Veda answered by closing the space between them in a screaming leap, landing on his lap, legs straddling his body and accidentally knocking her phone to the floor.
He caught her with a laugh, the strings of “Sweet Cherry Pie” now muffled by the carpet, clapping an arm around her waist to hold her steady while lifting his head to accept her passionate kiss. They breathed deeply into the embrace, until the air entering and leaving their bodies became one, their lips parting with a gentle smack even as the rest of their bodies remained sealed together.
“I’ll take that as a yes?” he whispered, sharing her soft laugh.
When he brought the ring box between their bodies, using his free hand to wiggle the diamond out, letting the velvet box fall to the floor along with the phone, Veda offered her left hand.
Another tear tumbled from her eyes as he slid it on, her voice high. “Never imagined I’d be in a slutty maid’s costume with “Sweet Cherry Pie” playing in the background when this finally happened.”
“Really? Because I couldn’t have imagined it any other way.”
She squealed and launched at him once more, clapping her arms around his neck and covering his lips with hers. Their smiles petered away as the kiss went from soft and sweet to passionate and deep in an instant. They melted into each other, and soon, Gage was rolling back onto the bed, locking his arms around her waist and taking her with him, never breaking their embrace.
They gasped into the never ending kiss as his trembling hands ran her body, stroking the soft, smooth skin of her back, stopping only to rip open the satin tie of her apron and the clasp of her bra. They tilted their heads, drawing each gasping breath in through their flared nostrils as Gage ripped the fabric out from between their sealed bodies and tossed it to the floor, leaving her completely naked. And his tongue was on her warm skin once more, shots of naked agony flaring through every bone in his body as her naked breasts pressed against his chest, almost as soft as the globes of her plump ass, which he had in his appreciative hands. Only able to focus there for a moment, one of his hands continued its excursion of her body, sinking between her parted thighs until the pads of his fingers were slipping and sliding along her aching entry.
“God, you’re so wet,” he gasped, slamming his eyes closed when she moved her kisses to his neck, her soft lips and tongue lapping at his skin as he sank two fingers deep inside, exploring the softest part of her. She warmed the skin of his neck with her cries, swirling her hips in time with his fingers, her body pulsing, squeezing, damn near fighting his fingers as he found her G-Spot with ease. The tent in his swim trunks grew more insistent until he was sure it was seconds from ripping the fabric apart. Aching to replace the fingers swirling inside her warm, velvety walls.
With a gasp, he flipped her, putting her on her back. He took her in, her legs splayed in her white thigh-highs, pussy glistening with his attentions, and his gasps moved to pants as he ripped at the drawstring of his swim trunks with one hand while covering her clit with the thumb of the other, massaging it in slow circles.
She was the most beautiful sight he’d ever laid eyes on as her thighs naturally spread wider in reaction to his touch on her clit. She threw her head back and arched her spine, making the hard nubs of her nipples reach for the ceiling, filling the room with her enchanting gasps of pleasure as she ground and toiled against his hand.
Gage shoved his trunks down past his erection, which stood to attention the moment it was free, before returning to her. Desperate to take her strangled gasps to the next level, he bent forward and drew one of her hard nipples into his mouth, his insistent tongue swirling around the aching bud in time with the twirl of his thumb on her clit. Just as he wished, her gasps move to moans, moans to screams, and as he left one nipple shimmering with his kiss and seized the other, even her screams became strangled. She clawed her nails down his back as he suckled her bud, and Gage had come to know her body so well that he wasn’t caught off guard when her spine bent even further. When her legs spread so wide they seemed moments from coming dislocated. When every bone in her body jolted and convulsed. When the beginnings of her orgasm rocketed through her so violently she couldn’t even scream or gasp, her mouth wide open with no sound coming out.
As her walls clenched around his fingers, so tightly he wondered if they might break, soaking his fingers with her pleasure and her peak, Gage slid down her body and replaced his thumb with his tongue. The moment his mouth was on her, tongue flicking against her pulsing clit, her screams returned. And when she came, hips bucking against his eager mouth, he clapped a hand on her stomach and held her down, the music of their juices filling the room, overpowering the music still muffled from the floor. His mouth remained on her, even as her convulsions began to ease, dying a slow death. Just when he’d believed the last shot of pleasure had blasted through her, another shudder, another heave, another uncontrollable wave would roll through her, from her curled toes, to the thighs clapped around his head, to the very top of her head. Only when she’d collapsed did he give her center one last, gentle kiss—one last flick of his tongue.
He moved slowly back up her body, his member throbbing and begging between his thighs, kissing every inch of skin he passed. By the time he made it to her face, where her eyes were still fluttered shut, he’d pushed his swim trunks the rest of the way off his body, coming between her splayed legs, spreading her thighs even wider than they already were, and giving her every pound of his weight.
He waited for her eyes to open—hooded and lazy from her peak—and meet his before he reached between their bodies and seized his hardened column, guiding the tip to her entry.
But Veda’s eyes exploded in size, and she clapped her hands on his shoulders with a gasp, digging her nails in. “Wait!”
Gage froze. It was a word most men dreaded hearing in bed, but one they rarely worried about when in bed with their future wife.
“Don’t kill me,” she breathed.
He nuzzled their noses with a soft frown.
Veda sighed. “Gage, I’m so sorry, but I just realized… My pills.” She clenched her teeth, digging her nails deeper into his shoulder. “I left my birth control pills back home. Ugh!” She covered her face with her hands.
Any other time, those words would bring the bedroom festivities to an immediate end. Forcing him to drum up every ounce of will to pull away. Feeling guilty, she’d finish him off with her mouth instead, which—as far as Gage was concerned—was nothing to sniff at.
But that night, Gage didn’t retreat. He released his hold on his dick, pressing his lips together, and rested his elbows on either side of her head.
She lowered her hands from her face, looking guilty, and cupped his. “I’m so sorry, baby. But… it doesn’t have to be a total bust.” She reached between them and took hold of his hardness. “I want you in my mouth…”
He swallowed thickly, fingering her hair, arms on either side of her head, breathing in a sharp breath at the pleasure the shot through him as she stroked him. Caressing her hair, he noted that her curls were coming back, but still hadn’t returned full force, leaving them just a little looser than they were by nature.
Their kids’ curls, one day, would probably look just like that. Not quite as tightly coiled as hers, but not quite as straight as his. Something beautifully in between.
“Maybe we don’t need them,” Gage said, lowering his gaze back to hers.
Veda’s eyes dashed back and forth between his. “What?”
“If not Noah…” He swallowed again. “If not Wyatt… then whoever was meant to be next.”
Her eyes expanded, gleaming with emotion. She exhaled softly and seemed ready for the kiss he placed on her lips before he’d even bent down to give it to her. She received his lips with her eyes fluttered closed, and without another word, she reached between them once more and guided his aching tip to her entry.
Just one sweep of their bodies and Gage came apart at the seams, unable to stop a strong thrust of his hips th
at sent his dick as deep inside her as it could go, filling her to the hilt.
Her back arched once more, lips parted to release the sounds that tried to leave her body but couldn’t quite make it.
As he took up an ardent thrust, his own throat filled with one strangled groan after the other, he took advantage of her exposed neck and covered it with his lips and tongue, warming it with kisses.
When the shots of ecstasy tightening his skin began to feel too good to bear, however, he couldn’t even focus on the soft kisses he placed on her neck. Instead, he pressed his forehead to hers, bracing his hands on either side of her body as his hips picked up speed, falling into a blind vat of euphoria and pure happiness that only she could pull him into. In seconds he was out of control, parted lips softly brushing hers, hushed gasps warming her mouth, and hips slamming against hers blindly. Taken captive by the tight tug of her warm pussy— by her wetness—and never so in love with her as he was right then, Gage stared into her eyes as he came, matching her loving smile as he emptied shot after shot inside her.
Matching her loving smile as they gave it another go.
Maybe not Noah.
Maybe not Wyatt.
But something still purely and unadulteratedly theirs.
Something that would keep them joined, in heart and spirit, forever.
He finished with one last, ardent thrust, and kissed her lips passionately. She dug her fingers into his hair, kneading his scalp as he pulled out. He moved languidly down her body, still gasping softly. Tucking his cheek into her heaving belly, into the valley between her belly button and her center, he settled, breath easing and pure bliss encasing him as his eyes fluttered slowly shut.
17
Veda couldn’t believe it.
By some unimaginable stroke of luck—nothing short of a damn miracle—that oval halo engagement ring was back on her finger. That slutty maid costume she’d purchased for twenty bucks at the local sex shop had proven an amazing return on her investment. She would’ve happily paid ten times the sticker price if she’d known it would move Gage deeply enough to plop that ring back on her finger. The same finger her friend Hope had once deemed her “booty call” finger. The finger that could’ve never dreamt of hosting that fist-sized engagement ring again after everything Veda had put Gage through.
But there it was.
And, if Veda had anything to do with it, there it would remain.
Because she would never again hurt Gage the way she had before. As her head rose and fell from where it was cradled against his sleeping chest, she was unable to hold back a lazy smile as she rotated her left hand back and forth, in love with the way the diamond glimmered against the moonlight.
And not just in love with the diamond, but everything it represented. Trust, dedication, and love. Love for each other, and love for the life they’d attempted to create that night. It had started to become clear to Veda before she’d even touched down in Hawaii that morning, crystalizing more with every minute she’d spent with him that day. There, lying in bed with Gage in the middle of the night, basking in the beauty of his eternally forgiving heart as it beat softly against her cheek, Veda was seeing clearly.
More sharply than she ever had before.
She was done.
She was done running from a darkness that would never truly be gone. Not really.
Gage’s light was enough.
His light was all she wanted.
And she’d never again put that light at risk for the men who’d stolen her soul ten years earlier. They weren’t worth it. Nothing was worth risking hurting Gage the way she had before. Nothing was worth risking their love, or the love they may have created in that very bed tonight.
Veda was done.
Fuck numbers six through ten.
Fuck revenge.
Fuck anyone and anything that stood in the way of her love for Gage.
She took a deep breath as she made her silent vow. It was the fastest and easiest breath she’d taken in ten long years because she knew what she was doing was right.
Quitting was for the best.
Not just because quitting meant protecting Gage, but because quitting was the smart thing to do now that Linc was hot on her trail. He’d almost caught her. By the grace of God, he’d let her go. But she knew he wouldn’t do it twice. If for no other reason, she knew she had to stop before that time came.
Before Linc really caught her red-handed.
18
Martin Zhang sighed as he held up the Ziploc bag under the forensic lab’s bright lights, the watermelon Blow Pop inside gleaming under the glare. “Finding one long lost brother wasn’t enough? Looking to add a few more to the list?”
Linc spoke from across the lab table he’d approached just a few minutes earlier. “I need you to run the DNA on this Blow Pop against the nails we found on the cliffs.”
Martin dropped the bag with another sigh, making the sucker clank against the table.
Linc spoke to his exasperated face. “This is the real sample this time. The one I intended to bring to you in the first place. A woman.”
“Ah. So a long lost sister, then?”
“Can you just run the damn thing?” Linc grumbled, eyes still sleepy from waking in a cold sweat the night before, hair pulled back into a sloppier bun than usual. “And keep it quiet?”
Martin cocked his head back, feigning hurt. “So demanding. If I were crazy, I’d think you were the one doing me a terminable favor, and not the other way around.”
Linc clenched his teeth. “Martin…”
Sensing desperation, a facet of Linc’s personality that rarely reared its head, Martin’s shoulders collapsed. “Look, I’m on a few close deadlines, so I can’t push this one to the front of the line. But I’ll get it done when I can.”
“How long?”
“Give me a week.”
Linc clapped a hand of thank you on the table and went to leave.
“Hey, Linc,” Martin called.
Linc froze in mid-retreat, meeting Martin’s eyes over his shoulder.
Martin gazed at him curiously from the corners of his eye. “You told him yet? Your brother?” His eyes widened conspiratorially. “Whoever he is…?”
Linc considered the question as his stomach did a somersault. “Not yet.” He took a moment. “Maybe I never will.”
Martin frowned softly.
Linc turned away before Martin had the chance to form that frown into another invasive question. He felt Martin’s eyes remain on him as he left the lab, wondering if Martin could see his heart, pounding so rapidly Linc was sure it was visible through the back of his black t-shirt.
——
“I’m not ready,” Veda whined early the next morning, lips poked out, chin trembling as quickly as her muscles would allow.
Gage smiled adoringly at her from across the glass breakfast table on the villa’s balcony, its glass barrier allotting them a breathtaking view of the massive cliff that the home sat on the edge of. The cliff that led a luscious green path all the way down to the waves crashing at its base. The rising sun left a spotlight across the calm ocean surface and also worked to showcase the true copper hue of Gage’s eyes, almost perfectly matching the golden tone of his skin.
“This was the best day and a half of my life,” she whispered, eyes shining just as brightly as his. Her breakfast plate and orange juice went ignored as she filled herself with the only sustenance she really needed—the sight of his gorgeous face. The blind love in his eyes. The same love she felt charging through her body. “Can’t you just pack me into your suitcase and take me back to the ship? I’ll be quiet. I won’t make a mess. I’ll even attempt to cook and clean like a good wife should.”
He licked his lips. “You know I would if I could. You know I would love nothing more.”
“So what’s stopping us? I’m teensy. I could curl myself into a ball small enough to get inside a suitcase, and you could zip that bad boy right up, easily.” The wind tried to blow her ha
ir into her face, and she pushed it back as best she could. After a day at the beach, a long shower after they’d made love, and the heavy fog climbing down the lush green cliffs the balcony overlooked, her natural coils had re-emerged.
“It’s too dangerous, baby,” Gage spoke the obvious, watching her push her hair away from her face. “My curls,” he murmured.
“If I’d have known you were this in love with my natural hair I’d have brought my flexi rods and worn them to bed last night. I know there’s nothing you enjoy more than making love to Medusa.”
He chortled.
Her eyes traveled his chiseled body as his laughter caused every line in his bare chest to flex. She watched every gorgeous muscle come to life, and she leaned forward on the table while taking a deep breath. The plush terry cloth robe she’d donned was proving too heavy for the warm morning air, so when the arm of the robe fell off her shoulder, she didn’t hurry to fix it.
Gage’s eyes fell to her plate. “Eat.”
Veda looked down at the pancakes he’d arranged to look like a smiley face, raising her eyebrows. “I’m not ready. While this isn’t exactly the most inspired breakfast picture you’ve ever created for me—”
“Hey, easy. I was low on supplies.”
She continued with a small smile. “I can’t deny how hard it is for me to destroy your beautiful work. You’ll never understand the way my heart broke when you first served me a breakfast plate that was simply just a breakfast plate. Just eggs and bacon slopped onto a dish. Do you hear me? Heartbroken, I was.”
“Never again, baby. I promise.”
After his vow, she threw out her left hand, fingers splayed. Her eyes lit up as she took in the engagement ring, glimmering under the rising sun, unable to stop a squeal.
Gage took her in. “I feel like we made a baby last night.”
She abandoned worshiping her ring. “Oh yeah? What makes you so sure?”
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