by Alice Ward
Stepping forward, he effortlessly lifted me into his arms, then turned in a fast circle, making me laugh. “Do you know how much I’ve missed this? Having you in my arms?”
I did know. I’d missed it just as much.
We kissed, and he carried me into the bathroom. When he lowered me into the water, I groaned loudly as I sank into its warmth. I relaxed and went under. All the way under, cocooned below the surface until I needed a breath.
Reaching for the handle, I pulled myself up to find him sitting on the side of the tub. I quirked a brow. “Coming in?”
His eyes flared, the green growing darker. He stood and finished undressing. My entire core squeezed as his cock popped free from his boxers, pointing straight at me.
Zane climbed in behind me, and I was soon surrounded by his arms and legs. I loved it. He palmed my breasts, squeezing them, kneading them until I ached with the need for more.
Desire twisted in me, and I turned my head to find his mouth. The movements weren’t fluid, but between the two of us, we managed to get me turned until I straddled him, his hard cock between my legs.
I ground down on him, so very grateful that I could feel him. Yes, my injury could have been much worse. A few more centimeters to the right and my spinal cord would have been severed.
His teeth were on my neck, biting my skin, leaving marks across my shoulder, his hand dipping low to find my clitoris, to sweep inside. I didn’t care about marks. All I cared about were the sensations below my waist.
“Can you feel this?”
I took his face in my hands, meeting his eyes as I came. Pleasure exploded, and I cried out, feeling my eyes roll back in my head. His fingers slowed, but stayed inside me, on me.
“I love making you come. Love watching your face. Hear the noises you make.”
I laughed. “Please don’t ever take a picture of my orgasm face. I might never recover.”
And that was how it was for a while. We laughed and kissed while he shampooed my hair and I shampooed his.
Kissed while I washed his back, his chest, his arms.
We kissed as he washed me in return, his strong fingers kneading the muscles as he cleaned.
Turning on the water, he picked up the handheld nozzle. “Lean your head back.” I did what I was told and soon the bubbles were rinsed away. I touched his face, traced its strong contours while he finger-combed silky conditioner through my hair.
“This was never a lie, was it? This powerful attraction between us?”
It hurt my heart to see the doubt, the worry, in his eyes. “Not for an instant. You have some mighty powerful mojo, Mr. Boyd.”
“Only for you.”
I breathed in the words and took his mouth in a long kiss.
“I want to make love to you now,” he said. “In bed. On top of you. I need you, Sl…lilly.”
I laughed. “Slilly?”
He laughed too, pressing his forehead to mine. “I think I like it. You have to admit, it suits you.”
I reared my head back. “Slilly suits me? I think I might possibly be offended.”
He pulled the drain on the tub, still grinning. “Get over it. You are now officially my Slilly, the perfect combination of badass Sloane and gentle Lilly. I decree it to be so.”
I batted my eyes. “Well, if you decree it then… okay. Just not in public.”
He laughed, and I noticed he didn’t make any promises. “Let’s rinse off and get out of here.” He turned on the nozzle and rinsed us both as the bath water drained away. He stood, and I watched the water run down his powerful legs.
He was so very beautiful. Powerful and strong.
Mine.
Because I decreed that to be so.
I would hold on to him with both hands and my teeth. I would work harder in therapy to walk so we could dance in earnest. And if I couldn’t dance, then I would make him so happy that nothing else mattered.
“What are you thinking?”
I let my eyes take a long stroll down his body. His cock bobbed under my hot gaze. “I’m thinking that I can’t wait to have you in my mouth, my body.” It bobbed again, as if nodding in approval.
“Then let’s make that happen.”
I was scooped up and deposited on the floor in front of him, the tile cool under my bare feet. “Hold on to me,” he said as he wrapped a towel around my hair.
Just like things had been easy between us when we first met, it was easy now. He just seemed to get me. Understand my limits without any awkwardness between us.
Feeling steady on my feet, I reached for a towel and dried him too.
“I decree us dry enough,” he said and swept me into his arms.
“Yes, my king.”
Weeks ago, he would have tossed me on the bed. Now, he gently lowered me onto the mattress. But that was the only concession he made to my handicap. I could tell that he wasn’t going to treat me with kid gloves otherwise. And I was glad.
My hunger for him surprised me. Surprised him.
I wanted to feel really alive again. Feel this. Feel him.
Before he could move away, I sat up and took his cock in my hand. Steel wrapped in the softest velvet, it pulsed in my palm, growing even harder in my fist. I stroked down, and he groaned. He was long and thick, my fingers unable to close around the base. I swiped my thumb over the head, spreading the drop of pre-cum before taking him in my mouth.
His fingers were in my hair, fists pulling at the strands as I licked and sucked, cupping his balls in my hand. He growled low in his chest as I took him into my throat, wanting to consume all of him.
With no warning, he pushed me until I was on my back, his cock popping from my mouth with a sound that was erotically vulgar. Before I could protest, his lips were on mine, stealing my breath, his fingers clamped around my breast.
“Please.”
I wasn’t sure what I was asking for, and he didn’t ask me to elaborate as he kissed down my throat and chest until he was sucking on a nipple. Each pull of his mouth sent pleasure down into my toes.
“You’re so beautiful,” he growled against my skin as he continued to pull bliss from deep inside my core. Each time he sucked, I arched into the pleasure, my legs weak but bending at my command to help me.
Then he was kissing my scar, licking into my navel, spreading my legs apart. I cried out, gripping the sheets when his mouth found me.
“Do you feel me?”
“Yes.”
I did. It was different than before but no less powerful. No less urgent than my need of him.
Not just this. But the man. This man who’d fallen into my life, been temporarily entrapped in my web of lies… and who loved me anyway. The depth of my feelings for him astonished me.
I sank my fingers in his hair, needing to hold on to him. He tongued me harder, faster, sucking my lower lips into his mouth. I felt it, felt everything when his fingers entered me.
Crying out, I was overwhelmed with sensation. His fingers moved inside me as his tongue and teeth stroked up and down my sex. I was going to come, probably harder than I ever had in my life. As it built, I feared that it would shatter me completely. “Please… I can’t.”
“You will.”
I did.
As I exploded, he licked and sucked, his hand moving up to my breast. My desire for him intensified as his fingers twisted and squeezed my nipple. Pleasure danced with pain, leaving me breathless as I absorbed and surrendered to it all.
Zane moved up my body, licking into my mouth, his knees pushing my legs farther apart.
“Tell me you want me.”
My eyes snapped open and I looked into his. “I want you.”
“Tell me that you need me.”
“I do. I need you. And not just here, not just now. I need your presence, Zane. I need you in my life. These past weeks have been miserable without you.”
His nostrils flared, satisfaction in his eyes.
“Tell me you’ll never leave me.”
I cupped his dea
r face in my hands. “I will never leave you. Never again. Even if you try to get rid of me, you won’t be able to.”
He lowered his hips, settling between my legs, the tip of his cock nudging my entrance. “Date me. Live with me. Let me take care of you. Let me hire a therapist to come into the home we choose together.”
My heart squeezed and I smiled. “Date?”
He smiled too. “Yeah… those things where I pick you up and we go to dinner and a movie. We get to know each other, ask lots of questions.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard of those.”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “The only difference is that I’ll pick you up at our master suite. I’ll drop you off at our door. It’ll be perfect.”
It would be perfect. Not typical, but exactly right for us.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you withholding sex until I say yes?”
He chuckled, the sound vibrating from his chest and into mine. “And if I was?”
“Then I say you have perfected torture. You could give the FBI some tips.”
He pulsed his hips, giving me less than an inch of his length. “So… Slilly. Will you date me?”
I rolled my eyes. “I suppose. It’ll be hard putting up with all your sexiness, but I… ohh.”
He was inside me. Deep. To the root.
With a combination of strength and gentleness, he made love to me, careful to keep his weight off my hips and stomach. I wasn’t able to wrap my legs around him like I wanted to, but I’d just make that another goal to attain.
“I love you,” I said, my hands on his face, needing him to see the truth of my words in my eyes.
“I believe you.”
Beautiful words. Words I held on to and vowed to never take for granted.
When I came and he followed, it wasn’t the explosion of sensation I was used to experiencing with Zane. It was still powerful. Just different.
And maybe different wasn’t so bad.
EPILOGUE
Sloane
The cool ocean breeze came through my parents’ overwater bungalow.
I was back in Maldives and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect for the happiest day of my life.
Miranda was curling my hair, her blue and green bridesmaid’s dress falling from the thin straps on her elegant shoulders. She smiled at me in the mirror. “Nervous?”
To my surprise, I wasn’t. I held out my hand to check for shaking fingers, but I was steady there too. “I’m actually surprised at how calm I am.”
She sprayed a curl, trying to force my normally straight hair into some semblance of beachy waves. “I’m not surprised. You’ve worked hard for today.”
I had worked hard.
Zane had moved into my little D.C. apartment until we found a house we both loved. It wasn’t a mansion, but it was spacious with large rooms and wide doorways that gave me plenty of space to wheel around. A heated pool in the backyard was a place Zane would often find me when I wasn’t in the FBI crime lab, where I’d begun to work three days a week.
He built a gym and hired a therapist as promised. Over the months, I grew stronger, and my legs slowly began to move at my command. I wasn’t ready for a marathon, or even a ten-yard dash, but I could do what I’d strove to do today. I would walk down the aisle to my man.
Mom came out of the bedroom, turning in a circle. “So, how do I look?”
A slenderizing column dress in the palest blue had Mom looking like a fashion model. “Hey, now. You aren’t supposed to outshine the bride.”
She swept her hand down the dress and fluttered her eyelashes at me. “This old thing?” Then she sighed and the tip of her nose turned pink. “Sweetheart, you look so beautiful.”
Looking back into the mirror, I felt beautiful too.
Miranda swiped at her eyes. “Okay you two. Knock it off. No ruining of makeup until the ceremony at least.”
Dad stepped into the room, looking dashing in super trendy khaki suit I’d chosen for the occasion. Mom and I had gone round and round about the dress code for the wedding. She “envisioned” formal while I wanted comfort and ease during my paradise bound nuptials.
I won, and Dad looked wonderful. I couldn’t wait to see Zane in his suit too.
Miranda made the last curl. “There you go. You look gorgeous.”
I looked closer, impressed with my friend’s many talents. She’d even done my makeup, and I was glowing. I almost didn’t recognize myself.
The past year hadn’t been all rainbows and butterflies. Zane and I fought. Not knockdown, drag out like at the beginning of our relationship, but we still snarled and spat at each other at times. Fighting then making up.
The fighting mainly revolved around my work, and how, now that I was benched in the crime lab, it was me who didn’t want him to join the bureau. I didn’t want him to be in danger.
He found that pretty ironic. I guessed I found it ironic too.
He’d finally relented, and we’d come to a mutual agreement. I would work in the crime lab a couple days a week, and he would continue to be my beck-and-call playboy. So far, it was working out great for me, for obvious reasons. For Zane, taking care of me tapped into his naturally protective nature.
I’d learned to not take his hovering as proof that he didn’t think I could do things on my own. It was just his way. And it was a good way once I got used to it. He didn’t clip my wings. He just provided me a safe place to land if I fell.
As he and I grew closer, Zane began to show more interest in his family’s business. He didn’t want to work in the company full time, but he joined the board of directors, pleasing his parents to no end.
And speaking of his parents. I loved them. Adored them. They adored me too.
I was happy.
And more than anything, I was content.
I’d made my peace with Sloane, my friend. The girl who had become my alter ego. The girl to whom I always had something to prove.
Sloane Anderson was dead. The YouTube video that went viral was proof.
Charles Smith and his buddies were still battling it out in court, and they probably would for years. That was okay. The judge refused to grant him bail, believing him to be a flight risk.
Through the power of social media, I learned that Grace had dumped his ass and was now arm candy for another sleazy-looking man. It was too bad. I’d genuinely liked her, but she made her own choices. I silently wished her well.
Miranda clapped her hands together loudly, snapping me out of my memories. “Game time, people.”
I smiled at my friend. “Thank you for everything.”
She kissed my cheek. “You’re welcome. Now go out there and get this done. My vacation clock is ticking and I want to spend all the time I can with my man.”
I laughed. Miranda and her tall, dark, and handsome were going strong. In fact, she and Gavin had a neighboring bungalow, completing our small, intimate group.
“Ready, honey?” Dad came to me, extending his arm as Mom and Miranda went on ahead. “Time to give my beautiful daughter away.” He kissed my cheek, and we left the bungalow.
I froze. “What is that?”
I eyed the brightly decorated golf cart sitting on the dock.
Dad winked at me. “Your chariot, darling. I knew you didn’t want to be in your wheelchair today so…” he extended his arm in Vanna White fashion, “viola.”
Tears pricked my eyes. He was right. I didn’t want to be in my wheelchair, and refused to go down the aisle in one. I’d known I wouldn’t have the strength to navigate the island on my own and had mentally submitted to the idea that I wouldn’t be able to completely abandon it.
“It’s perfect.” I wrinkled my nose at the balloons and streamers. “Gaudy, but absolutely perfect.”
Off we went toward the gorgeous secluded section of the beach where we would exchange our vows. As we approached, the sky changed colors above us as the sun began its evening decline.
Knowing I might have trouble navigating over the
sand, the wedding planner had a specially made bamboo runner brought in. Dad parked and squeezed my hand. “Ready, sweetheart?”
I took in the scene before me. Flower encrusted arches ran down the petal covered bamboo runner, at the end of which the most important part was standing.
Zane.
His eyes didn’t leave me as I took Dad’s arm and walked toward him.
Walked.
It was slow, but I was in no hurry as the cello’s soothing notes ushered me on.
Walked.
As the sky all around us burned with color.
Walked.
To my future. My family. My everything.
Then I was there, and Dad was kissing my cheek, and Zane’s hands were in mine.
“You’re beautiful,” he said, tears shimmering in his eyes.
“So are you.”
My last identity change was taking place today. In a few moments, I would be Lilly Boyd, and I’d hold on to that name for the rest of my life.
“Dearly beloved…”
The pastor began the official ceremony. I heard the words as clearly as I heard the background music of the waves washing back and forth over the sand.
“Do you, Slilly Carlyle take Zane Boyd to be…”
Really?
Very slowly, I turned my head to look the pastor in the eye. He grinned and sliced his eyes toward Zane, who was grinning too.
Instead of poking him in the chest, I just shrugged. What the hell did it matter?
“I do. I absolutely, positively do.”
And I did.
And we did.
And the ceremony was over with Zane sweeping me into his arms.
He kissed my nose. “I thought you were going to punch me back there.”
I pressed my lips close to his ear. “Paybacks are hell. I brought my vibrator for later. Bzzzz.”
He laughed and kissed me hard. “You’re joking, right?” Was that fear I saw in his eyes?
I could use that.
“Maybe I was,” I teased, running my hand through his hair. “Maybe I wasn’t.”
The thing was… we had the rest of our lives to find out.
THE END