“Why didn’t your mom leave him? If he was so bad, I mean?” I ask hesitantly.
“It’s not always that easy,” he answers tiredly. “Where would she have gone? She didn’t have anywhere to go.”
The feel of this conversation is dark and ominous and scary. I examine his face, the planes and angles, and grip his hand harder. “Well, now that your mom is gone, you’re done with your step-father’s family. Thank goodness. You’re here in America and they can’t hurt you anymore.”
He sighs, a ragged sound, his slender fingers weaving around my own. “Can’t they?”
I start to answer and he interrupts. “You’ve burned through most of your questions, Cal. It seems to me like you’ve only got a couple left.”
I nod, because he’s right. “I’ve only got one more to ask today, and then I’ll save my last one for later.”
Nerves cause my heart to pound, adrenaline to rush, rush, rush through my veins as I look at him, the Adonis sitting next to me. Do it. Do it. Everything about him touches me… his voice, his story, his vulnerability that he tries so hard to hide. All of it. I want him. All of him.
“You’ve been such a gentleman,” I start, before I lose my nerve. “And it’s sexy as hell, I’ll admit. You’re sexy. And beautiful. And I want to be close to you, Dare. I want it more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
Dare swallows. I see his throat move, I see him grip his leg with long fingers.
“And?” he asks hesitantly. “What is your question?”
He swallows again.
“Be with me,” I urge him. “Today. Right now. Out here where it’s only the two of us. Please.”
Dare closes his eyes, and his face is bathed by the sun.
“That’s not a question,” he states softly. But his hands are gripping his legs so tightly his knuckles are turning white.
I move over, close, close, closer. Until my thigh is pressed against his, and I unclasp his fingers from his thighs. Leaning over our intertwined hands, I kiss his neck, beginning at the base, slowly and softly working my way up to his ear.
“Will you be with me? Today?” I whisper in his ear. With my last raspy word, I release his hand and slide mine along his inner thigh. I feel him harden beneath my fingers, pulsing through his jeans.
He closes his eyes and I tighten my fingers, increasing my grip.
“Don’t,” he whispers. His voice husky and so sexy.
“That’s not an answer,” I tell him, stroking him through the denim. A surge of feminine power shoots through me, lifting me up, propelling me onward, until my own hormones explode and cloud my thoughts.
“I want you, Dare,” I tell him hotly, all logic and reason abandoning me. And then I kiss him, pressing my body into his, plunging my tongue into his hot mouth. His hands come up and lift me until I’m straddling him and I feel his hardness, his rigidity, pressing between my legs.
He’s hard for me.
I swallow hard, absorbing his moan, sucking it down.
“You don’t know what you want,” he rasps into my neck.
“I do,” I insist quietly, rocking in his lap, grinding my h*ps into his, creating an exquisite, amazing friction. “I’ve wanted you all along.”
Dare pulls away, his dark eyes heavy-lidded with want for me. Warmth floods me, wetting my panties and I cling to him.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” My answer is simple.
With a growl, Dare scoops me up, and carries me down the peninsula, to a place where the ground is soft. He lays me down, on his knees above me, gloriously back-lit.
“I shouldn’t,” he wavers.
“You have to,” I tell him, grabbing him and pulling him down on top of me.
His weight is delicious and perfect and he molds into me, making it seem like we’re one person as we writhe together, trying desperately to get closer.
His tongue finds mine, as his fingers explore my body, every inch, every hidden place. I arch against him, palmed in his hand, as he finds where I want him the most.
“Please,” I say softly, my breath escaping me. Dare smiles against my lips, knowing the effect on me, knowing and loving it.
He leans forward and rests his forehead against mine, and we’re so very close that I can feel his breath mingling with mine as his hands work absolute magic. Pleasure laps against me, like the water against the shore and I lose all cognizant thought, and instinct takes over.
I tug at his jeans, unbuttoning them and pushing them away, and suddenly, he’s na**d and in my hand, long and thick and bare.
I can’t breathe.
I can’t think.
I can only move.
I slide my hand along him, softly, gently, then harder, harder.
He bucks into me, his eyes shuttering closed.
“I’ve waited for this,” he murmurs into my neck, as he wedges his rigidity into my thighs, closer, closer. “For so long.”
“Please,” I say again, my hand cupped around his neck, pulling his mouth to mine, so I can taste him, inhale him. He pulls off my sundress, and stares at me in the sunlight, as the light exposes every plane of my body to his searching eyes.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispers, his eyes glittering in the sun. “You’re so much better than I deserve.”
Wordlessly, he pulls back for a moment, and I protest, but then I hear the crinkle of a wrapper and he’s back, and he’s sliding into me and I can’t think anymore.
Motions become blurs, blurs become colors, and all I can do is feel.
His hands, his mouth, his skin. The way he slides in and out of me, the friction causing me to crest in waves, his fingers bringing me to it faster.
“I…you… God,” I manage to say, because the words I want won’t come.
Dare smiles slightly and slides back into me, moaning my name.
“I want you to know me,” he says, his voice a husky chant. “I want you know me.”
I’m knowing him now like I’ve wanted to for weeks. Intimate and close and I can’t believe this is finally happening, I can’t believe it’s so amazing, I can’t focus, I can’t focus, I can’t focus.
The lights, the sun, the sea, Dare’s scent, his fingers, his hands.