Cruel Surrender by Terri Anne Browning

Ciana

My muscles feltlanguid as I half dozed in the sun on the lounger just a few yards from the water. Dressed in only a white bikini, with my sunglasses perched on my nose and slathered in enough sunscreen to protect six people but barely kept my skin from burning, I looked like every other guest at the resort enjoying the private beach. My guards were sitting on the veranda, attempting to look like they fit in, but even in casual shorts and polo shirts, they stuck out around everyone else.

A shadow momentarily blocked the sun, and I angled my head, finding the waiter standing above me with my drink on his tray. Yawning, I straightened to take the beverage from him. I murmured my thanks, and he gave me a simple nod before going on down the beach to tend to the others.

After drinking the majority of a bottle of wine the night before with Torin, I thought it was smarter to avoid alcohol this morning. Instead, I’d ordered a glass of the local fresh fruit juice. The tropical mocktail was sweet and deliciously refreshing. Sipping it slowly, I picked up my phone that I’d placed on my towel and flipped through a few emails, when what I really wanted to do was Google Torin Kennedy.

The smart thing to do would be to find out everything I could about the man who had invaded my every thought from the moment I’d first set eyes on him. But for some crazy reason I didn’t fully understand, I didn’t want to learn about him from some website or gossip column. I wanted him to tell me about himself personally. What little I’d learned about him the night before, I liked. A lot. And I wanted him to tell me everything else there was to know about the man who had so effortlessly enthralled me.

A thin layer of sweat coated my body, and I decided to move into my cabana to finish my drink and reapply more sunscreen. Being a redhead came with having fair skin and a constant need to protect it year-round. It was far too easy for me to burn and blister if I wasn’t careful.

Walking the few feet to my cabana, I glanced in the direction of my two guards. Milo was scanning the surrounding areas, but Ralph gave me a chin lift when I indicated what I was doing, letting me know he’d seen and understood my intentions. When I’d asked for this vacation, I’d assumed that my guards would be hovering twenty-four seven. That they were keeping a respectable distance, allowing me to pretend like I had privacy, was more than I could have hoped for.

Pulling back the curtain of the cabana, I stepped into the dim, slightly cooler interior. Another lounger was covered in another towel and held my bottle of sunscreen. A table sat beside it with a small ice chest filled with bottled water. Picking up the towel, I sat and began to pat my skin dry before taking another sip of my fruit juice.

Before I opened the sunscreen, however, I hit connect on my recent contacts and waited.

“This is how you relax on vacation?” Ryan asked distractedly. “You call to annoy me?”

“I miss you,” I told my honorary twin. When all four of your siblings were sets of twins, and you were directly in the middle, it could be oddly lonely. Luckily for me, my cousin was only a few months younger and loved me enough to take on the role of my designated twin. “It feels like forever since I last saw you.”

“We had breakfast together yesterday before you left,” he reminded me.

“That was forever ago,” I scoffed.

“Are you bored already?”

“No, of course not,” I assured him.

“Uh-huh,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

My lips teased upward. “All right, so I’m lonely. The guards are keeping their distance and letting me have some time to enjoy the sun without everyone eyeballing me in an attempt to figure out who I am if I need security on a private freaking island. But I have no one to talk to.”

“You mean you haven’t made a dozen new friends yet?” he asked with a laugh.

“No, I’ve been keeping to myself. Everyone here is trying to relax, not make conversation with complete strangers.” I hit the speaker on my phone and lifted the bottle of sunscreen. Pouring some into my hand, I rubbed my palms together before going to work on my legs, and I tried not to grin. For all of two seconds, I considered telling him about Torin. Typically, Ryan was my go-to for advice and to confide in, because as hung up on Nova as he’d been from the very moment he’d set eyes on her when he was just eight years old, I knew he would never judge me. But I also knew that he was a Neanderthal at times and could be ridiculously overprotective, not only over Nova, but all of the females in his family. I didn’t want him scaring Torin off before I even had the chance to get to know him. Instead, I decided to mess with him a little. “Maybe I should have talked Nova into blowing off school and coming with me.”

“Not funny, C,” my cousin growled, as expected. “No fucking way Nova would have gone without me.”

“You don’t trust her?” I teased, making sure he could hear my pout.

“Trusting her isn’t the issue. It’s having to blind every motherfucker who looks at her in whatever sick idea you consider a bikini.”

I smirked. “There’s nothing wrong with the bikini I’m wearing.”

“I don’t care what you are wearing. It’s what she would have been wearing if she’d gone with you. You treat her like a little doll you can dress up as you please. Remember that skirt you tried to slip past me a few years ago? And I saw the texts you two were sending back and forth when I was in California last weekend. That string thing you asked her about, on her?” I could practically hear him gritting his teeth. “I knew you called just to fuck with me. Go make some friends, but stay close to the guards.”

“Fine,” I sighed dramatically. “But only because you insist.”

“Be good, C.”

Snickering, I used my pinkie to hang up without making any promises. As I finished coating my legs in the sunscreen and started working on my arms, the curtain was pushed back. I stiffened until I saw Torin. He was dressed in dark-blue board shorts and a white T-shirt that stretched tight over his shoulders and chest, and just the sight of him was enough to make my mouth go dry. But before I could get fully distracted from how good he looked, I jumped up so I could figure out if Milo and Ralph had seen him. If they had, my parents would know everything about him before dinnertime.

When I would have peeked through the back curtain, he came up behind me. “What are you doing?” he whispered, his breath caressing my exposed neck since my hair was up in a messy knot. I bit back a whimper as his front brushed against my back.

“Making sure Ralph isn’t coming to escort you away,” I caught sight of the two guards, and they hadn’t even moved.

“I can be stealthy when the situation calls for it,” Torin assured me, his nose brushing over my neck, and I wasn’t quick enough to hide the mewl that left my throat. Without thinking, I leaned back into him, enjoying the heat of his hard body pressed into mine. “The jerk-off twins didn’t see me. I’ve been watching them and you all morning, and they didn’t notice me once.”

“Huh,” I muttered distractedly. “You must be extremely stealthy then, because Milo doesn’t typically miss anything. It’s why my father added him to my detail.”

Torin skimmed his fingertips down my bare arms, causing goose bumps to lift along the way. “My beauty needs a security detail?” he rasped against the shell of my ear. “Are you royalty?”

“Only in the eyes of my parents,” I said with a shrug, not wanting to scare him off. Finding out I was part of the Vitucci family tended to freak a lot of guys out. I’d tell him…eventually…if I had to. “To them, I’m their precious little princess.”

“I don’t like that.” His fingertips reached my wrist before skimming over my hip and coming to rest on my upper outer thigh. “You are queen material, not a mere princess.”

I turned to face him in the dim cabana, a flirty smile teasing at my lips. “Whose queen would I be?”

“Mine,” he growled, his gaze glued to my lips.

The way he said that one word nearly melted me on the spot. It was full of the kind of possessiveness I’d heard in Ryan’s voice all too often when he spoke to or about Nova. I’d always wanted someone to speak to me like that, to need me on the same level that he needed her. It was insane to think that Torin would want me like that, but it might be fun to pretend he did.

Maybe I could, just for the remainder of my trip. People had crazy, white-hot flings on vacation all the time. It sounded fun, exciting. I wasn’t naïve enough to think whatever this was could last past this trip.

Licking my dry bottom lip, I looked up at him through my lashes. “I’m glad you’re here.”

One of his giant hands grabbed my bikini-clad ass, pulling me close. The night before, I could sense the chemistry between us, but with the way he held on to me now, I knew something strong was brewing. “Yeah?”

“Mm-hm.” I squirmed against him, feeling a sense of power when I felt his cock flex against my lower abdomen. I barely knew this man, but what I did know was that I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anything. Maybe it was the fact that he didn’t know who I was and he was just as anonymous to me. Perhaps it was the tropical air and the romantic vibe the island was giving. Or it could have been that I was so burned out from work that I had actually lost my fucking mind. Whatever the reason, I was going to explore what Torin made me feel. “I need help putting sunscreen on my back.”

He shuddered, lowering his head until his nose skimmed over my neck. “Is this scent the lotion you have been using, or you?”

“The lotion,” I breathed, thankful he was pressing me so close because my knees barely kept me standing.

“I want to be able to smell you and only you.” His fingers clenched on my ass, squeezing and relaxing, massaging the globe in his hand.

“You can tonight,” I promised, tipping my head back so I could meet his gaze. “We have a date to share a bottle of wine, remember?”

“I remember everything when it comes to you.” His fingers slid under the hem of my bikini. It was impossible for him not to have felt how turned on I was. When his middle finger rubbed over my drenched entrance, he groaned as if he were in pain. “I haven’t even kissed you yet, mo chroí, but you are already this wet for me?”

“Torin,” I moaned, my forehead pressed to his chest as he eased his digit into me from behind.

“So tight, but…no cherry?” His voice was low, almost scary, but his touch remained gentle as he slid his finger in and out of me. “Who did you give it to, my beauty?”

I didn’t know why his jealousy was such a turn-on, but my walls clenched, making him grit out a curse. Raising my head, I lifted a single brow at him. “Who did you give yours to, Torin?”

This close, I could see that his eyes were hazel, the green and brown patches reminding me of camouflage. Those camo orbs narrowed on me as he pressed against my G-spot, causing me to whimper, pleasure exploding inside me.

“Y-you realize you’re on the intense side, right?” I panted.

His finger stilled inside me. “Am I moving too fast for you, mo chroí? I told myself to take things slow with you, but then I spent the morning watching you—aching for you. When I walked in here, I had every intention of doing nothing more than asking you to have lunch with me. Finally, I was close enough to touch you, and I couldn’t keep my hands to myself.”

He had a vulnerability to him that melted my heart right along with the rest of my body. I could see how torn he was, that he’d struggled to keep his distance, but he needed to know something.

“I like that you couldn’t keep away,” I told him breathlessly as I pressed into his hand, urging his finger to move again. Heat flared in his eyes, and he started slowly thrusting in and out of me once more. “And since you were so honest, let me confess something too.”

A shuddery breath left him when I paused to lick my lips before continuing. “I struggled all last night and this morning to keep you out of my thoughts. I’ve wanted you from the moment you stepped out onto that balcony last night, looking like you needed someone to ease the weight of the world from your shoulders, if only for a few minutes.” I stroked the backs of my fingers over his smooth jaw. “I don’t know how strong I am, but I want to be the one to help you hold it up…while we are both here.”