by Alice Ward
“I—”
“Hush it. I’m not finished, and you’re going to listen to every word I say. Got it?”
I nodded, a smile playing on my lips. I didn’t know I liked bossy Eli so much.
He pulled a little black box from his pocket, drawing my attention away from his face. I gasped as he opened it to reveal an enormous diamond.
“I’ve bought us an island in the Florida Keys. We’re going to build a house, and you and I will work for Key Ventures remotely from our little island.”
The first tear fell. “Eli—”
“Hush, baby. Let me finish.” I licked my lips, nodding again. “I’ve taken this time and tried hard to think of only myself. I could never accomplish that feat. You consume my thoughts. Nothing else mattered because you’re the most important part of me. Without you, I can’t be me. I’ve told you this before, I’m already married to you in my mind, heart, and soul. I want to make it legal too.” He pulled the ring out of the box then took my left hand. “Kendra Celine Baxter, will you please legally marry me and make my life complete?”
The tears flowed so thickly, I could only see shapes. The lump in my throat was so huge, I couldn’t get a word out. So I nodded again, and Eli slipped the glorious ring on my finger. His arms wrapped around me, taking me back to when it was just us and the island.
My lips parted and welcomed his kiss as he picked me up and carried me inside, stopping in front of my bedroom door. “How do you know this is my room?”
“Because I came inside first and talked to your family. By the way, they’re all on board with this. They noticed how different you’ve been; your father called you a ghost. Anyway, you and I will be staying a few days here before we head to Florida. I want to get to know the people you love and let them get to know me. I can’t wait to show you the place our new home will be.” His brows furrowed. “It might not be exactly the way we planned things when we were on our island. I hope that’s alright.”
“It’ll be better.” I threw my arms around him as he kicked the door closed. “My home is anywhere you are. I’m so glad you came for me. I missed you more than I could ever imagine. I wasn’t me without you.”
My shirt was over my head and on the floor in an instant. “Eli… my family. They’ll hear.”
“No, they won’t. They left for a couple hours to give us privacy.”
I gaped at him. “Dad left us alone in the house.”
He grinned. “Yep.” Then he grew serious again. “God, I’ve missed you. It was hard to pull myself together after you left, but I knew I had to prove that you’re my number one priority. Nothing is more important to me than you and our baby and all our future babies.”
I wondered if a heart could explode from pure happiness.
“Please, don’t hold my past against me again. I’m a different man than the one you met that day in the office.”
I nodded and pressed my lips to his. He was telling the truth. “I promise, I’ll let those silly insecurities go. You’re not that guy anymore. Anyone can see that. I’m sorry I put us through all this.”
“It’s okay. I think it might’ve been necessary. We needed that little break to know our feelings were real. They are. I love you. If I could choose any woman in the world, it would be you.”
What we’d been through changed us both. The island paradise we experienced had joined us in a way nothing else could. We had something different, unique, and what we had would last forever.
Eli was ridding me of my clothes in record time, and I stripped his away too. Our bodies had been denied the company of the other for too long. He picked me up and laid me on my bed, then looked me over. “Man, I missed your sexy little body.” He picked up my foot and kissed the top of it, kissing a line up my body as he moved over me. “I love you, Kendra.”
Holding his face between my palms, I gazed at him. “I love you too. I feel like I always have. Will you please make love to me now, before I explode?”
He grinned, his dimple winking at me. “My pleasure.”
My body was on fire for him. My insides quivered as his cock stroked up my slit, the tip barely inside me. The connection made us one, but also freed us.
Every place our bodies touched sent electricity shooting through me. What we had wasn’t normal, nor would it ever be. I didn’t want normal anyway. I wanted the man who’d taken my attention from the very beginning. I wanted the man who was my husband in my heart and soon would be on paper too. I wanted us. The us we found when no one else was around.
Our gazes locked in the moment before we joined completely. While I loved everything about sex with Eli, it was this part I enjoyed the most. Not because it was physically better than our other lovemaking, it was because the initial penetration was my reminder that I wasn’t alone, that we were together for a reason.
Feeling him sliding into me, my body molding around his, made me feel complete, filling the place inside me I didn’t know was missing.
When he was fully seated, I wrapped around him and ran my fingers through his soft hair, gazing up into his masculine perfection.
He was the kind of beautiful that artists could only dream of capturing. And he was mine. It wasn’t only the glittering diamond that signified our relationship. It was so much deeper than that. Something that the human language didn’t have enough words to describe.
We rocked back and forth, little ripples of pleasure going through me as his pubic bone rubbed my clit just right. I held him tighter, lifting my hips to change the angle. I might’ve been fairly new at this sex thing, but I was learning fast.
We didn’t speak. We didn’t kiss. The only sound in the room was that of our bodies moving together.
His muscles tensed under my hands, his face a picture of torment as he fought to last. In the short time I’d known him, I learned that he always made sure my own pleasure came first. Not just for his ego. I think he truly wanted to care for me on a level I was just beginning to understand.
I belonged to him — heart, body, soul. And I knew he would do everything in his power to take care of me through protection or pleasure.
And he did please me. The ripple of an orgasm shooting through me was evidence of that.
“Let me take care of you,” I whispered against his lips. “Let me thank you.”
I tightened around him, and he groaned, his body stiffening as he came. His hand fisted in my hair as he took my mouth in a rough, demanding kiss. As his tongue twisted with mine, he thrust harder through his release, and a second climax washed over me.
Even as pleasure flooded through every cell of my body, it was the sound of his voice whispering my name, the feel of him holding me, that mattered the most. Everything in my life had been leading me to him at just the right place and time for him to be ready for me.
“I love you.” His eyes met mine. “I will always love you and our children. I will love our life. I’m thankful every day that you walked into my office.”
“And I’ll always love you,” I promised, meaning it with every inch of my heart.
“I’ll never let you leave me again,” he whispered against my lips.
“Good. Because I’ll never go.” I’d foolishly put our love to the test. It passed. End of experiment.
The sun was just going down beyond the window I’d looked out of since I was a little girl. I’d grown up. After twenty-two years, I had gone from Daddy’s little girl to Eli’s wife. It was the greatest feeling I’d ever known.
“Do you have any idea how wonderful it feels to be your woman?”
“If it’s anything close to how it feels to be your man, I do.” He nuzzled my neck, taking a deep breath. “You feel so right like this. I hope you know I’m going to need to feel you like this all night long. I’m afraid you spoiled me on our island. Having sex five and six times a day can be addicting.”
“I agree. I’ll let you explain that to my father.”
We laughed, and the easy sound was almost as fulfilling as the love we’
d just shared.
EPILOGUE
Eli
“Grab the dog’s leash before he gets too far down the beach,” I said to my little girl. “Your grandparents are waiting for us.”
“I got it, Daddy!” Adley shouted as she jumped on our Springer Spaniel’s leash, her little five-year-old hands stopping him from missing out on going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for the weekend. “Come on, Spanky. You wanna go too, don’t you?”
Kendra, who had been packing the mountain of kids’ things into her parents’ boat, stepped up to my side, sliding her fingers through mine.
“Good job, Ad!” she shouted, a big smile on her face. “Maybe she can help harness Pepper too.” I laughed, glancing over at our two-year-old, Pepper. She could swell up like a toad when she got mad.
“I can make Pepper laugh,” said Ty, our four-year-old son. He immediately attempted to prove himself correct by making a silly face, then grinned like crazy when he made his baby sister crack up.
Kendra and I got pregnant again with Ty when Adley was only three months old. It was a happy accident, and it gave us a set of what some people called Irish twins, kids born within one year of each other.
Our hands were full for a little while, but Kendra and I handled it well. She and I made a great team as parents. We made a great team with work too. Together, we’d managed to triple our investments and those of our clients. She and I had a sixth sense when it came to investing, and it gave us plenty of time to simply enjoy our busy world.
Pepper was our only planned pregnancy, and she was easily our most difficult child. Every bit as stubborn as her mother, even Kendra admitted that. One would think we might decide to stop there, but my wife got the urge for another, and we planned to use our kid-free anniversary weekend to work on baby number four.
Kendra’s parents always took the kids for the weekend of our anniversary. It had become a tradition, giving us some alone time to rekindle the magical love that too often got pushed to the side when raising small children.
With Spanky in tow, we wrestled all three kids onboard the vessel and into lifejackets, giving and receiving sloppy kisses before Mr. and Mrs. Baxter pushed off, heading back to the mainland of Florida.
Life was good.
After a rough start, I’d become close with my in-laws. No one was more surprised by that than me. And they were crazy over their grandchildren. My father was crazy over them too.
Dad and I talked about Mom when he came to meet his first grandkid at the hospital. For the first time since she died, we had an honest conversation.
“When she was gone, I knew I’d never love another the way I loved her,” he’d told me as he held his grandchild while Kendra slept. “So I didn’t try to find love.” He grinned a little shyly. “But having female company was a thing I enjoyed, so enjoy I did while I waited to be reunited with your mother again someday.” He laughed. “I’m sure she wouldn’t hold my philandering against me.”
With our families on our side, Kendra and I had the life we wanted. No arguing. Well, there was some arguing. Okay, a lot. I did marry Kendra Baxter after all. But we always made up, and we never let anything get in our way of being happy, of loving each other the way I believed we were meant to.
From the moment I saw her, I knew there was something there. I looked at her with lust at that time, but even then, something more simmered inside me for her. I’d been so jaded about love and relationships for so long, I never saw it coming. And I was so very glad my eyes were opened by our experience and I didn’t push her out of my life. Or let her go.
Our time on the island was magical. It cemented a bond that I was certain nothing could break. Not that I was going to let anything even try to break what we had.
Our paradise had been interrupted, but we found it again. Living happily just outside of the real world was where we wanted to be. Neither of us had plans of ever leaving our tropical paradise. And here we were, planning to add another person to the island’s population.
Side by side, Kendra and I held hands as we waved until we couldn’t see the boat anymore. When she turned to me, her eyes had gone misty. She blinked rapidly, swiping a hand under her eye. “I miss them already.”
“Well, we can’t have that.” I picked her up and walked straight into the crystal clear — and warm — water with her. “I have you all alone on our very own island. I’ll have to keep you so busy you won’t think of anything but me.”
Laughter filled the air as I tossed her up then caught her again. “You’re crazy!”
“About you, I am.” I kissed her then, a deep kiss, the kind you don’t have with kids running around. Our hands moved all over each other, stripping away the shorts and shirts we wore. The small waves pushed them onto the white sandy beach, an excellent place to begin the baby making.
Our mouths didn’t part as I carried her to the shore and laid her down in the soft sand. Her much shorter hair had gone to a light shade of blonde from being in the sun so much, a distinct contrast to her tanned skin. Ending the kiss, I gazed at her as she lay there, looking up at me. Her hair was splayed out around her gorgeous face, taking my breath away.
She ran her hand over my five o’clock shadow. “Let it grow out. Be my caveman again.”
I grunted. “Caveman, huh? Is that what you want, for me to go all caveman on you right now?”
The flash of excitement that went through her emerald eyes answered that for me. Thanks to the complete seclusion of the island, we could get back to nature, back to the freedom of having sex wherever we wanted, and however loud we wanted.
It was about to get loud.
Running my fingertips down her naked body, making it quiver with my touch, I smiled at the effect I still had on her. She still trembled at the mere touch of my fingertips.
“Remember our first time on the beach?” I asked her as I circled a lazy finger around her hardened nipple.
She laughed and winced at the same time. “I sure do. I was raw for days.”
Sex on the beach was supposed to be the height of romance, but the reality of it was much different. Sand the fucking everywhere. I mean everywhere. I thought I even pissed it for a couple days.
I was smarter about beach sex now, so I laid down on my back, pulling her on top of me high enough that I could take a juicy breast into my mouth — sucking, licking, and nipping until she was writhing, moaning my name. I admired my work. “You could cut glass with that thing now.”
She laughed, but her eyes held that wild, lust-filled look I loved. “You’re going to tease me mercilessly, aren’t you?”
I gave her a lopsided grin as I nodded, pulling her mouth down to mine. As my fingers moved lower, I took her bottom lip between my teeth, worrying at it before drawing it into my mouth. I licked and sucked the soft flesh even as I slipped a finger, then two, inside her. Her body jerked the moment I touched her clit, and I knew it wouldn’t take much to get her off.
She yelped when I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her up my body until she straddled my chest. “What a view,” I said, blowing on the pink flesh of her pussy, causing her to blush just like she still did anytime I complimented her.
Even after three kids, she was more beautiful than when we first met. She complained about her stretch marks and breasts that sagged a little more than before, but I loved her more mature body. The body that had housed and nurtured our children. The body I got to watch each of them be expelled from. The body that nursed them. Held them. Loved them.
Loved me.
Watching her face, I pulled her higher up my chest until she was straddling my face. Her breathing grew more rapid as I made her wait for that first long lick.
She cried out, throwing her head back when I gave it to her, loving the way my tongue slid through her folds.
“Ride me, baby. Grind. Use me for what you need.”
And she did. She took as hard as I gave with my tongue and teeth and fingers, eating that sweet pussy until she shattered over me.
So sweet. Kendra was my favorite food, and I craved her constantly. I loved nothing more than getting her off. Watching her climax was a thing of beauty. I couldn’t get enough.
She was breathing hard, her hands clutching at my hair as I moved her down until her wet slit coated my cock, readying us both.
“Please,” she moaned.
“Anything, Kendra. I’ll give you anything you need.”
“Give me another baby to love.”
Our eyes connected as I lifted her and slid inside, groaning as her walls enclosed me, welcomed me. I groaned as I buried myself inside her. I wasn’t going to last long, not with her pussy spasming around me like that. We linked hands, hearts, minds as surely as our bodies. Knowing each other’s wants and needs, we didn’t have to say a word.
She rode me, her body pulsing with each thrust, her hair blowing in the breeze.
So beautiful, and I was so lucky that she was mine.
As I thrust up, she came down hard, the sounds of our bodies slapping together so erotic. I pounded into her with deep, hard strokes meant to reach every inch of her. Her eyes met mine with the glassy haze of pleasure that told me she was enjoying this as much as I was.
Her hair blew in the warm breeze, and I grabbed two handfuls of it, pulling as I took her the way she’d asked me to. Like a caveman.
We sounded like animals as we let go. Releasing her hair, I took her by the waist to hold her steady as I went harder and faster.
“Come, Kendra. Let me watch your face.”
She ground down hard, and I knew she was close. I moved my hand to her clit, and with only one touch, she exploded, going over the edge with a scream. Her pussy clamped around me, and I followed, an explosion of pleasure coursing through my body. We clutched each other, as I pulled her to my chest, never wanting this perfect moment to end.
It wasn’t possible.
I knew that just as I knew I’d have her again… soon.