“That’s the first time I fucked without a condom. The first time I’ve ever come inside a girl, too.”
“Really?” she asked. I popped my eyes open to see hers lit up. She got onto her knees and hovered over me.
She needed to know more. Right away. “Are you serious? I don’t believe you.”
I nodded slowly.
“Holy crap,” she said and beamed. She grabbed her knees and pulled them to her chest. “Holy...wow. I don’t believe it. This is the first time you’ve had sex without a condom? You’re just saying that to be funny…”
“No, I wouldn’t kid about that.”
“You’re kinda like a virgin then. In a way.”
I glared at her. “If you want to look at it like that, go ahead. But do me a favor and don’t talk about taking my V card since I’m over thirty fucking years old.”
She rolled her eyes. I shut mine again.
I heard her sniffling a little. “You all right?” I called from the dark.
“Uh huh. I’m glad you told me that, Lucas. I’m glad that I’m special to you. I would’ve never thought it, if you didn’t tell me.”
‘Thought I was a big old man whore, did you?”
“Way to ruin the moment,” she said, but it did get her to stop sniffling.
She curled up next to me, and that’s all it took for me to knock out.
* * *
“Lucas, are you all right?” I heard above me.
“Wha-”
My lips smacked together, and some strange sounds were coming out of it, but I couldn’t understand anything.
“Lucas,” Tia shouted again.
When Tia shouted, look out. I hadn’t heard her scream much except when I was inside of her, so to hear that angel yell like a fucking demon, got me springing out of bed.
“What’s going on? Why’d you wake me up?”
Arms folded over her waist, she craned her neck at me. I immediately realized I’d said something stupid. Her whole body posed like she was asking me, Really?
“Me, wake you up? You were screaming in your sleep. Loud. Really loud. Like someone was trying to murder you.”
“Oh,” I said, my tone flat. I patted the back of my neck and noticed a cold sweat trickling down my spine.
I sometimes talked in my sleep. Okay, I’d give in and say sometimes I screamed like a psycho in my sleep. Not often, it was rare, so I didn’t often care to warn others—not like there were a lot of women who had slept by my side, although a few times I’d woken up people sleeping next door.
“It’s nothing.” I tugged at the blanket, but she snatched it and shook her head, guarding it underneath her chin.
“I’m really worried. Are you sure you’re okay?”
I stared back at her. Her expression was one of pure care. How could I lie to her?
No. Definitely not. I was not okay. Admitting that wouldn’t be easy. “No, I’m not all right. I don’t remember my dreams, I just wake up screaming. Then the old memories resurface.”
I slid back against the headboard. Tia placed her hand on my lap and I placed my hand on top of hers. She warmed me again, thawing that freeze which had crept over me.
“What memories? You can tell me, Lucas. If you want to, that is.”
“I think it’s best that you know.” I tilted toward her and she saw my pain.
As I began to tell her what happened to my brother Brice, my vision flashed with visions from that night—scared, alone, looking out into the dark swarming with flashlights and police officers, the ambulance's lights whipping in frantic circles, my brother’s body still on the lawn. They had thrown a tarp over it, but from the screaming I’d heard, I knew he was dead.
I clasped my forehead, thinking about tearing away a chunk of hair, anything, that would relieve me of these haunting thoughts, but when Tia pulled them away, and I looked to her, I found strength I didn’t know I had.
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up. Whatever happened, I can guarantee it’s not your fault.”
“Thanks,” I stated. “My brother, Brice. He died. Killed himself.”
“What? I’m so sorry, Lucas.”
“Thank you,” I stated again, just trying to get through it. I tried to detach myself from this, because otherwise, I didn’t know if I could get through it.
Whenever I thought about Brice, it was usually in the context of my father and the pressure he put on us. Mentioning him to Tia, the thoughts invaded that protective armor I’d set up long ago, the one which my father had helped me create—I guessed for his own sake as well.
“Brice was supposed to take over the company. We had our differences and our fights, like all brothers do, but we were close. Close enough where I thought if he had any serious problems, he would tell me. I always knew he was stressed, but maybe I didn’t know how much. My father put a lot on him, and Brice was also...troubled.
So one night, when I was eleven, I get woken up to screaming at two twenty in the morning. It’s chaos. I don’t even want to leave my room at first. I hear my father screaming for an ambulance. When I come out, everyone tells me to get to my room.
I keep asking where Brice is. But my father keeps telling me to get to my room. The others in the house tell me to stay as well. I stay in there, as long as I can, listening to the wailing and all sorts of sirens.
When I come out, I sneak to the window. I wait in the dark. I stayed out there, watching from a distance as they marked the scene. He was already covered up. But they weren’t...no one noticed me...I cried quietly by myself, until I ran back to my room. My father found me later and tried to explain what happened. I never told him I already knew.”
At this point, I wiped away tears. Tia crept closer to me and she hooked her arm in mine.
“I’m sorry, Lucas. I’m so sorry.”
I nodded to her. “It was terrible. A terrible thing that no one saw coming. I still wonder if there was anything I could’ve done to save him. Could I stop him from jumping somehow? When something like this happens, everyone tells you that it’s not your fault, that there’s nothing you could do, but it never stops you from asking the question.”
“Look at me, it wasn’t your fault. I’ll tell you that one more time, as many times as you need it. It wasn’t your fault. There wasn’t anything you could do.”
Suddenly, I was overcome with grief. Not over my past. But over my future and how I was making this awkward for Tia. “How did I manage to get a girl like you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe make me jump through tons of hoops, and beat out twenty other girls, including one who tried to kidnap me?”
“When you say it like that, it does sound like you did all the work.” I laughed. “Fuck me, I didn’t mean to make this all about me. We had a good evening together. I’m sorry I woke you up with my screaming.”
“It’s fine.” She leaned closer and looked at me questioningly. “You don’t do this every night, though, do you?”
“No.”
Tia chuckled. “It’s fine,” she repeated. She leaned over, hanging her glorious tits against my arm, and then gave me a peck on the lips.
“God, I love those tits. And those hot lips. I feel a hell of a lot better now.”
“Good. Whenever you need them, they’ll be there.”
With that, we went back to sleep.
This time, I had sweet dreams. Sweet, glorious dreams of that hot piece of ass.
Chapter 18
“Lucas,” I heard over me again.
Oh, what in the hell did I do now? Please, tell me I wasn’t screaming my head off again? I thought that was over with.
“What’d I do?”
Tia smiled above me. She rolled back over and sat on the edge of the bed.
Sunlight streaked in from the balcony and burned my eyes at first. I rubbed them and then sat up quickly. There were no clocks around, so I reached for my pants, trying to get to my cell phone.
“Oh shit, I hope we didn’t sleep through the whole day.”
“How are you feeling now?”
“Guilty,” I told her. I dragged my phone out of my pocket. It was already eleven.
She crossed her arms and kicked out her feet. “I feel kind of guilty too. I can’t tell you the last time I slept past ten.”
“Same.”
“We’ll become total slobs if we keep fucking.” She tangled herself up in the crook of my arm. “I can’t wait,” she purred.
“You could make a rich man go bankrupt with that hot pussy, you know that?”
“Please, I was only kidding. Why do you think I woke you up? This beach is nice, but I plan on swimming at some point, not just looking at it.”
I got up, stretched, and then lowered again, on the downswing, noticing Tia checking out my package. I’d woken up with a hard on.
She licked her lips when she spotted it. “You know...about what you said yesterday.”
About Brice?
She corrected me. “About what you said about the condom, and coming inside someone for the first time.”
Tia began to get dressed. She put on her panties, giving me a shot of her beautiful, big ass, and then strapped those heavenly tits into her bra. She slipped her dress on. “That was the first time anyone’s come in me.”
I blinked twice. Hard. I should’ve known at some point we would need to talk about it.
“And?” I asked her.
She groaned a little under her breath. Maybe she thought I didn’t hear it. Maybe she wanted me to hear it. I couldn’t be sure.
Tia turned around, tossed her hair into place, and said, “Forget it.”
She wanted to know my plans. But my plans couldn’t be divulged.
Snapping my belt buckle in place, I walked over to the balcony and took in a deep inhale of the plentiful, fresh oxygen of the rainforest. “Why don’t you just say what you want to say?”
“I said forget it. You don’t want to talk about it right now, which is fine.”
“No, I’m just not going to do some mind reading bullshit. If you want me to answer a question, you’ll need to ask me.”
“You’re grumpy this morning.”
I snuck up behind her, took her by the waist, and cradled her in my arms, sealing it with a kiss to her neck. “I’ll give you a hint, there’s nothing to be worried about. Are you ready to see what I have planned?”
“Yes. Hell yes. Your plan could not come soon enough.”
I brushed her hair back and kissed her neck.
She looked back at me in fear. “You’re confident. Scarily confident. That worries me.”
“There’s nothing to be worried about.”
We headed downstairs to have our breakfast, which would now be brunch.
“Brunch first, then we’ll have our plans. Nothing to be worried about,” I repeated.
I don’t think she believed me.
* * *
Tia
Two hours into Lucas’s plans, and I still had no idea what he had up his sleeve, only that we were going to be going scuba diving, which was fine with me. I liked adventuring. I liked animals, and the ocean, so why not?
But something told me there was something more. It might’ve been Lucas’s smug grin during our diving instructions.
Yep, something was up. This couldn’t be it. Not like it’d be disappointing if this was all it was. We were taken on a private boat off the coast. They’d shown us some pictures of what we could possibly see, and it all looked incredible—multicolored coral reefs and fish of all shapes and sizes, along with whales and dolphins that might make an appearance.
Jackpot. This was going to be a vacation that I would remember for the rest of my life. I was raring to go, and during our trip into deeper water, I kept asking Lucas when we would get to put on our suits.
“I’m ready to gear up,” I said. Lucas couldn’t stop chuckling at my impatience.
“Just wait. We’ve only been on the boat for a minute.”
“I’ve waited long enough.”
The instructor eventually came to us and started asking us questions. Lucas didn’t seem concerned at all. He didn’t even seem to be paying attention. I figured he left it all up to me, knowing how much I would want to pick where we would dive.
One of the locations featured bull sharks. I clapped wildly when I heard that. Lucas almost sprang from his seat and bolted me down.
“Want to dive with the bull sharks?” I asked him.
“Hell no.” His eyes almost bulged out of his skull.
“Why not? It might be fun.”
He shook his head and smiled again. Why did he find me so funny? Swimming with sharks might not be everyone’s idea of fun, but I’d always found them interesting.
“Let me guess, you have an affinity for sharks as well?”
I shrugged. “They’re kind of cute. Why not?”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t think that up close.”
“You don’t know.”
“Let’s stick to the normal diving spot, please.”
I jabbed his side with my super pointy elbow. “Sounds like someone is scared.”
“I would like to get through this trip with you in one piece.”
“Fine,” I told the instructor. “We’ll just have to settle for the normal dive and hope some sharks wander in.”
Lucas kicked back. “I’m serious. I need to keep you alive. We’re finally out here, together, and nothing is stopping us, unless you decide to go roam the jungle by yourself in search of a sloth baby.”
“Don’t say sloth. I’ll get too excited.”
Lucas groaned, shook his head one more time, and then we went back to waiting. We eventually moved in closer toward the coast, drifting to a spot where I could peer down and see coral, wavering hues of bright violet and orange underneath the surface.
“This is it,” I stated. Adrenaline rushed in me as a few fish zoomed past, and I pointed at them as they tried to flee, but the water was so clear that I could see underneath as far as my eye allowed.
Lucas held me steady as I peered over the edge. He didn’t want me going in just yet. “Tia, we’ve got to get our suits on.”
Suits. Oh right, scuba suits—tight fitting, impossible to fit into scuba suits.
“Shit,” I muttered.
“What?” He cocked an eyebrow on me.
“It’s nothing.”
“Come on, what is it?”
“I hope you have a suit that fits me.”
Lucas caught my hips, thrust me ahead, and then gave me a smack on my ass. The slap echoed ahead with my tiny yelp, and I hoped no one heard it, but I knew they did.
“I’ve got your size. Camilla reminded me that I would need your measurements, and because you went shopping with her yesterday, I was able to arrange it.”
“I should thank her then.”
“And me. I thought about seeing you slip into a tight suit, but seeing those curves busting out of a skin-tight suit...hell no, I’m not interested in giving this crew an eyeful like that. That’s all for me.”
“Thank you, Lucas. I'm excited once again.” And thank you, Camilla, for having my back.
The crew handed us our gear and we strapped in. It fit me snugly, but Lucas had picked the right fit. While he might’ve picked something tamer than last time, he still paid close attention to every move I made as his eyes feasted on my curves.
“I want to fuck you right now,” he breathed as he wrapped his arms around me, pressed his fat cock against my back, and then let me slip away.
“We can’t right now.”
“Too bad I can’t fuck you while we’re under water.”
“You’ve got a thing for me in tight fitting clothing, don’t you?”
“Fuck, you’ve got that right. We’re taking that back to our room later.”
Our room. I liked the way that sounded.
Before we could continue flirting, the head instructor returned and began to go over the rules again. They were a little scary, but since this would be potentially da
ngerous, they were necessary. We listened closely. Then we were taken to our positions, strapped into our oxygen tanks and our masks, and awkwardly using fins for feet, waddled over to the edge of the ship.
Usually, someone from the crew would come along to monitor the dive. For us, they would do their monitoring onboard. Lucas had enough diving experience so they weren’t worried.
“Ready?” he asked me.
I gave him a nod. My heart thud against my chest. Why was I so nervous?
“Go,” he shouted.
We took the plunge and toppled backward into the water. Because we were wearing the heavy tanks, it was easier than I expected, and the next moment I was underwater and trying to orient myself.
I took a careful inhale. The oxygen was still working. Good.
Lucas swam beside me, like a freakin’ sexy merman through the water. The edges of my lips started to curl, but it was hard to smile with the mouth piece. He took off downward and dived toward the bottom of the ocean, leaving me behind.
“Wait up,” I wanted to scream, but the mouth piece. Gotta remember the mouth piece.
I caught up to him. Then I waved for him to stay with me. Lucas splashed around with a nod, then took off again, this time slower, allowing me to swim by his side. I could already feel my heart hammering and my chest tighten as I marveled and wanted to see more.
Schools of yellow fish floated past our eyes. We hung back and watched them swirl in streaks of color, then move away from us, done with their show. As we began to continue past a moss colored anemone, the sea floor dipped to flat sand and Lucas shot his arm out to brace me from going forward.
I stopped and looked ahead.
Four stingrays skimmed the bottom of the ocean. He turned around, and I could make out the lines around his eyes, he was staring me down hard so that I wouldn’t go pet one. Once they carried on, at least far enough where they weren’t in our direct path, we continued.
When we broke through that vacant clearing, we came to an area teeming with all sorts of marine life. I looked up to see different patterns of fish covering my view. The ocean was filled with life, dancing around us, and as I focused above, a striped golden black fish with plenty of fins chugged along while smacking its lips. It bobbed across my eye line, as if to say, “Hey, keep it moving.”
The Billionaire's Bride (Complete Collection) Page 17