Runaway Girl

by Bailey, Tessa

I nod at Jason with as much confidence as I can muster and pride bleeds into his eyes, making me ever more determined. I have this. No, I’m not having this experience, I’m taking it.

  We step off into the water.

  It’s over my head faster than expected, and my first instinct is to kick back to the surface, but I beat the reaction and let myself sink, let the increasingly colder temperature surround me. My eyes are closed. It takes me a second to realize that and open them…

  The first thought that springs to my head is The Little Mermaid. The strains to ‘Part of Your World’ begin to play and an underwater snort sends bubbles twisting and lifting around my face. What I’m looking at is incredible. Eye-piercingly colorful. Greens and blues of every description blend and shift, shafted with sunlight. There’s a rock formation to our right, just existing in the silence, welcoming a school of tiny silver fish, steady in the drift. A glance at Jason tells me he’s watching me from behind his mask, that sensual mouth wrapped around black. Despite the incredible display of nature around me, I can’t help but stare back, hearing my heartbeat rap in my ears. No conflicts exist down here. Just us.

  Finally, with a visible effort, he nods at our surroundings. Make yourself at home. Timing my breaths in my head like he taught me, I turn and thread slowly through the dense blue, my fins alternating slow kicks behind me. A sense of wonder tugs at my throat, tears springing to my eyes behind the mask. A yellow fish glides past and my hand automatically lifts and reaches out, coming within inches of an animal that’s been here all along. Living its own life while I ditched my wedding and paraded naked down the street in body paint.

  It’s all so much bigger than me or my personal drama.

  The whole world is so much bigger.

  Bigger than pageants, my mother’s expectations, always having the correct response.

  When a woman comes across something in this life that she feels compelled to take…when her soul yearns for it…what’s the worst that can happen if she leaps? If she makes an honest grab for it? This ocean will still be here in all its glory. The sand won’t shift based on my decisions. Only my insides will. I’m ready for that. I’m ready for a seismic shift.

  I’m ready to take what I want. What I need. And he’s right behind me, watching, needing me back. Ready for his own seismic shift. Maybe. Maybe I’m that for him, too. There’s no telling how we’ll handle the resulting terrains inside of us when it comes to an end, but I’m not going to hesitate out of fear. Not when I know I can be this brave.

  I run my hand over the rock formation, gasping internally when three more yellow fish wiggle out of a crevice, dancing past my face. Needing to share the moment with Jason, I turn…and at first I don’t believe what’s in front of me. Surely my mind is trying to scare me at my strongest moment. Trying to drag me back into uncertainty. There’s not supposed to be a shark moving in slow, back and forth ticks between Jason and me.

  It’s on the small side. I think. Compared to Jaws. That’s all I have to make a comparison. But its teeth are deadly. Sharp. My eyes fly to Jason, who is motionless on the other side of the creature. The time I comforted him in the middle of the night, I thought him tormented, but that was nothing compared to this. He’s terrified. This invincible giant of a man with battle scars and enough courage to fill this ocean looks like he’s being tortured alive—and that chills my blood until I’m trembling. Jason shakes his head slowly at me. Don’t move.

  Apart from the necessary glide of my fins, I couldn’t move if I wanted to. My heart has climbed into my throat and I’m lightheaded from forgetting to breathe. Remembering the importance of breathing Jason impressed upon me, I kick back into my rhythm, though, mentally begging the big, silver animal to keep on its merry way without leaving any bites behind to remember him by.

  It seems to take fifteen minutes, when in reality it was only one, but the shark finally vanishes into the distant dark, fish scurrying out of its path and bubbling past me. Jason reaches me before I find the wherewithal to move again, wrapping an arm around my waist and kicking us toward the top, wild eyes searching mine. Seeing God knows what. Because I have no idea what’s happening inside me. As soon as we break the surface, my fear is replaced by careening adrenaline. It bashes off my ribs and tickles my neck, filling me with almost unbearable buoyancy.

  Jason lifts me onto the wooden platform and I rip off my equipment, gasping for air, trying to live through the blast of energy that’s overtaking me. The potency of the rush has me grabbing for the zipper of my wetsuit, yanking at it, needing to ease the pressure on my chest. How can I feel this light and this weighed down at the same time? Water laps against the boat, echoing in my head, but I can’t focus on anything until I’m unfettered. When I finally get the wetsuit off and tossed limply into the boat, I slump against the back of the vessel, confused to find the tension still lingers, my blood pumping a thousand miles an hour.

  “Baby.” Jason is in front of me, blocking out the sun, his hands molding my face. “Jesus Christ, that’s never happened in water this shallow. I don’t know what the fuck happened. I don’t know what the fuck…” He breaks off in a wheeze and I notice for the first time his big shoulders are shaking. Worse than after his nightmares. Worse than anything…for me, too. I can’t stand him being upset. “I couldn’t get to you. I couldn’t get to you.”

  “Shhh. I know,” I rasp, clasping the sides of his face in my hands. Jumpy. I’m so jumpy. And…exhilarated. The energy inside me expands until I feel like I’m going to burst out of my skin. “Jason, that was a shark. I was inches away from a shark.”

  His fingers plow into my wet hair with a guttural sound. “You think I somehow forgot? I can’t stop seeing it. I’m going to see it every time I close my eyes for the rest of my life.”

  “But I’m fine. Look.” Another spike of adrenaline has me shooting to my knees. “A couple months ago, living dangerously meant wearing competing patterns. I just survived scuba diving and a shark encounter.” I let go of his face and shake out my hands, a laugh bubbling up and bordering on hysterical. “Oh my God. I feel crazy.”

  Jason studies me with shadows in his eyes. Shadows and increasing awareness. I’m dancing around on my knees in front of him, no idea if my bikini is in place and not caring. Not caring about anything but freeing this overwhelming fullness inside me. Giving it a home. “You’re coming down,” he says gruffly. “After a mission, I have energy to burn, no matter how tired I am.”

  “How do you burn it off?”

  “I run most times.” His gaze slides down my throat, over my chest, heating, his tongue emerging to wet his lips. “I jerk myself off. Whatever it takes.”

  Lord, I’m feeling daring. Out of my skin. The soaring sensation is amazing. Nothing is off limits right now. I’m powerful and liberated. “What did you used to think about when you jerked yourself off?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  ConspiracyCrowd.org

  Username: IWant2Believe2000

  Of course they couldn’t park the alien aircraft in the church parking lot.

  It was probably MILES away. Am I blowing your mind yet?

  Jason

  I’m in love with this woman.

  Not just because she’s asking me about my masturbation practices. Not that her interest in that direction hurts. I’m thick and ready inside my wetsuit in a way that’s going to make unzipping a very delicate process. No, I knew I loved Naomi when I saw the shark. Knew I’d loved her for a while, because the idea of something happening to her made my life flash in front of my fucking eyes.

  This thing between us will stall out before it starts. We both have places to be. Places we’re needed. Imminently. She’s not in my league, either, this goddess who can’t stop gasping and shaking in the aftermath of what happened down below. Christ, she’s always, always so gorgeous it’s painful, but with her eyes bright and unfocused, lips parted on labored breaths, hair in disarray, I’m captivated. I’m a goner. I’m her servant. It doesn’t matter what’s
stacked against us when she’s in clear need of an anchor. Right now, in this moment, I couldn’t stop myself from being that anchor if I wanted to. It’s a force of nature.

  I blink and the memory of her face paling in the pool of murky sunlight takes hold. The way the shark blocked her face as it slithered past, hiding her from me, stopping my heart in my chest. Unacceptable. Horrific. If something had happened to her, I wouldn’t have bothered kicking back to the surface. How could I let this happen? I’m supposed to protect her. I—

  “Jason,” comes the murmur of her voice, weaving in and out of the sunlight that falls all around her, turning her into a fallen angel. “Do you need a battle story?”

  “No,” I manage, swallowing, leaning in to press our mouths together. Needing to touch her, reassure myself she still has breath in her lungs. “No. I need you.” Her breath catches against my lips and I can feel her being attuning itself to mine. Click. Slide. My fingertips drag up her stomach and meet at her chest, tugging aside the triangles of her bikini top. “And to answer your question, I can’t remember what I used to think about when I fucked myself. You’ve replaced every image in my head. When I take myself in my hand now, it’s Naomi’s tight pussy. Naomi’s shy tongue.” I squeeze her nipples between my knuckles. “Naomi’s beauty queen tits.”

  The sound that comes out of her is desperate. Almost wounded. Every cell in my body responds, whipping into a frenzy. Preparing to please. “I want this.” Her hands slap down on my chest, fingers searching for my zipper. “I need you now. Hard. Please, please, please. I want you to throw me down and use me.”

  The unexpectedness of that is like a fist clamping around my cock and stroking. I double a little at the waist, my groaning mouth sliding along the side of her neck, nearly coming in my wetsuit. “You need to understand how bad I’ve wanted you, baby, and respect it.” I close my teeth around her pulse and bite down, my hands shoving into the back of her tiny bathing suit bottoms to grip her ass. “Respect that my dick is on a goddamn hair trigger where you’re concerned. Getting you to an orgasm before I go off is going to take all my concentration, so keep the begging to a minimum for my sanity, huh?”

  She arches into me, gasping when I get nice and rough with her bottom. “Yes, Jason.”

  I jerk her into my body, rubbing my aching cock against the little, wet scrap of material covering her pussy. Can this really be happening? Or is this just another one of my fantasies? “Jesus, even that. Yes, Jason in that belle of the ball tone of voice. You might as well be taking me to the back of your throat.”

  Eyes glazed, she stares at my mouth while beginning to lower my wetsuit zipper. “Sorry,” she whispers, her expression not the least bit contrite, and I nip at her bottom lip in reproof. “Kind of.”

  I growl, already anticipating how hard I’m going to fuck her. No way to hold back when I’ve been hungry this long. Both of us have been—that’s plain in the way she can’t catch her breath, her bare tits lifting and falling on hurried shudders. When we reach my cock, she stops unzipping, letting her fingers drift down over the distended neoprene, grazing my throbbing flesh with teasing touches. I swell to the point of pain, my balls climbing into my stomach. “You trying to earn a slap on the ass, baby?”

  Her pupils dilate. “Maybe.”

  Fuck. I almost can’t take this. Can’t take this bold, incredible Naomi on top of the brave, blossoming one I’ve been falling in love with. She’s so much wonderful at one time. My heart is going to pound straight out of me. Love and lust shoot up inside me like a rocket, making me bare my teeth. Without taking my eyes off her, I yank down her bathing suit bottoms and deliver a stinging smack to her taut cheeks. She sucks in a rendition of my name and we dive into a kiss that demands payment in the form of my soul. My everything.

  My hands slide up the curve of her back and bury in her hair, because I need to steady her. Need to steady myself under the cataclysm of sensations. She’s untamed as our tongues surge together, lips straining wide and angling, noisy intakes of air from my nostrils as Naomi climbs me, wrapping her legs around my hips, kissing me from above while I can do nothing but worship her from below with my head tilted back, my hips rocking in time with the ocean beneath the boat. She breaks off the kiss with a whimper, and I attack her throat with my lips, tongue and teeth, groaning at the writhe of her pussy on my imprisoned dick. I’ve never been more regretful for leaving on my wetsuit. I’d already be thrusting into her like a madman if I’d hadn’t been so mired in the aftermath of almost losing Naomi to take it off. And that’s what she wants, isn’t it? My hardest fuck.

  “Jason, Jason, Jason…” She tears at my hair, her lower body moving in an increasingly disjointed way that tells me she’s going to climax before I even get my cock out. Yeah. Not happening. I’ve been suffering day and night for this woman and I’m not going to let her come unless I’m deep enough to feel every little shake and squeeze I wring out of her. “Now. Please.”

  “I hear you loud and clear, baby. Believe me,” I grind out against her mouth, standing up on the platform and carrying her clinging body into the boat. She makes a sound of protest over me stealing her rhythm, hitting me with a frustrated look as she yanks the sides of my wetsuit wide, baring my chest. Drags it as far as she can down my arms. The move—and the frustrated seductress look on her face—is hot enough. But then she buries her teeth in the meat of my right pectoral and pressure surrounds my cock from all sides, my head falling back on a roar.

  Liquid heat seeps out of me. So hot. A warning shot. I’m on the edge already and I’m not even inside of her yet. Jesus Christ.

  Letting Naomi go for even a second goes against every instinct in my body. Need her skin. Need her heat. But I have no choice. I settle her on her feet by the captain’s chair, snagging her mouth in a kiss borne of utter starvation. While my chest tightens at the perfect taste of her, I free my cock as carefully as possible from the clinging material of the suit and rip it down my hips and thighs, letting my feet do the rest. After what seems like a goddamn millennium, I’m naked and Naomi is perusing me openly, panting through swollen lips, her hands racing up to play with her nipples. “Oh my God. All of you at once is pretty…potent.”

  I fist my dick, watching her cheeks turn pink as I choke a drop of moisture from the tip. “Return the favor.”

  It takes no effort for her to swipe the bikini top over her head since her tits are already out. I’m transfixed as she slides her palms down her lithe body, hooking a single finger under the beads on either end and easing the bottoms down, gravity taking them to the floor. I’m seeing the world in different colors by the times she’s naked below the waist, my pulse hammering in every erogenous zone in my body. How am I going to survive this? I’ve never wanted anyone more in my life. Never even come close to a fraction of this kind of lust. This kind of desperation to give and get pleasure.

  I lunge forward and she comes, scaling my body, our mouths poised in the moment before a kiss. “Fuck,” I rasp. “Drenched, aren’t you? Tell me you’re horny for me.”

  Her ankles lock behind my back and she arches, tempting me with her incredible tits. “I’m horny, Jason. I’m dying for you.”

  With a sidestep, I fall into the captain’s chair, gritting my teeth as she lands in a wet slide on my lap, our sexes pressing together, rubbing. I make a blind grab for my gear bag, which I slung over the back of the chair earlier. Condom. Front pocket. I snag it between two fingers, rip the foil with my teeth and roll it down my cock. “You’ll get your hard fuck, Naomi. I’ll ride you hard enough to make you feel used as many times as you want.” I stroke greedy hands down her ass and find my erection again, guiding it to the place I’ve been dreaming about, whether asleep or awake. “I don’t trust myself not to blow when I’ve finally got you on your back, though. Take what your pussy needs now, baby. Take what I need to give you.”

  I see legitimate stars when I get a couple inches inside of her. And when she whines in her throat and takes the full length of me,
hips working to make it happen, I’m lost in an entire solar system. My life ends and starts at the same time. I’m a conqueror and conquered. Her snug pussy is already milking me in a damning tempo, threatening to break me.

  “You’re big,” she whispers brokenly, eyes glazed as they meet mine, her fingernails restless in my chest hair. “Oh my God, you’re so big.”

  “Do something with it,” I say through clenched teeth. “It’s there for you.”

  Prickles cover every inch of my skin when she twists her fingers in my hair. Hard. She faced a threat under the surface and survived it. Now she feels like a badass and I love it. I want to help her believe that to be true all the time, not just right now. “Just for me?”

  “Goddammit, yes. I’m hard and dripping for you. That’s how you’ve kept me. Horny and unsatisfied for months.” I lift her with my hips and drop down hard, satisfied with her closed-mouth scream, turned on by the bounce of her tits. “Feel what a mean girl you’ve been?”

  “Yes,” she breathes, her expression somehow contrite and thrilled over my suffering all at once. “I’ve been hurting, too. I ache all the time.”

  I lay a hard spank on her ass, soothing it with the heel of my hand. “Prove it.”

  A look of intense concentration steals over her features, a wrinkle forming between her brows, teeth sinking into her lower lip. For all the buildup, she’s suddenly moving with hesitation, as if she’s not sure I’m going to like any damn way she chooses to ride my cock. This close, she can’t hide her vulnerability from me. Mentally, it brings me to my knees. I’ve always sensed a lack of confidence when we’ve lost the battle with our attraction and gotten physical. This confirms what I’ve sensed under the surface. She has no idea how sexy she can be. No one has ever told her. Made her believe it.

  That ends now. Can’t she see she’s killing me with every twist of her hips, every dig of her fingernails into my shoulders? It’s taking every ounce of restraint inside me not to come.