“You shouldn’t. You are beautiful and I want to spend my days staring at your gorgeous body.”
I nod and let my arms go. It feels nice to give in and not worry so much. As I move my hands around in the hot water and relax, bubbles finally start to build up from the bath bomb. Within a few moments, the entire tub is filled with effervescent round circles of soap.
“Close your eyes.”
When I do as he says, a stream of hot water rushes down my face. Aiden’s squeezing a sponge over my head. Losing myself in the moment, I lie back in the tub and surrender. Slowly, Aiden dips the sponge under the water and runs it over my neck, breasts and stomach. Carefully, he takes each arm out of the water and runs the sponge over it, back and forth.
“This feels so good.”
“I’m glad.”
A few moments later, he stops. I open my eyes and look up at him with disappointment.
“Oh, I see, you seem to have enjoyed that.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Didn’t you say you didn’t want to get bathed?”
“I guess I was wrong.”
Aiden gives me a brief kiss on the lips before asking, “Mind if I join you?”
I shake my head no.
I move a little to make room, but the tub is so big and deep that there’s plenty of room for both of us.
Aiden lowers himself in front of me. I pick up some water in my hands and run it over his neck, watching it scroll down. He reaches for some body wash behind him and lathers it up in his hands. Then he rubs the soft foam into my shoulders.
I close my eyes. He runs his hands over my breasts, pausing briefly at my nipples. It tickles and I laugh a little.
I take some of the foam off my body and place it on his, rubbing gently as I make my way down his neck and back, submerging my fingers into the water.
I lean toward him and press my lips to his. He pulls me closer. He is in control now and I surrender. I love the feel of his hands all over me, directing me into whatever direction he wants to take me. He wraps my legs around his and pushes my hair away from my neck.
Shivers run down my spine as he positions my body on top of his. I press my legs tightly to him as he takes my butt into his hands. He smiles and gives me a flirtatious squeeze. Slowly, he lowers me on top of him and pushes himself deep inside. I feel as if my body is being pierced through and I let myself go.
“I love being inside of you,” he whispers as our bodies become one. Intertwined, he presses his lips onto mine and then parts them forcefully with his tongue.
I moan and bury my hands in his hair. I need to be even closer to him. My body starts to move up and down as if on its own. Despite the fact that I have him, I want him. All of him. Our kisses become more frantic. He pulls on my hair with his hands and I moan and toss my head back in ecstasy.
He’s holding me up and guiding my movements. I slide up and down his large cock and my body starts to swell from the pleasure that’s building up in between my legs. When he finds my clit and rubs against it as well, I can’t contain anything within me anymore.
“Aiden!” I moan into his ear. A few moments later, while I’m still riding the high of my climax, he reaches his.
“I…love…you,” he mumbles as he moves faster and faster in and out of me until he finally collapses underneath me.
We sit in the tub, with our bodies intertwined together, until the water turns cold. This actually takes a while since the tub is quite expensive and is made from some material with great insulation.
“I’ve never had sex in the water before,” I say.
“How was it?”
“Perfect.”
The water slowly runs out of heat, and yet both Aiden and I refuse to move a muscle. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but I feel as if I’m under a spell. If I were to make a move to get out, the whole moment would shatter and would make it as if none of this had never happened.
Chapter 8 - Ellie
The answer…
The following morning, I wake up in Aiden’s arms. The light is just peeking through the windows. It’s warm out and we are covered only by a sheet, and that’s enough. I have to pinch myself to make sure that this moment is real. Am I really lying next to the man of my dreams on a beautiful yacht in the middle of the warm Caribbean when it’s below freezing back home?
I look over at him. He’s barely stirring.
“I love you,” I whisper. He smiles without opening his eyes.
“I love you, too,” he mumbles.
I stare at his tan skin and chiseled jaw, waiting for him to wake up. A few moments later, he finally looks at me.
“You know, I can feel you staring at me,” he says.
“I know.”
Aiden stretches his arms above his head and arches his back. The sheet falls to the side, exposing my breasts and his perfect six pack. I run my fingers down his abs and lick my lips.
“You’re going to kill me, woman.”
“Hey, I’m just enjoying the moment. Not instigating anything, right?”
“Yeah, right.” He laughs. “Okay, fine, since you’re up and wide awake, I have something to ask you.”
With one swift motion, he climbs on top of me and cradles my face in between his arms.
“What?”
Aiden pulls the sheet over us, making a little cocoon. Now, we are in our own little world, away from everything that’s horrible and wrong.
“You are the most beautiful woman in the world,” Aiden says. “But that’s not why I want to ask you this.’
“Okay…”
“Ellie, whenever I’m around you, I want to be a better version of myself. You make me want to be a better man. And that’s why I want to ask you to be my wife.”
I stare at him, dumbfounded.
“Will you marry me, Ellie?”
The last time the answer came so easily. I just looked into his eyes and the answer just spilled out. But now? I don’t know why, but I feel myself hesitating. It has nothing to do with the moment. This place, this setting, is perfect. And yet, I can’t bring myself to say yes.
“I don’t know,” I say. Aiden’s mouth drops open in disappointment.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I said yes before and then everything just sort of got so complicated and now…now, I don’t know.”
He nods as if he understands, but he doesn’t. I barely understand it myself. I have no idea why I’m saying no except that there’s this voice inside of me that’s telling me that this isn’t right. Not right now. I mean, I love him. I really do. And I want to spend all of my time with him. But I don’t know if I can commit to be his wife. Not yet.
“I don’t know if you know this, but I never really wanted to get married. I mean, little girls grow up imagining what their weddings will be like and where they will go on a honeymoon. But I was never like that. Marriage always felt a little bit like a trap. I mean, I have no problem making a commitment to you. I love you. It’s just the wedding and everything that goes along with it.”
Aiden listens and nods. “Well, just know that there’s no pressure. I mean, we don’t have to have a big ceremony, if that’s what’s freaking you out. We don’t even have to invite anyone if you don’t want to. We can just elope. Or not.”
Hmm, elope. That does sound nice.
“You mean, just go to the courthouse and that’s it?”
He nods.
“Maybe. That does make me feel a little better.” He smiles at me and gives me a warm hug.
“I never thought I wanted to get married again,” Aiden says after a while. “I mean, my first time wasn’t amazing so I was sort of over the whole thing. But then I met you. And it’s not like I want to pin you down to anything. I just want to tell you that I want to be with you. That’s all. Forever. And if that doesn’t mean marriage to you, that’s fine. I’m totally fine with that. I’m happy as long as you want to spend your life with me.”
“I do. Very much so,” I say,
giving him a big kiss.
A private ceremony. I never really considered that before, but why not? No big dress, no huge wedding that would make me the center of attention. Now, that sounds more like it.
“I’m not sure Caroline would approve,” I joke.
“Of what?”
“Of a courthouse wedding. She loves lavish parties and any reason to get dressed up. I think she will kill me if we just go to the courthouse in jeans.”
“Well, it’s not her wedding, is it?”
“No, it’s not.”
I sit up in bed and look out at the bright blue ocean outside the balcony. Perhaps, the thing that makes me not want to get married is the party itself. I mean, being with Aiden for the rest of my life? I can make that commitment in a second. It’s a no-brainer. I love him and I want to be with him every waking hour of every day. But hosting a lavish wedding where I am the center of attention? Most women would love that. All eyes on them, celebrating their beauty. But me? No, that’s not my cup of tea. In fact, I usually go out of my way not to have attention on me. That’s why I write under a pseudonym. I like my life private.
“Ellie?”
“Yes?”
“I just want to be with you. For however long you will have me. And if you don’t want to get married, that’s totally fine. And if you change your mind, that’s fine, too. I won’t ask you anymore as long as you promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“That you will stay with me as long as you love me and not a minute longer.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, taken a little aback by this statement.
“I never want to be one of those couples that are together just because they’ve invested too much time in their relationship. I love you. And I believe I always will. I know you love me and I think you always will. But, if for some reason, you suddenly don’t. Like in a year or ten or fifty. It doesn’t matter. If you don’t love me anymore, then I want you to leave. You deserve to be happy and if that’s not with me, then I want you to go out and find someone you will love with all of your heart. I want you to be happy, Ellie.”
I smile. He presses his lips to mine and I lose myself in the kiss.
Chapter 9 - Ellie
The island…
The following morning, Aiden docks the yacht at the far end of a tiny limestone island called Caye Caulker. Caye is pronounced like Key as in the Florida Keys, but spelled differently. It’s about two miles across, and belongs to Belize, a small nation in Central America of about 300,000 people. Belize is bordered by Guatemala and Mexico to the north and is popular with many American expats because it’s the only English speaking nation south of the United States.
I walk down the wooden dock and admire the sweeping palm trees which bend in the gentle breeze coming off-shore.
“This place is breathtaking,” I whisper as I take off my flip-flops and bury my feet in the white sand. The island is so tiny that there are no proper roads or cars. According to Aiden, the nearby island called Ambergris Caye is much more populated and developed and the main mode of transportation there is the golf cart.
We walk down Front Street, one of the three mains streets, which runs right along the shoreline. Since there are no cars or even golf carts, the only sounds I hear belong to laughing people and chirping birds.
“This place is…amazing,” I say, stopping at one of the booths where a woman in a long floral dress is selling coconut water. Aiden and I order two. She takes the fresh green coconut, puts it on a tree stump, and pulls out a giant machete. With one expert swing, the top of the coconut drops to the ground. She places a straw into the opening and hands it to me.
“This is delicious!” I say, taking another long sip. “I’ve never had fresh coconut water before.”
“Once you have this, you’ll never be able to drink that coconut water they sell in the States again,” Aiden says. “No matter how much they tell you that it’s fresh, you’ll know it isn’t.”
I totally agree with him.
“I’ve never been a fan of coconuts before because of their strange aftertaste. Like all those coconut flakes they sell that everyone loves? You know what I mean?”
“Yes. That aftertaste means it’s old. Dated.”
“But this fresh coconut water…I just can’t get enough.” I drink the coconut dry and stop at another booth for second helpings.
A few minutes later, we reach the end of Front Street. It runs straight into the water. Apparently, this is the end of the island.
“This area is called the Split,” Aiden says. “You see that island across the way? In the 60’s, a big hurricane came through and blew this place in half.”
I look across the water. It’s not a long way over, but it’s definitely not very close either. On the other side, by the mangroves, I see a bunch of kids swinging and jumping into the water.
“No one really lives over there. They’re selling some lots as this place is getting more popular, but there aren’t any buildings there. No electricity, of course, or any other conveniences.”
“So, how did those kids get over there?”
“They swam.”
I look at the Split and over at the kids and back again. Some of them are barely five years old and there are no adults in sight.
“They must be great swimmers,” I point.
“If you grow up around here, you kind of have to be,” Aiden says. “C’mon, let’s get a drink.”
We walk over to the bar, right at the edge of the water, called the Lazy Lizard. it’s a big wooden structure with a bar top, bottled beer, and nothing but sand underneath the wooden barstools. I take off my flip-flops and bury my feet in the sand.
“This feels nice.”
Aiden gives me a kiss on the cheek. He hands me my beer and leads me to the dock at the Split. There are people sunbathing all around, with kids jumping into the water right from the dock. This part of the island doesn’t have a sandy beach and the water gets twenty feet deep right away. I find a spot on the dock, hang my feet off the side, and take a sip of the light Belizean beer called Belkin. The warm salt air seems to fill every part of me and makes me more awake than I ever was before.
At this place, at the edge of a dock, on a small island in the middle of the Caribbean, the world seems to be entirely different. Time moves at a different pace and the pressures and realities of my old life simply vanish. After jumping in and swimming around in the warm water, Aiden and I come back up to sunbathe.
“I have to tell you something,” Aiden says after we’ve been lying in the sun for who knows how long.
“Hmmm,” I mumble, unable to move. I need to go back into the water, but I’m too hot to move. Aiden seems to be similarly relaxed.
“My attorney got wind that Blake might not be working out.”
This piques my attention. I ask him for the details, but he doesn’t really have many. There are rumors that Blake isn’t doing well as interim CEO, but they need a good reason to get rid of him.
I can’t stand the heat anymore. I jump off the dock and submerge myself in the clear blue water. I’m a pretty good swimmer so treading water doesn’t take much effort for me.
“Aiden, I was thinking, maybe it’s time I made a report about what happened. What Blake did to me.”
Aiden dives off the dock.
“What kind of report?” he asks when he comes back up.
“Police report. I mean, it didn’t happen that long ago. And the main reason I didn’t do it before was that I was worried what would happen to your job if the auction thing came out. But now, it’s sort of out already.”
“I don’t know, Ellie. Only if you want to. I don’t want you to do it for me. Not at all. It needs to be entirely your decision.”
“Is there any reason why you wouldn’t want me to go public with this?”
“No.” Aiden shakes his head. “Frankly, I never wanted you to keep it quiet on my behalf. That guy is an asshole and pretty dangerous. I hate the fact tha
t you felt like you needed to keep this quiet on my behalf. Fuck my career, if that means keeping a criminal like him off the streets.”
I admire his passion. Of course, I doubt that he would get any jail time for what he did to me. He would get a great lawyer and so much time has passed that I’m not sure anything is provable anymore. But still, it might make things uncomfortable. Maybe, it will even get him kicked out of his job. I doubt that it will get Aiden his job back, but the world deserves to know that Blake is a sexual assaulter. He is someone who will take advantage of a woman in a vulnerable situation. He thought that by doing what he did where he did, I would be too embarrassed or ashamed to come forward. Well, perhaps I was, at first. But now that some of that story is out already, I have nothing to lose. I have a voice and I’m going to set the record straight.
I swim around for a while mulling this over. When I climb back onto the dock, I’ve made up my mind.
“I’m going to press charges when we get back,” I say. “I’m not letting him get away with this.”
Chapter 10 - Aiden
The island
Over an early dinner of fresh fish and large island cocktails, I ask Ellie to clarify what she said earlier on the dock. The sun was beating down hard out there and I’m not entirely sure that I heard her correctly. Did she really say that she wanted go public with what Blake did to her? Go to the police?
“Yes, I do. I wasn’t kidding,” Ellie says, burying her feet further in the sand under the bench. A soft cool breeze comes off the ocean, adding some zest to my already perfect ceviche.
“I don’t want you to do it just for me,” I say. “It won’t change my situation at all.”
“Oh, that’s not why,” she says. “I’ve just been reading the news and I’m really inspired by all of these women coming forward and calling their abusers out on all the shit that they have done to them. Frankly, I don’t really care if no one believes me. I just want it to be out in the open. I want him to be embarrassed over what he did. That’s the least that could happen to him.”
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