Chapter 6

 

Connor

 

Oh, fate did me good, this time.

Earlier today, when I saw Whitney standing outside the elevator, I was done holding back. When fate puts someone in your path four times, you don’t fucking argue.

Anyway, there’s no harm because we’re both well aware of the fact that she’s leaving in a few days. No expectations, no disappointments. Right?

As I watch her over there, eyes closed and slightly panting, face beautifully flushed, I’m as intrigued as I was the first time I saw her. She’s beautiful, strong willed, and caring. Listening to her talk about her kids was endearing as hell. You don’t come across a woman like this every day.

Not that I’ve been looking. In fact, I’ve been doing the opposite of looking.

Yet here she is, in my room. I play again in my mind the image of her eyes rolling back in her head as she took me inside her for the first time. I hear again her sigh of fulfillment. I think about the way she asked for more. And god, she was so wet and tight and moved under me just right.

As satisfying as it was to be with her, it wouldn’t take long to be ready again.

She opens her eyes and looks at me. Her smile pinches at my heart. I smile back. She rolls heavily onto her side and sighs, still watching me. “You,” she says slowly, “are crazy hot.”

I laugh and go onto my side too, tucking one arm under my head.

“Like, irresistible,” she says.

“Thank god.”

She grins wider. “And your cock is the eighth wonder of the world.”

I laugh and put my arm around her waist. I scoot her closer. She was too far away. “You were pretty fucking awesome yourself.”

She tucks her head onto my shoulder and snuggles in. She’s pinching at my heart again, which is maybe a dangerous thing. I allow myself to sink into it anyway, trying not to sigh like a schoolgirl. It’s been a long time since I’ve held a woman like this. A long time since any woman made me want to.

There have been hookups, sure. But those were different. This is nice.

“Do you have any siblings?” I softly stroke her upper arm.

“No. I’m an only child.”

“I used to wish for that when I was kid, every time I fought with my brother.”

She laughs lightly against my chest. “Don’t you get along?”

“No, we do. And we mostly did when we were growing up too, but we had our moments.” I’m actually pretty tight with my siblings and can’t imagine life without them. “Did you like being an only child?”

She shrugs lazily. I trail my fingers lightly on her skin, finding her softness soothing. “Yeah, I had plenty of privacy. Anyway, it’s all I know. I wanted a little sister when I was a kid, but once my parents divorced I gave up on that idea.”

“How old were you when they divorced?”

She comes up slightly and gives me an amused smile. “So many questions.”

“I want to know more about you.” I tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear. And I do. I could ask her questions all night.

It’s not the only thing I could do all night with her, but anyway.

“I was seven,” she says, settling back into my arms again and rubbing her hand on my chest. “During the school year I lived with my mom and saw my dad on the weekends, then we kind of switched during the summers. It was hard at first, but they were good about keeping the drama to a minimum, thankfully. They never put me in the middle of anything.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah.”

“No step-siblings?”

“Nope. Just me. I don’t even have any cousins.”

“What?” My hand stills for a moment. “None at all?”

She shakes her head against my chest.

“Wow.” I rub her arm again, running my fingers down past her elbow and up again. She’s still caressing my chest, my stomach, my side. “Small family.”

“Yeah. I think that’s partly why I get so attached to my kids. Is Corrine your only cousin?”

“Oh no. I’ve got a ton. She’s the only one close by though.”

“There in... where’s your family from?”

I’m purposefully vague about that with people in general, just in case the subject of my parents’ “hotel” ever comes up. The Rivers Paradise Resort is no hotel. In fact, it’s on the global map as a top destination. In addition to our many California devotees, we get tourists from all over the world.

My parents’ business isn’t a secret, exactly, but I get bored with answering the same questions over and over again. And, frankly, the resort put me into the limelight enough when I was a kid. Articles about “the Rivers family” are mostly limited to the local papers and magazines—unlike articles about the resort itself, which are usually national or global in scope—so it was really nothing more than homegrown celebrity. But still. I don’t miss the scrutiny one bit. It’s the same reason I’m vague about how I make my living. I prefer to fly under the radar on that one.

At dinner, I felt kind of funny about not speaking up when Whitney told me about the little boy whose adoptive family is from Swan Point, but as she went on with her story, I figured I could let it slide. However at this point, now that she’s asking, giving “Central California” as an answer doesn’t feel quite right. “Swan Pointe.”

“Where Nadim is!” she says.

“Yep.”

“Do you know Gerard and Abigail Sanders? They live kind of up in the hills there.”

We know a shit ton of families in Swan Pointe, but they’re not one of them. “No.”

“Huh. Still! Small world.”

“It is. It’s funny the people I’ve run into. When I was in New Zealand, I ended up having drinks with a man who used to teach where my mom went to high school. He didn’t think he ever had a class with her in it, and when I called her later she confirmed it. But she remembered seeing him around campus.”

“Oh wow.”

“I think that was my closest connection. Well, except there were the twins I met in Curaçao. A brother and sister, and he works for my uncle. He made me swear not to report back how smashed he was though.” I laugh a bit at the memory. “Maybe that was the closest.”

She comes up on her elbow again, this time resting her chin in her hand. “I think it’s so cool, all the places you’ve been.”

“Is this your first time outside of the United States?” I trail my fingers down her back.

“No. My dad took me to Vancouver the summer before sixth grade.”

I try to picture her has a little sixth grader and smile. “Did you do the whole Victoria Gardens thing?”

“Yeah!” Her eyes light up. “It was cool. Have you been there?”

I nod. “Sort of. Freshman year. One day I was—”

“Wait. Freshman in high school or college?”

“College.”

“And where’d you go?”

“CSU San Marcos. I picked a school on the coast so I’d have a place nearby to dock my boat.”

“Of course.” She grins. “Go on.”

“So one day, I was fed up with papers and tests and, oh my god, boring lectures, so I hopped in my boat and sailed up the coast, not knowing where I was going or when I’d be back.”

“You just... hopped in your boat?”

“Yeah. Right after class.” This was back when I just had my little Catalina sailboat, which had been a graduation gift from my parents. They were going to get me a car, like they did for my siblings, but I asked if I could get a sailboat for the same price instead. “Anyway, so I sailed up the coast for hours, feeling like I could just keep going forever, you know? But then I came to this marina that looked interesting so I stopped. I didn’t realize I was in Canada by then.”

“You didn’t know where you were?”

I shrug. “It’s all right. I always figure it out eventually.”

She gives me a look that’s half perplexed, half amused, half impressed. I realize that’s three halves, but believe me, I’ve seen this look a lot so I’m not questioning the math.

“Well, they weren’t too happy about me pulling in without a passport so I had to turn around and go back. By that point I’d cooled down enough though, so I just went ahead and went on home.”

“What do you mean ‘cooled down’? About what?”

I sigh. “I was just... frustrated a lot back then. I thought college would be better than high school, but it was worse. The classes were more interesting, kind of, but I think because I had so much more freedom, it just made me pull at the leash even harder.”

Whitney settles into the pillow, one arm under it, and gives me a thoughtful look. I can’t stop touching her, so I run my hand along the gentle curve of her waist and hips. “The leash?”

I may as well come out with it. “Yeah. The leash. Whatever it is that keeps people in one place, I don’t like it. I have to move. I have to see what’s on the other side of the horizon or around the next corner.”

“You do have itchy feet, don’t you?”

I smile. “For as long as I can remember. It made me a bit of a daredevil when I was a kid, but my dad helped with that.”

“How so?”

“He likes adventure, too. My mom says I get it from him, but she says it like it’s all his fault, so I don’t know if that’s a good thing.” Whitney laughs. The sound of it lightens my chest. “Anyway, he taught me how to be smart about things, and not so reckless. He taught me how to sail and climb and took me down my first Class 5 rapids.”

“Wow.”

I nod. “My dad’s in his fifties but you’d never know it to look at him. I’ve never seen him shy away from any challenge. He’ll make damn sure the rope line is laid out correctly, but when he’s done, his ass is rappelling down that cliff like it’s nothing. He’s had his share of injuries, but I totally have him beat. I was such an impulsive kid, without his guidance who knows if I would’ve even survived childhood.”

She laughs. I’m joking, but only kind of. I really was a stupid kid.

Still smiling, she closes her eyes a bit. I see the exhaustion on her face, but she’s fighting it. She opens her eyes and gives me a contented smile.

“Are you getting tired?” I ask.

“Just a little.”

“Long walk tomorrow.”

She hesitates, then scoots in closer, but keeps her eyes on me. She slips her arm around my waist and I wrap my arms around her too. She smiles gently and I run the back of my fingers down her cheek. “You’re coming with me?” she asks softly. “Right?”

I smile. “Hell, yes. I’m gonna follow you all the way to Finisterre, if you’ll let me.”

Her smile broadens and I lean in to kiss her. My dick’s been in a state of semi-arousal this whole time, but as our kiss lingers, and then deepens, it comes roaring to life. Our embrace tightens and her leg slides up my thigh and hooks over my waist.

I half groan, half growl (two halves) and roll on top of her. She giggles lowly and wraps both legs around me. Her soft moistness is against my pubic bone and the blood flow’s really going now. My cock is raging hard.

“I want you inside me again,” she whispers, then gently nibbles my bottom lip. If I were a cat, I’d be purring.

“Oh really?” I run my hand up her side and to the full cup of her breast. “You want some cock, you naughty girl?”

“Not just any cock. Yours.” My heart’s pounding.

“I don’t know,” I say calmly, a smile emerging as I dip my head to her neck to taste her soft skin. God, she tastes incredible. “We only have one condom left. We may have to pace ourselves.”

Pace ourselves, my ass. I could climb on board right now. But I want to do more than warm her up first, I want to make her molten. I want her to be more than ready. I want her to squirm.

“We can get more.” She sucks on my neck, sending chills through me. I clutch her shoulder and hold her tight.

“Or... I could make you come with my tongue.” I kiss her shoulder, then trail hot kisses down her breast. She takes a shaky breath, her hips adjusting under me. Seeking.

There you go, sweetheart.

“I’d want more,” she says.

I grin before taking her into my mouth. Her back arches and I flick the hard tip of her nipple with my tongue, my cock throbbing. She whimpers. “Then after my tongue,” I swing to the other side, “I’d make you come with my fingers.”

She moans and I take her in, sucking her firmly.

“I’d still want you.” She’s panting now. Her hips are angling up to me. Asking.

“Greedy girl,” I say smiling.

“Yes,” she breathes, tugging on my biceps, trying to get me to come up and in position. She moves her hips again and this time I feel her silky softness against the length of my shaft. Fuck, I’m gonna lose my resolve. But I keep a cool tone.

“You want it, don’t you?”

“Yes.” She reaches for the condom on the nightstand, taking it eagerly. “Fuck me, now. Please.” She brings her mouth to mine and takes me just as impatiently. Damn, this woman knows how to kiss. We’re practically fucking with our tongues. I hope she’s ready, because there’s no resisting her now. I grab the package, tear it open, and roll the condom on. Angling above her, I grab the thick base to guide my tight cock.

I don’t know if I found her entrance or if she found me. She’s just as wet as she was the first time, but I don’t go as slow. She’s tugging on my hips, kissing me fervently, angling up to meet me. I kiss her firmly, then pull away just enough to watch her face as I slide in. Her eyes roll back and her lips part. Soft ecstasy washes over her beautiful face. She exhales long and slow, and I exhale with her. She’s amazing. Fucking amazing.

We kiss and caress and start to move together. She’s taking me so deeply, I don’t know where the hell she’s putting it. She’s so hot and tight around me. I hook my arm under one knee to spread her harder. She gasps, then says, “Yes, yes.”

It’s such a turn on, giving her this much pleasure. I’m greedy, too. I want more.

I bring her knee up over my shoulder and she throws her head back, moaning.

“Do you like that?”

“God, yes.” Her eyes are pinched shut, her breathing short and tight. I brace myself on both hands and abruptly increase the rhythm and pressure, taking her harder. “Oh fuck, yes,” she says, but I don’t speak. She’s so hot and feels so good, it’s taking all my concentration to keep it together. Her slick core is driving me wild. Her moans are making me crazy. I want her to come all over me.

I’m pounding her hard and she’s bucking against me as if it’s still not enough. She’s gripping my biceps, nails digging into me. “Fuck, Whitney.” I drop my head and close my eyes, almost losing it.

We’re both panting and groaning. My cock and my entire body are clenched. I’m desperate for release. At last she clamps hard on my dick. Her body curls inward and she cries out. Her orgasm pulses around me and I grit my teeth, my pleasure spiking high and furious but me holding out, wanting to give it to her hard and steady until I feel her first release.

The pleasure balloons around me as she comes, and when she takes that first gasping breath, her core relaxing temporarily, I let go. I drop my chest to hers and the lights burst behind my eyes as I come again and again. She clutches me tighter, pulsing around me, and my whole body shudders hard.

When it’s over, and we’re tucked back into each other, and our bodies are still, and her breathing is quiet and deep, I have to wonder.

Did fate really do me a good turn?

Or is this one going to tear my heart out?