His to Seduce

by Stacey Lynn

  He covered my mouth with his hand, silencing me. He pressed his lips together and his shoulders shook, pointlessly trying to hide his laughter.

  “Will it help if I told you that I used to be a lifeguard?”

  I shook my head, still unable to speak due to his hand covering my mouth.

  “Good.” He dropped his hand and took a seat next to me, tugging on his own set of flippers. “Because that’d be a lie.”

  “You—”

  “Are adorably cute, sexy, great in bed.” He lifted a finger as he rattled off his qualities, his grin never slipping. “I’m also one hundred percent serious that you will be completely fine. We will snorkel to the beach, I’ll hold your hand the entire time if you need me to, and if anything happens—which it won’t”—he stressed and his expression went serious—“I will make sure that you are safe.”

  He leaned forward and ran his hands through my hair, which was whipping around my cheeks and neck like a new auburn necklace. “Trust me, Camden, and come play with me.”

  Play. When was the last time I did that? I had fun at girls’ nights. I laughed and drank too much, usually the only time I let myself overindulge. I ran, but that was more work and stress relief and accomplishing goals than actual fun.

  The word echoed in my mind along with Blue’s command from the plane ride. Have fun. Enjoy yourself. Play. Be silly. Be stupid.

  “Okay.” I was breathless. My heart rioted against my chest, but I reached for my face mask. “Let’s do this.”

  I fumbled with my mask and snorkel while David got ready, and then he moved us to a flattened seat at the back of the immaculately clean white boat. Had to give it to Raheem. For a man who sat at a chair behind the wheel smoking a joint and listening to reggae, he must have taken great pride in his boat and his business.

  David grabbed my hand as we sat on the edge, our backs to the water. My fingers clasped around his, much like I imagined a woman’s hand did to her partner’s during childbirth. I squeezed the hell out of it in an effort to ensure I wouldn’t lose his touch or his confidence.

  “Ready?”

  I had to fight not to laugh. With goggles and snorkels and flippers, we looked ridiculous. Even David looked silly, and it wasn’t a way I’d ever have described him before that moment. Before I could respond, he leaned forward and tugged the snorkel from my mouth and his. His lips took its place and his tongue invaded. His hand wrapped around my neck and he held me to him, until everything evaporated except for the taste of him, the feel of him, and the now gentle rocking of the boat along smoothed waves.

  “Ready now?” he whispered when he pulled back.

  “I’m ready.” Now or never. Sink or swim. Possibly not the best thought. I quickly pushed that one out of my mind and slid the snorkel back into position.

  David did the same. He turned toward me, smiling around the plastic bulging from his mouth.

  “One…” His countdown was muffled around the snorkel. I nodded. “Two…three!”

  On three, he tugged me with him and we fell backward into the water. We landed with an enormous splash and just as he’d said, he never once let me go. I kicked and followed his movements, until we were swimming with our backs brushing against the air above us. He’d already told me we’d stay near the top of the water until I was comfortable and I could lead us wherever we wanted to go. While I tried to quell the fear threatening to burst out of my chest, I was plenty comfortable holding onto David’s hand and hoping like hell a wave or a riptide or an octopus or jellyfish or shark or any other deadly creature didn’t pull us apart.

  Chapter 6

  David

  My knuckles ached from Camden’s tight grip, her little hand so strong around mine I thought she might break my fingers. I kept my promise, swimming at her speed, and languidly kicked through the water.

  Snorkeling had taken my breath away yesterday when the guys and I had come out. This morning, with Camden at my side, it was just as gorgeous. Through the bright teal waters, below us was a myriad of neon colors. Coral in oranges and yellows, spotted with a purple so bright I’d never seen the shade before. It waved through the blue waters, looking like brilliant balls of popcorn.

  I tugged Camden’s hand to get her attention. Her eyes were wide with wonder and she smiled as best she could around the snorkel. I wanted to talk to her, ask her how she was doing, but the softness in her features told me she was okay.

  A flash of movement caught my attention, and I pointed below as a school of neon-yellow-and-black-striped butterfly fish swam toward the coral. Larger than my head, the fish were beautiful. Everything swam below us, seemingly unaware of our presence. There was a quietness beneath the water, a peacefulness that rolled around me. Yesterday, for what felt like the first time in months, I’d felt like I could breathe again. It was as unsettling as it was welcome.

  Camden pushed closer to me and loosened her grip on my hand. Nudging me with her shoulder, she pointed at something farther away and then looked at me quickly before glancing back to the coral.

  Another school of fish, vivid orange and blue and red, they looked like they’d been dipped in color and tie-dyed. Raheem had called them rainbow parrotfish and their name fit perfectly. They mixed with the colors, blending into the coral and the water, and were even larger than the butterfly fish. All of it mesmerized me. I was so lost in the colors and the shapes and everything we were seeing, more so than when I’d been with the guys, that I scarcely recognized it when Camden let go of my hand and dove lower.

  I followed her, chasing her body as it cut through the water without effort, until we were swimming among the fish. Our hands reached out, fish swimming around us, avoiding us at the last moment before contact. The schools split into sections and merged back together. Camden turned and smiled at me behind her, her teeth visible around the snorkel. Her laugh vibrated through the water, straight to my dick.

  Even muffled by the water, the sound was glorious.

  We swam through the reef, bobbing and dipping with the waves. I led Camden and she switched, leading me. I followed her, pulled between marveling at the brightness and wildness of sand sharks and fish and seahorses bobbing above coral and focusing on the curve of Camden’s ass and the length of her legs, along with her auburn hair billowing behind her as she swam. Between her hair, the deep-emerald bikini that barely covered her ass and breasts, and her porcelain skin, she was as vivid as the colors beneath us.

  Eventually, I caught up to her and tapped her on her shoulder. She pulled her gaze to mine, almost reluctantly. I gestured for us to go up, and she frowned before nodding.

  Above water, I pulled off my goggles and removed my snorkel. As soon as she did the same, I pulled her to me, forcing her to wrap her legs around my waist. “Beautiful,” I murmured against her lips before I kissed her.

  She was. The entire morning had been. She hummed against my mouth, and I swallowed the sound and the salty taste of her lips. My hands roved her skin, unable to get enough of her. Beneath my swim trunks, I was hard and I pushed myself into her, settling my hands at her hips to pull her against me.

  “I have more planned,” I said, yanking myself away from her. Raheem was somewhere on the boat nearby and I had to get control before I lost it completely. How did she always do this to me? Ever since the first night I saw her at Fireside I’d wanted her this desperately. Five months of waiting and planning and pushing and flirting had taken its toll.

  “You do?”

  I nodded, sliding my hand on her hip, switching her goggles and snorkel to my other hand so I held all of our gear. “Yep. Come on. I have a lunch for us on the boat and then another surprise.”

  “I hate surprises.” She grinned as she said it and looked back to the ocean. “But I suppose one more of yours might not kill me.”

  —

  “Why are you trying to kill me? I thought you liked me.”

  I stared down to the water below us. Our toes were at the edge of a cliff. Seventy feet across from us
was another cliff. Forty feet below us, white-capped waves rolled off the rocks, the thundering of the impact echoing up to where we stood.

  We’d eaten lunch on the boat, and I’d convinced her to explore the rocks of the smaller uninhabited island with me. I’d saved the surprise until we’d reached the top.

  “It’s just a little cliff-diving, Camden. Where’s your sense of adventure?”

  “I lost it when I was twelve.” Her voice, thick with fear, snapped my attention off the water below. Her lips pressed together into a thin line and her hand began trembling in my grasp. Something about the tone made me take in her seriousness and, for a moment, I questioned taking her over the edge with me.

  She was truly afraid.

  “What are you afraid of?”

  It was the same question I’d asked her on the boat. This time it carried a heavier weight.

  Squeezing her eyes closed, her entire body shivered visibly, as if a blast of subzero temperatures had racked her.

  “Camden.” I took a step back, tugging her with me. We stepped away from the edge and I shifted until I was directly in front of her. “What is it?”

  “Heights.” Redness bloomed on her cheekbones, but she wouldn’t look at me. “Heights aren’t my thing.”

  Shit. I wanted to push her outside her comfort zone, not throw her headfirst into facing her fears.

  I curled my hands around her shoulders. She shook beneath my touch. “I’m sorry.” I pulled her to me and wrapped my arms around her back. “I didn’t know.” She shivered again. Her chest rose and fell at a rapid pace and I held on to her until she calmed. “We can go back to the boat,” I whispered, pressing my lips against the top of her head. Tucked close to me, she barely reached my chin.

  She nodded against me, but when I moved to step back, she held me tighter.

  “No.”

  “No?” Pressing my thumb to her chin, I tilted her head up until her green eyes met my gaze. Fear swirled inside them, and she was still breathing too rapidly. “Camden, I didn’t mean to scare you, and I don’t want to. I won’t make you do this.”

  Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. “I have this friend from college. She owns this crafty, small, home decor store and hosts painting classes at nights and on weekends.” My brows drew together in confusion. “Last week, she posted on Facebook this sign she’d painted that says ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway.’ ” She looked away, toward the edge of the cliff and the water below. When she spoke again, her voice was raspy and dry. “I’m tired of my fears deciding how I live.”

  “Camden—”

  Wrapping her fingers around my wrist, she pulled my hand to hers and entwined our fingers together. It was the softest hold, and the most timid I’d ever seen her.

  In that moment, with her skin paled, her eyes widened and scared, her body still shivering from her own personal fears and demons, she allowed me see a completely different side of her.

  I drank her in. The softness in her, much like when she slept, made her more exquisite. Proved that everything I was trying to do this weekend was working, that it was worth it.

  She was trusting me. Leaning on me—opening up to me in a way I’d only begun to imagine she would.

  “You made snorkeling okay, right? And you won’t let anything hurt me.”

  “Never. I wouldn’t let anything hurt you.” Her eyes roamed my face and I poured out as much honesty as I could manage in my expression alone.

  Her tongue slid along her bottom lip and she swallowed heavily before nodding. “Okay, then. Let’s go punch my fear in the face.”

  I laughed despite myself. Laughed because when she smiled as she fought against her fear, walked toward the ledge despite knowing she wanted to run away, she was more beautiful than I’d ever seen her.

  We walked back to the edge. It was a forty-foot drop. Not massive, but certainly not minuscule. I’d done larger jumps before, but the fact that there wasn’t much space between the rocks added a thrill of excitement. Or terror, in Camden’s case.

  “You sure?” I squeezed her hand tightly in mine. “I’ll hold you for as long as I can, but we’ll be pulled apart at some point.”

  “Okay.”

  She stared at the rocks across from us, paling with every breath she took. I fought the desire to wrap her in my arms and carry her back to the boat, wrap a towel around her and hold her close until she never shook from fear again.

  Goosebumps popped up and down her arms, visible even on her stomach and thighs.

  “Camden, we don’t have to. You don’t have to,” I stressed.

  She stared at the expanse of space like she saw nothing but whatever she was fighting.

  “No.” Her resolve had strengthened, mask slamming in place, but her expression was different from the distant look I’d seen before. Determination. Victory. It covered her fear like a thick blanket and she rolled to her toes, nodding. “I can do this.”

  She turned to me and bit her bottom lip again. “Just…let me count this time?”

  “Of course.” Whatever made this easier for her. “If you want, you can watch me jump and then I can come back for you.”

  “No way,” she laughed. “If I see what’s coming I’ll never do it.”

  “You sure you want to?”

  “Yes. But I’m counting. Come on.” She pulled on my hand and I stood next to her. I clasped her hand in my grip and held it tight as I stepped farther to the side. I stopped when our arms were stretched wide beneath us.

  “On three.”

  She nodded. “On three.”

  Her lip trembled when she looked back out at the water, whispering, “Don’t look down. Don’t look down.”

  Then…nothing.

  I waited, alternating my gaze between the water below, the rocks across, and the beautiful, terrified, pale woman next to me. I was about to pull her back from the edge, make the decision that she wasn’t doing this, when through quivering lips she said, “One.”

  I looked back to my target, stared straight across.

  “Two.”

  I turned to her and smiled. She was still trembling, but she bent her knees.

  “Three.”

  I jumped before she finished the word, pulling her along with me as I launched us both off and over the ledge, far enough where there was no danger of hitting land on the way down.

  “David!”

  Chapter 7

  Camden

  My heartbeat roared in my ears as I plunged into the water. David’s name on my lips evaporated as soon as the water covered my head. Terrified, my eyes were squeezed closed, the grip of David’s hand the only thing tethering me to reality as the icy water washed over my body.

  He had lied.

  I wasn’t safe. He didn’t keep me from harm. Every time David pushed me, I felt the undeniable urge to not only answer him, not only prove I could be brave, but conquer everything that held me back.

  This weekend was quickly turning from a way to break away from my lists to living in a way that was stolen from me when I was too young to really have dreams.

  The depth burned my lungs and I felt David pulling me toward him. He hadn’t let go of me. We had entered the water together, fear chilling my skin for a moment before the adrenaline buzzed through my veins, and now, he lifted me as he kicked toward the surface.

  I hit the surface and inhaled a lungful of salty air.

  “Holy crap!” I shouted. Elation ignited inside me, and I threw my arms around his shoulders and wrapped my legs around his waist. “I did it!” Staring up at the ledge we’d jumped from, I threw my head back and laughed. “That was crazy and insane and I did that!”

  How did I do that? I couldn’t comprehend what came over me on the ledge.

  “You were magnificent,” David said. He treaded water, holding both of our weights, and I turned to him, my cheeks hurting from being stretched wide.

  “Thank you.” My hands pushed through his hair and before I could stop myself, I kissed him. I was breathle
ss, lungs burning from the water and the air and the jump and…I did that! But I still kissed him until I needed to breathe, and when I pulled back, gasping for air, David followed me, chasing my lips with his.

  “Get back here,” he growled, before pressing me to him. His tongue slid into my opened mouth and he tilted my head, giving him deeper access. Beneath his swim trunks, he pressed against my center, hardening the longer our kiss continued. He kicked, swimming backward. He spun me around until my back pressed against sun-heated, smoothed rocks.

  “David?”

  He dropped his hand without answering and pressed his fingers at my center. “I’ve been hard for you all day. Every time you’re scared, you conquer it. You blow me away.”

  The awe in his voice and desire shimmering in his eyes stunned me speechless.

  I couldn’t handle being inspected so closely. Dropping my head to his shoulder, I adjusted my hold around his hips. His hand between us, his thick cock rubbing against me—all of it made me shiver in a way that had nothing to do with adrenaline or fear.

  “I want to take you here,” he whispered harshly into my ear. His voice strung tight, as if he’d lost all control.

  “Raheem—”

  “Is on the other side of the island, probably napping until we return.”

  “Or getting so stoned he won’t be able to drive the boat back to shore.”

  He laughed softly, the husky sound vibrating against my ear. God, he was beautiful. Everything about him. His body, his voice, his character…damn it. He was making me fall for him despite all the reasons I shouldn’t.

  “Then we’ll spend the night under the stars, using body heat for warmth.”

  When he put it that way…

  I rolled my hips, his fingers pressed against me. “How do you always know what to say to me in order to get your way?”

  He slid his fingers along the seam of my swimsuit bottom. Goosebumps popped on my legs, beneath the cool water. “I’m hoping you’re a willing partner.”