Beach Reads Boxed Set

by Marie Force

  “I didn’t get a chance to really look before,” she said, her eyes devouring as her hand drove him crazy.

  Then she bent and kissed the very tip, and Cole sat straight up. “I can’t,” he said, the words coming out as a pant. His fingers buried in her hair, he tried to bring her back to him. Her silky gown brushed against him, causing him to jolt from the contact. “Jesus.”

  Olivia laughed and pushed him back to his pillow. “I’m not finished yet,” she said with a playful pout as she returned her attention to the task at hand. “It’s all slippery. Did I do that?”

  “What do you think?” he choked out.

  Her fingers skimmed through the pearly fluid. “Oh. It’s so hard, and then it gets harder. I can’t believe that doesn’t hurt.”

  “Olivia,” he said, breathless. “You’re going to make me come if you don’t stop.”

  “Isn’t that the goal?” she asked, glancing up at him through sable lashes.

  “Not without you.”

  “Just this once?” Before he could answer, she bent her head and took him into her mouth. And then her tongue swirled over the head, and he had to hold his breath to keep from losing it. Without being told, she did it just right—keeping up the firm strokes of her hand even as she took him deep.

  “Liv… stop,” he said, trying desperately to hold back.

  “Don’t want to,” she whispered.

  With a groan of defeat, he abandoned the fight and gave into the need blazing through him. The release was more intense than it had ever been before. Nothing could compare to the complete and utter surrender.

  Her eyes, when they connected with his in the aftermath, were victorious. She was back in the game, and the relief was even more overwhelming than the shattering release had been.

  He reached for her and brought her up to lie on top of him. His heart pounded so hard, he could hear it fluttering in his ears. All at once, he too was petrified about what Monday would bring. How could he just leave her here and go back to his life? Was he to pretend his whole world hadn’t shifted on its axis the first time he lost himself in her?

  Her breathing was slow and steady, and he wondered if she had fallen asleep.

  Tightening his arms around her, he kissed her forehead. The tremble that shuddered through her told him she was still very much awake.

  He rolled them over.

  She opened her mouth to speak, and he took advantage of the opportunity to sink into her moist heat. He feasted on her mouth and was gratified to feel her arms encircle his neck to hold him there. For the longest time, he was satisfied to be exactly where he was. He wanted nothing more than what he had right then.

  But she seemed to have other ideas. At first, she clung to him, her nails leaving tiny half moons on his back. Then her hands slid down to pull him tighter against her.

  He shifted his attention to her neck.

  “Cole.”

  “Hmm?”

  “I want you.”

  His lips flew over her warm, soft skin. “I’m here.”

  She gripped his backside and lifted her hips against his erection. “Now.”

  Startled, he looked up at her to find her eyes huge and hot with desire.

  “Please.”

  He moved fast to get a condom. When he turned back to her, she was reaching for the hem of the nightgown. He stopped her.

  “Let me.”

  Beginning with the soles of her feet, he kissed his way up, taking the nightgown with him. He left no sensitive spot unvisited on the journey. The stroke of his tongue over her, into her, sent her soaring.

  Desperate for more, he decided that getting rid of the nightgown wasn’t as important in that moment as driving into her. That he could want her this much again, so soon after the last time, came as a surprise. Would he ever get enough?

  She reached for his hand, laced her fingers through his, and smiled up at him.

  He kissed her, a light touching of lips, a mingling of breath. Her scent, a combination of lavender and vanilla and something else not as easily identified, filled his senses. Raising their joined hands over her head, he bent to lave at her nipple through the silky nightgown.

  Moaning, she wrapped her legs around his back and took him deeper.

  The next time he glanced at her, he found her watching him with a mixture of awe and wonder in her eyes. That he had the power to do that to her both humbled and frightened him.

  “I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”

  He withdrew almost completely from her. “I love you more.”

  She shook her head and arched into him, seeking him. “Not possible.”

  “Olivia,” he sighed as he went deep again. The sudden quickening of her breathing and the trembling in her thighs told him she was close, so he picked up the pace.

  Her eyes flickered shut and then shot open in shock as the climax slammed into her, catching her off guard. She cried out, clung to him, and dragged him down with her into a freefall from which he suspected he’d never fully recover.

  Chapter Twelve

  After a long, lazy morning in bed, Cole handed her the car keys the next afternoon. “There are two things besides your artwork that you need to bring back with you.”

  “What?” she asked, perplexed.

  “A bathing suit.”

  “For?”

  “Duh. To swim? In the hotel pool?”

  “Oh, okay. I forgot there was a pool. What else?”

  “Something to wear out to dinner tonight. Something a little… fancy.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to go out tonight.”

  “What if I want to take you out?”

  “It’s our last night.”

  Resting his hands on her shoulders, he said, “This time. Not ever.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “Bring it just in case.” He tipped her chin up so he could see her eyes. “For me?”

  She could deny him nothing when he asked liked that, and he knew it. “Okay.”

  “One more thing,” he said, touching his lips to hers.

  “What?” she asked, breathless.

  “Hurry back.”

  The moment she was out the door, Cole picked up his cell phone, furious with himself for not taking care of this sooner. He dialed a number that, for now, was programmed into his speed dial.

  Brenda, his bartender girlfriend in Miami, picked up on the third ring. “Hey, baby,” she said with the sultry purr that used to fire him up. Now it just left him feeling panic-stricken that Olivia might find out he had other women in his life. Had being the key word. By the time she returned, they’d all be history.

  “Hey,” he said, as the reality of what he’d failed to do hit him hard and fast. He should’ve cleared his decks before the weekend with her—not during. His only excuse was that he’d never expected to fall in love with Olivia—or anyone else, for that matter.

  “I hope you’re calling to tell me you’re in town.”

  “Um, no. I’m not in Miami.”

  “Oh, damn.”

  Cole could picture her pretty mouth forming a perfect pout. Thinking of her thick auburn hair and sultry green eyes, he tried to remember what he’d found so enchanting about her. Oh yeah, right… She was a tiger in bed. He swallowed the lump in his throat and pushed those memories aside.

  “So, listen, I hate to do this over the phone, but—”

  “It’s over, huh?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “I figured something was up when you stopped calling.”

  Cole winced. He hadn’t given her a thought in weeks. “I’m sorry.”

  “What happened? I thought we had a pretty good thing going.”

  Cole rubbed the back of his neck, hoping to loosen the tight ball of tension that had lodged there. “I met someone.”

  “We aren’t exclusive. Why start now?”

  “Because.” After a long, pregnant pause, Cole said, “Are you still there?”

  “D
on’t tell me you’re actually planning to give monogamy a whirl.”

  “So what if I am?”

  She laughed. Hard. “I give it a week. Maybe two.”

  He closed his eyes and conjured up Olivia’s lovely face. Brenda was wrong—very, very wrong. What he had with Olivia would last a lot longer than that. Maybe even forever if he played his cards right. “I enjoyed the time we spent together.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Save the ‘I wish you the best of luck’ speech.”

  “I do.”

  “I’ve got customers. Gotta go.”

  “Bye, Brenda.”

  The click of the call ending served as her reply. He removed her name from his speed dial before scrolling through the list again and hitting “Send.”

  “Hey, Diana, it’s Cole.”

  In the still new-smelling rental car, Olivia drove the short distance to her parents’ house in a dreamlike state as she relived the night with Cole. And the morning. She shivered with delight. Dark clouds hung over the area, but she barely noticed. Until she remembered that by this time tomorrow, he would be gone and she’d be on her way to work—just another Monday after the most extraordinary weekend of her life. Would he think of her as he went through his days? Would she invade his thoughts as he navigated jetliners through the sky? Oh, how she hoped so.

  She pulled onto Commonwealth Avenue and found a spot on the street. With a double beep, she locked the car and went up the stairs. Inside, she heard voices coming from the kitchen and started toward them. Just outside the door to the kitchen, her father’s raised voice stopped her.

  “Goddamn it, Mary! I can’t believe you did this!”

  “You took away my other one,” her mother said petulantly. “What was I supposed to do?”

  “I took it away because we’re on the verge of bankruptcy, and you’re spending money like I’m printing it on a press in the basement!”

  “The card is in my name. I don’t get why you’re so mad.”

  “Your name!” he roared. “Our credit!”

  “None of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t lost your job. Why couldn’t you have just shut up and done what they told you to do?”

  With a hand over her mouth, Olivia muffled a gasp. She glanced into the room and saw a stack of bills on the table.

  “Because those cars were crap, and I couldn’t, in good conscience, tell my valued customers to buy them.”

  “So instead you got yourself fired. I hope your good conscience is pleased with itself.”

  “Must be nice to be you, Mary.” Olivia had never heard such bitterness in her father’s voice. “You sit in this house day after day, year after year, hiding from life. No responsibilities to anyone but yourself, accountable to no one.”

  “You know I can’t help it,” she spat back at him.

  “I know you won’t help it. There’s a difference. A big difference. We have to sell the house. It’s the only way we can fend off the creditors until I get a new job. And you can’t buy a goddamned thing. Do you hear me? No trinkets, no do-dads, no nothing. I’ll buy food, but nothing else.”

  “We’re not selling the house.” Mary sounded truly frightened. “We can’t.”

  “We don’t have any choice.”

  She began to cry. “What about Olivia?”

  “I’ll take care of her, just like I always have.”

  Olivia stepped into the room. “You lost your job?”

  Stunned, Jerry spun around, and the devastation on his face broke Olivia’s heart. “Honey,” he said. “How long have you been there?”

  “Long enough.” Olivia glanced down at the papers on the table, most of them stamped with “Overdue” in bright red ink. “When did this happen?”

  “A month ago,” Jerry said with a sigh.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t want you to worry.” He ran a weary hand through his gray hair. “I thought you were away for the weekend.”

  “I came by to get something.”

  “I don’t want you to worry, sweetheart,” he said more emphatically this time. “We’ll work this out.”

  “How?”

  “I’ve got a few irons in the fire with some of the other dealers in town. I’m hoping something will open up in the next few weeks. But even if that happens, there’s no way we can hold on to the house.”

  “Maybe Alex or Andy could help,” Olivia said, referring to her brothers.

  Jerry shook his head. “Andy’s getting slammed with alimony, and Alex just bought a house. I’ve already asked them.”

  He looked so defeated and humiliated that Olivia crossed the room to put her arms around him.

  “I’m sorry you had to find out this way,” Jerry said, smoothing a hand over Olivia’s long hair.

  Mary’s sniffles grew into sobs. “There has to be something else we can do.”

  “There isn’t,” Jerry snapped as he stepped back from Olivia. “I tried to tell you a year ago that you had to stop spending money or we were going to end up exactly where we are.”

  “Sure, blame me. Like you mouthing off to your boss had nothing to do with it.”

  “It is your fault!” Olivia said to her mother. “All he does is work and all you do is buy worthless shit that no one wants or needs! Now we have a houseful of crap but no house. I hope you’re satisfied.”

  Mary stared at her daughter with hard eyes. “This is none of your concern. A woman your age shouldn’t still be living at home anyway. It’s time for you to grow up and get a life.”

  Olivia gasped.

  “Shut up, Mary,” Jerry said in a tone Olivia had never heard before. “My daughter is welcome in my home for as long as she wishes to be here. No matter where I live, there’ll be a place for her. You, I’m not so sure about.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Figure it out.” He guided Olivia from the room. “I’m so sorry, honey,” he said when they were out of earshot of the kitchen. “I hate that you were blindsided by this.”

  “You’re leaving her?” Olivia whispered. “What happened to ‘for better or worse’?”

  “That was before I found out she’d run up twenty-five thousand more on yet another credit card I knew nothing about. She’s got us a hundred fifty thousand in the hole, Liv.”

  Olivia blanched. “What?”

  Jerry nodded, his expression grim.

  “So even if you sell the house—”

  “It probably won’t be enough to stave off bankruptcy.”

  Olivia sat on the bottom step. “God.” She dropped her head into her hands and tried to absorb it all. “What’re you going to do?”

  “First, I’m going to sell the house. Then, I’m going to get her into a treatment place, which is something I should’ve done a long time ago. After that, I have to find another job. And fast.”

  “I wish I could help,” Olivia said. “There’s absolutely nothing I can do.”

  He sat next to her and put his arm around her. “There is something you can do.”

  “Anything.”

  “Stay in school, get your degree, live your life. This is not your problem.” He kissed the top of her head. “There’ll be a place for you wherever I end up.”

  “She was right about me still living at home at my age.”

  “Don’t listen to her,” he scoffed. “You’re living here to save money while you go to school. That’s the wise thing to do.”

  “I’ve gone to such great lengths to avoid loans. I didn’t want to live outside of my means the way she does. But maybe it’s time to look into some loans.”

  “Don’t do anything drastic just yet. Nothing’s going to happen overnight.”

  She rested her head on his shoulder for a long time. “Are you going to be all right?”

  “Sure I am,” he said with the charming smile that had helped him sell a lot of cars over the years. “I always land on my feet. You know that.” He squeezed her shoulder and whispered, “Where’s your pilot?�
�

  Olivia couldn’t believe she had forgotten she was supposed to hurry back. “At the hotel. I just came by to get some stuff.”

  “Go ahead, honey. You don’t want to keep him waiting.”

  “Will you let me know what’s going on or if you need anything?”

  “You’ll be the first to know. I promise.”

  With a kiss to his cheek and a heavy heart, Olivia stood and trudged up the stairs. She felt like a robot as she packed the things she had come for. How could all this have happened right under my nose? Am I so self-absorbed that I failed to notice my father had lost his job?

  She included the best of her paintings as well as the sketches she had put aside the other night for possible inclusion in the portfolio. She grabbed a swimsuit, and after a few minutes in her closet, found something she could wear to dinner, although she still hoped she could convince Cole to stay in. Five minutes later, she went back downstairs where her mother waited for her.

  “Where’d you get that car?”

  “I borrowed it.”

  “Did Jenny get another new car? Must be nice to have all that money.”

  Her mother’s rants about Jenny’s parents and their money were old news to Olivia. Jenny’s father was a corporate attorney, and their family had always been well off compared to Olivia’s. It was something she and Jenny had never let come between them.

  “It’s not hers.”

  “Then whose is it?”

  “My boyfriend’s,” Olivia said, raising her chin defiantly.

  “Boyfriend,” Mary scoffed. “Since when?”

  “A couple of weeks.”

  “And you’ve already gone from kissing him on the street to sleeping with him?”

  Olivia was glad her hands were full. Otherwise she might’ve been tempted to smack her mother. “That’s none of your business.”

  “Men don’t respect girls who give it up too easily.”

  “Save your maternal advice,” Olivia snapped. “It’s too little, too late.”

  “If he’s so special, why didn’t you bring him with you?”

  Olivia snorted as she looked around at the chaos. “Yeah. Right.”

  Her face set into a hard expression, Mary opened the door. “Don’t let me keep you.”