by V. K. Sykes
Then he pulled out. “Let’s get rid of these,” he said, his voice rough and urgent as he drew her panties off.
A moment later, she was completely exposed, and he moved down between her legs, using his broad shoulders to push her wide open. Every muscle in her body went weak as she took in the possessive, hungry expression in his eyes.
“God, you’re so pretty down there, Lily,” he murmured in a husky voice. “And so wet.”
When he rubbed a finger over her, she almost climaxed. She arched her back and clamped her fists into the duvet, trying to hold back the beautiful spasms. It was too soon. When she came, she wanted Aiden to be deep inside her.
He flashed a wicked grin. “I take it that felt good. Want me to do it again?”
She did her best to glare at him. “What do you think?”
His head came down, and he flicked his tongue across her sensitized flesh. If his hands hadn’t been planted on the inside of her thighs, holding her down, Lily would have shot right off the bed.
For the next few minutes, he subjected her to delicious torture, spreading her wide while he licked her, teasing her over and over. She tried to hold something back—retain some semblance of control—but it was too hot, too good, and she finally surrendered to his expert attentions, moaning out her need.
“That’s it, babe,” he murmured, pulling back a bit. “Just let go. Let me take care of you.”
“Then why the hell are you stopping?” she gasped.
“Just a slight adjustment.” He slipped two fingers back inside her. Then he moved down on her again, slowly dragging his tongue over her aching sex, sending her right to the edge.
Lily reached down and clamped her hands on his shoulders. It felt wonderful—God, it felt like heaven—but she wanted more.
“Aiden.” Her voice caught. “I want you inside me. Please.”
He turned his face, and she felt his smile against her inner thigh. Then he glanced up, his eyes warm with laughter and tenderness. “Whatever you want, Lily.”
He took his time about it, making a slow tour up her body. She shivered at the feel of his mouth on her belly, and his rough palms sliding up her sides. When he reached her breasts he obviously decided to take a little detour.
“So sweet,” he said as he thumbed her nipples to tight points. “I bet they taste good too.”
Lily was tempted to whack him for such a corny line, but then he leaned down and drew one nipple into his mouth with a hard suck. She felt the pull all the way to her core. She squirmed beneath him but he didn’t let up, massaging both her breasts as he moved back and forth between the rigid, aching tips. Growing almost desperate, she arched against him, rubbing herself along his thick erection.
“You’re driving me crazy,” she finally gasped.
“You and me both,” he muttered. He rolled slightly to the side and reached a long arm over to the bedside table. Lily hadn’t noticed before, but there was a box of condoms there, ready and waiting.
“You were obviously confident about the way things would go tonight,” she said.
“Let’s just say I was hopeful.” Aiden shook a condom free and went up on his knees.
Lily stared at him, dumbstruck by how absolutely gorgeous he was and by the fact that they were finally going to make love.
He glanced up as he rolled the condom over his erection. “Ready?” he asked in a gravelly voice she felt through her entire body.
Throttling back on the urge to burst into tears, she held her arms out to him. “You have no idea.”
He let out a husky laugh. The tip of his erection nudged her entrance as he slid an arm under her shoulders. Bracing himself on one forearm, he slowly pushed into her as he held her gaze.
Lily felt her eyes grow wide as he stretched her to an impossibly, beautifully tight fit. She dug her fingers into his biceps as she instinctively pulled her legs up to cradle his lean hips.
Oh. My. God. Lily was overwhelmed, both emotionally and physically, and the tears that had been threatening now dampened her eyes.
Sucking in a ragged breath, Aiden’s eyelids closed for a few seconds, his features pulled taut with pleasure. Then he opened his eyes, and Lily’s heart jolted at the tenderness she saw in his gaze.
“I know,” he whispered, leaning down to kiss away the tear that had trickled down one cheek. “I feel the same way, Lily-girl.”
She blinked, not entirely sure what he meant. And how could she possibly respond, since she didn’t really know the true state of his emotions?
But then he began to move, sparing her the need to answer. Her body curled up to him, seeking pressure along every point of connection. Aiden took her lips in an openmouthed kiss, tasting her with a sweet urgency that had her trembling in his arms.
He reached a big hand down to her thigh, silently urging her to wrap her legs around his waist. When she did, it brought her up to the perfect angle. His thick length rubbed against her, building the pleasure and the heat between them.
Then, just as she hovered on the edge of orgasm, Aiden came up on his forearms. Arching his back, he pushed into her with a heavy, fast stroke.
Lily felt the luxurious spasms begin inside her. When he buried himself deep, grinding into her, the release swept over her in a beautiful, welcome tide. She cried out, clutching at his broad shoulders while he stroked into her again and again. When his body finally went rigid, she wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight as he came. And when he slowly collapsed on top of her, pushing her into the mattress, she eagerly welcomed his weight.
Swamped with emotion, Lily hid her face against his shoulder. Even as every muscle relaxed in the aftermath of the best and most meaningful orgasm she’d ever had, her heart—and what little was left of her brain—acknowledged the enormity of what had just happened.
She was truly, deeply, and stupidly in love with Aiden Flynn.
“That puts an amazing cap on an amazing day,” Aiden said, trying to catch his breath. Actually, amazing didn’t really describe it. Life-changing felt more like it, although he wasn’t close to admitting that to her—or to himself, for that matter.
He gently eased out of her and rolled onto his back, tucking her sweet body under his arm. He craned a bit to look at the bedside clock as he tried to corral his emotions into some semblance of order.
Exactly midnight.
“Happy birthday one last time, Lil.”
She stretched, then draped her right leg over his thigh. “Thank you, but does that mean you’re kicking me out of your room? Because I’m thinking that while the day might be over, there’s a lot of night still to come.”
Aiden stroked the velvet-soft skin of her inner thigh, letting his fingers slide up to tease her sweet, damp curls. “What do you think?”
He had every intention of making love to Lily for most of the night, and for breakfast too, if she was game. Cole Rogers wasn’t picking them up for the return flight until after lunch.
She didn’t answer right away, which was okay with Aiden. After that mind-blowing orgasm, his brain was pretty much mush. He stared vaguely at the ceiling in a halfhearted attempt to focus his eyes.
“What I think is that I shouldn’t be thinking so much,” Lily finally answered.
Aiden’s gaze—and his mind—snapped back into focus. For a couple of moments, he debated whether to answer her with words or with kisses—ones in places that would make her forget everything that troubled her. Things that obviously had to do with him and with… whatever it was that was happening between them.
He came down on the side of words because he didn’t want her agonizing over anything. “What is it that you don’t want to be thinking about?”
Lily rolled over onto her stomach and snuggled closer, resting her folded arms on his chest. “It’s stupid. Here I am, getting so much more than I asked for or ever would have expected, and then I turn around and want even more. It makes me feel like I’m being ungrateful and… kind of petty.” She gazed earnestly at him, all bi
g green eyes and lush red lips.
Aiden responded only by tracing his fingers down her cheek and neck, grazing the tops of her shoulders.
With a sigh, she scrunched up her nose. “It’s just that every time I think about you leaving again…”
He didn’t miss the again or the slight quaver in her voice. That aching tone seemed to bang straight through his rib cage to his heart.
“And I’m afraid that this trip and… everything… is just going to make it that much worse when you do,” she said. “How’s that for ungrateful, huh?”
“I’m sticking around for a while, remember?” Aiden replied, trying to reassure her.
But really, what was he supposed to say? What did she want him to say? That he was ready to give up on baseball, move back to Seashell Bay, and spend the rest of his life hosing down the slimy deck of a lobster boat?
A moment later, he gave himself a mental beatdown for that dickhead thought. Lily didn’t expect any such thing. She was simply voicing regret that fate would keep them apart, just as it had all those years ago.
“And I’m totally grateful that you’ll be here,” she said. She stretched up to give him a quick kiss. When her pretty nipples rubbed against his chest, his dick twitched back to life. “Just ignore me. I’m being an idiot. The combination of alcohol and fabulous sex will do that, I suppose.”
Aiden drew his fingers through her silky, tousled hair. “Baby, none of this is easy for me either. I didn’t intend for it to happen, but I’m not sorry it did.”
Lily’s eyelids fluttered down, as if she were hiding from him. Then she rolled over onto her back and put a few inches between them. “I’m not sorry either,” she said softly.
The lack of conviction in her voice didn’t completely surprise him, but it sure made him feel like crap.
“You don’t look at Seashell Bay the same way as you did before, do you?” Lily said after few moments of uncomfortable silence. “I’ve seen the change, and some part of me wanted to—”
“—believe that I might decide to return to my roots?” he finished for her.
She turned onto her side to face him, propping her head on her hand. “Something like that.”
Okay, maybe he did look at the island in a different way now, and Lily was responsible for that. Not just for what had happened between the two of them, but for forcing him to start grappling with his past. But he had no desire to go any deeper into that past. Not tonight, anyway.
“Honestly, when I was young, I could never get what people saw in the place,” he said. “Leaving aside the crap I took from my dad, the only time I wasn’t bored was when I was in Portland. But even the city was no great shakes back then.”
“Portland’s changed a lot since we were in school. It’s a great city with a lot going on now.”
“Unlike on the island,” Aiden said drily.
She rolled her eyes. “And that’s exactly the way we like it. But if the car ferry and all that new development go ahead, then I guarantee you’ll see plenty of changes.”
“And you hate that idea. I get it. You’re afraid it will turn out to be the worst-case scenario.” Almost unconsciously, he began playing with her hair again. “And I have to say that the more I hear about the plans, the more I understand why you’re worried.”
Lily skimmed her palm down his chest to settle on his abdomen. Aiden wished she’d keep heading south, since then they could switch to more interesting topics.
“You’re right,” she said. “We don’t like change, but we’re not blind or stupid either. We know we have to adapt. Still, we don’t want a huge sea change like Bay Island’s proposal would bring. There’s got to be another solution. A different kind of development.”
“Like what kind?” he asked as he trailed his fingers down her spine.
Lily shivered under his touch. But he didn’t think she was done talking, despite his attempts at distraction. “I was fantasizing a little this afternoon about a place like this in Seashell Bay. An ecoresort—one big enough to create some jobs, but not huge and disruptive like the proposal we’re fighting.”
Aiden’s hand froze on her back. It was the last thing he expected to hear, especially coming from Lily. “Okay, but what are the chances somebody would be interested in developing something like that on the island? Especially with Coastal Harmony already here on the Maine coast?”
When Lily’s hand moved again, gliding in soft circles from his belly to his groin, his concentration started to slip. “Ecotourism is really popular, and it’s only going to get bigger,” she said. “Kind of like this.” She flashed him a wicked grin as her hand slid home.
Aiden sucked in a sharp breath as Lily grasped his now-erect shaft and slid her thumb across the bulging head. “I’m listening, but talk fast.”
“I spent an hour talking to one of the owners while you were working out. He told me that there was a lot of potential for similar types of resorts up and down the coast.”
Aiden tried to concentrate—not too easy with her slender fingers working his dick. But it didn’t take much brain power to understand why Lily would like the idea. Coastal Harmony must have brought dozens—probably hundreds—of jobs to the local community just to run and maintain the place. And then there were the staff that planned and operated the excursions—whale watching, birding, nature walks, hiking and cycling trips… jobs that matched the locals’ skills.
“Must be a lot of jobs involved in a place like this,” he said.
She gave him a dazzling smile. “I’m sure there are. And an ecoresort wouldn’t need a car ferry to succeed either. Tourists looking for an eco experience wouldn’t want to be driving their cars all over the island, if they even had cars. They’d much rather cycle or walk, or use golf carts.”
It sounded right, but what were the chances of turning Seashell Bay into an ecotourism destination? Aiden didn’t have a clue, and switching gears at this point would be a monumental undertaking for his family.
What he did know for sure, though, was that his dad would either laugh his ass off or try to clock Aiden with a whisky bottle if he even raised the possibility.
“But it’s obviously just a dream,” Lily sighed. “Your father would never let his land go for something like that.”
“Yeah, you just read my thoughts.”
She grimaced. “I’d never say this out loud, but it’s obvious to me that your father isn’t going to give up even if the ferry proposal fails. Bay Island might back away, but there’ll be some other outfit willing to step up, sooner or later.” She let go of his aching erection and flopped onto her back. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to keep fighting for a very long time.”
He grunted an acknowledgment, surprised at how much the idea of ongoing warfare in Seashell Bay stuck in his craw. But his stubborn, rage-filled father would never give up as long as he could draw breath, ruining as many lives on the island as he could. Something would have to be done with the Flynn family land no matter what happened with the car ferry, something that could support Sean and Bram and yet, if possible, not trash the quality of life for everyone else on the island.
And figuring out what that something could be was squarely on his shoulders.
But right now all that would have to wait.
Lily let out a surprised little squeal when he suddenly climbed on top of her. “Ms. Doyle, I’d say it’s time for a little distraction from our worries.”
Much to his satisfaction, she seemed to agree.
Chapter 18
Bram’s bloodshot eyes practically glowed with fury. “You have got to be fucking kidding, man!”
“It’s just an idea at this stage,” Aiden replied calmly, “but I want you to start thinking about it.”
As soon as he got back from his weekend escape with Lily, Aiden had dragged Bram out for a walk along the bluffs. Lily’s idea about an ecoresort had taken root in his head. Maybe all the spectacular sex had rotted his brain, but it was actually starting to morph from a wild ide
a to a halfway realistic possibility. Now Aiden needed Bram to at least consider the idea, and he needed it right away.
Bram windmilled his arms, forcing Aiden back a step. “It’s a heinous idea. Anyway, it’s too late. Dad gave Dunnagan his word that we’d go ahead with the deal. And a verbal commitment is as good as a contract.”
Aiden sighed. He loved his brother, but Bram had always been gullible. “That’s bullshit. Not in this situation. You told me yourself that they’re only going ahead with the project if they get all three of us to sell and if the car ferry vote passes, and they get their new dock built.”
With his disheveled hair and unkempt beard, Bram looked even worse than usual. Aiden reached out a hand to grasp his brother’s shoulder, trying to forge some kind of connection.
Bram jerked away. “Don’t fuck this up, Aiden. Dad will kill you.” He stomped off toward his cottage, angrily slapping at a couple of low-hanging tree branches.
Aiden caught up with him in half a dozen strides. “Look, I’ll never do anything right as far as the old man is concerned, but if I’m going to push Dad in a different direction, you need to support me.” He grabbed Bram’s arm and pulled him back to the path that meandered along the shoreline, a rocky track they’d followed a million times as kids.
“Okay, I know you’re smarter than me,” Bram said, “but I can’t see how some kind of fruitcake resort for environmental wackos could ever work here. And anyway, I can’t see us getting even close to the price Bay Island’s agreed to pay from anybody else. They need to build both the resort and the housing development to make the numbers work.”
Aiden had been struggling with those economics himself, both in bed last night and late the next morning when he and Lily had coffee with the co-owner of Coastal Harmony, Colton Booth. Booth was a Phillies fan and had religiously followed Aiden’s career, and he seemed more than predisposed to be helpful.
Aiden had floated the idea that Coastal Harmony might be interested in developing a sister property on Seashell Bay Island. But while Booth had clearly been interested in the concept, he’d said that his partners weren’t able to assume the level of debt necessary to develop a new resort. Still, Aiden and Lily had come away with the clear message that if other investors could be found—investors willing to pony up most of the money—the Coastal Harmony group could be interested in a management contract and, possibly, a minority financial stake in the project.