Chapter 28
twenty-eight
Josh
I’m not the type to beg. I never have been. I’m the one people fall to their knees for. But for her? Hell, for her I’ll drop in a second if she asks. No hesitation, no pride. I want her—need her—more than I’ve ever wanted or needed anything, and if she says no, it might just kill me.
She doesn’t answer right away, and for the first time in a long time, I’m standing in front of a woman and I’m afraid.
Afraid she’ll say she can’t. That this is just physical.
That I’ve imagined the way she looks at me and the effortless way we connect—physically, emotionally—in every way that matters. Ways I’ve never connected with anyone.
I’ve just handed her every single broken piece of me without thinking about what will happen if she drops them into the sand at my feet and walks away.
She reaches up and her fingers slide into my hair and my chest aches like it’s going to collapse in on itself.
“Yes.” There it is again, that simple word that undoes me when she says it.
She whispers it against my lips like it’s sacred before pulling me into a kiss that isn’t desperate or rushed.
It’s soft. Slow. So fucking devastating that it breaks me, because this isn’t just a kiss. This is her choosing me.
And I want to believe I deserve it. Deserve her. I want to give her everything. Not just orgasms and extravagant trips to paradise, but the attention she deserves and quiet mornings and inside jokes and the safety and peace of mind of being loved and being loved right.
“But,” she says, pulling away. “I still need some time before we tell anyone.” My chest tightens before I can stop it, the words hitting harder than I expect.
She must see the way my face falls, because she rushes to explain.
“Not because I’m ashamed of you,” she says, reaching for my hand.
“But, if we’re really doing this, if it’s more than just something physical, then I want it to be ours before it belongs to everyone else.
Before the cameras, and the headlines, and the opinions. ”
She’s right—my love life is practically a sport for the press, and any relationship I’ve ever had has been studied, scrutinized, and turned into fodder for headlines and clickbait articles.
I know that it’s my reality, but knowing it doesn’t make this hurt any less, because I’m ready to love this woman out loud, without fear or apology. I want her name linked to mine for all the world to see, not in rumor or speculation, but in truth.
“Whatever you need,” I say, trying to hide the sting of disappointment from my voice. “But for the record? If I ever hear someone disrespect you, they’ll find out how serious I am about protecting what’s mine.”
She hums, a devious smile growing on her lips.
“Mine.” She says it slowly, like she’s testing it out. “Why does hearing that word coming out of your mouth make me want to hear you growl it in my ear while you’re fucking me?”
My brain reboots.
Every thought, every ounce of patience I’ve tried to keep in check while being respectful and sweet is now out the window.
Gone.
Good-bye.
She says it with that low, teasing, goddamn sinful voice, and my cock twitches like it heard a command.
“Jesus, Kate.” My voice comes out rough as I grab her hips and walk her backward until she’s pinned between me and the nearest palm tree. “You keep saying shit like that, and I’m not going to be able to keep my hands off you long enough to make it back to the villa.”
Her eyes dare me to put my money where my mouth is, and I smirk. Dipping my head, I brush my lips against the shell of her ear. “You want that, sweetheart? You want me to call you mine?” She nods once. “Then get on your fucking knees and earn it.”
Before I realize what’s happening, I find myself pinned against the tree with Kate in front of me.
Her eyes never leave mine as her fingers slide down the front of my shirt and dip into my shorts.
Her hand wraps around me and heat surges through my body like wildfire, burning up every ounce of composure I’m clinging to.
My head drops back against the tree with a dull thud as my eyes squeeze shut and a warning growl rips out of me.
“Kate…”
She doesn’t stop. She undoes the button and zipper on my shorts and sinks to her knees, and fuck me, it’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. Kate—my sweet, shy, innocent Kate—on her knees for me in public. Looking up at me like she’s about to swallow me whole.
She takes me into her mouth and my knees damn near fall out from under me. A broken, guttural sound escapes me before I can swallow it down. My fingers tangle in her hair because she is too damn good at this and if I don’t hold onto something, I’m going to come in less than a minute.
“How the fuck are you real?” I pant as I watch the way her lips slide over me and the way her hungry eyes look up at me. Listen to the way she moans like she’s the one being pleasured.
She looks up again, eyes full of heat and mischief and something downright dangerous, and I feel myself unraveling.
I suck a breath through my teeth when she does this thing with her tongue, and I don’t know whether to beg her to stop or never stop.
My hands are shaking as I brace one on the tree behind me and the other pulls tighter in her hair.
She sucks me deeper, and I groan through gritted teeth. I’m trying desperately to hold on, but she’s not giving me a chance, bringing me closer with every flick of her tongue and every moan that vibrates through me and down my spine.
“Christ, Kate. You’re going to make me come,” I warn, breathless and barely holding on, and she moans like that’s exactly what she wants. I tighten my grip on her hair. “You want that? Want to swallow me down and make sure I never forget how goddamn perfect your mouth feels on me?”
She answers by doing that thing with her tongue again before taking me to the back of her throat and I come with a strangled growl of her name, my hips jerking as release slams through me and stars burst behind my eyes.
I’m half-aware of the curses falling from my lips, but fully aware of how fucking beautiful she looks on her knees.
It takes everything I have not to slide down the tree behind me like I’ve just been knocked out cold, and when I finally blink my way back to reality, Kate is rising slowly, licking her lips and looking entirely too pleased with herself while she tucks me back into my shorts.
“Jesus Christ,” I murmur. “Are you trying to kill me? I think you might be trying to kill me.”
She shrugs. “You told me to earn it.”
I let out a rough laugh. “Sweetheart, you overachieved. I may have died.”
She steps closer and palms my still half-hard dick over my shorts. “I don’t know, you seem pretty alive to me.”
“Barely.” I grab her by the waist and spin her around in one smooth motion until she lets out a squeak of surprise.
“And if you keep looking at me like that—touching me like that,” I growl into her ear.
“We’re going to end up doing something even more inappropriate on this beach and traumatizing some sea turtles. ”
She laughs so hard she snorts, and I grin like a fucking idiot. I press a kiss just below her ear before straightening and tossing her over my shoulder like she weighs nothing.
She giggles as I shift her slightly, my palm sliding over the back of her thigh, fingers squeezing a little tighter because she’s mine. “Say it again.”
“Say what?”
“That you’re mine.”
She doesn’t hesitate. “I’m yours, Josh.”
I groan, feeling more destroyed by those two words than anything she just did on her knees, because this woman is more than a fling. More than my assistant. She’s the quiet in my noise. The calm in this storm of chaos I live in. The one thing that feels like home in a world that never stops moving.
The one who made me forget how to breathe and reminded me how to live.
I carry her inside the villa, and when the door closes behind us, the rest of the night fades into nothing but heat, tangled sheets, and the sound of my voice whispering promises I fully intend to keep.