“I guess it depends on the source of the pain.”
He furrows his brow and drops his forehead to mine. “I’ve had broken ribs, countless black eyes, a broken hand and hundreds of cuts and bruises. I’ve been hit by some of the strongest men in the world. I’ve spent hours having my skin tattooed with a needle, repeatedly…” He lets out a soft breath that blows against my heated cheek. “But none of that compares to the pain of losing you.”
“Sam.” I close my eyes and swallow down the echo of the pain that used to hide in the far corners of my heart, hidden away from Drew and Janice and even Sebastian, but mostly from me. “You don’t have to feel that way anymore. You never have to feel that pain again.”
He gazes at me with his beautiful, strange eyes, the blue brightened by the reflection of the sky and the brown lit by the warm sun that reflects the shimmering layers of gold and amber, like the sand meeting the sea. “I’ll never let myself forget what it was like to lose you. To pine for you. To see you with someone else. And to want you so badly I could hardly breathe.” He reaches under my chin and vows, “I will never take you for granted.”
I wrap my fingers around his wrist and promise, “I won’t take you for granted, either.”
The fire returns to his eyes and his lips return to mine.
His hands tangle in my skirt again, the gauzy material clinging to my legs as he fights to get it up around my waist, and I stumble backward onto a dark wicker canopy bed that’s covered with a sheer mosquito net. He shoves it to the side and pushes me back against the creamy white pillows that line the circular bed, kissing my thighs as he moves my skirt out of the way.
I pull my long hair up and lay it over the pillows, giving my neck reprieve from the infringing heat, and relish the shaded cushions that cool me slightly.
Sam shrugs out of his shorts and closes the mosquito net around us, and it billows in the breeze, dappled with shadows that dance in the filtered sunlight.
“Stop.” I hold my hand up and sit up a little on my elbow.
“What?”
“Don’t move.”
“Lucy, if there’s a fucking spider on me, you better get it right now!”
I crinkle my eyes and laugh softly, remembering his fear of the little eight-legged creatures. “There’s no spider, Mr. World Class Champion.”
“What is it then?”
I sit up all the way and pull my bottom lip between my teeth. “You. This place. Right now. I just want to remember this moment. Forever.”
He smiles and his dimples light up the darkest parts of me, sending a cool rush through my veins, which beg to be heated again. He crawls over me and kisses me passionately, pushing me back against the pillows as he tugs my lips between his teeth, the way that I love, the way that leaves them tingling and begging for more. He yanks my crop top down, leaving it around my waist while he takes turns cupping my breasts and rubbing his thumb gently over my warmed nipples.
I push his boxer briefs down over his hips while he tugs my panties down, and I wriggle my legs against his until at least one of mine is free and he’s lying on top of me naked, rocking his hips against me, though I’m still partially skirted and somewhat crop-topped.
With both articles of clothing corralled around my stomach, he pushes into me with an audible groan that resonates deep in my soul. I wind my arms around his back, careful of his injured ribs, which I know must be aching, though he’ll never admit it, and savor the feeling of him sinking into me, filling me the way only he can, the way only he ever has.
I drop my head back and breathe in the warm island air that only he and I are sharing, overcome by the freedom of being miles away from another human being. It’s just me and Sam. No one else. And with that, every ounce of worry, every extraneous thought that has overshadowed our reconciliation disappears.
“Sam…” I breathe against his mouth, my body absorbing every ounce of him. I put my hand on his face, and he smiles when he sees the smile on mine.
He reaches for my hands and holds them above my head, lacing his fingers with mine as he looks down on me with every slow, intentional thrust.
“I love you,” I whisper, gazing up at his handsome face.
“I love you,” he whispers back and the flames licking my thighs ignite in an explosion that’s fueled by all the oxygen in my body.
I cry out as he continues with slow, strong thrusts, holding my hands and watching me writhe beneath him. I rock my hips up to bring him closer, but he just gazes down at me, holding my hands above my head, keeping his slow, steady rhythm that fans the glowing embers still burning just below the surface of my skin.
“What are you doing?” I whisper.
“I want to remember this moment. You. Like this. Forever.”
I lie beneath him with a satiated smile, watching him watch me as we make love in the shaded heat of the Caribbean, pink cheeked, sweat beading, eyes seeing places inside each other that no one else has ever seen. He’s mine. I bite my tingling lip and sigh with pleasure that resonates through my body and soul. And I’m his.
Finally.
Chapter 3
Lucy
I bend over and wrap my freshly washed hair in a towel, twisting it on top of my head as I stand back up. Sam follows me out of the bathroom, dripping water all over the floor.
“Do you ever use a towel to dry off?” I ask, laughing and steeling a glance of his naked, wet body. His week-long Bahamian tan is beginning to turn the color of honey.
“Not when it’s eighty degrees out,” he says, opening the balcony doors and walking outside naked. The sheer white curtains billow into the room with a warm breeze, and thunder rolls in the distance. The sun is still shining, but it won’t be long before an afternoon thunderstorm moves through.
I unwrap the towel from around my body and drop it on the floor at my feet while I search through my half-empty suitcase for a pair of panties.
“In there,” Sam says, pointing to the dresser next to the hand-carved four-poster bed, which is draped in white sheers.
I give him a curious look.
“I washed everything last night while you were snoring, I mean sleeping, on the couch.”
“What? I do not snore!”
He laughs softly. “Only when you’re really tired. I think you were worn out from our hike across the island yesterday.”
I shake my head, but I don’t refute him.
“I put all your clothes away in those drawers,” he says, gesturing to the dresser again. “I figured it was time you stopped living out of your suitcase.” He smirks. His suitcases were promptly unpacked and tucked away in the back of the closet the day we arrived.
I narrow my eyes and pull one of the drawers open to find all my bras and panties neatly folded in little stacks.
Sam wraps his arms around me and presses his sun-warmed body to mine. “I wouldn’t protest if you skipped putting on clothes altogether, you know.” He kisses my neck beneath my ear, knocking the towel off my head, which tugs my long hair.
“Ow,” I say, leaning over to unwrap the towel from my hair—it falls to the floor. I stand up and rub my scalp, and run my fingers through my damp hair to separate the strands.
“You okay?” Sam asks, picking the towel up off the floor.