Fierce Love

by Danielle Stewart

  “This game might be out of your league, a sweet girl like you.” James took the tart pineapple and ran it across her neck before leaning down and sucking the sweetness off her skin.

  “That sounds like a challenge,” she breathed out through a moan. Grabbing the juicy slices of mango, she took his hand and folded all but his index finger down. Running the mango sensually from the tip down his finger she watched his breath catch in his throat. Libby ate the mango, licking her lips and blinking up at him from under her long lashes. Tugging his finger forward she sucked it into her mouth, running her tongue over the tip as she moved it in and out of her mouth slowly. A groan rolled out of him and his fingers danced down over the sand he’d poured on her and settled between her legs. A finger slid inside her and his thumb slid across her pleasure spot, now slick with her juices.

  “You’ll never make it to sunset,” she challenged after nibbling her teeth down his finger as she released it from her mouth.

  “There’s so much more to this game,” he assured her as he snatched another piece of fruit from the tray and moved his body down hers until his mouth hovered over her eager and waiting core. A cold piece of juicy fruit moved over her folds and his tongue quickly came to lap up the juices, both hers and the fruit’s mixed together.

  Her eyes snapped shut as the sun beat down on her naked body and the gentle waves lapped her toes. James had half his body soaked by the intruding ocean, but he didn’t seem to notice. The only thing drawing his attention was the ever-growing sound of Libby’s pleasure.

  Libby had been wrong. James found plenty to do to keep her body busy until the sun sank low, now just above the horizon.

  He finally slid out of his pants and his hard erection sprang up, as though its patience was finally broken, and it was set free from prison.

  “The sun . . .” he said as the waves took over half of their blanket. The tray of fruit, now half empty was in danger of being swept away, but neither of them noticed as James brought his body on top of her. The water was a welcomed relief to the heat, gently crashing over them as he entered her slowly, accompanied with a gentle kiss on her lips. The sweet taste of fruit mixed with her own flavor made her burn with desire. She never wanted this to end.

  The sun began to disappear, and the tide began to wash over them. They were soaked. The blanket soaked. The fruit tray swept away. James moved slowly inside of her as he brushed a hand across her forehead, moving her damp hair away.

  She came with a shiver. A quiet tensing that closed in around him. And almost as suddenly and as quietly he met her ecstasy with his own, showering her face and neck with kisses.

  The moon illuminated them as they stood, and James led Libby into the sea. No words passed between them as they stepped out deeper and deeper. She wondered if they would just keep going, walk until their heads went under and never come up. He sank himself down into the warm water and went under like a baptism. When he came up he did look changed.

  Desperate for the same, she dunked her head under, sitting on the ocean floor and her eyes forced open, staring up at the shimmering moon above her. There was a part of her that worried he’d be gone when she surfaced—all of this was just a dream. But his hand came down and plucked her up, pulling her quickly into his arms.

  How could they be silent now? They floated for a while, tangled in each other, just breathing and bobbing with the tiny waves. There was no one in sight. No noise but the lapping of the waves on the shore and their matched breath. It was heaven on earth. Her mind, normally churning and grinding with worry, was blank. Perfectly, wonderfully blank.

  After a while James stood and laced his fingers with Libby’s, leading her back out of the sea, into the bungalow, and wrapping her in a towel. Pulling back the sheets on the bed, he let her slip in and then crawled in behind her. A few times she opened her mouth to speak. To thank him or praise him, but breaking the silence felt equivalent to striking an enormous gong in the quiet of a library.

  They nodded off into a sleep that might as well have been death for how deep and peaceful it was.

  When Libby’s eyes opened again it was still night, but James was awake, staring at her profile. “Why don’t you show this side of yourself to more people,” Libby asked as she planted a firm hand on his bare chest, still mesmerized by the muscle. She was nestled safely under his arm, listening to the rhythmic sound of the waves that were just feet from the door of their tiny private bungalow.

  James looked at her and laughed. “This side of myself,” he gestured at his naked body, waving a hand up and down it. “I find if I go to meetings showing this side of myself, no real work gets done.”

  “You know what I mean,” she huffed, but couldn’t help but laugh. His quick wit was something she’d come to appreciate over the last few days. He could tease relentlessly, and somehow it didn’t bother her but endeared him to her even more. “The last few days have been like nothing I’ve experienced. You seem so calm, so at peace with everything. I wish we could be that way all the time. I wish we could stay here forever, or feel this way forever.”

  “Forever?” James asked, and she couldn’t read his expression. Her heart ceased beating for a moment, wondering if she’d just crossed that invisible line she’d been scared to put her toe over. Had she frightened him with her honesty? There would be no way to know now that his phone was ringing. “Shit,” James said as it rang for the third time, the caller being annoyingly persistent.

  “You should answer it,” Libby said, rising off his chest and grabbing the phone off the table by the bed. The ocean air was pouring in, the smell of salt layering the room thickly. Everything was perfectly perfect. But one phone call could change a lot.

  “What is it, Mathew?” James asked, pulling Libby back down on top of him. She watched his face, the stress-free glow evaporating, replaced with worry lines.

  “You have to put off the meeting a few more days. The OSHA people are just going to have to wait. Tell them I’m out of the country.”

  The word OSHA brought her plummeting from the heavens and crashing into the ground. It was the one thing she’d been trying to put out of her mind, but it kept banging at the door of her conscience.

  “No,” James barked, his body tensing below her. “I don’t want you to take the meeting. They can wait. I don’t care how persistent they are. It’s my meeting. I’m very close to securing what I came here for. I should be back in the office in a couple days. Just put them off.” He hung up and tossed the phone haphazardly off the side of the bed. Libby jumped at the hard clunk on the shabby wood floor.

  “Are you all right?” James asked, his eyes raking over her face. He could see it wasn’t just the noise that had her breath catching in her throat.

  “I need to tell you something,” she croaked. This was news to her. She hadn’t planned to take this moment to do what she’d been dreading.

  “Okay,” he said, drawing the word out skeptically.

  “First, I want to ask you something,” she corrected, sitting up and pulling the blanket over her. “Is this really something?” She gestured between the two of them, referencing their relationship. Hoping he knew what she meant.

  “You’re being weird,” James accused, trying to pull her back down to him, but she didn’t budge.

  “I know,” she agreed, forcefully pulling her hair up and twisting it away from her face. “I know I am. But can you answer me anyway? Is this thing between us something or nothing?”

  “It’s something,” he said, sitting up, staring her straight in the face. “It’s something, Libby.”

  Her face crumpled with tears. “Damn,” she moaned out. If he’d have said this was all just for fun, it would have made this easier.

  “How could that be the wrong answer? Don’t you want this to be more than a fling?” His face twisted in confusion, his hand running up the soft skin of her arm, trying to comfort her tears.

  “I’ve done something that will ruin it all. I need to tell you the truth, but I
know it will wreck everything.” Her words bubbled up between sobs.

  He backed up slightly, dropping his hand away from her, bracing for something terrible. “Tell me,” he demanded.

  “I know what the problem with the OSHA reports are,” she admitted, using the back of her hand to pat away her tears, but they wouldn’t stop coming.

  “For God’s sake, Libby,” James shouted, putting a hand over his heart as though he’d just dodged a bullet. “I thought you were going to tell me something terrible. I thought you slept with Mathew or were carrying my father’s lovechild. Dammit.” He laughed a breathy laugh but she stayed stone-faced. “This is just work stuff?”

  “It’s not,” she croaked, dropping her eyes away sheepishly. “It’s more than just work. I know why those reports are not correct. I’m one of the reasons they aren’t.”

  “Tell me,” he said again. But this time he reached for her hand, and his words were much less demanding.

  “My father worked for West Oil. He was killed on a rig, an accident. He wasn’t properly trained. None of the men were. The equipment, it wasn’t right either.”

  “Libby.” James drew in a deep breath, and she could feel him squeeze her hand tighter, though she was mostly numb otherwise. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone,” she rasped out. “That’s the agreement my mother made with your father. I stay quiet about it and in return . . .” She couldn’t get the words out. They stuck in her throat.

  “What is it?” he asked, and she took comfort in the fact that his face and tone were still gentle.

  “He would put me on the payroll. I’d get a paycheck from West Oil for the foreseeable future even though I wouldn’t ever work here. I never really stepped into the office before I got that email from you about the staff meeting. I lied. I lied about everything.” She braced for his anger, but it didn’t come.

  “And then you bought that mansion in Miami and have been living the high life?” he asked, smirking slightly.

  “What?” she asked, unable to follow his line of questioning.

  “Libby, I’m sorry you lost your father. I know, from what you told me, it uprooted your life in terrible ways.”

  As if he hadn’t heard her right, she explained further. “I was taking money for a job I never did. I should have told you. I should have done the right thing.” She pounded her fist in her lap punishingly, until he took her other hand in his.

  “You’ve been doing the right thing for everyone who needs you. You took that money and have taken care of everyone you could with it. You worked another job, lived a responsible life. I mean, look, tell me why you came to that meeting I called.”

  “I needed to keep things going. I couldn’t lose the money. I couldn’t let everyone down.”

  “Right,” he smiled gently as though she’d made his point. “You weren’t there trying to trick me. You were fighting to keep what you needed. I can respect that. I’m fighting too, if you haven’t noticed.”

  “But,” she gasped, breaking free from his hands, “I lied to you. You’ve been asking what is going on with these OSHA documents, and I had the truth the whole time. What are you going to do now that you know?”

  “That’s a business decision. One that will take time and thought. But this . . .” he said gesturing between them the way she had, “this is still something.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she cried, burying her hands in her face. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Stop, Libby,” he insisted, pulling her hands down from her face. “I’ve told you so many times, stop apologizing your life away. The only reason you fooled me is because I allowed you to. I knew something wasn’t right. I could have dug deeper, done a thorough investigation, but I wanted this. I still want this. But,” he said staring deeply into her eyes, “no more secrets.”

  “But what will you do? Doesn’t this hurt what you’re trying to do at West Oil? How will you—?” He cut into her words with a passionate hungry kiss.

  “All you need to worry about is that you have a job now. A real one that you have earned and are doing well. Whatever else happens I’ll keep you out of it. You’ll be fine, no matter what, I promise.”

  She wanted to protest, insist he get angry. Where was the punishment, the anger that should be there in his eyes?

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, rubbing a hand down her back.

  “James,” she moaned, tilting her head and trying to see deeply into his brain, “I don’t know what, I mean how do we just—?”

  He cut her off again. “Libby the past is the past. Business is Business. But this . . .” He ran his thumb across her pouting lips. “This is something. I’m not letting that go.”

  CHAPTER 19

  When Libby woke she could hear the tropical birds, the crashing waves, and the gusting wind, but she couldn’t hear James. She couldn’t feel his body against her either. Cracking her eyes open, she quickly searched the tiny bungalow for any sign of him. A note fluttered up and down on the pillow next to her, trying hard to get out from the seashell it had been pinned under.

  * * *

  LIBBY,

  * * *

  SORRY TO DART OUT. Things worked out with the bioengineer. I’m meeting with him now. You should head home. There is a flight at eleven ready for you. I won’t be far behind. – James

  * * *

  A THUNDER of boulders fell from the sky and crushed her chest. He was gone. He was sending her home. Whatever he’d said last night had been washed away by clearer judgment, and now he knew better than to forgive her. The wind whipped the paper in her hand, and she saw more writing on the back.

  * * *

  STOP WORRYING. I promise everything will work out. Have a good breakfast and another swim, and I’ll see you back in the States. This is still something.

  * * *

  A SMILE BROKE RELUCTANTLY across her face. He’d read her mind, understood her worry before she’d even known it was coming.

  When her phone rang she jumped, and her heart thudded, hoping desperately that it was James calling. They’d laugh about the note, he’d update her on his meeting, and maybe even catch the flight back with her. Her screen read Jessica and her anxious heart sank again. For a moment she considered letting it go to voicemail. But her friend had taken the admiral role of caring for Libby’s mother while she was away, and that meant she deserved her call to be answered.

  “Hello,” she said with a worried tone.

  “Hey, how’s paradise?” Jessica sang out, and Libby instantly felt better by the lightness of her question. If anything had happened to her mother, Jessica would have blurted that out.

  “Oh, it’s great,” Libby choked out as she sat up in the bed and looked around the bungalow one more time, hoping James might magically appear.

  “That didn’t sound very convincing.” Leave it to her best friend to be able to see the cracks in her wall when no one else could.

  “It was an eventful night,” Libby admitted with a sigh as she felt the threat of prickly tears climbing up her face. “I told him the truth.”

  “What truth?” Jessica asked, and Libby could imagine her sitting up straighter and clutching the phone even tighter.

  “I told him about my father, the agreement, and the lies.” She nibbled nervously at her lip awaiting Jessica’s reaction. It was as dramatic as she imagined.

  “You what? Why would you do that?” Her voice was sharp and scolding. “You could have just walked away, slipped away, and not worried about this blowing up.”

  “Things between us,” she stuttered. “There are things between us.”

  “If I wasn’t so glad you got laid, I might actually remind you how I told you not to sleep with him. But I’ve got to be honest, for a man like that, you break the rules. Damn. Was it good?”

  “No,” Libby said feeling heat roll from her toes to the hair on the back of her neck. “Good would be the understatement of the century. It was miraculous. Life-altering. Soul-awak
ening.”

  “I’m actually happy for you. You do so much for everyone else. This will probably complicate the hell out of everything, but you only live once. You might as well get your kicks in.”

  “But it’s more than sex. I care about him. He, I mean, I think he cares a lot about me too.”

  “But when you told him,” Jessica cut in, “he must have lost it. You said he was struggling to protect the company and move it forward. This will set him back. It could derail his plans completely. He must have blown up. Are you okay?”

  “He didn’t lose it,” Libby hurried out, still sounding like that fact surprised her. “He took it very well. Actually he was completely fine with it.”

  “What do you mean completely fine with it?” The skepticism in Jessica’s voice rattled Libby’s already uncertain thoughts. His reaction didn’t sit well with her either, but hearing her friend questioning it made it all the worse.

  “He just said not to worry about it. That no matter what, he’d make sure I was taken care of, and it wouldn’t change anything between us.” Libby picked nervously at the silky sheets and flopped back against the plush pillows. This place felt like heaven—luxuries she never experienced in her life—but without James it was hollow and her senses were dulled to it.

  “Why would he take this so well? That means . . .” she trailed off and Libby wanted to beg her to shut up. Jessica was clever and insightful. Where most people closed their eyes to the truth, Jessica could usually work it out if she gave it enough thought. But her friend was also kind and handled Libby’s heart more delicately than anyone else ever had. Even when it meant biting her tongue and holding back on the answer right in front of them.

  “What?” Libby asked, torn between wanting to know and not.

  “I don’t know really, but does it feel right to you? You know him better; what do you think it means?”