"Don't hide yourself,"

Chapter 15

Roisin held on to Nate's shoulders as he surged out of the water, holding her aloft, and carried her to a lounger that lay in the shadow of a wall covered in flowers.

Her mind raced.

This is madness. Once he finds out you have no idea what you're doing, he won't want you anymore. Especially as he probably only wants you now because he's been starved of human contact for so long…

But even as she tried to talk some sense into herself, the endorphins charged through her body and her chest pulsed with an emotion so strong, so desperate she couldn't think.

The fierce need on his face called to that place deep inside that needed to be wanted, that needed to matter… The same place where the little girl lived whose father had been there one day, then gone the next, and she'd never understood why. The same place where her woman's body also clamored for release from the torment of wanting Nathaniel King in the most fundamental way possible.

She gulped down a ragged breath as Nate placed her on the lounger, then grasped the hem of her camisole. "Can I?"

She nodded, unable to speak past the emotion clogging her throat.

She couldn't deny him, any more than she could deny herself.

He peeled off the wet shirt, then threw it away. She crossed her arms over her naked breasts, feeling exposed as his heated gaze branded her skin.

"Don't hide yourself," he said. Or rather, commanded.

She swallowed down the apprehension, the embarrassment, and forced herself to unfold her arms, to let him look his fill.

He grunted—the harsh rasp of his breathing, the molten light in his eyes the highest praise she had ever received. Kneeling on the lounger, he cupped her breast and bent to capture the stiff peak with his lips.

She grasped his thick hair, the long strands like damp silk in her fingers as shards of sensation arrowed down. His lips tortured and tormented the tight flesh with the same fierce urgency he had once consumed her food, like a man famished. Her body bowed, her sex aching and swelling, the need becoming unbearable.

Take me, show me, please.

The last coherent thought shattered, as his fingers traced over belly, then slid beneath her damp panties to locate the sodden flesh beneath.

She bucked, cried out, as blunt fingers found the heart of her pleasure. Then circled, to torment her more.

"Oh … That's… Yes," she sobbed.

"Shhh… I know." He chuckled, the sound as tortured as she felt, but with a playful edge beneath that belied the fierce need.

He stood suddenly, leaving her laid out and wanton. The harsh sun shone bright behind him as he tore off his swimming trunks. The mammoth erection sprang free. And her mouth dried, the erotic beauty of his scarred strong body making her throat close.

How had he survived what they had done to him and remained whole?

But then her gaze drifted down to the strident evidence of his arousal.

She swallowed around the fleeting panic, her sex melting as he returned to her.

The playful edge was gone, and only demanding passion remained, as he hooked his fingers in her panties and dragged them off.

"I can't wait, this first time," he said, his voice thick with the need pounding in her heart.

"I know," she said.

He settled between her thighs, grasped her bottom, to angle her hips and notch the thick erection at her entrance.

The hard thrust tore through the tender barrier and lodged deep.

She cried out, the brutal pleasure turning to wrenching pain.

He stiffened above her. "What the hell...?"

But it was already too late.