by Maggie Marr
Tyler brought his hand down and wrapped both his arms around Poppy. Forget the key. Forget the lock. Forget the storage container. All he needed, all he wanted, was right here in front of him, and she was leaving. Tomorrow. She was leaving him and them, and quite possibly he’d never see her again.
He pressed his lips to hers. His whole body ignited with a passion that never quelled. He pulled her close, his sex hard and impatient. She rolled her hips forward and pressed to him. His hands grasped her jaw. She had a beautiful jaw that cut sharp to her swanlike neck. Her body was pure perfection. He pressed her lips open and backed her against the cinder-block wall. His hand slid down her neck and cupped her breast. How would he live without this … without seeing Poppy every day? Poppy had become a need, an addiction. Her kiss, her body, just her, was a drug he needed to survive in this world.
She was his lover and his muse. The words Trevor wrote flowed fast and free when she was with him. His heart sang a different tune. Her sarcasm, which hid a soft, gentle heart, was a language he understood. She was the yin to his yang, the peanut butter to his jelly, the effervescent song that sang through his heart. She couldn’t leave and go to Hong Kong. She couldn’t leave without him.
He pulled back and looked into her eyes. He brushed his thumb over her cheekbone. “Don’t go.” His voice rasped. In her eyes, Trevor saw the softness of love and then the slice of fear that chased the openness away. “Hey, don’t do that. This is me. Wait for me. We’ll go to Hong Kong together. Or wherever the hell you want to go. Just don’t leave tomorrow.”
Poppy tilted her chin and dropped her gaze. “Trevor, we made an agreement. Six months.” She wouldn’t look at him. He pressed his hand to her chin and forced her to look up and into his eyes.
“Forget the agreement, Poppy. I love you. And you love me.”
She turned her gaze away from him. Her jaw muscle flickered, and she swallowed He pressed his lips to the side of that beautiful throat. His hand slipped down the front of her body and up under her skirt.
“Don’t tell me you don’t love me too.” He slipped his finger beneath her panties.
A gasp of air passed over her lips.
“Because your body doesn’t lie.” He slid the tip of his finger over her sex. Her hips pressed forward. He pulsed one finger into her sex. His lips stroked down her neck. He could get her to say yes. He could convince her to stay. He could make her promise to wait three days and let him go to Hong Kong with her.
“Oh, Trevor.” Her soft luxurious voice, like velvet over his skin, killed him. He pressed his lips to hers then slid down the front of her and pulled down her panties. Here, in this hallway, he pressed his lips to her sex. Pleasure. He’d give her so much pleasure she had no choice but to surrender. To admit her love, to admit she needed him as much as he needed her. He pressed open the lips of her sex and slid his tongue along her cleft. Her breath came in tight bursts. Her fingers wove through his hair and pulled.
“Oh my God, Trevor. Oh my God.” Her hips moved forward and back, and he clamped one hand to her hip and held her still. His tongue licked the sweetness of her desire. He circled with his tongue and sucked. Her frenzy caused his desire to ratchet up. His cock pressing hard against his shorts.
“Trevor, baby, oh my God, Trev, I’m going to come.”
Tiny moans of pleasure escaped her throat. He pulsed two fingers in and out of her.
“Oh … yes … yes.” She tensed and her sex tightened around his fingers. His tongue took her over the edge. She trembled and gasped and fell forward, both her hands on his shoulder. He stood before her and kissed her. The smell of Poppy surrounded him, the essence of this woman he loved pervading his every pore, his every need, his every desire. He pulled away from her and looked into her eyes.
“Please, Poppy,” he said. “Say that you’re mine.”
*
His eyes consumed her. Poppy’s heart burst open, and in this moment, she was Trevor’s. She would always be Trevor’s, but she couldn’t, allow herself to depend on him. The human heart was too fragile a thing to trust to any person.
“Trevor, I love you,” she whispered. She loved him, but she wouldn’t be his. Not the way he wanted. Not the way he needed.
He wrapped his strong arms around her. She closed her eyes. Trevor made her feel safe. In his arms she never doubted that there was love in this world.
“We need to get to Coquille,” she said, and straightened her skirt. “Everyone will be waiting.”
There was a smile on Trevor’s lips. He believed he’d gotten all he wanted. With her admission of love, he thought she would stay, that she would wait for him, and he would travel with her to Hong Kong.
But he wouldn’t.
He couldn’t.
She wouldn’t let him.
He wrapped an arm around her, and they walked down the long, quiet hallway to the door at the end of the hall. She pressed her lips together and dropped her gaze to the floor. Tears heated her eyes. Trevor was her one chance at love, the only man brave enough to breach the walls she’d built. He understood the feelings behind all her words. She’d never find another man like Trevor. She’d never let anyone this close before, and with the pain searing through her heart, she would never do so again.
She closed her eyes. Trevor pushed open the door to the outside. The setting sun greeted them as they exited the building. A wash of pink and gold decorated the sky.
“Pop, I promise I’m not that bad of a traveling companion. You’ll love Hong Kong, Trevor style.”
Poppy forced a smile to her face. She probably would. She loved everything about Trevor. Hong Kong would have been another memory to add to her list of memories. Unfortunately she would never find out how brilliant Hong Kong Trevor style could be. Because Poppy couldn’t wait the three days for Trevor. Waiting would be to surrender her heart, and while she loved Trevor, her heart was a piece of herself she was unwilling to give.
Chapter 19
The crowd milling around the staff beach was larger than the crowd at Coquille had been earlier this evening. Whoever had planned this party for Poppy had done the event right. Tables lined the bonfire area. There were tiki torches and chairs. Even food. Mesquale’s policy on bonfires at the staff beach must have changed, because everything here had come from the resort.
“So, you just can’t keep a secret.”
Charla turned toward the playful voice and was greeted with Liam’s bright smile.
“Liam!” Charla hugged her former workmate. “I’m sorry. I know I betrayed your confidence.”
“But for a much greater good. I owe you a thank you.” He handed her a Foster’s. “Thank you, and here’s a beer.”
“You’re welcome. It’s going well then?”
“Better than well. Lily loves it here. Mesquale opened an English school, did you know? For staff families, and when there’s room, any other kids on the island.”
“I had no idea.”
“Made Lily’s transition super easy. That and the house and the childcare.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Charla said. “Back up. Is this the same Mesquale Resort I left three months ago?”
“It is. But under new management.” Liam took a drink of his beer. “Very thoughtful and excellent new management.”
Heat flushed Charla’s cheeks. Ryan. He was turning Mesquale into not only the premiere resort at which to vacation, but also the premiere resort at which to work.
“I’m …” She shook her head. “I’m not surprised really. He said this was what he intended to do. The reason he fooled all of us for so long.”
“I say cheers to that. He and Antigua completely understand Mesquale. When he said open-door policy, he meant it. He’s gotten rid of a layer of managers that weren’t doing much but impeding staff. He and Antigua are constantly upgrading and providing incentives for employees who do well. Really, if this is the way Mesquale continues, I’ll never leave the island again. Unless, of course, Lily wants to go.”
“You have a picture then, of Lily?”
Liam pulled out his phone and scrolled through his photos. A gap-toothed, chubby-cheeked, darling girl with her father’s eyes smiled out from the screen.
“Liam, she’s a doll.” Charla took the phone from him. “A precious, precious doll.” Charla’s heart hurt for the briefest moment, knowing that Lily was motherless. “Wait? And a phone?” Charla turned Liam’s cellular over in her hands. “When’d that start?”
“New confidentiality agreement and honor program. Of course, you get caught taking pictures of guests, you’re out on your ass.” Liam slipped the phone into his back pocket. “Mesquale’s become such a good place to work, nobody wants to risk their retirement, pension, and healthcare. Plus there’s tuition reimbursement too.”
“Wow,” Charla said. “This is a great place to work.”
“Yes, yes it is.” Liam glanced past Charla. “And it’s all because of him.”
Charla’s heart dropped to her toes. Her fingertips tingled, and her stomach … well, her stomach did things like flipping and tilting. She closed her eyes. He was right behind her. Ryan was right behind her. His entire body called to hers, and she knew that when she turned, she couldn’t hide the emotions on her face.
“Think I need to go check on Poppy.” Liam smiled at Charla and then at Ryan and walked away from them both.
She still hadn’t turned. How could she face him? Ryan would know that she believed she’d made the biggest mistake of her life when she’d walked away from him. That she should have trusted him, she should have believed him, she should have stayed here, on Mesquale with him. What if his love for her was gone? What if she looked into his eyes and saw anger, or worse yet, no emotion? Could she bear it? Would it be better to walk away than not see the loss of his love?
“Charla.”
Her heart nearly burst from her chest. She heard … love in his voice. Love whispered over her skin with just her name. His fingers grasped hers from behind, and a wave of emotion crashed over her, splitting her wide, twisting and turning and spinning. She looked into his eyes. Those beautiful eyes. A smile spread over his face. Everything sparkled around her. He knew. She knew. He stepped closer. She tilted her head up to him.
“You’ll stay with me now,” Ryan said.
“Yes. I’m never leaving again.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist and together they walked away from the bonfire, the party, the food, and the drink, and toward their future.
*
Ryan pushed open the door to his suite. Not the owner’s penthouse—he’d given that prime real estate to the resort to help finance the employee benefits he’d put in place. The bottom line was paramount. One of the ways he could take care of the Mesquale family he was building was to allow that prime penthouse to be rented out at thirty thousand a night. Ten nights financed the new school. Twenty nights all the upgrades to the staff dorms. A year and they’d have over ten million to kick into the employee pension fund.
Instead Ryan had opted for a smaller, and he thought cozier, spot on the top floor, with a bedroom, a den, a kitchen, and as with every room at Mesquale, an amazing view of the ocean.
“I love it.” She walked toward the wall of windows. In the distance, through the trees and the plants, a glimmer of the bonfire shone through the darkness of the night. What felt like a lifetime had passed since a similar bonfire, on their first night together, when she’d thought him to be a bartender and she’d just been fired. On that night he’d discovered his heart had room for another true love.
“You’ll stay here with me? You’ll make Mesquale your home?”
Charla’s eyes sparkled. He wanted to look into those eyes for the rest of his days. Wake up to that smile and that button nose.
“I was scared you wouldn’t love me anymore,” she said on a whispered breath.
He pulled her into his arms. Impossible. Unfathomable. “I will love you for the rest of my life.”
Her warmth, the pulses of his attraction to her, ignited the heat deep inside him. He grew hard. He hungered for her, an all-encompassing desire that night after night, as he dreamt of making love to Charla, hadn’t been fed. He kissed her. A warm, languorous kiss. Her lips held a promise, forgiveness, a permanent place for him, if such things could be measured by the press of one’s lips.
He slipped his hand down the front of her dress and held her waist. A gasp escaped her lips. She clutched him through the fabric of his pants. She unbuttoned them, and they dropped to the floor. Her hands twisted into the fabric of his shirt and pulled it up over his head. Now he was naked before her, she stroked the hard length of his shaft. His lips kissed her neck, and his hands slid over the fabric of her dress. He clutched her ass and lifted her, stepped out of his boxers and carried her to his room, their room, and what would now be their bed.
He set her feet on the floor. Through the windows, the moonlight filled the room. In one motion he lifted her dress up over her head. Blue panties trimmed in black lace greeted him. Mounds of flesh escaped from the top of her bra, and her taut nipples pressed against the fabric.
His mouth found hers. His lips were greedy with want. He reached around and unclasped the lace concoction that kept her breasts from him. Her fingers wove through his hair.
“Ryan.” His name curled from between her lips, followed by a tiny moan. Patience fleeting. Pleasure. To watch her come. To be inside her. No other thought entered his mind. His hand trailed across her skin, her belly, to the lace that covered her sex. He tugged the slip of cloth down and over her hips and his fingers parted her cleft. She was wet and slick for him. Her legs dropped open. Wanton. Needing his touch. Wanting him to press his fingers to her clit and provide her with pleasure.
Charla’s hands grasped his cock. “Please, oh my God, Ryan, please.”
He released her nipple and kissed along her belly to her thigh. His lips slid along the soft, silken flesh. Her hips keened up to him. Her sex glistened in the moonlight. He spread her with his fingers and dragged one finger down the molten center of her sex.
“Please,” she gasped out.
Oh how he wanted her. Ryan leaned forward and pressed his lips to the slick flesh between her legs. He sucked, teasing the hard button with swift licks. He brought her close to the edge, then released the tiny pleasure spot and thrust his tongue into her. His fingertip brushed against her clit. Rimming his tongue around her sex. Watching her body arch and thrash with the pleasure of his mouth. Her breast naked in the moonlight. Those mounds heaving up and down with her breathlessness.
“Please, Ryan, I need to come. Please.”
He pushed her to the edge of her pleasure and then removed his mouth from her sex, placing tiny little kisses where her thigh met her torso.
“No, no, no.” She thrust her hips.
He leaned forward and lapped the tip of his tongue to her now-throbbing clit. His fingers pushed inside her, and her body clamped down around him. Sucking rhythmically the tiny spot between her legs. Her muscles tightened, and a high shriek tore from Charla’s mouth. He pressed his lips to her flesh and she careened over the edge into that sweet spot of pleasure.
He pulled his mouth from her. A light sheen of sweat glistened across her glorious body. He would make her come over and over and over tonight. She would never leave him again, too besotted with pleasure to ever consider that she could be free of him.
“I want you inside me.” Her eyelids were heavy with lust as she stared at him. He reached for the drawer in the nightstand beside his bed. She grasped his arm. “No. I don’t want that.”
His heart swelled. The head of his cock aligned with her wet entrance. The heat of her caused every muscle in his body to tense. He pushed forward ever so gently, to feel every inch. His eyes locked with Charla’s. Love shone out from her face. He pressed into her. Tight and hot and wet. Spreading the taut muscles that took his shaft.
“Harder,” she whispered, and raked her nails down his back.
Restrain
t gone, he thrust hard into her, balls deep, needing to forever claim her for his own.
“Charla, oh my God, Charla.” His fingers wove through hers as he pressed her hands flat above her head. Charla’s hips moved and tilted, and again her body tightened around him. The heat of come gathered in his balls, a quicksilver feeling of imminent explosion.
“I love you, Ryan.” Charla let out the words.
His body lost all sense of anything but his desire to explode into her body. Skin slapped skin. He watched his cock move back and forth into her body. His love. He would forever be with his love. Heat overwhelmed him, and come shot from his cock. Hot and fast. Every muscle in his body tensed as he hung in that timeless spot and looked at Charla, knowing that this woman was his entire life.
*
She was his. Charla opened her eyes to the sunlight streaming through the windows. Her body ached with a pleasurable soreness of a night well spent. She rolled to her side. Ryan’s spot was cool. She sat up and looked around the room. He stood at the window with a coffee cup in hand. Near the bed was a tiny table with coffee and fruit and something that smelled incredibly sweet and good.
“You’re awake.” His smile warmed her heart.
She was awake. Completely and fully awake. Her life was full, and her heart was his.
“I’m afraid, my love, if you want to see Poppy, you’re going to have to eat and get ready. We’ve only a couple hours until the midmorning flight.”
Charla picked up her phone and flipped it over. “Not necessary.” Her lips firmed into a thin line. “Poppy is being Poppy.”
Ryan walked to the bed and sat beside her. “What’s that mean?”
“She didn’t want a scene at the airport. She left on the eight a.m.”
“She left? She truly left?”
Charla tilted her head and looked at Ryan. “Yes, why?”
Ryan shook his head. “I had hoped … I thought maybe Trevor could convince her to stay. Go home with him for a while. Maybe let him go to Hong Kong.”