TWENTY
Kelsey lay stretched out in the late-afternoon sun as content as a turtle on a log. The rays had heated her skin to the perfect warmth, and the sound of the crashing waves smoothed out the anxieties knocking around in her head. She gave a languid stretch and a yawn.
Kade shifted on the lounger next to her, turning onto his side and peering at her through his dark sunglasses. He’d joined her about a half hour ago, but both of them had been happy to keep each other silent company. He smirked as she lowered her arms from her stretch.
“What?” she asked, glancing down at her tankini bathing suit. The top had ridden up from her stretch, revealing a fresh expanse of skin.
He nodded at the faint finger-length bruises on her hip. “You’re suddenly making me bereft that I decided to come on this vacation with my assistant and not a date.”
She laughed and tugged the bottom of the tank down again to hide the marks. “Well, that’s your own fault. I see the submissives falling all over themselves at The Ranch to get into your dungeon. I’m sure you would’ve had a harem of them to accompany you if you’d asked.”
“Nah, no one’s really captured my interest in months. Well, at least no one who was available. I seem to have a thing for wanting women who already have owners . . . or husbands.” He sighed and rolled onto his back, his restlessness palpable. “Last girl I thought could be the answer turned out to be Wyatt and Jace’s very married sister. Either of them would probably punch me in the throat if they knew I’d made a pass at her.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah.”
She turned to face him, propping her head on her hand. “Your problem is you have a hard-on for vanilla girls. You want an innocent who you can mold exactly how you like.”
He peeked over at her, his forehead lined with thought. “That’s what you think?”
She lifted her eyebrow in challenge. “I don’t think. I know. I’ve heard the subs whining behind your back. Those beautiful, well-trained girls are willing to let you do anything to them, and you’re not interested.”
“Fuck,” he said, turning his face toward the sky again. “You’re right. And isn’t that just a fucking fantastic kink to have? Because how the hell am I supposed to find that kind of woman? Date a bunch of vanilla girls and see who gets all soft-eyed when I get rough? Good way to get a restraining order.”
She reached out and gave his hand a squeeze. “Maybe talk to Grant. He’s the one who admits the newbies. Maybe he can connect you with a girl who’s curious but not experienced.”
He laced his fingers with hers and brought her hand to his mouth for a quick, friendly kiss. “Thanks, dollface. Maybe I will.”
“Ahem.”
Kade released her hand, and Kelsey sat up to find Wyatt standing behind their lounge chairs, jaw tight, eyes glaring in Kade’s direction. Kelsey offered a bright smile. “Hey, you.”
“Am I interrupting?” Wyatt asked, his tone cool.
Kade turned in his chair, sitting upright and planting his feet in the sand. “Nah, man. Your girl was just giving me sage advice about my piss poor dating life.” He slapped the tops of this thighs and stood. “And now that I’m thoroughly depressed, I think I’m going to go find Carmichael and see what he has to say about the hotel deal.”
Wyatt crossed his arms, nodding. “Good luck with that.”
Kade sent Kelsey an oops look from behind Wyatt and then gave a little wave. “See y’all later.”
Wyatt waited until Kade was a good distance away before sitting on the lounger Kade had vacated. He leveled a stare at her.
Oh, shit.
* * *
Wyatt was working damn hard to keep his expression placid. The wave of Mine! that had flooded his system at the sight of Kade kissing Kelsey’s hand was strong enough to make his hands vibrate. Pure adrenaline.
“How’d the meeting go?” Kelsey asked, her tone higher-pitched than normal.
“I’m about ninety-five percent sure she and her husband will go with A&A.”
Kelsey’s smile lit her face. “That’s fantastic.”
“Enjoyed your afternoon?”
She wet her lips. “Kade and I are friends, Wyatt. That’s it.”
He leaned back in the chair. “Did I suggest anything different?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, and he almost smiled at the petulant child expression on her face. “No, but you might as well have drawn a circle around me in the sand and mounted a Keep Out sign with the way you looked at Kade.”
He reached out and unfurled her arms, then brought both her hands to his mouth for a kiss. “Seeing any man touch you makes me jealous and protective. I can’t help that. It doesn’t mean I don’t trust you or that I suspect anything is going on.”
She blinked at him. “So you’re not mad?”
“Of course not. Plus, I think I used up my daily allotment of being an asshole this morning.”
She laughed and lay back down in her lounger, facing him, “I’ll be on the lookout tomorrow then.”
He let his eyes travel over her. Her curves were all glossy with sunscreen, and he could see the barest of bruises peeking out near the bottom of her bathing suit. The sight nearly had him climbing on top of her out here where anyone could see. But he had to get shit off his chest first.
“I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier,” he said, peering over his shoulder to make sure no one else on the beach was in earshot. “You deserved to be left kneeling and wanting. That part I don’t apologize for. I’m your dom and you tried to control the situation again. But what you said about work was right, and I shouldn’t have gotten mean about it.”
“It’s all right,” she said softly. “It wasn’t my place to say anything. It’s your business.”
He raked a hand through his hair, her understanding making him feel like even more of a jackass. “It’s just, I don’t know how to turn it off. I’ve never not worked on a Monday. Even when I had my appendix out, I held a conference call from the hospital the next day.”
She frowned. “Why? Is your job that unforgiving?”
He released a breath. “No, but my dad once told me that being successful is all about inertia, and I took it to heart.”
“Inertia?”
He stared out toward the dark blue waves and recited the law. “Yes. ‘A body moving forward will continue in the same direction at a constant speed unless disturbed by outside force.’ It’s a law in physics, but Dad applied it to life, meaning as long as I kept moving forward with the same routine and intensity and didn’t let anything distract me off that path, I’d reach whatever goal I had set for myself.”
“Oh.”
“The only time I let something move me off that path was in college. Mia.” He turned to meet Kelsey’s eyes. “Suddenly, I was so far off course, I didn’t even know where the path was anymore. I was okay with it at the time. It felt freeing—a rebellion in the face of that tight hold I’d always kept on myself. But falling in love with her and then losing her fucking destroyed me. The year afterward, I became someone I didn’t even recognize. My grades slipped, my thesis went unfinished, and I didn’t give a fuck about much of anything. I just wanted to be numb.”
“Been there,” Kelsey said quietly.
“And the only one who stepped in and snapped me out of it was my father. Jace couldn’t do it. He was wrapped up in his own drama after Evan disappeared. So I leaned on my dad like I never had before. He didn’t know why I was so fucked up all of a sudden and didn’t ask. He just kicked my ass like a drill sergeant and put me back on the trajectory I was originally on, one that would lead to success, to me eventually taking over the company. He reestablished my inertia.” He took a deep breath and shook his head, no longer able to look Kelsey’s way. “And since then I’m terrified of anything that deviates from my routine, that distracts me. That question is always lingering in my head: What if this move is the force that shoves me off course again? If I don’t take care of my Monday-morning things on Monday and let myself indulge in the beautiful woman sashaying around my kitchen, will everything fall apart?”
The question hung heavy between them, the space only filled with the roar of the ocean and the distant sound of voices down the beach. He didn’t dare look at her. He knew what he was saying sounded ridiculous and weak. Like a man living in fear. If she rolled her eyes, he wouldn’t be able to bear it.
“Prom,” she said simply.
The word was so unexpected, he swung his head to look her way. “What?”
She turned in her chair to sit up and dug her toes into the sand, her gaze firmly on her feet. “That’s the day I got knocked off my path, when I lost my inertia.”
He swallowed, wanting to ask questions, but giving her time to say what she needed to say.
Her hands gripped the bottom of the lounger. “I lied to you in your movie room. I used to be even more of a hopeless romantic than Brynn. All those eighties movies she watched imprinted on my brain like some sort of disease, giving me hopes for things I didn’t have, love I didn’t understand, and experiences I always wanted. I remember watching Pretty in Pink and thinking, Hey, that could be me. Andie was poor, too, and she made her dress, went to the dance, and landed her Prince Charming. She got to fall in love despite all the crap she had to go through.” She gave a humorless laugh. “So ridiculous. I was hopeless and stupid.”
“Kelsey,” he said, his chest hurting for her.
But she didn’t stop. “When I was sixteen, I fell in love for the first time. Or at least I thought that’s what it was. Brynn didn’t like the guy, and my mom told me he was no good, but I wasn’t hearing any of it. When prom rolled around, he promised he’d take me even though he’d already declared that prom was ‘retarded.’ And I didn’t have the skill to make my dress, but I found a pretty black gown at the thrift store and made it my own. Brynn did my hair and makeup, and I was so freaking excited I could barely wait for the day.
“But when it rolled around, my boyfriend picked me up and told me there’d been a change of plans. Instead of going to prom, he was taking me directly to an after party. Only the party turned out to be at a dealer’s house. I woke up that morning thinking I’d experience my first prom, but instead I got my first taste of cocaine and lost my virginity. I don’t even remember having sex, I just woke up sore and bleeding.”
“Jesus.”
She raised her head, looking at him finally. “And no one could get me back on track after that. Maybe your dad’s theory is true. Makes me wonder what my life would’ve looked like if that night hadn’t changed everything. If I had told him to go to hell and had gone to the dance alone.” She gave him a wan smile. “Maybe you’re right to be scared of deviations. Maybe you shouldn’t have taken me here at all.”
“Baby,” he whispered, the pressure in his throat blocking anything louder. He reached out for her hand, and she let him guide her onto his lounger with him. He lay on his side and tucked her against him, his hand drifting up and down her arm. Something hot and determined burned in his veins, and for once, it had nothing to do with her body nestled against his. He kissed the curve of her neck. “There’s no one I want here with me more than you.”
She sighed, sadness lining the soft sound.
“And I turned off my phone.”
“Hmm?” she said, obviously still lost in those bad memories.
“Every vacation I’ve ever taken since I’ve been an adult has been centered around work. I’ve been on beautiful islands like this and never put a toe in the water because I was tied to my phone and computer. Even when I was a kid, my father filled vacations with lessons for us—skiing lessons, sailing lessons, you name it. I’m ready to change that. So I turned off my phone. No more work calls for the rest of the week. Now I’m all yours.”
She turned in his arms to face him, her curious gaze meeting his. “What do you propose we do then?”
He kissed her nose. “Think you can teach me how to have fun, love?”
Her lips curved at that, some of the weight of their histories lifting and swirling away in the breeze. “Absolutely. I know just the thing to start with.”
He smirked. “Should I have brought protection?”
She laughed and rolled off the lounger, grabbing his hand and tugging him upward. “No, horny boy.” She bent over and grabbed two abandoned plastic cups. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
But she was already moving toward the water, so he followed. When she reached the line where the wet sand transitioned to dry, she plopped down like a child and patted the spot next to him. “Sit.”
Amused at her bossiness, he complied. “Yes, ma’am.”
She pushed a cup his way and laid a quick kiss on his lips before settling back in her spot. “The key is mixing the right amount of water with the sand. With all your math skills, I suspect you’ll be an excellent architect.”
“Architect?”
She grinned and scooped a pile of damp sand into her cup, packing it down. “Wyatt Austin, we’re going to build ourselves a sandcastle.”
He stared at her for a moment, then laughed. She was serious. He grabbed his cup and filled it with sand. “Well, okay, then.”
He plunked the packed sand down, creating the first tower.
Never before had he wanted to get something just right.
Because if anyone deserved the perfect fairy-tale castle, it was Kelsey.