that way.”