Love Me if You Dare

by Toni Blake

  She knew no one would see them; she knew the vastness of the gulf was as private as any bedroom and that doing it in the pool behind the Happy Crab had definitely been much more risky—but something about being with him like this, here, made her feel even wilder and more impassioned. She felt the depth and the breadth of the ocean all around them, and as he kissed his way down onto one breast, then closed his mouth over the beaded tip, it seemed almost as if they were a part of it, a part of nature—and a much better, sweeter part than that which had stolen so much from him.

  Soon Reece rained sweet, hot kisses down over her neck, her shoulders, her breasts. And nothing else in the world mattered to Cami but the moment, the connection they shared. Yesterday’s hardships, tomorrow’s losses—they didn’t exist right now. The only thing that existed was being with him, touching him and being touched by him, surrendering the last parts of herself she’d held back until now.

  As a bolt of electric energy shot through her, she clamped her hands onto his bare, tan shoulders and pushed hard, rolling him onto his back on the blanket. Even in the dusky air, she saw his eyes go wide and wild at her forceful move. And she loved that. She loved that whatever she chose to do in bed he liked. And fed. And appreciated. Whether she was docile and compliant or taking charge, she could always feel him soaking that up, letting her know in his responses that he was with her, all the way.

  Despite the short time they’d spent together, he made her feel more secure in bed than any man she’d ever been with, all of whom she’d known much longer and better than she knew Reece.

  But then, maybe knowing someone wasn’t always about time. Maybe sometimes two people just connected, and the connection could happen as easily over a few days as over a few months or years.

  And the connection she experienced with him now went way beyond having anything to do with time. What it lacked in length it made up for in other more important ways. And she wanted to show him the depth of her emotion in this moment, how much she cared, how much she wanted to make him feel good, how strongly she’d realized his happiness and sense of security was more important to her than . . . well, than her own, she supposed.

  Biting her lip as she sat upright next to him, she reached down and pulled at the tie on his swim trunks. It would have been impossible not to feel how big and hard he was underneath just from the incidental contact, and she followed the urge to run the flat of her hand down the stiff column beneath the fabric.

  The low moan that left him made her every cell tingle with desire. So she didn’t waste any time before tugging at his waistband, and as he lifted up, pulling his trunks down and off.

  And Lord, he was beautiful naked. She’d seen him that way before, of course, but maybe not in situations where she could easily stop for a minute and study him. “Mmm . . .” The sound rose from her throat without planning, and her hand found him again—this time it circled his thickness and began to caress.

  “Aw . . .” he sighed and his eyes fell shut in the deepening night air as she stroked and massaged him. “Aw, that’s nice, baby.”

  But she wanted to give him something even nicer, and it was something that came from her very soul.

  Leaning over him, she lifted his erection in her fist, then licked lightly over the tip. A thready moan echoed from him, fueling her hunger, so next she kissed him there, light, gentle, getting acclimated to being that close to this part of him in a new way. Soon enough, though, instinct and heat led her to lower her mouth down onto him, slowly but thoroughly taking as much of his length between her lips as she comfortably could.

  As she moved on him that way, his hot sighs and groans made her feel both a power and a pleasure, like both the giver and the taker, and she got lost in the ministrations, loving the feel of his hands in her hair, his heated whispers and moans; all of it wrapped around her, the same way she felt the sky and ocean wrapping around them right now, too.

  After a while, though, she was ready for a different kind of pleasure, ready to be filled by him in a different way. So she eased him from her mouth, then rushed out of her bikini bottoms and shed her top entirely.

  As she straddled his torso, he reached for her hips, pulling her down until her most sensitive spot pressed on his most rigid. She hissed in her breath at the sweet pressure, surging with wetness. Then she lifted herself, balancing atop him, and let his hands guide her as she sank down, taking him inside inch by filling inch. She didn’t attempt to stifle her deep sob of pleasure as she sheathed him entirely.

  “Oh God,” she murmured.

  “You can call me Reece,” he said.

  And she laughed at a moment when she’d least expected to—but things got heated again fast, because she felt him so profoundly in this position, and because she was too aroused to keep from grinding on him in the primitive rhythm that gripped her body.

  After that, no more thought. Only a consuming pleasure, a place she was sweetly drowning. And then a precipice, something she was mounting, getting closer and closer to—until came that instance of blissful release, a powerful explosion that spread mind-numbing ecstasy all the way to the tips of her fingers and toes.

  And then she let herself descend onto his warmth to rest, his arms closing around her like a safety net catching her when she fell.

  The only sounds for a few restful moments of recovery were her labored breath and low music on the radio that had played, forgotten, through all of this—something by Jackson Browne.

  But then Reece was the one rolling them, resituating them, until she lay flat on her back on their blanket, him still buried warm and snug inside her, his handsome face and sexy eyes above her.

  His slow, deep, deliberate strokes took over her senses. And then there were sweet kisses on her mouth, his fingers twining in her hair. And plaintive notes from a piano seemed to punctuate the moment, and she recognized the old song, “Hold On Hold Out,” and Jackson Browne was speaking through part of it, talking to whoever the song was about, it seemed, and saying, “I love you.”

  Just hearing that, so heartfelt, so real, as she and Reece moved together, made her chest tighten, her heartbeat increase. And as she gazed up into his dark eyes then, she experienced a strange jolt of fear, out of the blue, and she realized it was fear that . . . even as connected as she felt to him right now, what if they weren’t feeling the same thing?

  Guys could so easily detach from sex, it seemed. She was sinking deeper and deeper into this, but what if she’d sunk too far? She almost knew she had, in fact. Because she was as deep as you could go here. And whether or not he really understood this, by giving up on buying the Happy Crab, she was sacrificing everything for him.

  Everything.

  And that was when he softly said, “It’s true.”

  “What’s true?” she whispered.

  “What he said.”

  She lay there beneath him, trying to interpret that, silence beginning to stretch between them—until he added, “In the song. I think I’m in love with you, Tink.”

  She tried to hold in her gasp, but a wisp of it snuck out anyway. “Really?”

  “I didn’t mean for it to happen,” he said, shaking his head slightly.

  “Me neither,” she told him.

  “You neither?” he asked.

  She shook her head.

  And he blinked. “Are you saying . . . ?”

  “Yeah. I’m kind of in love with you, too.”

  “Oh . . . oh God,” he said, and then he began to pump more powerfully into her again, his eyes falling shut.

  She cried out with each hard thrust he delivered now—until he was coming inside her, telling her so, and telling her she was beautiful and amazing as he gently collapsed atop her.

  AFTER sleeping a bit, Cami awoke to find them in full darkness. Her head rested on Reece’s chest and his arm curled around her. A kiss on her forehead told her he was awake, too—and that was when she glanced up to find herself utterly awed by what she saw.

  “Look at the stars,�
� she said. There had to be millions of them, right in plain view. “I’ve never seen so many before.”

  “Even in Nowheresville, Michigan?” he asked.

  “Yeah. It’s just different out here. Magnificent,” she said, still looking up, basking in it. “And it’s so quiet.”

  “Cave quiet,” he said.

  “Huh?”

  “Once my family went on a trip north to see some relatives, and we took a tour of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. There’s one spot on the tour where they tell you to be quiet and turn out the lights, and it’s the blackest, most soundless place you’ve ever been.” They both gazed silently upward for a minute, still taking it all in, until he added, “Even if you’re becalmed, there are usually still small waves, a little movement. But right now, right this second, this is . . . true stillness.”

  A few minutes later, Reece untangled from her and got up, quieting the radio and turning on the mast light to ensure no other boats would collide with them now that it was dark. The glow it cast was soft and low enough that Cami could still see the stars.

  When he returned, she said, “It’s getting chilly,” and together they wrapped up in the blanket they’d already used in so many other ways today. And once they were snuggled up in it together, she smiled up at him and said, “See, this isn’t so bad.”

  “No—it’s not,” he agreed. Then murmured something about building better memories.

  “Huh?” she asked, not quite able to hear.

  “Riley told me I should make new, better memories on the boat,” he explained. “For a while there earlier, seemed like that wasn’t working out too well, but . . . maybe things have swung back in the other direction.”

  “Sometimes,” she began, thinking aloud, “life’s little gifts show up in mysterious ways—like . . . finding a dinosaur in your bathroom.” They both laughed. “Or an engine that won’t start.”

  “Sorry, though,” he said. “We didn’t get around to eating much earlier. And after I promised you a delicious dinner of Fritos and bananas, too.”

  They exchanged grins in the dim glow of the mast light, and she was surprised at how clearly she could see his face, but she supposed her eyes had adjusted. And she thought it a nice reminder that sometimes life required some adjustments and then suddenly things that hadn’t seemed to make sense suddenly did. And in response, she reached under the blanket, to what lay between his legs, and said, “Forget the Fritos. This was much more satisfying.”

  “Mmm . . . keep that up, baby, and it will be again.”

  She did. And it was.

  WHEN the sun woke them the next morning, the breeze lifted Cami’s hair, blowing some long locks onto Reece’s chest.

  “Your hair tickles,” he said sleepily.

  “Need a hairband,” she said, still half asleep herself. “There’s one in my beach bag, but that’s all the way at the back of the boat.”

  And then Reece said, “Wait a minute.”

  “Huh?”

  “Your hair is blowing.”

  “Uh huh.”

  Then he sat up next to her, looking around. “The wind is back,” he said. And she could almost feel the smile in his voice before she glanced up to see it on his face.

  Talk about injecting early morning energy—they both immediately started putting their bathing suits back on, and Reece wasted no time preparing to sail. Part of Cami couldn’t help being a little sorry the strange, calm interlude was ending—because so much had changed in the hours since the wind had died—but she liked seeing Reece so happy. And even if they’d shared some pretty great moments out here, she understood why being stranded on this particular vessel in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico remained a situation he was ready to bring to an end.

  The return of the wind was brisk, so they sailed quickly. They ate Fritos and bananas on the way, and rehydrated with water, and at one point, Cami walked up behind Reece, where he sat at the captain’s wheel, and wrapped her arms around him from behind.

  And she didn’t want to act like some insecure little girl . . . but she still found herself saying near his ear, “So . . . what you said last night . . .”

  “The thing you said back?” he asked.

  “Mmm hmm.”

  He gave her a sexy, playful sideways glance. “It still holds, if that’s what you’re wondering. It wasn’t some stranded-at-sea delirium or anything.”

  “Good,” she said, pleased. “For me, too.” Then she kissed his neck, and he turned to kiss her lips, and as it echoed all through her, potent as ever, now it felt . . . less temporary, and more like a thing she could feel safe holding on to.

  She wasn’t sure what would happen next, with Vanderhook or anything else, but she was okay with that, because she had Reece now, and they were in love, and this was real, and even if she was a little scared in some ways, she was excited in others, and she just knew everything would work out okay.

  WHEN the shore came into sight it felt like returning after a long voyage, and when Reece steered the boat into the bay that led up behind the Happy Crab, Cami couldn’t quite believe her eyes. There, standing on the dock at the rear of the motel, waited all of Reece’s friends, cheering when they saw the Lisa Renee.

  “You’re a popular guy,” she said to Reece.

  He just laughed, yet appeared gratified. “Must have heard we didn’t make it in last night.”

  As wind carried them closer to the Crab, Cami could make out Christy and Jack, Fletcher and Tamra, Riley, and the telltale rust-colored dress and beehive made Polly’s presence the most distinguishable of all.

  “Looks like a big party at my place,” Reece called as he began to maneuver the boat into its slip.

  “Almost a rescue party,” Jack replied.

  Fletcher and Jack were already busy tying the boat up to the dock as soon as it glided into place, and Polly added, “Riley came over to the restaurant last night, worried when you two didn’t come home, so I called up a customer who works for the Coast Guard. He put me in touch with the towin’ place and I got the skinny. Riley was ready to take the catamaran out to find ya, but then we remembered none of us really know how to operate the darn thing.”

  Light laughter wafted through the crowd.

  And Polly went on to say, “We were about to set out to find somebody with a boat to drive a couple of us out there this mornin’, but I called the towin’ fella back up and he said you’d radioed in and were on your way back.”

  “You guys are great,” Reece said. “And I’m just glad to have gotten us both back in one piece.” As he said it, he threw an arm casually around Cami’s shoulder and pulled her snug to his side, and she knew the secure warmth of “being a couple,” for real now, pleased that he wasn’t trying to hide it. They’d come a long way since, “She’s not my friend.”

  When they stepped on to the dock, Christy and Polly hugged Cami like she was a long-time member of their community, and she found herself hugging them back. “I’m so relieved,” Christy was saying. And Polly told her, “I hardly slept at all knowin’ you two were stuck out there.” In the past, Cami hadn’t traditionally been a very touchy-feely person—her parents just hadn’t cultivated that kind of affection in her—but these particular people made it easy to reciprocate their kind, caring ways.

  Meanwhile, the guys were sharing more manly forms of greetings—slapping Reece on the back, helping him get the boat further secured—and then Riley lifted the lid on a big box of donuts Cami hadn’t noticed him holding until now. “We got breakfast at the bakery—thought ya might be hungry.” And despite having just eaten their unusual breakfast of corn chips and bananas, Reece and Cami simply exchanged oh wow looks before both practically diving on the donuts.

  The group migrated to an old picnic table behind the motel, where Cami and Reece discovered they’d also brought orange juice and drink cups, and they all made a mini-feast of the donuts while Reece and Cami told of their adventure at sea. They left out all the actual good parts, of course—the sex, the tal
king, the declarations of love—but everyone seemed riveted just the same. And Cami assumed all of Reece’s friends knew about the tragedy in his past and silently understood why this might be traumatic for him—even though he did a great job of playing it off light.

  When the story was done, Christy said, “I’m sure you guys want to get some rest today, but tomorrow, Jack and I are taking you two to lunch.”

  And Polly chimed in, “Free seafood buffet on me tonight.”

  Fletcher added, “And . . . I’ll treat you to a free tightrope show at the Sunset Celebration,” concluding with a wink, and everyone laughed.

  It was nearly noon by the time the party dispersed, and Cami realized she indeed was exhausted. As she and Reece walked in the rear door of the Happy Crab’s office, he said, “I actually have a lot of stuff I want to do today, but . . . you can hang out if you want. If you don’t mind me working at the same time.”

  She couldn’t help being curious. “What kind of stuff?”

  “I need to clean out the boat. And, uh, call somebody to check out that engine,” he said on a slightly sheepish laugh.

  “You get now that there was nothing you could have done to make that engine start, right?” she asked, pointedly meeting his gaze. “Or to have known it wouldn’t. You get that sometimes things just happen that are out of our control and it’s not your fault?”

  He gave her a quick, brief nod. She supposed such understanding might be easier from a distance, when you weren’t the one in the middle of a situation—but she hoped that maybe, just maybe, the events of the past day would begin to help him let go of the guilt he’d suffered all these years about his family.

  Even if he went right on talking, making it clear he didn’t want to get into discussing it again right now. “And I want to order some pool supplies and give the pool a good cleaning, and I should place an order for some new guest towels, too. To tell you the truth . . .” He paused then, shifting his weight from one flip-flop to the other and raising his eyes back to hers, “I’ve kinda been holding off on that stuff, just in case I somehow ended up losing the Crab—but now that I know that’s not an issue anymore, I can get back to normal.”