Pretend Honeymoon (Romance)

by Bella Grant

  The image of her in a bikini was forever etched in my mind. Her body was perfect. I’d been tongue-tied the first time we’d decided to go for a swim and she had taken off her wrap. She must have no idea I existed in any other capacity than the children’s father, because she never once noticed how my eyes followed her, my tongue all but lolling from my head.

  “Come on, let’s go,” I said, walking down the steps of the porch. “We won’t be far from the villa, so we can always check on the kids, and should one wake and venture outside, we can see the porch from there.”

  She followed me down the beach after taking her sandals off to walk barefooted in the sand. The islander had started the fire for me as he had said he would. We spread the blankets out on the sand, and she sat comfortably with her legs folded as if in meditation. I dropped down beside her, sensing a whiff of danger in the air. Maybe I shouldn’t have invited her without the kids. The beach was quiet and the waves were hypnotizing at night. The stars and moonlight, the breeze… everything was too romantic.

  “What did you bring to eat?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder at me. The moonlight caught her profile, and I wished I was a painter. I’d have loved to capture the way she looked at that moment, her skin aglow in the natural light of the moon and stars.

  “I’ve got wine,” I told her, taking everything from the basket and placing it on the blanket. “Wedding cake, fruit cocktail. Name your poison.”

  “No reason why we can’t share all,” she replied. “I’ll start with the fruit cocktail.”

  I passed her the little plastic container. Our hands brushed and electricity shot through me. Whoa! Her gaze flew up to meet mine and darted away over to the sea.

  “Thanks,” she said softly, removing the lid and using the toothpick inside to pick at the pieces of fruit and pop them into her mouth. She moaned in pleasure, and the sound hit me right in the gut. Holy shit, I’m torturing myself. This wasn’t what I’d planned for tonight at all. We were supposed to have family night with the twins acting as a buffer against any sexual feelings bouncing off between us.

  “I’m going to have a dip in the sea first,” I told her.

  “I’ll come in a minute.”

  I tugged off my shirt, wearing only my swim trunks. I ran towards the water and plunged beneath the cold surface. Yes, this was exactly what I needed to cool my libido. Laurel was off limits. She belonged to the girls, not me. We’d decided on the terms of the current contract she was under. Couldn’t we revise the contract? What was the worst thing that could happen if we had sex? I couldn’t risk her falling for me—which was very conceited to even think.

  I watched her from my vantage point as she tugged off her dress. I could see her killer curves against the light of the moon and groaned. The coolness of the sea no longer kept my raging hormones under control. Just as I had, she ran towards the beach, pausing to do a perfect cartwheel, which prompted a chuckle from me. Only then did she continue running towards the water and plunged beneath it. I heard her shriek as she hit the cold water.

  We swam around each other for a while, not moving too far from the edge as the waves were crashing hard tonight. I rose above a new wave and spun around to locate her but didn’t see her anywhere.

  “Laurel!” I called her name, the panic evident in my voice.

  She spluttered as she broke the surface of the water not far from where I was. Slicing my arms through the water, I reached her in a few powerful strokes.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, reaching for her arm.

  “Just sucked in some salt water.” She coughed loudly.

  “Come on, let’s go back to the fireside,” I stated, deciding the waves might be a little dangerous. The last thing I wanted was one of us pulled further into the sea by the strong tide. We swam to shore and returned to the blankets, where we collapsed on our backs.

  “The waves are rough tonight,” she gasped. “When I went under I wasn’t sure which way was up.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t have gone in,” I replied, rolling to my side with one hand propped under my head so I could look at her.

  “There are many things we shouldn’t do,” she commented, raising her eyes to meet mine. “But we do them anyway.”

  Was that… damn. She was looking up at me from under her lashes. Blood rushed in my ears and down to my cock, and my swimming trunks weren’t a very practical piece of clothing to hide an erection.

  I reached over to brush her cheek with the back of my hand. As I’d thought, once I touched her, I didn’t want the touching to end. I wanted more. “Laurel.” I said her name softly.

  “Yes, Jarrod.” She sighed. Her words were a statement, not a question. She knew and she consented.

  “Come here, Laurel,” I instructed, and when she moved towards me, I snagged her waist and pulled her down onto my body so she straddled me.

  “This isn’t part of the contract,” she breathed and squirmed a bit. I groaned at the sensation of her full bottom pressing into my groin. “But the night is so perfect,” she continued on a moan. “Please, Jarrod, make love to me.”

  I might not be able to grant her ‘making love’ status, but I sure would tease her body into oblivion until her passionate cries were carried away on the wind and spreading the word to seamen of a satisfied woman in the arms of her lover. I lowered her head so I could claim her lips with mine. Although our two kisses before had been hot, neither compared to this one, when we were no longer trying to avoid the attraction between us.

  Her mouth moved willingly under mine, her lips parting to accommodate my thrusting tongue. She plunged her fingers into my hair and started grinding against my crotch, inflaming me even more. I deepened the kiss, running my hands up her sides and to the front to cup her perky breasts. I reached behind her and unfastened her bikini before drawing the material from her arms.

  I grasped her plump breasts and squeezed them, her little moans drowning in my mouth. She tore her lips away from mine, her breathing ragged as she rained kisses along my cheeks and jawline. She was wild, especially the way she rocked against me. My cock was so stiff it hurt.

  I lifted her slightly so her breasts were level with my mouth and claimed a nipple while I worked on the other with my thumb and forefinger. Her nipple, like the rest of her, was perfect—not too small but big enough to grasp and tease.

  “Oh, God, yes,” she moaned, stroking my hair with her hands. “Jarrod…”

  Her impassioned cries hit me as I devoured her breasts, smoothing my hands down her back to cup her round ass. I slid my hands into her bikini bottoms so her bare flesh was flush against my palms. I grabbed her flesh, squeezing and fondling, my fingers trailing over her bottom and reaching down to tease the opening of her pussy. Her wetness had nothing to do with the water we had been swimming in. She coated my fingers with her juices, and my mouth watered hungrily for a taste of her.

  Grasping her thighs, I lifted her, bringing her up to rest on my face. I heard her gasp, but she balanced her legs on either side of my head as the perfume of her arousal hit me. Hooking a finger in the material of her bottoms to pull it aside, I bared her intimate flesh to my eyes. As starved as I was for a taste of her, I paused to admire its perfect pink form, the moist lips from which her clit peeked out at me.

  I groaned at the same time I guided her hips down so I could lick her. I swiped my tongue from her entrance up to her clit, swirling my tongue about the nub before enclosing my lips around the bud and sucking.

  “Jarrod,” she mewled. She was as horny as I was.

  I parted her pussy lips, dipping my head so I could tongue her tight entrance. She was soft and silky as my tongue glided through the opening. Gasping hard and breathing shallow, she rode my tongue, her hands digging in the blanket as she undulated her hips and gyrated on my face. Her movements were sexy and desperate.

  “Jarrod, please,” she begged. “Let me taste you too, please.”

  I lifted her and turned her so she lay down my body, her head facing t
he direction of my feet. I peeled her bottoms from her hips and down her legs before I returned my attention to her pussy. She had my cock in her hand and licked the tip. Her soft lips engulfed the head and slid down my shaft, her tongue licking the underside.

  “Damn, Laurel,” I groaned, and she raised her hips, pushing back a little to position her pussy against my mouth again. A woman who knows what she wants, I thought, burying my face between her legs. Her moans floated on the wind as she massaged my balls with one hand and sucked up and down my thick length.

  “Oh, God, don’t stop, Jarrod,” she cried, raining kisses over my cock, licking wetly all around the tip. Fitting my thumb into her hole, I penetrated her deeply, pushing in and out of her opening while I licked her clit, drawing the pearl into my mouth. Her body stiffened, her legs becoming taut above me, and she cried out, clutching my thighs as she climaxed.

  “Oh, God! Oh, God!” she gasped over and over.

  Her responsiveness and our compatibility wiped all trace of doubt from my mind. I lifted her upright and settled her over my hips to straddle me.

  “Ride me, Laurel,” I instructed her.

  I had no concern of getting her pregnant, and we’d both submitted to the required STD tests before getting married, so my mind was free from everything except her. I hissed when she grasped my cock and positioned it against her slit.

  “You’re so big,” she moaned, making my chest swell with pride as she took my thick girth slowly into her body. She inched down on my cock, producing a guttural groan from deep inside me. Damn, she was so fucking tight, and her walls were clinging to my cock in the most exquisite pleasure known to man.

  She raised herself and sank back down onto my cock, her rhythm slow and unsteady before she gained momentum. As she rode me, her breasts bounced gently, and I couldn’t resist reaching up to fondle them.

  “Oh, shit, Jarrod, you feel so good,” she moaned when I held her hips steady and thrust upwards hard and fast into her center. Her tightness drove me insane. I flipped us off the blanket and onto the sand, with her lying on her back. Raising her legs high, I placed them over my shoulders and thrust into her hard and deep.

  “Oh, God!” she gasped, her eyes widening in wonder. “Just like that, Jarrod! Yes! Oh, yes!”

  I threw all caution to the wind at her encouraging words and thrust into her with hard, powerful strokes. I was breathing hard, both from the exertion as well as holding back so she could reach another climax before I did. Our bodies melted into each other’s, my cock fitting snugly between her clinging walls. The closer I was to the peak, the harder I penetrated her.

  Two years of celibacy unleashed itself on her. Bending her knees, I pushed them closer to her chest and apart as I crouched over her and rammed my cock deep inside her over and over. She pulled me closer to her, seeking my mouth, which smashed into hers, our teeth jarring, sucking on each other’s tongues. She tore her mouth away from mine, her head thrown back, exposing the delicate curve of her neck as she screamed. I covered her mouth with my hand to muffle the sound and let myself go. After another thrust, I tumbled with her beneath the tidal waves of ecstasy of our creation.

  Chapter 19

  Laurel

  “Laurel, wake up.”

  Kisses pressed to my shoulder woke me. I groaned and turned towards Jarrod, throwing my leg about his waist. He ran a hand over my bare leg and up to squeeze my butt.

  “Laurel, wake up.”

  With a frown, I blinked up at him. “Wha…” I trailed off, my cheeks crimson as I remembered what had taken place between us, the mind-blowing sex, which had apparently plunged both of us into sleep right after. We were both still naked on the beach.

  The throbbing between my legs caused by his cock plunging into me so hard and fast stole my breath, surprising me. And my heart? Oh, God, I was falling in love with my husband. He would run away from this. He’d chosen me because I wasn’t interested in having a romantic relationship so soon after Scott. But he had wormed his way into my heart, along with his precious girls.

  I schooled my features so he wouldn’t see my distress. I sat up, pushing my hair from my face, and searched frantically about me for my clothes. I just wanted to get away from him for a while to gather my thoughts so they made sense again. Of course, I couldn’t be in love with Jarrod. I simply couldn’t.

  “Here,” he said, extending my bikini to me. I couldn’t look at him as I reached for the article of clothing. He didn’t let go. “Laurel.”

  “Can we not talk about it?” I asked fretfully.

  “Are you sure?” he inquired. “Because I’ve been up, watching you sleep, and I was thinking…”

  He had watched me sleep? Hope blossomed in my chest, and I raised optimistic eyes to meet his. Did he want a meaningful relationship? Did he want to engage in a real marriage instead of a pretense?

  “What were you thinking?” I prompted.

  “I know this isn’t a part of the original contract,” he started slowly, as if weighing his words, “but I think tonight proves we are attracted to each other. Why not explore this attraction between us until the contract is up and we go our separate ways?”

  My heart squeezed painfully. I had to rephrase what he really meant to say in my head. He wanted to use me for sex, and at the end of the ten years, he would give me the boot. I was tempted to ask him if the price would go up from our original deal but didn’t dare be so crass. I still had to live with him and take care of the girls as I had promised.

  “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” I told him. “I think it’s best to forget last night. It could have happened to anyone in such a romantic setting. We lost our heads.”

  “You mean you have no interest in doing this again?” he queried in surprise. “Didn’t you enjoy it?”

  I couldn’t lie about something like this, especially if he remembered the way I had kissed him, moaning and grinding my pussy in his face. Why did he even need to ask that question in the first place when it was clear I had enjoyed every bit of our lovemaking? His question was only punishing, making me rethink whether it would be a better arrangement to accept the pleasure he offered.

  “It doesn’t matter how good it was,” I answered, scrambling to my feet as I pulled my dress over my head and smoothed it down my legs. I tried not to blush at the way he stared at my pubic area before the dress covered me. “We should go back to the house.”

  “Laurel, I’ve—”

  “A platonic marriage, Jarrod,” I reminded him, snagging my panties from the sand and scrunching it in my fist. “That’s what we agreed on, for the sake of the kids.”

  “You’re right,” he agreed and reached for the bottle of wine.

  “I’m going back to the villa,” I told him. “Are you coming?”

  “I’m going to stay out here a while.”

  “Okay.”

  I dragged my feet in the sand, wishing he would return to the house with me, but when I climbed the porch and turned to look at him, he still sat on the blanket. His head was inclined in my direction. My heart heavy, I hurried into the house and shut the door behind me. The tears didn’t fall until I was in the shower, washing the sand and sex from my body. I shouldn’t have involved my heart in this. How stupid of me to have allowed Jarrod to ravish my body.

  No amount of scrubbing could remove the sex. It lingered in the throbbing between my legs—though it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was just enough to remind me he’d been inside me.

  He’d blown my mind with his urgency and raw masculine power, the way he’d lost self-control. Jarrod was a man of control and great restraint. He was often more stoic than anything else, and to have witnessed him in such abandon of pleasure knocked at the door of my heart. I groaned at the ache deep in my womb as I remembered how he’d placed my legs over his shoulders, how he’d pushed them forward, and how he’d worked me into a frenzy with his mouth.

  Ignoring the stupid voice in my head telling me to go back out to the beach and reconsider Jarrod’s
proposal, I trudged to the bedroom we shared. I dressed quickly in a pajama set and crawled into bed. I tossed against the pillows, unable to fall asleep. My mind raced with thoughts of the two of us, my heart wanting what it couldn’t have. Jarrod was not really mine. He was more Pearl’s. And with the memory of the other woman, tears leaked from my eyes.

  Hours later, I was still awake when he entered the house. He went straight to the bathroom and turned on the shower. I lay quietly in bed, picturing him washing his body. Was he remembering the way our bodies had intertwined for those minutes we had been locked in each other’s arms? Or was he thinking about Pearl, wishing she was there instead of me?

  I evened my breathing when he entered the bedroom minutes after I heard the shower in the bathroom turn off. My heart thumped in my chest when he sat at the edge of the bed. He sat there for a few minutes, but I dared not peek at him. I heard him yawn. Then, his mind made up, he walked around to the other side of the bed and settled in, pulling the covers up to his waist.

  I waited and waited, nearly sick with nervousness at why he was getting into bed with me. For the past six nights, he hadn’t minded sleeping on the pull-out bed. I had no need to worry, though, as his light snores drifted toward me minutes after he had settled in bed beside me.

  Somehow, him being able to fall asleep so quickly while I lay there in turmoil pissed me off. It also showed me that I had done the right thing in rejecting future sexual encounters. Jarrod would find it easy to forget about the intimacy we’d shared. He would be able to roll right over and fall asleep as he’d done now.

  I slept horribly and woke up in a foul mood. I must have slept late because the twins bounded into the room, advising me Daddy made breakfast and they were waiting on me to eat. I looked at the pillow where Jarrod had slept as the girls ran from the room. I hadn’t even heard him get up. I didn’t feel like leaving the bed, and when I swung my legs to the floor, I groaned. My body ached. My muscles were sore from sex the night before. What a way to remind me of the one act of madness I had tried to avoid.