CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Chelsea
I gripped the steering wheel tightly. I would be home in thirty seconds. As soon as I heard his voice on the other end of the phone, I felt relief followed by instant panic. All day I had been trying to figure out when I could sneak out and drive by the campground. He didn’t know about storms, and I couldn’t remember if there was a TV in the Sand Dollar. The need to warn him and help him distracted me from the minute I knew the storm was going to hit Brees Island. How could I not have his phone number?
And now he was headed to my place to ride out the storm. I was going to have to call my mother and come up with some kind of excuse for not driving there tonight. I would figure out an excuse. This wasn’t something I was willing to undo.
I pulled the car in all the way under the house. There wasn’t much else I could do to protect it. Taking the steps as quickly as I could, I sprinted into my apartment and surveyed my room. Total disaster. My bed was unmade, half the week’s dirty clothes were on the floor, and there was music everywhere.
The music added charm, I thought. The clothes, however, were a mess. I raced around the room, picking up armfuls of T-shirts and sundresses. I shoved everything into the hamper and returned to make my bed. Had I really thought this through? I pulled the comforter tightly under the pillows. We had been working together for a couple of weeks. We had these moments that made me breathless, but should I harbor him during the storm?
I sat on the edge of the bed while my mind sorted through my reasons for inviting him to stay. There was the obvious—he was hot and I wanted to spend the night with him. Did I need to analyze it anymore? Deep down I knew there was a lot more to Jake than what everyone else could see on the outside. He was smart and creative. He might be the first guy who understood music the way I did. It didn’t seem to matter what was going on. He would stop and listen, like every word I said was as important as the sun in the sky. It was almost too good to be true that someone like him had washed up on the island this summer.
I headed into the kitchen. It was cleaner than the rest of the apartment, but there was an unwashed mug and last night’s pasta bowl.
I jumped when I heard the knock at the sliding door. I walked around the kitchen island and slid back the glass.
“Hey.”
I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and wondered if he could read my thoughts. I was ready to jump him on the porch. He held a duffle bag, filling the entire frame of the door with his broad shoulders. God, he was sexy.
“Hey.” He smiled and stepped in the kitchen. “Thanks for letting me stay. I didn’t really want to evacuate, but the campground is closed. Carl and Flora kicked me out.”
“Oh yeah, absolutely. You shouldn’t have to leave.” Suddenly, the idea of him leaving the island or my house seemed like the worst possible idea.
I flinched as something loud clanged against the side of the house.
Jake reached for my shoulder. “You ok? I think that was your hammock.”
“Yes.” I laughed. “I think I’ve been around too many anxious people all day. The hammock—I guess I need to take that down before the storm hits.”
“Let me help,” he offered. He placed his bag on the floor and walked to the porch. The wind had kicked up another notch.
I followed him. It was nice he was here. He helped store the loveseat, rocking chairs, and hammock in the storage shed under the house. Once the deck was cleared, he worked on the shutters that folded across the windows. There was an advantage to having an old beach house. I had built in shutters rather than plywood and a hammer to cover the windows.
“What about your neighbors? Are they going to secure their part of the house?” He eyed the apartment next to mine.
I hadn’t seen any of my neighbors. Most of them were temporary summer residents, and they rotated weekly.
“I don’t know. I’ll try them.”
I knocked on their doors, but it was possible they had evacuated for the mainland. Jake decided it was best to help everyone out and started hauling their deck furniture down below too.
By the time we finished securing the entire house, it was dark and the rain had started. Big heavy sheets fell on the roof and the beach.
My eyes widened when the lights flickered. “I guess I should get some candles ready.” Most of them were in my room. I walked past Jake and collected a couple to space out around the apartment.
“I didn’t think the storm was going to hit until tomorrow.” He watched me light the candles.
“I think it’s still on course, but if the wind is bad enough, it knocks the power lines down. We lose power all the time. It doesn’t have to be a hurricane.”
“Ok. So now what?” He arched his eyebrows.
I felt a rush of anticipation race through my veins. I reached for a bottle of wine. “How about a drink? A private hurricane party.” I smiled.
I had been surrounded by people on edge about the storm the entire day. Would it destroy homes and businesses? How long would the island be shut down? The locals knew the drill, but it didn’t make the potential impact any less stressful. Right now, I knew exactly how I wanted to release the building tension.
“A drink sounds good.” He took the bottle from me and fastened the corkscrew to the top while I pulled out two glasses from the cabinet.
He filled them over halfway and handed one to me. “To my first hurricane.” He winked.
I had to force myself to drink the wine and stop staring at his face. A face that looked perfect and symmetrical. He had a deeper tan than when he first started working, and his eyes looked relaxed. I wanted to reach up and run my fingers through his hair, but I kept my hands on the wine glass.
“To your first hurricane.” I grinned and took a bigger sip.
The wine tingled the back of my throat just like the excitement racing in my veins. We were utterly alone, and I knew what happened when we were alone—what always happened.
The wind shook the house and the lights flickered to darkness. The only glow came from the candles I had just lit.
“I guess that’s what you mean by a strong wind,” Jake teased and stepped closer. He placed his glass on the counter. His eyes flared in the candlelight. I recognized the look. It was the same one I was wearing.
I nodded, studying his expression. Each time the flame flickered, my heart pounded louder in my chest. I willed it to quiet, but I couldn’t control how I reacted under his stare.
There was nothing I wanted more than his lips on mine. He was so close that I could almost taste them. I had been waiting for another kiss since the last time he had touched me. It was almost all I could think about when he was around, and now he was here, locked in the dark with a wicked hurricane descending upon us.
“Jake,” I whispered.
His hand reached forward, brushing my jaw. His mouth was on mine, hungry and strong. His lips blistered my skin. I clutched at his back, digging into the muscles through his shirt.
I thought I heard a roll of thunder, but my thoughts were clouded with lust—the house might be collapsing—I wouldn’t know. There was another crash, but this time it was our wine glasses hitting the floor as Jake hurled me on the counter.
Enough about music and lyrics and small town stories. This was what we wanted. Taking each other until our world was tipped upside down like a swirling hurricane.
“I can’t stay away,” he groaned. He unsnapped my button and shirked the shorts off my hips. “I tried.”
“I don’t want you to.”
His thumbs hooked under my panties, yanking them over my thighs. My body hummed with urgency.
“But you’re too fucking sweet. So good. So pure.” His eyes were dark. “Like some kind of damn light, drawing me closer. When I know I should be on that ferry getting the hell away from this storm and you.”
“I don’t want you to go,” I whispered.
“I’m not going anywhere, darlin’.” He climbed on top of the island, pinning me under his body. “I’m not running tonight.”
My lips met his. I needed to touch him everywhere. He had to feel the same desperate ache I had. We needed to know each other this way. Whatever the darkness was. The sadness that filled him—I could take it away. I could heal him, if he would just let go.
I watched as he pulled a condom from his pocket before he released the buckle on his shorts and dropped them from his waist, kicking them to the floor below. I had honestly never seen a body like that. It was toned and athletic, and even in the candlelight, I could see where the lines met on his sculpted abs. If it wasn’t for the burning need consuming me, I might lie here all night and study the man inhaling me like his last breath of air.
He kissed my stomach and delivered hot breaths along the trail leading between my legs.
“Mmm.” I exhaled as he pressed my knees wider. “Ohh.”
He drew a line between my folds with his tongue, eyeing me with a kind of intensity I’d never seen in a man’s gaze.
“So sweet in so many ways,” he murmured, teasing me with his tongue. My clit throbbed for him. Everywhere he touched felt fiery and electric. I was afraid I couldn’t handle the scorching strokes even though I needed them.
I reached for his shirt and pulled it over his head, desperate to feel his chest. I unclasped my bra and watched Jake’s eyes fill with desire.
“You are so fucking sexy.” He breathed as his mouth claimed one and then the other nipple. I rocked back on the counter, ready to give this man anything and everything he asked of my body. He had control, and it felt good to let go and unravel into his arms.
“Darlin’, you have to tell me what you want.” He nuzzled my neck. My head tilted back, and everything was spinning inside me.
The storm raged around us as the thunder shook the chandelier overhead.
“Tell me,” he growled.
“What do you want to hear?” I asked, running my tongue along his neck, as if I could drink in part of him this way.
“Tell me what you want me to do to you,” he commanded.
His fingers pushed inside me and started a new motion with his thumb that would lead to toe-curling screams in a few minutes if he didn’t stop. I gasped at the sensation, my breath ragged.
This wasn’t a time to talk. This was a time to feel and let things happen. My throat clamped shut and I closed my eyes. Why was he torturing me like this? I wasn’t sure I could unleash my inner sex kitten like he wanted. All I knew to do was to let my body take over as he gave me pleasure one minute after the next. Wasn’t that enough?
He rested his forehead against mine. I fought for balance.
“Tell me,” he growled.
He kissed my neck, sending shockwaves down my spine. “Don’t tell me, and I can find a pack of playing cards and we can play war all night while we wait for the hurricane.”
Why was it so hard for me to say the words? I wrote my feelings down. I didn’t say them.
He ripped the corner off the foil packet lying on the counter and rolled the condom over his wide throbbing shaft. God, he was built.
“It’s just us. No one else. There’s no one to hear what you want, except me.” His voice was low and sexy. He held my chin with his thumb and forefinger, driving me wild with thirst for him.
The wind whipped the corner of the shutter, and it caught between the latch. His eyes sharpened.
I didn’t know if I could say what I wanted him to do, but it would be worse if I let him move one inch away without trying. I needed him. I needed this. My teeth sank into my bottom lip, and my heart almost pounded out of my chest.
Like the lightning outside, my eyes flashed to his. “Fuck me.”
No sooner were the words between us than our bodies melted together. He grabbed me around the waist. I wrapped my legs around him, pulling fistfuls of hair while his tongue explored my mouth.
It was as if a switch had been flipped, and all the slow and easy dance moves we had been stepping for weeks were gone. Everything about this was primal and raw.
“Ohh,” I whimpered. The tip of his cock pressed against my entrance.
“I want to hear you, baby. I want to hear you when I’m deep inside you.”
My breath caught. My chest seized. My arousal dripped over his cock. My pussy ached for release.
“Please,” I begged. “God, please Jake.”
He brushed his lips over mine, holding my waist. He leaned me backward. I looked into his eyes.
He was pushing me to the tipping point, and if I tipped, I would regret losing control without him. His fingers dug into the inner softness of my thigh. He was determined to drive me crazy, his way.
I moaned again.
The shutters clanged against the windows.
“I want to be inside you, so damn much,” he groaned. “Fuck you until the sun comes up. Fuck you until you forget every man before me.”
I nodded, unable to utter a syllable.
My hips rose, meeting him as his thick cock plunged deep inside me, bowing me off the counter. The next thrust was more intense. I grasped his back and buried my head in his shoulder, consumed with the blissful swirl of pain and incredible fullness he gave me, stretching me, taking me.
“Oh shit,” I hissed as he hit my inner walls with sudden strokes.
“Fuck, Chelsea.”
I arched against him with every thrust, rocking harder and longer. He moved in and out, throwing my legs over his shoulders.
“You’re mine, baby,” he groaned, his hips dancing wickedly as he pumped in and out of me.
I gripped the side of the counter, desperate for an anchor. Anything to tie me to reality. My body was changing, burning, spiraling.
“I-I can’t…” My head shook from side to side.
“Come for me,” he commanded.
There was no way to stop the raging flames. We were too far gone. I looked in his eyes as we surrendered to the fire we had created. I screamed toward the ceiling as he drove into me one last time, possessing me, claiming me like I had always been his—I just didn’t know it until now. The sensations spiraled through my core until all I could do was hold on to him, and pray I could still breathe when I let go.
His body shook, pumping his release inside me. The sweat dripped from his gorgeous chest, splashing in tiny droplets on my breasts. I’d never seen anything sexier in my life. I gasped for air as I vibrated with the orgasm. An aftershock hit me out of nowhere and I clamped around his shaft.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “You’re incredible, baby.”
I sighed.
I wanted to take it back—none of those other moments made me breathless. This made me breathless. I smiled and ran my fingers along his back.
“I’m glad you didn’t run.”
He kissed me. “Me too.” His eyes softened. “You’re worth going down in a hurricane.” He winked.