“What you are is a breath of fresh air. You’re not a predator that hurts people for no reason. I may be a shark in the business waters, Annabelle, but I have boundaries. I’m surrounded by greed, and deceit, and treachery. I understand that it’s part of the business world and competition, but I don’t want that in my own company against my own employees, and certainly not against me. It would be just as easy for me to walk away. Maybe the business has changed. Maybe I’m old fashioned.” He shrugs. “But I knew you were different when I met you.”
“How?”
Kalin rubs his hand over the nape of his neck. “Jesus, Annabelle, when you fell into my office, I could barely keep my eyes off you. But aside from that, you convinced me more and more who you really are.”
“We haven’t known each other that long, Kalin.” I wander down the beach, allowing the salty breeze to caress my senses.
“I see you. And as I’ve gotten to know you, I see how much more beautiful you really are. The way you would do anything for Lia, the way you don’t care about the money, the way you would turn it down in a heartbeat to keep people safe. I knew it when I met you.”
Kalin and I walk along the shore, looking at a distant ship in the ocean. I’m trying to understand his motives and his heart, but my own heart is suspicious and guarded. Maybe I’m the one who isn’t ready for love? His large hands grip my shoulders, and he pulls me toward him, breaking me from my thoughts. “Tell me you’re not in love with me, and I will walk away from you, this company, and you will never see me again.”
I press my lips together. My pulse pounds in my ears, and my skin crawls at the thought of losing him. I raise my eyes to his and twist my lips to the side. “I have a better idea.” The idea rushes to my head no sooner than the words fall from my lips. I know that the question I am about to ask him can end it all, and even seem offensive. But I want to know the truth. I want to know that Kalin isn’t just using me to get what he wants. And I want to know once and for all. I garner my courage and turn to face him. “Tell me that you are prepared to walk away from this company for me. Tell me that you will continue to see me, but without the shareholder agreement, without the company shares, and without this contract. Just us.”
Kalin turns from me and glances down at the shore. His tone is more serious than usual. “You realize what this would mean for the employees, for the company, and for everyone else?”
“You can’t save everyone, Kalin. But my judgment is clouded by all of this, and I cannot go through with it. I don’t want a deadline, and I don’t want an ultimatum for marriage. I just want you and me, and let everything else take care of itself. Can’t we just start with that?”
“You realize you’ll be giving up any interests in the stock, and your rights that come with it.”
“Yes.” My eyes flick down and back to Kalin. “So I will still need the job.”
Kalin glances at me and bursts out laughing. I shake my head at him and frown, but I can’t help but join him. His deep laugh is infectious.
Kalin steps around me and presses his hands over my bare stomach, pulling me into him. His full lips glide down my neck and to my shoulder, peppering kisses along the way. “You’re impossible to please. But I will do my best.” His hoarse whisper caresses my ear.
My fingers slide against the smooth curve of his neck, and his hand slips under my bikini top to the swell of my breast. Kalin kisses the back of my neck, and I turn to him. I push away from his bare chest. “You haven’t given me an answer.”
Kalin steps toward me, and clasps my hands into his. His eyes search over my face, and he attempts to draw my eyes to his. But I avert my gaze, knowing he wants to take control. Always in control. My body will surrender to him again, and I won’t get the answers that I came here for. I will have another day of mind-blowing sex, but I will leave with unanswered questions and more confusion. Kalin lifts my chin with his finger. “What’s wrong?”
I shift my eyes down and stare at the sand. “I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t know anything anymore. If only we could have all this without the complications.” I finally lift my eyes to his, feeling strong enough to resist him. “That’s all I’m asking for, Kalin. That’s all I really want.”
Kalin steps away from me and runs his fingers though his hair.
I peek up at him, and stare back down at the sand. “I know it’s not easy for you to walk away from everything, Kalin. I know why you’re doing it. But this is the only way I can know that you love me for me, and nothing more.”
Kalin’s thick, wavy hair flutters in the breeze as he gazes out into the ocean. He takes a deep breath before speaking. “If you want me to prove my love for you, Annabelle, I will. I would give up more for you if you ask me.”
He turns to me and my eyes meet his. My lips part and I fold my arms over my stomach. “Are you serious?”
“I said I will do it. I will give up the stock contract for you, Annabelle. No stock agreements, no transfers, no complications. Just us.”
A fluttering sensation spreads across my body and erupts into goose bumps across the surface of my skin. “You would do that?”
“Yes.” Kalin reaches for my hand and tugs me toward him. My hands land on his chiseled chest. “Anything else?”
The reality of Kalin’s answer releases all the tension in my muscles and skin, and my thoughts are jumbled as all my defenses go down. “I was expecting a fight. I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you love me too, Annabelle.”
I revel in the way he always says my full name like a melody.
“I do love you, Kalin. I love you. Just like this. Nothing else. No contracts?”
“No contracts.”
A weight lifts from me, and I am certain that I’m falling in love with him. I press my head to his chest, and stretch my arms around him. Kalin kisses the top of my head and wraps his arms around me. My body vibrates to life in the warmth of his embrace. The ocean air fills my lungs and caresses my senses, and for the first time since I can remember, I don’t have a care in the world.
Kalin’s expression is soft and warm. “I knew you were a good negotiator.”
“I have my moments.”
He pulls me toward him as we walk down the beach, the water lapping at our feet.
He picks up a shell and tosses it into the ocean. “I knew I was right about you, Annabelle. I knew you didn’t care about the money. That’s exactly why I hired you. Are you really willing to give up four hundred million dollars, transferred in stock irrevocably to you?”
“You have two billion, Kalin. Besides, I can’t even wrap my head around that much money. It’s unreal.”
Kalin’s eyes narrow as he looks out into the ocean. “It’s not me I’m worried about.”
My eyes search his expression as he gazes out into the distance. He has gone through so much pain, an overwhelming storm that destroys weaker men. Kalin could just as easily have taken his billions and dropped out of his painful reality. I realize that he probably never recovered from his own grief before he wanted to protect everyone else. Then it suddenly dawns on me that this was not about him at all. It was about protecting those he genuinely cared about at his company, and preserving the honor he had built it on.
I feel a rush of admiration for him. My palms become wet and I clench my hands together. “I’m sorry, Kalin. I know that you’ve been through so much. Your success has not come without pain. Even with all of that heartbreak, you wanted to put others first over your own pain. I admire you for that.”
“It is my company, Annabelle.”
“I know. And I didn’t mean to put you in this situation. It’s just I cannot be sure without doing this.”
“I know. I was wrong for rushing you into this, and I’m sorry.”
For the first time, I see Kalin the way he really is. Yes he is incredibly sexy and is able to make my body sing with delight. But now I can see him the way he really is, in all of his vulnerability and heartache and pain and goodness.
&nbs
p; It seems people like Kalin don’t even belong in this world sometimes. The world has a tendency to stomp them out and strip them of any goodness that is left and turn it into cynicism and resentment. But Kalin, as shrewd and brilliant as he is, is not yet so cynical as to close the door on love. He is still the quintessential romantic. How can I resist someone with so much faith in love? All I want to do is hold him in my arms and comfort him, and tell him the world is not entirely cruel and cold. He is giving love a second chance when he could have been too beaten and too tired to even go on.
I stroll up to Kalin and place my hands over his chest, sliding them up to his strong, broad shoulders. Kalin slides his fingers over my wrists and gazes back into my eyes.
“What?” He smiles down at me.
“You’re one of the most wonderful men I have ever met in my life, Kalin Davis. I’m sorry I was so cold. I was just unsure. But I don’t want you to leave. I don’t want you to walk out of my life.”
Kalin caresses my wrist with his fingers and slides his hands over my bare arms, and the warmth of his touch reaches my shoulders and down my back, sending a wave of warmth over my body. “I’m sorry I came on so strong, Annabelle. I felt something that I haven’t felt in so long. Believe me, at first I tried to deny what was happening. I didn’t want this any more than you did.” His lips flatten in and his jaw clenches as he looks out to the ocean and back at me. “But I knew I could no longer deny it. It meant so many things. This is new. This is the first time I’ve felt this way since Rebecca. And it scared me.”
“I never want you to feel like you can’t trust me or open up to me, Kalin. It took a lot of courage to do what you did.”
My eyes grow moist and I press up on my tiptoes to kiss him. Kalin’s mouth comes down to meet mine, and I close my eyes and feel the warmth of his lips caressing mine. I savor his sweet taste. His tongue slides over the fullness of my bottom lip, before invading my mouth and sending a fiery current through my veins. I moan as I wrap my arms around his neck. Kalin probes my mouth with a satisfied groan, and my heart flurries in my chest. Warmth spreads over me, and I briefly consider if love crashing together with lust makes it any less wonderful or pure.
My breasts rub against his muscled chest, causing my nipples to peak hard against the warmth of his hard body. Kalin reaches behind me and unties my bikini top. “One of the advantages of a private beach.” He grins. My top falls to the sand. The sensation of his skin against my bare breasts causes my back to arch against him while he continues to devour my mouth with hot kisses.
Kalin groans as his mouth closes over my nipple, causing a shuddering sensation to course through my spine. I instinctively slide my wet center against him, and his bulge hardens against my aching body. “Kalin, can we do this here?” I gasp.
“It’s my beach. I can do whatever the hell I want.” Kalin palms my behind with a demanding push and slides my body over him, causing friction that shoots through every nerve. I exhale a moan. His wet mouth slides over each nipple in hungry nibbles.
“Kalin. Please,” I moan.
“So eager, baby. That’s my girl. I am going to fuck you right here on my beach.”
Desire rushes to my center, and I lift my legs around him in throbbing need of him. His strong hand moves over my lower back, and he crouches down to bring us both to the moist sand. My small hands wander over his strong back and I pull him toward me, wanting the craving that is burning me up satiated. Turning his head, he peppers kisses down my upper arm, suckling and nipping at my skin, causing a pleasant warm flurry to dance around the surface of my skin. He trails kisses around my elbow, to my wrist, and over my hand, causing the warm fluttering to move all over me. He turns to me and looks deep into my eyes. “Every part of you is sexy, Annabelle.” Moving his hand over the surface of my skin, he trails his fingers over my breastbone, slowly over my stomach, tenderly guiding his fingers just over my bikini bottom, causing warmth to course through me in pounding waves. Kalin dips his fingers under my bikini while searching my eyes with his. He holds me close to him and enters my wet slit with two fingers, curling them gently to release a wave of fiery, aching need. I close my eyes and let the waves of desire rush over me.
Dipping his head to my chest, Kalin presses his mouth to my breast and laves his tongue up the peak and over the swollen nipple. I twist my hips toward him in agonizing pleasure. My body simmers and rocks into a frenzy. The sun blends with the blue sky, and everything becomes white. Kalin is sucking my peaks madly, and his thumb circles my aching clit, while his fingers breach my folds and stroke my upper wall with agonizing precision. My body convulses and I lose control of myself.
Kalin owns me now, and his desire is maddening and unrelenting. He laps at my aching nipples with longing, and presses his fingers into me in a maddening carnal assault. A burning rush of waves ignites every part of me, and causes my eyes to close tightly. I lurch from the building intensity ripping through me. The sound of the ocean waves mixes with unrelenting waves of pleasure washing through me. My breathing catches as a wave breaks through the agonizing suspension and rips through me.
Kalin shifts his body around me and sinks his mouth to my wet center to feast on me like a hungry animal. “You taste so fucking good,” he growls into me. Kalin laps me up in carnal indulgence, and I am naked, devoured, and sated from his commanding touch. He presses his mouth into me again and I shriek as the waves of euphoria relentlessly pound me into the sand. “You belong to me, baby. See how you come for me. You’re so beautiful when you come. So sexy and wet and hot.”
I am panting hard now, and I grab Kalin’s hand and squeeze it as another orgasm rips through my body. I close my eyes and my breathing calms while my quivering body stills from the powerful waves that ebb. The intensity of the orgasm causes me to mix my own saliva with the air in my lungs, and I am briefly embarrassed that I am choking on my own spittle.
I turn my head to hear the roar of the ocean against the sand, and Kalin kisses my neck. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I just lost control of my body a little. Incredible.”
“Don’t worry, baby. I have control of your body.” A smile curves on his lips as he unties the drawstring on his swim trunks. His erection angles straight up his body. I feel my eyes widen as I look at him. He is so beautiful, and I press my small hand over his shaft. I push up on my elbows and take his full, pounding head into my mouth.
“Oh. My God, Annabelle. I was going to fuck you, but this works too.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No! No! This is a damn good idea if I should say…ohh.”
I place his bulbous head back in my mouth and suck the soft head while stroking his long, strong shaft. I can feel his head pulse with pleasure and power from my touch, and I feel a rush of pride.
“Oh, baby. Please. You touch is so perfect. Annabelle, baby.”
I step back and marvel at his power in my hands. The bulbous head pulses and throbs, ready to explode with liquid heat. I place him in my mouth again, and Kalin wrenches and growls my name as his hot warm seed shoots into the back of my throat in powerful surges. I swallow the salty seed and clean his tip with my tongue. “Holy fuck!” Kalin’s long length swells and bounces against his body. He takes a moment to catch his breath and fall back into himself from the intensity of the orgasm. His trunks were not able to cover the full length of him with any dignity, so he tosses them on the shore and steps into the ocean. “C’mon!” He calls to me with boyish excitement.
I stand up and romp into the water after him. Kalin places his arms around me. “That was incredible. You had me seeing stars.”
“Me too.”
“Why am I the only one naked?”
“I can fix that.” I smile and press my bikini bottom over my legs and feet. I grip the soaking bottoms over the water, and Kalin takes them and throws them onto the beach.
“Better. Now come here.”
I wrap my legs around Kalin in the deeper water, and his mouth crashes to mine
. His lips are salty and warm and wet, and his tongue invades my mouth in a blissful carnal assault. My body warms against the cold water. He is already growing hard against me. My arms wrap tightly around him, and I thread his thick wet hair behind his head.
“I still want to fuck you on the beach, Annabelle.”
“What about the neighbors? Are they seeing any of this?” I flick my eyes away from him in a hint of embarrassment at what I have already done on the beach.
“First of all, this is mostly my property, so they can’t see us without a nice set of binoculars. Hopefully they won’t resort to that. Plus we have an agreement.”
“An agreement?”
“Considering the high profile of some of the residents, we have all agreed to no video, no pictures, no YouTube, no internet, and no bullshit except what we choose to release.”
“You guys sure cover your bases.”
“We have to. Besides, we come to the Hamptons for privacy and to get away from the city. No one will violate that. Anyone who dares is usually a clueless visitor, and they are banished for good. No one is willing to risk that. So yes, we take our privacy seriously. Now where were we?” Kalin picks me up, and I climb onto his back. My naked body straddles him from behind and we fall onto the beach, laughing. Kalin turns his hips into me, and lifts me up with his powerful arms so that I am sitting on top of him. “This will keep the sand off your sweet smooth ass and on me. Now…”
Kalin presses the length of his erection over my wet lips without entering me, back and forth with his shaft against my soft wet folds, the crown of the head grinding rhythmically against my clit. His hands clasp mine as I grind my hips over him. Any time I try to thrust my hips to angle him into me, he presses up on me with his pelvis and arms, holding my body with his hands pressed to mine so that his long shaft massages my lips and swelling clit. Aching from the sensations pouring through me, I place my weight on him to angle his tip into me, and Kalin easily holds my body in place to keep his shaft caressing my hot, wet sheath.
“Kalin, I need you,” I whimper. “You’re driving me mad.”
Undeniably His Page 13