“Then take a shower,” I shouted, sitting up.
“Are you worried about me, Mr. Greer?” she said before diving into the ocean.
Fuck yes, I was worried. I stood and waited for her to emerge. She didn’t. Seconds felt like hours and my pulse raced, sending me into panic and fury.
She knew how to swim. Nathan wouldn’t have let her live in the Key by herself if she hadn’t learned. But right now, I wasn’t being rational. My only thoughts were that I didn’t see her coming up for air.
“Charity!” I ran into the water.
Clear during the day, the water was too dark at night to see my own feet. I was waist deep and still no Charity.
When I felt her body brush my leg, relief so profound washed over me that my stomach threatened to bring up the Scotch I drank earlier.
My relief was fleeting as I dragged her above the water’s shimmering surface.
“If you want to be swept away by currents in the dead of night,” I said with untamed anger, “Then do it when I’m not around. When your father doesn’t send me to look out for you.”
She jerked, but I didn’t let go. Fear of her safety, of watching her slip away and not being able to save her paralyzed me from thinking straight. My pulse hammered in my ears as I practically dragged her from shore. Not even after my divorce seven years ago did I have such blinding panic.
“Mason, I’m fine.” Her voice was gentle. Soothing almost.
When we reached the beach chair, I gripped her shoulders. I couldn’t imagine what I must have looked like, but I didn’t care. Was this the sort of recklessness Nathan was concerned about? “You could have drowned!”I could have lost you!
“I swim at night all the time —”
My anger spiked, and I swore I saw red. I could avoid her, deny my desires, my feelings, but the thought of not living in a world with Charity was unbearable. Pure agony.
Without a second thought, I sat in the chair and dragged her over my knees. Moonlight made the pebbles of water peppering her smooth skin glisten. Her dark skin was a stark contrast to my pale complexion as I held her in position.
“What are you doing?” Her breathing was short and shallow, and it fed the beast in me.
With one hand, I held her slim wrists behind her back. “Someone’s got to teach you not to be reckless with your life.”
“I’m not!”
My palm came down on her bottom, and a loud smack rent the air on impact. I shuddered as my world shifted. My hand came down again and her teeth sank into my thigh, not hard enough to cause damage but enough to tell me she was bracing herself for the next. I delivered it. A satisfying spank that shook my core.
Her hips bucked, grinding her pelvis against my leg. Hell.
“Why are you doing this, Mason?”
“Because I can’t lose you!” I said through clenched teeth.
My outburst hung in the air. Only the sound of our breathing echoed between us. Her body went slack over mine. Yielding. I ignored those subtle changes that tore at my defenses.
“There’ll be no more night swimming, Charity.”
“You’re being unreasonable,” she panted.
I let my hand rest on her ass and gently squeezed the tenderness, so she knew I wasn’t fucking around. Lowering my head, I met her gaze directly. “I mean it, Charity. You don’t get into that water at night without me.” My gaze shifted to her quivering lips, and they tempted me to run my tongue along the seam of her mouth. Taste her.
“Mason…” My name was just above a whisper.
I delivered another smack while holding her glare. Harder. And watched as her lips parted further on an inhale. “Promise me.” I smacked her firm behind again. And again. “Shit Charity, I’ve never been more scared than when you went under and I couldn’t see you.” The words tumbled from my mouth.
“I promise,” she said, then moaned when I delivered a parting smack.
The sound of her pleasure froze every rational thought to stop this madness, and I knew I was fucked. Discipline born out of fear had quickly turned into something else that called out to be quenched.
