Unlike her statuesque best friends, Amelia barely scraped five-five, but her petite frame was curvy and soft. With her long dark hair and brown eyes, she knew men found her attractive, but apart from the odd month-long relationship, Amelia had found that she preferred being single. She loved the solitude, but also loved the fact she could hang out with Hannah and Silas without having to worry about whether a partner would fit in with them.
Today, Monday, the start of the week, and Amelia was planning on cleaning her entire store. As she walked in, she breathed in the scent of the place, loving the smell of the new and second-hand books she stocked. The dark-wood floors and book shelves were pock-marked and well-loved – Amelia had spent hours cleaning and oiling the wood herself, and then had stuffed them with as many books as she could. The openness of the book shop, the big squashy couches – she had made a success of the store almost as soon as she opened.
A half-hour after she opened her doors, Silas appeared bearing a tray of hot coffee. “Hey, gorgeous.” He kissed her cheek, sending tingles down her body. She knew her face was red, but she ignored her own blushes.
“Hey, handsome. What concoction have you made for me today?”
Silas loved to experiment with different coffee flavors, and Amelia was his guinea pig of choice for the results.
“Well,” he said now, with a mischievous grin, “Due to the spectacular failure of my peppermint-strawberry-banana latte…” He laughed as Amelia pretended to gag. “Well, exactly. So, today, I made you just a simple hazelnut Americano.”
Amelia took the cup he offered and sipped the beverage. “Damn,” she said, licking the sugar from her lips, “that’s so good.”
Silas was watching her mouth and suddenly she felt the mood change between them. Her face burning, she gently put the cup down on the counter, then looked up to meet his gaze. Silas slid his hand over hers gently, tentatively and smiled. Amelia could feel her heart beating hard against her chest.
“Excuse me?”
The tension was broken by an elderly woman, a regular customer, who smiled at both of them. Amelia gave a soft laugh. “Hi Miriam, what can I do for you today?”
She helped the customer find the book she wanted and rang up her purchase at the register. Silas had moved away to pretend to study another book, and Miriam smiled wickedly at Amelia. “Dear,” she said in a low voice, “you should be with that man. If I was fifty years younger, I’d fight you for him. There aren’t many men like Silas Wolfenden in this world. And I can tell, he adores you.”
Amelia’s face burned and she smiled at Miriam. “Matchmaking again, Mirry?”
“Just saying what everyone on the island thinks. It’s inevitable…why put it off any longer?”
Amelia was still thinking of Miriam’s words later on in the day when the bookstore was empty for once. Was it inevitable? She looked across the street to the coffeehouse, watching as Silas laughed with his customers. The tension between them had always been there, but lately, she had been feeling as if it had been spiraling towards…something.
She closed her eyes and imagined what being naked with him might be like. What making love might be like, and she felt herself get wet at the thought of it. Opening her eyes, she grabbed her cell phone and called him. She watched him pick up and smile over at her.
“Hey, beautiful.”
“Hey…I was just thinking…” Her hands were shaking and her throat was dry. “I wondered if you’d like to come over and have a late supper with me tonight? If you’re free? I mean, if you’re not, it’s okay, I mean, I’m just doing some pasta…”
“I’d love to,” he interrupted her rambling, gazing over at her in a way that made her whole body tingle. “I’d love to, Amelia.” His deep, low voice was soft and gruff and she knew immediately he was feeling the same thing she was.
Silas arrived at her home at nine pm. He was wearing a dark navy sweater and jeans and looked so handsome that Amelia felt somehow disconnected from the world. He stepped inside her home and smiled down at her. “You look beautiful.”
He bent to kiss her cheek, then paused and instead pressed his lips to hers. Amelia felt a charge of electricity shoot through her body and she gave a soft moan. Silas tangled his fingers in her hair as he kissed her, cradling her head gently. Amelia ran her hands over his hard chest. Finally breaking away, Silas, his eyes soft with desire, smiled down at her. “Guess what we’re going to do.”
Amelia couldn’t remember walking to her bedroom but then they were peeling each other’s clothes off and she couldn’t believe she felt no self-consciousness being naked with him. His body was incredible, hard-chested with a smattering of hair, flat stomach, and when she slid his pants down, his cock sprang up, thick and long. She stroked it against the swell of her belly. Silas was looking at her as if she were the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. “God, Melia,” he breathed, “you’re a goddess.”
His hand slipped between her legs and stroked her clit, and Amelia’s body was so keyed up that she came almost immediately, blushing and gasping. Silas smiled and kissed her again.
“And we haven’t even begun yet.”
He swept her onto her bed and kissed from her lips, to her throat, down to her stomach. Amelia sighed as his tongue circled her navel then traveled down to lash around her clit.
“You taste of heaven, baby, I have dreamed of this.” Silas said in a gruff voice full of emotion, “You wouldn’t believe how long I’ve waited for you…”
His face buried in her sex, his mouth on her, and Amelia was losing her mind. God, how did she resist him all this time? When he was right there in front of her?
He made her come again then moved up to kiss her mouth. “Melia?”
She stroked his face. “Yes, baby?”
Silas’s green eyes were intense on hers. “You realize what we’re about to do, changes everything, right?”
Amelia nodded. “I do. I do, Silas, and I’ve never been as sure of anything in my life. I want you so badly.”
His lips crushed against hers. “As I have always wanted you, baby.”
He sat back, rolling a condom onto his straining cock, and Amelia admired the thick, hot length of it. “You’re so big, baby.”
Silas grinned. “Can you take it all?”
Amelia grinned. “I want it all…I want you inside me.”
For a moment, he gazed down at her, watching the way her breasts moved, her belly undulated as she breathed. “God, you’re beautiful, Melia.”
He hitched her legs around his waist and slowly, tantalizingly entered her. His cock slid deep and thick into her ready and swollen cunt and they began to move together.
Amelia marveled at how perfectly their bodies fit together, the feeling of his cock inside her was ecstasy. It was like coming home.
Silas kissed her as he began to thrust harder, one hand propping him up, the other caressing her breasts and stroking her clit in turns. Her climax building, Amelia moaned as they made love, clinging to him, her fingernails digging deep into his firm buttocks, urging him deeper, harder.
Silas groaned her name as he came, which tipped Amelia over into her own orgasm, shivering and moaning. It was like nothing she had ever experienced – the rightness of their lovemaking was incredible to her.
Afterward, Silas excused himself to use the bathroom, but he was back in seconds, wrapping his body around hers. They gazed at each other for a long time.
“I cannot believe we put that off for so long,” he said with a grin. He traced a fingertip around her belly. “Your body is incredible, baby.” He leaned down to kiss the soft curve of her belly. “So freaking sexy.”
Amelia giggled. “You make me feel sexy, Silas. And lucky…so lucky. Look at you, you could have anyone.”
Silas, his green eyes soft with love, nuzzled her nose with his. “The truth is…I never wanted anyone else. Ever. Seriously, why didn’t we do this before?”
Amelia shrugged. “Maybe we instinctively knew that the timing wasn’t
right. We both had other things in our lives, college at opposite ends of the country, businesses to set up.”
She hooked a leg over his body, completely uninhibited with him. Silas dipped his head and sucked on each nipple until it was rock hard and Amalia was writhing beneath him. Silas moved to cover her body again. “You want me inside again, pretty girl?”
She moaned her ascent and pulled his head down to kiss his mouth and he thrust his cock into her again. They made love for hours, until the sun was coming up over the horizon and spreading its fingers over the sky.
Waking up next to Silas, Amelia smiled as she felt his mouth on her skin. God, this was everything she had ever dreamed of. It was her thirtieth birthday in a week and it seem prophetic that this should happen now.
“Good morning, sexy.”
Silas looked up from where he was sucking on her nipples and grinned. His hair was adorably messy, his scruffy beard even darker. God, he was beautiful. “Well, good morning, baby.”
He moved to kiss her mouth and before long, his cock was buried deep in her cunt again and they made love slowly, gazing at each other the whole time.
Amelia made him breakfast and they ate out on her deck, despite the cool Autumn air. Silas stroked a lock of hair behind her ear. “What shall we do for your birthday, boo? It’s a special one.”
Amelia grinned at him. “You. I want to do you for my birthday.”
Silas laughed. “That’s a given, and every day and night before and after, boo.” His eyes were soft with love. “I’m serious. This is it for me, Melia.”
Warmth flooded her veins. “For me, too, Silas baby. Me too.”
The next few days were like a whirlwind. Hannah was overjoyed that her best friend and her brother had finally realized they were meant to be and didn’t even grumble when Silas kept abandoning her to sneak over to see Amelia.
On her birthday, she woke up with Silas, and before they did anything, they made wild, furious love, his cock slamming deep into her, making her gasp and come, their need for each other feral and animal.
It was still a working day, however, and eventually Amelia opened up the bookstore, still glowing from making love, she was grinning to herself when she heard her name being called. She turned and saw a man, vaguely familiar but a stranger to town, walking up to her.
“Amelia?”
She blinked twice. “Kirk?” A smile spread across her face. “Kirk! Oh my god, how are you?”
Kirk smiled at her. They’d met and become friends at college in Boston, but had lost touch afterwards because of nothing more than life getting in the way. Kirk was tall, blue-eyed and slim, his handsome face chiseled and regal. He smiled at her now and kissed her cheek. “You look beautiful, Mellie. And this is your little bookstore?”
Amelia’s smile faltered a little, but she brushed aside the slight, giving Kirk the benefit of the doubt. “I can’t believe you’re here, Kirk, come in and I’ll make some coffee.”
As she made the coffee, she chatted easily to him about what he had been up to. He told her he was an investment banker in New York.
“It’s a high-rolling lifestyle, but easy to get used to. You would enjoy it.”
Amelia looked skeptical. “I don’t know, Kirk, I like the laid-back pace of this island. It’s so chilled-out here, you wouldn’t believe.”
His smile was a little patronizing. “Well, I guess you have to love something to miss it.”
She didn’t quite understand his meaning. “Here’s your coffee. So, what brings you here?”
Kirk frowned. “You don’t remember?”
“Remember what?”
He took her left hand and held it up. “I don’t see a ring. I had a private detective track you down. Don’t you remember, Mellie? You’re thirty…and single. I’ve come back for you, Amelia. I’ve come back to make you my wife.”
Hannah and Silas stared at her in half-amused disbelief. “Was he joking?”
Amelia shook her head. “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell whether he was just really dead-pan…or utterly serious. He told me to think about ‘the promise’.” She put air-quotes around the words, clearly annoyed.
Silas was irked too. Who the hell was this asshole? It annoyed him far more than it should; he could see from Amelia’s face that she had no time for this either. He picked up her hand and kissed it, and she smiled at him, her lovely dark eyes shining at him.
Hannah was watching them. “If you two are getting mushy…” They were sitting in their favorite restaurant in the city, celebrating Amelia’s birthday. Hannah’s date Milo, a sweet dark-blonde contractor, was in the bathroom and Hannah smiled now at her brother.
“Aside from being sickening loved up, I’m so happy for both of you. Here’s to you both…it was about damn time.”
Silas grinned at his sister. “You got that right.” He sighed and turned back to Amelia. “So, what did you tell him?”
“I laughed it off, told him I’m very happily coupled-up.” She flushed that sweet pink color and Silas’s heart pounded harder. God, he adored this woman. He had known from the moment their lips had first met that he was in love with her – not that they’d said as much yet, but he knew, and Amelia knew…it was meant to be. What Amelia didn’t know, nor Hannah, was that he had a ring in his pocket. Was it soon? Yes, but he didn’t want to waste any more time.
And now this jerk from Amelia’s past had ruined it. He couldn’t propose now, could he? Fuck. He didn’t know what this guy’s deal was but if he harassed Amelia, he’d have to answer to Silas, for sure.
After dinner, he took Amelia back to his house where they stripped each other naked quickly, and made love on the floor, not making it to his bedroom at first. Silas dominated her body in a way that Amelia loved, pinning her hands to the floor as he fucked her, his machismo like a drug to her.
Later, as they lay in bed together, he stroked her face, marveling over her soft skin, the perfect symmetry of her features. “You are the most beautiful woman on this earth, Amelia Mason.”
Amelia giggled. “You’re biased.”
“I am but it’s still true.” He studied her eyes. “Is this thing with that dude bothering you?”
“A little,” she admitted. “It wasn’t so much what he said, but how he said it, and when I tried to laugh it off…there was something else in his eyes.”
“Like what?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, but it made me really uneasy.”
Silas frowned. “You know I would never let him hurt you, right?”
“I don’t mean he was violent or anything.” She said quickly. “Just like…he didn’t understand why I wasn’t over-the-moon at his clumsy proposal.”
“Douchebag.”
Amelia sighed. “I can’t remember even making the stupid agreement. He says it was one drunken night in college that we agreed to marry each other if we reached thirty without getting married. He was thirty back in September. I guess he was waiting until I turned thirty to come back. I am hoping it’s all a big joke.”
Two days later, on the first day of December, Amelia discovered that Kirk wasn’t joking, not even a little bit. She was in the coffeehouse, having shut the bookstore for the evening, and went to meet Silas as he was finishing up.
He kissed her in front of his customers, not caring that they were giggling at them. “Hey, gorgeous. I’m almost done, Hannah’s doing the evening shift so I’m all yours.”
“Yes,” Hannah said in a martyred-tone, “I’ll slave while you two go work through the Karma Sutra.”
“Ha-ha,” Amelia flicked a crumb of muffin at her friend, blushing scarlet.
“Amelia Mason?”
They all turned around to see a man in a plain black suit smiling politely at them. Amelia nodded. “That’s me, how can I help?”
The man pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to her. “You’ve been served. Have a good evening.” And he turned on his heel and left the coffeehouse.
Amelia, shell-
shocked, opened the envelope and started to read the papers. Her face turned from confusion to anger. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
“What is it?”
Amelia held the paper up. “Kirk is suing me for breach of contract. He said a verbal contract was made that I would marry him if I was single on my thirtieth birthday. Is he fucking kidding me?” She was yelling now, as she dragged her phone out of her pocket.
Silas put a hand on her arm. “Calm down. Who are you calling?”
“Kirk, the jerkweed. I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.”
Silas whipped the phone from her hand. “Nope.”
“Nope?” Amelia looked at her lover, astonished.
“This joker needs more than you yelling at him. We’ll countersue. For harassment. There’s no way this is going to court – what does he think will happen? The courts can’t force you to marry someone.”
“But he could ruin me in fees defending myself.” Amelia said, her voice quivering. And Silas wrapped his arms around her.
“It’s not going to get that far. Look, let’s go home and talk about this.” He kissed her forehead.
Hannah, her eyes worried, bid them goodbye and Silas drove them to Amelia’s house. As they walked inside, she looked around at her home. “I love this place,” she said almost tearfully. “I’m serious, I worked my ass off for it and now this asshole thinks he can invade my life. God, Silas, what the hell is going on?”
“It’s just one asshole’s entitled view. There’s obviously some mental health thing going on, some personality disorder. But why now? Just when we finally were making a life together.”
“Were?” She said in a small voice and he took her in his arms.
“Are. I misspoke. Look, nothing can touch us, baby.” He tilted her chin up so she looked him in the eyes. “I love you, Amelia Mason. I’m so in love with you.”
The Naughty One: A Doctor’s Christmas Romance (Season of Desire Book 2) Page 16