Good thing I was a persuasive prick when I needed to be.
My shadow casting over her caught her attention, and she looked up, shielding her eyes from the sun. With the glare behind me, her questioning expression indicated that she couldn’t make out who it was.
“Can I help you?” she asked, her posture stiffening at my proximity.
“You can.” It took two seconds for my voice to register, and her lips parted. “Hello, Jersey.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to tell you something.” I offered her my hand and was actually surprised when she took it without a fight.
Once she stood before me, the sass appeared in a cock of her hip, the deliberate fold of her arms. “You came all the way to Costa Rica when a phone call could accomplish that?”
“I did.” I took a step closer, bringing my chest right up against her defensive stance.
“How did you find me?”
“I have my ways.” I then unfolded her arms, took her hands in mine, and rested them on the small of her back. Her tongue coming out to moisten her lips hadn’t gone unnoticed. Neither did the way her chest rose and fell against my own.
“Why are you here, Nate?”
“It’s quite simple, which is ironic for someone like me.”
“Someone like you?” she asked.
“Yeah. Someone who spent his entire adult life believing everything that came along with a relationship was complicated as fuck.”
“It is complicated. You were right, and what happened between us proves that.”
“You’re wrong, Jersey. It’s simple… very simple.” I drilled my gaze through hers, dropping my guard, exposing all of me by saying, “It’s simple because I love you.”
“You do?” she asked with a questioning tilt of her head and vulnerability clear in her eyes.
“I do. And I know you love me.” Back up went the shield as she released a sarcastic huff, but I insisted. “You do, Jersey. Stop being stubborn and say the words.” When the bullheaded woman remained just as she was, I brushed my lips against hers. “I got nowhere to be and will wait for as long as it takes.” I resumed my persuasive methods, running my lips along the smooth skin of her neck and pulling an earlobe between my teeth. Still getting nothing, I pulled her harder against me and kissed her in a way that made our reunion a bit too salacious for the eyes around us.
And that kiss was what caused her to crack. She melted into my hold and moaned into my mouth. The moment I broke our connection, she uttered breathlessly, “You drive me crazy, Nate.”
“I know… as do you. And I know you love me.” All I got was a stare, but I could handle her stubbornness. “Have it your way, Jersey. But while you’re trying to be the pain in the ass I’ve grown to love, let’s get off this beach, and to our room, or I’ll be arrested in Costa Rica.”
“You assumed you’d be staying with me?”
“There she is… the answer is yes. I’m not leaving until you leave.”
She glanced down. “Where’s your stuff?”
“At the front desk.” Releasing her, I grabbed her bag, coffee, and towel off the sand. Once I had them all in hand, I faced her and said, “Lead the way, Jersey.”
Was I being stubborn not revealing I felt the same? Absolutely.
But I had no problem revealing my desperation in the way I dragged him across the grounds and directly to my room. Who cared that he now knew how much I missed him? After all, he’d showed his hand first by flying all the way to Costa Rica, appearing on the beach fully clothed, all to say those three little words that I never imagined he would say.
From seeing him on the beach, to what he declared, it all felt like a dream. When had he come to this conclusion? I guessed I’d been so consumed with my own confusing emotions, my own heartbreak, I never assumed he was experiencing the same. Why would I?
Sure, Jade had warned me he was also confused, and I saw signs of that in the final hours of our arrangement, but I’d dismissed the possibility it had anything to do with feelings.
In my head, because I’d been fixated with our casual, sexual connection, I assumed he had been as well. I truly believed what Nate shared with me was a flash in the pan, a common occurrence that he could duplicate with any willing woman he propositioned. Especially when he accepted without question my request to end things.
Obviously, all my assumptions were wrong. But was it as simple as he claimed? Could professing love erase all the other muck that often ruined a relationship? I had no idea and would need to jump down that rabbit hole with him. Any chance we could work would be dependent on communicating… something that was way out of my comfort zone.
For now, the need to address the overwhelming desire I held for him took precedence. And yes, I needed to come clean by telling him I loved him as well. But regarding that, why not make him sweat a bit?
The moment I scanned the card key against the reader and opened my door, Nate slammed it closed and pushed me up against it. We were all frenzied kissing and touching and kicking off shoes and yanking the first articles of clothing that our hands could touch off our writhing bodies.
We were now both topless, and just as I was about to place my hands over his muscular pecs, he molded his mouth around one nipple. My vision blurred, having been denied his physical touch over the past few weeks. When I came back to my senses, forgoing his pecs, I instead lowered my hand to palm his hardened dick. A guttural growl rumbled through him just before he moved to the other breast and sucked even harder, once again stealing any logical thoughts.
“Oh my God. I need you.” I hastily unzipped, unbuttoned, and shoved his shorts down his thighs. I then tucked my fingers inside the waistband of his briefs and began to lower them, adding for good measure, “I can’t wait any longer.”
My claim stopped him in his tracks, and he halted the progression, placing his hands over mine.
“Christ, these past two weeks have been hell, Jersey, but I don’t want to fuck you against a door.” His large palms cupped my face as he desperately stared into my eyes. “I want to savor every minute and unhurriedly devour every inch of you.”
Even though painful raw desire had me wanting to rush into an orgasm no different from a junkie chasing their next high, I also wanted what he wanted. And even though my time without Nate had me wound tighter than a drum—moodier than an adolescent girl with PMS, as he said—our reunion needed to be savored.
“You’re right.” I ran my fingertips over his face. “Make love to me.”
When he stepped away, it was to lift and carry me to the king-size bed. I watched with desire-hooded eyes as he removed my sarong and bikini bottom. My skin pebbled with goose bumps as he raked his gaze over my nakedness, and his pupils practically swallowed up the green irises. But before joining me, he straightened and with purpose began lowering his underwear, releasing his engorged dick.
There he stood in all his perfect glory. Unlike my bashfulness, he exuded nothing but confidence in his commanding stance.
While he fixed me with a hungry stare, he suddenly said, “I need to tell you something.”
My heartbeat faltered, assuming the worst. “Were you with someone else?”