I take long, deep breaths, trying to calm myself. I didn't know something so intense even existed or that someone could have a need like I just had. I've known I wanted her from the moment I laid eyes on her. Felt it to my core that she belonged to me, not caring how f.u.c.king crazy that sounded. But when she touched me, when I saw her light up with desire for me, my core f.u.c.king shattered. She was it, and I only have days to make her see. And I'm praying she doesn't find out about my manipulations to get her here with me. But right now, in this moment, I don't have one regret. I finally have her in my arms, right where she belongs.

I feel her breathing start to even out, and I look down at her closed eyes, wondering if she's asleep. I don't move, not wanting to break this moment. She's finally letting me hold her close without fighting back. I can't pull my eyes away from her, watching her breathing go in and out, with her hair covering us both. Her bathing suit top is still half-off one of her full b.r.e.a.s.t.s. My mouth waters with wanting it. I want to put my mouth on every part of her. See what she tastes like everywhere.

Slowly her brown eyes flutter open, a sleepy smile spreading across her face. "I always dream of you," she half-whispers, making warmth spread through me. She's probably giving me something she doesn't want me to know. She's wary of letting me know the depth of her desire for me, that she feels this pull like I do.

I'll lock myself around that need and use it to pull her deeper into me as fast as I can. Time isn't on our side. I've stolen these few days, maybe even only a few hours, and I have to make every one of them count if I want to bind myself to her.

Her eyes widen, and she hurriedly sits up, trying to pull away from me. I don't let her, pulling her back to me.

"It's just me."

"I...I-" She stutters over the one word before her fair skin blushes all the way down to her t.i.ts, which are still hanging out of her bikini top. It draws my eyes there, and her hand comes up to cover herself. I have to swallow a primal growl as she hides herself from me. I don't want to scare her. Yeah, I want her to know I want her, but if she knew the crazy things I've done to get her close, she'd probably f.u.c.king run. Because when it comes to her, I'm just a bit insane.

"I can't believe we did that," she finally says, getting her bearings.

"I can't believe I only made you c.u.m once when I came twice. I'll have to fix that," I say, smiling down at her, making the blush spread even farther. Her plump, full lips fall open, and I wrap my hand in her hair, pulling her towards me. I take advantage of her open mouth, because I can't let her back away now. I can't take the running anymore. It's eating at me. I want her to run towards me, not away from me. So maybe it's time to clear the air.

I pull back and smile when she leans in, trying to capture my mouth again. I let her, and this time her tongue pushes into my mouth, taking the kiss for herself. She lets the hunger she has for me finally go free. I open my mouth and relax, wanting to feel her kiss me. Then she moves over me until she straddles me.

Finally pulling away, she stares at me like she's shocked by her own actions. I like her like this. I bet there isn't a soul in the whole f.u.c.king world that's seen her like this. A little bit of aggression slips out of her and it's mine. I'm going to take it all and want more of it. After the months of her running from me, I need it. To see her want me as much as I need her is intoxicating.

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea," she finally says, biting her lip.

"Why?" I growl bringing my hand up to fix her top. I can't talk with her t.i.ts out, trying to entice me into taking her.

"You don't even really like me," she says, "The first time you saw me I thought you hated me. Then I ignored you, and that seemed to bother you more. I mean, I've seen it with my brothers when a woman gives them the cold shoulder. It's all a game to see if they can get her. Then once they do, it's done. That would break my heart. I'm not like that."

"It's not a game," I tell her, my words hard. I dig my fingers into her hips in a possessive hold to show her that she's not going anywhere. Ever.

She lets out a deep sigh. "Even if I try to tell myself I can be like that." She leans back a little, but I don't loosen my hold. "I thought I could come out here and try to find myself, maybe have a little fun." She ducks her head. "Maybe have a one-night stand."

Oh, I'll give her one night, but it won't be the last. It's going to be every f.u.c.king night until I leave this earth, but if she wants to pretend it's just one, I'll let her. Come morning, she isn't going anywhere out of my arm's reach.

Maybe after I get her under me a few hundred times to cool these barbaric thoughts I'm having of her, I can give her more than an arm's length. Maybe two arms' length.

"You'd have a one-night stand, but it can't be with me?" I ask her, making her look up. "I've wanted you from the minute I laid eyes on you. I didn't know what to do with all the emotions that hit me when I first saw you. First, I was f.u.c.king p.i.s.sed because I thought you were there on a date. Then I was utterly f.u.c.king relieved when I found out it was just your brother."

She studies me like she is trying to read if what I'm saying is true. So I give her more, needing her to understand. Maybe that's all this is. A bunch of f.u.c.ked-up misunderstandings. "I don't date, and to be honest, I had no idea how to go about getting your attention. Apparently I'm f.u.c.king terrible at the whole thing, because you think I didn't want you, then you thought it was a game. No, sweets, what you saw was me having no clue what I'm doing for the first time in my life, and again, for once in my life, failing."

Her eyes go wide.

"I don't believe that at all. You know, because I'm just 'one of yours.'" She makes air quotes with her fingers, and I don't know what she means.

"Sweets, I have no idea what you're talking about. You are the only one. The only one I have or want."

She rolls her eyes, and I can feel her slipping away from me, putting up that wall again, and I can't let that happen. Won't let that happen. Not when I've finally gotten this far. Can taste her lips on my mouth. I pull her into me.

"The bartender. He said, 'I didn't know she was one of yours.'" I see her eyes light up with jealousy. I f.u.c.king love it and hate it all at once. Love it because I know she cares, but hate it because I never want her to feel jealousy when it comes to us. There's no reason to. She owns me.

"He meant my cousins. I have a lot of them. All girls, and I tell the staff to stay away from them. We had an incident once when someone broke little Libby's heart and she cried about it for weeks. I wasn't doing that s.h.i.t ever again. So now there's a don't-f.u.c.king-touch-my-cousins rule."

She shakes her head slightly in disbelief.

"But I saw you that night at the event. Women were all over you," she accuses, like she's just remembering and has one up on me. I shake my head.

"You're right. I'm rich, and women often try to throw themselves at me. Maybe if I had a someone at my side, I wouldn't have that problem. Maybe I should get married. Get a ring on my finger so they all know I'm not up for grabs. I think I know the perfect woman for the job."

Her mouth falls open, and I again steal the moment to kiss her.

Chapter Seven.

Madeline

I can't stop myself from putting my arms around his neck and deepening the kiss. So many emotions and thoughts run through me, and I have no idea what to do with any of them. But what he said was nothing like I thought it would be. Even if he's just teasing about the last part. No way could he really mean he wants to get married. We barely know each other.

When I finally pull away from him, I see that hooded look on his face again. I don't know what it is, but when I see that raw desire for me on his face, it does something to me. Makes me feel like a woman for the first time in my life. Not just some little girl whos brothers have tried to shelter from the world. Maybe I am finding what I came out here to find. A little more of me. A part of me that I didn't even know had been there all along is opening up. Or maybe it was waiting for Kenton. That is both exciting and scary all at once.

"There's no one else, Madeline."

He says my name, and it feels foreign. Oddly, it makes me miss the nickname he'd given me that normally makes me mad.

"There hasn't been anyone since I laid eyes on you, sweets, and there wasn't anyone for a long time before you. h.e.l.l, no one mattered before you. Not even close."

My heart does a little flutter at that. I lick my lips and watch his eyes go there.

"Okay," is all I can find myself saying, feeling shy again.

"Okay?" He eyes me, his hands loosening the firm hold he has on my hips and sliding up my back.

"Okay, I'll stop fighting this," I say, making him smile. He leans in and places a kiss on my neck and starts to trail more up to my ear. He grabs my earlobe between his teeth, making me moan and wiggle on him.

"You can fight all you want, sweets, but one way or another, I'll have you." Then he's picking me up in an easy hold, carrying me back to where he left his bag. I remember that we're on an island, maybe even stranded.

He places me on my feet in the sand, picks up my shoes, and slides them into his backpack. Then he puts his shoes on and picks me up again, making me squeal.

"I can walk."

He just smiles at me, tightening his hold. He seems to do that a lot. Like I might up and disappear on him or something. I like it. I like that he has these possessive feelings for me.

"You hurt your foot, and I like holding you."

I wrap my hand around his neck, laying my head on his shoulder.

"Okay," I say once again.

"You're awfully agreeable all of a sudden," he teases as he starts walking back towards where we came from.

"Maybe it's the o.r.g.a.s.ms," I say, teasing him back and making him chuckle.

"I'll have to keep that in mind."

"Where are we going?" I ask, feeling my eyes start to drift closed. The sun is going down, and I have a feeling we are going to be here for the night. I should be more scared, but for some reason, with Kenton holding me, I just feel content.

"I thought I saw something over here."

I lift my head and look to where he points and I see it.

"Is that...?"

"Looks like a little hut to me." He picks up the pace, and we get close enough to see it. There, nestled between two trees, is a little hut, no bigger than maybe ten foot by ten foot, and made out of wood. It even has a little window next to the door and a hammock on the porch.

"Whoever owns the island probably had it built."

"Maybe there is a phone or something," I say, looking up at him. Strangely, I don't want there to be one. Not tonight anyway. I just want to lie down for a little while with him. I like the idea of being trapped with him a little bit longer. Enjoying it just being us. No brothers nagging at what I'm doing. No one making me question Kenton's motives with little remarks.

He just shrugs like he doesn't like the idea either.

"If there is, we should wait until tomorrow," I tell him.

"I like that idea." He smiles and kisses my forehead before pushing the door open with his foot. The hut is bare. Just a small bed and a table, but the bed doesn't look bad at all. It might be small, but it looks almost new.

Kenton places me on the bed, putting his bag on the table as he starts to pull stuff out of it--everything from water, to food, and even a little electric lantern that he flips on, putting it in the center of the table.

"You really were a boy scout, weren't you?" I tease, making him look over at me. Something flashes across his face. I go to stand to go to him, but he moves back towards the bed, dropping down in front of me and picking up my foot to look at the little cut.

"It's nothing. It doesn't even hurt," I rea.s.sure him, but he kisses it anyway, and for some reason that makes my heart flutter.

It's crazy how much my feelings for him have changed in just a few hours. How is he nothing like I thought he would be? Or at least like I told myself he was. I was sure he was some billionaire playboy who was also a giant cold d.i.c.k, but nothing about Kenton has been cold since I landed in paradise with him. Okay, maybe I didn't land. He crashed into my little vacation. But maybe this was all fate pulling us together. The thought makes me smile. He leans up, placing a soft kiss on my lips.

"You need to eat." He gives me another kiss. "Stay in bed and off your foot," he says before going back to the table. He starts opening up packages. I just roll my eyes, even though I think it's adorable that he's so worried about a little scratch on my foot.

He hands me a granola bar and I take a bite and then another. It's gone in a matter of seconds. He does the same, then offers me an apple, which I polish off next, along with a bottle of water. The food makes me feel tired. Between the sun and all the swimming today, and let's not forget the incredible o.r.g.a.s.m, I'm shocked I can even keep my eyes open at this point.

Kenton sits down next to me on the bed. "Lie down with me for a little."

I nod as he lies back, pulling me with him. I wrap my arms around him and throw my leg over his waist, burying my face in his neck. Then my eyes feel heavy.

"Do you really want to get married?" I ask him sleepily.

"I didn't think I did until a few months ago," he admits easily, like it's no big deal that he keeps implying that we are going to get married. I just kiss his neck because I don't really have a response to that.

I want to believe everything he's saying, but I did grow up with four brothers, and I know all the games men play. They will do anything to get in a girl's pants, but for someone reason, I just don't care.

Maybe I will get my heart broken into a thousand pieces, or maybe I'll fall madly in love and really marry Kenton. Either way, I'm taking the chance. I told myself I wanted to find a little more of me, and in the few hours with Kenton I've already found a lot. And I want to see how much more I can find. Broken heart or not.

Chapter Eight.

Kenton

I wake from one of best nights of sleep I've had in years. A small stream of sunlight comes into the hut. It's early, maybe 5 a.m. The sun is just rising and casts a sliver of orange through the small window.

Immediately I'm aware of every inch of Madeline on top of me. Somehow, during the night she rolled over onto me, her body spread out over mine. Her head is on my chest, but her legs have fallen on either side of my hips. Her small white bathing suit is the only thing keeping her from being completely naked.

The thought has my morning wood aching with need. I don't move. Instead I just lie there and enjoy the feeling of her pressed against me. Every inch of her is touching me, and it feels like I'm in heaven.

I've waited so long to be this close to her. To be able to hold her in my arms and have her feel what I feel. I've wanted her from the minute I saw her, and nothing has changed since then. She's fought me and pushed me away, but it finally feels like she might be mine. That we've cleared that air. Made her see how much I want to be with her.

I wasn't joking when I said I was ready for marriage, and I meant with her. I never thought it would happen before I met Madeline, and I know now that it's because I hadn't met the right woman. When I met Madeline, that was it for me. I knew that if she wouldn't have me, I'd just be alone the rest of my life. But I hope that I can convince her. That somehow I can make her mine, and we can have it all. The house with the white-picket fence, babies, grandbabies: a life.

Her heartbeat is steady, and I feel my own match her rhythm. I fell for her hard and fast on day one, and I haven't stopped and thought about what to do once I finally had her in my arms. I wanted that sweetness I knew she has but could never get her to direct it towards me. It drove me crazy.

Oh, I'd planned a lot of dirty things I wanted to do, but now that she's here with me, I just want this moment to last. I savor it and every part of her. I want to spend eternity coming up with ways to keep her and make her fall in love with me. Is that so wrong?

I feel Madeline stirring, and I smile as she lifts her head to look down on me. Her hair is a knotted mess, but she looks so adorable as she blushes.

"Guess I used you as a pillow last night," she says, biting her lip.

"That you did. But I didn't mind one bit."

I place my hand on the back of her neck and pull her lips down to mine. It was meant to be soft, kind of like saying good morning to her. But when our lips connect, all of that goes out the window.