Kill Devil Hills: A Complete Beach Romance Series (4-Book Box Set)

by Sarah Darlington

  Burying my face in his chest, I hid the giant grin he’d just put on my lips. “Sorry for that too,” I mumbled against him.

  “Nope.” He grabbed my hips and pulled me on top of him. “Stop apologizing. I like it, and I like you. Let’s do something crazy today.”

  My fingers dug into the hard muscles of his chest. I stared down at him as he gazed up at me. “Like what?” I asked, swallowing hard. What could be crazier than this? I was straddling Noah, the feel of his erection pressing against me. Only a few layers of cotton separated us, and I desperately wanted to remove those layers. I wiggled against him, trying to gain some friction.

  He sat up, cupping the sides of my face, kissing me so deep that I felt it over every inch of my body. Only when I was breathless and slightly trembling did he break away. Damn, he was a good kisser—soft yet demanding. And the way he liked to linger, take his time, and savor every second…wow. Double wow. I knew that if he ever touched me, really touched me, then I’d surely turn straight to putty in his hands.

  “Something that reminds us we’re alive,” he whispered, tracing his thumb over my bottom lip, dipping it inside the depth of my mouth for the briefest of moments. “Something happened to me when I found you on that floor, Georgie. Something that resonated deep inside me. I can’t shake it. I can’t explain it. But whatever happened, it’s part of me now. You’re part of me now. So, will you come with me? Will you trust me?”

  “Yes,” I breathed. Forget needing him to touch me; I was already putty in his arms.

  “Good,” he answered, moving from our little cocoon of sheets and pillows. He stretched out a hand and helped me climb out of the bed after him.

  “Do I need to change out of my pajamas?”

  “Nope.”

  He tugged on my hand, leading me out of the guestroom, across the basement living room, and toward the door. We were leaving? The sun had barely started to rise, and I didn’t even have shoes on my feet. Where could we possibly be going so early in the morning? The beach? If that were the case, then I still wasn’t sure I was fully ready to face all my demons.

  “Noah,” I whispered, my heart beating wildly in my chest. “Wait.”

  “Yeah?” He stopped and turned.

  Most of his hair had fallen lose from the ponytail he wore, blond stands tucked behind his ears. He had on his plaid pajama pants—the ones, I realized, that he must be keeping permanently at my house. They hung low on his hips, but all I could focus on was the sincerity on his face. Looking into his eyes, I found I trusted him wholeheartedly. So it didn’t matter where he was taking me.

  “Never mind,” I answered.

  Even if he was leading me to the beach, then I was going to let him.

  But he didn’t take me down to the beach. He took me to the wooden gate of the neighbor’s backyard fence. ‘Sol Mate’ was the rental property next door. Unlatching the gate, he gestured for me to follow him—a wicked grin playing on his lips. “It’s empty this week,” he whispered. “I noticed last night. And they have the biggest pool. Want to get in with me?”

  Opening the gate revealed the biggest freaking pool I’d ever seen in my life. How did I not know this was here? ‘Sol Mate’ was a modest sized beach house, but my eyes quickly discovered that it had a pool fit for a king…or a party bus full of kings. There was even a waterfall.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said.

  “Yeah, I think so too,” Noah responded, his whiskey eyes on me instead of the pool. “C’mon.” He tugged on my arm, pulling me through the gate, which he quickly latched behind us. “Want to get in with me?” he repeated, his voice a little uneven this time.

  Like any sane woman would turn down a determined Noah. “Sure,” I breathed.

  “Naked?” he added.

  He said the word and I nearly tripped over my own feet, straight onto the fancy-ass tile that surrounded the pool. My stomach instantly turned into a swirly mess. Noah watched me carefully, waiting on my answer. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. My body was on fire—desire pooling deep in my belly from just talking about all this.

  He padded across the tile and dipped his foot into the water. “It’s only a little cold, pretty girl. Say yes. It’s just me.”

  “Yes,” I whispered, realizing that nothing else mattered. Just Noah and my sudden and desperate need to see him without his clothes. It was now daylight. We were trespassing. But I didn’t care. Because I wanted this. I needed this. “You first,” I muttered. “You’re gonna have to go first.”

  His smile grew. How could he be so casual about this? Was this something he did all the time? And then he did it! He took off his freaking clothes! He started with his shirt. Tugging at the back, he yanked his white t-shirt over his head in one quick motion, exposing his chest. Jeez. The definition, the perfect lines…I’d seen it before, but that didn’t make it any less overwhelming. I was forever going to dream of his chest. But I hardly had the time to fully appreciate anything because, gripping his plaid waistband, he pushed down his pants.

  Oh. Holy. Shit. He wasn’t wearing any underwear. His erection sprang free, as if it were reaching out for me, and Noah didn’t even flinch. He was perfectly comfortable being one hundred percent buck naked in front of me. I guess, when you had a body like his, there was no need for fear. “Your turn,” he said and nodded in my direction. “Go slow for me, sweetheart.”

  My knees went weak.

  I wasn’t sure if I could do this. But then I realized something—if I’d succeeded in taking my own life four months ago, then I’d be dead, and this moment wouldn’t exist. Life was fragile. It could be harsh, and it could be unfair. But it could also be pretty damn amazing. None of us knew how many days or even how many minutes we had left on this planet—why not take advantage of every single second? I had so many regrets about everything else, about my last conversation with Ben, about my failed suicide attempt, that there was no chance in hell that I wanted to let this moment fall into my pile of regrets as well. And I knew, without a doubt, that if I didn’t live this experience to its absolute fullest then I’d regret the hell out of it for the rest of my life.

  So…

  With my eyes locked on Noah’s, I tugged my shirt over my head. I hadn’t worn a bra to bed, meaning this small action exposed my breasts to him and to the empty backyard. Even early in the morning, the North Carolina air was hot and humid, and yet, my nipples were painfully hard as if I were standing in the middle of snowstorm.

  “Motherfucker,” Noah swore.

  I never had the chance to finish undressing. Noah cut across the short distance that separated us. Maybe this wasn’t as casual for him as I initially thought. Because his breaths were short, choppy, and completely affected. Not to mention, the slight tremble I felt in his touch as his hands moved to grip the sides of my arms.

  His eyes were penetrating and his jaw tense as he whispered, “I don’t think I have the control to continue this. I thought I did, but seeing you naked is too damn much for me to bear. If we get in that pool then I don’t know what will happen. I’ve never felt something this intense for anyone. My body is screaming at me. I’m losing my fucking mind here, and I don’t know how to handle that.”

  The raw vulnerability, the panic, and the desire written all over his face was overwhelming. To say the least. Whatever I felt for him, he felt it just as strong for me. But these feelings were something I wanted to embrace not shove away. I needed him to embrace everything with me.

  So, I pressed my palms against his chest and gently pushed, forcing him to take one step backward. His grip dropped from my arms, confusion and shock filling his face. He hadn’t expected me to push him away. But I wasn’t pushing him away—the opposite, actually.

  Now that I had the space to do so—slowly, like he’d asked—I finished undressing. I inched my cotton shorts down my legs, exposing the black lace panties I had on underneath. A breath of air hissed through Noah’s teeth.

  Last night, knowing Noah might be back to snu
ggle with me, I’d gone to bed prepared. My panties were see-through and sexy. I’d picked them hoping that if he saw me in them, maybe he’d see me as a woman and not as someone younger than him. Six years felt like a lot to me—but as I threw all caution out the window and slipped my black panties down my thighs, I could tell by the way Noah was watching me that the ‘age thing’ was the last thing on his mind.

  “Lose control with me,” I whispered, standing before him just as naked as he was, still stuck in my own personal snowstorm. “You said you wanted to do something that lets us know we’re alive. Losing your fucking mind is that feeling. I’ve never felt more alive than I do right this moment.”

  “Same here,” he answered, his voice gritty and low, his hands settling on my hips.

  And then something caught my eye—a pair of little kid’s water shoes. They were pink and left laying haphazardly beside the edge of the pool. “Noah,” I whispered just as he drew me close against his body. “There are shoes over there.”

  “What?”

  He turned to see what I meant, and then suddenly a light flipped on inside the house.

  Noah groaned and moved faster than I’ve ever seen anyone move. Bending quickly, he gathered whatever clothes were at our feet, stood back up to press them over my naked chest, forcing me to hold them, and then he bent back over and lifted me clear off feet. I squealed as he flung me over his shoulder like a rag doll. His hand gripped my ass cheek to hold me tightly against him and he took off sprinting—out of the yard and down the beach as fast possible.

  My view was superb. I knew there had to be people out on the beach—the elderly residents of Kill Devil Hills loved to take early morning walks along the shore. And I knew we had to be making the most epic scene ever. But all I really saw was Noah’s fine ass, running in motion, carrying me away. He cut into a grass covered sand dune, dropped to his knees, and helped me slip down his chest. He pulled me into a huddled position on the ground with him, one where I ended up sitting on his bent thighs with his arms wrapped around my body.

  Despite our intimate position, I couldn’t stop laughing.

  The long grass that surrounded us itched, and I had an irrational fear of ghost crabs, but nothing could spoil this moment. Resting my head against Noah’s shoulder, I tried to regain some composure but was surprised when I realized he too was laughing.

  “You ran so fast,” I muttered between breaths.

  “I had to get you out of there. No one gets to see what’s mine.”

  My laughter died, and I pulled back to better see his face. “Yours? Really?”

  “Yes, Georgie, really. You’re mine,” he said definitely. He rested his forehead against mine, staring into my eyes. “You. Are. Mine. There’s no going back from here.”

  In a heartbeat, our light mood turned serious. Something completely different took over and started crackling through the air, almost like the atmosphere had become electrically charged between us. I was now hyperaware of the way I was sitting, legs spread, on his thighs. He seemed conscious of this, too. His blunt fingernails dug into my hips and a slow, almost animalistic groan left his throat. My body reacted instantly to this change in him. Like he was a tiger ready to pounce and I was his prey, waiting eagerly to be eaten. Holy shit, Noah! My skin tingled, my nipples pricked, and the muscles low in my belly clenched—every ounce of my being became desperate for whatever was about to happen next.

  He swore and tugged my body closer to his, kissing me hard. He’d never been rough with me before but for the briefest of moments he was a far cry away from gentle. His tongue dipped into my mouth, claiming and taking, before retreating. He withdrew from our kiss and took his t-shirt from the pile of clothes I still held in my arms, tugging it quickly over my head, while I carelessly dropped the rest of the clothes to the sand.

  For a moment I thought he was doing this to get me dressed, so that we could go back to my house or something, but instead I think he only meant to cover my back from the prickly grass. Because in the next second, he gently pushed me down and showed me exactly what it meant to be his.

  CHAPTER 15

  NOAH

  Slow down, Noah, slow the hell down, I screamed inside my head.

  I didn’t listen to myself.

  Sex on the beach wasn’t as romantic as it sounded. I knew this from experience. Mostly—rather than a good time—both parties ended up with a lot of sand in places they didn’t want. And those white crabs, the ones that hid out in those holes in the sand, freaked the hell out of me. Some of them had to be lurking in the tall grass that surrounded our hideout. But that became the least of my worries—because Georgie’s cheeks were flushed, her eyes wide, and her body deliciously naked, screaming to be taken.

  So, what the fuck else was I supposed to do?

  I pulled my larger shirt down over her small body because I wasn’t about to let anyone else lay their eyes on her perfect tits. So far, I doubted anyone had seen anything, but I needed to keep it that way. Plus…sand was a bitch. What I really needed was a giant towel, but my shirt would have to do.

  With one hand on her shoulder and the other behind the small of her back, I gently guided her, so she’d lay down for me. She did. So trusting, so easygoing, so much the opposite of me. It made me wonder—was it me who brought out her carefree side or was it just her?

  “Noah,” she half-moaned half-pleaded as some of her long hair tangled with the grass.

  Yanking the rubber band from my own hair, I helped her become better situated and then used my palm to press the grass flat around her. Once she was comfortable, it occurred to me that this little spot of ours was pretty perfect. The tall grass hid us well, the morning breeze off the ocean was just chilly enough to send beautiful patches of goosebumps across Georgie’s bare legs and stomach, and the roaring sound of the waves drowned out everything else.

  Although…it didn’t hurt that I had one hell of a gorgeous view.

  When we sat down among the grass, Georgie sat with her legs spread against my knees. And when she’d laid backward and her little plump ass had remained on my knees, my view only became better. Her uncomfortableness with her hair had distracted me for a small second, but now that I’d helped her fix that, I took a moment to fully appreciate what a beautiful girl she was. Because, damn, I was one lucky son of a bitch.

  Hard enough to pound nails, my dick throbbed and had grown painful. I wanted so badly to ease forward and slip inside her. Her swollen pink folds were wet and ready, and paired with the way her eyes kept raking over me, watching me—I knew she wanted me to fuck her. Desperately. I’d never felt such a rush of emotions coursing through my veins in my entire life. I ran my hands up and down her thighs, taking in the feel of her soft skin, careful not to touch where I wanted to most, stuck in my own personal hell.

  Dammit. You know, I really had tried. I’d tried my fucking damnedest to go slow with her from the start. I think, whether I wanted to admit it to myself or not, I’d known I wanted more with her ever since that first night we’d slept in the same bed together. But I was also terrified. I’d had a few relationships in the past, some better than others, but never before had I felt something so heart-pounding, so irrational, and so perfect in my life. It scared the shit out of me to feel all of this. Because what if I let her in and then lost her? What if I wasn’t enough to take away her pain? What if one day she tried to take her own life again? Where would that leave me? Alone. That was where. And I’d already had enough alone to last me a lifetime.

  “Noah, please,” she said, breaking me away from my thoughts. Her voice was rough and a little shaky. “I want this. I want you. If you’re trying to tease me or something, then you’ve already succeeded at that.”

  Something deep inside me snapped. I was a man, and I only had so much control. If this girl wanted me then she could have me—all of me. My heart was beating like mad as my hands tightened under her thighs, lifting her closer to me. I pressed the head of my cock against her pretty entrance and let mysel
f penetrate her slightly.

  “Yes,” she purred, moving her arms to rest above her head. “God, yes, Noah.”

  Shit. If she kept making sexy little noises, then I was going to come before I even made it all the way in. Her blue eyes settled on mine. They were intense, but trusting, and the only thing I focused on as I pressed in deeper.

  Holy Mother of Fuck. She was tight. Too very tight. But I felt no barrier, so I knew she wasn’t a virgin. That was probably something I should have considered earlier but hadn’t. Her ‘do-me-please-do-me-Noah’ eyes hadn’t led me to believe she was inexperienced, but as I struggled a little to get inside her, I realized she couldn’t have done this more than once or twice before. I selfishly loved the thought of that. Because…this was some kind of heaven that I was sinking into. From now until forever, I only wanted her to know what I felt like inside her.

  At the thought of anyone else ever getting to touch her, a growl slipped from my throat. That wouldn’t be happening. I’d make damn certain of it. I pushed the rest of the way inside her. Once there, even though my body was roaring at me to move, I found that I desperately needed to kiss her. I needed to know she was okay, and I suppose, give her the chance to shove me away if she needed it.

  So I bent over, kissing her plump lips, tasting her and reminding her that it was me who was buried deep inside her. She didn’t shove me anywhere and instead met my kiss equally. Just as my hips were barely able to stay still a second longer, she whispered, “Don’t you dare be gentle with me, Noah. You’re sweet as hell, but I don’t need sweet right now.”

  I swallowed hard. She said those words as if she’d read my concerns straight out of my mind. I was on the verge of falling off a very steep cliff. She knew it too and opened her legs wider against me. And then something astonishing happened. I gave up my worrying, all my inhibitions, and I completely let go.