Wheeler

 

The beaches in San Diego were, in a few words? Some of the best in the damn world. I was convinced of that. They were even more beautiful when Ember was at them, with the yellow-pink sunset fading out behind her while she walked along the edge of the beach.

 

I was coming to the conclusion that I was falling for her. She had seemed like she was distracted before we came here, but watching her walk along the very edge of the water, and then playfully step back as the waves started to crash up on the shoreline, my heart melted, and I was glad to see that whatever it was that had troubled her was no more.

 

She’s so damn beautiful.

 

An angel.

 

I need to keep her.

 

The things with the MC weren’t looking … terrible. They weren’t looking good, either. We were just barely staving off the heat, from the minimal reports I’d gotten out of Leech. They were becoming less and less frequent. I wasn’t even able to get a hold of Bones or Elise properly anymore, either. I knew that Leech had something to do with it, but I couldn’t do a lot while I was here, and I wasn’t ready to leave Ember here.

 

I didn’t know how I was going to tell her that when I went back I wouldn’t be taking her with me, but I would be back for her.

 

So that counted for something.

 

Right?

 

It has to, I told myself.

 

I walked up to her. We had trekked down the beach a good ways from where I’d parked. I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her. She relaxed back against me. I smiled.

 

“You’re having a good time?” I asked.

 

“The best,” she said. “I’ve never been to the beach here before. It’s gorgeous.”

 

“You’re gorgeous.” I hadn’t realized that I had said it aloud until she smacked me on the arm.

 

“You hush,” she said.

 

I leaned around to look at her face.

 

Yep, there was a blush there. I had fallen in love with those.

 

“Now, why would I do that when it’s the truth?” I asked. “Just because you can’t take the truth.”

 

“I can totally take the truth,” she said. She stuck her tongue out at me. Before she could react, I wheeled her around and pulled her close. I leaned down and kissed her without hesitation. She tasted good and felt good. I couldn’t get enough of her.

 

I wasn’t really one for romance, but there was something about kissing this girl on the beach. We had managed to find a pretty secluded spot, which was a surprise in and of itself; it was San Diego, after all.

 

I counted myself lucky. Ember wrapped her arms around me, moaning a little as I continued to kiss her. Her fingers tightened in my hair.

 

“Mmm …”

 

My cock strained hard against my swim trunks. I wanted to have her. I needed to have her.

 

“You’re excited,” she mumbled. There was a smirk on her lips and she tugged my bottom one between her teeth.

 

I flicked my tongue over her lips and pulled away, looking around. Was there … could there be …?

 

Yes.

 

I spotted it just down from where we were. A small little shack. It wasn’t a five-star hotel, but …

 

I took Ember’s hand and tugged her with me. She giggled and squealed like a schoolgirl and I couldn’t help but love the way that sounded against my ears. I loved her happiness. I was beginning to live for it.

 

“Wheeler, what are you doing?” she asked, laughing as we slipped through the loose sand and made our way to the little shack. “Someone might see us! Someone might come in.”

 

“Come on, where’s your sense of adventure? I was sure that you would have one with all this going on,” I teased her. She stuck her tongue out at me again, and didn’t have any protests when I jimmied the door to the shack open (admittedly, I’d done this in the past a lot, so I knew what I was doing) and tugged Ember in with me. I pressed her against the door as it shut and kissed her again.

 

“Mm, Wheeler.” Her thighs parted, accommodating me between them. I rubbed between her thighs, rocking against the thin material of her one-piece. It hugged her body perfectly and left little between me and her when I was in swim trunks. She bucked against me and the heat that radiated off her was too damn tantalizing to be legal.

 

I pushed my face into her neck and I cupped her over her bathing suit. She was already soaked.

 

Just for me.

 

I toyed with her over the material. Her lips were full under the tightly clinging spandex suit, and I toyed the slit of them before teasing more, pressing between them so I could play with her clit through the material.

 

“Shit.” She whined and bucked against me more, like a little cat in heat. I opened my mouth against her neck and started to suck there as I slid the first finger into her bottoms and into her folds.

 

Her sighs were like heaven as I slid my finger into her and out. Strumming. She was hot and wet and I slid in another finger, and then another.

 

I want to keep her.

 

The thought was like the other persistent, needlessly romantic ones that I had had all day when I thought about her. I sucked at her neck harder and slid her bottoms aside, just enough to expose her to me. I slid my trunks down enough to release my cock from their confines.

 

Hand on my cock, I hoisted her up with the other arm. She gasped, and her arms went around me to hold me close. She didn’t have to worry about needing to do that in the slightest, but I loved her nails in my back when she did anyway.

 

I eased into her. I didn’t rush. Every hot inch of her wrapped around me, velvet smooth, and I did something that I hadn’t done before.

 

I took her slow.

 

It was ironic. I had her pinned against a wall and yet I was taking my time with her. I couldn’t help it. I rocked into her smooth, and I almost expected her to be insistent, to tell me to hurry up with her. But she didn’t.

 

Ember clung to me, and wrapped her legs around me tight. Her soft breath came out in pants against my neck and she sighed out my name in a way that almost broke me. It almost tempted me to go harder on her, faster, but I didn’t want to do that. That wasn’t what I was here for.

 

I loved her.

 

The realization made me press against her and I almost said it aloud, but I couldn’t. Not during sex—especially not during sex.

 

When had I fallen for her so thoroughly?

 

It didn’t matter. She was liquid velvet around me and she kept moaning my name.

 

“Wheeler …”

 

Yeah … yeah …

 

“Wheeler …”

 

“Ember …”

 

It was as close as I could get for now, and I relished every moment of it right up until the moment that I felt her flutter and tighten up, constrict around me, drawing me over the edge with her. I spilled inside her, as I had so many times before now, and I groaned into her neck, panting.

 

We stayed like that for a while, until my dick had gotten too soft and I slid out of her. Cum drizzled down, but I didn’t mind the mess—we never minded the mess. I pulled back to look at her, smiling.

 

“This was the best beach trip I ever had.”

 

She chuckled softly.

 

“For a first … it was pretty nice.”

 

She looked like she was ready to say something else, but she didn’t. There was something held back in her eyes but it was there and gone in a second.

 

It was okay.

 

I understood.

 

I set her down on her shaking legs and slid her bottoms over to cover her. I pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

 

“Let’s go home.”