“Come over here, and I’ll warm you up,” he suggested.

In the warm water, she dipped her body up to her neck, and she gave him a flirtatious look. “I’m better now,” she said, toying with him.

“You’ve been playing cat-and-mouse with me.” He walked across the square Jacuzzi.

“Have I?” she asked coyly.

“Oh, yes.” He stopped right in front of her.

Her skin tingled, even with the superheated water, just from the anticipation of him touching her. She was ready, very ready, for that.

“I’ve been right here the whole time.” She licked her lips, knowing it would drive him crazy.

His touch lit a fire in her core. She had been waiting for him to come on to her since they arrived. Spending the day with him in a completely nonsexual way had made her sexual appetite all the more fierce.

His fingers skimmed along her wet torso and down to her skimpy bikini bottoms. “Right here but always running away.”

“Maybe I wasn’t ready,” she whispered. In her voice, she heard the vulnerability that had never escaped her hard exterior.

“Are you ready now?”

“That depends…”

She leaned back against the wall of the Jacuzzi and surveyed him. Her smile was mischievous, her head full of schemes. She couldn’t even help it. They came to her unbidden.

“What does it depend on?”

“You.”

“What can I do to change your mind?” he asked.

“I need you to give me something.”

“What can I give you that I haven’t already?” He didn’t seem unhappy. It was more like he was willing to give in to her demands even though he had said earlier that he liked her because she didn’t want anything.

But he’d thought she wanted money. That was where she had been going wrong all along. Withholding sex wasn’t the key to keeping him interested. For a time, that had worked, but she wasn’t Anne Boleyn. She couldn’t wait six years for her crown. She needed him to give her the one thing she would never give out again.

“None of what you’ve given me compares to this.”

“You didn’t like what I gave you?” he asked skeptically.

“I loved everything,” she purred. “But that’s not what I want from you.”

“Tell me, and it’s yours.”

Here goes nothing.

“This right here.” She tapped his chest on the left side twice and let her hand linger. “Your heart.”

Hugh’s smile was victorious. “You stole that with a smile the first time I met you.”

Smooth.

He circled her small waist and crushed his lips to hers. This wasn’t a kiss like anything she had ever had with him before. They were always intoxicating and pushing boundaries, but this was…claiming. He held no more hesitancy. It was as if she had proven her worth to him.

She pushed her hands up his chest and around his neck. They couldn’t seem to get close enough. There was nothing between them but flimsy bathing suits and a world of secrets. Neither of which seemed to matter in this moment with his lips on hers. Here was everything she had ever wanted—a wealthy man who wanted to take care of her and her body. Here, she could finally forget. Here she could live in this fairy-tale fantasy and dream of a better future than her traumatizing past.

Hugh scooped her up, out of the water, and pressed her back against the deck. It was frigid, but a heating lamp was positioned in the corner. He viciously ripped at the strings on her top and brought her breast up to his lips. She groaned as he sucked and bit at the beaded nipple exposed to the elements. He touched her body as if it were the last thing he was ever going to do. He admired it, worshiped it, as if he needed it to keep living.

He kissed his way down her stomach and to the top of her bikini bottoms. He slipped a digit under the material and flicked against her clit. Her body jerked in his touch. Suddenly, she wasn’t cold anymore, not at all.

Her bottoms disappeared in much the same manner as her top, and soon, she was stripped bare in front of him. His breath was hot against her core as he spread her open before him. His fingers entered her, and her body responded in turn to his touch, making her back arch off the deck.

Fuck. I’m horny. She hadn’t had sex in almost a month. She needed him inside of her right now.

But he didn’t seem to care that she was ready. He wanted her to be beyond hot and bothered.

He claimed her clit with his tongue as he pumped in and out of her. She shook beneath him, and when she thought she couldn’t hold out any longer, her body released all around his fingers.

“Oh God!” Her limbs felt like pudding, and she trembled all over.

“You’re hot as fuck, Bri, moaning as I made you come all over my face and fingers.”

Her core pulsed at his words. “Fuck me,” she practically pleaded.

“I intend to.”

Hugh hopped out of the Jacuzzi, picked her up off the deck, and carried her into the master suite. She didn’t even consider protesting. She couldn’t wait. If he were half as good with his dick as he had been with his fingers, then she would be in for a long night.

After he laid her out on the bed, she scrambled under the covers, and he dropped his swim trunks. She stared with a giant smirk on her face. She wanted him inside of her right fucking now.

She rubbed her legs together in anticipation.

“None of that,” he said. His hands pried her legs apart and spread her wide for his view. “That’s better. No reason to obstruct my view of dessert.”

“You haven’t had your fill?” she teased.

“I’m not sure I ever will.” He crawled into bed on top of her and kissed her again. “I’m certain I could have dessert every single night and still be ravenous.”

“I feel like that could be arranged.”

He smirked and then pressed his dick up against her. “Let’s start with tonight.”

She nodded and rocked her hips up to meet him. He slipped easily into her, and she dropped her head back.

Shit. She stretched like a glove around him.

“Fuck,” she groaned.

“You feel so fucking good,” he bit out.

“Yeah.”

That was all she managed to say before he reared back and thrust into her. Her legs shook with the effort. She felt like lava was coating her veins, reaching out from her center, to spread through her body all the way to her fingers and toes. Sweat beaded on her forehead as their bodies met in time over and over again.

Why have I ever kept myself from this? It was utter perfection.

He captured her lips in a searing kiss, and she threaded her fingers through his hair. She couldn’t hold out any longer. Her body exploded, and she screamed out loud enough that if they’d been anywhere else, she might have awoken the neighbors. He came right after her, grunting, before collapsing into a heap.

She had rendered him speechless. He breathed heavily and kissed her. All of her scheming had been worth this moment. It was pure bliss. She felt content, almost happy. It had been a while since she had gotten close to that.

“I’M NOT READY TO LEAVE,” Stacia whined. She plopped her empty coffee cup down on its saucer and sighed dramatically. “I can’t believe first semester is already over.”

“Me either,” Bryna agreed.

“It went by so fast,” Trihn said.

“At least I’ll see you in Miami for New Year’s Eve,” Stacia said.

LV State had won the conference championship in San Francisco last weekend, and that meant they would be going to the play-offs. Bryna had spent the past week in her final exams, and now, they were all waiting on grades before starting Christmas break.