I glance over at the clock sitting on the nightstand and I know I need to get up. There are things I have to do, but right now all I want is to lay here. I don’t want to think about anything else but this moment with this man wrapped around me. I feel like I’m lying on a fluffy, warm cloud without a worry in the world.I still can’t believe that I took a man home from the bar last night. I slide my hand up his broad chest, loving every ridge. It’s nice to wake up with someone next to you. God, I don’t even know Dario, but I’m scared of what’s going to come next. He’s clearly not from here, and last night was so good I don’t want it to end. My heart aches at not getting to do this again with him. I try and push all those thoughts away and focus on living in the moment. I want to enjoy this slice of fun while it’s here.Leaning over, I place a kiss on his chest before I slide out of bed.My body is sore in the most wonderful way as I stretch. I stare down at my handsome stranger, hoping
“Bossy. I like it,” Aisha says from beside me, then leans closer and whispers, “He acts like he has the right to be. You so gave it up and now he’ll never leave you alone.” She shakes her head but has an evil grin on her lips.I’m not sure I want him to leave me alone, but I keep that to myself, not wanting to sound needy. I don’t even know him. I can’t stake a claim on him.“You finally give it up to Cyrus?” I throw back. She narrows her eyes at me. “I know he followed you out last night.”“He’s never getting into my pants.” She shrugs, making her dark ponytail bounce.“Are you two going to tell me what’s going on?” Ken leans forward on the desk, clearly wanting to hear this, too.“I have enough alpha male in my life. I don’t need another,” Aisha says.“He doesn’t seem like that. I mean, Cyrus is bit bossy at times, but he’s the sheriff and a former Marine,” I say. Besides, I think she needs an alpha male.“You only see the good old boy routine. I’ve seen other sides of him.” Her jaw
When I steal a peek over at him he gives me a soft smile with a wink. He’s nothing like the man who was on the phone moments ago. I’m started to notice that. He can be hard and clipped with others but not me.“Is there somewhere else you’re supposed to be? I don’t want you to get in trouble or something.”“I promise I’m right where I want to be,” he tells me, making a flutter hit my stomach. We drive into town and I have to tell him where to turn a few times.“You never been here before?” I ask. Our town isn’t big, and if you’ve been here once you should really know where the center of town is.“Yeah, a few times,” he says after a long pause.“And you don’t know your way around here? Are you that bad with directions?” I tease.“I normally stay at the resort here.”My stomach tightens at the reminder of that place. It’s bittersweet having it here. It’s been good for the town but bad for me because they want my land. And it’s becoming clear to me they are going to get it. They’ll rip do
By the time I make it back with two coffees, the girls’ table has already attracted a line of people. I got stuck at the coffee shop because I didn’t think to ask how Jade wanted it. But when the barista asked who it was for he knew immediately how she took it. That irritated me to no end, but it was made worse by the questions I got afterwards.It seemed like everyone in the town was in the shop asking me why I was getting coffee for “Nikki” and was I the guy at the bar with her last night. I avoided questions as much as I could until the guy handed me over two cups, telling me which one was for her and which was for Aisha. I hadn’t even had a chance to tell him I was getting them both a drink before I got bombarded by people, so he must know they’re always together.Everyone in this town knows one another and they’re all looking at me like I’m some alien from another planet. I’m trying not to be the asshole I know I can come across as, because this is Jade’s town and I want her to l
“Have you ever thought about moving off the island?” I ask as I push the laundry cart down the hall and into the washing room. I close the door behind us as she moves the cart over to the rows of machines.“No, never.” She smiles and then turns on the machines and dumps the sheets in with the soap.“What about if you didn’t have the Mermaid? Would you want to leave then?” My chest aches when I think about what this might mean. What if I have to leave this place and leave her behind? I can’t live here full time. It would be impossible.“That’s actually a possibility in the near future.” Her smile drops and she shrugs her shoulders. “But I’m not sure I want to talk about finances.”“No, I understand. I was just wondering if you didn’t have the hotel if you’d leave. Maybe visit my place?”“Are you asking me to come see your house?” she says as she walks over towards me and places her hands on my stomach.“I’m asking if you’d move in with me.”Her eyes widen in surprise and she opens her
I laugh as Dario throws me over his shoulder and walks into the Mermaid. I can’t stop smiling. With everything that’s been happening in my life lately, today has been one of the best of my life. Hell, I think it might be the actual best day of my life. After spending the day with Dario I’m coming to terms with what’s happening. He’s serious about me and wants to keep this going. The thoughts of a weekend fling are long gone now and he’s talking about our future.When he reaches the porch he slides me down his body and puts me on my feet. I wrap my arms around his neck, not wanting him to let me go. Maybe I should be looking at this differently. One door is closing and another is opening. In fact, I keep thinking I’ll lose everything from my family if this place is taken from me, but maybe I’ll be starting another one with Dario.I know it sounds crazy. We’ve only known each other a short time, but this feels right and I know he’s feeling it, too. With time we’ll get to know each other
"Mr. Vampelt! You've had us all so worried," a woman cries from the entryway.We all turn to look see a woman in a suit that's way too hot for this weather. Her black hair is pinned up in a tight bun and there's not a hair out of place. She looks like she belongs in a boardroom and not standing in the lobby of the Mermaid. That's when I look behind her and see Sheriff Cyrus coming up the steps, too."She's been in a fit. Tried to report your city boy missing. When she showed me a picture of him I brought her on over," Cyrus says, looking annoyed."What was I to suspect?" she wails."Kathy," Dario says in warning. "I talked to you this morning."His body is tense and I can tell he's pissed. It's a side of him he shows to everyone except me. With me he's always soft and sweet. But when it comes to everyone else he's direct and comes off as cold."With how you sounded I thought maybe you were kidnapped. To top it off, I hadn't heard another word from you. You haven't even opened one work
One week later…“I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this for her,” Aisha says as she glares at me.“I know. I just want to make things right.”She clenches her jaw like she’s trying not to curse me straight to hell. I wouldn’t blame her if she did. I already feel like complete shit, so anything she has to throw at me can’t possibly make me feel worse.“She’s acting like someone died,” she says as she looks away. “She’s worse than when she lost both her grandparents. I don’t know how to pull her out of it.”I was wrong when I thought I couldn’t feel any worse. “I’m going to fix this. I know I can.”Aisha drops the basket of food on the ground at my feet and turns to give me her back. She starts to walk away, but before she does she stops and lets out a long sigh.“You better. Or I’ll cut your heart out and give it to her for Christmas.”“If she doesn’t forgive me, I’ll hand you the knife.”That causes her to look back at me over her shoulder. “You really do love her, don’t you?”“Ye
When Olivia doesn’t have her hands full with Chuck, she’s attending one of her art classes or working in her studio. The boys and I worked on the weekends to build it for her so she’d have somewhere to paint on the property. Without using any of her connections, she’s managed to get her work into many of the local galleries and amass quite the following online under a pseudonym. She was hesitant at first to pursue it.“My parents always told me it was stupid,” she said when she first brought it up to me. But I pushed her.“That’s exactly why you should do it then.”Now every time I come home and see her covered in paint, wearing her oversized pair of coveralls with her hair tied back in a ponytail, it makes my heart go absolutely wild when I think that she is mine.Lugging Chuck over my shoulder, I stride in through the front door to find her at the sink finishing up some dishes.“Shouldn’t you be relaxing?” I ask her. “Dinner was hours ago.”“Oh, I was hungry, so I made myself some s
Five years later…“On nights like this, I always think of my dad.” I look down at my son, Chuck, named after my father, sitting on a stump beside me as we watch the treetops blow above us from the back of my pickup truck parked at the ridge.“You came here with him a lot?”“He took me here,” I smile, ruffling his hair. “Now I take you here.”“Mom says you guys met here.”“That’s kind of true, yes.”“Was she watching the trees too?”“Yes, she was.” I smile as I stand. “Come on, let’s get back and see her before you have to go to bed.”“But I’m not tired!”Chuck laughs and yelps as I lift him up and toss him over my shoulder like the little sack of potatoes he is, hop down out of the back of the pickup, and toss him into the cab.“Buckle up,” I remind him, which he quickly and proudly does. As I back out, I can’t help but look at the spot where I was parked five years ago on that night—the night that changed my life. As I glance in the rearview mirror, if I look hard enough, I can almos
“Make yourself come, you little whore,” he growls as he pumps his cock, showing me no mercy. And why should he? I’ve showed him none with all my power.It doesn’t take me long. A few concentric circles and I’m there. All the tension and build up from the last week—hell, from all the days since the ridge—it all hits me at once like a thousand fireworks exploding straight in my face. Every nerve ending in my body lights up. I try to scream, but my throat is stuffed with his manly inches.Sweet relief overwhelms me. More tears spill from my eyes. I gag on his glorious manhood and feel his cock pulse hard. He quickly pulls out and makes a sound like an angry laugh as I collapse back onto the floor in a shuddering mess.“You almost made me come, you know that?”I can barely even listen to what he’s saying as I lie at his feet, shaking, quivering, my abs spasming like I’ve just done five thousand sit-ups. But I am aware of him pulling my shorts the rest of the way off and his lips kissing u
If my father could see me now…Down on my knees in front of Anatoli Sidorov with my jaw dropped and my mouth obediently open. He would have a heart attack.But me? My heart is fluttering like a hummingbird, my nerves are tingling, and every bit of energy in my body is buzzing, screaming toward the focal point between my thighs. I’m dying for his touch, as I have been this entire week, but right now the queen has a king, and it is her job to obey.“Open,” he commands.I am, I think, but when he pulls his cock out of his briefs, I understand.I’ve only ever seen penises in porn, but even I know that what I’m looking at is not normal. Not average. In fact, what he’s holding in both hands is far, far above average. “I—I can’t swallow that, Anatoli.”His cock is thick like a solid shaft of muscle, with a long vein running all the way up from the base to the broad head. It stands out straight, stiff as a warrior’s spear, and from the tip drips a long line of what must be pre-cum.“Maybe not
“Is that a question?”God, what a stupid thing to say.Thankfully, Anatoli shakes his head. “No, it’s not.”“How—how do you know?”And an even stupider follow-up.“I’m not stupid,” he replies, taking a step forward, halving the distance between us.Well, that makes one of us.My senses suddenly come alive, and I’m aware of the sweltering heat coming off of his body, his intoxicating scent and the way he towers over me with a presence that would terrify me if the same angry fire were still in his eyes.“You wouldn’t do all of this just to get laid,” he says, taking another step. He’s almost on top of me now. My body is yearning for his touch again. The heat between my legs is growing to unbearable levels. Without his finger inside me, I feel vacant, hollow. I’m dying for him to finish what he began. “So there must be more. Much more. Isn’t that right, Olivia?”“I—so what are you saying, Anatoli?” I stammer. “That you…that you love me?”There’s a flash of amusement in his eyes that catc
Anatoli’s touch is like lightning. Electric pulses course up my spine, igniting flares of passion at the base of my skull that light me up like a Christmas tree.His kiss…Oh God, his kiss.I’ve been waiting, dreaming, absolutely begging for it for the last week. And not having it has been more painful than I ever could have imagined. But now having it is almost just as painful.It’s like too much salt or too much sweet. Too much pleasure, and I can barely comprehend it all. And when he curls his fingers and applies pressure between my legs, he overwhelms me.“Anatoli,” I breathe as he breaks our embrace and drags his lips down my neck. I can feel his hunger. His anger—I can feel it in his fingers as he forces them inside me. My jaw drops, and I practically burst like a popping light bulb. “Oh my God!”“This is what you wanted?” he asks, instantly finding my spot. My back arches off the wall, but he presses me right back against it with his body. I feel his bulge, rock hard and thick
I feel like a secret agent as I slip in the back stairs of the Radcliffe estate. I’m almost certainly being caught on their security cameras. Who knows whether or not the guards are watching the monitors and will come running?I’m in peak shape, but when I reach the door to Olivia’s wing, it feels like every one of my heart valves is ready to tear itself to shreds.All this over a girl I should despise.A girl trying to ruin me.I don’t even wait. I grab the door handle and barge in. Olivia almost jumps out of her skin and leaps back like she was about to open it for me.“Anatoli!” she yelps. I quickly clasp my hand over her mouth and close the door behind me.“Quiet!” I snap with a threatening hiss. “It’s been a week, Olivia. A week and I haven’t heard one word from the sheriff or the town clerk. I told you to call off your dogs or else. Was I not clear!?”The words taste like poison on my tongue. I can see the fear in her eyes as I speak them and want nothing more than to release he
I don’t sleep at all. Every time I close my eyes, I see her.Olivia Radcliffe.“Stop,” I tell myself over and over every time the image of her invades my mind. Rich bitch.You never should have kissed her.It was meant to be a spiteful move. A final fuck you to let her know how badly she’d fucked up, but it backfired hard and left me with a stiff dick that I didn’t want to acknowledge or do anything about but finally had to.Twice.And even that wasn’t enough.As I lie in bed, staring at the flecked paint of my bedroom ceiling, I can still feel her soft, supple waist in my hands from when I held her close.Christ, what it would be like to hold her like that again and stuff my cock inside her sweet little pussy. I’d fuck that queenly attitude right out of her. Make her come on my dick over and over and over again until she couldn’t see straight, walk, or mouth off at all.What are all those billions worth when you are shuddering all over my throbbing cock, queenie?I’d give anything to
“Are you all right, Olivia?” Bennett asks.“Fine,” I reply quickly. “I just – I think I’m going to take a bath. I have a bit of a headache.”“Need someone to run the water for you?”I have my back to him, but I can practically see the smirk on his face when he says that line. I’d like to turn around and tell him off – tell him that Tinder pickup lines don’t actually work in person and that I’m not a trashy slut that’s just going to jump in bed with him.But I don’t.Instead, I turn around, put on my best princess face, and force a painful smile.“No, Bennett. Thank you. That’s quite all right. I’m just going to relax now. Please tell my mom I’m going to go to bed early on your way out.”Unlike me, Bennett doesn’t dig deep for his charms and lets his emotions play out over his face.“Uh huh.” He nods, clicking his lower lip with his tongue. “You know, Olivia, when are you going to realize that this 18-year-old-virgin act just isn’t cute anymore?”“Excuse me?”“You know how many girls I