Tempting the Devil

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:MADDIE ✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:

"Speak." The gravelly, commanding voice vibrated through the humid night air, bringing the world around me to a screeching halt. "Now."

His piercing blue gaze dragged heavy and hot over every inch of my face. I stood frozen on his private stone deck, staring up at the most powerful, dangerous man in the city. Dominic Prescott was a ruthless billionaire tycoon who held the fate of thousands in the palm of his hand. He could snap his fingers and destroy my life before the sun came up. I was standing in his sanctuary, an uninvited guest interrupting his solitude. The cold, logical part of my brain screamed at me to apologize for trespassing, turn on my heel, and run for the safety of the main house. I knew I should be consumed by raw, suffocating fear. I was playing a dangerous game with a man known for leaving ruins in his wake.

Instead, a reckless, unhinged urge snapped inside my chest. The betrayal I witnessed in the cabana acted like venom in my veins, stripping away my inhibitions. She took my time, my dignity, and tonight, she took Caleb. They wanted me to watch. Now, I wanted to take something back.

I tilted my chin up, refusing to retreat. I deliberately batted my mismatched green and blue eyes at his intense scrutiny. People always told me my eyes were strange. Camilla treated them like a fun little accessory to keep by her side. Tonight, I weaponized them. I hooked my shaking fingers into the thin fabric of my cheap white sundress.

"I don't have to explain anything to you." I held his gaze, determined to let the destructive fire in my chest consume us both.

I slid the thin straps down my shoulders, the cheap material snagging slightly on my clammy skin. Without breaking eye contact for a single shattered second, I let the fabric fall. It pooled in a pale heap on the wet stone deck. The warm ocean breeze swept across my exposed flesh. I stood before the king of Summit wearing nothing but a pair of tiny black lace underwear.

Dominic froze like a carved statue. Every thick muscle in his broad chest locked into tense, rigid lines. His gaze dropped to my bare skin. His pupils blew wide in the moonlight, swallowing the icy blue of his irises as he absorbed the raw shock of my display. He took in the slope of my breasts, the curve of my waist, the sheer black lace clinging to my hips. He looked at me like a predator deciding exactly how to dismantle his prey.

I stepped down into the shallow end of the infinity pool. The contrast between the cool night air and the heated pool water sent a shiver racing up my spine. The water climbed up my shins, my knees, my thighs. I waded straight through the heavy resistance, liquid rippling against my bare stomach, until I stood intimately face-to-face with a man who struck fear into cutthroat executives. Up close, the sheer size of him overwhelmed my senses.

"What the hell are you doing?" His voice dropped to a low, dangerous rumble that echoed deep in my chest.

"Swimming." I breathed out a shallow gasp.

He leaned closer, trapping me in his massive shadow. "You are trespassing. You are alone on my island, standing in my pool, and you are far out of your depth. I suggest you remember you are at my mercy."

My throat tightened with a suffocating, intoxicating mix of terror and arousal. He was lethal. The dark stubble framing his jaw and his slicked-back dark hair only added to his unforgiving aura. Yet the wild fire burning in my veins pushed me forward. I stubbornly took another step closer, closing the final physical gap between us.

"What could you possibly do to me? What could you do that I would not willingly let you do?" I breathed out a direct challenge, maintaining fierce eye contact.

In a lightning-fast heartbeat, his massive hand closed securely around my throat. Water splashed in sharp waves as his iron grip locked over my windpipe. He did not squeeze hard enough to cut off my oxygen, but the firm, unyielding possession sent a hot rush of adrenaline straight down to my core. His touch was meant to intimidate, meant to remind me exactly who held the power in this secluded paradise. His large thumb pressed firmly against the frantic, hammering pulse beating wildly beneath my jaw.

His breath coasted over my wet cheek. "Do you have any idea how easy it would be to break you right now? What exactly are you feeling, little girl, if not fear?"

The rough, callused texture of his palm against my sensitive neck grounded me to the present. I stared up into his unforgiving eyes and let my broken composure crack wide open.

"I am angry. I am hurt." My voice scraped out of my burning lungs, raw and fractured.

A single tear spilled over my lower lash line. I hated crying in front of him. It felt like a pathetic admission of defeat. The tear traced a hot, shameful path down my cheek, carrying the agonizing residual sting of watching Caleb touch Camilla in the dark.

Surprisingly, Dominic shifted his hand. His thumb caught the tear before it could reach my jawline. He brushed the moisture away with unexpected care. For a fleeting, almost imperceptible second, a trace of softness crossed his icy eyes. It was a tiny crack in his indestructible armor, a glimpse of something human beneath the ruthless mogul. But just as quickly as it appeared, his hardened, ruthless composure slammed back into place.

He shifted his iron grip back to my neck and jaw. His large fingers dug into my skin, forcefully tipping my face upward to meet his darkening, stormy gaze.

He demanded an answer in a harsh, unforgiving tone. "Who sent you here? What do you truly want from me?"

My heart slammed aggressively against the back of his massive hand. Heat coiled thick and heavy low in my stomach. The humiliation of the cabana faded into the background, overshadowed by this consuming, desperate need to be ruined by someone else.

"I want you to fuck me." I stated the demand blindly into the heavy night air.

Dominic's jaw clenched so hard I heard his teeth grind together. A muscle feathered deep in his cheek. The dark stubble framing his mouth made the harsh set of his lips look even more devastating. The raw explicit demand hung between us like a lit match over gasoline.

He ground out the words, his grip tightening on my face. "Jesus Christ. You are far too young for me."

"I am twenty-two. I am of legal age." I refused to back down, matching his intense glare with my own defiance.

He countered ruthlessly, his eyes scanning my exposed chest. "You look younger, and you are inexperienced."

"I don't care." I pressed forward again.

I waded closer through the swirling warm water until my bare breasts pressed flush against his rigid, muscular frame. The physical contact sent a jolt of pure electricity straight through my spine. He was built like a stone fortress. Solid, impenetrable muscle layered over a broad chest. The tension radiating off his wide shoulders told me he was holding his primal instincts back by a mere thread.

Through the heated water, feeling the slide of wet skin against skin, I felt a distinct pressure against my lower stomach. It was the unmistakable, hard twitch of his massive arousal. His thick cock strained heavily against the fabric of his wet swim trunks, pressing a hot, rigid line right into my soft flesh. The solid length of him pulsed against my sensitive skin, sending a wave of wicked heat rushing through my veins.

He wanted me. The dominant billionaire was physically fighting his own immense restraint to keep from tearing into me. His chest heaved with a sharp intake of air as he locked his hands onto my waist, attempting to hold me still.

His voice dropped to a dangerous, quiet decibel. "Tell me your true reason for invading my space. Why this? Why now?"

The confession burned its way out of my tight throat. The haunting memory of their tangled limbs in the cabana lashed at my fragile mind, tearing open the fresh wound all over again.

"Because five minutes ago, my boyfriend was inside my best friend. Make me forget." My voice trembled, echoing with agonizing despair.

Dominic swore in a low whisper. His massive hand slid aggressively into my wet, tangled hair. He gripped the heavy dark strands and tilted my head back, exposing the long, vulnerable line of my neck to the cool night air. The possessive yank sent a sharp, aching heat straight between my thighs, pooling hot and heavy in my core.

He warned me roughly, his deep tone laced with dark, ominous promises. "I am not a simple quick fix. I am not a distraction. I am the worst possible thing that could ever happen to you."

I leaned my weight heavily into his massive frame. I welcomed the rough friction of his muscular chest against my bare skin. I relished the heavy, rigid press of his cock throbbing between us.

"I am already broken. What does a little more ruin matter?" I whispered desperately into the sliver of space separating our mouths, craving the sweet oblivion he offered.

I felt the terrifying, oppressive weight of his desire bearing down on me. I reeled from the staggering, intoxicating realization that this untouchable billionaire tycoon actually wanted to take me apart piece by piece. His breathing turned ragged. The electrifying sexual tension hummed around us, thickening the humid air until I could barely draw breath. I waited for his hard mouth to crash down on mine. I wanted the searing pain of his claiming to erase Caleb and Camilla from my mind forever.

But just as the tension peaked to an unbearable height, his thick fingers dug sharply into my waist, leaving shallow red imprints on my skin.

Then, he suddenly let go.

Dominic stepped backward, thrusting his hands away from my body as if my touch had physically burned him. He created a cold expanse of pool water between us. The sudden loss of his blistering body heat left me shivering under the moonlight. The silence of the private island amplified the heavy sound of the water sloshing against the stone edges. His chest rose and fell with heavy, controlled breaths as he locked his primal desires away behind an impenetrable vault of self-restraint. His gorgeous expression turned terrifyingly blank.

"Get out of the water." He ordered coldly, his tone leaving zero room for argument or hesitation.

I refused to be dismissed so easily. I refused to let him walk away when I knew exactly how hard and affected he was just seconds ago.

I stepped forward, instantly closing the distance he just created. The water lapped against my waist as I squared my shoulders.

"No." I held my ground.

His icy eyes darkened to shades of chaotic midnight. The pale blue vanished, swallowed by blown-out pupils that promised absolute devastation.

The gravel in his voice scraped warningly against my nerve endings. "This is not a negotiation. Get out of my pool."

"If you want me out of this pool, Dominic Prescott, you are going to have to physically force me out." I declared boldly, holding his fierce, lethal stare without blinking.

His face went dangerously, terrifyingly dark. A lethal shadow crossed his sharp, handsome features. The civilized billionaire vanished, replaced by an apex predator whose cage had just been rattled one too many times. A sharp, aching tension clenched heavy and hard between my thighs in response to his lethal glare. I stared at the coiled muscles flexing in his tense jaw and the savage intent brewing in his dark eyes. My lungs burned for air as the standoff dragged on. The space between us crackled with a dangerous, unspoken threat.

I was struck by the sudden, breathless realization that I might have just pushed the dangerous, unpredictable Dominic Prescott far past his breaking point.