“Well,” She swallowed her bite and took a sip of the coconut flavored coffee he had brewed, “you’re welcome to cook all you want for me. I’m never going to tell you no.”
He laughed and they ate the rest of their breakfast together. He was pleased that they were both enjoying themselves so much. Apart from his mounting desires for her in an intimate way, he discovered that he genuinely appreciated her company. There was much that they enjoyed discussing together, and once they actually began talking over breakfast and all throughout the day, they realized that there wasn’t much that they didn’t want to talk with each other about; no topic that wasn’t of interest to them both.
Part of it was that they were getting to know one another, but the majority of it was that the more they did learn about each other, the more fascinated they were to continue learning more. Both of them were intrigued with the other, and they could both sense their friendship growing even more and becoming stronger, the more that they opened up to each other.
He drove them around a few parts of the island. They spent the first part of the morning, while the air was still fairly cool, hiking up a trail to a waterfall. When they got to the waterfall, they stripped down to their swimsuits and swam in the clear waters, washed by the sprays that tumbled down over them.
They laid on towels in the sun on the rocks around the far edge of the waterfall and dried off before they hiked back down the trail to the car and he took her into the nearest little village. They visited the few shops that were there, and she was surprised that the people not only knew him, but liked him well. They greeted him as an old friend might, and she was something she was pleased about.
They ate lunch at one of the little restaurants in the village, and when they were done, he drove her further up the road and showed her more jungle and beaches. There were lots of spots to see, and he pulled off of the road more than a few times in order to share them with her.
She loved the exotic birds that they saw, and the vistas of thick, luscious growth and sandy or rocky beaches. She loved the feel of the island; the sun, the moisture in the air, the cool breeze off of the sea, the sweet floral scents that wafted around her so often. She loved all of it, and she loved it even more because he went out of his way to make it special.
They came around a corner in the road and there was a simple farm stand where a farmer was selling coconuts. Ryder pulled the car over and bought two of them from the man. The farmer took out a huge machete and with a few easy strokes, he had sliced open the very top of the coconuts, through the thick green husks and into the top of the nut. He slipped a straw into each one and handed them to Ryder and Regina.
Regina watched with wide eyes and an excited smile. Ryder chuckled at her and gazed at her from behind his dark glasses. “Let me guess… you haven’t drunk from a coconut before?”
She shook her head and closed her mouth around the straw. The coconut water was zesty and refreshing, as the farmer had also squeezed a little lime into it. When the nut was empty of drink, the farmer took the coconuts back and opened them for the couple, scooping out the meat and putting it into cups for each of them to take away. He waved them farewell, and they left, going down the road with their fresh coconut in a cup.
“This is amazing. I had no idea fresh coconut was so good.” She grinned as she looked over at Ryder.
He laughed a little. “Everything here is so good. You’re going to have to feed me bites of mine though, because I’m driving and I don’t want to take my hands off of the wheel. Not on this road.” He gave her a quick glance and she agreed.
As she fed him bites of coconut out of his cup with her bare fingers, she tried to ignore the way his tongue and lips felt on her fingertips, and she wasn’t entirely sure that he couldn’t have figured out another way to eat his coconut, but then she supposed he was right. Safety first, even if it was arousing.
They went back to the house in the early afternoon and she napped for a short while in the heat of the day, but then as the warmth began to fade, he took her back out to the lagoon on their beach for a swim in the daylight. She wore her swimsuit, and she tried to keep her mind off what they had shared in that same place the night before.
As they swam down into the water, going deeper and further from shore and closer to the barrier reef that was out further from the land, she was astounded by the different colors of blue in the sea, and the white sand far beneath them, by the endless fish of every color imaginable and even some colors she wasn’t sure she had ever seen before, swimming by them. There were little fish and big fish, stingrays and shellfish, and even a small pod of dolphins who came in to eat lunch and frolic near them. The dolphins played with them for a little while, and she could barely contain her excitement and joy.
Ryder watched her the whole time, amazed by her, dazzled by her beauty, her love for life, and her curiosity and delight with everything that she came across. To him it was as if he had discovered a woman child in a woman’s body; a carefree soul who delighted in joy and exploration, but who had been stifled by life and who had been put into exactly the right situation and circumstance to grow and blossom like a beautiful flower. It dazzled him, and he didn’t quite sense just how much she was slipping into his heart and his mind.
He might be a good cook, but she insisted on helping him with dinner and they laughed and talked at length as they ate, and he realized that there was so much more about her to desire than just her body. Her company was so good that he was disappointed when she said goodnight and went to bed. He stayed awake on his own, sitting out on the patio where they had eaten dinner, finishing his glass of wine and thinking about her and the time that they had shared. She was very different than he had assumed that she would be, and he found that he wanted more of her; more of who she was inside, underneath her enticing body. He felt that she was a flower and that he was peeling her petals back one by one, and finding everything about her sweeter and sweeter the deeper he got into her.
Their days passed with wonderful simplicity; the rode bicycles along the road and past a few villages, they swam with sea turtles, they cooked together and browsed together through the little shops. They had picnics on the beaches and at a few different waterfalls, and somehow it felt to her as if time had stopped and did not exist any longer outside of their near perfect life there.
He took her dancing at a small club in the largest village not far from the airport where they’d come in on the plane. There were perhaps only twenty-five or thirty other people there, so it was intimate but lively and fun. She was happy to dance with him at first, but then as a slow song played and he held her close against him as they swayed, she felt the heated stirrings for him rising up again in her, and she tried to ignore them, but they could not be pushed away as easily as they had been before.
They seemed to be so much stronger, and she closed her eyes and let herself enjoy the nearness of him, wishing that it wouldn’t matter if she could tip her head back and kiss him, that it would do no harm to either of them if he touched her, if he took her home that night and laid her back in his bed, and those thoughts surfaced in her as they danced, staying with her throughout the night.
He watched her and he could see her struggling, he saw that the joy and delight had been replaced with deep thought and a troubled heart. He saw that she caught her breath when he was closer to her, when he held her hand and kissed her cheek, when he looked at her too long and let the tension between them build stronger and hotter.
He wondered if it was time to try to touch her again, to try to bring her to bed and keep her there as long as he wanted to, but when they got back to the house after their hot tropical night of dancing, she said quietly that she needed a cool shower and a good night’s sleep. He knew then that it was still too soon, but that neither of them would be able to hold back much longer. Her defenses were crumbling, and he was going to continue to do all that he could to bring them down, and bring her into his arms.
She did not sleep fitfully
that night. He was at the forefront of her thoughts, and her body had begun to burn and ache for him. She longed for the feel of his touch on her skin and his mouth on hers. His scent stayed in her mind, the feel of him close to her made her imagine what it must feel like to have him much closer, and though she tried to turn her mind to other things, it kept shifting back to him, always back to him. When the morning light came, her carefree joy was diminished and her need for him was growing.
They had spent days playing and exploring and discovering together, and all of the time they had been on the island, they had not been apart. The day after they danced, she told him that she needed a day of rest, and she took a couple of books with her out to the beach and nestled onto a towel with them, covered in a sunhat and wearing sunglasses and her bathing suit, she hoped to distract herself with anything that she could read. She hoped to focus her mind on anything but him.
It had only been working a short while when he came out and joined her, bringing out a picnic lunch and his own book, setting up his towel beside hers and giving her a smile.
“Would you like me to rub sun screen lotion on you?” He offered with an almost impish smile.
She wanted him to; she wanted him to rub his hands all over her body, but she knew that that would be a huge mistake. “No, thanks. I sprayed sunblock on before I came out.” She said as casually as she could.
He leaned closer and looked over the top of his sunglasses at her. “If you need to reapply, I’m right here for you, and glad to do it.” He let his eyes linger on her a long while and she gave him a smile and went back to her book, but she sat there and stared at the same sentence on the same page for several minutes before she gave up on the book. She set it beside her and laid down on her stomach, turning her head away from him and hoping that falling asleep on the beach would be enough of a distraction from him to give her some peace, even if he was right beside her.
Ryder watched her, seeing her struggle, and felt both pleased and anxious with himself. He knew that it was becoming more difficult for her, but it wasn’t easy for him either. While he was working so hard to make her want him, he hadn’t counted on being affected by any of it, and he was discovering slowly that he was affected by it, to a large degree.
The more he knew of her from the inside out, the more he wanted to know of her, the more he wanted her, period, and the tighter he held on to all that he could get of her. He had worried intermittently that he might be holding on so tightly that he would not be able to let go later, but it felt so good to just be around her and enjoy her, that he pushed those worries away, and hoped that once he did have her, it would be enough to satisfy him, and he could let her go once and for all later on.
The day came to an end. They ate a quiet dinner together, and she told him goodnight. He could see a sweet sadness in her eyes, and it made him want to go to her, to comfort her, to kiss the sadness away and make her give in to the desire that she felt for him and continued to fight. But he didn’t. He said goodnight to her and went to the patio to sip wine and watch the moon and the stars as the sky darkened.
Regina went to her room and took a cool shower, slipping into a short thin cotton nightdress that reached only a short way down toward the middle of her thighs. She brushed her red curls out and went to bed, hoping that sleep would be an escape for her, and that it would free her from the thoughts and emotions that she could barely hold at bay any longer.
She tossed and turned, and both the heat of the night and her mind would not let her sleep. Finally, in frustration, she tossed her pillows aside and rose from the bed, going out onto her terrace. She walked to the edge of the railing and held onto it, gazing up at the night sky.
It was dark out, darker than it had been as the moon had waned into a mere crescent that hung in the night sky, letting the stars glitter with their own light. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, letting the ocean breeze wrap itself around her. It swirled beneath the hem of her nightgown, making the lacy edge dance around her skin, billowing slightly.
He stood only a few feet from her, staring at her, drinking in her private moment on the terrace. He had heard the doors of her bedroom open as he sat further away at the dining patio, and as it was just around the corner from her room, he had gotten up to investigate the sound and to be sure that everything was alright. He hadn’t expected to find her outside, standing alone in her nightgown, looking like a living dream.
Ryder was drawn to her. Any thought of hesitation he might have had was lost in his need for her. He was silent as his bare feet padded across the tiles, though he wasn’t thinking of that. He was solely focused on her.
She had let her head fall back, and her eyes were closed as she breathed in the fresh night air. She felt him; his hands on her hips and his body close behind her. She jumped, startled by him, not having heard him come up behind her. Turning with a start, she faced him and discovered that he was bare-chested, having taken his own shirt off while he was relaxing with his wine around the corner.
“Ryder!” She gasped in a hushed voice, her heart pounding with the unexpected surprise of him there, and with the alarming sense that he was much too close to her.
He stared straight into her blue eyes and slid one hand from her waist, moving it behind her back until she could feel his hand on the back of her head, and his other hand on her hip. She felt his legs touch hers as he drew closer to her.
“Regina…” He breathed her name like a prayer. “I know we said… it doesn’t matter what we said. Things are changing between us. Things are different. I want you to know how much I need you. Please…” he spoke just above a whisper.
She didn’t have time to think or argue or protest. His mouth was upon hers, moving slowly, sensually, pushing her lips open and taking over her tongue, drawing out a deep moan from her as he pressed her close to his body.
Her hands moved up to stop him, or touch him, she wasn’t sure which. She only knew that the feel of his skin beneath her fingertips was setting her on fire, and she wanted so much to feel that. She kissed him back, slowly and sweetly, sliding her hands over his shoulders and arms, and aching for all of him.
Fires burned swiftly and hotly inside of him, stoking his need for her as he became breathless, moving his mouth from hers down her neck as he slipped both of his hands over her waist and down to her thighs.
Regina drew in a sharp breath when she felt his hands on her skin, pushing her nightgown up as he pressed himself to her. His rock-solid erection met with her body, shielded only by his shorts. The firm pressure of it against her made her cry out softly and she clung to his shoulders for a moment, wanting him desperately and wishing with everything in her that she could have him.
In the time since their first night on the island, she had let her mind play through so many possible scenarios with him; trying to come up with some way that they could be together with no negative outcome, but it always ended in disaster, no matter how she tried to work it out in her mind and in her heart. She could not afford to have a torrid affair with the man who was paying her to be his wife.
The feel of him on her body, pressing anxiously against her core, hungry and hard for love, was like a jolt of electricity to her. Like being hit with lightning. She couldn’t do it. It was like reality gripping her too tightly. She pulled herself away from him, freeing herself from the edge of the balcony where he had pinned her.
He stared at her, blinking in shock. “No…” he whispered shaking his head. “Please… please don’t stop this. Please don’t leave me again. Let me be with you. I need you! I know you want this too. I can see it! I can feel it! Don’t deny us this night together!”
She felt hot tears spring to her eyes and she shook her head. “We can’t! It doesn’t matter how much we want this, and you’re right, I want it too, but we can’t. We have to stay focused and on task. We can’t afford any mistakes in this. It’s a dangerous game you’re playing; that we’re playing, and we can’t afford to mess it up! There’s far
too much on the line!”
He shook his head, reaching for her, but she turned and rushed into her room, tears spilling over her thick lashes and washing down her cheeks. Feeling a sob growing in her, she flung herself on her bed and buried her face in her pillow, sobbing as her body quivered with need for him.
Ryder stood outside, his eyes wide and unblinking as he looked at her doors. Turning back at long last to the terrace railing, he closed his hands into fists and pounded the stone banister once with a frustrated growl. Then he dropped his face down into his hands and groaned. It had happened again. He began to feel as though he might never get her; he might never hold her long enough to make love to her, to show her how much he needed her, how much he wanted her. He breathed out heavily and tried to still the burning ache in him, but like a bonfire, it blazed hot and bright and would not be put out so easily.
The ocean waves washed in, one after the other, hushing and shushing the sand, and the breeze wrapped itself around him, cooling him some on the surface.
*
They were both quiet the next morning. He had prepared breakfast for them as usual, though the delight in it was gone. He would not look at her until she spoke his name quietly as they sat at the table together.
The Billionaire's Secretly Fake Bride (MANHATTAN BACHELORS Book 3) Page 19