Compulsion: Magnetic Desires (18 page)

Clinging to her, I collapsed beside her and held her tightly against me. "I'm all yours, Angel girl."

She smiled widely. "All mine?"

Brushing her hair back behind her shoulder, I pressed my lips to her forehead. "In case I haven't told you, I've been in love with you forever."

"You told me that."

"I know."

Her eyes shining, she settled her head on my chest. "I love you too."

Would I ever get used to those words from her? Would my chest ever stop being so full when she told me her heart belonged to me? I hoped not. I never wanted to lose the way her finally choosing to be with me made me feel.

***

I
flipped the omelet and poured fresh coffee. She sat on the counter, her bare legs swinging as she watched me. Pressing one of the cups into her hand, I stared at her. She was so fucking beautiful, wearing nothing but one of my shirts, her hair tousled in the style of the recently intimate. I grazed a knuckle from her knee to her thigh, while I contemplated how soon I could have her back in my bed. Food first, but after that we’d spend the rest of the day naked and horizontal.

Twisting away from me, she reached across the counter to get her purse off the back of a stool and pulled an envelope out of it. Happy Birthday was scrawled over the front of it, and she sucked her lip as she handed it to me. "Sorry I missed your birthday. I hope this makes up for it."

"You were here. Who cares if I don't remember it?"

Sipping her coffee, she waited for me to open it. She’d organized a trip to South Beach for the two of us, and I couldn’t think of anything I’d prefer. Settling between her legs, I dipped to kiss her. "This is great, babe."

"Omelet's burning." She giggled, and I turned the burner off before scooping the contents onto plates. I offered her one in exchange for a fork, and we devoured breakfast, our hungry gazes locked on each other. As soon as she put her fork down, I dropped our plates in the sink and scooped her up. With a firm grip on her ass and our lips locked, I carried her back to bed.

"T
hat was the turning point in our relationship. The point where I knew we could get through whatever got in the way. If she loved me everything would be all right."

August 2011

I drove the truck over the shifting sand. It bounced and rattled, and Clo held onto the handle, as she was jostled in her seat. We’d had fun exploring South Beach resort for the week, but I’d wanted to take a trip out to the excluded stretch of beach.

Raking my gaze over her, I couldn't wait to get her out on the sand. The tiny blue and polka dot bikini she wore underneath a gauzy white shirt-dress hugged her curves, leaving only her breasts and the triangle between her hips covered. My hands would have been all over her if I didn’t need them both to keep control of the truck, but as soon as we stopped I'd make sure I showed her how much I enjoyed the view. I pulled up on the perfect stretch of beach and climbed out of the truck.

"It’s beautiful here." She ducked under my shoulder, her arm looping around my back. "Absolutely beautiful."

"Not as good as the view I'm looking at." I grinned when she swatted at me. "We used to come here when I was a kid."

"You did?"

"Yeah, Dad and I used to build sandcastles over there." I pointed a little way up the beach. "And when Birdie was little she used to scream and scream at the ocean. She was terrified of it, but don't tell her I told you that."

"You miss him." Putting her arm around my waist, she rested her head on my shoulder.

"Yeah."

"He would have been proud of you, Orion." She gazed up at me her face tilted back to mine, and I leaned over to press my mouth to hers.

"I hope so."

I reached into the bed of the truck and pulled out the blanket I kept there for emergencies. It would make a decent picnic rug. Clo leaned into the cab to get the towels and picnic I’d scrounged up before we left civilization. I wished I’d had time to pull together something better, but it didn’t matter. Being here with her made it perfect.

I laid out the blanket and settled on it, pulling her on to my lap. It had been a week of days spent at the beach and hot nights spent twined around her. She didn’t tell me how she felt often, but it shone in her face each time I settled inside her.

We ate in silence, staring out at the rippling waves as they washed up the beach. I could stay here forever; pitch a tent and live on the beach with her and forget reality.

"Can you put some sunscreen on my back?" She handed me the tube and removed her dress to lie on her stomach.

Kneeling over her, I squeezed cream into my palm and smoothed it into her skin. It would be so easy to yank that tiny bikini bottom down and settle between her legs. A shiver tingled down her spine as I spread the sunscreen over her back and hips before moving down her legs.

When I smeared it between her thighs, she shuddered and stretched, her ass rising off the blanket. Inching my fingers higher, I grazed her bikini. "Fuck, you're wet."

"Have you ever had sex on the beach?" She laid her head on her hands but her hips shifted to bring her firmly against my fingers.

I'd fucked in a lot of places, but this would be new; another special moment between the two of us. Gripping her hips, I pulled her onto her knees and slipped a finger into her bikini.

"No. Have you?" A brief imaginative glimpse of her and Zack had me wanting to curse.

Arching her hips, she glanced at me over her shoulder and pushed back. "Until you it was always the bedroom."

The knots at her hips yielded to my fingers, leaving her bare to my gaze. "You're fucking exquisite. I can't get over how amazing you are."

"You keep saying that."

"Because it's true."

"Don't, Orion." Her cheeks heated and she plunked down on the blanket, clutching at the string of her bikini.

Crawling over to lie beside her, I captured the hand that held the bikini and clasped it to my chest. "You really don't see it?"

"There's nothing to see." She covered her eyes with her other arm.

"Okay then, let me tell you what I see." I grazed her knuckles along my lips. "There's a nick in your knuckle here from that day you scraped your hand on the chassis of the GTO. It's a teensy scar, slightly off color, barely noticeable." I traced my fingers down the inside of her arm to her elbow. "You have a thousand freckles, but this one..." I pressed a fingertip to it. "This one you got the summer before college while we were swimming at the lake."

Peeking out from beneath her arm, her gaze tracked me as I moved on.

My fingers moved to her throat, settling where her pulse beat. "When you're embarrassed, or nervous, I can see your pulse beating right here. It's just a slight flutter, but it reminds me how big your heart is, and that you gave it to me." Leaning over her, I pressed my lips to hers. "You have the tiniest sliver of a line on your lip from the day of my father's funeral, where you worried your pretty pout so much you tore a chunk out of it."

"You see all that?"

"I see more. You're a tapestry of our life. Sure it wasn't perfect, but it was ours."

"What..." she cleared her throat and covered her eyes again, her throat tensing as she swallowed, her pulse fluttering. "What else do you see?"

"My future, and it's fucking glorious."

"I want you." Her tongue darted out over her lip, and she finally removed her arm from over her eyes.

"Well then, gorgeous, come here." Stripping out of my shorts I settled on the blanket. "Let me be your first time on the beach, and everywhere else we can come up with."

She straddled me, and with a flick of her hips settled my cock deep inside her. Tangling her tongue with mine, I held her still, enjoying being surrounded by her. "We fit so well together."

"I know," she murmured against my lips. "That first time you showed me."

"No." Catching her hair in my hand, I tilted her head to nibble along the side of her throat, tasting the bitterness of the sunscreen I'd covered her in. "I mean, you've always been the only girl I could see being with for the rest of my life. We fit together, in every way."

"I love you too." Pressing against me, she wound her arms around my neck and sunk her tongue into my mouth.

Clasping one of her hands to my chest, my other gripped the slight dip of her hip, the one that seemed to be made for my hand and I surged into her slow and deep, keeping the rhythm until her whimpers became a chant. When her pussy clenched around me, she cried out my name, dropping her head to my shoulder, and I jerked inside her, following her with my own release.

Laying back on the blanket with her on top of me, I was where I wanted to be, entangled in her and satisfied. I ran my fingers in circles over her shoulder blade. "I love the way you scream my name and your sex face when you cum. I want to see it every day."

She clambered off me and snatched up her bikini. "You think its sexy now, but in six months time you’ll be telling me I’m deafening you or something."

"No." I leaned on one elbow and touched her face, not sure whether to thank Zack for giving me the opportunity to be with her or kill him for having hurt her so deeply. "Did someone else tell you that?"

The way she flinched was her only answer. "Time for a swim."

"Okay." Pulling on my shorts, I followed her down to the water. Eventually I'd break down all her misconceptions and show her what she couldn't see in herself. I'd been in love with her for so long, and here I was still thinking she was my gravity. That would never change. Racing into the cold water, I tackled her, dunking us both.

She spluttered as we broke the surface and swam out of reach. Already wanting her again, I caught her up and wrapped her legs around me as I kissed her greedily.

"Y
ou can leap blindly into the unknown and hope someone catches you, but whether we want to admit it or not, our fears don’t disappear. It takes time to unlearn the hurts we have been taught. In those heady days when she first was mine, I forgot that. I would always catch her. There would never be a day that I wouldn’t. She’d jumped, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t grab on to her insecurities and fears on the way down."

August 2011

Clo had left me at the bar to use the restroom while I ordered drinks. The sun dipped over the horizon and multicolored rainbows sparkled in the waves. A light breeze picked up over the ocean and carried through the front of the beach hut bar. I stared out over the water as I waited for the bartender to throw together a cocktail.

A hand tapped me on the shoulder. "Care to buy a girl a drink?"

I turned and leaned on the bar about to tell the girl she was out of luck. "Ems, is that you?"

It had been six years since I’d seen her last, and she’d changed from the quiet blond girl in a pink sweater to a woman I almost hadn’t recognized. Still, her face under the mane of dark hair stayed the same.

"Hey, Orion." A little too exuberant, her eyes glazed, she launched herself at me with a squeal and kissed me fair on the mouth.

"Well, hello to you too." I eased her down, making sure she was balanced before I let go of her. "Partying hard?"

"Celebrating a girlfriend's upcoming nuptials. How about you?"

"Getaway with my girlfriend. Do you remember Clo?"

"Wasn’t she with Zack?" She wrinkled her nose. "Sorry, but he was a right bastard."

"Yeah, he was." The bartender slid the drinks in front of me.

"He was a friend of yours, wasn’t he?"

"That was a long time ago." I glanced in the direction I’d last seen Clo. She should have been back by now.

She stared at Ems and me, and I was sure she mouthed the word fuck before she spun on her heel and raced out onto the sand.

"Shit, I got to go." I could only assume what she was thinking if she’d seen Ems launch herself at me. She still wasn’t over what Zack had done to her, but I’d never given her reason not to trust me, and it was time she realized she couldn't jump to conclusion because of how the rat-bastard had treated her.

Darting glances down both ends of the beach, I searched for her. My pulse pounded in my ears. How could she think I’d be such a fucking asshole after the afternoon we’d spent together?

Mere hours had passed since we’d made love on the beach, lost in one another. I could still feel the sand on my skin. For such a blissful moment, the sand sure had a way of getting everywhere.

"Clo?" Jogging to catch up with her, I followed her along the road to the hotel. "Wait up."

She kept going, and I caught her arm to spin her to face me. Eyes glazed, her bottom lip between her teeth, she kept her gaze on the blacktop. We'd come too far to be dealing with this bullshit.

"Listen to me, Clo." Getting in her face, I caught her attention. "Whatever it is you've got in that pretty head of yours, you're wrong. Let me explain."

Crossing her arms, she glanced at me before dropping her gaze to the ground.

"Babe?" Leaning my forehead against hers, I pressed my lips to her skin.

She pulled away and hurled a fist into my chest. "How... How could you?"

Landing fist after fist on my chest, sobs ripped out of her. I let her. As long as she was angry, she wasn’t going to be reasonable.

"It was only a matter of time before you turned out like him," she yelled.

"What the hell?" Throwing my hands up, I advanced on her, watching her back up as if I was a monster. "You’re comparing me to Zack?"

"How can you ask me that? I saw you!" She spun away.

"You’re so fucking wrong and you know it. Give me a chance to explain." I grabbed her arm to stop her from running away, because if she did I'd lose everything, and I wasn't willing to live life without her again.

"Why? So you can lie to me? You are the only one I trusted. You know that. I gave you everything when I knew better." People stopped and gawked at us, as she ranted.

"Are you kidding me?" I raised my voice as I leaned back.

"I’ve got to go home." She turned from me, her shoulders slumping as she said, "I need to not see you for a while. I don’t know if ...we can be friends after this."