Bastian

by Piper Collins

  Sensing it, she turned around, an unsure smile on her face. “What are you doing?”

  “Savoring the view,” I admitted, caring nothing about the sand and waves.

  Even in the dim light, I could see her blush. “Show me around?”

  Grabbing our suitcases, she followed me up the walkway. Depositing them in the foyer, I gestured to the open concept of the first floor, consisting of the kitchen, dining nook, and entertainment space.

  “Bedrooms are upstairs,” I explained, watching her as she walked to the back veranda.

  Sheer white curtains blew in the breeze as she slid the accordion doors open. I knew she had spotted the sunken pool complete with a sun shelf at one end and a built-in bar table at the other.

  “You swim?” she asked, turning to face me, but walking backward slowly.

  “Quite well,” I told her. “Part of training for my time in the military. Come on,” I said, holding my hand out for hers. “There’s something I want to show you.”

  Beyond the pool’s edge, off the lawn was a series of three natural steps carved into the short embankment, leading down to the beach.

  The sun had gone down, a soft orange glow blanketing the ocean and horizon. The rocks and sand radiated the heat from the day as we walked down to a tributary on the point.

  It was as unassuming as anything else on the coastline, but if you looked closer, it was evident that under a jutted-out portion of the hill, was a cave.

  The entrance was discreet and low, causing us to duck down to pass.

  “Bastian, what on earth…” Alana’s voice was swallowed up in the cavern, but the awe was undeniable.

  Once through, the space opened up, the ceiling slightly higher than that in a house. The ocean water created a natural pool at our feet. The former owners of the compound had found the spot, and over the years, the stones had become smooth from regular use, creating spa-like seating.

  “Welcome to the grotto,” I said.

  It was much darker inside, but the best feature was the endless amounts of glow worms that inhabited the ceiling. The illusion of stars cast a pale blue glow over us, illuminating the space and bathing us in the equivalent of candlelight.

  Alana turned in a circle, taking in the view. “This is amazing,” she said. “I didn’t even know something like this could exist.”

  I was watching her reaction, and found myself agreeing with her. “I know the feeling.”

  She turned back and faced me, shyness taking hold. “Thank you for this, Bastian. Thank you for bringing me here. It’s pure magic…” Her hair was over her shoulder, much like it was after we had been caught in the rain on our first date.

  Unable to help myself, I reached out, touching the silky strands. “Are you happy?” I asked, suddenly feeling vulnerable.

  Alana stepped toward me, closing the space and placed her hands on my chest. I knew she could feel my heart race beneath her palm. Not caring, I was glad of the fact she knew what she did to me.

  “So happy. I’m happy for so many reasons,” she admitted.

  I kissed her, relieved from her answer. Her lips were soft and warm and inviting all at once. But I pulled back, reading her.

  And in the dim light, Alana changed. It was subtle, but something I had become attuned to the more time I spent around her. Her pupils dilated, the tender skin of her throat belied her attraction, her pulse matching mine under a feverish blush.

  “What did I do to deserve you, Alana?” I asked, my eyes searching her.

  Looping her arms around my neck she said, “I could ask you the same thing, Your Highness.”

  I shook my head admonishingly. “I’m serious. You don’t understand…” I looked to the side and sighed, trying to find the right words, forming my thoughts coherently.

  “Hey,” she said, turning her attention back to me. “What is it, you can tell me anything, you know that.”

  I brought my hand to her cheek, slowly stroking it with my thumb. Her golden eyes had an endless depth to them, and a sincerity that was alarming.

  “Alana, Christ…where do I start?” I said exhaling with a hollow chuckle.

  Her face changed in the matter of a milisecond. A vulnerability came over her. Raising her chin minutely, she said, “It’s ok, Bastian…you don’t have to say it. I’ll make it easy for the both of us.”

  “What are you talking about, love?” I was thoroughly confused what she was getting at, but it wasn’t sitting well with me.

  “Please don’t call me that if you’re breaking up with me,” she all but whispered. “It hurts too much to hear…”

  I laughed, a completely empty sound. She thought I was ending it with her? After the things we’d professed, the things we’d done for one another? “Love isn’t supposed to be easy, Alana…”

  “And you think it’ll be easy for me to just go back to my normal life like none of this happened? You have the easy part in all of this…you’ll stay busy, you’ll be needed, be able to move on…” she exclaimed, hardly stopping for breath.

  I reached for her hands and took them. “You heard nothing I said, did you, love?”

  “Oh, I did. You were breaking it off with me.” She averted her eyes to the side, not willing to look at me.

  I squeezed her hands tight, bringing her attention back to me. “I said love isn’t supposed to be easy,” I repeated slowly, hoping she’d catch the one word I had emphasized. To her credit, her eyes were misty, but I knew with her stubbornness, she was too prideful to have a tear fall. “You thought I brought you here so I could end things with you? The best thing that’s happened to me? Why on earth would you think that?” I asked.

  “You got cagey and weird a few minutes ago, and I figured you’d had your fill…”

  “Alana, I brought you here for so many reasons, and breaking up with you was never one of them.” I cocked my head, reading her before I continued. “You’re a living, breathing dream. I honestly don’t know how I got so lucky. I don’t know how I could ever be apart from you. I know I don’t even want to entertain that notion.”

  Sensing that I needed to continue proving it, I pressed on. “I’ve never connected with anyone like this before, and not just between the sheets. Has my commitment for us ever wavered, has it ever given you pause to doubt it?

  “I knew the day we bumped into one another that I was done for. And every minute after that simply proved what I knew all along. I’ve fallen for you, love. So completely.”

  My admission stunned her. “Wait, what? You’re not breaking up with me?” she asked, her voice stronger.

  I nodded, offering her a crooked smile. “I love you, Alana.”

  “Bastian,” she sighed. “I’m in love with you too.” I smiled, full and genuine with her proclomation. “I, uh, I guess I jumped to conclusions…”

  “That might be putting it mildly,” I said, sliding my palm from her face. “But if you’re still uncertain how I feel about you, I’m happy to prove it.”

  My hands rested on her lower back, and I went for the hem of her loose tank. She lifted her arms as I pulled it over her head, tossing it somewhere nearby.

  I dropped my head to her cleavage, her scent intoxicating me. Her bra was thin and sheer and her nipples were a tantalizing contrast to the white fabric. I indulged, pulling a bud into my mouth, the mesh adding to the friction.

  Sliding a hand up, I unclasped it, letting it fall to the ground. I grabbed at the back collar of my shirt, discarding it faster than either piece of her clothing.

  We came together, bare from the waist up, skin on skin, the heat and humidity from the enclosed space causing us to perspire. Beads of sweat ran down my back in rivulets, the hair at the nape of my neck sticking in sporadic pieces.

  My one hand went around her waist, the other cradling her at the back of her neck. Our mouths collided in a yearning that had nothing to do with hastiness. In the past, that’s all we had done; impatience and lust always won out.

  And as eager as I was to brin
g her to orgasm, I was determined to take my time. It was just the two of us, for the next three days.

  No work.

  No foreign engagements.

  No speeches or appearances.

  Just our organic interaction, the giving and taking of our bodies. Of our minds and souls.

  I knew what I was feeling in this moment was something I experienced early on with her, but I had turned a blind eye, unwilling to admit it.

  I focused on the feel of her lips on mine, the way they swelled with our ardency, the way they trailed a white-hot path over my skin and the way they tasted faintly of berries—always.

  I focused on the way our bodies came together, melding into one another, the hard planes of my muscles against her feminine softness.

  As I intensified the kiss, my tongue owning hers, Alana moaned, the sweetest sound coming from deep within her. And I knew she was in this with me, our passion dictating the languid pace.

  Her hands had rested at my waist; she undid the top button to my shorts, with the tiniest amount of relief being felt from the strain of my throbbing cock.

  I mirrored her actions, peeling down her cut offs and panties in a single motion. Her eyes became liquid pools, their depth unending, threatening to drown me.

  I stepped out of my shorts, having gone commando, my erection finally freed. I scooped Alana in my arms and walked the few steps down into the warm depths of the lagoon.

  As the water reached my chest, I released her as she floated easily in front of me. Arching her back, she dipped her hair until it was submerged, her breasts achingly beautiful as the dancing light was reflected in the water as it ran down her full curves before disappearing once more.

  The temperature of the water was bath-like and buoyant, easily keeping us afloat.

  Placing my palm at her delicate collar bone, I splayed my hand out, running it down and over her sternum, between her breasts until I hit her stomach. It was slow and sensual, her body glistening and taught.

  She relaxed and let her legs fall back into the water until we were face to face. Her arms had gone around my neck for added stability while my hands found her ass.

  Sliding them down, I cupped her and pulled her against me until she was pressed against my cock.

  “Are you going to tease me all night, Bastian?” she asked, wriggling against me.

  “Begging for me, are you?”

  “Always,” she answered, sighing in frustration.

  “What is it that you need, love?” A smile played on my features, enjoying how she inevitably became pouty when she was in such need.

  “You,” she said seriously. “Every part of you, Bastian, now, tomorrow and forever.” Her eyes were clearer than if we were under the sun, her sincerity raw and honest and real. “I don’t want part of you, I want all of you. For once, I want to be insufferably selfish, to have you and use you and when I think I’m done, I want to come back for more and do it all again. I can’t explain it, Bastian,” she went on, “but you’ve opened my eyes to something so special, I can’t ever go back. I don’t ever want to go back, because wherever that place was, you weren’t in it. I’ve only just begun to know what true happiness is, to be wholly accepted, faults and all, and for some reason, you—this beautiful prince—loves me.”

  How woefully short that assessment was.

  “Oh, love,” I sighed. “Do you honestly think you’re the only one experiencing that? Alana, you’re the one that holds my heart in the palm of your hand. You have the power to crush me or to make me soar, because those are the only two options. You say you won’t ever go back? Well, I won’t ever live in the middle again. If we ended this right now, my heart would be lost to you forever; I wouldn’t want it back because life for me would cease to exist.” I leaned my forehead against hers, conveying my seriousness. “You want to have me and use me? Then do it, Alana. I’m at your mercy, don’t you see? I’m here for you and you only, so go on and take—I’ve got plenty to give. For you, I’ll never run out, I’ll never stop until I take my last breath.”

  “Make love to me, Bastian. I need you.”

  We had spoken all our truths in a matter of minutes, and now? Now, there was no time for talking, only feeling.

  Slanting my head, I placed my mouth upon hers once more as I slid into her slick heat. A chill ran down my spine despite the temperature, and suddenly nothing else was coherent but the two of us.

  With tender purpose, we began to move as one, the water splashing gently against the rocks.

  The grotto was said to be a mystical place, and as her body tightened around mine in exquisite release, I thought it must be. Under the luminescent glow that mimicked an endless night sky, we had bared ourselves to one another in the purest form, cocooned from the world.

  Soon after, as I emptied myself inside her, I knew things were to be different. No longer would we walk the tightrope of insecurity, but rather bask in the comfort of one another’s love.

  All was still but the beating of our hearts and the consistent roll of the waves as they gently made their way into the cavern before being drawn out again, as if the ocean breathed as we did. The rhythmic nature of it was soothing; reassuring in its resolve.

  If Alana and I could be half as determined, then perhaps there was truth to the mysticism after all.

  Chapter 13

  Alana

  We were insatiable; we simply couldn’t get enough of each other.

  There were very few places left that we hadn’t christened. Our first night after the grotto, we had undressed and dove into the pool, where Bastian effectively placed me on the built in bar table and decided to go for seconds.

  He had called it the ‘Alana Special’, and so long as his tongue was doing the things it was, he could call it whatever he wanted.

  Thouroughly satiated with orgasms, we had built up quite the appetite and found ourselves rummaging the kitchen for any semblance of nourishment, which we found, ate quickly and headed up to the master suite to shower.

  Which is where he took me a third time, before we finally collapsed naked on the impossibly comfortable bed, a sliver of moonlight shining across his chest.

  Between the exhaustion, foreign surroundings and jetlag, I had no idea what time it was, but I knew it was sometime in the early hours of the morning—the moonlight had waned, but the dark indigo tone of dawn was present, right before the day began.

  I woke slowly and deliciously to find Bastian’s face between my legs. I didn’t honestly know how I was still able to go, but there he was, expertly drawing yet another orgasm from me.

  “Mmm,” he hummed in satisfaction. “Not sure what I like more…you riding my face, or you riding my cock…”

  Before I was able to answer him, he had flipped our positions, effectively placing me on top.

  “I see…you need accurate side-by-side data to compare,” I teased, lowering myself down his thick shaft, happy to oblige.

  “I am a man of accuracy, if nothing else,” he informed me seriously. “Now, for the sake of science, fuck me.”

  So, I did.

  By the time we woke again, the sun had coaxed us out of our sex-induced sleep. It’s warmth, coupled with Bastian’s body heat, was the only thing I felt, like an invisible blanket that surrounded me.

  Our morning consisted of lazing by the pool, going for the occasional dip when we grew too hot, and sunning ourselves like it was our job.

  The afternoon we spent at the beach, where Bastian led me into the crystal clear depths. Never had I experienced anything quite like it; we could see well beyond our feet, and the azure water melded at the horizon making it impossible to tell where the ocean ended and the sky began.

  The sporadic clouds mimicked the whitewash of the cliffs and the beach, and if it weren’t for the verdant pine trees, the natural pallet would have only been two-toned.

  Not that I was complaining. I was rather enjoying the scenery, whether it was the landscape or Bastian.

  Two sun loungers were p
lanted in the rocky beach, and while I relaxed into one, Bastian came out of the water. The longer sections of his hair fell forward and dripped down his muscular chest. Though there was nobody around, we wore our suits, and his hugged all my new favorite parts of him.

  He looked like a model for one of those European cologne ads, and when he smiled at me with his kissable lips and straight teeth, I was glad I was sitting down. The man had the power to bring me to my knees.

  His strong jaw was sexily covered in stubble, and as I looked at him, his eyes had an easiness and clarity to them that I hadn’t seen before. He was relaxed.

  Bastian grabbed the towel and patted himself down before running it back and forth over his hair, leaving it sticking straight up. It gave him a youthful, boyish look and I giggled.

  “Come here,” I said, holding my arms out.

  He obliged, sitting along the edge of my lounger. I began to fiddle and mess with his dark hair until it was suitable once more, that sexy style that said I spent hours to make this look effortless.

  Evidently, my attempts at taming his locks were taking too long, and he began to trail his finger over me. Bastian started at my shoulder where I was getting a respectable tan by now, and continued down over my chest where he pulled the cup of my suit down, exposing my breast.

  “Ooops,” he said, flippantly.

  He did the same to the other side before making his way to my bottoms, where he tugged on the strings at my hips.

  All the while, his expression was playful, but heated. I could already feel myself anticipating what was to come, no more able to stop it than a train barreling down its track.

  I knew that he was about to make love to me here, on the beach, beneath the blazing sun, out in the open. It was terrifying but exciting all at once, the thought of potentially being caught turning me on even more.

  But Bastian was a tease; now that he had me naked on the lounger, he slowly lowered himself on his own and looked at me.

  I was annoyed and frustrated. I was wet with need and he simply laid back, regarding me. “Excuse me, Your Highness. Are you in the habit of displeasing your subjects?”