The next day and a half sped by a glorious montage of kissing and fucking and generally avoiding the wedding party Quinn was ostensibly on Miralinda to attend.

Leah asked him about that on Thursday afternoon as they stretched out on lounge chairs on the beach at her resort after a leisurely snorkel.

“I promise you, nobody cares that I’m pulling a disappearing act. Mick’s more my brother’s friend.”

“You came all the way here for a holiday with people you don’t want to spend time with?”

“That’s not what I said. I’d put up with their ugly mugs. But I’d choose you in a heartbeat any day. You’re way prettier. And smarter, kinder…”

“Real winners, your friends?”

He snorted. “No, they’re good guys. But Mick only has eyes for his bride-to-be and my brother’s mooning over the bartender. Plus they’re all wound up in the business that they’re starting.”

“As long as I’m not making you miss anything you paid money for.”

“Not a worry.” He kissed her head and patted her bottom, and she pushed the thought from her mind.

They ate at the middle resort that night, at a casual burger and fries place that overlooked the main pool. After she finished her burger, when she was just picking at her fries, Quinn picked up her foot and tugged it into his lap. They watched families splash together in the pool and talked about nothing and everything.

It was fantastic.

Quinn jokingly called it their sixth date.

She told him he couldn’t count all their meals as separate dates when they’d practically been inseparable for the last thirty hours. “Really our fourth, probably. It’s just a really long date.”

“In that case, I’m heading back to my room before I pick you up for our fifth date.”

“And what is that going to be?”

“A moonlit walk on the beach? Midnight visit to the disco? Head into town and drink rum punch with the locals?”

“I pick door number one, but it all sounds good.”

He squeezed her foot and released it. They paid their bill, then headed down the path to the beach.

She headed a few steps toward her hotel when she realized he was following her. “Wrong way, Mr. Parry.”

“Let me walk you in that direction—” He cut himself off as her mouth dropped open in mock outrage. She didn’t need an escort and they both knew it. “And let me take back that offer, Master Sergeant.” Half of his mouth stayed seriously sorry. The other half quirked into a partial smile that should have annoyed her to the tips of her toes, but it only got under her skin and climbed up her body on the inside. Hot, prickly, and not annoying at all. Chivalry was an authentic way of being for him, and it looked good. “I’m sure you’ll decapitate anyone who interferes with your safe and secure passage back to your room.”

“Damn straight,” she said, but her words were soft and appreciative of his thought.

“I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“Take your time, I’ve only made it three chapters into the first book of many I planned to read this week.”

When he returned, he’d dressed up a little, into soft-looking pants that she wouldn’t have picked out for him in a million years. A linen-cotton blend, maybe, they looked like something out of the pages of a Ralph Lauren catalog, and so did the light blue dress shirt he paired them with, the sleeves rolled up to reveal the edges of his tattoos creeping onto his forearms.

He looked like really expensive sin, and she wanted to pull him straight to her bed.

On the other hand, he’d gotten all dressed up. Date five should probably involve more than just getting naked.

At some point, you should talk about why this little bit of casual fun is now being counted in terms of dates. Five dates is a serious relationship by either of your standards. Her inner cynical-best-friend had a point.

On the other hand, how sad was it that the only best friend she had to express worry about a relationship moving too fast or getting too serious was a made-up one in her head?

She needed a life beyond online kink boards and the occasional fet con. Date five with a hot guy? Major win in the get a life category.

“Shall we?” he asked, holding out his arm, and she practically skipped as she took it.

The moon was brighter than it had been the night before, and there was some light from the resort as well. But as they headed down the beach, the crashing waves their only soundtrack, it felt almost as quiet as their night on the sailboat.

And when Quinn’s arm brushed hers, she twisted her hand and laced her fingers around his.

Leah Saunders, holding hands with a boy. Freaky. And fun.

But she could only take so much sweetness, so when they finally made it back to her room and tumbled onto her bed, she turned their conversation to a dirtier, more familiar place. “What’s the kinkiest thing you’ve ever done?”

Quinn grinned down at her as he propped himself up on one elbow. “You holding me on the edge of an orgasm for a crazy long time yesterday ranks pretty high up there.”

“Come on. Tell me a secret.” She popped one of his shirt buttons out of its hole.

He covered her hand with his. “You first.”

She took a deep breath. That was a fair request. “I have a friend who’s into humiliation play. I scream at him in Klingon until he creams in his pants.”

Quinn’s mouth dropped open. “Okay, you win.”

She shoved his shoulder. “Jerk.”

He grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles. “No, I’ll still share. Now I need to, wow.” He tugged her hand to his crotch. Heat bloomed across her chest as she realized he was getting hard.

“It’s not exactly my kink,” she whispered.

“I just think it’s hot that you’d do it.” He frowned. “Although I don’t know how I feel about you doing it again.”

Yeah. There was that. “I might not. He’s just a friend. Come on, tell me your thing.”

“I like threesomes.” Now it was her turn to frown, the edge of jealousy unexpected, and he laughed. “This sharing thing is a double-edged sword.”

“No kidding.”

“You want me to stop?”

She shook her head. No.

“I guess I should say, I’ve liked threesomes—and moresomes—in the past. If you ask me what’s the kinkiest thing I’ve done that I’ve enjoyed, it would be that. At Christmas I went to Vegas with some of my buddies and had a couple of nights with a couple there. First night was watching them, second night they invited me to join them. That was hot. But they’re not in an open relationship in general, that was a bucket list kind of thing. And that’s really what I liked the most about it. It was hot and dirty, but it was also about wish fulfillment.”

“A kinky fairy godfather.”

He gave a slight nod. “Yeah. Maybe. The other things on my list…they weren’t necessarily the hottest things I wanted, but they made other people happy. I learned some impact play to be helpful at clubs, that kind of thing. I can wield a cat o’ nine tails with confidence, but using it doesn’t turn me on unless it turns on the bottom who’s requested it.”

The temptation was huge to dig into that. Find out if he actually called himself a service top. Because he wasn’t a bottom, not naturally. Not even a switch. And the thing was…it didn’t matter to her. But he did. She wanted to know what was in his head and his heart, so she could be a better partner to him, even if it was just for a few more days. She pushed up onto her knees. “Have you ever thought about that as maybe your kink? A service fetish, or just selflessness in general? It’s a pretty consistent theme.”

He laughed. “I think it’s more about a guilt-complex rooted in my upbringing rather than anything to do with kink.”

“You haven’t talked about your family at all.”

“No, I haven’t.” He gave her a bland look. “How about that?”

“Quinn!”

He laughed and pulled her close, his mouth hovering right above hers. “Let’s save those secrets for our next deep and meaningful chat, okay?”

Who was she to argue with the man who sent zinging bolts of electricity through her body with a simple kiss, and a promise of future sharing that, ergo, required at least something of a future together? Even if it’s just a few days. Maybe if she kept telling herself that, she’d keep it all in perspective. She nodded, brushing his lips with hers. “Deal.”

* * *

That conversation never strayed far from her thoughts. How service wasn’t his kink, but something else, and she couldn’t shake the idea that maybe something else—family stuff, personal history—had held him back from exploring everything he might want.

And giving Quinn what he wanted? That could be Leah’s kink, one hundred percent.

She just didn’t know how to bring it up.

Luckily Quinn ended up doing just that for her, the next afternoon, when he turned her question around on her. “What’s the kinkiest thing you haven’t done yet, but might want to?”

He was sitting on her bed, leaning back against the headboard. She’d been puttering around as he flicked through the TV channels and played with her vibrator.

She stopped what she was doing and crawled onto the blanket to kneel in front of him.

“More wish fulfillment?” She almost answered him, too, but this was her chance to focus on him. “You first.”

He sank his teeth into his lower lip and groaned. “No fair.”

“Totally fair, in fact.” She reached for him, meaning to just give him a hug, but he pulled her into his lap and she straddled him, eager to show him with her body just how open she was to hearing anything he might say. “And it could be anything, right? Total fantasy. No judgment.”

“Yeah.” He hummed under his breath for a second, then took a deep breath. “I’vealwayswantedtolickupacreampie.”

She laughed gently. “No clue what you just said.” She kissed his cheek for good measure. “Try again,” she whispered.

“Cream pie,” he muttered, his hold on her tightening as he shoved the words quietly into the space between them.

“Oh.” She shivered as a wave of heat rolled over her. “That’s hot.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. In theory. I’ve never…well, you know. The whole can-never-be-too-careful thing.”

“Same. I’ve never been with a woman without condoms. And I wasn’t saying I wanted to do that to you.”

Except his cock branded him a liar. A hard, throbbing liar. Her breath caught in her throat. She leaned and licked her way into his mouth. He pushed back, nipping and sucking as she climbed into him, consuming and being consumed until their breath was one and hungry, impatient lust throbbed in every cell of her body. “I want you to do that,” she gasped. “Not now. But I want you. Somehow, we need more than this week.”

“Tell me your thing.” He caught her hand and tugged her fingers to his mouth. His gaze slid over her like molten lava as he caressed her fingertips with his lips. “And let’s promise each other we’ll make each other’s fantasies come true. A month from now, we’ll meet up somewhere with test results and whatever else we need.”

“Why do you think my secret desires require supplies?”

“Just leaving the options wide open, babe. Come on, tell me.”

Now it was her turn to be suddenly shy. And that made sense. She was about to tell Quinn she wanted him to attack her. “I don’t need any supplies. Just a skilled combatant that I trust implicitly.”

He nuzzled against her. “Tell me more.”

“An immersive scene, set up in advance. I get attacked, and assaulted, then turn the tables.”

He didn’t say anything and she held her breath.

“I know it’s huge and not something just to randomly suggest, but—”

“We’ll have to plan it.” He tangled his hands in her hair as he cupped the back of her head, moving her to where he could look her in the eye. “Lots of phone calls. Texts. Regular contact. Think you can handle that?”

She swallowed hard. That was more than meeting up again sometime. That was…an ongoing thing. “So we’d talk.”

“Stay in touch. Maybe have phone sex to make up for being on opposite ends of the west coast.”

“Maybe.”

He frowned. “What, maybe?”

“I don’t know. This is a week away from reality. We shouldn’t be making promises or anything. This could all just end when we land back in the US.”

“Do you want this to end?”

She suddenly wanted to shove something in his mouth. Tie his hands behind his back and suck him off until he came down her throat. But that would only buy her another hour. Three if they had a post-sex nap.

Quinn wasn’t going to be distracted from this question, and deep down, she wanted to answer it—even if the full answer would probably cement the end of their little fling. “No,” she finally admitted. “I wish it didn’t need to end. But we don’t…I don’t do relationships. The truth is, I’m a pretty shitty girlfriend. I want…well, you know what I want. I like to be in control, and I’ve got a lot of rules. That doesn’t translate well outside of the bedroom.”

“It hasn’t in the past, you mean. It’s translated just fine this week.”

She narrowed her eyes. “This week is the exception, because I knew up front that it would just be sex. Don’t do that re-framing thing on me. I’m not some young troop that needs to have their point of view re-adjusted.”

He cocked one eyebrow. “No…not a young troop. But it’s been my experience that senior NCOs can sometimes get stuck in routines that aren’t ideal.”

“Do not jargon me.” She pointed her finger at him. “Come on. Get naked or get your sandals on. We can either fuck or go for a swim.”

“I want to talk.”

She jumped up. “Well, I don’t.”

“Fine.” He gave her a slow up and down. “Let’s have sex. But let me top for real.” He lowered his voice to just above a whisper. “Give yourself over to me, Leah. Let go of that tight hold on control.”