“Hey, gorgeous, wanna go to the beach today, or maybe you’d rather go to the beach?” King whispers in my ear from behind me, where he is spooning against me.

“I think you just said the same place twice,” I murmur against his arm with my eyes still closed.

“That’s because we’re in Aruba, on the beach, where I can watch my sexy wife in her tiny white bikini all day. Unless you’d rather stay in bed naked all day. That’s even better. I’m totally down for that.”

King slides his chiseled, lean body against my backside, kissing and nipping a trail to my waist and ending at the small of my back. He has one hand full of ass cheek as he bites down a little harder than usual on the other, but I still giggle until he turns me over and tears off the sheet to start our daily honeymoon ecstasy festival.

I hold my hands over my eyes and smile as he kisses every ticklish spot on my naked body.

“Close your eyes.”

“I’ve already got them covered,” I say between fits of giggles.

“Just make sure they’re closed, Mrs. Ortega, got it?”

“Yes, got it.”

I love it when he calls me by my married name, and I love even more that it’s not a name synonymous with the drug world. King took Sebastián’s name so we could start fresh, and fresh is what he’s been for the past ten days of our honeymoon. But I’m not complaining.

With my eyes closed, I feel the warmth of his body disappear and I hear something being stirred in a glass. The bed dips when he returns and straddles me between his legs. The heavy weight of my favorite part of his anatomy rests on my belly.

I stick out my lip and pout. “I wanna look.”

“Nope, not yet,” he says, removing my hands from my eyes.

“Keep em closed.”

The sun pours in through the windows of our bungalow so brightly that even with my eyes closed, I can see his form moving above me through my thin lids.

“What are we doing?”

“Cross your wrists.”

I do as I’m told, and he raises my wrists and ties them with a soft piece of material to the headboard.

“Trust me?”

“If I could open my eyes, I’d roll them so you would know how silly that question is.”

“Okay, open them.”

I swear, it doesn’t matter how many times I look at this man—he still takes my breath away. Every tattoo, every scar, every chiseled muscle makes my mouth water and my heart flutter.

Every day that he is alive I thank my lucky stars for crappy cell phone service in Puerto Rico. He had to walk miles to find help when his SUV broke down on the way to the airport that night. The time he spent arranging for it to be repaired saved his life.

After my moment of shock and awe, I watch as he reaches to the bedside table for a glass of water with a spoon in it.

“What’s that?”

“Water.” He shrugs matter-of-factly.

“You thirsty?” I ask, smiling. I know he’s up to something.

“Nope.”

“Okay, I give, what’s up with the water?”

He begins to stir, and I see it begin to cloud from something that’s settled on the bottom.

“You gonna drug me?”

“Nope.” He stops stirring and looks at me seriously.

“This is three months’ worth of birth control pills.”

“What?” I try to sit up, forgetting my hands are tied.

“Why would you ruin all those . . .”

He’s smiling now as he stirs. He sees that I’m beginning to understand.

“You want another baby?” My words are so soft, they’re barely audible.

“Yes. Do you?”

We haven’t talked about expanding our family. It’s only been a year since I was reunited with King and Juliette, but we’re married now, and all of the hurt and pain is behind us, so what better time?

“Yes.” My eyes mist with tears of joy.

His smile widens and he sets the glass down.

“Well, we could get started trying right now if you want.”

“I need something first.”

“Anything, baby, it’s yours.”

“Pinky swear that you’ll never, ever leave me again.”

He looks at me long and hard, deep into my eyes, past my common sense and around the corner to my insecurities, where he stops.

“I, King Tomas Ortega, pinky swear to love and honor, respect and be true to you, Holland Blue Bennett-Ortega, until my dying breath.” He reaches up to where my hands are bound and tugs on my pinky with his.

“Those are your wedding vows.”

“Those are my pinky swear vows now too.”

He drags his finger from the hollow of my neck to my navel and wraps his hands around my hips.

“Okay, and one more thing.”

He winks. “Anything.”

“I just want to be Holland Blue Ortega, no more Bennett.”

He leans down and feathers his lips against mine.

“You’ve got it, Mrs. Ortega, now close your eyes again.”

“Again?” He nods, and I close my eyes and feel another silky piece of material cover my eyes. He ties it loosely behind my head, and when I open my eyes, it’s completely dark. His lips are on mine again, more urgently this time. He takes his time, kissing me dizzy and tasting every inch of me, from my shoulders to my belly. When I’m panting and desperate, he leans back and bends my knees to grace me with the pleasure of his mouth between my legs. I arch my back off the bed, coming apart at the seams when he takes me to heaven, not once or twice, but three times before sliding his thick cock into my soaking wet folds.

“I love you . . . God, King, I love you.” I gasp and dig my nails into his arms.

“I love you too. Now hold on.” His words send a shiver down my spine, and I grab the headboard tighter. He glides out, and I hear him whisper something before he buries himself deep inside of me, moaning against my skin. The headboard jerks when he reaches over me to hold onto it for leverage. When he pulls away and begins thrusting in and out of me, I can taste the desire in the room. I’m no longer in Aruba in a bed with my new husband. I’m being tossed around in a tidal wave, sucked down deep until I don’t know which way is up. I’m at his mercy, and his current pulls me to the edge of pure pleasure until I burst through the surface and melt around this man who loves me so completely.

My hands are released and the blindfold is shoved down almost frantically.

“Holland, are you okay?” Some things never change.

When I open my eyes, King looks down at me with concern, still panting. I watch a drop of sweat trickle down the side of his face and drip onto my bare chest. He gathers my sated body into his lap and cradles me in his arms, stroking my hair and rocking us back and forth.

“I’ve never heard you cry out like that.”

“You’ve never made me come like that.”

He stops rocking and looks down at me.

“Never?”

“Uh uh, not like that.” I shake my head back and forth. He looks around thoughtfully before meeting my eyes again.

“Must have been the restraints or the blindfold.”

“Nope, pretty sure it was this,” I say, wiggling in his lap. He chuckles and lifts one corner of his mouth in a smirk.

“Well, whatever it was, I think I’ll do it again and again, and then we can eat, and I’ll give it another shot—how’s that sound?”

“Like a perfect day in paradise.”