My chest tightened at his confession and my heart swelled because despite everything, he had been there for me. “Where are we going?”
“Mexico, Four Seasons Los Cabos, Costa Palma,” he said in a perfect Spanish accent that sounded so sexy it had made my knees weak. My eyes widened in surprise and he grinned at my reaction. “You didn’t know I spoke Spanish?” he teased. “Babe, I promise to show you a good time, I’m going to seduce you until the only word on your lips is my nombre,” he added seductively into my ear in broken English.
“Wow, goosebumps, that was very hot, Mr. Wild,” I replied, flashing him a sinful smile, and was rewarded with a devilish smirk.
“So … I’ve booked us into the Presidential Villa. Imagine this …” he said, holding his arm up and sweeping his arm to the side with each selling point. “… ocean view—seductive nights—hot sweaty sex … and quiet minds for a change. I’m going to wine and dine you—dance with you under a tropical moon—in short, I’m going to treat you like the princess you are to me.”
“Do you think this is the right time …” He pressed his fingers to my lips, effectively silencing me.
“I do. All we’ve both done this past year is work and deal with all kinds of heavy shit. We deserve this. So … I think for the next four nights we’re going to push everything to one side and enjoy some fun. Besides, we can consider it a birthday treat to us.”
There was no way I could have argued with his demand, it had sounded fabulous and I’d figured he was absolutely spot-on. James had had a birthday already and mine had been approaching; yet we hadn’t even considered celebrating those. It struck me we were in danger of losing ourselves in my family drama. James deserved my time, he’d been amazingly patient and supportive, and in a way, I had felt relieved he had taken measures to put us back on course with our lives together.
“Give me ten minutes to change and then I’ll be all yours,” I agreed. Stepping forward, I pressed my hand on his T-shirt and drew it down his front, taking note of the hard lines of his abs, and slid my hand into the waistband of his jeans. Pulling him closer, I pressed a chaste kiss to his lips and turned to walk away, but James grabbed my wrist and swung me back into his chest.
“You’re already all mine,” he corrected. “But I love the sound of those words on your lips,” he mumbled so quietly with his breath close to mine. I felt the piercing stare he gave me within my soul and it sent a small shiver of desire straight down my spine.
“Hold that thought or we won’t leave this apartment,” I warned, with a stare of equal intensity that pinned him right where he stood in response. James drew in a long breath like he was debating my words, held it for a beat, and reluctantly dropped his hold on my wrist and let out a breath.
“Don’t be long,” he rasped gruffly. His Adam’s apple rose and fell in his neck as he swallowed thickly. I turned, moving quickly away from him before he threw our arrangement in favor of taking me to bed.
Cool waves lapped around my waist as I stood grinning at James riding a multicolored surfboard toward me. Athletic and toned, the sun had already kissed his skin after just an hour of being there.
James was right, the warmth from the sun, the smell of the ocean, and the brilliant soft white sand beneath my feet had an instant healing effect. Watching James in his element, I realized how agile and youthful he was, and considered there was far more to the man I had thought I knew.
We’d been to the beach in New Jersey many times, and I had seen him swim in the sea, but I had always been beside him. Seeing that playful, sporty, fun-loving side of him showed me what he’d sacrificed to deal with me.
Riding a wave toward me at speed, he suddenly slipped from the board, slapping his arm on the surface of it, and stopped it floating away.
“Hey, baby, you’ve not even gotten your hair wet yet,” he teased. Grabbing me closer, I shivered, shocked when his freezing cold arm circled my waist and he dipped me backward, letting a wave lap around the back of my head.
I shrieked from his sudden movement and the ocean in my hair, and I slapped repeatedly against his cold wet chest as I tried to push myself free. In one swift movement, he pulled me back and slid the surfboard underneath me. Once he had me sitting on top of it, he used it to pull me closer to him, grinning. His stunning light blue eyes filled instantly with mischief.
“Sun, sea …” he looked toward the villa, “sand …” He dipped his knees and dunked his head backward, wet his hair, and leaned over me as water droplets landed on my skin. Suddenly he leaned over, licked my neck and sent a sharp thrill of desire through me. Goosebumps scattered over my skin and he hummed. “Hmm, salty.”
Grabbing one leg, he placed it over his shoulder. I chuckled, fell backward and shook my head. He grinned wider, a big toothy smile that gave him a boyish look and he did the same with my other one. As I lay on my back he used the surfboard to position me with his hard dick at my core.
My eyes flared. “Impressive,” I stated, surprised he had a hard-on despite the temperature of the water. “James Wild, are you ever not hard?” I asked, but my words fell away with the intense stare he gave me. The sexual chemistry we shared fizzed in the air around us as our intimate connection intensified. My heart raced with the lust-filled look he had in his eyes when they locked into mine.
“Not an option when I look at you. What you do to me …” He shook his head, like he had no words to explain what he meant by that statement and ground his hard length tenting in his board shorts against my bikini-clad pussy.
“What I do to you?” I asked, pretending I had no idea what he meant, when truly from the first time we’d met, James had been capable of setting my heart on fire without even laying his hands on me.
“Tricia …” he said, looking serious toward me. I’d thought he was going to ask a question, but he left my name hanging. For a long minute he scrutinized me, his hungry eyes ticking over my face until a speedboat passed by and the waves in its wake shifted the sand under his feet. Hanging on to the board, he stopped me from falling off but slipped away from me and the moment was gone.
Glancing at the speed boat that had disrupted our intimate moment making a turn in the bay, James scoffed and shook his head. “It’s supposed to be private here, but obviously not private enough for what I’d had in mind for us.”
Pushing the surfboard toward the shore, he helped me to my feet, threw the board on the sand, and grabbed the large towels I had placed on the lounge chairs. Passing one to me, he took the other. Climbing out of his shorts he stood naked on the sand, wrapped the towel around his waist and escorted me back inside.
For the following two hours we made slow, passionate love, and at times I’d been so moved I’d cried, emotionally wrecked by the intense love we shared.
“Baby, don’t cry, we’re beautiful together. You feel this?” he asked, leisurely canting his hips in and out, his thick cock filling me deep. “This is us … who and what we are when we’re together.” I nodded. “Saying I love you isn’t enough for me. Those words don’t define how full my heart feels when I look at you … when you look at me with those incredible green eyes full of lust.”
Eventually, we lay sated and napped; exhausted from our travels, our time in the ocean, and the passionate connection that had brought our focus back to who we were as a couple.
Later, as we stood at the water’s edge of the immaculate white sandy beach, we stared out at the Pacific Ocean as it lapped around our feet. The setting sun threw several deep shades of orange and pastels of lilac across the twilight sky. The pretty colors matched the comfortable loose caftan dress I wore. James had his arms around my waist, clasped in front of me, as we stood silently absorbing the serenity of the beautiful sunset.
When the sun finally went down, I glanced back at the twinkling deck lights glowing in front of the villa, and saw wait staff setting out a table for us for dinner. Small solar lights encircled the decking on the plunge pool and the softer lighting inside the villa made the scen
e very romantic.
“A girl could get used to this,” I admitted, smiling affectionately toward him. “You have no idea how romantic you are, James. This place is unbelievable.” I looked up at the moon and the silver streak it cast upon the water.
“Yeah, it is… and the most expensive,” I flashed him a confused look because it had never been like James to talk money. “Oh, I’m not trying to impress you with my wallet. I could have found cheaper accommodation had you not been a screamer,” he joked. “This place is the farthest away from all the other accommodations. We can’t have the neighbors complaining about the noise you make when I fuck you, can we?” I chuckled and tried to swat his head playfully, but he ducked, and I caught his arm instead. James’ reaction was lightning fast, and he immediately caught my wrist. “This hand needs to be tied up, just to keep it from knocking me out, if nothing else. But … I can think of more pleasurable reasons for tying them up.”
I chuckled again. “And where are you getting the rope for that around here?” I asked, holding my arms out and gesturing toward at the miles of ocean ahead of us, the sand, a few palm trees, and very little else.
“Hm, this is the Four Seasons, Tricia. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard how accommodating they are or the lengths they will go to, to keep their customers happy? If they don’t have it, you can bet your fine little ass they’ll bend over backward to find some for us. Hmm, on the other hand, bending—backward—how does that grab you, baby? I think I like the sound of that better,” he digressed, chuckling.
A wave of happiness mingled with contentment washed over me and I grinned, because I’d forgotten how playful James could be. It also reminded me how much we enjoyed each other’s company.
“I’m sorry I’ve let you down so much since we began living together.”
“You have never let me down, Tricia. I’m very proud of the steps you’ve taken to manage your past since you told me about it.” I nodded because my chest had felt too tight to say anything, as I tried not to cry. Fortunately, the butler came with the food and it had felt a welcome distraction by that point.
Dinner on the patio was romantic, the smell of lemons from some nearby trees mingling with the ocean had given me an appetite. The rich spicy food had tasted delicious, and with wine flowing and nowhere to be, I felt very relaxed. Taking our coffee in the suite, I barely noticed the quiet staff clearing the table outside when my cell phone rang.
“Do you mind?” I asked, signaling to my cell phone. “It’s Billie, she doesn’t know we’re not home, and she’ll panic if I don’t answer.”
“Go ahead, I’m soaking in the heat and humidity here. I’ll grab another shower. If I’m still there when you’re done, come and join me,” James replied with a saucy wink. I snickered and swiped the green icon to accept Billie’s call.
“Hey, honey, the little ones are in bed and Sawyer’s helping Colby with some geography homework, so I thought I’d play catch up with you. Do you and James have any plans for this weekend?”
I chuckled. “As a matter-of-fact, we do. We’re in Mexico,” I told her, noting how happy I sounded when I said it. I pushed the patio door and stepped out onto the deck.
“Mexico? Don’t tell me you two have eloped.” The genuine alarm in her voice told me that was exactly what she’d thought.
My heart clenched and a tinge of sadness settled there. Nothing would have pleased me more than if James proposed to me, but I resigned myself to him feeling contented with our living arrangements as they were.
“I don’t think marriage is in the cards for us,” I replied quietly. But as matter-of-fact as I’d wanted those words to sound, I heard the disappointment in my tone. My throat constricted and I swallowed down my emotions.
“Nonsense, he worships you, Tricia.”
“James isn’t Sawyer,” I retorted by way of an argument.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Yeah, Sawyer asked me within a couple of months, but I’d have to be blind to miss the way James looks at you… the way he protects you. That man adores you—I take it he’s not in earshot—or you’d have closed my conversation down after my eloping comment.”
“He’s taking a shower, but he knows you’re on the phone,” I mumbled, cupping my hand over the cell and glancing toward the bathroom door. The distance from the deck to the bathroom appeared too far for him to hear much.
“Oh, God,” she blurted. “Maybe he’s going to propose this weekend?” My heart skittered erratically at the thought.
“I don’t think—”
“Oh. My. God. That’s it. He’s taken you to Mexico to propose,” she squealed excitedly.
“Billie,” I warned.
“I’m so excited for you. First Erin and now this. Think about it, Tricia. Sun, sultry nights, fabulous sunsets, and the food … he knows Mexican food is your favorite.”
“You’re getting carried away,” I replied, as James opened the bedroom door and came back through the living room toward the deck. “James is out of the shower I need to go… and I’m turning my phone off until we get back.”
“Call me as soon as he’s done it, I want details.”
“Bye, Billie, love to Sawyer and the kids,” I replied, ignoring her last comment and hung up.
“What’s Billie getting carried away about?” James asked. My gaze turned to him, my hungry eyes immediately scanning the length of his naked body.
“Oh, that holiday Sawyer spoke to us about—you know Billie—planning like a demon.” James chuckled accepting my lie and continued drying himself. I felt awful lying, but what was I supposed to have said? Telling him the truth would have meant putting him on the spot and placing myself in a sticky situation.
If Billie hadn’t called, I’d have been blissfully happy during that few days away, but her comments set me on edge, and as such, every time we had a quiet romantic moment I had wondered if that was the moment he’d ask me to be his wife.
Each time the moment passed, and he hadn’t, I’d been left disappointed to the point that by the time we’d slid into bed on the last night, I had fresh feelings of doubt that he would ever propose to me.
“Are you anxious about going home?” James asked, as he ordered two coffees from the coffee shop at the airport.
“No, why?”
“You seem …” He hesitated, and my heart sank to my stomach that my mood had let me down. “I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Snippy?” he replied, as we shuffled along the counter to wait for our drinks to be made.
“Snippy?” I snapped, hearing exactly what he meant and quickly adjusting my tone. I could hardly tell him I was disappointed I was only his girlfriend. Glancing up at him, I tried to hide my true feelings by giving him a small smile. “Oh,” I sighed, measuring my words. “I suppose I’m a little anxious about going home. I’ve had such an amazing time here alone with you; going back to reality is going to feel a bit depressing.
Pulling me close he kissed my temple, then retrieved our drink tray, and turned to find us somewhere to sit. As I followed behind him, staring at his broad back, another wave of doubt came over me and I felt suddenly scared I’d lose him.
I tried hard to shake it off as I sat down, but my heart pinched when I looked into his trusting eyes. I’d felt happy until I’d taken Billie’s call and had dared to hope James would ask me to marry him because he had been unable to resist me.
Chapter Six
The first couple of weeks back from Mexico had felt hectic, James had been leading a merger of some kind at his office, so that had given me the opportunity to get ahead with some accounts of my own at work.
Erin and I continued with our regular lunches every few days when I was in New York and we enjoyed the time we shared. I’d missed her whole life up until those short weeks before, but with each meeting we had, the past became less of a barrier for either of us.
Even though James had been drowning in work, he’d had someone set up a luxury spa day for Erin as her birthday treat, and on the morning of my
birthday I had found a beautiful Tiffany diamond necklace on my pillow after he’d left for work. But no gift was as precious to me as the sensitivity he had around my mood swings. The message I had gotten from his caring and compassionate attention was that he was as committed as ever to keeping that special connection we had between us.
Everything had felt right again, and since Mexico I’d made a conscious decision not to dwell on James’ lack of legal commitment to our arrangement and concentrate on the blessings that I had: a wonderful man who loved me and a positive relationship with my daughter.
My confidence with Erin grew with every contact between us, and although I felt hesitant when she called me Mom, I had learned to accept the title I hadn’t felt I’d earned.
Weekly calls to Mom still hadn’t prompted an honest conversation with my dad about his granddaughter. At the back of my mind, I would have bet she had banked on the assumption I’d have hated to see him hurt.
Unfortunately for her, since Erin’s re-appearance, that whole sad story was no longer only about me and my mother. My daughter had gone to lengths to find her identity and my father had a beautiful granddaughter he had never met. He and Marnie had a right to know about Erin because despite the shock and heartache they might have felt, it was long past the time I told my truth.
“Grr, I’m tired of my mom pushing this back. She obviously thinks I’m too chicken to do it, but I’m going to tell them myself,” I said, scowling toward James. I huffed as I threw my cell on the table after I had tried to call her cell that morning and it had gone to voicemail.
James looked up at me and for a second, I forgot to be mad because he looked so sexy with his still wet, slicked back hair and his freshly shaven face. I loved how he smelled straight from the shower, with his hint of cologne and bodywash mix.
Best of all, he wore his thick black-rimmed eyeglasses while he read some company report. Slowly, he took them off and put the paperwork down, giving me his full attention.
Resist Me (Unchained Attraction Book 4) Page 4