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She tried to get air but every breath pushed her breast into his hand again, inciting the need to be closer, to get more of him. Without thinking, she tugged against her restraint. Without thought, she cried out in frustration. “Easy? This isn’t easy!”

He laughed—laughed!—and locked his other hand to her hip. “I need to know something.”

She glowered into his chest. “The answer is yes, I’m dying to get my hands on every inch of you.”

He chuckled again, the sound a maddening mix of warmth and desire. “That’s not your place right now, pet.” He ignored her little huff, which halted when his next words came out, deep and serious. “I need to know…in those clubs you went to with your friends, did you learn about safe words?”

Her stomach clenched, though this time in a good way. “Yes, Sir.”

“Then do you know what yours is now?” He pulled back a little to watch her, tilting his head in question. So deliciously smooth. So goddamn hot.

“Extemporization?” When his stare turned into a glower, she sighed. “All right, all right; yes. My safe word is worth.” She stuck in a mocking edge to her finish. “Sir.”

He angled his face over hers now. His fingers closed tighter on her breast. “I shouldn’t let you get away with that.” The hand at her back twined into the ends of her hair, and he pulled at the wet strands. With her neck bared to him again, he began to nip at the hollow of her throat, then the valley between her breasts. “I should rip this blouse off your shoulders, then bite your sweet, hard nipples until they’re red and sore. Yet still, my pet, you’ll beg me to nibble them one more time, just so you can climax for me in a million throbbing pieces.”

His voice wove its rough magic down, down, boldly gripping her sex before he was done. “Yes,” Rose pleaded. “Oh yes, please Sir.”

“No.” He issued it as he took a step back, slipping buttons out of his shirt now, baring his hard, golden-skinned chest to her. “You’re going to come with my cock buried deep inside you, honey. And you’re going to feel beautiful as you do. Beautiful and sexy and very, very fulfilled.”

With those soaked white panels now hanging off his bulging, broad shoulders, he delved his arms beneath the water and hiked her skirt to her waist. Once he got to her panties, he didn’t bother tugging. “In the way.” Each word was a distinct breath. He hooked his forefingers to the elastic at both thighs, then ripped the thong away.

Through her lashes, Rose watched the lace float across the pool, an apt symbol of where her modesty, her logic, her determination, and her self-control had gone tonight. As if she had a moment to mourn them. Her gaze was commanded back up again, by Mark’s fingers beneath her chin. “Eyes here, pet. And do
not
close them. I want to see it all from you, every moment of it.”

“Every moment…of what?”

“Of your transformation.”

Oh, how the man had a way with words. And the way he scraped every syllable into her, like sensual sandpaper, leaving her mind exposed and her body writhing. Could it be possible? Could she be changed, if just for this magical sliver of time, into somebody celebrated for her fire and not shamed for her cheek? Guided into a place where she was wild yet tamed, freed yet harnessed, detonated yet not destructive? Her heart burst with the possibility of it. With the miracle he offered.

A transformation…

Indeed, she felt like a butterfly crawling at its chrysalis as he scooped his feet to the inner arches of hers, spreading her legs with his, opening her core to the wet, hard press of his body. She sighed with the onslaught of sensations. The hard, pressing demand of his feet against her insoles. The cool kiss of the water on the hot folds of her sex. His control. Her vulnerability. Her breath came in urgent thrusts as she struggled to process it all but couldn’t. Her head fell back. She slammed her eyes shut, needing the sanity of the darkness behind her lids.

“No.” His reprimand was vicious this time, backed by one hand at her chin and the other at the top of her blouse. His shoulders bunched as he pulled the garment, exposing one of her breasts. He pulled her nipple with a long, hard pinch, making her glare. “No shutting me out.” He bared his teeth, smiling like a mountain lion on the prowl. Great. She was a flitting pollinator; he was a nocturnal predator. Worse of all, her body reveled in the contrast. Her pulse fluttered faster, and her pussy raced to catch up.

“Right here, Rose.” His breath mingled with hers as he seated himself against her sex. His erection was full and hard beneath his pants. “Look. Here. At. Me.”

“C-can’t.” She couldn’t help it. Her eyelids drooped as her thighs burned and her buttocks convulsed. “It’s so much. Too much!”

“That’s because you’re thinking about it. You’re trying to keep control. Let it go. Give it to me. All of it.” His tawny eyes swept every inch of her face. “Goddamn it, you’re exquisite like this.”

A choked sob escaped her. It wasn’t just his words. It was the mirror of his eyes as he gave them, as he reflected how incredible her passion could be. The trait for which she’d always felt most ashamed was now a diamond chiseled from the cavern of her soul, the one thing she longed to set free, to be resplendent in the light of his gaze.

“That’s it.” His lips curled up. His hand, dipping beneath the water again, left a sensual splash in its wake. “You remember last night?” he murmured, finding his way to the moist curls at her center, fingers exploring the soaked little forest. “You remember our little repetition exercise, Ms. Fabian?”

She shivered and whimpered. His penetration was steady and sure…and magical. Without her arms, all she could use for communication were her lips, which she used to nuzzle him, and her torso, urgently thrusting toward him. “Yes. Yes, Sir, I remember.”

“Mmm. Good. So you remember that your body is beautiful?”

“Yes!” She nodded as he shifted the hand at her breast, starting to massage the peak in an erotic circle.

“And your desire too? And your surrender?”

“Yes.” Now he changed the torment of his lower hand, raking his fingers deeper, finding her most tender flesh. He coaxed the soft nub out, splintering her. “Yes! M-my desire too. And my…my…”

“Your surrender. Say it, honey. Just to me. Just
for
me.”

“My…my surrender is beautiful.” She offered it with panting need, jerking her hips, craving more of the touch that shot an arrow of heat into her womb with each amazing swipe.

“Yes it is, but you’re not giving it to me right now. Be still, pet. You’ll get what you need, but not if you’re a moving target.”

She groaned. Was he kidding? She clenched her thighs and tried to be good, to stay immobile. With an appreciative hum, he began the sensual pressure on her breast again. Then he moved his fingers in her intimate folds as well, a dance of knowing, seductive spirals. It was torment. It was heaven. Rose’s blood turned to fire, raging hotter and faster from his attention. “Oh,” she finally cried, her mouth falling open. “Ohhh please!”

She couldn’t believe the control in his face and the surety of his fingers. While he smiled with pleasure from her reaction, not one muscle shook in his body. He was maddening and mesmerizing at once, completely in power, totally in his element.

“We’re going to add a new affirmation tonight.” He said it as he tugged the other shoulder of her dress down. “Are you ready?” Her newly revealed nipple slipped into his warm, consuming mouth. The tight bud tingled from his touch and sent ripples of new awareness through her whole body.

“I…I don’t know what I am anymore.”

It was the truth, and his knowing chuckle told her he knew it. His beard rasped the side of her breast, giving her delicious abrasiveness. “Give it to me nice and clear, honey. ‘My passion is beautiful.’”

She would’ve complied, had he not picked that instant to intensify the strokes on her clit. He pulled her apart, strung her out, teased and nipped until she keened, acutely aware of the hot cream in her vagina as it flowed, making her ready for more of him. “My…my— Damn!”

Mark laughed again. She supposed that was better than a snarl of disapproval. Well, maybe. If he tantalized her like this much longer, her whimpers would burst into something for the whole island’s ears. “Oh yes, Rose. You’re incredible. Look into my eyes and see yourself reflected there. See yourself as I see you. Then give me the words. Give them to me and believe them.”

The rough raffia of his tone was sweet bondage on her gaze, lifting her lids so she could take in the fire of his stare. And as he promised, she did see herself there. In the sheen of his lust, she saw an adorable and sexy pet. In the deeper shades beneath, she saw a woman desired, needed. And in the darkest labyrinths, nearly black in hue, she comprehended the most special beauty she held to him, the most precious gift she’d given him. She saw the breathtaking strength of a Dominant, at
his
fullest glory. He’d been transformed too.

As those comprehensions filled her, she longed to say the words for him. She needed to. And she meant every syllable of them, as they emerged without a falter. “My passion is beautiful…Sir.”

Chapter Nine

Mark knew she’d say it. He had no doubt she’d give him the words, even before he gave her the direction. He’d gotten the confirmation again when ordering her gaze into his, and made her behold the truth of all this: that despite her locked wrists and spread legs, she was still the one here with the power.

What he hadn’t expected was how she’d bottle that strength into five words, and with the sweet gift of her voice alone, throw it all back at him. Into him. The impact shoved the air from his chest.

“Christ.”

He barely got it out. The enormity of her gift slammed him with every new second that passed, with every new emotion that ignited the curves of her face. This woman’s spirit had been trampled for so long, subjugated nearly her whole life. That Rose trusted him with it now, giving it over with such clarity and conviction, acted like a rainstorm on the mountainside of his self-control. The whole thing slid away in one sweep. And what was left?

The granite cliff of his Dominant.

“Very good.” He loved how the new grit in his tone made her lashes fly up and her tongue dart out. “You
are
beautiful. And so hot and sweet.” He tested her readiness by shifting two fingers into the tightness beneath her clit. Her walls sucked him in at once, a wet and pulsing heaven. His cock, already jammed against his fly, screamed at him for release.

He channeled that new tension into grabbing her under the ribs, lifting her out of the water, and parking her gorgeous backside onto the pool’s edge. In one sweep, he hiked himself out too. She stared up at him with a little apprehension, but much of it disappeared as soon as he lifted her, cradling her close, before striding to a nearby chaise. After positioning her against the upright back of the chair, he took a moment to stand back and simply stare.

“Damn, I wish I had a camera.” He lifted a long, appreciative smile. “But nobody would believe the picture was real. You’re so fucking stunning like this, with the water dripping off you and your desire glowing from the inside out.” He moved to the foot of the chaise, letting her watch as he pulled off his pants and briefs, setting his erection free. “See what you do to me?” With legs braced, he stroked himself, punctuating with a hiss from the sensual agony of it. His shaft stretched and grew as Rose arched her back, her breath quickening. “Now let me see what I do to you.” It was a complete command, making her body tremble more, turning her nipples to pearls in the moonlight. “Lift your legs and spread them. One knee over each arm of the chair. Open yourself for me.”

She gasped at that but in all the right ways. Holy fuck, he wasn’t going to last much longer. He knew it the moment she complied with his order, yet he didn’t want this to end. He wanted to string out every moment of that look on her face, that glistening desire from her pussy, this airtight connection between them, this power transfer he craved.

“Oh, Rose.” The words came from his gut. “Look at you, bound and beautiful and ready. You
are
ready, aren’t you? Your thighs are trembling, and your cunt is glistening.” He raised his stare, taking in the gorgeous wince on her face. “What do you need, pet? I want to give you whatever you desire.”

Her answer took barely two seconds. “You.”

“Me?” He gave her a slow smirk. “Me…how?”

“Inside me. Please…Sir.”

When he’d first arrived at the villa, the concierge had shown him a poolside credenza that held assorted guest amenities. He’d nearly chuckled at observing the shelf filled with a selection of sex essentials. Now he covered the distance to that cabinet in two steps, ripped the door open, and grabbed a foil packet off the shelf. By the time he pivoted and knelt on the chaise between Rose’s legs, he had the condom out and ready.

“Well,” he drawled, rolling the latex over his swollen, aching length. “What the pet needs, the Master gives.”

“Yes.” She choked on whatever else she had to say, the sound dissolving into a gorgeous moan as he edged the hot head of his cock into her welcoming channel.

After that push, he was lost too. In one slide, he sheathed himself far as he could go. With it, he gave his own surrender. He was a prisoner of her heat, her tightness, and her precious pulses of passion. He growled with the rightness of it, their stares connecting deeper as their bodies did, taking and giving to each other with each stroke. He slid his hands beneath her hips and cupped her ass, securing her in place as he thrust faster, harder. A breeze kicked the air, twirling the scents of sea foam and frangipani into the tang of their lust-slick bodies. Then there were the other smells that drove him faster toward the edge of control. The wet leather of his belt. The water on her skin. And yes, that lingering chill to her breath that bespoke the fear she still gripped, far down in her psyche.

Now, with her body around him and her wide dark eyes pulling him, he understood more of that distress. Maybe Rose had known all along. Maybe she’d sensed, in that crazy way women possessed, that if they explored even a spark of attraction, it would explode into this consuming fire, threatening to meld much more than their bodies. But even as the thought terrorized his brain, he plunged his gaze harder into hers and demanded—