Chloe
The rain has started up again, though not as violently as the night before. The gentle drum of it on the rooftop cocoons us inside our little slice of paradise. I awaken to the warm, comforting feeling of being surrounded by a pair of strong arms. The scent he wears—whatever it is—is like an aphrodisiac. I can’t get close enough. Then his lips are on mine and I forget everything but how it feels to fall.
The world around us fades like a watercolor. The only sensations I’m aware of are the press of his lips against mine, the stubble on his jaw as it scrapes a line down my throat and the sound of the growl in his chest as our bodies press together.
I have to taste more of him. I break the kiss to nibble my way up to his ear and his body vibrates against me. I press my lips to the curve of his neck and inhale deeply. I’m certain then, just as sure as I am of my own name, that I will never forget his scent. I’ll be rolling down an aisle at the grocery store and catch the slightest whiff of his cologne and be immediately transported back to this moment.
His mouth travels down my body and then he pauses to ask if this is okay. My only answer is bringing his lips back to mine.
I don’t know how long we just lie there like this, getting to know one another, learning each other’s bodies and responses. We could stay here forever and I wouldn’t give a damn. It’s been so long since I’ve felt wanted like this. No, needed. When was the last time a man held on to me like he couldn’t let go? I wrap my arms around him and plunge my fingers into his hair, suddenly frantic at the thought of losing this feeling.
He pulls back to break the contact and sits up. I blink blearily up at him. His face haloed in a beam of early morning sunlight dappling through the crevices in the windows. The majority are boarded up, but one plank hangs on from a single nail. I thank God for that board because it allows me to see every blessed inch of him in the hazy green light.
“What’s wrong? Why’d you stop?”
“Nothin’.” He wraps an arm around my legs and pulls me flat along the couch. Then he spreads out alongside me, tucking my body into his.
“What are you doing?”
“Shhh.” He presses a finger to my lips. “I just want to touch you. Will you let me?”
My breath hitches in my chest and I can only nod. His finger traces my bottom lip, his eyes captivated by the movement. I’m trembling by the time his mouth comes back to mine. I can feel his smile against my lips and had I the will power, I would have smacked him. He has me right where he wants me.
His hand glides over the material of my bra, so close to the aching weight of my breasts. I make a frustrated noise and he laughs, diverting his hand to the exposed skin of my knees. Even better.
The tips of his fingernails scrape along the skin of my thighs and at this point, I’ve virtually given up on ever breathing again. He makes one painstaking journey up to the top of my thigh, then stops and changes direction.
I grab on to his shoulder, discarding any rational thought, and press against him. “Please,” I whisper.
Our eyes lock and his hand presses against where I need him the most. I can feel the heat of him through the thin material and my eyes drift closed at the overwhelming sensation.
I feel him dip his head and he says, “No, princess, I want to see your eyes.”
I bite my tongue and do as he says. He rewards me with the gentle play of his fingers ever so soft against me. And oh, God, the feeling is amplified a hundred times because it’s nowhere near as hard as I need it. No, instead, he traces me in small, languid circles until my hips are matching the back and forth movement of his hand.
My cheeks burn hot in a combination of shame and want. I shouldn’t be doing this. I’m not the type of woman who does this. He slips his devilish fingers underneath the material of my panties and all good sense escapes me. My entire body bows up in response, muscles arched in a sweet ache of unreleased tension.
“You like that, princess?” His voice, God that voice. Each whisper sends a shockwave along my body, inciting the heat growing in my core as though it were a caress. He’s going to devastate each and every one of my senses before this is over, I swear.
I hold my breath in my chest like a captive trying to force myself over the peak. My hips roll against the soft play of his fingers and each flutter brings me ever closer to relief.
His fingers move lower and I let out a sobbing breath. Yes, yes, yes, I think to myself. His chuckle rumbles in my ear.
Then, disaster strikes and three things happen all at once. First, he plunges two fingers deep inside of me, and I come. Exquisitely. Deliciously. Fantastically hard. Then, the front door to the cabin bursts open.
Gabriel
I’ve not been a man prone to violence. Temper, maybe. Do I have a tendency to be a jerk at times? Sure, if the situation warrants it. But never in my life have I wanted to throttle someone quite as much as I do in this moment.
The rapturous expression on Chloe’s face, the one that I was admiring mere moments before, is replaced by panic and I instinctively move to cover her half-exposed body with my own. I, regretfully, free my hand to grab the blankets and pull them over us. Beneath me, she’s trembling and I let loose a string of expletives.
“That you, Gabe?” A thirty-something man pokes his head around the corner and I relax, albeit not that much, when I realize that it’s one of the island cops, Tyler. A man who I once considered a friend, that was until he walked in on his own untimely death. I’m going to have to kill him. I’ll be sad to see him go, but it must be done.
“Bit busy here, Ty,” I bite out.
Tyler, damn him to hell, grins and says, “I’ll say.”
Maybe I’ll enjoy killing him. “Get your ass out of here before I throw you out, man.”
“You know, you could have told someone that you were going to go out in that weather to neck. Would have saved me and my guys some time looking for you.”
“Yeah, next time, I’ll make sure to do that.”
Chloe’s body stiffens beneath me, but she averts her face when I glance down. My lips pull into a frown. I press an absent kiss to her forehead. This hadn’t been in my plans—especially not the interruption—but I wanted her to know it was more than a casual fling.
“That wouldn’t happen to be Chloe McKinney with you, would it?”
“Tyler.” I practically growl.
He holds his hands up. “No offense intended, but her boss has been calling the hotel every half hour looking for her.”
“Shit,” Chloe mutters and the vestiges of our interlude melt away. I can physically feel her pulling away and I want to say something to open her back up to me, but she’s already shifting to pull the blanket back over her. I watch her skin disappear beneath the material and am ridiculously irritated when her body is hidden from my view. I clench my hands against the need to drag it back up and bury my head underneath for a while. Tyler and her career be damned.
“Get out, Ty.” Fuck niceties.
He salutes and disappears back through the door.
Chloe taps my shoulder to let her up and I recline back on the couch as I watch her lift up and walk back into the living area, leaving me feeling bereft. I hear her moving about in the other room and I wonder what happened. Is she embarrassed? I want to reassure her that this isn’t my normal behavior, but the spell the seclusion has woven around us has been broken and I don’t know what to do to fix it.
My shorts are still clammy when I shrug into them, which is probably a good thing. I forgo the shirt as it hasn’t fared much better. I grit my teeth and go about gathering up our crap from the room, stuffing it violently into bags. I’m pissed off all over again and I don’t know what to do about it. My first instinct is to reach for a pack of cigarettes, but I stop myself when I realize there isn’t one there. Instead, I settle for a toothpick. I break three of them before I head out to search for Chloe.
I find her slipping into her dress and my toothpick tumbles to the ground. She’s all devastating curves and glowing skin. My hands twitch by my sides. She peeks from underneath her lashes and I cover my staring with a cough.
“Are you ready?” she asks, looking anywhere but at me.
The comforting words I want to say die in my throat. Shit, maybe she is embarrassed. I rub a hand across the stubble on my chin, exhausted, confused, a little pissed off, and horny as all hell. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said I was falling for this girl. Which is crazy. I eye her warily, as if it were her fault that my emotions have suddenly developed vaginas.
I grunt and she must take that as an affirmation because she ducks under the arm I have braced against the doorframe and limps to Tyler on the beach.
What the actual fuck? Resigned, I follow suit.
A smug grin stretches across Tyler’s face. “Long night?”
“You’re just asking for it, aren’t you?”
Chloe ignores our conversation and begins to swim through the waves to my boat, her bags trail behind on the life vests. At least she didn’t choose to take Tyler’s and escape back to her hotel with her tail between her legs. I scrub a weary hand over my face and catch the remnants of her scent on my fingers. My body tightens in response. I wish we were alone. I want nothing more than to take her right here in the water.