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“I don’t think so.” He prowled toward me, shirt already gone, body on full display. “I think you’re not used to having someone appreciate you, let alone savor you.”
He stopped in front of me, and I had to look up at him. “Why do you all say things like that? I mean, I get it. It’s a part of the whole… experience, I guess. But I’m no one to you.”
“Isolde.” My name was low and soft on his lips. I couldn’t puzzle out why there was so much pain in it.
“You talk like I matter.”
One hand reached out and pulled my body to his. The sunscreen fell to the sand as he wrapped me up, hands dragging over my skin like he wanted to feel everything at once. “Youdomatter,” he whispered.
“Why? I’m?—”
“Because you’re a fucking person,” he said, holding me flush to his body. “You’re beautiful, and I won’t lie, I searched your work. You’re fucking talented. You’re kind when you don’t need to be. You care about your friends and family. It took me no time at all to see those things, and even if not one of them was true, you’re still a person, Isolde. You matter.”
Vaughn threaded his fingers into my hair and pulled my head back to kiss me. Hard. Orange and ice cream and sweetness. A trace of syrup from breakfast. He didn’t let me back away, teasing my mouth open beneath his until he had all of me. Stole my breath. Consumed my voice. Pinned me to the spot and kissed me until I was nothing but a blank slate to believe his words.
He kept my head arched back, drawing the words up my neck. “If I hear you say you don’t matter again, or question your worth, I’m giving you to Cade and Joel. They’ll spank it out of you if they have to.”
“What?” My mouth dropped open.
A lazy smirk pulled at his lips. “‘I shouldn’t want to think about this, but I have, and do. All the fucking time.’ Isn’t that what you said about spanking on your questionnaire?”
“You memorized it?”
“Not quite.” He released me to retrieve the sunscreen. “But almost. I’ve certainly looked at it enough. Off.” One tug of my sparkly cover-up had it floating down onto the sand. They had all seen me naked, but this felt different. “Turn around.”
I obeyed, still caught on the fact that he knew my words by heart. “You said you’d tell me which ones belong to you.”
The loud sound of the spray made me jump, and the coolness made me shiver. Vaughn ran his hands over my shoulders and down my back, continuing down my legs. “Do you have any guesses?”
The fingers brushing between my thighs had my mind going blank. How was I supposed to talk when he touched me like he was about to fuck me, not drag me into the ocean? There were so many things… “It could be anything.”
He rubbed the sunscreen into my legs, large hands curling around my legs and finding every bit of skin. Fingers dipped beneath the edge of my bikini bottom, enough to make me close my eyes and revel in the heat, but not quite enough to be scandalous.
“It could be anything, but it’s not.” He was close again, body brushing against my back. Instead of spraying on my skin, he sprayed it into his hands and used both of them, slowly smoothing over my hips and stomach and upward in a massage far too delicious for the beach.
“You like,” I had to pause to catch my breath. “You like impact play?” They had plenty of questions about floggers and whips. I’d never experienced that, and it wasn’t at the top of my list, but I would try anything once.
Within reason.
“Mmm.” He hummed the sound into my neck, raising goosebumps on my skin even though it was hot out here. “No. None of us love that. It’s fine, but it’s not our favorite.”
“Tell me,” I breathed.
“Primal.” The single word was a growl. Vaughn ran his hands over my breasts, neck, and shoulders, covering me with sunscreen while he spoke. “The running. The chasing. Pinning to the ground andtaking. Giving in to your deepest, and sometimes darkest, instincts. Letting them take over and doing what feelsright.”
One hand rested on my chest, and he lifted it to my throat, just where Cade had gripped me last night. I leaned into him further. “Do you want me to chase you, Isolde?”
I remembered every vivid detail of when I filled out their questionnaire and the thoughts racing through my head. Imagining the adrenaline of running from someone while knowing they were ultimately going to catch me. Thinking about doing nothing but what my subconscious commanded, whether it was fight or flight or fuck or flee.
My whole body shivered with the thought.
I over thought everything. In the same way that Rowan’s description of surrender appealed to me, so did this in an entirely different way.
“Yes,” I finally whispered. “I want that.”
“Fuck,” he murmured into my hair, pulling me back so I could feel how hard he was. “Do you want to plan it out?”
“Or?”
