Tempt (Take It Off) (20 page)

Did I want Nash?

So much it hurt.

But jumping into something seemed wrong. It seemed like I needed to find my… land legs. Like I had spent all this time at sea
and I needed to get my balance again on land.

It seemed the fair thing would be to let him go.

They say if you love something—someone—you should set them free…

I felt like being a hoarder.

He took my face in his hands. “I’m going to give you some space,
bella
. The time I think you need.”

“But what if I need you too?”

He smiled. “Don’t worry. You haven’t seen the last of me.”

Then he walked me down the hallway, placing me in the arms of my father. Both our families filed out of the hospital, toward the waiting cabs at the curb.

Nash and I were the last to get into our separate cars.

Our eyes met. I watched his dark, unruly head disappear inside the car. His cab drove away. I sat down beside my mother.

We survived a plane crash.

We survived a band of pirates.

We survived a frenemy.

But it seemed the biggest challenge we would face was the one that presented after our rescue
…

R
eality.

ONE MONTH LATER…

I glanced at the clock and did a double take. Seemed like I just got here and already it was time to leave.

Time flies
, I mused, placing the last stem into a gorgeous blown glass vase. I carried it over to the giant glass-front cooler and placed it inside, where it would stay fresh and gorgeous until tomorrow morning’s delivery.

After I cleaned up a little around the back
, I reluctantly grabbed my bag and stepped out onto the sidewalk. It was fall but much too early for it to feel that way in Miami. More than likely, the temperatures wouldn’t even begin to cool off until mid- to late-October. And even when part of the East Coast was buried in snow, Miami would remain mild.

I walked slowly to the bus stop, in no real hurry to get home. In truth, the only time that went by fast was the time I spent at work. Every other second, minute, hour of the day seemed to drag by.

Nighttime was the worst.

I pushed away those thoughts and rode the bus home, trying not to think about the island, Duke
, and the nights I spent in the sand… with Nash.

It wasn’t until I arrived home and leaned against the back of the door
that I finally let myself have the thought.

The thought that plagued me every day.

The thought that echoed around inside me even when I tried not to listen.

The thought I knew was never going to go away.

I missed him.

I missed Nash so much that I could barely breathe. At first
, I thought the reason my appetite didn’t come back, the reason anxiety sometimes gripped me and threatened to never let go was because of the crash, because of the pirates.

But it wasn’t those things.

One day I was in the grocery store, pondering a display of coconuts, when someone behind me called out
bella
, the word sounding exactly as he said it. So many feelings crashed over me in a single second.

Joy.

Desire.

Longing.

Love.

I spun around so fast that all the coconuts tumbled off the table and rolled around my feet. Yet I barely noticed. My eyes searched for his face, for his curls
, for the arms that held me for so many nights.

But it wasn’t him.

It was someone else.

I stood there completely shattering apart as I watched a woman with dark hair run into the arms of a man that was not Nash.

I left the coconuts on the floor and I went home without whatever I went to the store for in the first place. And I cried. I cried so much my eyes swelled.

And that’s when I understood. I knew it wasn’t the fact that we survived the awful experience together. It wasn’t the fact that we bonded in a crisis.

I loved him in spite of those things.

I loved him because there was no one else that would ever make me feel the way he did.

I did exactly what I told myself I wasn’t going to do anymore. I let fear rule my head. I denied my heart because I was afraid to follow it.

I was stupid.

But knowing that couldn’t erase the fact that I pushed him away. That I told him we needed time apart to really know if what was between us was real. He’d agreed. Easily. Did that mean he thought I was right? Did that mean I’d been nothing but someone to chase away the boredom while we were stranded on that island?

I sighed and pushed away from the door. It’d been a month since I’d seen him last… two weeks since I realized that my love for him wasn’t going to go away. I couldn’t go on this way.

I didn’t want to live in limbo anymore.

I went into my bedroom and changed out of my work clothes and pulled on a pair of black leggings and a light
-green tank top (okay, so yeah, it reminded me of his eyes). Then I reached for a light oversized sweater and tossed it onto my perfectly made bed.

I pulled the band out of my hair and loosened the French braid it was styled in, letting it wave softly down my back. Just as I was reaching for the sweater
, there was a knock at the front door.

I frowned
, wondering who on Earth that could be, and padded through the living room to throw the lock and pull open the door.

Dark curls and green eyes greeted me.

My heart literally stopped beating.

I reached out and gripped the doorframe
, unable to speak. I could only stare.

He looked as good as I remembered him, standing there in low
-slung ratty jeans with too many holes. His T-shirt wasn’t gray, but a deep green that accentuated his jade-colored stare—a stare that searched my face like a hungry man searching for his final meal.

His skin was still deeply tan, unlined
, and the beard he’d been sporting when I said good-bye was gone, revealing his square jaw and the dimple in his chin.

I swallowed, my heart stuttering back to life. “Nash?”

“She remembers my name,” he quipped, giving me a little grin. He was carrying a large cardboard box with the words
Pizza Hut
scrawled along the side.

My stomach roared to life fiercely.

“Is that a pizza?” I asked.

“Large veggie with pan crust
.”

Tears rushed to my eyes, blurring my vision and making it hard to stare at him. “You remembered.” When we first crashed
, it was the one food I told him I wanted.

“I know you probably have eaten a million of these since you got home…” he said and shrugged as his words died away.

I shook my head. “I haven’t had it yet.”

His eyes zeroed in on my face. “You haven’t?”

I shook my head again. Of course I hadn’t. I couldn’t eat something that reminded me so fully of him.

“You gonna let me in?” he asked, devastating me with his lopsided grin.

I stepped back, gesturing for him to come in, and then shut the door behind him. He looked around the apartment with rapt interest. His eyes took in the cream walls, the oversized posters filled with art and landscapes, the gray couch with multi-colored pillows, and the coffee table scattered with a million magazines (and not one of them managed to take my mind off him).

“Nice place
,” he said, his eyes sweeping over me from head to toes.

“Thanks,” I echoed, realizing that I looked like I was ready to curl up on the couch and eat an entire pint of ice cream in front of some cheesy
Lifetime movie.

Well, that’s what I was going to do. But still.

“I’ll be right back,” I said and rushed from the room.

In my bedroom
, I leaned against the wall, trying to catch my breath, trying to calm the pounding of my heart. He was here. He was standing in my living room. He was so close I could reach out and touch him.

Lust erupted inside me. Just the mere thought of putting my hands anywhere on his body had me practically salivating. I rushed to my closet to look inside
, but I never got the chance to debate my wardrobe because a quiet sob racked my body.

I leaned in
to the frame, against the open door, as tears rolled down my cheeks.

I felt a hand on my elbow, gentle at first but then his grip tightening.
“Bella,”
he said softly.

My quiet sob broke and I spun, burying my face in his c
hest. His arms came around me instantly, holding me so tight it almost hurt. But I liked it because I knew he was there.

After long moments of me blubbering all over him, I quieted and he pulled me back, tipping
up my chin and staring into my tearstained face.

“You missed me.”

“Every. Single. Day.”

“Thank God,” he groaned and pressed his forehead against mine. “I was afraid when I got here you would tell me that you hadn’t.”

“I never should never have let you leave.”

“I know.”

“But you didn’t give up.”

“Someone told me once that when you love someone you should never give up.”

“What did you say?” I whispered, not sure I heard him right.

“I love you,
bella
.”

My heart swelled to the point I thought my ribs wouldn’t be able to contain it. “I love you too. So much.”

His kiss swept me up into a tidal wave of passion, washing away an entire month’s worth of longing. My body remembered everything about him and fit itself against him perfectly, knowing exactly where to go. My fingers went for his curls, tangling in their softness, and my tongue rushed inside his mouth as if it would rather be there than inside mine.

The softness of his
T-shirt brushed against my arms, and while it was comforting, there was something else I would rather feel. I delved below his hem, gripping the skin of his taut waist and moaning.

He ripped his mouth away and tugged the shirt up and over his head, throwing it across the room
, and then was on me again in seconds. He backed me up against the wall and used his body to pin me there as his mouth traveled hotly over my neck and collarbone.

He reached up and pulled
down the straps of my tank top, ripping the bodice completely down my waist and exposing every ounce of my aching flesh. My breasts were already swelling with need and I shoved myself out, gripping his head and bringing it down to one of my sensitive nipples. He nipped at it with his teeth and I cried out.

As he kissed and sucked
, I found the waistband of his jeans and pulled it away, delving my hands inside his boxers to find the object of my desire. It was pulsing and ready. His entire body jerked when I closed my hand around him.

“This is going to be fast,” he said against my breast. “I’ve missed you too badly to drag it out.”

“Do it,” I growled, giving his member a squeeze.

In a blurred frenzy
, our clothes hit the floor and we fell backward on the bed. Nash rolled, tucking me beneath him and sinking himself immediately in my moist heat.

Both of us groaned and stilled as pure pleasure rolled over us.

And then we were moving, slapping against each other with intense fervor. The orgasm ripped through my body, and I cried out his name over and over again until my insides stopped quaking. And then it was his turn. With one final thrust, he pulsed inside me, emptying everything he had into my more-than-willing body.

Long after we were finished
, my muscles continued to contract around him, squeezing him and making him flex inside me.

“Damn,” he said, tucking me into his side. “You have no idea how badly I’ve been wanting to do that.”

“I think I might.”

He chuckled and then dragged us
farther up the bed, seeing as how our feet were dangling off. I guess we should be lucky we made it onto the bed at all.

“Uh, Ava?” he said after he settled me into his side once more.

“Yes?”

“Where are your pillows?”

I lifted an arm and pointed over to the side of the bed. He paused and then sat up, glancing over the mattress and down onto the floor.

“You mind explaining to me why you have a pile of bl
ankets and pillows on the floor?”

“I’ve been sleeping there.”

He took my cheek in his hand and looked down, concern lacing his eyes. “Baby, are you still having nightmares? You should have called me.”

I shook my head
, silencing his words. “I can’t sleep in this bed.”

“Why?”

“It’s too soft…” I murmured.

He looked confused
, and then realization dawned. “You’re used to sleeping on the floor or on the beach.”

“With you
,” I whispered. “I tried to sleep here, but I just couldn’t. It was too soft and too… lonely.”

He settled back against the mattress. “How’s it feel right now?”

“Perfect,” I said, sighing.

And then my stomach had to go and ruin it all by growling.

He laughed. “It sounds like you’re hungry.” His hands caressed my hip and up my ribs. “And you actually feel like you’ve lost weight.”

“I haven’t gotten my appetite back yet,” I mumbled.

He bounded off the bed, not bothering with pants, and I was treated to the epic view of his tight ass sauntering out into the living room. When he returned carrying the pizza, I was treated to another epic view… of his front side.

He s
et the pizza on the foot of the bed and retrieved a giant slice oozing with white cheese and piled high with veggies. He sat down, holding out the slice. “Eat,” he demanded.

I loved when he bossed me around.

I took a bite.

It was really good.

We sat that way in the quiet of my apartment, not talking, just him feeding me bite after bite of pizza. Only after I ate the last bite did he get a slice for himself (which he ate in like three seconds).