by L. B. Dunbar
“You make me wild,” he said, bucking upward, as she slammed down on him. “I love you,” he choked, the words foreign and sweet to his lips. “And I'm sorry.”
“Tack,” she questioned, trying to slow the rhythm, but his hands controlled her. His body dominated. He forced her to keep pace and follow his lead.
“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” he grunted and sat up a bit, reaching for her lips. Kissing aggressively, his mouth sucked at hers. He pressed firmly against her lips, forcing her to feel his sorrow as he spoke, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
Then he fell back and his hips forced her upward. Her hands came to his chest to steady herself, holding on through the storm of him. His heart raced beneath her touch. He burst inside her, a volcanic eruption leaving him replete, and a rush of wetness escaped down her thighs. His hand came to her lower belly as he stilled, and his thumb slipped to the bundle of nerves aching to be triggered. Several firm circles and she erupted over him, rolling over his lowering length like the clouds chasing one another in the sky. She came softly, sweetly, deeply. There was no other way to describe it. She showered him tenderly with the curl of her hips, allowing her warmth to surround him, and emotions to be released in another gentle cry of love. She fell forward, collapsing on his chest. A limp arm came over her back as they folded into one another. Using his heart beat as her pillow, she fell into a deep sleep, content with his apology and his love.
29
Day 69 – Juliet
We awoke slowly and made love a second time in the night, ignoring the potential danger outside the cave. There seemed to be a sense of urgency to our love making. His plea had snapped me out of my shock. His apology unleashed my emotions. His love made each touch that much more special. We explored with frenzied hands and hungry mouths during the second round, and just when I thought I was satisfied, I’d find I was starving for him again. It was as if we knew the time in the cave was limited, and we didn’t wish to rest. While we both wanted to stay forever, the storm would subside, the day would break, and reality would return. Only we couldn’t have predicted how quickly.
Tack scoped out the damage, returning to inform me the sun was shining. While the sky still looked angry in the distance, we were surrounded in blue calm.
“I think we need to go down and assess what remains.” He said the words in a business manner, and I had a brief glimpse of the tycoon he was, but then his mouth took mine again. We kissed, a desperate work of his lips molding and sculpting mine. His hand cupped my jaw in that tender, protective way he had, and I savored his touch, his kiss, and the way his body connected with mine.
“I just can’t get enough of you,” he added, whispering the words close to my lips so I could taste them, inhale them. I was high on him, intoxicated by what we’d done the night before. The thought of him filling me made me wet and longing.
“How’s your head?” I hadn’t given it a thought. A thick scab formed to protect my skin from the nasty gash I’d felt with my fingers the night before. Tracing over it with his finger, he reached forward and tenderly kissed a path over it. “You’re beautiful,” he assured me, in spite of the fact we both knew it might scar.
He rolled away from me, taking his warmth and his nakedness. I stared after him, admiring his body that fit with mine in a way I didn’t think any man’s body ever would. He’d been gentle while eager, passionate while savage. He nipped, and sucked, and licked me everywhere. I shivered at the thought. I watched him dress, and then took the hint to cover myself, thankful we each had a clean, dry set of clothing. We packed up our belongings. With each motion, each item, a slow sadness sank within me. Disappointment wasn’t the word. Grief, possibly. Something big, monumental, seemed over, and I couldn’t shake the growing dread. It’s nothing, I told myself. We still had months together, but as we crossed the entrance to the cave and slowly descended the rocks, the sensation pressed heavier than the wind from the storm.
Trees were scattered—some broken while others remained unscathed. We had to climb over a few fallen ones, and skate carefully down muddy paths using loose limbs to guide us.
We’d just reached another large trunk crossing our path when a call came up the mountain.
“Juliet.” My name rose distant and weak, but definite. Tack and I both froze before the fallen tree.
“Lillian?” I questioned softly, my heart suddenly racing. They’d come for me, but they were early. I turned to Tack, his eyes wide, worried, and questioning. He stepped toward me and cupped my chin.
“They’ve come because of the storm,” I said to assure both him and me. Our fifteen-day visit wasn’t due for a few more days.
“I’m not ready,” he said, his eyes searching mine before his mouth crushed my lips. Our teeth actually clashed as the force was so intense. I struggled under his hold, groaning his name against his mouth.
“Just one,” he whispered, pulling back briefly and then returning to my mouth with his, gentler this time. Tears sprang behind my closed lids. Just one what? I thought.
He answered me with his manner. His hands began to fumble with the buttons at my shirt. His other hand reached for my shorts.
“My way,” he muttered against my lips. “Just once.” The words were aggressive, said through clenched teeth, but I didn’t fear him. I swallowed his fear instead. Something bothered him, and his body vibrated with the same tension I’d felt while packing our things. My hands covered his cheeks, and I tugged his mouth to mine. He pulled back and spun me.
“Hands on the log,” he demanded, and I did as he said, letting him command me with his need. My shorts were tugged to the ground and his hand slipped inside my open shirt, digging under tank and bra for skin. His fingers found my nipple and pinched while he fumbled with his own shorts behind me. The clank of a belt. The rip of a zipper. Warm length pressed against my cool ass.
“I love you,” he murmured into my neck, and I was overcome with sensation. Two fingers rolled my nipple, one finger parted my folds, and suddenly he entered me without warning. I lunged forward a bit, my elbows breaking my balance.
“Sweet Jesus,” he muttered as his hands gripped my hips, and he tugged me back while he pushed forward, pressing deeper into me than I’d ever felt someone before. “You have no idea how beautiful you look like this. Drawing me in. You’ve opened for me, let me in, and I can’t let you go.” His voice cracked and I tried to look over my shoulder, but the insistent hammering distracted me, forcing me to face forward. A hand slipped between my thighs, then traveled upward for the pearl of flesh he liked to circle.
“Don’t scream,” he warned, knowing I could be loud, and they’d hear me from below. They were here. The thought seemed to come to us collectively as he thrust faster, harder, deeper, and I pressed back, drawing him in, clutching at his length, begging him with my body to stay attached to me. Don’t let me go, I whispered through sharp exhalations, but no sound escaped my lips.
“Mouse,” he warned, as he increased the pace, thrusting into me while his thumb played with me. I crashed, my knees buckling, as the release came from deep inside me. He pressed me forward and my arms draped over the thick trunk. The angle shifted the depth of him and he slid through heavy wetness before forcing me forward with the thrust of his stillness. He leaned over my back, pressing his forehead to my shoulder blade as he pulsed inside me and I reveled in the aftershocks of his release.
“I love you,” he kissed over my back.
“I love you,” I said through harried breaths. The words seemed a farewell.
+ +
“Let me go with you,” he said, as we descended the mountain. We drew closer to the tree house, but still distant enough we couldn’t be seen yet. The cries of my name grew louder, more insistent, and spreading as Lillian seemed to travel in one direction and Franco in the other.
“I haven’t ever mentioned you to Lillian. I don’t think she would receive it well if you suddenly showed up with me. I’ll be okay. Let me go down to them and
then I’ll come find you after they leave.” We had stopped walking as he paused us with his hand on my arm. He stepped closer to me.
“I don’t like this.”
I shrugged. “They’ve only come to check on me. Make sure I survived the storm.” I tipped up on my toes and kissed him briefly.
“I’ll find you,” I said, pushing back on his chest as I took a step backward. In that moment, I memorized his face for some reason. Moss green eyes alight with concern, sparkled with something I hadn’t noticed before in them. His skin was tan, and his lips full from our kissing. He licked at the bottom one and sucked it in, exposing a hint of his white teeth. He reached out for me again, catching my arm and tugging me back to him for another soul-rocking kiss. His mouth was my heaven, and I smiled at the thought, with my lips over his. He let me go, joining my smile, his expression confirming we shared a secret.
“I’ll find you,” I said again, waved once and turned for the brush.
“I’ll be waiting,” he whispered. His eyes pressed on my back until I disappeared. It was as if I felt the exact moment he could no longer see me. I took a deep breath.
“Lillian,” I called out, feeling my heart collapse with grief.
30
Day 69 – Tack
I waited until I could no longer see her and then I turned for my camp. I didn’t expect much to remain. If the waves crashed the land like I anticipated, there was a high possibility most of my things washed away. I trudged over the wrecked land of crushed small trees and snapped trunks perched against others for support. I neared the pond and took a moment to pause, admiring how it seemed unscathed. The waterfall still fell, although the pond looked fuller. The water was clear of color and a vision of Juliet on that first day I saw her came to my mind. An ache in my chest pressed me forward.
I cleared the low brush near the shore, and to my surprise, I found Colton staring at the water and Garvey pacing the sand. The ocean still collided on the beach, but the waves were gentler than the days before. The speed boat that brought me here rocked where it was anchored.
Garvey sighed as he spun in his pacing and froze when he saw me. “Thank God,” he barked. Colton looked up from his spot, kicking the sand at his feet.
“How are my things?” I asked, walking toward my trunks.
“How are you?” Colton asked, a strange sound of relief in his question.
“I’m fine,” I said, too calm, too easily. The two men glanced at one another and looked back at me.
“You just survived a hurricane,” Colton stated as if I didn’t know the depth of severity that storm brought to the island. I shrugged as I walked forward. Only two trunks remained tied to trees. I spun slowly, taking in the beach as if I expected the other trunks to magically appear or be found somewhere among the rocks lining the bay.
“The Vixen,” I sighed, noticing immediately that my craft was gone. I should have known better. Although I tried to tie it to a tree, made of simple bark and saplings, the wind alone might have ripped it from its holding.
“The what?” Colton asked.
“My boat,” I answered, a touch of sadness that my hard work and the work shared with Juliet had been washed out to sea.
“You guys are early,” I added, attempting to change the subject as I stood before one trunk, unsnapping the locks, ready to assess the internal damage. The lid was only partially raised when Garvey spoke.
“We’re here to remove you.”
“What?” The lid released from my hold and fell with a snap against the case. I spun to face them. “My time isn’t finished.” Panic filled my voice. Juliet raced through my mind.
“There’s another hurricane coming within a day or two. Now is our window to get you back to a bigger island, possibly to the mainland.”
“But I don’t want to go,” I said, stepping forward. This caused Colton to glance at his father again.
“Why not?” the elder asked.
“I’m not ready,” I said, lowering my tone. “I didn’t finish my sentence.”
“You’ve finished it, as far as we are concerned. The trial didn’t include putting you at risk of death. A hurricane is beyond the means of danger.” Garvey walked past me toward one end of the closest trunk. He nodded at his son who stepped forward to the other side.
“Wait,” I said, holding out my hands, one toward each of them. I stepped in front of the case, blocking the removal of my things. “There’s a cave. Up the mountain. That’s where I was. It’s safe there.”
“Sorry, Champ,” Garvey said, “but our orders are to bring you home.”
“Whose orders?” I asked, suspicious.
“Your father’s.”
“No.” I sounded like a petulant child.
“The authorities agree.”
“I’m not going to jail,” I snapped.
“Your sentence has been reassessed due to the circumstances.” Garvey paused examining my face. “What’s really going on here?” he asked, his hand releasing my trunk and his hands coming to rest on his hips. His dark eyes pierced mine with the question.
“It’s the girl, isn’t it?” Colton hissed.
“Colton,” Garvey warned his son, and my attention swung from father to son and back.
“Fine,” I said, swiping a hand through my hair. “It’s the girl. She’s here, and I’m not leaving without her.” The world seemed to stop moving. The air stilled. Even the ocean didn’t roll.
“She gave this to me.” I held up my wrist. “And she helped me build the boat.” I looked over Garvey’s shoulder, a brief glimpse of us working together to create something. “And I danced.” I stepped toward him.
“I danced. And she danced with me. She taught me, and I learned about a mouse.”
“A mouse?” Colton snickered as Garvey continued to stare.
“She…she loves me,” I said softer, directly to Garvey, begging him to hear me.
Instead, he reached for the edge of my trunk once again, ignoring my outburst. Without another thought, I turned and ran. I sprinted through the bush, leaping over fallen branches, racing for the tree house. My heart thumped as my chest filled with air and fear. I pressed harder, moved faster, crossing the line to the space surrounding her tree.
Nothing remained as it had been.
The tree house was in two pieces. One-half still clung to the tree, open and exposed to the elements. Long vines and thick branches dangled before it. The other half had crashed to the ground, crushed into a pile prepared for a bonfire. More vines draped over it and a fallen tree pressed it further into the damp jungle floor. I stopped and stared, my chest rising and falling with exertion, and something more. Something deeper that pierced and pinched and rolled my stomach.
“Juliet,” I said softly, afraid I’d wake the sleeping tree and the fallen house.
“Mouse,” I choked louder just as Colton burst through the brush behind me. He came to stand next to me, his breaths coming heavy, his hands holding his sides. I didn’t move my eyes from the tree house.
“She’s not here,” he said softly, almost kindly, as if he understood.
“She was,” I said quietly, while he stared at the wreck before us. “She was,” I said louder, my heart leaping up to my throat as I took in the broken structure.
“The storm,” I muttered.
“This damage is older than a storm, my friend.” His voice was gentle, but the tenderness pissed me off.
“She was here,” I insisted, turning to face him. I reached for his shirt and tugged him toward me. “She was here,” I growled.
“I know you want to believe it,” he said calmly. “I know,” he emphasized.
“You know nothing,” I yelled in his face, holding him against me.
“I know that you hurt her, and you’re sorry. You want it to be okay, but it can never be. She wasn’t here, man. I know you want her to be here. You want to make it right, but you can’t. She wasn’t here.” His voice lowered, and I released him with a shove.
�
��Shut up,” I said through clenched teeth. “Shut the fuck up.” She left, I told myself. She went with Lillian. Conflicting thoughts rolled through my head. Excuses. Explanations. She was safe, I argued. Please let her be safe, I prayed.
“I didn’t dream her,” I said, assuring both myself and Colton.
“You did. She was beautiful, right? She was perfect, yeah? She forgave you.” His voice thickened. I turned to face him.
“What do you know?” I hissed. She loves me, I screamed in my head.
“She loved you,” he repeated as if he heard my thoughts. “But it wasn’t real.”
“Stop it,” I yelled, covering my ears like a child.
“I know what you’re feeling. I’ve been here before.” He nodded in the direction of the fallen haven. “I wanted to believe it, too. But it wasn’t real. She was already gone. She couldn’t have been here.” His voice drifted off as if in a memory, and I stared at him, mouth falling open.
“What happened?” I whispered.
“I did something that could never be repaired. Not with her. Coming here gave me focus—clarity and perspective—but I could never be fully restored. I couldn’t bring her back.” He sucked in air on the words and closed his eyes. He was silent a second, and I turned back to the pile of rubble. My eyes searched, but I found nothing. No hint that she’d been here. No scrap of clothing. No bedding or mosquito netting. I could explain it all in my head. The storm damage. The gale force wind. The heavy rain, but nothing remained. I walked up to the tree.
“You want to believe she was real, and so she was.” Colton paused behind me. “But only to you.”
My hand fell heavily on the thick trunk and my head came forward. I didn’t dream her, I told myself. I couldn’t have. She was real. I felt her. I looked down at my hand, the hand that cupped her jaw and touched her body. The hand that held her to my chest and led her in a dance. The hand that covered hers as she stroked me and fingered her as I filled her. She was real.