My stomach danced with butterflies for the entire long duration of the flight back to Rhenland. Happy, hopeful butterflies, with wings made of wishes and dreams for a future I was starting to believe could actually happen. By the time we landed I was exhausted, running on pure anticipation. I called Killian from the taxi stand outside the airport.

"Eva!" he answered immediately. "Are you here?"

I smiled at the eagerness in his voice. "Yes, just landed about half an hour ago. Where are you? Where should I go?"

"Stay there," he replied. "Stay right where you are. I'm coming to you. Can you wait?"

"I can do anything you want," I told him, perfectly aware of how such a statement might be interpreted.

"Anything?"

"Anything."

"Well then I'll see you in about five seconds flat."

I gave him the details of where I was and he arrived about an hour later, ignoring protocol and jumping out of the car before it had even come to a full stop and then pulling me into his arms, holding me tightly against him, whispering in my ear.

"Eva, Eva, Eva. I'm so happy to see you."

Dan ushered us back into the car before we could even give each other a kiss and once we were in the backseat Killian turned to look at me. I'm not sure I've ever been looked at like that before, like the person doing the looking was really seeing me. All of me.

"I mean it," he said, running his fingers tenderly down my cheek. "I'm so happy to see you. I hope you're up for another flight."

"Another flight?" I asked, smiling as he leaned in and kissed me.

"Mm-hm. We'll fly out of Capital Airport - I can't risk being spotted here but it's all arranged. If you're OK with it, I mean. I just think it might be a good idea to get away from all this for a week or so."

"Where are we going?"

"Well, I'd actually like to keep that part secret until we get there, if you don't mind. I think you'll love it."

I giggled. "If I don't mind? Of course I don't mind."

Is it possible to be too happy? Probably not – the sweet, singing tension in my body couldn't last forever. Not without some kind of release, or comedown. Could it?

Three hours later I was ensconced in a spacious, plush leather window seat of a private jet, looking down over an endless desert while my stomach churned. Which was odd, I'm not usually one to get motion sickness. I tried to ignore it. Killian was sitting opposite, watching me with a big grin on his face.

"Do you know where we're going yet?" he asked.

"Nope. Somewhere warm, hopefully."

"Oh, it's somewhere warm. Are you OK, Eva? You look a little green."

Being asked about feeling sick somehow made me feel even sicker. I swallowed. "I don't know. I feel a little nauseous. It might be the flight – maybe I need to get used to private jets?"

I turned back to the desert, willing the sick feeling to go away, as Killian summoned the flight attendant with the push of a button and asked for a ginger ale and ice.

When it arrived, I lifted the cup to my lips and was about to take a sip when an even more intense wave of nausea stopped me. I put the cup down shakily and looked at Killian.

"I really don't feel –"

Killian dove for a barf bag and only just managed to get it in position before I threw up violently.

"OK," he soothed when I was finished, wiping my mouth with a linen towel. "It's OK, sweetie. You're lucky you've got me and my lightning-quick reflexes here, though."

I looked up, feeling a little sweaty and breathless the way I always do after getting sick, and offered him a small smile. "Heh. Yeah, I guess I am. What's the punishment for barfing on somebody's fancy jet?"

"Oh, years of imprisonment."

I felt better after getting sick, but the combination of travel and throwing up suddenly hit me hard and Killian showed me to one of the beds – beds! – and tucked me in for a nap. An hours-long nap, as it turned out. When I awoke it was to Killian gently shaking me. "Eva. Eva? Wake up, babe. I want you to see this."

I looked up blearily. "What?"

"We're almost there. I want you to see – if you're feeling up to it."

I let him help me up and lead me, wrapped in a sheet, back to the window and then gasped when I looked outside. It was the ocean. Not the grey-blue Atlantic of the Rhennish coast but a different creature entirely. A perfect, tropical turquoise blue, so saturated it almost looked fake, and dotted with little islands hemmed with white sand.

"Oh my God," I breathed. "Killian. Where are we? I've never been to anywhere like this."

"I know, you mentioned it to me once. So I thought what better place to spend some time than a tropical paradise that we'll have all to ourselves? It's the Seychelles. Some of the islands are private – we'll be staying on one of them."

The Seychelles. I'd heard of it, but that's all. Even the name sounded romantic and oceanic – like 'seashells.'

When we landed there was a brief helicopter flight before arriving at our actual destination – a small island, covered with palm trees and ringed with that same sugar-white sand I'd seen from the jet. The air was soft and warm against my skin, smelling of exotic blooms and sun-warmed vegetation.

"Is this real?" I asked as a car whisked us down a narrow, twisting road. "It feels like heaven. The air smells like flowers!"

"It's real. Wait until you see where we're staying."

We arrived, and Killian left the luggage for someone else to deal with, taking me by the hand and leading me down a path cut through the thick, green vegetation of the island to where we were to stay. It was like nothing I had ever seen before – an enormous, open house constructed of dark, exotic hardwood and nestled in the palm trees overlooking a beach so perfect I once again doubted my own eyes. There was a huge infinity pool, its surface as flat as glass, surrounded by nothing but nature and the sounds of the wind in the palm fronds.

Also, Killian and I were finally alone. The staff who had dealt with our luggage had melted away and it was just the two of us. I took the opportunity – finally – to give him the kiss I'd been waiting hours to give him.

"Are you happy?" he asked, holding me close. "Because it's a strange thing, Eva. I'm not happy if you're not. I just want to have some time with you, just us. I want you all to myself for a little while."

"Yes, I am," I replied. "This place is amazing. I want to go for a swim but I didn't bring a bathing suit."

"Bathing suit?" he asked, one eyebrow raised like I had just said something ridiculous. "You don't need a bathing suit, Eva. There's literally no one else on the island except the staff and a small medical team, and they're all in their own quarters, nowhere near us. We can spend the entire week naked – in fact I demand, as your Prince, that you do so."

"You're not my Prince," I laughed. "I'm American, remember?"

"Ah," Killian replied, pulling his shirt off over his head and exposing that gorgeously muscled chest of his. "But I'm the Prince of your heart, am I not?"

He was teasing me again, but he wasn't wrong. He didn't stop at the shirt, either. He stripped all his clothes off and dove into the pool, breaking that glass-like surface with a splash. But not before I had time to notice that he was already at least halfway hard. I took my shirt off slowly, a little self-conscious, not used to being naked when it felt like someone could appear at any time.

"Come on," he encouraged me, swimming up to the pool's edge and looking up at me as rivulets of water ran down over his broad shoulders. "I promise no one's coming, Eva. Well – not no one. You might be coming a few times, if I get my way."

He pushed himself off the edge of the pool and floated on his back, not taking his eyes off me for a single second as I undressed. When I was finally naked I stayed where I was for a few seconds, enjoying the anticipation.

"You better get in here right now," Killian warned.

"Or what?"

He swam up and reached out, grabbing my ankle. "Or I'm going to lose my fucking mind, that's what. You get your sexy ass in here right now, Eva James."

So I slipped into the cool water and swam to the other side of the pool, the side that looked out over the impossibly blue ocean and the beach. Killian came up behind me and put his arms around me, pulling me back against him. And just like that, I forgot about the ocean, and the sand, and everything else except him.

"Killian," I sighed as he cupped my breasts in his hands, kissing my neck hungrily.

"Mmm, yes Eva?"

He was running his hands up and down my body, grabbing my hips and then sliding his cock up against my ass. I thought it was going to take longer – I intended it to take longer, but feeling him like that, so ready, suddenly had my body on fire. I braced my hands against the edge of the pool and leaned my head back against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, maneuvering himself up against my opening. His voice was already slow and thick, and even if I hadn't been ready myself, hearing him like that would have gotten me there instantly. It was that same masculine need I'd sensed in him before, so powerful that my own body just yielded to it like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Eva, I have to be inside you. Right now."

"It's OK, Killian," I breathed, as my back arched involuntarily. "It's OK, I want you to – ohh!"

He pushed his way into me before I could finish, putting his hands over mine on the pool's edge and groaning as he filled me the rest of the way up.

There was nothing slow that time, no part of him that could take the time. I liked him like that. I liked the feeling of his hot, fast breath on my neck as he bent his body down over mine and fucked me hard. I didn't think I was going to come – there didn't seem to be time. But listening to Killian's breathing get ragged, feeling his fingers digging deeper into my flesh, just knowing how aroused he was, it got me there a lot faster than I expected. His thrusts quickly became almost frenzied and he moaned my name into my neck. "Eva. Eva, oh God. Eva you're going to make me come. You feel so good, baby. You feel so good. You feel so –"

He broke off, sucking his breath in, his body stiffening, and suddenly I was there, where he was. I barely managed to twist my head back, desperate for his tongue in my mouth, before my pussy was tightening around him and my eyes closing.

"Killian!" I cried out his name as that strange, orgasmic wish to dissolve into the other person overtook me. "Killian! Mmm – please..."

"Fuck!" he growled, sinking himself into me as deep as he could get and letting himself go.

"Oh my God," he panted a few moments later, his limbs suddenly heavy and limp. "Oh, Eva. Jesus, you have no idea what you do to me. You have no idea. If that fucking flight had lasted ten more minutes I would have jumped you right there."

I laughed as I caught my breath, turning around and wrapping my arms and legs around Killian's big, sturdy self. "I don't mind," I told him, kissing his jaw line just below his ear. "I love it when you get like that, when you have to let go of all those manners and civilized behaviors."

"Oh do you, now?"

"And I love the way your cheeks get flushed after you come."

Killian made a face. "No they don't."

I kissed each of his cheeks and then his neck. "Oh yes they do, I can see it happening right now."

"Jesus, woman, stop. You're going turn me into a... giant marshmallow. You think the people of Rhenland want a giant marshmallow for a Prince?

"I don't care what the people of Rhenland want," I whispered, still busy kissing him. "I only care what you want."

"Oh," Killian replied, laughing, "so you'd be happy with a marshmallow-man, then?"

"Mmm..." I mused. "Maybe not all the time."

The cool – but not cold – water of the swimming pool felt lovely against my bare skin. I slipped out of Killian's arms and swam the length of it. "It might not matter anyway," he called to me. "I might not be the Prince for that much longer."

I swam back to him, gliding through the sun-dappled water with the sound of the ocean waves in the background. "Does that bother you?" I asked, my tone more serious.

He looked down at me, taking my face in his hands. "No. Not if it doesn't bother you. Who knows, maybe you'll ditch me as soon as I lose my title?"

"Unlikely. As far as I can tell, your title seems to be a pain in the ass and not much else."

Killian sighed. "You're right in a lot of ways. I always thought people like Tristan got the best deal. A minor title. All the privileges of being a member of the aristocracy and none of the downsides – specifically, none of the fame and everything that comes with it."

"I think I've seen Tristan in the paper before – or maybe it was his sister. Or in one of those magazines for rich people."

"Yeah but it's different for him. He and Millie have a lot more freedom than Charlotte or I ever did. The media might treat it as a juicy story if he's caught falling drunk out of nightclubs, but when I did it, it was a legitimate national scandal."

I wrapped my arms around my man from behind and rested my chin on his shoulder. "Yeah, I can see that. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what your father does."

"Mm-hm, we will." He bent his head down and kissed one of my hands. "Now, enough of that. I'm starving. How about you? You hungry?"

I was hungry. I was ravenous. We got out of the pool and I put on a skimpy, gauzy little sundress that Killian had packed for me, knowing I didn't have the appropriate clothing for the tropics.

Less than an hour later we were eating fresh seafood at a candlelit table set up right on the beach. The sun was setting and the sky was pink, the ocean calmer than it had been when we arrived. "This place really is paradise," I sighed, licking garlicky butter off my fingertips. "It's perfect. I could stay here with you forever."

Killian gazed across the table at me as the light from the candles danced in his eyes. "It is perfect, isn't it? Maybe we could stay? I could threaten to sell all my family's dirty secrets to the media unless my father lets us stay here for good. I could learn about the local plants, plant a garden..."

"And what would I do?"

"Oh, you? Well you would just spend all day bathing in milk and flowers, until it was time to service me, that is. Yes, I think that would be the perfect job for you."

I laughed. "I think I'd take that job, you know. You could pay me in –"

"Dick?"

"Killian!" I scolded, pretending to be scandalized and chucking one of the little pink flowers that had been strewn across the table at him. He leaned in close to me, grinning.

"Don't tell me you wouldn't love it, Eva. Don't tell me you wouldn't love keeping my balls empty 24/7."

He was playing with me. Well, he was half playing with me, but I could see a certain element of seriousness in his expression. A warm stirring started up inside me as we stared into each other's eyes. "You're right," I whispered. "I wouldn't mind that at all."

Killian stood up and offered me his hand. "Come with me, Eva. I'm taking you to bed, right now."

We ran back up the beach towards the house, laughing and stopping every now and again to kiss and touch each other. When we were almost there he leaned in for another kiss and that sensation that had overtaken me on the flight – that same rich wave of nausea – was suddenly back. I stepped away from him quickly, knowing I was about to be sick.

"Eva –" he asked, concerned. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

I yanked my hair out of the way and leaned into the undergrowth, barfing as discretely as I could manage. Then I wiped my mouth on the back of my wrist, panting a little, and looked up at Killian.

"Maybe it was the seafood?" I suggested.

"The seafood? We literally just finished eating – and I ate the same thing you did. It can't be that."

"Just leftover motion sickness from the flight, maybe?" I asked, slightly worried. I'm not much of a puker. I hoped I wasn't coming down with something.

"Maybe," Killian replied, putting his arm around me. "Come on, let's get you some water."

Our bedroom was enormous, all the same dark wood as the rest of the house and entirely open on the side that faced the sea. There was a vaulted ceiling with a fan spinning lazily. I threw myself onto the soft, clean linens of the bed and let Killian bring me a glass of water, once again feeling mostly fine after getting sick. When I looked up, he was texting someone.

"Who are you texting?"

"Oh – it's nothing. Here, drink this."

I sipped the iced water he handed me, baffled by the fact that I now felt completely fine. Maybe it was the seafood? A single bad shrimp that he hadn't touched? It wasn't a good explanation, we weren't at the type of place where the chef served anything less than the freshest food, but I couldn't come up with anything else.

Killian lay down beside me, all tender attention. "How do you feel now? Any better?"

"I feel totally fine," I replied, snuggling into him. "Hopefully it's just – I don't know, stress?"

He played with my fingers. "If it is stress, it should resolve itself soon enough – and this is exactly the kind of place that'll do it."

He was right about that. Everything about our little island in the Seychelles was soft and warm and slow. Life itself already felt like a lighter state of being, what with the sweet scents of ocean and flowers, the sound of the surf in my ears and, most of all, Killian himself.

"You should try to get some sleep," he said, kissing my cheek. "You're probably jet-lagged."

I smiled and looked pointedly downwards. "Are you sure that thing can wait?"

"He's going to have to, isn't he? Just close your eyes, Eva. I'll see if I can wait until morning to pounce on you like a wild beast."

"Wake me up if you can't, OK?"

Killian chuckled. "OK, lovely."

* * *

I woke up in darkness – a kind of darkness I'd never experienced before, entirely unbroken by the glow of artificial light. Killian was beside me, breathing evenly in his sleep. I lay there for a little while, wondering if I would fall back to sleep and, when I didn't, slipping out of bed as quietly as possible and feeling my way down the steps that led to the little path to the beach. The air was cooler, but still very warm. A slight breeze ruffled my dress and played with my hair. The sand under my feet was as soft as powder.

The beach itself was deserted, lit only by starlight and a thin sliver of moon. I walked along the water's edge, closing my eyes and smiling to myself as the waves broke over my feet, splashing my bare legs. It's a rare thing in my life to feel what I did that night. Joy. Not the raucous, shouting kind of joy but something else, something quieter and deeper. What did I do to deserve all that? The palms silhouetted against the stars, the delight of the tropical breeze on my bare skin, the loving presence of Killian, asleep back in the house?

I didn't think about much during that walk, which isn't normal for me. Usually my mind is racing with a million things, with memories, plans, worries. Not that night. That night I was a creature of five senses and only that, a vessel of sensual pleasures, a mind occupied only with the present. I slowly walked the entire length of the beach, almost drunk with happiness, and then started back. There was someone there, in the distance. Walking towards me. As the first pale pink light of dawn began to break through the darkness I saw it was Killian. Who else would it be but him?

"What are you doing?" he asked, scooping me up in his arms and twirling me around gently. "Couldn't sleep?"

"I woke up early," I told him. "And I didn't want to wake you, so I came down here for a walk. Oh, Killian."

"What is it?"

"It's – I'm just so happy. I'm so damn happy. It's beautiful here. You're here. I don't want anything to wreck this, you know? I don't want –"

"Nothing is going to wreck this," he told me firmly. "I'm not going to let it. Do you trust me?"

I looked up at him as the morning light turned his hair into a glowing halo around the handsome angles of his face. "I do."

He was the reason I could enjoy myself, the reason I could let go of that part of myself that always, always wants to be worried about – well, everything. He slipped his hand around my waist and down over my hip, patting my ass possessively.

"I just want to be with you, you know," I told him quietly. "You're the reason I feel like this. All I want is to be close to you, to make you happy. Really. I can't even believe I'm saying that – I honestly did not think I was the type of woman to say things like that. But it's the truth."

Instead of answering me, Killian looked down at me intently, staring into my eyes for a long time before kissing my mouth. He didn't need words, and neither did I. All his intentions, all his emotions were there in that soul-baring kiss. I opened my mouth for his tongue, but it was more than that. I opened myself to him, completely, and his lips sent an electric charge through my body, sparking a million little fires along the way. I was breathless when we paused, aching.

"Killian..."

"I know, Eva." He took my hand to lead me back to the house but I knew I wasn't going to make it. I stayed where I was until he turned and eyed me. "Right here?"

My dress was easily removed. All it took was untying the straps around the back of my neck and letting it slip to the sand. I stood in front of Killian, naked, as his eyes drank me in.

"Eva..."

There it was. That deep slowness I wanted to hear. That need I wanted to satisfy. Without a word I lay down on the soft sand, offering myself up to the man I loved.

When he joined me, moving to roll on top of me, I held my hand up. "Wait."

I unzipped his pants and wrapped my hand around his rigid member, stroking it up his entire length and then back down again as he exhaled heavily.

"I love it when you're like this," I told him.

"Yeah?"

"All masculine and powerful and...yeah."

It was true, I did love Killian in that state. It was intoxicating, more powerful than any drug. I stroked him a little longer, until his tip was wet with pre-cum, and then I stopped so I could position my body between his legs. He knew what I was doing.

"Eva," he whispered, his voice tight and gruff. "Eva –"

I looked up at him, smiling and biting my lower lip, and then I lowered my head and slid my lips down over the head of his cock.

"Mmm..." he sighed, closing his eyes and leaning his head back.

He reached down and brushed my curls out of the way, eager to watch, and we locked eyes.

"Eva, baby. Oh my God, ohhh, you're so good at that. Jesus..." He trailed off as I went a little further, pushing my lips down his shaft, taking enough to feel him on the back of my tongue.

Blowjobs. I was never sure I liked giving them. I didn't hate them, but there was always something weirdly perfunctory about them. Another box ticked. It wasn't like that with Killian. I wanted him in my mouth. All of him. I wanted to make him come so hard his eyes wouldn't uncross for a week.

Pausing for a moment, I looked up. "I never used to like doing this, you know," I told him. "I mean, I didn't mind but it was never this big deal some people talk about. But I love having your cock in my mouth, Killian."

I went back down again, taking even more, to the point where I could feel tears starting to sting my eyes. He groaned and lifted his hips up off the sand, desperate for more of my soft, warm mouth around him. I sped up a little, trying hard to take as much of him as I could – which wasn't easy. Soon, he was stiffening even further in my mouth, and his breathing was getting quick and rough.

"Christ, Eva!" he gasped. "I'm close, baby. I'm so close."

"I want you to come in my mouth," I told him, pausing only for long enough to get the words out before taking him back between my lips. "I want to swallow it, Killian. I want to swallow all your cum."

I actually felt him let go when I said that, felt him stop trying to hold back. He buried his hands in my hair and jerked his hips up, groaning. "You're so beautiful," he panted, looking down at me. "Jesus, Eva, you look so beautiful with my cock in your –"

His words suddenly dissolved into a shouted moan and I felt him start to pulse against my tongue. I lowered my head even further, swallowing against the urge to gag, and the first warm splash of cum hit the back of my throat, followed by more and more until it was leaking down my chin and Killian's mouth was hanging open.

"Fuck," he breathed, grimacing with pleasure as I licked the last few salty drops off the tip of him. "Eva. Goddamn."

Smiling and proud of myself, I lay down beside him on the sand as he caught his breath. "I don't think I can move from this spot," he panted. "I think you're going to have to call for medical assistance."

"Good."

He rolled onto his side to face me a few minutes later. "This is dangerous, Eva. This is dangerous shit. I would do anything you asked right now. Anything. You want me to sign over the deed to Annesly Hall? It's yours. You want me to arrange a meeting with the prime minister so you can give him your opinions on foreign policy? Done. Lifetime supply of diamonds? Done."

"Nah," I shrugged. "I don't need any of those things. Well, maybe a lifetime supply of you."

"Of me, huh? Well that's easy, and it's already done."

There was an acute, aching heat between my legs, but I didn't want to start pestering Killian right away. He looked so content, so absolutely satisfied lying there beside me. I could wait. Well, for a little while.

"Are you hungry?" I asked.

"Mm, yeah. I am. What about you, though? You look a little...tense."

"Do I?" I laughed. "Why don't we get you fed, first? Besides, I like waiting. I like letting it build."

We walked back to the house hanging off each other, giggling and whispering and kissing like a couple of teenagers. When we got there a spread had already been laid out. Croissants, still warm from the oven, hot coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice. Perfection. I grabbed a croissant and took a big bite before I'd even sat down and Killian did the same. Then he poured two cups of coffee and handed me one. I was just about to say something about going for a swim in the ocean later – still something I'd never done – when the smell of the coffee hit my nose, sharp and strong. I gagged immediately, but managed, that time, not to throw up.

What the hell? I sat up, waiting to see if it was going to turn into something worse. It didn't. "Damn," I commented, a little embarrassed. "That's, uh – that's some strong coffee."

Killian reached for his cup and took an experimental sip. "Is it? It tastes fairly normal to me."

But I didn't want to try again. Something inside me just didn't want to smell or taste coffee, not at all. I grabbed the orange juice and stood up, wandering across the deck to where a green vine covered in small, pink, five-petaled flowers was crawling up the wall. "What kind of flower is this?" I asked Killian, relieved to have something other than the smell of coffee in my nose.

"I don't know," he responded, walking over to where I was standing to inspect them. "Some sort of tropical vine – I'd say a passionflower but it doesn't quite look like that. Eva, are you OK? There's a doctor here, I think I might give her a call."

"I'm fine," I shrugged. I didn't even barf that time! If I get sick again I'll call the doctor, alright? I probably just picked up some stupid bug on the flight from the States – I read an article about the air on planes once, apparently it's full of nasty things.

"No more commercial flights for you, then."

"I can live with that," I giggled.

Killian was standing right behind me, inspecting the vine. I leaned back, pressing my body against him without even realizing it. It didn't seem possible to ever get enough of him. It didn't take long to feel him, hardening against my lower back.

"Damn, woman," he whispered into my ear. "You're turning me into a sixteen year old boy again."

I had to have him, right away. I had to have him inside me, my body was crying out for it. He took me into the bedroom and pulled my dress off over my head, his hands everywhere. I stood there in front of him, reveling in the kisses he was trailing down my neck and over my breasts, hardly able to breathe.

"What is it?" he asked when he glanced up. "What's that look on your face? Are you scared?"

"Scared?" I asked. "No, I'm not scared. I just – I want you so much. I want you so much I can't even think."

"I like that," he responded, kissing me again, harder now, his tongue reaching deep into my mouth. I fell back on the bed and watched him as he took his pants off, unleashing the part of him I was so acutely focused on. I was so wet my thighs were slick. I could feel it, a delicious slippery sensation every time I shifted my hips.

"Killian," I pleaded when he stayed where he was. "Killian...please."

"Show me. Show me how much you want me, Eva."

So I parted my legs, such an exposed, vulnerable sensation, and slid one hand down to my sex, spreading myself open for him.

"Jesus Christ," he breathed, crawling on top of me, using his body to open me up even further. I could feel him against my thigh, then between my lips as he teased me, refusing to give me what I wanted for just a little longer. "I want you to do something for me, Eva."

"What?!" I cried. "What, Killian? I'll do it – just, please –"

"I want to see your face. The whole time. I don't want you to turn away or hide under a pillow, OK? I want to see it in your eyes just before you come, baby. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes!" I replied. "Yes, Killian – yes, I will, I –"

I gasped when entered me. All the way in on the first thrust, until my body was arching up off the bed, desperate to be taken. He went slowly at first, each stroke an exercise in a kind of exquisite torture. And the whole time, he kept his eyes on me, bending to kiss my face, my mouth, my neck and then pulling away again to watch my reaction.

"Do you like this?" he asked, grinning because he already knew the answer. "Does it feel good?"

"Yes," I whimpered, tilting my hips up to him, twining my arms around his muscular shoulders and pulling him down so I could feel his bare chest against my breasts.

My breath got shallower as he went faster. The feeling of him inside me, of being filled completely up, started to center on one point deep in my core, a tickling little need that just got worse with every sweet thrust. And still, Killian locked me to him with those dark blue eyes, dragging me along the path to bliss as easily and naturally as the tide rolls in.

"You're going to come soon, aren't you baby?" he asked, right next to my ear. "Are you going to come for me, Eva?"

"Yeah," I breathed. "Yeah. Killian. Killian –!"

"I'm here. It's OK, I'm here. I want you to come, sweet girl. I want you to feel you when you come around my cock."

I was safe with him. Safe on a profound psychological level I'd never felt with any man before. I trusted him. And that trust freed me. It freed me to go where he was taking me, to go there fully. I shuddered underneath him, weak with desire, and he moved up a little, the way he does when he's getting close, and started to go deeper, and faster.

It was too much. Within seconds I was there, wobbling on the edge as he dipped his tongue between my lips again, perfectly aware of how close I was – and that all he had to do was give me just a little push. He buried himself into me again, hard and sudden, and that was it. I felt the obliterating ecstasy approaching like a summer storm, wiping out everything except pleasure, and gave in to it, digging my fingers into his back, screaming – almost crying – his name.

"Eva," Killian whispered. "Eva, my love. That's it, baby. Come for me. Ohhh. Eva, ohhh..."

Right at the peak of my own bliss, he came. I watched his eyes roll back in his head and then close for a few seconds, felt the muscles in his hips twitch as he pinned me to the bed, filling me up with all of himself.

"Killian." I spoke his name with reverence, almost like a prayer, tenderly stroking his cheek as the last few little earthquakes shook out of him. "I love you."