"Here?" His voice was rough, strained.
“Here.”
His mouth found her neck, her collarbone, the sensitive hollow of her throat. Lily arched into him, her fingers tangling in his hair as he worked his way down her body. He tugged her sundress over her head, leaving her in nothing but a scrap of pink lace, and for a moment he just looked at her—spread out on the sand, skin gilded by the dying sun.
"You're so goddamn beautiful," he said, the words sounding almost angry. "Do you know that? Do you have any idea what you've done to me?"
"Show me," she challenged.
He did.
His mouth traced fire across her skin—her breasts, her stomach, the jut of her hipbones. When he hooked his fingers in her underwear and dragged it down her legs, the evening air hit her slick center and she shivered.
"Cold?" he asked.
"The opposite."
He smiled against her inner thigh, then lowered his head and that devilishly clever tongue sliced between her folds and found the pulsing center of her.
Lily cried out, her hips bucking against his mouth. He pinned her down with one arm across her stomach, his tongue working her clit with all the knowledge he’d amassed from worshipping her body more times than she could count at this point. The waves crashed in the background, keeping time with the pleasure building in her core.
"Alex, I'm—oh god, I'mgoing to?—"
He doubled his efforts, sliding two fingers inside her while his tongue continued its assault. The orgasm hit her like a rogue wave, cresting and breaking and dragging her under. She came with an ugly cry, the sound swallowed by the ocean and the wind and the dying light.
Before the aftershocks had fully faded, Alex was kissing his way back up her body, his hands fumbling with his shorts. Lily helped, pushing at the fabric until he was as bare as she was, his cock hard and heavy against her thigh.
This time, she wanted him in her mouth.
Lily pushed at his shoulders, urging him onto his back in the warm sand. He went willingly, his eyes dark and questioning as she straddled his thighs, her hands trailing down his chest. The vulnerability hit her then—the way his breath hitched, the faint tremor in his muscles, like he was holding himself together by a thread. This man, so strong and commanding in every other part of his life, was utterly at her mercy now, and it made her heart ache even as desire pooled hot in her belly.
She leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to his sternum, tasting the salt on his skin from the ocean air. "Let me,"she whispered, her voice barely audible over the waves. "Let me take care of you."
Alex's hand came up to cup her face, his thumb brushing her cheek. "Lily..." There it was again, her name like a confession, raw and exposed. He nodded, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed hard.
She slid lower, her breasts brushing against his abdomen, sending sparks through both of them. Her fingers wrapped around his cock—velvet over steel, throbbing in her grip. He groaned, low and guttural, his hips twitching upward involuntarily. Lily met his gaze, holding it as she lowered her head, her lips parting to take him in.
The first taste of him—salty, musky, all Alex—made her moan around him. She swirled her tongue over the tip, savoring the bead of precum there, before sinking down further, taking as much as she could. His hand fisted in her hair, not pulling, just anchoring himself, like he needed the connection to stay grounded.
"Fuck, Lily," he rasped, his voice breaking. "You're... God, you're everything."
She worked him slowly at first, her mouth hot and wet, sliding up and down with deliberate care. One hand stroked the base where her lips couldn't reach, the other splayed across his thigh, feeling the tensioncoiling in his muscles. He was vulnerable here, naked beneath the fading sky, his breath coming in ragged pants, his eyes locked on hers with a mix of desperation and adoration that twisted something deep inside her.
Tears pricked at her eyes—not from effort, but from the intensity of it all. This was goodbye wrapped in pleasure, a stolen moment on the edge of loss. She hollowed her cheeks, sucking harder, her tongue pressing against the underside as she bobbed faster. Alex's free hand clutched at the sand, knuckles white, his body arching toward her.
"Baby, I'm close," he warned, his voice strained, vulnerable in its honesty. "You don't have to?—"
But she did. She wanted every part of him, this final claim. Lily doubled down, her movements fervent now, hot and unrelenting. He shattered with a choked cry, his release flooding her mouth in pulsing waves. She swallowed around him, drawing out every last shudder, until he went limp beneath her, chest heaving.
She pulled back gently, wiping her lips with the back of her hand, and crawled up to nestle against his side. Alex wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close, his lips pressing to her forehead in a kiss that felt like a promise he couldn't keep.
Lily could’ve remained in that moment forever but Alex was a beast, driven by feelings he couldn’t or wouldn’t name —but showed with his touch.
Rising slowly to his feet, he helped Lily to her feet and wordlessly led her back into the cabin to the bedroom. In an instant, Lily responded to the kindling heat in his gaze as he carefully, reverently removed the rest of her clothing.
Within minutes, they were both on the bed, and a heartbeat later, he was inside her.
The feeling was overwhelming—the stretch of him filling her completely. Above her, Alex's face was a mask of barely controlled restraint, every muscle in his body taut with the effort of not moving.
