Return to Cancún (6 page)

Terra looked out the open doorway, toward the
ocean. Through the gusts of rain, she could see powerful waves
rolling in. Nik always looked out at the ocean, and now she felt
she knew why. It was a source of strength. As she watched the
water, she could feel herself getting stronger.

Not this
time
, she told her old nemesis.

She needed a pen and paper to make some
notes. She had a dozen thoughts she needed to get down. If she was
going to talk to Nik about it, she wanted to have some
specifics.

She went back to the house. When she got to
the deck, she grabbed a towel and went into the living room. Nik
was still writing in his journal. She noticed he was griping the
medallion in one hand. He was sitting forward, writing quickly, his
eyes intent.

She stood, toweling her hair, about to ask
him where she could get a pad of paper when suddenly he looked up
at her, as if only now noticing she was standing there.

He said something to her in Greek, his eyes
bright. It sounded like a question. He did that sometimes when he
was excited. “Shit. Sorry. I mean to ask, when does your university
start?”

“Ten days,” she said a little too
quickly.

“Anna called me,” he said. “While you were on
your walking.”

“Your sister?”

“Yes. You met her last year.”

“I remember. Is she okay?” Terra asked,
sitting on the edge of the coffee table.

“Yes. She’s graduating college, in Athens.
She wants me to be there. To fly out there. Tomorrow. It would be
important to my mother as well. You know how mothers are,” he
added. His face fell as he realizing his mistake in reminding Terra
of her own mother that had passed away. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Are you going to go?” she asked, a panic
rising in her she wasn’t sure she could control.

“Yes.”

“Oh.” A wall of grief was about
to hit her like a breaking wave. She looked down at her lap, trying
to hold it off. The voice of doubt barged in.
Ha ha ha, a medical clinic!

“If you’ll come with me,” he said.

She looked up at him. “To Athens? To
Greece?”

“Yes. Will you? I’ve thought about it. I’ve
planned it out. We could leave tomorrow, see? The season’s almost
over here anyway. Carmine can finish up. You can fly from Athens
back home in a week or so. Will you? Will you come with me?
Please.” He took her hands. “Please say you will.”

“Yes. Yes, of course, Nik. I’d go anywhere
with you,” she blurted out. The tears came anyway. Now she wasn’t
sure if they were tears of joy or relief, but they streaked down
her face as she kissed him.

He soon sprung into action. “Phone! Where is
phone?”

“In the bedroom,” she said.

He leapt up, letting out a
huge
whoop!,
and
ran off to the bedroom.

Terra, her heart still in her throat, went
into the kitchen to make their lunch. She needed a distraction to
help her calm down. Nik came back in, holding the phone, looking
concerned.

“No reception. Landline is down too. Must be
the rain. How am I going to get tickets?”

Terra stood there, feeling helpless, holding
a knife with peanut butter on it. Nik looked out the window at the
pouring rain.

“I know,” he said suddenly, heading for the
front door. He grabbed his jacket from the hook on the wall. “I’ll
be back soon,” he said over his shoulder as he bounded out the
door. She watched out the window as he ran across the sand, pulling
his jacket on.

Lunch sat in the kitchen,
untouched. She couldn’t eat. Her thoughts were racing. What did
this mean? Did he want her to meet his family? He’d talked about
his huge family, the brothers and sister, aunts and uncles. She had
them all pictured in her head. And his mother.
His mother?
What did that
mean?

She tried to distract herself with a book,
but couldn’t concentrate. She saw his journal sitting there. She
was tempted. What had he written? His plans. She knew she would
never read his journal, would never invade his privacy like that,
but she didn’t welcome having to fight off the temptation. It would
be in Greek anyway, she realized, which made it easier to
resist.

It was more than two hours later when he
returned, soaking wet but excited. He took the bandana off from
around his face. “We’re all set,” he said, giving her a happy, wet
kiss. “We leave tomorrow.” He was not only wet, but nearly covered
head to foot in mud.

“How? What did you do?”

“I went to the airport, and bought the
tickets,” he said, running his hand through his wet hair. He looked
insanely sexy, she thought. She wasn’t sure why. His boots were
muddy, his jeans were wet and dirty, and his shirt was not only
muddy but barely hung on his body, having lost a few buttons
somewhere along the way.

“I thought the road was closed,” she said,
watching him as he pulled his shirt up and wiped his forehead. She
always loved his belly. It was flat, with strong, rippled muscles,
and two thick muscles along the sides that dropped down into his
jeans, forming a v shape. His jeans hung low on his hips, pulled
down from the weight of the water. There was a line of hair that
ran from below his belly button, down into his jeans.

“It is, but I take the motorcycle. The dirt
road is all mud now, but I make it.” He looked so happy. And so…
sexy, she could hardly stand it.

“That’s great. That you were able to make it
through,” was all she could think to say. Watching him, she felt
her body temperature going up. She briefly imagined herself on her
knees, pulling those jeans down off his hips…

“I’m so glad you going to come. So, so glad.”
He took a step toward her. “I’d hug you, but I don’t want to get
you muddy, so I should probably—

She leapt at him, throwing herself high into
his arms, straddling him. She wrapped one arm around his head and
cupped his face with the other. Getting wet and smeared with his
mud, she opened her mouth and kissed him with a lusty intensity.
Kissing her back, he slid his hands under her shirt, grabbing her
breasts and sliding his other hand up her back. His rough handling
excited her even more.

She was still clasped around him, kissing
him, when she heard him undo his belt.

He lowered her to the floor and roughly
yanked her shorts off. Standing back up, he looked down at her. He
pushed one of her legs open with his boot, then slowly unzipped his
jeans, pulling them down just past his hips. His enormous erection
sprung forward. He kicked open her other leg, spreading her wider.
Fully exposed, she looked up at him as he stroked himself, looking
down at her.

“I’m going to fuck you now.”

He fell on her, still clothed, wet and muddy,
smelling like rain and dirt. He greedily pushed into her. She
wrapped her legs around his upper back, opening herself completely
to him. He was soon thrusting into her, his wet hair spraying her
with water. She’d tapped that animal side of him she’d seen only a
few times. It was the only time when he became completely focused
on his own needs, fiercely driven to satisfy his hunger. The few
times it had happened in the past, he felt compelled to apologize
to her later, for being what he called a “selfish lover”, but she
secretly loved it. She loved that she could drive him to it. And
she loved being the recipient of it.

He pounded into her, overcome with lust. He
suddenly paused for a moment, as if realizing he was being too
rough. She grabbed his hair and pulled him close. “Fuck me. Fuck me
hard,” she said in his ear.

That drove him insane. He thrust into her in
long, deep strokes. He pushed into her so hard she was sliding
backward on the floor, her head getting pinned against the couch.
His shirt hung above her. She reached up and grabbed it, yanking
hard. The remaining buttons popped off as she tore it off and
wrapped her arms around his back, digging her fingers into him.

“Harder,” she said.

He made animal-like grunts and gasps as he
pushed. His hand at the back of her head grabbed a fist full of her
hair. Fully leveraged on her, she felt the full force of his
physical strength with each thrust.

“Harder,” she said again.

She was completely overwhelmed by the power
of his pure, masculine force. Usually shy about making too much
noise, she yelled out as he drove into her. She pulled her legs
higher and reached down, grabbing his ass. Pounding deeper, he
arched back. The glistening muscles on his chest and shoulders
bulging with strain. Finally, he let out a long, whaling cry as he
orgasmed, his cock shooting deep inside her in powerful blasts.

~ ~ ~

The next morning was a mad scramble. Nik had
spent the previous evening going over everything with Carmine,
Allan and Red. Everything was set—except for a way to get to the
airport.

It finally stopped raining during the night,
but the road out was too muddy to pass. No way a cab would try.
They had an old truck they used to pick up supplies in town, but it
would never make it through the mud.

“The boat,” Nik said, pacing in the living
room.

“No, man,” Carmine said. “Have you seen the
waves coming in? You can’t swim to shore from the boat when it’s
like this.”

“The motorcycle,” Nik said.

“Nah. How are you going to get it back?”

“We could leave it there, and you get it with
the truck, later, after the road dries up.”

Carmine shook his head. “I could get it, but
there’s no way you could make it through the mud with both of you
on the bike.”

Nik glanced at Terra, then went back to
pacing. Carmine stared at the floor. They didn’t have much more
time.

“Yes, we could,” Terra said. They both looked
at her. “We could do it.” She looked at Nik. “I’ve ridden with you
before. I remember what you taught me… crouch on the pegs, lean
when you lean…” She stood up. “We could do it,” she said
firmly.

Carmine shook his head. Nik pursed his lips,
unsure. “No. Nik, you’re a good rider, but you two would end up in
the mud a half dozen times before making it to the main road,”
Carmine said.

“So?” Terra said. “I don’t care. We can do
it, I know we can.” She was determined now. And she knew she was
right. But she also knew they were concerned that she didn’t know
what she was getting into.

They didn’t end up in the mud a half dozen
times, but they did drop the bike twice. Luckily, Terra had stuffed
her shoulder bag in her backpack and wrapped the whole thing in
plastic.

It was brutally hard. She knew it’d be messy,
but she wasn’t as prepared for the physical exertion. The road was
so washed out there were times she couldn’t even tell if they were
still on it. They had to ride crouched over the bike as Nik
maneuvered through the muddy terrain. Her legs were burning before
they were even half way to the main road, but somehow they made it.
When they came up over the last embankment and up onto the paved
road, it felt like they’d just been birthed from middle earth.

Terra wasn’t sure what Nik was doing when he
pulled the bike off the main road, near a farm. He got off the bike
and motioned her over. There was an irrigation hose. He turned it
on and they washed all the mud off each other and cleaned off the
bike. Back on the road, Nik opened it up. Terra could feel the warm
air drying her as they zipped along.

As they road up the coast,
Terra looked out at the Pacific Ocean.
A
source of strength
, she thought. The world
seemed cleansed by the rains. Long streaks of sunlight slashed
through the high clouds, lighting the ocean surface in majestic,
shimmering sections. Terra had a feeling, both comforting and
scary, that maybe she belonged here.
Maybe…

She took a deep breath and nested the side of
her face against the back of Nik’s neck, her arms wrapped around
his chest. The wind blew Nik’s hair back. She looked up and could
see the side of his face. As she squeezed her arms tighter, she saw
his cheek stretch up, and knew he was smiling.

#

A preview of the third and final part of
the Cancún Series,
Cancún Wedding

The ocean seemed to go on forever. Terra
lifted the window visor and squinted, looking across the vast blue,
trying to find the horizon. They went through a cloud and suddenly
her view was engulfed in white, as if a pillowcase had been pulled
over the plane.

Vicky settled back into her
seat. “Those bathrooms are made for little people. I swear they
make planes smaller and smaller these days,” she said, buckling
back up. “I had to pass the food cart on the way back up the isle.
There’s no room. I had to practically crawl on some guys lap to let
the cart pass. Not that I’m complaining. And all the stewardesses
are thin as sticks. You notice that? You do
not
see no fat stewardess these days.
Maybe I should apply for a job, have them turn me down, then sue
their asses.”

Vicky had lost over twenty pounds in
preparation for Terra’s wedding, and was forever fishing for
acknowledgement. She did look great, trimming down but managing to
keep her curves.

“Stop it, Vik. You couldn’t sue because
they’d hire you. You’re one of them now, thin as a stick.”

“Now, I don’t know about that. Lost some of
them extra LBs, but I ain’t no stick,” she said, satisfied. Vicky
had fretted more about the wedding than Terra had, far exceeding
her role of Maid of Honor and becoming downright maternal in her
devotion to every detail. She seemed to know that Terra would miss
her mother now more than ever, and was quietly filling the role
where she could. Terra was more grateful than she could ever
express.