Kennedy doesn’t hesitate for an instant, and she leads the way back along the trail, confidence radiating from her every movement. She’s laser-focused on getting back to that water taxi. I can see in the way she works her muscles, the way she climbs, that she wants—needs—this as much as I do.

I can’t believe I’ve only known her for a week.

I don’t tell anyone about Andrea. At least, not anyone I’ve met post-college. Dahlia knows about her, and so does Adam, but Kennedy is the first person to hear about her from my lips since they handed me my diploma.

My chest feels lighter now that it’s out in the open—the fun-loving, reckless idiot Gideon Hawke got played by his last serious girlfriend—but Kennedy doesn’t seem to care. She accepted it as easily as she has every other fact I’ve told her about myself.

And it’s been a long day of watching her pert ass work as she climbs over boulders and crawls through narrow trails, and I need her.

I need her.

I wish I’d thought to do something beforehand, but I don’t know if money would have been enough to sway the National Park Service into shutting down all of Devil’s Bay and the Baths so that I could have the option to bend Kennedy over a boulder and finally, finally, have my way with her. 

It takes all of my strength not to push her behind every tree thick enough to hide us on the way back to the docks, and the only thing that keeps me in line on the five-minute water taxi ride is the fact that we’re sitting three feet away from the captain. Kennedy is silent, breathing hard, a pink flush in her cheeks, and I am desperate, absolutely desperate, to get those clothes off of her.

I slam the cottage door closed behind us the moment we step inside, and this time it’s Kennedy who makes the first move, lunging at me like a tigress, her arms closing around my neck, legs wrapping around my waist, those perfect lips crashing into mine so fiercely that it hurts in the best possible way.

“Take me, Gideon.” She gets the words out between more kisses, and that’s all it takes for me to move us away from the door, back into the bedroom. We both tumble onto the bed together, the coverings pulled tight by the staff while we were out. Kennedy arches her back, all of her straining toward me, and it’s the prettiest invitation I’ve ever received.

And I accept.

I hook my fingers into the waistband of her bathing suit and pull it off, down toward her knees, over her ankles, and toss it to the floor while she whips her sundress over her head and then undoes the top, her full breasts springing free. I’m out of my clothes in seconds, and during that time she pulls herself up to kneeling on the bed, legs spread wide underneath her.

I wrap my hand around the back of her neck and thread my fingers through her hair, now loose from its tie, and tug her head back, tasting her again, holding her firmly, demanding, commanding, as my other hand strokes her soaking hot slit.

She’s already wet and ready, and her little moans are driving me crazy. I need her to be mine. I need all of her to be mine, and with every breath, Kennedy seems to be submitting a little more, giving herself over to me.

With my hand still firmly entwined in her hair, I pull back and look deeply into her eyes. “I’m going to claim you and make you mine, Kennedy Carlisle.”

We’re frozen in that moment for a heartbeat, and then Kennedy licks her lips. “Please…” Her ragged whisper pushes me over the edge.

One hand on her arm, I help shift her so that she’s turned onto hands and knees. She’s a natural, arching her back and spreading her legs, pushing that unbelievable ass into the air. I can’t believe this is the same Kennedy Carlisle that had to think twice, then three times, about dancing with me in the club. Right now, she’s all heat and fire, her pink, perfect pussy exposed to me in the most delicious way, slick and so wet the droplets are collecting on her thighs.

When I think it’s not going to get any hotter—can’t get any hotter—she presses her breasts to the bed, turns her head to the side, and looks up at me with desperation in her endlessly blue eyes.

And then she reaches back, crossing her wrists together on the small of her back.

“Please, Gideon,” she begs again, and the realization of what she’s asking for rocks me to the core. 

Kennedy doesn’t want to be mine. She needs to submit to me, even if it’s only behind closed doors, only in the privacy of this cottage, far away from her life and her work and everything else that rules her mind on a regular basis.

I lean down to growl into her ear. “You don’t have to beg me, pretty thing.” Then I lock one hand around both of her wrists, holding her tight. “Not unless I tell you to.” She sucks in a breath, pushing her ass another inch into the air.

With my other hand, I reach between her legs and slide two of my fingers into her wetness. There’s no resistance—she’s that slick—and my cock twitches at the sensation of her trying to press back on those fingers, trying to fuck herself on them, only she’s held in place by my hand over her wrists, pinned down on the bed. She gasps when she realizes it, and her pussy clenches tightly around my fingers.

I can’t wait another second.

I take my fingers out—Kennedy whimpers—and suck them into my mouth. “You taste so sweet. But I want more of you.” Her hips sway from side to side, as much as she can, and I push her back into place with a firm motion that’s answered with another gush of wetness. Kennedy spreads her legs a little farther apart, begging me with her body, and I can’t deny her. I won’t deny her.

I line up my long thickness with her hot, wet slit, steady myself with a hand on her hip, and thrust into her with all of my weight, all of my strength, taking her completely in one motion, burying myself to the hilt. Her muscles clench around me immediately, pulling me in, squeezing me, and Kennedy cries out.

I stay still for only a moment, and then I fuck her hard, like I’ve wanted to ever since the very first moment I saw her in the club that night, and she writhes underneath me. After a few strokes, I release her hands, and she curls her fingers into the comforter and pushes back against me, meeting every thrust with one of her own.

It’s everything I wanted it to be.

It’s more than I wanted it to be.

Kennedy rocks against me, her hips moving out of rhythm as she climbs toward release and then, in a burst of tightness and wetness and heat, she comes hard on my cock, careening over the edge and pulling me along with her. I come so hard that stars explode at the edges of my vision, and when I’m finally spent, I fall back onto the bed next to her, the aftershocks moving through my muscles in waves.

Kennedy lies next to me, her breathing settling, and then she pushes up on one elbow, her finger tracing a path from my chest down to my abs…and then lower. Her face is all flushed. She flashes me a wicked grin, and then she leans down and kisses me.

“We’re just getting started, right?”