Page 26 of Stranded with the Resort Owner

"You didn't recoil. You didn't pretend it was something it wasn't. You didn't coddle me or ask if I was sure halfway through."

I step closer until my chest brushes his. "You took what you wanted because you needed to take. Just as much as I needed to be used."

His breath hitches.

"And that?" I shake my head, my voice dropping. "That makes you the first man I've ever met with the balls to give me what I need. Not the illusion of it. Not roleplay. Not half-measures and safe words and let's-talk-about-it-after." My throat tightens. "You gave me the truth of it. The dark, dirty, dangerous realness of it. And you didn't look away."

His jaw flexes hard.

"I should be ashamed of what I want." I whisper. "But right now? The only thing I feel is relief. That someone finally saw all of it… and didn't run."

His hands fist at his sides like he's barely keeping himself together. But it's not guilt anymore.

It's heat.

And hunger.

Lucas doesn't move.

Doesn't blink.

For a second, I think he's going to push me away. Retreat. Shut down.

Instead, he steps in—slow and deliberate—until his chest presses to mine and his breath ghosts across my cheek.

"Don't romanticize what I did." His voice is low. Rough. Wrecked. "Don't rewrite it into something it wasn't just because it got you off."

I flinch. But I don't step back.

His hand curls around the back of my neck, not possessive—anchoring. "I do want to give you everything. The pain. The pleasure. The push and pull. I want to strip you down and rebuild you from the inside out. That's who I am."

He leans in, mouth at my ear. "But what I did?" A pause. A breath. "That was wrong."

I stiffen, but he keeps going.

"I didn't know your limits. I didn't ask. I didn't check in once." His voice shakes. "You gave consent in the past, sure. But in that moment? I took it. Assumed it. I crossed the fucking line because I was angry. I was angry last night didn't mean the same to you as it did to me. I wanted to hurt you, to punish you."

He pulls back just enough to look me in the eye, and what I see there isn't shame.

It's devastation.

"It doesn't matter that you came. Or that you wanted it." His jaw clenches. "It matters that we're still strangers. I haven't earned that kind of trust. I didn't protect you from myself when it mattered."

I swallow hard, throat thick.

"I need to own you, yes." He says, softer now. "But not like that. Not without rules. Without structure. Without makinggoddamn sure that you're safe while I take you apart and ruin you."

My breath catches.

His hand lifts, brushing my cheek, gentle like a man who knows he walked through fire and doesn't want to scorch me again.

"But…" I don't get it. He gave me everything I needed.

"I'll never cross that line again." His voice is reverent now. "Because I want to give you everything. But not at the expense of who I am."

He pauses.

"You want a man strong enough to take it all from you?" His eyes burn into mine. "Then you need a man who earns that right first. Not someone who crossed a line."

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