Rock Bottom (The Gifted Realm #4)

by Jillian Neal

  Eventually Fionna caught Emily’s hands, and the fight was on. Rainer and Emily, clearly having played before, had a decent move where Rainer would back up quickly while Emily grasped Fionna’s hands, in an effort to pull her off of Dan’s shoulders.

  “Wait ‘til he moves back again,” Dan instructed Fionna. She kept her arms locked tightly with Emily’s.

  Rainer stepped back quickly, but this time Dan leaned towards Rainer as he retreated, and Fionna leaned upwards. She placed her crotch on the back of Dan’s head and pushed at the same moment. Emily’s back hit the water.

  Fionna cheered as Dan lowered her back into the water, and then spun and caught her up in his arms. He kissed her heatedly.

  “Ever skinny dipped, Officer Vindico?” Fionna teased when he pulled his mouth away. Dan grimaced. He didn’t really want to tell her the truth.

  “Never with anyone as gorgeous as you,” he offered one of his signature phrases hopefully.

  With a dramatic eye-roll, she didn’t, in any way, give him the customary response. Fionna laughed in his face.

  “Wow,” she drawled sarcastically, “use lines much?”

  Dan let his head drop in defeat. He found it odd how much he rather liked the fact that she wasn’t going to take his crap.

  She turned away from Dan again and teased Emily.

  “Well don’t feel too bad. I was actually the chicken fighting queen of the middle school I went to, all three years.” She effectively cracked Emily and Rainer up.

  “Well, I bow to Her Majesty, the Chicken Queen,” Emily joked as Dan reveled in Fionna’s laughter once again.

  “Hey, I saw in that binder on the rooms,” Fionna changed course quickly. She took no time to revel in their victory, “that the room service people will pack you a picnic to take to the beach. Let’s do that for dinner.” She turned back to make certain it was all right with Dan as she eased back to him. She seemed to want his arms around her as much as he wanted to hold her.

  He enveloped her body in his own.

  “That sounds perfect, sweetheart.”

  Emily swooned over the gesture.

  Dan did think it sounded like a great idea. Seeing Fionna topless in the sunset made his entire body ache, and if they stayed at the hotel, he could get her back in bed, or in the pool, even faster.

  Rainer looked morose.

  Dan mouthed the words, “Losing battle,” but Rainer pretended not to see him.

  “That would be fun,” Emily rolled her eyes when she took in Rainer’s expression.

  “We could wear tops,” Fionna offered hesitantly. She clearly didn’t want to cause another round of arguing.

  “No,” Emily huffed. “I could finally have a tan without lines.” She shot another infuriated glare at Rainer.

  Dan had already conjured up several fantasies of Fionna on the beach, in his arms, topless against him. He threw Rainer a look that said for him to get over it or else.

  With a defeated huff, Rainer rolled his eyes. “Whatever you want to do is fine,” he lied, and everyone in the pool knew it.

  “He will eventually get over this,” Emily determined.

  “I’m not really thinking so,” Fionna looked truly concerned over Rainer’s reaction.

  “He will,” Dan joined in, “right about the time she whips her top off. Trust me.”

  The girls laughed as Rainer blushed yet again.

  “Ok, well, I think we’ll just let you two work that out, and I’ll go order the picnic,” Fionna eased. “And really, Rainer, if it makes you uncomfortable, I’ll wear a top. It’s fine.”

  Certain that he’d very much like to throttle Rainer Lawson right about then, Dan narrowed his eyes.

  “It’s fine. I’ll be fine.” His face turned crimson in his embarrassment. Fionna pulled Emily close to her face.

  “If he freaks, just text me, and I’ll wear a top. He’s really hurting, Em. I can feel it. I know you can, too. Don’t be so hard on him. He loves you so much.”

  There seemed to be absolutely no doubt. She could apparently read Rainer Lawson with ease.

  “It’s kind of sweet,” Fionna continued playing peacemaker.

  “It’s kind of over the top,” Emily argued.

  Before Fionna could offer to wear a top to the topless beach yet again, Dan grabbed her hand.

  “Come on. We’ll get enough food for everyone,” he informed Rainer and Emily as he led Fionna out of the pool.

  49

  To Fight Your Own Shield

  ~Rainer Lawson~

  After he handed Emily her towel, Rainer left her standing beside the pool and went back in the suite. He was still pouting.

  “Rainer, please,” Emily begged as she followed him inside.

  “Fine, Em, whatever you want.” He moved away from her again, and closed the bedroom door behind him. The door opened and Emily marched in.

  “Look, ok,” she demanded. “I’ll wear my top out there and leave it on, and then when you see that it’s really no big deal, I’ll let you take it off. You can do your ‘obsessive watch over me’ thing that you do, until you stop freaking out about it.”

  “Fine, Emily, whatever, but I’ll be perfectly honest with you; letting you take your top off out there,” he threw his thumb angrily in the direction of the beach, “will be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and you know all of the things I’ve done.”

  He willed his temper to remain in check. It was a mighty task. She looked deflated, and he felt guilty again. He couldn’t redact his statement; it was the absolute truth. Angry tears pierced her eyes, and her chin quivered.

  “You know, you don’t seem to mind my lack of modesty when I’m pulling my clothes off for you, or when I’m splayed out on the hood of your Porsche,” she sneered furiously.

  With his eyes goggling to the size of saucers, Rainer felt like she’d slapped him.

  “That’s different, and you know it!” he shouted. This brought on sobs.

  “Stop yelling at me! I didn’t do anything wrong!” she wailed as a tidal wave of guilt threatened to engulf Rainer.

  After forcibly willing down his anger, he breathed.

  “Really, Em, that doesn’t bother you? Believe me, guys are going to be looking at you. Obviously they’re going to look; you’re gorgeous, and,” he paused but then decided to go on, “you’ve got a hell of a rack. Men are going to drool.” The statement made him feel queasy.

  This elicited a very slight smile, and Rainer, unable to watch her cry, wrapped his arms around her.

  “That’s what I keep trying to tell you. It’s really not that big of a deal. There are lots of women of all shapes and sizes out there. No one is gawking at them.”

  Rainer decided to change tactics and edged.

  “And that doesn’t bother you either? That I’ll be seeing all of the women out there?” This bit of information did bother her, and Rainer was hopeful.

  “No,” she forced, “because you’re a gentlemen, and you’ll be looking at mine. They kind of all look the same anyway,” she tried to convince herself as much as him.

  “And where was all of this tolerance when I had to go to The Tantra?” Rainer spat.

  “Well, no one out there will be shaking theirs in your face,” Emily came right back.

  He suddenly realized that this wasn’t just going to go away. She was right; he couldn’t have it both ways. Rainer sighed his defeat. He couldn’t have the girl who paraded around for him in a corset and heels, or the one who told him to take her hard and fast on the hood of his car, and expect her to be a prude on a topless beach.

  The more he protested, the more determined she was going to become. He knew this, and it was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.

  “All right, baby. If you really want to do this, we will, but I’m not kidding you, Em; I’m going to freak if I see another guy ogling you. That’s just more than I can take.”

  “Ok,” she agreed, and then gave him his favorite mischievous smile. She laid
her head on his shoulder.

  “I’ll even let you put suntan lotion on them,” she teased and elicited a slight chuckle, which was the most Rainer could come up with at the moment.

  50

  Hungry Past

  ~Dan Vindico~

  Dan was finishing the order for a picnic for four, which he was informed would be ready to be picked up at the bar in an hour, when he temporarily forgot how to speak.

  Fionna paraded out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but a white, tie-side, barely-there bikini bottom.

  “Uh sir?” the woman on the other end of the phone asked concernedly.

  “Oh, uh, sorry. Yeah, I’ll pick it up in an hour,” he recited while he watched Fionna move to one of the bags she’d packed. She removed a plastic bottle that appeared to have a homemade label on it, while she shot him looks that threatened to make him spontaneously combust.

  Fionna sauntered towards him. Her eyes darkened with every step she advanced. Dan tried to remember how to hang the phone back in its cradle. Watching her full, ample breasts sway as she walked was all he was capable of doing.

  After giving her a very appreciative, hungry smile, Dan let a low whistle slide between his teeth. He thoroughly delighted her.

  “I need some help,” she informed him in a sexy coo.

  “Do you, baby doll?” he grabbed her backside and pulled her into him as she nodded. “And what can I do for you?”

  She shivered slightly. His trousers strained as his heart picked up pace. He reveled in the feeling of it all. She held up the bottle expectantly.

  “Could you, maybe, rub this all over me?” she challenged with a sultry smile.

  “I think I can handle that,” he stated with a cocky smirk as he removed the bottle from her hands.

  “I thought you probably could.”

  He turned and took her hand. He guided her to the couch. While he let his voice take on a sexy edge, he seated her.

  “Lay down for me, baby,” he commanded. With a sexy grin, she reclined on the couch. He studied the bottle momentarily. Hawaiian Princess Sun Rub From Iona Farms

  With a slight shrug, he lathered his hands and began with her neck. The scent of coconut, honey, and hibiscus perfumed the air. He rubbed the lotion into her soft, tender skin.

  He let his fingers knead her muscles. He worked out the stress and strain he wasn’t even aware she was carrying until he’d begun the massage.

  She moaned as he loosened the knots. The sound made his muscles clench and tighten in anticipation. As she’d laid out on her stomach, denying him what he really wanted to put lotion on, he slid his hands down her back and thoroughly enjoyed the way it dipped in a perfect arc just before it swelled in to her gorgeous backside. Her eyes were closed, and she laid her head on her folded arms.

  “So, you and Amelia never went on a vacation anywhere?” she quizzed suddenly.

  After forcing himself from his abstraction, Dan tried to focus on what she was saying rather than on her luscious body.

  “Uh,” he shook his head and tried desperately to focus. “No,” he answered. “She went with me a few times to the Outer Banks, but Will, and Garrett, and all of my friends were at Virginia Beach, so I was generally irritated with my parents while we were there.”

  “Then, we got engaged before I graduated, and she wanted to buy a house near our folks. So, that’s what we did.” Dan was shocked yet again at how he could discuss any part of Amelia with her and somehow it seemed bearable. She wasn’t jealous. She didn’t want him to forget his former life. She wanted to know more about it.

  “Is that still where you live?” she whispered hesitantly.

  “No,” Dan shuddered from the thought. He tried to modulate his voice. His tone was making her nervous. He could feel that as he lathered her skin with the lotion.

  “Uh no.” He commanded himself to draw full breaths and try to explain everything to her gently. “I sold it a few months after she was killed. I bought a place closer to work. Maybe you could come over after we get back. I probably need to clean first, though.”

  Fionna flipped onto her back, and Dan’s thoughts instantly went back to her phenomenal body.

  “You don’t seem like a slob.” She studied him.

  “Not a slob. Just never home. So, I send all of my laundry out, and I think the most I’ve ever cooked in my kitchen is coffee and maybe some toast. I should probably at least change the sheets, and make it look like someone actually lives there before I let you see it.” Dan wanted her to know that, if he somehow convinced her to be with him, even back in D.C., he would do everything right by her.

  He rubbed lotion over her shoulders, then skipped her breasts entirely, and moved to her svelte stomach. She poked her bottom lip out in a delicious pout. The move made him chuckle.

  “Don’t worry, honey. I’m just saving the best for last.”

  While he watched her, he stifled a groan as her nipples began to pull taut and darken. She wanted his attention, but he continued to make her wait. He wanted the anticipation to build.

  After working his way down her stomach, he pressed until he’d slipped his hands under the bottom of the swimsuit. Her breath caught as she let her eyes open slightly.

  “I don’t think I’ll get much sun under there,” she teased.

  “Oh, ok.” Dan wasn’t playing her game. With a wry smile, he noted her pout as he moved to her thighs. “Spread your legs for me, baby doll.”

  Her breath stuttered deliciously. She let her legs fall to the sides, and he re-lathered his hands. He massaged up her legs and worked until he was rubbing the most sensitive parts of her inner thighs. He slid them higher, and let his thumbs rub between the top of her thighs and her lips.

  He watched her as she panted. With a knowing smirk, he slipped his thumbs under the crotch of her swimsuit as a quick raspy moan escaped her lips.

  He traced her lips as he husked, “Is that good honey, or did you need some more?” She writhed under his touch.

  With a quick, hungry, unexpected moan, she reached down and pulled the slight, beaded strings holding the swimsuit to her body.

  He growled heatedly as he watched her reveal those lush lips, already swollen and hungry for his length. Dan dragged two fingers on either side of her slit after he pulled the swimsuit away from her. He watched her lips throb and glisten for him.

  With tender care, he eased her apart. He wanted to see the pulsing, pink flesh as she writhed and bucked. She needed to be tamed.

  A low, fervent groan escaped him as her body began to roll.

  “Fionna, I need you, honey. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything as much as I want you right now, and I know you want it, too.”

  “I can see how wet and hungry you are. Let me have you. Let me make that feel better. Let me show you how good I can make it feel when I take you from behind. Let me own you.”

  She moaned and trembled, with a wild look in her eyes.

  Dan paused; his natural reaction would’ve been to grab a condom at that moment, before he warmed her up and then had his way with her.

  Suddenly, he found the very idea appalling. Anything that would block the indescribable feeling of her surrounding him, of her energy permeating him, and of releasing himself inside of what had to be a portion of heaven, horrified him.

  With a determined clench of his jaw, Dan watched her beautiful body writhe in hunger, and he forced himself to remember everything Rainer had taught him that morning. She was astounding. He hated the feeling that there was even more about being with her that he was so inexperienced with.

  A loud moan evulsed from deep within her. Dan managed to remember that he needed to have her energy in his hands. He slipped two fingers inside of her as she cried out for him. The sound drove him wild.

  He could feel it, the sweet essence of her. It wound around him, binding, restoring, soothing, and mending his fractured soul. He pushed deeper as she bucked in ardent need.

  “There’s my good girl. This is what you real
ly needed my help with isn’t it, honey?” He curved his fingers and coaxed the spot that made her body pulse and tense as she pulled him deeper. She began grinding and thrusting against his hand.

  “It’s all right, sweetheart. I’m gonna take good care of you,” his voice was low and reverent in his deep desire. A few more of his signature moves formed in his mind as he gazed at her body trembling for him.

  With his left hand, he pushed down gently on her mound as he stroked with his right hand deep inside of her.

  “Oh yes,” she gasped, and he smiled. He was fairly certain that was one she hadn’t felt before.

  Suddenly, the astounding feeling of her washed through him again. She was exquisite. Her energy and her body rolled in craving need. He couldn’t get enough.

  “Honey, you’re still swollen so nice and tight. Seems like you might need to a few rounds tonight.”

  Her breath hitched in her outcries. She wanted more. He could feel it, as he was able to concentrate on her energy. “You up for that, baby? You up for me now, and then when I get you back in that pool? You gonna be a good girl for me and take it twice?”

  “Please, please” she begged in acute need. Her lips pulsed. The liquid form of her energy slipped around his fingers. Not certain how much longer he was going to last, with her begging and her body pulsing and fevered, Dan leaned so he was closer to her face.

  “I’m gonna cast you, baby doll. Then I’m gonna fill up that sweet spot. Make you take it until I explode inside of you. I’m gonna fill you full of me and make everything better.”

  She halted abruptly. Her body shuddered as she forced herself to stop feeling what he was doing to her.

  “No, wait!” she panicked.

  Dan halted instantly. He pulled his hands away. She looked terrified, and it cut him to the core.

  “What’s wrong, sweetheart?” He was shocked yet again that the sudden halt of his progress didn’t bother him in any way. Deep concern filled his soul.

  She was scared. He had enough of her in his hands to feel her panic. She swallowed hard and shook her head. She was concentrating on something.