Inescapable

by C. J. Fallowfield

  ‘It’s our home now, and pleasing you makes me happy, Alex. So damn happy that I want to do it every single day for the rest of my life. Starting right now,’ he stated earnestly. He gently prised my fingers from around his neck and stepped away, then took a deep breath and dropped to one knee in front of me.

  ‘What … what are you doing?’ The surprise in my voice was palpable.

  ‘Something I’ve wanted to do from the moment you told me that you loved me, Alex. Your past is finally behind you, and all that remains is for you to paint one final picture of the map for your future, at my side, as my wife. And one day, I hope, the mother of even more of my children.’

  ‘Castle,’ I whispered, blinking rapidly as a swell of emotion built inside of me and threatened to release in a heavy slew of tears.

  ‘I love you, Alex Bishop, so damn much. I love your poise, your beauty, your unparalleled strength, but most of all I love your unfettered heart. After everything you’ve been through, you offer it to everyone who touches your life, without hesitation. I’ve never met anyone like you, and I never will again, nor do I want to. You’re my soul mate, Alex. You give me everything my life has been missing. Love, passion, laughter, and friendship. Marry me, Tiger.’

  ‘You’re my soul mate, too,’ I nodded, unable to stop some tears from sliding down my cheeks as I looked down at his expectant and nervous face. I squeezed his fingers tightly in mine as I dampened my lower lip and considered my words, wanting them to be as meaningful as the ones he’d just spoken to me, which had made my heart flood with joy. ‘You make me want to be the strongest version of myself that I can be. You gave me the courage to face my past and to put it behind me. I thought my heart was irreparable, but you’re the glue that put it back together again. You gave me the chance to fall in love again, not just with you, but with Rosie. I don’t want a picture of my future without the two of you in it, Tate. You have nothing to be worried about, it’s a yes, how could my answer be anything but yes?’

  ‘Fuck, Alex. You’ve just made me the luckiest and happiest bastard alive,’ he uttered as he shot to his feet and framed my face in his hands. Our eyes locked, indisputable love shining brightly in his, as I was sure was reflected in mine. Then his lips were on mine, rough and urgent. He poured his heart and soul into the kiss, which I exchanged for my own. ‘Mrs. Alex Castle,’ he whispered when we finally broke away. ‘Damn, I love the sound of that.’

  ‘So do I,’ I agreed, swaying slightly, giddy from the last few minutes and the raw passion of his kiss. A slow smile played on his lips, his chest swelling with pride to see how much of an effect he still had on me, that he’d always had on me, and I was sure always would.

  ‘I’d better make it official.’ He reached into his pocket and lifted my left hand, slipping the most stunning ring onto my finger. A platinum band was the showcase for a huge glistening diamond, flanked by two small brown striped jewels. ‘Tiger stones,’ he whispered.

  ‘I just love it, it’s so thoughtful and meaningful,’ I whispered in response, then covered my mouth with my right hand as I let out a sob.

  ‘Happy tears, right?’ he asked as he ran his fingers down my cheek. I nodded and took a juddering breath.

  ‘I … I have a gift for you, too.’ I sniffed as I quickly wiped away my tears, sure that there were about to be even more as I lifted my gaze to his again. ‘Your tiger is expecting. In October we’re going to have a little cub.’

  ‘You’re pregnant?’ His eyes widened as he took a shocked gasp. I nodded, then started crying again as some tears pooled in his eyes.

  ‘Okay?’ I asked.

  ‘No, okay doesn’t begin to cover how fucking happy I am right now, Alex,’ he uttered. He kissed me again, a fast and forceful kiss, then dropped his gaze as he placed a gentle palm on my stomach. He stared at it with pure wonder radiating from his face.

  I covered his hand with mine and instantly knew that my future was going to be everything I’d dreamed of as a child. Whatever happened in London this week, we’d tackle it together, and I was going to make an appointment to start laser treatment as soon as possible. I didn’t like the idea of having Richard’s marks on my stomach or breasts when I had Castle’s baby growing inside me. He already owned my heart, and now my body was his too.

  He dropped to the blanket and pulled me down to lie next to him, his fingers weaving into my hair as he began to kiss me. Featherlike delicate kisses, covering every inch of my lips until I was begging him for more. When he finally sank his tongue into my mouth, I was writhing with need, my fingers scraping his scalp as I pulled on his hair. I felt his right hand slowly undoing the buttons of my blouse, then peeling it open to cup my naked breast in his hand.

  ‘Oh,’ I exclaimed, as he swept his thumb back and forth over my nipple, making it swell and harden. I was itching with need, desperate to feel his touch anywhere he deigned to bestow it. ‘Ah,’ I cried, as his hand slid down my stomach and his fingers dipped into my shorts to graze my clit.

  ‘Are you wet for me, Tiger?’ he murmured, as he ghosted his lips across my cheek.

  ‘Always,’ I whispered breathlessly.

  ‘Tell me what you want?’ His lips moved to that spot on my neck that made me boneless and slick and I raised my hips, desperate for him to apply more pressure as he teased me with light caresses.

  ‘I want to ride your face until I explode, then I’m going to slowly strip you naked and kiss every inch of you,’ I announced boldly. I slapped my hand down over the crotch of my shorts to press his hand into me, easing some of the aching need with the pressure.

  ‘Every inch? I think I’ve just grown a few more. I love it when you talk dirty to me.’

  ‘Every inch. I’m going to suck you dry,’ I moaned as he eased one of his long fingers inside me and started to gently pump it, my muscles rippling around it as I tried to suck him deeper.

  ‘So, so wet. I’m going to make you come with my fingers, so when you straddle my face you’re soaking. I love the taste of you, Alex, it makes me so damn hot.’

  ‘Stop talking and get on with it,’ I ordered him, nearly ready to explode with need. He chuckled and added two more fingers that sunk into me easily and hooked them, stroking that little bundle of sensitive nerves inside me that always made me come so much harder and faster.

  My back arched off the blanket as he finger fucked me, moving faster and faster, pulling frantic cries and pleas for more from my lips. When he clamped his lips around one of my aching nipples and started to suck, I was ready to fracture.

  ‘Scream for me, let me hear how much you love my touch,’ he ordered.

  ‘Yes, yes,’ I cried. My hips were circling as he alternated forceful pumps of his fingers, with firm strokes on my G-spot, until I couldn’t even see the moon and starlit sky above me. Everything was blurred and hazy as I shattered, drowning out the sounds of the island as I roared with my release, my body convulsing as each contraction and release sent me soaring.

  ‘So fucking wet,’ Castle groaned as he pulled his hand away and gave me a second to try and pull the fragments of my brain back together.

  I heard him groan again as he sucked his fingers clean and I felt myself flood. His insatiable appetite for my body had given me so much confidence. When my breathing had regulated and I’d floated back down to earth, I scrambled up onto my feet and tossed my blouse onto the sand, then shimmied my shorts down. Castle rolled onto his back and put his hands behind his head, whistling through his teeth as he saw the tiny white lace knickers I was left standing in. I smiled and pushed them over my hips, letting them pool around my ankles as he watched me with heat in his gaze, his erection tenting his trousers.

  ‘I’m soaked,’ I warned him, as I reached down to slip my fingers between my legs and feel how swollen I was.

  ‘Excellent, I want you drenched, Tiger. Come and sit on my face and let me lick you to another climax.’

  Castle

  Her screams as she ground against my mouth nearly had me u
nload without even touching myself. Nothing brought me more sexual pleasure than hearing her come. She was totally free in those moments, they were the only time that she wasn’t considering everyone else’s needs and instead was focussing on her own. I’d make her come again and again if I hadn’t just found out she was carrying our child. I didn’t want to exhaust her. I was going to wrap her in cotton wool until this baby was born. There was no way I was letting her suffer any more heartache. She’d had more in her short life than anyone should have to bear.

  I lapped hungrily at her clit as she flexed her pussy back and forth across my mouth. When I heard her reaching her crescendo, I grabbed her hips to pull her down closer and fucked her with my tongue, until she shattered and fell forward onto her outstretched hands as she panted. I licked my lips, her scent and arousal all over my face making my cock flex in my shorts. I could never get enough of her pussy, and wanted to lie her down and bury my face in it again, but she was nearly spent. I gently rolled her off me onto her back, and peppered her face in kisses, giving her a chance to come down from her high.

  ‘Your turn,’ she uttered when she’d caught her breath.

  ‘You should rest,’ I warned her.

  ‘I’m pregnant, not an invalid. Look how hard your cock is,’ she told me as she reached over and grabbed it through my shorts, making me hiss through my teeth. ‘I want to make you as happy as you just made me.’

  ‘Tiger, I’m not sure I could be any happier right now.’

  ‘Want to bet on that?’ she asked, as her hand pushed my shorts down and my cock bounced free to lie heavy against my stomach.

  ‘No,’ I groaned, closing my eyes as she tested my wet tip with her thumb. Moments later, her lips were around my crown, gently sucking as her tongue teased my slit, and one of her hands tugged and squeezed my balls. ‘Fuck,’ I hissed.

  I reacted without thinking and put my hands on the back of her head and for a moment we both froze. Seconds later, she dipped her head, taking me all of the way into the back of her throat making me shudder. Slowly she began to bob up and down as I guided her, gently holding her down when I needed a few seconds to recover from the power of her suction.

  As I started to flex my hips and push them up, thrusting my cock into her mouth, she started to moan. Gentle hums that vibrated through my skin, crackling all of my nerves to life. With each second that passed, the constant worry in the back of my mind that I might do something to terrify her left. She wasn’t just giving me the best goddamn blow job of my life, she was handing over her complete trust in me when she was at her most vulnerable. And that, I thought, was the most precious of all of the gifts that she’d given to me.

  I watched as she stood up and elongated her body in a cat-like stretch, the moon behind her illuminating every sexy dip and curve of her body that I loved. I bit my lower lip as my cock stirred again from just watching her. I couldn’t wait to see her stomach swell with our baby. Rosie was going to be beside herself to hear she had a sibling on the way.

  My heart lodged in my throat as Alex looked at me over her shoulder and slowly smiled. I wondered if there would ever be a day that she didn’t make my heart stall and my breath catch when I looked at her. I propped myself up on my elbows as she started to run towards the ocean, then quickly leapt up and ran after her, both of us stark bollock naked. She screamed as I caught up with her in the shallows. I lifted her off her feet into my arms as I waded out, until I was waist deep, then dipped my head to capture her lips in a tender kiss.

  ‘I’ve never had sex in the sea,’ she whispered, her shining blue eyes holding mine captive.

  ‘Neither have I,’ I admitted, wondering if it was the pregnancy hormones that had given my tiger such an appetite tonight.

  ‘I’m up for the challenge if you are?’

  I laughed and pulled her around to wrap her legs around my waist as I angled my cock at her entrance, then drove myself up inside her with a groan.

  ‘You’re up for any challenge, Alex, and I fucking love that about you.’

  Epilogue

  Alex

  October – The Following Year

  Pepper Island

  ‘IT’S T MINUS TWENTY and counting, I have you scheduled to leave in five minutes,’ Tom warned, as he stuck his head into the beach house where Janice was putting the finishing touches to my hair.

  ‘Take a chill pill,’ she warned him. ‘You’ve turned into some kind of wedding planning Nazi. You co-run an art gallery, not the world.’

  ‘I’ll Nazi your arse if you don’t have my bride ready to leave in the next five minutes,’ he warned, making me giggle.

  ‘I’m ready, I’m more than ready,’ I confirmed.

  ‘You’d better be, no backing out now,’ Sharon warned me as she handed me my small bouquet of yellow and white roses. ‘And this time I give you my complete blessing. He’s perfect for you.’

  ‘I think so, and that means a lot coming from you,’ I said sincerely as I held her gaze. She’d always been a great judge of character.

  ‘No tears,’ Janice warned, ‘not yet.’

  ‘You look just stunning, Alex.’

  I turned to give my old friend Dawn a warm smile, and reached out to squeeze her hand. I’d tracked her down after the whole incident with Richard and the police investigations had been closed. She’d been thrilled to hear I was okay, and living so much closer to her. I now had the most wonderful circle of close-knit friends, who all got on so well with each other. Squeals of laughter made all of our heads turn to the ocean-fronted deck.

  ‘Izzie, slow down,’ Sharon warned. ‘You don’t want to ruin that lovely bridesmaid’s dress by falling in the water!’

  ‘That goes for you, too, Rosie,’ I called.

  ‘Sorry, Mum,’ she grimaced, looking as pretty as a picture in her yellow dress, with her long dark lashes framing her bright blue eyes, her dark hair swept up into a high ponytail. She skipped over to where I was sitting, gave me a kiss and leaned her head on my shoulder. I rested mine on top of her head as I smiled at our reflection in the mirror.

  Anyone could be forgiven for thinking we were blood related, especially now my hair was down to my shoulders, a look I hadn’t seen in a good few years. But I couldn’t love her any more than if I’d carried her to term myself. I kissed the top of her head and told her to go and fetch hers and Izzie’s posies from the bathroom sink, then looked at myself properly in the mirror.

  My blue eyes were sparkling with excitement at the thought that I was about to marry the love of my life, just two short years after we’d met. My gaze homed in on the silvery scar on my cheekbone, which I’d decided not to have laser treatment on. I’d spent so many years having to face it every time I looked in the mirror, that, along with the fine lines on my face, it formed a map of my past. Each time I looked at it now, I was reminded of my strength, not my pain.

  My stomach had been so badly scarred though, that the treatment hadn’t been anywhere near as effective. In fact, after two sessions I’d been told it wasn’t worth continuing. Instead of still having to live with the evidence of his name, I’d recently had the most stunning and realistic black and white tattoo done, of a tiger with her cubs. Now instead of cringing each time I saw myself naked, I stood tall and proud, my body displaying power and love instead of hatred. Castle hadn’t been amused that I’d refused to have sex with him for the past six weeks, but I’d wanted this to be a surprise for him on our wedding night.

  ‘T minus fifteen,’ Tom screeched, making us all jump. ‘Let’s move it people, we have a bride to deliver on time.’

  ‘Go,’ I told my friends, who weren’t in the slightest offended that I’d only asked Rosie and Izzie to be my bridesmaids. Castle’s and my family and close friends circle wasn’t large. It was going to be a small and personal service, and I didn’t want it taken over with a load of pomp and circumstance. ‘I’ll see you in a few minutes.’

  ‘Enjoy it, it’s over in the blink of an eye,’ Dawn warned me, as Janice
grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door.

  I walked barefoot along the soft powdery white sand, arm in arm with Tom, who was going to give me away, the two girls scampering ahead of us. I was in an inexpensive white floaty maxi dress, with a shirring bust. Some simple diamond earrings, a wedding gift from my husband-to-be, complimented my pared down look.

  ‘Tiger is approaching, repeat Tiger is approaching.’ Tom spoke into his wireless headset to update Alves, who was in charge of the groom’s side of the party in his capacity as best man. ‘Confirm that the teddy bear and cub have landed please?’

  ‘The teddy bear? Who the hell is the–’ I broke off, my mouth forming a circle of complete surprise as Tom’s face turned puce with mortification at his inadvertent slip up.

  ‘Don’t tell him you know, he’ll kill me,’ he uttered aghast as I burst out laughing.

  ‘You’re telling me that my strong and sexy alpha’s code name is “Teddy Bear?”’

  ‘I’m not telling you anything. In fact, let’s just rewind and forget that whole teeny tiny minor conversation, shall we? What was that you said? What conversation? Exactly!’

  ‘Oh, no way,’ I exclaimed gleefully. ‘Two years of teasing me with fake macho names, there’s no way I’m not going to milk this for all it’s worth.’

  ‘Damn it,’ Tom groaned.

  The gentle Caribbean sound of the steel drums playing in the background accompanied my walk up the sandy aisle to the temporary wedding pergola installed at Lizard Point. The guests, and Castle’s family, flanked us, all barefoot and dressed for the sun. Rosie and Izzie led the way as they scattered rose petals on the sand.

  I bit my lower lip as hard as I could to stop myself from crying as I saw Castle standing sideways to me, his face the perfect picture of emotions as he watched me approaching. He was dressed in beige linen trousers with a white shirt rolled at the sleeves, as he held our little cub in his arms. Blake Castle was twelve months old and the apple of his father’s eye. Mine and Rosie’s too.