“I love you, Lincoln,” I say, letting his chest hair absorb my tears.
He pulls back enough to make blistering eye contact, intense wonder etched into the face that has become beloved to me overnight. “I love you, too, Nova.”
Lincoln carries me the entire way home, cradling me to his chest like a long-lost treasure.
I don’t even care that I’m almost completely naked, because I’m wrapped up in the man and his love and there’s nothing I need more than that.
Based on the shape of the coastline, I can tell we’re almost at the house on the cliff and I can’t wait to get inside. Home. To be with Lincoln again in ways I don’t know exist yet.
“I’ll set up an office here. We’ll split our time between the island and New York.” His sure, determined voice, the way he makes plans that include me, makes me want his mouth between my legs again. Makes me feel safe and wanted. “But promise me not to walk through Manhattan barefoot, Nova,” he says, a smile playing around his mouth.
I giggle into his chest. “I won’t. As long as you promise to go barefoot on the island.”
“You’re determined to make a relaxed man out of me, aren’t you?” Without warning, he tosses me up over his shoulder, leaving me dangling face down and laughing into the ocean breeze. “Well I have news for you, Nova, you make me the furthest thing from relaxed.”
“What do I make you?” I ask, pouting at the ground.
He grips my backside with a growl, giving it a sound slap. “Horny as a motherfucker.”
“Oh,” I whisper, smiling shyly. “Lincoln, can you…? After we…after we, um…”
“After we what, little fairy?” He reels me back in over his shoulder, drawing me down the front of his body and settling my legs around his waist. “What’s on your mind?”
I close my eyes and blurt the question in my head. “I was wondering if you would hug me again after we make love?”
Regret collides with shock in his expression. “Ah, Nova, my angel,” he says thickly. “I’ll hug you any time you want.”
“Really?”
He pulls my head into the crook of his neck and bands his strong arms around me, the sheer force of his protection and love making me moan, my eyes filling with tears. “You’re my miracle. Do you understand that? I’ve been walking around like an empty shell and then you come out of the sky, like sunshine after a never-ending storm. You fill me up. Repair me by simply existing. I’m sorry you went a single second without what you needed from me. You’ll get anything you want or need for the rest of your life. It’ll be my privilege to give it to you.”
I wrap my arms around his neck, laying kisses on the strong column. “Lincoln,” I murmur, rubbing the tips of my breasts in his chest hair. “Lincoln.”
“My Nova,” he rasps, dropping his hands to massage the cheeks of my bottom. His touch is arousing, but his amber eyes are concerned. “How did you go so long without love when you have two sisters? What happened to your parents?”
I cling to him tighter, burying my face in his throat. “They passed away in a car crash. I was little and they were coming to pick me up from dance class. My sisters…they have every right to h-hate me—”
“What?” His body stiffens against mine. “Nova, no. That is bullshit. Have they really made you believe an accident was your fault?”
Emotion is clogged so tight in my throat, all I can do is lift my shoulders and drop them.
“You are not to blame. You were an innocent child.” We’re storming toward the house now, Lincoln’s feet leaving the grassy hillside and eating up the stone path. “I’ll never forgive myself for not getting here sooner. You’ve needed me, goddammit.”
“You’ve needed me, too,” I whisper.
“More than you’ll ever know.” We enter the house through the glass side door and Lincoln settles me on the dining room table, his hips pressing in tight to the apex of my thighs, leaving no doubt of his arousal. “I’ll hold you until the end of time if that’s what you need. I’ll keep my arms around you at all times. I’ll—”
A cell phone, fax machine and computer all begin dinging at the same moment.
Lincoln drops his forehead onto my shoulder and I laugh. “I’m all sticky from the coconut juice. Go take care of your work and I’ll meet you—”
“In our bed, Nova,” he says, kissing my forehead. “I’m going to cancel all my calls and put an out of office reply on my email. Then I’m going to drown in you and not come up for air until I’m good and goddamn ready.”
“It’s a plan,” I whisper, my heart fluttering in my throat. Lincoln seems torn over leaving me, so I do him the favor of hopping off the table, giving him a nudge toward the office. “Take your time. I’ll be waiting when you’re done.”
“I must be the luckiest bastard alive,” he mutters, backing away from me with heat in his eyes, my nakedness reflecting back at me. “I won’t be long, little girl.”
I practically float up the stairs to the bedroom, pirouetting on one toe at the entrance to the bathroom, pondering a soak in the bathtub. But when I see my face staring back at me in the mirror over the sink, I remember. I remember what my plan was in coming here. Dread spikes in my belly as I retreat back into the bedroom, going to my backpack and untucking the cell phone from its front pocket. There are forty text messages from my sisters.
Did you do it yet?
Don’t you dare come back here until you’re knocked up.
Remember Mom and Dad. Remember what you did. You owe us.
We need that money. You’re going to get it for us or else.
The text messages go on and on until I’m sick to my stomach. And not out of guilt toward my family. No, I’m ill because I agreed to this scheme. I let my sisters convince me I’m a bad person. That I am truly at fault for something out of my control. I came here and I…
I deceived the man I love.
The man who loves me.
Although, can he really love me if he doesn’t know I’m a liar? The kind of person who would agree to getting pregnant on purpose? Lincoln trusted me with his secrets, he let me heal him and that trust would be fractured if he knew I’d come here to con him.
There’s only one thing to do. I have to tell my sisters the scheme is off.
Only then will I be able to return to Lincoln with a pure heart and conscience.
Only then will I deserve this love he’s bestowed on me.
The restaurant is only a quick jog once I get down to the beach. If I hurry, I can be back before Lincoln even knows I’m gone. With a weight pressing down on my chest, I dress in the thin, blue shift dress and panties I packed. Then I slip to the balcony and climb down soundlessly to the beach below, turning and casting a longing glance back at the house.
I’ll return soon, my love.
Little do I know what awaits me…
6
Lincoln