by Kira Blakely
“What?”
“The last head of my charity turned out to be embezzling funds. It’s too embarrassing and damaging to my own image to admit what had happened. I couldn’t let people know that the first charitable foundation I ever ran was turned into a sham through mismanagement. It would devastate my brand to admit it. I wanted Maurice’s name and his experience with management and kids to help turn it all around. But I needed it to look hard, to keep people guessing. If it looked too seamless or too eager, the press would dig and see the mistakes I made. But, Jesus Christ, we’ll settle on all the points you want tonight once we’re back. I don’t want to delay any other treatments your mom can get.”
“I… really?”
He kissed me, his tongue ferocious and firm against my own. “Of course. I wish you’d told me. Fuck, princess, I could have done more these last few weeks, too.”
I snorted and wiped at my eyes. “Maybe we could have been completely honest earlier. I shouldn’t have hidden Mom’s cancer but I didn’t know you well enough before. I was worried you’d use it as leverage. It was before I knew you.”
“And no one is ever allowed to know my mistakes. I didn’t want you to have leverage on me either, but no, the deal gets signed tonight. We’ll get you home to your mother as soon as you need. You’re not selfish; you were just trying to protect your family. Believe me.”
I sighed and stroked his cheek. “I wish I could.”
“Then let me show you,” he said.
He stood up and, carrying me in a fireman’s lift, set me on the sand. “Do you mind making love here, Belle?”
“I… so this isn’t a scene?” I asked, gesturing to my collar.
“No, this is just us. Just you and me. No kinks, no games. I want to make love to you, Belle, just like you deserve,” he said, kissing my cheek. He reached up behind my neck and unclasped the collar, tossing it to the sand beside us. “Just Drake and Belle.” He punctuated that final point by unbuttoning his shirt and tossing it aside as well. The moonlight splayed over his eight pack, highlighting his perfect abs and just hinting at the scar on his hip and side.
“I…”
He took my hand in his and placed it directly over his scar. “This is about us, Belle, and I’m as exposed as I can be. I want you. I don’t just want games or BDSM. I don’t just want you on this island. I want us. So let me make love to you like you deserve.”
Tears stung my eyes, but this time they were tears of joy.
“Please do,” I said, sitting up long enough for him to slip the soft yellow fabric off my body and chuck it next to my collar and clutch.
Drake didn’t move at first as I lay stretched out before him. It was like he was digesting every detail of my body with his eyes. Then he reached down and stroked my soft skin, tracing patterns on my collarbone that only he seemed to know. Leaning down, Drake laved at the hollow pulse point of my neck and then nibbled at my shoulder. Goosebumps pebbled over my shoulder and up my body, a chill sweeping through me that had nothing to do with the hot and humid Bahamian air around us and everything to do with my desire. The salt stung my nose and mixed with his cologne, his natural musk, and even a hint of the garlic-laden dish we didn’t eat. All of it tickled my sense of smell.
His mouth moved lower, littering my chest with what felt like a million kisses before he found my breasts and began to suckle at the right one, his mouth wrapped tightly over it. My clit pulsed with need and it felt like sparks exploding over my skin, tingles shooting over every nerve. I moaned and bucked my hips, desperate to join him.
To really be with him with all artifice stripped from us was like the first time, but now the trust was there, the bridge we hadn’t yet built the night he took my virginity.
He pulled back long enough to shake his head and stroke my hair. “All the best things take time, Belle. I thought you knew that by now.”
“But I want this so badly,” I said.
“I know you do, sweetheart, but let me worship you like the goddess you are,” he said before moving on to kiss a trail down over my stomach, to the hollow of my belly button, and finally stopping to nibble at my hipbone. “God, you taste so wonderful, did you know that?”
Drake continued even lower, his nose nuzzling at the soft apex of down at my mons. “You smell amazing, too.”
I blushed and could feel the heat flare on my cheeks, even if he couldn’t see it. “I’m just me.”
He lifted his head and kissed my lips. “And you’re perfect.”
Drake shifted his position so that he was over me then and nudged my legs apart with his legs, goading me to part them. He didn’t have to try hard to do that, not at all. His bulk was above me, pressing me to the sand so that the little flecks dug into my skin, but I didn’t care about that now. All I wanted was him inside me, to feel his length buried deep against my core.
He slid in slowly at first, teasing me, until I leaned up and nibbled at his shoulder.
“You can go faster. It’s okay.”
“But this should be slow and sweet. I rarely do it that way, so you should take advantage of it, Belle.”
“But I want it however you can give it,” I admitted, laughing a little, despite my earlier mood. “It’s always fast and furious between us, so why would now be any different? I like that, the wild side you bring out in me. I didn’t even know it was there.”
He nodded and thrust deeply until I felt his testicles slap against me. I shuddered at every inch of him buried deep inside my core, my skin feeling like someone had taken those sparklers from the Fourth of July and pressed them against me, igniting a riot of heat and power and fire all over my body.
“Are you sure?” he asked once more. “I can go slow, too.”
I leaned up and kissed him, biting his lip playfully as I pulled away. “Just fuck me, Drake, please.”
He didn’t need to ask again. He pounded into me then, his hips pumping with all their force, his length hitting up against my G-spot over and over again. Digging my heels into the ground, I tried to get purchase in the sand. My fingers passed through the sand, grabbing onto nothing before digging deeper into the wet layer beneath the grains. Blood pounded in my ears, but that noise just blended with the sound of waves crashing on the shore. Still, he continued, the force of his flexing hips making sparks arch over me again and again, driving pleasure from my very core.
I came soon enough, even before he flooded inside of me. It was like fireworks exploding all over me, firing over my skin and bursting behind my eyes.
In the afterglow, I laid there, curled in his arms and laughing.
“What is it?” he asked with humor in his voice.
“I think we forgot about dinner.”
***
Drake
I held her naked body against me for a long time before we both regained enough strength to shove our clothes back on and eat. I’d love to watch Belle eat naked, but she figured it wasn’t exactly hygienic. She was probably right even if her eating with that wrinkled yellow dress on wasn’t nearly as sexy as her biting into lobster and scallops naked. As for me, I had slipped my shirt back on to deal with the cool ocean breeze that, even now, kept blowing my hair into my eyes. But I didn’t feel the need to button it.
It was freeing.
For so long, my clothes—a tank top, a t-shirt, a business suit—were my wall against the world, there to hide my shame and my failure. Now, with Belle, I didn’t give a fuck. She saw me, all of me, and she cared about me anyway.
“I’m serious about what I said. I want to have a life together when we go back to Los Angeles, and I don’t want it to be just about kinky sex.” I grinned and bit into my lobster. “Don’t get me wrong. I love the kink and the sex.”
“Because you’re basically a god at it,” she admitted.
“Oh, you’re no slouch yourself, princess,” I teased. “But this is more to me than that,” I said, reaching out and taking her hand. “This is more to me than games.”
Belle nodd
ed, a twinkle finally returning to those sapphire eyes of hers. “I’m glad. In fact—”
A shrill noise rang out then and we both frowned at her purse.
“Huh, that’s weird. The service is only for other people on my dad’s plan, at least this far out in the Bahamas. It has to be my family.” She went pale. “Oh God, do you think that Carol squealed?”
I balled my hands up at my side. The last thing I gave a fuck about was Carol, especially since she’d left the woman I cared about feeling like shit. I hadn’t been kidding. I’d have ruined any career Carol had a hope of having if Belle let me. I still would. All my princess had to do was say the word.
“Just answer it.”
Belle nodded and turned the call on. “Hey, Dad? She what? You’re at the E.R. now? Oh, my God!” My heart stopped as I watched the pain and fear fall over Belle’s face. The tears started soon after that and her voice wavered on the phone. “Is she going to? Yeah, I’m sure I can be home in about nine hours or less. I don’t think Drake will mind me using his jet.”
“Belle?” I asked, even though I could figure out what was happening. I knew that “oh shit” look well enough. I’d seen it not that well-hidden on commanding officers back in Iraq when things went balls up.
She shook her head and focused on the call. “I’ll be there right away. Love you, Dad. Tell Mom to hang on, please.”
“What’s going on?”
“Mom collapsed. She was rushed to the E.R. and has some brain bleeding that might be a side effect of the treatment she’s on. I have to get home… they’re not even sure…” She burst into tears, and I reached over to hug her. I was shocked when she pulled away. “Don’t.”
“What?” I asked, feeling like a fucking Mack truck had just hit me.
“I can’t. All the pretty words in the world don’t matter. We can’t… I was here when she got sick. I wasn’t working fast enough on the deal. She’s possibly dying in a hospital in California, and I’m here having sex on the beach.” She bolted up to her feet, and I did the same. “I have to go.”
“Of course, you do. My plane can be ready by the time you get to the airport. I’ll come, too.”
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“I said don’t.”
“What?”
She yanked up her purse and hesitated over the collar on the table. “I can’t think around you. I let myself be selfish and focus too much on only what I want. I need to be clearheaded to help Mom, if I even can. I… maybe I was lying to myself this whole time. Maybe you’re just an escape.”
I fisted my hands at my side, and when I replied my voice was low. Dangerous. “So I’m just convenient for you?”
“Maybe. I just make all the wrong choices with you. I thought it was love, but maybe it’s just the first freedom I’ve had in years. I have to go!” she shouted, turning to head back to the house.
The darkness was trying to pull me under. For the first time in weeks, another flashback was haunting me, that pain in Martinez’s eyes as he died in my arms. That was better than my best friend, than Jimmy, who’d already been in pieces due to the IED. For a moment, the humidity of the beach could have been the damn arid desert.
But I fought my way back, clawed my way to the here and now.
Reaching out, I grabbed both of her shoulders but not tightly. I wasn’t going to scare her, never again. “You can go, Belle, but don’t throw away everything we had. We meant something... mean something.”
“I don’t make the right choices when I’m with you.”
“You don’t act like a martyr with me,” I corrected. “You have a choice to live your life, too, or always beat yourself up over things you can’t control. Please, we can help your family together.”
“I can’t. Carol was right,” she said, ducking out of my grasp.
I swallowed and it felt like shattered glass lined my throat. “If that’s how you feel.”
“It’s how it has to be,” she said. Tears streamed down her face, but she was the one doing this to herself. And to us.
To me.
Shaking my head, I picked up the collar and handed it to her. “Take it. It’s yours and it’s worth a lot of money. I should know. You’re free now, Belle, like you wanted. All I ask is you take that to remember me by. Is that too distracting?”
That seemed to shake her out of her spiral just for a minute. She reached up to stroke my cheek, but I stepped out of her grasp. I didn’t need to be blown off by her. She’d said too fucking much already.
“I didn’t mean that.”
“I think you did, Belle. All this time, I bet you thought I was using you, that it was all about not getting too close to the playboy. But we were both wrong, weren’t we? You were using me, and I’m done with it. Goodbye, Belle, and have a good life.”
With that, I turned and headed out to the shore.
Chapter Sixteen
Belle
My heart was pounding as I ran through the halls of the hospital. I had gotten lost trying to get to the ICU and ended up in emergency instead. Every part of the damn hospital looked like every other part, and all I wanted was to find my mom. I could have slept on the flight, theoretically, but the only thing I could really do was sit there and hold a glass of water in my shaking hands.
Mom.
I hadn’t taken care of my mom well enough.
I should have been here all along.
And now I might be too late…
I skidded into a nurse’s desk and set my hands on the counter. “Please, I’m looking for Angelique Fontaine. I’m her daughter. Please, which room?”
The nurse nodded and flipped through her clipboard with the speed of a turtle. I understood she was going through a regular day for her and trying to be efficient, but each second felt like a century.
“Please, there has to be some information. Something,” I said, pulling out my license in case she needed proof of who I was.
“Yes, yes, I see now. Ms. Fontaine is in room 332, just down the hall and to your left.”
“Can you tell me anything about her condition?”
“It’s best if you head down there. The doctor should be in shortly with an update for the family, miss.”
I nodded and tried to keep my head held high. If I fell over or collapsed into tears I’d never get back up, never struggle to the room.
Mom, oh, Mom…
When I got there, I found George and Carol sitting just outside the door in some chairs. He was patting her hand and trying to be sympathetic. I turned to my sister, quite aware I was still in mussed makeup but at least in jeans and a light sweater. I didn’t know if she could tell how recently I’d had sex with Drake. I wanted to take her aside and beg for forgiveness, to tell her that she was right and I’d been too selfish.
I’d say anything if I could save my mom.
Carol eyed me and then nodded. “The medication caused a brain bleed. She fainted with Dad and they rushed her here. She’s stable and they caught it in time, but she’ll have to be here for a couple of weeks of rehab and observation.”
“Thank God,” I said, clutching her hand, hoping some of what I’d done was at least behind us until Mom was better. We could fight later, but we both had to be here together for her. “Can I see her? Is she awake?”
Carol nodded and stood, but then pulled me down the hall away from George. Lowering her voice, she added, “I wanted to tell you this first, though. Drake McManus’s lawyers called when you were en route. He’s offering ninety cents on the dollar and all he wants to secure the deal is to have Dad named the newest CEO and chairman of his kids’ charity. You and I can have any post we want or nothing at all, depending on what we prefer. He’s even called ahead to Hopkins and UCLA to get the best specialists over to Mom on his dime. I... I don’t understand everything you did, and I don’t think I want to know…”
I blushed and looked down at my hands, ashamed of everything I’d done, of the fact I’d forgotten how sad my family was,
how desperate and alone so far away. I just hadn’t been here, and I should have been. I knew better and look what had happened.
Rationally, Mom’s sudden reaction wasn’t my fault, but guilt wasn’t rational.
It felt like I’d done it, like I’d tempted fate by finally being happy for the first time in years.
“You don’t have to say anything. I had no idea Drake was going to be that generous or that he’d been contacting doctors. To be honest, the second I heard, I ran for the suitcases and hurried to get to the jet.”
“Well, you need to thank him once he’s back in town for sure. He really went beyond.”
“We’re not… it’s over.”
Carol’s face stiffened. “Did he dump you? What a creep!”
“No,” I said, my voice wavering. “I mean, it was a bit more mutual. I dunno… there was just fighting and I realized you were right. I need to help my family, and I can’t just do whatever I want. I’m just glad he delivered on the deal.” I held my head up higher. “But I won’t be in negotiations with him anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” Carol said, gathering me up into her arms for a hug. “I’m glad you’re back. I missed you.”
She had a funny way of showing it while I was gone.
Pulling away from her, I headed back to room 332. “We can catch up after I see Mom and Dad.”
Carol smiled. “I’d like that.”
It would make one of us.
***
“Mom!” I shouted, hurrying to her bedside and taking her hand. She had the leads from a heart monitor on, tangling her up in a bed like the arms of an octopus, and an oxygen tube dangling from her nose. Her skin was pale and thin as paper, but she was alive and she was still here. It was a start. “Oh, God, are you okay?”
Dad stood up and kissed me on the temple. “Baby, we’ve missed you. I didn’t know you were coming back.”
“I tried to get back as fast as I could. I tried to call from the plane but it didn’t have reception. I’m so sorry. Then I was calling at LAX but the cell signal in here sucks. I just… I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”
Mom shook her head, as best as she could manage with all the tubes on. “Baby, you didn’t do anything, and you’re here now.”