by Tia Wylder
Zachary pulls up two lounge chairs next to each other, and gestures for me to sit down. I take a deep breath and grab a seat, then Zachary pulls off his suit jacket and hangs it on the back of the lounge. His muscular arms are bulging through his pale purple button-down, and I try not to swoon. Now is not the time to be silly and girlish. I know whatever we’re about to talk about will be serious, and I need to focus.
“Okay, Ava. First off, I’m going to apologize for blowing up earlier this afternoon. I think I had a right to be angry, but I didn’t have a right to yell at you or talk to you the way I did. And for that, I am sorry. I hope you can forgive.”
I nod. “Of course. I deserved it.”
“No, you didn’t,” he shakes his head firmly. “No one deserves to be shouted at. I spend years being screamed at and sometimes hit, in various foster homes. I know how it feels to be treated like that and I swore I would never do it. So, again, please accept my apologies and trust me when I say it will never happen again.”
I have to wipe away tears that are forming in my eyes as I picture a young Zachary in a horrible situation like that. “I understand. And for what it’s worth, I really am sorry for all of this. For not being honest with you from the beginning.”
Zachary holds up his hands. “No, let’s not go back to that. You’ve said what you needed to say. Now I will say what I need to. Ava, I know that Josie was your sister and sometimes when it comes to our family, we put blinders on, so I’m not sure you knew her as well as you believed.”
“I don’t doubt that. I’ve been wondering that for a long time,” I answer with a sad sigh. “But Zach, without any answers from someone who has been around her for these last months, I haven’t had any idea what is going on. I don’t know what was going on in her head. All I’ve had to go on is what she told me, what I read in her diary. And nothing made sense. I need you to fill in the blanks. Please.”
“You may not like everything you hear, Ava.”
“I don’t care,” I answer, my nerves starting to rattle. “I just need to know.”
“Okay, then. We’ll start at the beginning. About six months ago, Donovan and I were invited to this party at a high rise in downtown Los Angeles. It was one of those rich, entitled billionaire parties where things are going on that a boring guy like me wouldn’t want any part of. But we were trading clients with another lawyer, and he insisted that we meet him there. So, we arrived, and there were a ton of beautiful women there, but I knew they were…”
My stomach drops. I can tell he doesn’t want to say it, so I say it for him. “Escorts. I had a feeling.”
“Right. Well, I don’t know how much you know about the men that usually attend parties like this, but they can be horrible. Especially to women. And after a few drinks, and who knows what else, some of the men started treated the ladies there like garbage. There was nothing I could do to stop it, and the escorts were holding their own. I’m sure they were used to it. But I stopped in the washroom before I left. And then I saw something I couldn’t just ignore.”
“Josie?” I asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.
“Josie,” he said with a nod. “One of the men from another firm had trapped her in a bedroom, and he was hurting her. I guess he thought that because she was… well… I don’t know what he thought, but he was behaving like a monster. So, I stepped in and set him straight. Maybe a little more forcefully than I should have, but I don’t abide anyone treating women that way.”
My heart aches to imagine the things Josie went through just to survive, while I was working so hard to try and support both of us like she had done for years when I was younger. “And then?”
“She looked so sad. So broken. I couldn’t just leave her there. So, I sat with her, and we talked for a while. She told me about her life and her baby sister who she loved more than anything in the world. I guess that was you. And she told me about some of the things she was going through. I could tell that something was… wrong.”
I lean back in the lounge chair and let out a long sigh. “Just tell me, Zach. You don’t have to mince words.”
He runs his hands through his hair and looks out over the ocean with wistful eyes. For a moment, I’m not sure he’ll tell me anything, but then he turns back to me, and his face is full of sadness.
“I think she was schizophrenic. Undiagnosed. She was aggressive, delusional, paranoid, angry. She didn’t always make sense when she was telling me stories about herself. She was self-harming. And I don’t think she was even doing the escort thing because she needed the money. I think she was doing it because it helped her feel something, something she wasn’t feeling anywhere else in her life.”
I have to choke down a sob at the thought of my sister being in so much pain but never coming to me for help. Never going to anyone for help. I use a napkin that is sitting on a side table to wipe away my tears, not caring if it’s been used. “How did you end up in her life though, Zachary? How did she end up believing… the things she believed?”
Zachary picks up a handful of sand from the beach and chucks it in the direction of the ocean as if it will somehow make the story easier to tell. But I can already see that he doesn’t feel any better, and it’s easier to just spell the rest out all at once.
“I didn’t want to abandon Josie when I realized something was wrong, so I gave her my number, and asked her to call me. I wanted to help her in any way I could, and at first, that is what happened. She would call me when then things were bad, and I would find her and do what I could to get her out. I’d buy her food, take her to the doctor when she’d really hurt herself, pick her up when she’d gotten into situations she couldn’t get out of. I didn’t even really think about it. I just knew I couldn’t abandon her now that I’d inserted myself into her life.”
I take a deep breath and prepare myself to ask the first of several questions I don’t really want the answers to, but I have to know. “Did you she ever tell you anything specific about me? Did she ever bring up that you should call me?”
Zachary shakes his head. “She was adamant that I not call you. She said you were living your own life, and working hard. She said her sister was smart and independent and didn’t need to be burdened with her problems.”
As expected, this revelation hurts like I’ve been punched in the gut. But I have to keep going. “Okay. And why did she say… Why did she think… Did you…” I can’t seem to articulate the words, but Zachary appears to know what I’m asking.
“I never so much as touched her. Josie was a beautiful woman, but I knew from the moment I met her that she didn’t need a lover. She needed someone to help her and protect her. I think she mistook my care for her for attraction or desire. I don’t know that, by the time I met her, she even had the ability to tell the difference. She’d been working as an escort for a while, and I think she was mistaking concern for love, and desire for concern. Ava, there is no rhyme or reason to the demons that were plaguing your sister, but I need you to understand. I need you to believe that I never would have taken advantage of her. All I wanted to do was get her the help she so desperately needed. I just think by the time I found her at that party, it was too late. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for her. For you.”
That was it. The last straw. I burst out crying, finally letting out all of the pain I’d felt over Josie, all of the agonies I’d felt over lying to Zachary, all of the confusion over the role I’d taken on, trying to avenge my sister. I felt like months of emotion was just pouring out of me, and there was nothing I could do to control it. Zachary reached over to me, and pulled me off my lounge and into his lap, holding me in his arms until I start to calm down until I can take a deep breath. Once I’m breathing normally again, Zachary looks down at me and whispers,
“There is something else I need to tell you, Ava.”
I start to panic all over again. What else could there possibly be?
“Okay…” I respond, apprehension coloring my voice.
�
��I’m in love with you, Ava.”
Chapter Nine
My jaw drops and I can’t stop myself from just staring at Zachary’s beautiful face. Did he really just say that to me? Did he…
“Zachary, are you… did you say…
Zachary laughs at my confusion. “Yes, Ava. I said I’m in love with you.”
I shake my head. “How? I mean. We just met. And with everything that’s happened…”
He brushes my hair out of my face with a smile. “Sometimes, you just know. And I know. I knew the moment I saw you. I knew this whole week as we were getting ready for the trip. I knew in my room this afternoon when we were together. When you meet the one you want to spend the rest of your life with, you can feel it. And I feel it with you, Ava. You’re the one for me.”
My heart swells and all of the pain I was feeling a moment ago begins to melt into a weird combination of joy and relief. This man loves me. After everything I did. All of the trouble I caused. He loves me.
I look up from my lap and see that Zachary is staring at me. “What?” I ask, clueless. Zachary laughs again.
“Well, how do you feel about me? Seeing as this side of a week ago, you were bent on destroying me and breaking my heart. Is that still your end game?”
I shake my head in nervous panic. “Oh! No! Of course not, Zach. I love you too. I certainly didn’t expect it, and it obviously wasn’t my goal. But then I got to know you, and you are so wonderful. And kind. The way you’ve been there for Bethany. What you tried to do for Josie… You’re amazing. I never believed it was possible to fall in love so quickly, but that’s exactly what has happened. I do love you, Zachary Graham. I really do.”
With a happy flourish, Zachary sweeps me up from my chair and carries me across the patio and on to the beach. I look around, nervously. “Zach! What are you doing?” I ask in a panic.
“What I’ve wanted to do all night,” he says as he grabs a towel off a cabana stand. Zachary nuzzles into my neck as he throws the towel down on the beach. I can’t help but giggle.
“Zachary, what if someone sees us?”
He leans into me and gives me a long, slow kiss. When he pulls away, his eyes are dancing with passion. “Then I hope they enjoy the show.”
He pulls me tighter to his body, and I wrap myself around him, feeling so fortunate and so thankful, and then all at once, overwhelmed by nothing but the need for my sexy man. He lifts me up higher, and I latch my legs around his waist, then lean down to kiss him again, to taste the delicious peppermint-chapstick flavor on his lips.
He begins to set me down on the plush beach towel, and I pull at the bottom of his shirt as he moves around me, never letting our kiss break, even as he lowers me down the rest of the way to the sand.
He hovers ever-so-slightly over me and smiles down at me with his gorgeous, sexy grin. "You’re mine, Ava. Forever.”
I pause to savor every feature of this man who so adamantly wants to make me his own; to admire the beautiful face of a specimen who could have anyone he wants, and yet wants me. I take in his soft hazel eyes, the crinkles of happiness at their corners, the sexy stubble that is scattered across his perfect jaw. I know in my heart that I want to look at his face every day for the rest of my life. "Yours and only yours, forever," I say, and I use my legs to pull him down on top of me.
We kiss for a few moments more, our tongues dancing as the heavy weight of his muscular body presses into me, and I feel like I am burning alive from the inside out. I keep tugging at his clothing, surprised by my own lustfulness, by how much I desire him, but the truth is I’ve been feeling this longing for him since the first time I saw him and our escapade earlier in the afternoon wasn’t nearly enough to satiate my need for him.
Zachary finally relents and helps me pull off his shirt. I admire the beauty of his sinewy, hard muscled chest, and I can’t stop touching him. Every time I see him, I find something new and beautiful to admire. He’s like a statue, a work of art, and all I want to do is spend the rest of my life worshipping at the altar of his beauty. I suddenly realize that all of my life, I’ve been surrounded by boys, and Zachary is a man. He looks at me like a man. He takes me like a man.
All at once, Zachary becomes frustrated with my own clothes, and together we pull off my outfit and unhook my bra. As my breasts come free, he pauses and stares in flattering reverence.
"God, Ava. You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life." His words are thick with lust, his voice a growl. "You are the most stunning creature in the world. I am honored that you consider me worthy." He turns his eyes upward, looking deeply into my own as he runs a hand through my hair. "I just want to spend the rest of our lives making you feel a pleasure like you’ve never known." He stretches out a strand of my hair, pulling the humidity-induced curl straight, extending it down to my chest, and then he lets it go to grasp one of my breasts.
His hand is soft and strong against my skin, and I want to feel him touch every part of me. He caresses a thumb over my already-hard nipple and brings it to a tauter bud before he envelops it with his warm, wet mouth.
"Oh, Zachary," I cry out and arch my back at the feel of his lips and teeth on my sensitive skin. He expertly gives the same devotion to my other breast. I writhe underneath him, then wrap my legs around him again, and my body thrills at the feel of his rock-hard cock pressing into me through his pants.
"Zachary, I need you inside of me," I beg, as his skilled tongue sends vibrations from my nipples directly down to the place where I desire him the most. I can feel that I am already hot and wet for him, and he still has far too many clothes on for my tastes. "I want you to fuck me, Zachary."
He grins, and gets back up to his feet, rapidly unzipping his pants, and sliding off his boxer-briefs. I slide off my lacy underwear, while never pulling my eyes away from the beautiful body in front of me. For a brief second, he makes me feel like a teenager again, all nervous and shy and confused. But Zachary is all man, the defined lines of his sexy chest leading down to broad hips and that thick, long cock. I don’t think I will ever stop being shocked by the sight of his perfect, massive manhood, or a little nervous at how totally he fills me up.
"I’m never going to get used to how gorgeous you are, Zach," I say, sure I’m blushing from top to bottom.
He smiles slyly in response, but his huge eyes are totally focused on me and my own naked body. I lean back on the beach town and watch him as he touches himself, making his already huge erection even harder. He slows before inching closer toward me, and I feel his eyes surveying my body, somehow making me hotter than I ever thought possible.
"You’re the gorgeous one, Ava," he says.
He stares at me for another protracted moment, then he prods my legs apart and crawls between them. He slides his palm across my stomach, gently over my hips, then down my thighs. He slowly draws his hands back toward my core, and I think I am going to explode from the anticipation. When his fingers tenderly brush against the outer folds of my pussy, I moan with need.
Zachary’s touch is perfect. He is gentle to start, but I am gasping for air after only a few delicate strokes of his lithe fingers. He turns his focus to my clit, spins around it, and then presses against it. I grow increasingly light-headed from the combination of desire and pleasure.
Then he slips a finger inside of me, and he makes an exclamation of pleasant surprise. "God, you're so wet, Ava," he says as he maneuvers the wetness back on to my throbbing clit.
"I'm just ready for you, Zachary,” I say, though it comes out as more of a growl than a sentence.
I grab his arm and drag him back toward me, encouraging him to enter me. I watch him as he aligns himself with me, and I feel the thick head of his cock push at my entrance.
"Oh, Zachary," I groan, as he inches into me gradually and gently. He is so big. I stretch to adjust to him and moan at the magnificent friction between us. He fills me completely, but he is still moving inside of me, slowly, and when his hips crash into mine, I feel wonde
rfully whole.
He pauses inside of me and lingers there for a long moment. I feel myself adjusting to the size of him all over again, and he twitches tantalizingly against my inner walls.
"Do you like that, Ava?" he asks, his face colored by his own passion. He stares deep into my eyes and pushes my hair away from my face, his touch against my cheek causing another thrill of sensations down to my toes.
"I don’t think I’ve ever liked anything more in my life." I lean up and kiss his perfect lips, and he begins to move inside of me again. He slides his massive length almost entirely out of me, and so I lift my hips to follow him, not content to allow him to leave me empty.