AIDANThe girls spent the afternoon sightseeing and shopping but came back by the evening as promised because I’d told them I would treat them to dinner to celebrate Lila’s new internship. I was proud of my daughter for her accomplishments. The law firm she would be interning for was a prestigious one, and it would definitely beef up her resume. As much as I wanted to celebrate this milestone with her, I was also hoping to calm the waters with Clio.After they left, I paced in my room, realizing that I had come on pretty strong. I didn’t want Clio to feel like she was trapped here with me. That was the last thing I wanted actually.Mentally, I scrolled back through the last couple of years. Lila and I spoke on the phone several times a week. I’d heard about her friend Clio countless times. Lila had described her as shy but funny and insanely talented (her words). She’d also told me before she drove down to Malibu that her friend would be coming with her because she’d had a really shit
[Kendall]“Thanks for inviting me,” I say, smiling at Elora as I nudge her with my shoulder.She laughs, lifting her champagne glass. “You needed a break, Kendall. It’s about time.”I wiggle my toes in the clear, saltwater pool and glance at her perfectly manicured feet. “Yeah, I don’t get out much.”Elora tilts her head knowingly. “Because you’re always at home taking care of your dad.”I nod, the usual heaviness settling in. “He’s not been the same since the heart attack. I’ve taken over most of the household stuff. Lucky he made enough money as a low-level guy before getting sick to take care of us. I owe him everything.”“You’re a good daughter,” she says sincerely before grinning again. “But today’s about mimosas and sunshine, so drink up.”I smile, taking another sip of my drink. Elora’s been my best friend since we were twelve, always dragging me into fun I didn’t know I needed. Sometimes I think she tries to live enough for both of us.When Marco Barone’s voice cuts across the
[Camden] I can think of about five things I’d rather be doing (three of them women) that isn’t standing around at Bruno Esposito’s stupid party. It isn’t even really a wiseguy party, just something that Bruno has thrown together for his birthday. I ended up driving Elora here early because she couldn’t wait, which left Kendall to finish getting ready on her own.Elora bolted the second we arrived, no doubt hunting down Bruno or stirring up trouble somewhere else. The mansion is huge, probably bigger even than Dante’s-my capo. The Espositos are an old family, and Bruno is the next in line. I guess that’s part of the reason that Elora likes him so much. She’s attracted to power, that’s for sure. I’m the guy that works for the men in power, and I like it that way. There’s too much responsibility in being a made man to be honest. Too many people trying to take what you have. I’m glad I’m under the radar and don’t have to worry about looking over my shoulder at every turn. I jus
[Kendall] I’ve never been particularly popular, but there must be something to this dress, because men keep coming up to me, introducing themselves. Alessandro Barone, Marco’s younger brother, walks up to me, looking me up and down. “What’s your name, pretty girl?” he asks in a low tone, and I snort out a laugh. “You’ve known me since high school, Alessandro. I was the year ahead of you? We were in choir together?” He just looks at me blankly. “Kendall Risi,” I say, sighing, and his eyes widen. “No fucking way,” he says in a mumble, and for the first time I notice his eyes are a bit glassy. I don’t smell booze, though, so I suspect drugs. “You’ve been hanging out with Bruno too much,” I accuse, and Alessandro shrugs, smirking. “Maybe. I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you,” he says, stepping closer. I back away, not wanting to get cornered by him. “I guess that’s a compliment?” I say dryly. “Of course it is. Look at you,” he says, licking his lips. “I never noticed you be
[Camden]I’m still outside smoking, not paying much attention to the rest of the party, when a blood-curdling scream cuts through the night. It takes me only a second to realize that it’s Elora , and my heart begins to pound as I run down the hallway. I have to push people out of my way, most of the party had started to move upstairs and everyone was in the way. Now that Elora had screamed, people were all going that way and I all but elbowed everyone out of my way as I approached Bruno’s office.Elora is standing in the doorway, shivering all over and I put my hands on her shoulders, turning her away from Bruno’s dead body.“Shit,” I curse.Elora clutches on to me, making me look at her. “It was Marco,” she whispers. “You have to get to Kendall. She saw everything.”Fuck.Apparently, there’s a witness to this murder, and it’s my little sister’s best friend. I’m going to have a long night ahead of me, clearly. I take Elora ’s shoulders in my hands and look at her fiercely.“Find Dant
[Kendall]I wake up with Camden's arms wrapped around me, and it takes me a long moment to figure out where I am and what’s going on.Then I remember last night—a flash across my memory of Bruno’s face—and I gasp.Camden murmurs something in his sleep and rocks against me, his morning erection pressing against my ass.I swallow hard.My teenage self would be over the moon right now, lying in bed with Camden, feeling his arms around me, his body pressed against mine—but I have no idea how to handle it.My mind is spinning between the confusion of this intimate closeness and the aching emptiness inside me. Part of me wants to cling to him and let myself forget, even if just for a little while.I just don’t want to think anymore. I don’t want to see Bruno’s dead body, think about the fact that he’s just...gone.I don’t want to think about Marco’s heavy breaths as he chased me through the woods.Or how I was only able to get rid of him by climbing over a rose bush that cut along my legs,
[Kendall]My pulse races, anticipation thrumming through me like a live wire, and he watches me with a smirk that’s both reassuring and maddeningly confident. His eyes are dark with desire, but there’s something else beneath the surface, something I can’t quite place.“You’re so beautiful, Kendall,” he murmurs, his voice thick with need. He slides a hand down my thigh, the roughness of his fingertips sending shivers along my skin, as if he’s marking me, leaving traces of his touch everywhere. My body trembles under the weight of it, a hunger igniting deep inside.His words send a strange, warm ache through my chest, and I reach up, pulling him back down to me, desperate to feel his weight, his warmth, against me. The heat of his body presses into mine, each inch of him a reminder of how badly I’ve wanted this, how long I’ve been fighting this pull between us. His breath, hot and ragged, dances across my neck as he moves, making me dizzy.He cups his hand against my pussy, and the he
[Kendall] “You said you didn’t want to think. Did it help?” His words carry a weight, a quiet sincerity that makes my heart ache in a way I wasn’t prepared for. “I’m not thinking anything,” I whisper, my voice raw, as I look away, my fingers brushing over the marks he left on my skin. Camden laughs softly, rubbing a hand over his face. “Then it did work,” he chuckles, his laughter warm and somehow comforting, like a balm on my scattered nerves. I have no idea what to do with myself now. My body feels heavy and weightless at the same time, like I’m floating in some strange, blissful limbo. I stand up on shaky legs, unsure of what happens next, and mumble, “I think I’ll take a shower.” Camden nods, throwing a forearm over his eyes as if he, too, is processing what just happened, giving me space. I leave the room, the cool air of the hallway hitting me like a shock, and head to the bathroom. I stare at myself in the mirror for a long time, at the marks Camden left on my throat
AIDANThe girls spent the afternoon sightseeing and shopping but came back by the evening as promised because I’d told them I would treat them to dinner to celebrate Lila’s new internship. I was proud of my daughter for her accomplishments. The law firm she would be interning for was a prestigious one, and it would definitely beef up her resume. As much as I wanted to celebrate this milestone with her, I was also hoping to calm the waters with Clio.After they left, I paced in my room, realizing that I had come on pretty strong. I didn’t want Clio to feel like she was trapped here with me. That was the last thing I wanted actually.Mentally, I scrolled back through the last couple of years. Lila and I spoke on the phone several times a week. I’d heard about her friend Clio countless times. Lila had described her as shy but funny and insanely talented (her words). She’d also told me before she drove down to Malibu that her friend would be coming with her because she’d had a really shit
CLIO“You know that internship that I applied for? That one right here in Malibu?” she asked. I remembered which one she was talking about. Lila had applied to a couple of internships at a couple of law offices, one back home and one in Malibu. She’d gotten the one back home but was denied the one in Malibu, and when that happened, she decided to just take the summer off and hang out at the beach house. “The office called and left me a message yesterday and said that the intern they’d selected changed his mind at the last second. They wanted to know if I would still be interested. Well, of course I called them right back, but I could never get a hold of anyone, so we’ve been playing phone tag, but that was them. I got it!”“That’s amazing, sweetheart!” Aidan said, sweeping his daughter into a bear hug.“That is awesome, Rea, congratulations!” I told her.She moved partially out of her dad’s embrace and beckoned me over. “Get over here, girl, this is a group hug moment.” Really? I th
CLIOWhen I’d returned to the beach house just a short time before, I’d been on cloud nine. I hadn’t been planning on giving Lila every nitty gritty detail of what happened on the beach that morning between me and a gorgeous, mysterious, older man. But I had been excited to share how I’d tried something new, and I’d been assertive about what I wanted and the universe had rewarded me with a kind, hot man and the first orgasm I hadn’t given to myself.Lila had returned with bags of food bursting at the seams with some of her own good news. Looking at one another, each of us could tell that what we had to share would take a while, so we decided to hold off so I could go clean up and change out of my wet clothes and she could get lunch set up.I’d taken a little longer in the shower than I’d planned. Once the warm water streamed down my body, I found all the sensitive places that Aidan had touched waking up again. It was almost like no one had ever touched me before him, and while it was
AIDAN “You’ve got to have one first in order for me to worry about it,” she huffed with a raised eyebrow, then her face fell. I could practically see the question written all over her face before she asked it. “Dad, you’re not still hung up on Mom, are you?”I barked out a laugh, unable to help my response at the ridiculous idea. “What? No,” I said firmly. The idea was truly laughable. For one thing, Renee and I had truly burned every bridge when we split. The only remaining tie we’d had was Lila, and that tie was severed the second Lila graduated high school. For another, it had been twelve years since our separation, and it felt like a lifetime ago.“I didn’t really think so,” Lila responded. “I just want to make sure. I know you made sure to keep that stuff away from me when I was growing up, but Dad, I’m a grown woman. I am more than capable of the idea of my dad being in a relationship.” At that moment, an image of Clio popped into my head. God, I had to be rusty. I’d spent an
AIDANI emerged from the water for the umpteenth time, glancing at the shoreline. Once Clio left, I’d gone back into the water, trying desperately to work off my frustration, but I couldn’t keep my mind off her.I’d decided to head down to Malibu a couple of days early. I didn’t think Lila would mind, and I couldn’t face another day in the office listening to entitled rich people whine about their issues.When I arrived, Lila’s things were spread out, but she was nowhere to be found. I figured she and her girlfriend were out, so I decided to take a walk and go for a swim. The morning and the water were too beautiful to pass up.The sand immediately began to relax me. Then I spotted her: a beautiful young woman with generous curves standing in the water. She wasn’t used to the ocean, but she seemed determined to gain her sea legs. I walked along the beach, watching her surreptitiously. It might’ve been a little creepy, but I couldn’t help myself. From where I was, she faced away from m
CLIOI’d never been told anything like that before and certainly not by a gorgeous man plucking at my nipple through my bikini top while I writhed beneath him. I grabbed his face in my hands and kissed him again, if only to distract myself into calming down, though it quickly became evident that calming down was not going to be a possibility. Remembering my goal of being more assertive, I gave in and let my hands roam over Aidan’s body. I ran my hands over his broad shoulders and down his chest and abdominal muscles that flexed beneath my fingers. I could feel his desire pressed against my thigh, but I didn’t let my fingers go there just yet, instead letting them dance at the waistband of his trunks.He stilled then and gently moved my hands away from his waistband and pinned them on either side of my head. “Not yet, Clio. Not before I make you come.” His voice was husky, and the words he’d uttered made me feel like I was on fire. “Tell me you want that,” he said, and I was delighted
CLIO“You mean other than saving a beautiful woman from the current?” He smiled, and I felt my blush all the way down to my toes. He chuckled softly at my reaction and continued, “I found myself suffering from work burnout and decided I needed to get away for a while, recalibrate. You?”“Same. I mean, not from work or anything. Maybe I’m just burned out on life? It’s just been a really hard few months, and I’m looking to work on myself—recalibrate like you said,” I told him.“And what is it that you’re trying to work on exactly?” he asked, looking a little skeptical but still good-natured.“I’m working on being more assertive, of taking charge of my life…not worrying about what other people think and doing more things that scare me,” I told him, surprised at how easily I opened up to this man.“Is that what the swimming was about? Doing something that scared you?” he asked, floating closer toward me.“Yeah. I don’t want to miss out on opportunities just because of fear,” I said.“Are
CLIOI sat in the sand, heaving in breaths, as the man squatting beside me rubbed soothing circles on the small of my back. I pushed my wet mop of hair out of my face and finally looked into possibly the most beautiful set of eyes I’d ever seen. I didn’t think I had ever seen eyes that color before. They were slate gray and kind as he stared down at me. “There you are,” he said softly. “You’re okay, just take it easy.” He was still rubbing circles on my skin when I managed to clear my airways enough to respond.“I-I-I don’t know what happened,” I stuttered out.“I saw you go into the water, and when you didn’t come back out, I figured something was wrong. First time in the ocean?” he asked in a silky voice. I couldn’t decide if it was the sound of his voice or shock making my flesh break out with goosebumps.“Yes,” I admitted, “and apparently my last.” I shot him a sheepish smile. I met his eyes but quickly tore them away, feeling my face burn with embarrassment.“Don’t say that,”
CLIOLila had not been exaggerating when she described the paradise that was her father’s beach house in Malibu. While I understood that where we lived in Northern California was beautiful in its own right, we spent most of our time there in classrooms and at work. Here, the white, sandy beaches stretched for miles, the vast, blue water sparkled before us, and best of all, we didn’t know a soul there. It was heaven.On the drive down to Malibu, I’d spilled my guts about the whole incident that led to me agreeing to come with Lila. She shook her head in disgust after my story was over. “I know you cared about him, but Michael really is a rat bastard. Honestly, I think you should start looking at this as a bullet dodged instead of a heartbreak.”“I know.” I sighed. “I just want to start over and get away from the old Clio.”“Hey, I happen to love the ‘old Clio’ as you call her. But I’ll support you in whatever way you wish to reinvent yourself. You want to start wearing dark eyeliner