I paused at the edge of the bed and absorbed her. The faint freckle high on her left breast. The pulse flutter at her throat. The way her hands fanned in the sheets like she was rooting herself so she didn’t reach for me first. A lesser version of me might have smirked, called this what it looked like—another night, another body. Something shifted in my chest like a lock turning.
And that’s where I was fucked and didn’t care.
It wasn’t romance. It wasn’t even sentiment. It was a clean, cutting certainty: this woman would ruin me for anyone who tried to follow after her.
I moved in, bracing on my forearms so my weight didn’t crush her. Her breath caught in perfect sync with mine.
My mouth found hers again, less hunger now, more reverence, and when her lips parted, something hot and possessive slid through me like a current.
“Last warning,” she whispered against my mouth, smiling even as her pulse sped. “I’m still running this.”
“Good,” I said, meaning it.
The world narrowed to heat and heartbeat and the sound of the ocean outside. Her scent wrapped around me, ocean air over warm spice, and I knew I would never forget this.
Her legs framed my hips, her fingers skimming my spine like she was drawing lines she intended to revisit. I set myself at her entrance, holding still just long enough to feel the tremor in her thighs. I wanted to memorize the exact shade of her eyes when I first pushed inside. I wanted to know how she sounded when surprise hit pleasure and turned into something else entirely.
“Jace,” she breathed.
I pressed in, slow, deep, controlled, letting the stretch take us both, letting the first slide brand itself in my bones.
That was the moment I knew the truth I’d been circling all night: no other woman would taste the same, feel the same, be the same. And if I tried to pretend otherwise, my body would call me a liar.
I stilled, forehead to hers, lungs dragging for air that didn’t feel like enough. Her nails traced my back, while the ocean threw light across the ceiling. Instead of cutting the intensity, I sank a fraction deeper and watched her eyes go wide.
Her legs tightened around my waist, locking us together. She used her leverage to control my thrusts, guiding me exactly how she wanted me.
“Yeah,” I rasped, voice gone. “That.”
Her mouth curved, breath hitching. Pure sin and victory.
Then her hand was around me, trying to gently guide me out.
Something wild inside me snapped. The need to come and the need for more of her merged into a hunger I couldn’t name.
I thrust into her one last time before honoring her request and pulling out, hunting for her next point of surrender.
My fingers went straight to her slick heat, working her with the precision of a man who knew exactly how to dismantle her.
I needed control—not to dominate her, but to prove I was everything she wanted and needed tonight.
SIX
Andie
They sayevery woman has an inner goddess.
I think I finally met mine.
Turns out she’s a ruthless, velvet-gloved tyrant who knows exactly how to slowly dismantle a man until all that’s left is delicious surrender. And right now, she’s running the show.
Jace’s blue eyes were molten, tracking every breath I took. Knowing I was the one making him look at me like that lit me up from the inside out.
“Holy hell,” I breathed, my back arching off the bed, hips lifting to meet his touch.
His fingers slipped inside me, unhurried and devastatingly precise, finding that perfect place like it was mapped just for him. A gasp tore free; the pleasure was immediate, fierce, and so overdue it felt like I’d been holding my breath for months.
I tried to fight it, because giving in too fast meant losing the upper hand, but every slow twist, every glide over that spot, pulled me closer to the edge.