CHAPTER 15
When Julian had said that he had “a place” in Maui, Kristin had never imagined that he meant an entire resort.
He and his brothers each owned a piece of the luxury hotel that left Kristin at a loss for words. She’d seen several swimming pools, a spa, and expensive shops on the way to their room, which had ended up being bigger than most people’s homes.
She took a deep breath as she stood on the balcony of the gorgeous suite, taking in the beautiful waves as they crashed to the shore. They were so close to the water that she’d be lulled to sleep by the ocean.
Not that she was really tired. She’d slept for the majority of the long flight, waking up only after they were already well on their way across the Pacific Ocean. Julian had kept her fed, then had more pills ready the moment she woke up. She hadn’t experienced a single moment of motion sickness, even though the trip was long.
Julian entered the balcony through the open door of the living room, carrying a tray.
Kristin turned, and couldn’t help but laugh when she saw what he had in his hand.
He was gripping a tray that had several multicolored cocktails topped with tiny umbrellas. On second glance, she noticed they were also garnished with swords of fruit. “You didn’t!” She covered her mouth to try to hide her laughter, but she couldn’t hold it back.
“You asked for cocktails with little umbrellas. Sit,” he ordered as he set the burden on the table between two loungers.
He didn’t say a word as he handed her the tallest glass while she took a place in one of the comfortable chairs.
“What is this one?” She looked curiously at the pretty blue color of the adult beverage.
“You’re the bartender. You tell me.” He lifted one of the drinks for himself.
Cautiously, she took a sip. “Mmm . . . rum? Pineapple? Coconut? I never was good with complicated drinks,” she admitted as she took another sip. It was delicious, but she didn’t have a clue what ingredients it had.
“It’s a Blue Hawaii. I don’t know exactly what’s in it, either. All I asked for was to make sure they all had colorful little umbrellas. But I’m pretty sure it will knock you on your ass if you drink too many.”
Taking a little bit more of the tasty cocktail, Kristin sipped slowly and watched the sunset. “It’s beautiful here. Almost like another world. Do you come here often? Do Micah and Xander?”
“Nope,” Julian answered. “It was strictly an investment. We acquired the place right before Mom and Dad died. I’m the first one to visit. I like it,” he decided.
Again, she chuckled. “You should. You own it. Nice little place you have here,” she teased.
“I never said it was small,” he answered in protest.
“Well, it’s not. Little . . . I mean. It’s big.” She was pretty sure they weren’t discussing the hotel anymore.
He turned his head and shot her a wicked grin. “It is big.”
“I know,” she muttered. “I remember that part.”
“Good.” He leaned his head against the back of his lounger and closed his eyes.
God, he looked good. His messy blond hair was being ruffled by the light breeze, and he looked relaxed. The short-sleeved button-down shirt he’d donned in the morning under his jacket was now open to reveal his ripped chest and abs. His feet were bare below the hem of a well-used pair of jeans that hugged his lower body lovingly.
Kristin relaxed, letting the beautiful sunset and the roar of the waves soothe her soul. She savored her drink slowly, enjoying the peace that had settled over her like a comforting blanket.
Maybe she’d never realized how uptight she was, or how rarely she stopped to actually watch the sun slowly descend until it disappeared. Even simple pleasures took too long for her to stop for a few moments to enjoy.
By the time she’d finished her cocktail, Julian was sleeping. She got up and stretched, then went back into the suite, passing through the living room to get to the bedroom, trying not to worry about the fact that there was only one very big bed.
Does he expect me to sleep with him?
Feeling mellow and lighthearted for the first time in as long as she could remember, she wasn’t going to dwell on the sleeping arrangements.
Looking around, she finally realized somebody had unpacked their things. Finding a silky nightgown in her drawer, she grabbed a pair of undies and went into the bathroom, dumping her nightclothes on the large double vanity so she could fill the massive tub. Picking out one of the bath bombs that promised serenity, she dropped it into the rising water and watched with satisfaction as it fizzled.
He knows just how to get to me.
The bath was more like a giant Jacuzzi, with marbled steps and lined with gleaming porcelain.
Stripping off her clothes, she was in the water with her hair secured on the top of her head within moments.
Her head connected with the bath pillow and she let out a blissful sigh before turning off the water, inhaling the tangy scent of essential oils as she closed her eyes.
She should feel guilty for doing nothing.
She should feel guilty because she wasn’t doing anything productive.
She should feel guilty because she was here with Julian.
But she couldn’t. In so many ways, Julian was probably right. Just once, she could put herself first. She’d probably known for a while that she was suffering from burnout, the pace she’d been keeping up for years catching up to her.
“Nothing could feel better than this,” she whispered to herself as she let the warm water wash away any remaining stress she’d been feeling.
“I can think of a few things that might,” Julian’s smooth-as-fine-silk voice remarked next to the tub. “Smells good in here.”
Startled, she sank down into the tub. Not that it did any good. The water was clear, with no bubbles in sight. The bomb left the water scented and treated, but it did nothing to the transparent color. “I thought you were sleeping.”
“I missed you,” he said huskily, his body naked from the waist up. He flipped the button on his jeans and lowered the zipper before he dropped everything to the floor, including his briefs. “I woke up and you were gone.”
Kristin gaped at him, trying not to stare at his engorged cock as he kicked the pants and underwear away from his feet.
“Are you showering? I can get out,” she squeaked.
His brows drew together as though he were concentrating. “I thought about that. But then when I saw you in the tub, I was pretty sure I needed to wash your back.” He vaulted up the few steps, pushed her forward, and lowered himself in behind her. “Amazing,” he rumbled, his chest vibrating against her back.
She felt his cock pressing against her, his body enveloping her in his heat. Nervous, she put her hands on the side of the tub to get out. “Julian, I—”
“Relax,” he told her calmly, putting his arms around her waist and pulling her back against him. “We are married, you know.”
She wasn’t the least bit crowded. The bath had room enough for at least a few more people if she wanted bathing to be a social activity. But she didn’t. “Technically, we could be married in name only. Neither one of us really vividly remembers what happened after the wedding,” she reminded him.
“Well, Mrs. Sinclair, I can fix that quite easily,” he said in a hoarse whisper into her ear as he took the clip from her hair and let her locks tumble over her shoulders. He buried his face into her curls, his voice muffled as he rasped, “Jesus, you’re beautiful.”
Those words stopped her desire to get away, and he’d stopped her in her tracks by calling her Mrs. Sinclair. A longing she couldn’t explain speared her heart. “Julian,” she protested, but it sounded more like encouragement to her.
“Let me touch you, Kristin. Let me do what I never did the first time we were together.”
Flashbacks of the pleasure he’d given her in Vegas flooded her brain, making her so needy that she had to bite back a moan.
His mouth went to the vulnerable skin at the side of her neck, and his big, powerful hands moved up to palm her breasts. As he used the slickened water to tease her nipples, she slumped back against him, feeling his touch sizzle through her entire body. “Yes,” she encouraged, lifting her hands up to grasp his muscular biceps just to have something to keep her grounded.
“These,” he confided, “are fucking sexy as hell.” He gently pinched the hard tips of her breasts, then soothed them with warm water.
Her back arched from the sensation of having his mouth and hands all over her body. “I ache,” she panted.
Julian grasped her leg and turned her until she was straddling him. “I’ll never let you hurt, Kristin. Not for long.”
His mouth descended on a vulnerable nipple while his fingers continued to tease the other. The carnal sensuality of the way he seemed to be enjoying the exploration of her body was making Kristin’s core clamp down hard enough to be painful, begging for Julian to satisfy her.
“Please.” She used his powerful thighs to take away a tiny bit of her frustration, rolling her pussy against the hard surface of his skin.
“Take what you want, Kristin,” he encouraged huskily.
What she wanted was him inside her. Now.
She thrust her hands into his hair and jerked, forcing his head up so she could lean down and match their mouths, calming a little of her frenzied need that was now raging out of control.
She started the kiss; Julian took it over. He moved his hands up her back and grasped her hair, his mouth gaining stronger contact, his tongue spearing between her lips demandingly.
A sob escaped her mouth as Julian pulled back, a greedy desire to have Julian’s cock inside her nearly making her come unglued.
“Please,” she begged as she humped his thigh harder, but it wasn’t enough. What she needed was far more than what she was getting.
“What? Tell me, Kristin.”
“Fuck me,” she demanded. “Now. Please.”
He shot her a small grin, and she knew he’d won this round. He’d told her she’d be begging him to fuck her, and she had. It might have taken him an extra day, but it didn’t seem to bother him.
As she looked at him with a soul-deep desperation, his eyes glowed with identical need, the same intensity of carnality as she was experiencing. She didn’t know how she knew, but she could feel him, see that mirror image in his eyes.
“Ride me until we both come so hard that we can’t get out of this tub,” he growled as he palmed his cock and brought her down on top of him. “Oh, fuck! Yeah.”
The water washed away some of her juices, but she was still so slick that she was able to lower herself until her sheath was full of Julian buried to his balls.
“Ahhh . . . ,” she panted. “I needed this. I need you.” Her head fell back in ecstasy as he took ahold of her hips and bucked up.
“Take what you want, baby,” he encouraged demandingly. “Ride me hard.”
She slapped her hands beside his head for leverage, then claimed exactly what she desired, lifting her hips and then slamming them back down again, shivering with every thrust of his cock entering her all over again.
“Fuck!” Julian cursed with frustration, surging up and lifting her with him as he stood. “Not enough,” he grumbled. “I’ve waited so fucking long for this that nothing but hard and deep is going to satisfy either one of us.”
She gasped at the sudden loss of Julian’s presence inside her body, whimpering with irritation. “No. Fuck me. Now.” She punched him in one of his upper arms.
“Getting impatient?” he asked wickedly.
“Yes,” she answered angrily.
He set her feet down on the plush rug and roughly placed her hands on the marble vanity so she was bent over. As he moved behind her and toyed between her slick folds, he answered, “Then welcome to my goddamn world since the moment we met.” He surged forward, burying himself deeply inside her again, and then grasped her hips hard.
Kristin let out a high howl of pleasure that ended when she was startled to see their reflection in the big mirror in front of her.
Julian looked huge and powerful, his face tight with unsated lust as he met her gaze in the mirror.
“This. Is. Us,” he told her in a low, vibrating voice that he made no effort to control, as though he didn’t care if she saw him raw and unwound. “This never goes away.” He pulled back and slammed into her again. “This is something neither one of us can control, so why in the fuck do we even try?”
She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Lost in his voice and movements, her heart was hammering as something she’d never experienced before touched places she didn’t know existed. Letting her eyes talk for her, she didn’t take her gaze from his, and they were pleading with him to satiate her ache.
Their heated stare stayed connected while Julian’s pace became a punishing, brutal conquering of her body, something she needed more than she’d ever yearned for anything before, and probably never would again.
“Harder,” she pleaded as she wildly moved back as he came forward.
Water was dripping from their bodies, and as Julian’s eyes finally slipped from hers, Kristin looked at herself and her wild-eyed face, not even recognizing herself. Strangely, she didn’t care. She was too far gone to find the image of Julian fucking her from behind as anything but hot and erotic.
“You’re mine, Kristin. You got it? Mine!” Julian commanded in an animalistic voice.
His bold pronouncement brought a feral response from her body, her fingers gripping the counter harder. “Then you’re mine, too,” she moaned.
“Never would argue with that,” he said, his voice strained and his chest heaving.
“I have to come, Julian. Please.” She gave up all pretense of being tough. Her climax was building to the point of insanity.
“Then come with me,” he insisted, his voice rough as sandpaper.
The knot in her belly unfurled as Julian moved his hand between her thighs and began to grind his fingers against her clit as he continued to hammer into her from behind.
“Yes,” she hissed loudly. “Oh, God . . . yes!”
Her orgasm slammed into her body in a rush, and her channel clenched down hard as wave after wave of pleasure washed over her. She was helpless to do anything except scream, “Julian!”
“That’s right. Say my name, Kristin. Never forget who is making you come like this.” He groaned, his head falling back as Kristin milked him of his scorching-hot release.
His pleasure was hers as she watched him come, her climax loosening its hold as pure satisfaction followed while she watched a totally aroused Julian reach his own peak.
He was all male, all powerful flexing muscles and enormous grunts of gratification as he ground his pelvis against her ass in a glorious alpha-male display of power.
Kristin was gasping for breath, her heart rate thundering as he finally locked eyes with her as if to say I told you so, but not in a teasing sort of way. He looked exhausted and at peace with what was happening, but his tumultuous gaze was demanding she accept something that was inevitable.
Opening her mouth to tell him how she felt, she closed it again when she was unable to speak.
Julian slowly disengaged himself from her, then lifted her bodily in his arms and carried her limp form to the enormous bed. Sliding in beside her, he wrapped his arms around her and held her, stroking a hand lazily over her back. “That is us,” he muttered simply into her ear.
“I know,” she sighed, her heart rate beginning to slow down. She didn’t question what he meant by that statement anymore. She knew. And it was actually as frightening as it was beautiful.
She wanted to talk, to tell him how scary it was to lose so much of her control when she was with him.
She didn’t.
Moments later, the comforting motion of his hand running up and down her back, and the sounds of the ocean, forced her to sleep.