Chapter 12
SUMMER
For a few hours, I forget about everything and enjoy my husband.
Today has been one of the best days of my life.
We drive back to the villa in the late afternoon, sun-tired and quiet.
He carries the cooler inside, and I walk to the pool deck and look at the table set for dinner in the dining room through the glass.
"Can we eat out here?" I ask. "By the pool, nothing formal."
He looks at me and then at the pool. "Whatever you want, my love."
And that term of endearment loosens some stones in my heart. We don’t bother getting changed from today, we spent most of the day naked.
The staff brings the food outside, it’s a simple grilled fish, salad, bread, and wine. For a while, we eat in comfortable silence on the loungers as we watch the sky turn pink and purple above us.
I glance over at him. “Can I ask you something stupid?”
Kairo looks at me, the corner of his mouth lifting. “I like your stupid questions.”
I smile. “What’s something normal you’ve always wanted to do with … someone?”
“As in sexual?” he raises a brow.
I roll my eyes. “I mean in a relationship.”
He’s quiet for a moment, thinking. “I always wanted to be with someone with no agendas,” he confesses.
Oh.
Its simplicity hits me harder than I expect.
“No deals,” he continues softly. “No power plays. No using each other. Just waking up next to someone who actually wants to be there. Making coffee together, arguing about what to watch at night. Stupid stuff.” He seems almost ashamed of the answer, like admitting he wants something so ordinary makes him feel weak.
I watch him for a second, the fading light catching on his handsome face. “Are you disappointed with me then?” I ask quietly. “That you don’t have that?”
Kairo turns to look at me fully, and his expression softens.
“No,” he says, almost immediately. “I’m not disappointed.
I’m … trying to figure out how to give you that while still being who I am.
” He lets out a small, self-deprecating breath.
“I know I’m not normal. I know I’m possessive and controlling, and I don’t know how to do gentle very well. But I want to try. With you.”
I don’t know what to say to that, especially as it makes my heart flutter, and I’m still not sure if I want that.
We sit with that for a moment as the sky deepens to purple and the first stars begin to show through the haze.
The wine is warm in my chest, and his confession about wanting something normal still sits between us, fragile.
"Can I ask you something else?" I say.
"You've been asking me things all day, why stop now?” he jokes. I glare at him. He turns his head and looks at me. "Go ahead."
"How long do we have to stay married?"
I see him stiffen upon hearing my question. He doesn't answer immediately. He picks up his wine glass and takes a slow sip before setting it back down. The silence stretches long enough that I know the answer before he gives it.
"There's no timeline, Summer."
Knew he was going to say that. "What does that mean?"
"It means there's no deal that expires. No date when your father comes to collect you, we shake hands, and it's over."
My stomach drops. I knew that was what he was going to say, but hearing it out loud is something different entirely. “So, you’re saying we’re together forever or until you get bored of me and throw me away.”
Kairo looks surprised by my words. “I would never throw you away. Do you have any idea how much I want you?”
He likes fucking me, that’s it. His words seem sincere, and I want to believe him, but they are all probably to butter me up.
He turns to face me fully, and he looks angry but also a little confused. “You think I’m just going to throw you away when I get bored?”
Of course, that’s what I think, he owes me nothing.
When I don’t answer, he loses his temper. He stands abruptly, the wine glass nearly tipping off the lounger, and paces to the edge of the pool.
"You think this is a game to me?" His voice is low, but there's heat underneath it, real anger, not the controlled kind he uses when he's punishing me.
This is different, this is hurt dressed up as fury.
"You think I went through all of this, years, Summer, years of watching you, wanting you, planning this, just to get bored and toss you out? "
I’m so shocked by his confession that it takes me a couple of moments to absorb it. "How would I know?" I fire back. "You bought me. People throw away things they buy all the time."
He turns on me, jaw tight, eyes blazing. "You are not a thing."
"You've treated me like one since we got married,” I yell back.
That lands. I see it hit him, the way his shoulders drop a fraction, the way his hands clench at his sides. He stares at me, and I stare back, and the pool glows between us.
"That doesn't mean that's what you are to me."
I’m confused. "Then what am I?"
"You're the reason I breathe." He says it raw, almost angry, like he's furious that it's true.
"You're the reason I built this fucking island into a place that is worth living on.
You're the reason I wake up every morning and the reason I can't sleep at night.
You are not someone I'm going to get bored with.
You are the only thing I have ever wanted that I wasn't sure I deserved. "
The words hang in the warm night air. My chest is tight, and my eyes are burning, and I don't know if I want to hit him or kiss him.
"Then prove it," I whisper. "Stop telling me, prove it."
He crosses the space between us in three steps, grabs my face in both hands, and kisses me, hard, almost desperate.
His mouth tastes like wine and anger, and maybe underneath that, I'm starting to recognize it as fear.
Fear that I don't believe him. Fear that he can't make me stay.
He pulls back, breathing hard, his forehead against mine.
"Get in the pool," he says.
Huh?
I hold his gaze for a beat. Okay, I see what’s happening again.
He wants to use me because he’s confessed too much, feels out of control, and the only thing he can control right now is me.
I stand, pull the sundress over my head, and throw it at him before I dive in.
He then strips and follows me into the pool.
The water is warm, glowing soft blue and gold from the underwater lights. He doesn’t speak, he just pulls me against him with one arm wrapped tightly around my waist as he swims us slowly toward the infinity edge.
The pool ends sharply, the dark ocean stretching out endlessly below us. The drop is right there, one wrong move and we could fall.
He turns me so my chest presses against the smooth edge, my upper body hanging over the void. The cool night air hits my wet skin as I grip the tile, heart pounding, the height dizzying and terrifying.
“Kairo …” I call out to him.
“Trust me,” he whispers as he pushes me over the edge further.
My heart hammers in my chest as he presses against my back, hard and hot, his cock sliding between my thighs.
“You feel that?” he murmurs against my ear, voice low and dark.
“One slip and we both go over. But I won’t let you fall … I will never let us fall.”
He kicks my legs wider apart and pushes inside me in one deep, possessive thrust.
I gasp sharply, the stretch intense as he fills me completely.
He doesn’t give me time to adjust. He starts fucking me hard from behind, one arm locked around my waist to keep me from slipping, the other gripping my hair as he rails me right on the edge.
Every brutal thrust pushes my chest further over the drop.
The ocean is a black abyss below me, the fear of dying mixes with the pleasure he is giving me, making everything sharper, more overwhelming.
“Fuck, Kairo …” I moan, voice shaking.
He growls against my neck, hips snapping harder. “You wanted to push me tonight. Now you’re going to take what happens when you do.”
He fucks me like he’s punishing me and worshipping me at the same time, deep, vicious strokes that make the water splash violently around us.
My tits hang over the edge, swaying with every thrust. The adrenaline from the height makes my pussy clench tighter around him.
He reaches around and rubs my clit in rough circles, never slowing his pace.
“Come for me,” he demands, teeth sinking into my shoulder. “Right here, hanging over the edge like the dirty little slut you are.”
I shatter.
The orgasm hits me so hard I scream, my body convulsing as pleasure rips through me.
My pussy spasms violently around his cock while the dark ocean drops away beneath me.
Kairo groans loudly and follows right after, burying himself deep and flooding me with thick, hot pulses of cum.
He stays inside me for a long moment, his arm still locked around my waist, holding me safely against him while we both catch our breath.
Then he slowly pulls out, turns me around, and kisses me deeply, almost tenderly, as the water laps gently around us.
“Mine,” he whispers against my lips.
I feel the immediate rush of his cum leaking from me, thick and warm, mixing with the glowing blue water. Kairo looks down between us, eyes dark and hungry as he watches white clouds of his seed drift out of my pussy and float lazily in the illuminated pool around my thighs.
“Fuck … look at that mess,” he murmurs, voice low and filthy.
“All that cum I just pumped deep inside you … already leaking out like your greedy little cunt can’t hold it all.
” He reaches down into the water, scoops some of his own cum onto his fingers, and brings it back to me.
Without warning, he pushes two thick fingers deep inside my pussy, slowly fucking his release back into me.