"It's not something that needs forgiveness," she said, repeating his words. "But thank you for saying it."

She closed the sliver of distance between them, dropping her purse to the ground, and placing her hands on his face. "You taught me how to give up control, and you also taught me that you liked it even when I took charge, so that's what I'm going to do right now. Because I can't go any longer without this," she said, then planted a dizzying kiss on his lips, sending his head spinning and turning his world hazy, filled only with thoughts of her, of ravaging her, of sliding inside her and sending her into ecstasy. He could barely believe he'd gone without touching her for five days now. Those five days were hell and he never wanted to experience that kind of torture again. No, he wanted to be tortured only by his lust for her, by his bottomless desire.

And though he never wanted this kiss to end, he had so much to tell her, so he cupped her shoulders and gently separated from her. "I may have taught you how to give up control, but you showed me something even more important, and that's how to feel again and how to love again," he said, and the words were remarkably easy to say. So much easier than he'd ever expected. "Because I love you, Casey. I am completely in love with you, and I want to be your friend, and your lover, and the man you love. I want to be all those to you. I want to be everything to you because you're everything to me."

She trembled, and ran a thumb along his jawline. "You are everything to me. You're the man I love."

His heart thumped wildly in his chest. He was flooded with happiness, and even though they were heading into the great unknown, he was finally ready for that journey. Because of her. Because she'd stood by him over the years. Because she made him laugh often, she turned him on relentlessly, and she showed him every day that trust didn't have to be broken-it could be strengthened by the bond of friendship that turned into this beautiful love.

Because she was the only one he wanted, heart, body and soul.

She brushed her fingers across the buttons on his shirt. She was practically bouncing on her toes as she brought his mouth back to hers, stopping when he was millimeters away. "Show me how you kiss me now. Show me what it's like to be kissed by the man I love."

"Like this," he said, crushing his lips to hers, and wrapping her so damn close that their bodies were nearly fused together. He kissed her hard, and passionately, and for a long, long time, savoring every second of her shivers, and her sexy sighs, and of the way she wrapped her leg around him.

Like she wanted him to take her right then and there.

He groaned as she brushed her calf against his leg, and that was all he needed to break the kiss, grab her hand, and make their way to his villa.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.

The Maldives, all through the night . . .

Off.

Her clothes needed to be off. His busy fingers had already lowered the zipper on her dress as they walked along the winding path to his villa, stumbling at times, but holding on, drunk on each other, tipsy on touch, on the kisses he layered on the back of her neck, on her nimble hands undoing the buttons on his shirt. Half-undressed already, they finally made it inside, wrapped up in each other.

His was the most secluded villa on the entire property, the equivalent of the top floor penthouse suite at a high-rise hotel. Perched on stilts over the water, the island hut was framed on one side by the wide, open sea, and on the other by a private little lagoon a mere one hundred-feet away from the long dock at the edge of the villa.

With his hands on her waist, he kicked the door shut. The sound of it closing cordoned them off from everyone else. She was the only one who mattered.

This, them, here, now.

His brain could only process what was happening in one-word bursts. And the word that blared through his frontal lobe now was naked.

He yanked off her dress, letting it pool at her feet by the hardwood floor next to his bed. She stepped out of it and her lacy underthings too, then slipped off her shoes. His hands shot out, grasping her waist, then traveling north across the soft flesh of her belly to their final destination for the moment-her beautiful breasts. A guttural moan rumbled from deep within his chest as he cupped those two perfect globes, rubbing his fingertips across her peaked nipples. She gasped, and then that sound turned into a long, sexy moan.

"I can't keep my hands off you," he said, as he reacquainted himself with her tits, her delicious ass, then her hips, his thumbs digging hard into her hipbones. He wanted to claim her body with the intensity of his touch, with the ownership he felt for her.

"Keep them on me then," she said, with a sly little smirk on her gorgeous face.

He grasped her wrist and led her out to his deck. A bird swooped down, landing on the railing of the villa, singing his avian approval of Nate's plan to send Casey into bliss under the moon with the ocean breeze kissing her skin.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to see you in these dresses and skirts that you wear all the time?" he asked as they passed the infinity pool at the edge of the deck, then walked down the steps that led to the long dock. Night had turned the ocean inky blue under the starlit sky.

"How hard is it?" Her voice was flirty and playful. He loved that she was so comfortable in her own skin. She hadn't always been. She'd doubted she could be her true self with a man. But he wanted her to know she could be whomever she wanted with him.

"With you," he said taking her palm and rubbing it across his erection that strained against the fabric of his pants, "it seems I'm always like this. And every single thing about you turns me on. Every thing you do to me. Every way you move. Every naughty word from your lips. Every time you take control, and every time you give control. All of it." Her eyes lit up, and she licked her lips, looking both incredibly happy and tantalizingly sexy at the same time. "I have had dirty thoughts about you for years. I've seen you naked so many times in my mind before I laid eyes on your sinful body in the flesh. I'd stare at you in the short little skirts and imagine licking my way up your legs. I'd picture my tongue on the inside of your thighs, you shivering, moaning, and then opening your legs for me."

Her eyes glittered darkly and her breasts moved with each breath she took as he praised her sensuality. He was turning her on, and he loved it. "Tell me something, Casey," he said, dipping his head to her neck, finding that spot that drove her wild.

"Tell you what?" she asked, her voice breathy as she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on tight as he brushed his lips lightly against the column of her throat.

"Tell me. If I slid my hands between your legs right now, would you be wet for me?"

"So wet," she said, jutting out her hips, trying to angle her body as near to him as possible. Her fingernails cut into his skull, urging him to move closer. "But why don't you find out for yourself?"

"I intend to. Because I'm about to re-enact one of the dirty dreams I've had of you. And I didn't just have this thought last night. I've had it all the times I've been here. I've pictured you on these stairs before," he said, glancing down at the steps.

"You have?" she said, as goosebumps rose on her arms, revealing more of her want. Telling her he craved her was the ultimate turn-on for this woman.

"You've come on my tongue here before. You've begged for my mouth. I've touched your sweet body all the other times I've been here. You've screamed my name in pleasure." The desire that flashed in her eyes stoked the blaze inside of him. He was consumed with the need to touch his woman. He was obsessed with her pleasure. "Now let my fantasy become reality."

"Oh God," she moaned, threading a hand in her hair as her eyes went glassy with lust.

"Sit down on the steps now," he told her and she did as instructed, perching her sweet, sexy ass on the middle stair.

"Now grip the railings with your hands," he told her and she reached for the slats, grasping them. "And spread your legs for me."

"Only for you. Always for you," she said, as she let one knee fall to the side, hitting the railing gently. Desire swamped his system at the sight of her bare pussy, glistening and wet. He had to have her now. She let her other knee fall open, and there she was, arms and legs spread, body revealed, with nothing to do but hold on to the railing as she gave herself to him.

Lust pounded incessantly in his bloodstream, his pulse speeding up with the full realization that she wanted him in exactly the same way, which was every way, and that she needed him with the same kind of wild intensity.

"All I'm thinking about now are the thousands of ways that I intend to have filthy, wild, hot, dirty, beautiful sex with you," he said, his voice raw and hungry as he dropped to his knees, latched his palms on her thighs, and spread her open for him.

Her slick pink flesh beckoned to him, and he desperately needed to bury his face in her heat. To feel the slippery wetness from her on his jaw. To be coated in her desire. "It's been too long," he muttered. "So please forgive me if I'm too loud."

She knit her eyebrows together momentarily. "Too loud?"

"I'm so fucking hungry for you," he said as he dived in, groaning instantly as he licked a delicious line along her slippery, wet opening. She cried out. He kissed her clit, then swept his tongue back down, and was rewarded with a primal moan. A rumble escaped his lips as he flicked his tongue across her engorged clit. Soon, her sounds of pleasure mingled with his groans as he feasted, and she offered all of herself.

"Oh God, your mouth. I want more of it. More of you. Please," she said, practically begging, as she delivered on his fantasies.

They were both loud and hungry, a carnal duet of two people deeply in lust and love with each other.

She tasted divine, like sin and sex and the woman he craved ceaselessly. He pushed his hands harder against her thighs, opening her wider, further, wanting her abandon. His dick throbbed painfully against his pants with every thrust of her hips, with every cry that sounded from her lips. He could barely take it. The intensity of his own want for her racked his body, electrifying his blood. He looked up at her, and he very nearly stopped to flip her over, put her on her hands and knees and take her, like a crazed man in desperate need of his woman. Because as hot as she'd been every other time, every other night, right now she'd crossed some kind of line of eroticism.

She was phenomenally passionate.

Her head was thrown back, her neck stretched long and inviting, and her hair spilled in curls over the stairs. Her lips were parted, her mouth forming a perfect O. Her arms were extended, taut and firm, almost as if she'd been tied to the railing by her own restraints-her hands that savagely gripped the wood posts, as she rocked her pussy into his face. He kissed and sucked and licked, giving her everything he had, devouring her mouthwatering taste as her cries echoed in the tropical night. Then, because he needed to feel more of her, he slid three fingers inside her tight heat, and kissed her hard, groaning in pleasure along with her.

"Nate," she moaned, her eyes squeezed shut. "I'm going to come on your face."

Her scream seemed to rip from her throat. That scream was his name as she came hard on his lips, flooding his tongue with the taste of her release.

Soon, she relinquished her hold on the posts, her body turning limp like a rag doll. He shed his pants, then grabbed a long cushion from the deck furniture, tossed it on the hard wood, so her back wouldn't hurt, and then returned to the steps to scoop up his beautiful woman. He carried her to the cushion, loving the utter contentment in her expression, and the rosy color in her cheeks.

"Was it as good as in your dirty dreams?" she asked, a woozy look on her face, as her lips curved up.

"Hell no," he said, shaking his head, as he positioned her on the soft red material.

She shot him a curious look.

"My dirty dreams can't even hold a candle to the real thing. You are the sexiest woman I have ever known, and I've never wanted anyone so much," he said, settling on his knees between her legs. "Now, get those ankles up on my shoulders so I can fuck the woman I love."

She shivered, her shoulders curling in as she propped her feet on him, giving him another insanely hot view of her body that he treasured. "Is this how you want me?"

"Yes," he said, as he gripped his cock and rubbed the head against her wet center. His muscles tightened as desire thundered through him. "Raise your ass."

She lifted her rear, giving him a better angle. He gripped her ankles and then he sank into her. All the breath fled his chest from that first dizzying rush of filling her. He stilled his moves, imprinting this moment in his mind-the moonlight dancing across her skin, the sweet vulnerability in her blue eyes, the warm air that wrapped around them. And then the pleasure, the absolute endless pleasure that charged through his cells as he thrust.

One deep thrust after another.

Watching her.

Savoring each unsteady breath from her lips.

Thrilling at her hands grabbing onto his thighs.

Loving every second of their connection.

He swiveled his hips, and drove deeper, holding tight to her legs. She arched higher, seeking him out. Her lush body was greedy, eager for contact. Keeping a firm grip on one ankle high up in the air, he let go of the other, dropping his hand between her legs.

She cried out as he rubbed his thumb across her clit.

"God, I love making you feel good," he rasped out as he sank into her again.

"You are pretty fucking awesome at it," she moaned, her eyes going dreamy as her breath came faster, and she purred his name. She was close, nearing the cliff once more, so he gave her what she always wanted. More, harder, faster. Driving into her, white-hot sparks ripped through his body. His vision went blurry, and the world slipped away as the pressure in his balls shot sky-high. His spine ignited. His hand curled tighter around her ankle, and he stroked her faster, urging her on until she shuddered once, twice, three times as another climax swept through her. At last, he was free to succumb to the orgasm that tore across his body, lighting up all his muscles and bones, pulling him under into a place he only went with her.

Soon, he rested alongside her as she snuggled against him, fitting perfectly in his arms.

"Mmmm," she murmured. "We do good make-up sex."

"We do good every-fucking-time sex," he said on a soft laugh.

"That too."

They lay on the deck, under the stars, the water lolling lazily against the sandy shore nearby. She turned to him, propped up on her elbow, and brushed a fingertip along his hipbone. Every ounce of contact with her was such a rush.

"I like it better when we get along," she said.

"Me too."

"Let's keep being open with each other."

He nodded. "Yes. No more shutting down and not talking."

"Dirty talking, and sexy talking, and honest talking."

"Sign me up."

"Because I think we make a damn good team," she said, her lips curving up in a sexy grin.

"Speaking of being honest, did I ever tell you what we originally planned to name this hotel chain?"

She furrowed her brow. "No. I don't think you did. It wasn't always The Luxe?"

He reined in a smirk as he tucked his hands behind his head and stared at the stars. "You can't tell anyone, okay?"

"Promise," she said, sounding eager to learn his secrets.

He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Originally, we were going to call it The Sock on the Doorknob Hotel."

Her mouth fell open and she laughed, the kind that must have spread through her whole body as her shoulders shook. "Was The Sex Panther already taken?"

He nodded. "It was. Another option was Bed Barista."

"Oh, that's good," she said, admiringly. "But if that hadn't worked out, you could have tried the Spork of Love."

He snapped his fingers as if to say aww shucks. "Or the Tunnel of Chubb."

She pointed in the direction of the villa. "By the way, I hope you don't mind, but I did put your sock on the doorknob. I figured it was the best way to let housekeeping know not to disturb."

"Perfect," he said, wrapping his arms around her, and everything was in that moment as they returned to who they were before, laughing and loving every minute together.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE.

New York, same day . . .

Ethan cursed.

His boss had just put him on notice. Revenues were down at the Victoria Hotels and it was his job to turn this ship around or else. He kicked the side of the desk in frustration. How hard did a man have to work these days? The answer-too hard. He'd been working his ass off for the last two years, and his boss railroaded him on nearly all his ideas to improve their image. And then, the guy took it out on him. Blamed him for lackluster quarters and poor performance. He let out a long stream of air, the frustration thick in his blood.