“She’s an annoyance. Nothing more. Just ignore her from now on.”
“She feeds off of that,” Liz insisted.
Brady’s phone buzzed and he pulled it out to check it. “You feed off of goading her.”
“I’m not goading her! The woman just deserves to be put in her place.”
He typed out a reply, then tossed the phone back into his suit pocket. He looked really irritated. “She does, but not by you.”
“Is everything all right? You’re not really mad at me, are you?” She hadn’t meant to upset him.
“No, baby, it’s not you,” he said, lacing their fingers together. “Chelsea won’t stop badgering me about this fracking issue, as if it’s the only thing on the agenda.”
“She’s texting you about that?”
“Yeah. She’s insistent.”
Liz chewed on her bottom lip. “Isn’t that kind of unprofessional?”
“A bit, but it’s not the first time. You’d be surprised what people will do to get what they want.”
Would she? Glancing up at Brady, Liz really didn’t think that she would.
They arrived on Hilton Head Island later that afternoon. They had a car waiting for them, which drove them to Brady’s parents’ beach house. Liz had dreamed about coming out here and being welcomed by his family when she had been here two years ago. Now she was actually doing all of this.
The Maxwells’ beach home was a massive three-story construction on a secluded piece of land. A butler came forward and began to unload their luggage as Brady whisked her through the front door and began to tour her through the house. It had seven bedrooms, a kitchen the size of Liz’s entire house back in Chapel Hill, and a projection screen that took up a whole wall in the living room. The back door led out to a clear blue resort-size pool with lounge chairs and cabanas. She smirked when the memory of having sex with Brady on a cabana in Hilton Head came back to her, and Brady seemed to guess and shared the memory by planting a deep kiss on her lips.
Beyond the pool was a small beach and the Atlantic Ocean as far as the eye could see.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.
“My great-grandfather had the house built in the thirties and we’ve maintained it ever since.”
He led her back into the house to change into bathing suits, and then they spent the rest of the afternoon doing the most amazing thing she could think of—lounging around lazily by the pool, taking periodic dips to cool off from the blazing South Carolina sun, and walking hand in hand down the beach.
The next day Brady gave her a tour of the town. They rented bicycles and went on a several-mile-long nature ride. When they returned to the beach house, sticky from sweat, they raced each other through the house, stripping down to their bathing suits, and then doing cannonballs into the pool. Andrea screamed at them for getting her wet, but they were lost in the euphoria of being together. They knew that when they returned to reality there would be so many more demands on their time. They wanted to cherish each moment that they had now.
Later that night, they were wrapped up in each other’s arms in bed and Brady was stroking her hair back and kissing her forehead. “You’re so beautiful.”
She sighed and nuzzled closer to him. “You’re not so bad-looking yourself.”
“Well, glad that I meet your approval,” he joked.
“Always.”
“That’s how I feel about you.”
“That I always meet your approval?”
“No,” he whispered. “You’re my always.”
Liz’s breath caught at the word. Always. Forever. Brady was making promises with those words, and he always kept his promises.
“Hey, come with me,” he said, pulling the sheet off of their naked bodies and straightening.
“Why? We were so comfortable.” Her eyes dropped to his dick, already lengthening at the sight of her silhouetted in the light from the moon.
“It’s three in the morning. Everyone’s asleep.” His hands slid down her hips and roughly dragged her toward him. He bent at the waist and started trailing kisses down her stomach. She groaned deep in her throat. “Just come . . . with me.”
“You’ve convinced me,” she said breathily.
He laughed and continued his way down until he was buried between her legs. Her fingers dug into the sheets as she felt his tongue lap and swirl and tease her most sensitive area. He pushed her legs farther apart for him and then slid a finger inside of her.
“More,” she groaned.
He obliged her and pushed a second finger up into her. Her back arched off of the bed as he started sliding his fingers in and out. She felt as if at any moment she might combust. He knew every inch of her body and how to extract the maximum amount of pleasure from each stroke. And just when she thought she couldn’t handle any more, she came with an intensity that made her see stars.
As she came down from her release, Brady pulled on some swim trunks and found a bathing suit for Liz. She stood on wobbly legs and managed to get into her suit with only a little assistance from Brady.
He grabbed her hand and started directing her down the two flights of stairs, through the kitchen, and out onto the back patio. There was only one light on near the cabana overlooking the stairs that led down to the ocean. Otherwise everything was pitch-black and silent.
“Where are we going?” she whispered into the stillness.
“I want to take you in the pool . . . I mean take you to the pool.”
Liz glanced back up to the quiet house. All of the lights were out in all of the windows, but that didn’t mean that no one would look down and see what they were doing.
“Everyone’s asleep,” he repeated. He started guiding her out into the clear blue water. Even with the superheated temperatures, the pool was still cool to the touch, and it took Liz a minute to get used to the water.
Brady turned so that he was walking backward. His hands were on her waist, pulling her deeper into the water. When he was shoulder deep, he scooped her up into his arms and paddled them over to a secluded step on the other side of the pool.
She took a seat on the lowest step and then scooted up to the highest step so her body was in only a few inches of water. She leaned her head back on the top step and sighed. “This is a dream, right? Everything is too surreal, too amazing, too all-consuming, Brady.”
“I want it to always be like that,” he said, running his hands up and down her bare thighs.