I KNEW WHAT she was going to do. If nothing else, those long summers on our beach had taught me that when Olivia was going to push me, shove me or throw something at me, she’d dart a glance round at her surroundings, as if to check no one was watching.
To be fair, I had been expecting another slap in the face, not a hard shove into the ocean—though, given how close the edge of the jetty was, I certainly should have predicted it. Especially when this wasn’t the first time she’d pushed me into the sea.
She used to do it quite regularly, as if she couldn’t help herself. I’d be innocently exploring some rock pools on our beach and out would come her arm, giving me a push. It was a game we’d played and, since it had made her laugh, and I’d loved making her laugh, I’d let her push me far more than was necessary.
She hadn’t even minded when I’d pulled her in too. In fact, she’d laughed the last time I’d done it.
She wasn’t laughing now, though, as I grabbed her just before I went over, a reflex I couldn’t stop. But then, perhaps I wouldn’t have stopped even if I could have. I wanted her to remember what we’d had together, all those bright days on the beach, playing and laughing together.
Domingo had policed the contact Constantine and I had had with other people. We hadn’t been allowed friends or acquaintances. But he’d relaxed his guard on our Caribbean holidays and so I’d been able to slip away to the beach.
Olivia had been my first and only friend and, despite all the years that had passed and all the things I’d done to get where I was now, she was still the only one.
She’d always be the only one.
The only one for me.
So I pulled her in with me and she shrieked in outrage as we fell into the sea, the water as warm as a bath. Her skirts wrapped around my legs and her hair was everywhere, and there was a moment where she was obviously struggling to orient herself.
I was an excellent swimmer, so I held her in my arms as I found my feet on the sandy ocean floor, taking care to make sure she didn’t swallow any water as we surfaced.
She was furious, yet her hands clutched onto my shoulders, as if holding on for dear life. Her eyes were brilliant in the flickering light from the candles in the hurricane lamps, sea water like jewels on her skin. Her hair streamed over her shoulders, the ends floating in long, silky skeins on the surface.
She was so beautiful, she stopped my heart.
Then she hit me hard on the shoulder. ‘You pulled me in. That was so unfair!’
She sounded just like she had all those years ago, when I’d won whatever game we’d been playing, often accusing me of being unfair or cheating. And sometimes I had been.
But her fury had been just as mesmerising to me as her laughter, so I did what I’d wanted to do so many times on that beach long ago.
I bent and covered her mouth with mine.
I remembered our first kiss. It had been mine too, since naturally enough, if Domingo had forbidden Constantine and me friends, he’d always forbidden us girlfriends. I’d never held a girl before, never kissed one either, and it had been so very, very sweet.
I could still taste that sweetness. It was still there. But we weren’t fifteen and seventeen any longer, and a very real, very adult heat leapt between us now.
It was electric.
Women had long since beaten a path to my bed and I’d lost count of those I’d taken. After all, sex was one of life’s pleasures and I’d never denied myself.
But Olivia had always been different, and kissing her was as different from kissing all those other women as night was from day.
She tasted of champagne and sea salt, of sex and desire, and I wanted her now, right now. I was tired of waiting and I wanted it all.
She went rigid in my arms, her whole body taut and, even though it was the last thing on earth I wanted, I forced myself to let her go.
I’d given her a taste. If she wanted more, she knew where to get it.
Olivia stared at me, her brilliant grey eyes full of fury. But I could see the desire there too, burning hot. She looked as though she wasn’t sure whether to kiss me or strangle me.
I didn’t look away and I said nothing. I let her make the choice.
Then suddenly she lunged forward, her arms winding around my neck, her hot, slender body arching against me as her mouth found mine.
Triumph filled me just before all thought shattered. Triumph that she’d made her choice and her choice was me. And then there was only her in my arms. Her, after so many years of watching her from the shadows, wanting her but trying not to. Dreaming of her and losing her every morning when I woke up.
But not now. Now she was here and she wasn’t a dream. She was reality and she was finally where she’d always belonged: in my arms.
I could taste the fire inside her now, and I dug my fingers into the wet silk of her hair, pulling her head back so I could kiss her deeper, harder, chase that taste. Her mouth was so hot and she was trying to kiss me back, her tongue touching mine, at first tentatively, and then with more confidence, more passion.
She kissed like a virgin, which only sharpened the edge of my hunger. I’d suspected Constantine hadn’t taken her to bed and this confirmed it.
She was mine. Every part of her was mine. And something inside me regretted all the women I’d taken to my bed over the years...regretted that she was not my first, my only. That I wasn’t all hers the way she would be mine.
But there was nothing I could do about that now.
I might have had many other women physically, but my heart was pure. My heart had always been hers.
I kissed her with savagery, with demand and, because she was Olivia, she kissed me back the same way, her arms tight around my neck, her slender curves pressed hard to the entire length of my body.
The sea washed around us, swirling the silk of her dress around my legs, making me aware of all the clothes between us and how I didn’t want them to be there. I wanted nothing between us, just her bare skin and the heat of her mouth. The tight clasp of her sex around me as I pushed inside her and made her mine.
I tore my mouth from hers and began to kiss my way down the slender column of her throat, tasting the salt water and sweetness of her skin.
Her head dropped back, the sound of her breathing ragged in the night air.
I fastened my mouth over her pulse, tasting the frantic beat of it with my tongue, and she shuddered, a soft moan escaping her.
Yes, I wanted more of that sound. More of her, a slave to this heat between us. I wanted to make her cry for me, beg for me; I wanted her as desperate as she’d made me.
I pulled hard at the neckline of her dress, silk tearing to reveal the lavender bikini top she wore beneath it. The last of the summer sunset had disappeared, her skin now glowing like mother-of-pearl in the starlight, and I wanted to see it. I wanted to see all of it.
I jerked the strap of her bikini top down, uncovering one round breast, and she gasped as I slid my palm around it, cupping her.
Dios, she was perfect. As perfect as I’d imagined. Her skin was silky-smooth and hot, her rosy-pink nipple hard and ready for my mouth.
I dipped my head, hungry for more of a taste, tracing the curve of her breast with my tongue and then circling that hard little peak.
‘Val...’ Her voice was husky and thick in the night, her fingers digging into my shoulders. ‘Oh... Val...’
I teased her, then drew her nipple into my mouth, sucking hard, and she cried out.
It was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard. Just as she was the sweetest thing I’d ever tasted.
I gripped her hips, fitting her more closely against me. My heart was racing and the ache in my groin was insistent. I was harder than I’d ever been in my entire life.
But I didn’t want her here in the water. I wanted her somewhere I could lay her out and tear those clothes away completely, have her naked under the stars. Somewhere more comfortable, where I could feast on her at my leisure.
Of course, the perfect place wasn’t that far away.
I tore my mouth from her breast and lifted her, urging her to wrap her legs around my waist, because I didn’t want to lose contact with her. She didn’t hesitate, her arms looping around my neck, those delectable breasts soft and hot pressed to my chest.
She found my mouth, kissing me desperately as I turned towards the beach and began wading through the water. I let her explore, since I knew what she was doing.
She didn’t want me to stop, because if I stopped this now she’d start to think. It would come back to her where she was and who I was and what we were doing. And that diamond-hard veneer of hers would come back down. The white-star heat of her would get locked away.
Well. Luckily for us both, I wasn’t going to let that happen.
I waded out of the water and onto the little beach, the jetty stretching out beside us. The sand was still warm from the day, glowing white under the stars.
I let Olivia go and then I pushed her down onto the sand on her back, spreading her thighs with my hands so I could kneel between them.
Then I ripped the silk dress from her body.
She trembled but didn’t stop me, her eyes wide as they stared up into mine. I could see starlight reflected in them and the white heat blazing at the heart of her.
I leaned down, kissing her hard and deep, because I didn’t want that sharp brain of hers thinking; I didn’t want her having second thoughts.
This was where we needed to be for our first time together—on a beach, on the sand, at night.
So I kept on kissing her as I pulled away her bikini and she was finally where she always should have been.
Naked, beneath me.