“But for me it’s definitely not acquainted.” I pause ready to spill the beans. “Something about you and the way you looked when you were ready to go off to college. It was like you were older, more mature, more grown up. I just immediately saw you in a different way. I mean I barely saw you at all until then, but when I saw you when you graduated high school all I knew was I had to see you…more and more.”
“Really?”
“I swear. You were just different.”
“I was a late bloomer…physically.”
“I’ll admit I wasn’t looking at you like that before, but once it happened…yeah, I couldn’t not look and I wasn’t about to look away.”
“Well when you hit your growth spurt late it’s nice to know that the right person noticed.”
“Oh I noticed all right. As I’m sure you noticed when we were playing hula hoop.”
“You don’t play hula hoop, silly. But yes, I noticed you weren’t playing actually. I think you could have taken that hula hoop and spun it on your…well the thing you were trying to stab me with.”
“If you think you were in pain, just imagine how much pain I was in.” I take a breath. “But it was nothing compared to the pain of standing back in the shadows and watching, not interfering, while you went to college. I knew you wanted to get your degree and I knew if I told you how I felt about you there would be no holding back…at least not from my side. So I watched and I waited and I became very well acquainted with you in my mind…and in my fantasies. But now that you’re finished, and that you’re single there’s no more waiting.”
“But what if I had a boyfriend right now?”
“Why would you have a boyfriend when you could have a man? This man,” I say feeling anger at the thought of her being with anyone else. Hell, just the idea of her seeing anyone else infuriates me. “And why would you waste time with a boyfriend when you could have a man who knows exactly what he wants, and what he wants is you. And that means there’s no need to be boyfriend and girlfriend. No need for these trial periods that humans create and then men, or technically boys who never grew up, drag out until they’re practically forced to get married. Why settle for that when you know there’s a man who wants to skip right past that trial period because it’s completely unnecessary. I know what I want and I want it now.”
“Just like that?”
“Exactly like that,” I say. “Surely you had chances at college. I mean universities are almost half male these days right?”
“Yes.”
“They used to be a majority male but men these days aren’t stepping up to the plate in life whether that’s personally or professionally. And what has happened is that women are tired of waiting and hoping on a real man to come along and lead and take charge as he should. And because those men are far and few between these days the ladies of your generation, or all generations for that matter, are taking the bull by the horns and showing the initiative to go out there and get what they want. Just like you did.”
“That’s not entirely true,” she says.
“How can that be?”
“Because if I went after exactly what I wanted then we’d have had this conversation four years ago and not now.”
“That’s why I stayed away. I wanted you to finish first. I saw the way you looked at me before college. And I saw the way Eric looked at me too. I think he knew, and although what goes on between us is really none of his business I did want him to know that I wouldn’t get in the way of your education.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“No. I never even brought it up or the idea that I was waiting in the wings for you to finish. Even though it killed me knowing you were one of the few women studying engineering and that those classes would be full of boys. But all I had to do was remind myself that they were exactly that…boys, and not men.”
“And how do you think I felt those four years? I mean you’re a firefighter for Pete’s sake. I got so jealous one day I Googled the things women do to meet firefighters. Before I knew it I’d lost half a day of studying reading about women who literally put their cats in trees, hang around fire stations, intentionally jamb elevators, and even light things on fire in their own homes just so fireman will come.”
“If anyone ever tried that tactic to get my attention it certainly didn’t work. I was only thinking of you. And I don’t even remember anything remotely near that, which is good as it would have been embarrassing to whoever attempted it…plus it’s illegal in many cases.”
I watch her facial expressions and see she’s processing what I’ve said. We both completely believe and trust each other, but it is odd to think how this attraction has been going on for so long without either of us making a move. Four years is a very long time.
“You told me that you agreed to do the show after my brother told you he’d lose his job if he couldn’t fill the final spot.”
“That’s true, but that’s not the whole story.”
“What else is there to know?”
I take a deep breath. “After he told me he could lose his job I still didn’t want to do it. I told him I could get another guy from the station…some young guy who would be into it.”
“But you came anyways?”
“I agreed to come knowing that as soon as the show was over I was going to call in the favor and get him to cough up your number.”
“Why didn’t you just find me on Facebook?”
“I tried, but I think your profile is locked, or hidden or whatever it’s called.”
“Actually you’re right now that I think about it. I set it that way a long time ago and forgot all about it.”
“Which is good, because I know that means guys can’t be contacting you out of the blue. I’m not the most technologically savvy guy, but I tried to find you on there and couldn’t so I figured that meant anyone else maybe say someone from one of your classes would have had just as difficult a time. Plus that’s not how I’d reach out to you anyways. I wanted to call you…to hear your voice. To ask you like a man to meet me at a specific place and time so you would know it was a date, or at least the meeting to ask for one. None of this ‘let’s hang out’ nonsense or what is it called these days?”
“Netflix and chill.”
“Yeah. That. That’s not how I operate, not that I’ve gone on a single date in four years since I saw you in a different light for the first time. My mission was always to connect with you and then meet face to face as quickly as possible to let you know how I felt and why. And when I couldn’t get a hold of you after the time I assumed classes finished I had to try something else. I even tried to look you up in the phone directory.”
“Those still exist?”
“Barely. And I had a cop friend of mine run your name to try and pull any information. Nothing. You don’t have a traffic ticket, a mortgage, or apparently even a driver’s license.”
“Yeah, I just take the bus. It’s cheaper and I can get in extra study time.”
“No more. No more buses. They’re not safe. That entire lifestyle, or lack thereof, is gone now. The only reason you’ll stay up late anymore isn’t to study. It will be because I’m keeping you awake.”
I watch as her lips part before she catches herself and shakes her head side to side. “I have to work though. I need money. It’s why I came on the show in the first place.”
“What do you need money for?”
“To live.”
“You live with me from now on. You don’t have to lift a finger or work if you don’t want to. But if you want a job for personal fulfillment you know I won’t stop you. I’ll even buy you a computer so you can search when I’m at the station. But when I get home, to our home, the laptop closes and your lips open as I kiss my women passionately after each and every shift.”
“Passionately because you’re never completely sure you’ll finish a shift as a firefighter? Sorry to put it like that, but it’s something I have to think about. You not coming home, as much as I
hate thinking it let alone saying it.”
“Knowing you’re there waiting for me how could I not come home.”
“But you never know.”
“True, but what I do know is that I’m thirty years old and I want you and I want to start a family with you. And at the station the guys with families answer a lot less of the risky calls. It’s how it works. I’ve answered all the toughest assignments, as I should have, up until this point. I was low on the totem pole, I was young, fit, assertive and smart, but it’s time for a change. And once you have our first baby I’ll take a position within the department that’s even less risky.”
“Have your baby? We…we…we haven’t even kissed yet?”
“Well it’s time to fix that right here and now,” I say as I pull her body in close and my lips come crashing down onto hers for the first time.
CHAPTER 10
Isabella
Melting into Isaiah’s big body and arms and feeling his kiss is like lying in a California king sized bed and eating the tastiest chocolate cake ever.
It’s not that his lips taste like chocolate, but do they ever taste like heaven.
When we had those goofy laughing challenges yesterday I just zoned out and imagined kissing him for the first time. I knew that might make me smile but I wouldn’t laugh. But I found out it didn’t actually make me smile when I tried it yesterday either.
It excited me. Made me feel chills to the thrills I knew this moment would provide. And does it ever.
“Your lips are the sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted,” he says. “And city employees get a lot of sweets brought to them.”
“Thanks, but it doesn’t look like you’ve tasted many,” I say running my hand over the part of his thin shirt which is covering his abdominals.
“You’re right, but it’s because I always knew there was something sweeter and I was waiting for it…for this.”
“And now that you’ve tasted it?”
“Even though I knew it was the sweetest I still wasn’t prepared for just how sweet,” he says as he leans back into me to sample my sweetness again.
His hand finds the side of my hair as his fingers slide over my scalp causing my head to lean into the gentle pressure of his touch. Doing so exposes my neck more on the other side and quickly I feel his other hand slide along the side of my neck and up under my ear as he now holds my head with both of his hands as he kisses me like he wants me just as badly as he said he did.
My back arches and I come up onto my tiptoes as I try and get even closer to him. My body presses into him and I want us connected in every way, especially the way I’ve been saving just for him.
So many thoughts race through my mind.
How much I’ve wanted him.
How long we’ve both waited.
And the words he’s used like “our home” and “once you have our first baby.”
It’s like the first baby is a foregone conclusion, let alone the fact that there will be more.
And with as turned on as he’s got me right now there’s a darn good chance that that baby making is going to start real soon…as in tonight.
I hear a strange noise and I freeze up.
“What was that?”
“If it’s what I think it is this perfect night just got that much better.”
“It sounded like a wild animal.”
“Come with me,” he says taking me by the hand and motioning up to the beach.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. I know what that was. I was reading about it before I came. We’re in for a treat.”
I go with cautious optimism but stop dead in my tracks when I lay eyes on them.
It’s a band of white horses walking along the water’s edge under the moonlight.
“Oh my god. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” I say looking up at the moon to confirm that it is indeed full, before taking in the sight of those beautiful animals again as they casually stroll right towards us.
“We’re going to ride one,” he says.
“Are you out of your mind?”
“About you? About this night? About the memory we’re about to make? Absolutely.”
We walk slowly towards the horses not to spook them.
“Is this safe?”
“Compared to running into a burning building this is like a day at the beach.”
“We are at the beach,” I laugh. He’s got a good way of calming me down.
“Exactly.”
He starts petting one of the horses and before I know what’s happening he scoops me up and sets me on its back.
I’ve never felt like more of a princess in my entire life. And after he jumps on in front of me it’s like I’ve got my knight, my white horse, my moonlit beach…my everything.
“Don’t worry,” he says. “I can see that they belong to someone. Someone is taking care of them. I bet they’re the exact horses you can rent to ride on the beach.”
“The perfect honeymoon picture,” I say.
“Are you suggesting we come back when that time comes?”
I smile.
“Or just skip all the parts before then and start our honeymoon right now?”
“I’m ready to start everything right now,” I say wrapping my arms around him as our horse slowly makes its way down the beach.
This is something out of a dream. Out of a movie. This doesn’t happen in real life.
The horses move together down the beach and we don’t say a word for what seems like a good twenty minutes. We just watch and listen as the horses sometimes make little noises or movements and even nuzzle their heads into each other in such loving and intimate ways.
“We better get off before we’re too sore for tomorrow.”
“Do we have to?”
Isaiah doesn’t say anything for the next minute or so, allowing me to take in the last moments of this miracle of nature.
“Ready?” he finally asks.
“Yeah,” I say softly.
“Wrap your legs around my waist.”
“Are you kidding?”
“We can’t stop them so we’re going to have to do a side saddle, or a side no saddle more accurately, dismount.”
“A what?”
Suddenly I feel his hands reach back as he finds my legs, wrapping them around his waist and I instinctively grab around his chest and pull my body into his.
He swings one of his legs over and then we slide down the side of the horse as if I’m three years old all over again sliding down one of those slides at the park.
When his feet hit the sand he takes a few quick steps to give us some distance from the horse and just then a small wave hits us and knocks us onto our sides.
We’re laughing uncontrollably as we lay in the shallow surf, wet. But even at night the temperatures and the humidity are high and the lukewarm water feels nice against my skin.
But not nearly as nice as his hand which slides under my back as he props up my upper body as I lie underneath him, our lips just inches apart.
Another small wave comes in, but it only washes up a few inches and this time we’re prepared…but not to escape it.
But to embrace it and the wave of passion that crashes inside of us as our two lips meet and this time I know there’s nothing that can stop us.
CHAPTER 11
Isabella
I feel like Deborah Kerr In From Here To Eternity, except there’s one big difference.
Isaiah puts Burt Lancaster to shame, and Burt is no slouch.
But my shoulders slouch just after I wrap my hands around his neck and he’s lifting my body up and off the sand, his grip hard on my ass.
“You deserve better, but I can’t wait any longer. I need you now.”
“I don’t want to wait. I need you inside me. And this is paradise,” I say.
He stands in the shallow water, the tranquil waves lapping at his mid-calves.
I feel light as a feather as only his hands support my entire bo
dy weight, but I wrap my legs around him anyways, wanting to pull our bodies closer together.
I grind my pelvis against his as our kiss deepens.
My back arches and he lifts me higher, placing my breasts in line with his face before he moves my shirt out of the way and his mouth comes down hard on my bra.
Instalove Island: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 82) Page 4
