Chapter 27
Xander
In comparison to Penelope, every illicit substance I’d misused in the past had the addictiveness of a breath mint.
I found myself falling asleep only to wake up, needing her. Another kiss, another taste, another moan slipping out from between
her impossibly soft lips.
The reaction proved I was right; that crossing the line with her was probably a bad idea. After the time we spent together
on this trip, I saw parts of her I’d never known. I was hooked.
With a soft moan, she turned in bed. Her inky black hair fanned across the white pillows. I looped an arm around her waist
and pulled her back to me. An arched smile ran up her mouth.
“We’ve made a proper mess, haven’t we?” She pulled her arm out from under the sheets and turned the ring along her finger.
No anxious pitch. No jumbled words rushing out of her mouth. She was at ease.
“I like Messy Poppy,” I whispered in her ear. “She’s a lot of fun.”
She hummed softy in agreement before she sat up. The blanket fell off her shoulders and she pulled it around her. “Maybe you
have it right.”
I sat up and pulled her into my lap, she shifted to straddle me.
“What do I have right?” I asked as I leaned in and dropped a few tentative kisses along her collarbone, lining them up her neck to that spot that made her lose it last night.
Her body jerked forward when I got to it.
“Your standard operating procedure for relationships.” She ran a hand through my hair. “You’re stuck with me for a year. May
as well have a bit of fun.”
“You look like Poppy...” I teased, moving my hand up her side until I got to the curve of her breast. I ran my thumb over
her nipple a few times. “But you don’t sound like her.”
She muffled a moan with her light and airy laugh. My other hand gripped her hip, encouraging it to grind against me.
“Is that alright? Some fun inside of our arrangement?” she questioned softly. Her fingernails gently scratched down my scalp,
sending shivers down my spine. My cock twitched.
“Nothing serious,” she added quickly, like she was trying to assure me it wouldn’t happen. “Have some fun this year. No harm
done, right?”
No harm done. It was the whole reason I kept relationships short and surface level.
Despite what I was sure would be a fucking brutal comedown from this high, maybe the risk was worth it. If she didn’t want
this after the year, I’d figure out how to manage.
I didn’t want to jostle this careful balance we found with what I really wanted: to hold on to her and never let go.
She wanted something less intense, so I’d give it to her.
Besides, it wasn’t like avoiding my feelings for her was working.
“Whatever you want.” I flipped her onto her back.
“You’re sure? I know this may be redundant since Xander Sutton doesn’t typically want to be serious anyway.” She pushed her
fingers through my hair. “But I don’t know what I want yet. And it seems a shame to stop doing all of that .”
She smiled at me impishly.
“That’s fine, Poppy.” I pressed a kiss against her lips. Penelope wanted all of it—companionship, passion, the complete chaos
that only love could summon—and even though she’d made it so incredibly clear she hadn’t seen that with me, maybe the crash
after this wouldn’t be so bad. “We’ll do whatever you want. If you want more, less, or anything in between, all you have to
do is ask.”
Maybe, hope fluttered stupidly in my chest, there wouldn’t be a crash.
“I want to stay in bed,” she said.
I glanced back at the clock. We had to go if we wanted to make it before high tide.
“That’s too bad.” I began to pull away. She whimpered and looped her legs around my torso, encouraging me back down to her.
I groaned. “We have to get dressed. I have a surprise for you.”
She sighed with a fleeting disappointment. Her brows lifted. “A surprise?”
She unhooked her legs, and I got out of bed.
***
Penelope didn’t ask many questions when we got on the boat. She spent the hour-long ride laid out on the sun deck with no
cover-up this time.
“If you’re trying to impress me with a private island,” Penelope said, taking my hand as we reached the island and I helped
her onto the dock, “you’ll have to try harder.”
Surrounded by the turquoise embrace of the South China Sea, the small private island just east of Singapore had a house and
was in the middle of relatively calm waters.
Perfect for someone to learn to surf.
I ran both hands along her waist and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “You know I like a challenge.”
“So, is that where we’re going?” She eased back into me and looked ahead to the little bungalow.
Tucked between the lush foliage, the thatched roof whispered in harmony with the ocean breeze. There was a plunge pool, a
teak patio that wrapped around the entire structure, and all we’d need for a night on the island.
“No.” I grasped her chin lightly and turned her head to the beach. There were a couple of boards and surf gear waiting for
us. “That’s what we’re doing.”
This island was the first thing I thought of when I saw that list.
Well, maybe not the first thing.
I made the call to a private concierge service while Penelope was asleep last night to arrange it all. We’d stay here for
a night before heading back to Singapore late in the day tomorrow. We’d enjoy one last night there, maybe a final stop at
the night markets. Then, we’d fly back to Manhattan.
“I don’t think so.” Penelope continued walking down the dock but once we hit the sand, she made her way to the house.
“Poppy.” I took her hand and pulled her into me. “It’s on the list.”
I wanted her to know that everything on that list, both sides, was safe with me. She could trust me with her desires, fantasies,
anything.
“Why not do something else on the list?” She threw her arms around me, pressing her barely clad body against mine. With a
purposeful roll of her hips, I began rethinking surfing.
My mind wondered where she’d locked up this version of herself. A surge of blistering possessiveness rushed through me at
the idea that she was like this with anyone else.
“I plan to.” I leaned down and grazed my teeth against her neck. “Later.”
I took her hand and led her toward the beach, but her heels stayed dug into the sand.
“I’ll fall off that thing.”
“And I’ll catch you.” I pulled gently again and this time she followed.
“Or I’ll fall in the water.”
“Or that,” I chuckled. “If you’re not having fun after twenty minutes, we’ll go inside, and I will make it up to you.”
Her defiant scowl cracked. “Deal.”
“Great.” I playfully smacked that perfect round ass. “Come on, Poppy, time to get wet.”
Penelope picked up the basics of surfing quickly. After many attempts to stand on the board, it clicked, and Penelope was
surfing.
Well, sort of. Penelope successfully stood on the board and mostly bodyboarded, but she did it.
Most importantly, she had fun and I got to float along the water and watch the brightness fill her eyes. The same brightness
I saw at the night markets and the botanical gardens.
An hour later, Penelope and I walked up the shore and stuck the boards deep into the sand.
“Technically, that was surfing.” She beamed as we walked up the beach. The teak steps that led up the patio to the bungalow
creaked as we walked up them and she stopped and turned to me. “Thank you.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I told her. I held her hips. She was a step above me, so we stood eye to eye.
“You did.” She looked down and took a few steps back. I followed. “That list...”
“Yeah?” I backed her against the wooden post on the side of the steps.
“I wrote it”—she faltered—“Parts of it—because they were things... sometimes I have trouble asking for what I want.”
“You can ask me for anything.”
The air between us shifted from breezy to heavy.
“Thank you for encouraging me to do this.” She nodded, looking down again, turning her engagement ring a few times next to the wedding band.
The sunset sparkled off the diamond, throwing facets of light all over her.
I didn’t say anything, rather I pulled her in for a kiss. With a quiet gasp, Penelope’s tense frame immediately relaxed and
she gave in, opening her mouth and deepening the kiss.
Her fingers ran through my hair, yanking to keep me close.
I leisurely tugged one of the strings that held her bikini top around her neck. “Where are we going, Poppy?”
The top came loose and with a final pluck to the flimsy strings that tied around her back, it fell to the ground.
“Inside,” she answered without hesitation.
She drew me in to another heated kiss backing herself into the bungalow, pulling me in with her. I hooked a finger under the
string-tied waistband of her bikini bottoms and they slipped right off.
Stopping in front of the bed, I took a second to admire her. The remnants of the sunny day melted across the horizon, casting
a warm glow through the window and over the luscious curve of her breasts. Her peaked nipples begged to be touched, licked,
sucked.
I didn’t believe in a God, but fuck, if divinity existed it was in front of me.
Completely naked, lying down in the bed, with her arousal glistening between her thighs.
I leaned over her, an arm bracketed on either side of her body. “Tied up or blindfolded?”
The heat concentrated into a heavy, pleading sigh that filled the silence. My heart beat in a slow cadence with the pulse
nearly bursting through my groin waiting for her answer.
Indecision flickered to life in her eyes, quickly turning into something else. “Both.”
My lips crashed back onto hers with a tortured groan at the knowledge that she was her true nature for me. She pushed her
boundaries. She let me in and, fuck, it was the hottest thing I’d ever experienced.
With a newfound impatience, I pulled myself off of her, took off my swim trunks, and walked over to grab the extra neckties
I threw in my bag just in case .
“If it’s too much, tell me to stop,” I whispered to her as I took the first tie and blindfolded her with it.
She nodded, so I took the second tie and slowly circled it around both wrists before tying it to the rails on the headboard.
I dropped my mouth to the nape of her neck and dragged my teeth along it.
“Xander.” Her wrists pushed against the tie while her hips rolled against me.
I chuckled lightly. “I’m going to map every inch of your skin with my mouth. You’re going to have to be patient.”
Her stomach dipped and bowed as I kissed my way to the slickness between her thighs. After months of telling myself I didn’t
feel what I did—that I didn’t want what I knew I needed—I had to remind myself to take my time.
Spreading her legs apart, I heard her wrist knock against the headboard again. With a voracious grunt, I took her aroused
clit into my mouth and sucked on it lightly at first.
“Oh,” she mewed softly with a sharp inhale.
I’d imagined a million different scenarios where I had her in my arms, in my bed, writhing on my cock. But this ?
Fuck.
I had to fight the overwhelming urge to bury myself in her. My thumb replaced my mouth on her clit and I spread her thighs further apart and fucking devoured her.
An impolite shriek ripped out of her. A string of delirious pants and moans began to spill out from between her lips.
I sank a finger into her. She was so wet I glided right in and another followed seconds later.
“Darling,” she pleaded. It came out breathy with her back bowing up from the mattress.
The antagonistic nickname turned into something else now that she cried it out when she needed me. I moved with intention,
slowly so she could feel every single inch.
“That’s it, Poppy.” Her pussy clenched around my fingers while she dripped down them. I pushed even more until I was knuckle-deep.
“Come for me.”
I hooked my fingers and moved faster, stroking the spot I knew intimately.
Her shrieks and moans became more frantic. Her walls tightened against my fingers as I teased and licked her clit with my
tongue and finally her muscles went taut.
A full body shudder rolled down her as she began to come down from it.
My cock throbbed, ached, fucking nearly split watching her orgasm. But I needed to be deep inside of her before I let go.
I reached up and started to untie her wrists from the headboard. “Turn around.”