“Don’t worry about the details, Ellie. Just worry about what you want, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
“But I do worry about the details!” I sighed. “Seriously, Liam. Who would hire me before I can speak Italian? I’ll be destitute in a month.”
“You don’t need to worry about the money.”
“Um, yes I do. I need money to live.”
“I have money. A lot of it, actually. Let me take care of you.”
“What?” I choked on the sip of wine I was taking to calm my frayed nerves.
“My grandfather lived very frugally, and it turns out his company was far more successful than any of us knew based on his lifestyle. When he passed, everything went to me. It turns out he’d been sitting on millions. A lot of millions.”
“Holy shit. Really?”
“Really.” He smiled and leaned forward, pulling my hand into his. “I want you to make the decision on where to live not based on money, but based on what you want, Ellie. If you want to try life here with me, you can stay and I’ll make sure you are well-cared for while you figure out your next path, whether it’s teaching or something else you’re passionate about. You can go back to school, or not. Whatever you want, Ellie. Anything. I’d do anything for you.”
My head spun with his words tumbling around in my mind. Our food arrived before I could speak again, but I could feel his eyes searching mine, waiting for an answer.
“I’m sorry. I freaked you out,” he said with a sigh. “You don’t need to decide now, but just keep that in mind when you make the pros and cons list I know you’re making... because I know you.”
He smiled, and it started to unravel the knot in my stomach.
“You are making a list, aren’t you?”
I nodded and burst into laughter. “You do know me well.”
“And I know what foods you like. Cheese being at the top of the list. Try this.”
He lifted a piece of the fresh mozzarella dipped in oil and slid it into my mouth with the piece of tomato and basil.
“Oh, God,” I moaned when the flavors burst in my mouth. “That’s unreal.”
“Add that to the pro list.” His bright smile taunted me, and I chuckled.
We worked our way through the excessive choices of food he’d ordered, and I savored every bite. “Two checks on the list if you promise to take me here once a week.”
“Add ‘em!” he said excitedly. “Wait until you try the beach cocktails. That list will be too lopsided to recover!”
It already was, I realized, but the biggest check remained, and the only important check left to make my decision. Did he really love me?
After finishing our dinner, the sun started to make its way below the horizon. The colors exploded around us and I watched the ocean just down below our table light up with the fire reflecting in the orange sky.
“Check,” he teased, seeing the awe on my face.
“Can I get you anything else?” our server asked.
“Can we get two of those then close us out?” Liam handed him a credit card and pointed to the couple behind us sipping on a pair of fruity looking blended cocktails.
Our server nodded and returned minutes later with the frozen glasses and a receipt.
“Come on.” Liam stood and pulled me up with him. “Beach cocktails are best enjoyed with your toes in the sand.”
We held hands and walked down the beach, sipping in silence while the sun disappeared, and we watched the last of the colors fade into the growing darkness. The waves rolled up along my feet and tickled my tattoo.
“Ellie?” Liam turned to me and squeezed my hand. “I know I said to take your time, but I can barely breathe thinking about you leaving. I don’t want just a few more days with you. I don’t want you to go.”
Fear rolled up behind those eyes usually so sure and filled with that confidence I loved in him.
“I’m scared, Liam. It’s a huge decision for me. What if I move here and you change your mind? What if you decide we were only a fling and the reality of a relationship isn’t as glamorous? What if you realize I’m not what you built me up to be? Then what? You just go back to your life and I’m stuck in a foreign country.”
“What if we find out everything we’ve been searching for we found when we were only eighteen. And it’s not even a ‘what if’. I’m certain about us. I’m yours. All yours. Always.” He set down his glass in the sand and pulled me into his arms.
“How do you know?” I searched. Waited.
“Because I just know, Ellie.”
“I need more.” I held my ground, still searching. Waiting.
“When we met, we were young. I knew my feelings for you were real, but I figured I could find it again with someone else later in life, when I was older and ready. But after years of dating countless women searching for those feelings again, they all fell short. Not one held a candle to the light in my life that was you.”
His fingers brushed my cheek, and I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment before opening them to find his boring through me the way only his could do.
“I know you’re the one, Ellie. I know it because I have seen your face every night when I close my eyes since the first day I saw you, and you’re the first thing I think of when I wake up. Every woman I dated was held to your impossible standard, and every one fell short. I’ve spent a decade waiting. Waiting to get over you. Waiting to forget that summer. Waiting to find someone that makes me feel like you do. Waiting for something I know now isn’t going to happen. No matter how hard I tried to run from it, every path brought me back to you.”
His words resonated deeper than he could know, because he mirrored everything I’d felt, too. All these years apart and my feelings hadn’t faded at all.
“And now you’re here. And our story isn’t over. It can’t be. I know you, Ellie. I know us. And I know you’ve felt it or you wouldn’t be standing here now. We weren’t just a youthful fling. We were real. Everything we felt was real and I don’t want to spend the rest of my days pining over you. I’ve done that for ten years, and now I just want you. All the time. You and me. Just you and me, Ellie.”
Tears welled up in my eyes when I saw the desperation in his.
“Please, Ellie. I can’t leave my mom, or I’d follow you anywhere. I swear it. But right now, I need you here. The thought of you getting on that plane is killing me.”
His lips crushed into mine and I melted into his embrace. The water crashed against us while I clung to him, desperate to say yes, but knowing I couldn’t... not until I knew for sure.
Pulling back from his arms, I turned away, struggling to keep the tears from falling. He caught my arm and turned me around. Our eyes met, and his desperation deepened.
“Don’t go, Ellie. I need you. Tell me you feel it, too... that you feel it again, or that it never went away. Tell me it’s not just me that can’t breathe when you’re not in my arms. If you tell me that I will stop at nothing to keep you by my side. I love you, Ellie. I loved you then; I love you now, and I’m gonna love you until the day I die... and probably even after that.”
The weight of his words wrapped around me and I closed my eyes and let them wash over me, releasing me from the last of the fear that gripped me. I leapt forward into his arms.
“Yes. Yes, I feel it, too. Yes, I love you, too. And yes.... I’ll stay.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Liam
Hearing her say those words ignited a love for her I didn’t know could burn any brighter. It tore through me, searing away all the years of pain I’d felt in her absence. All the sadness, the agony, and the regrets burst into flames and left my body in a plume of smoke that carried them far away.
“You’re staying?” I could barely say the words.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I’m staying.”
“Oh my God, Ellie. I’m going to make you so happy.” I couldn’t resist those lips and I slid my hands down her face, holding her while I kissed away all the years we’d b
een apart. Feeling her arms squeeze me, our bodies meld together, and the way she responded to the demands of my tongue set my soul on fire. Suddenly, I realized all those wrongs in my life had happened just to make this moment sweeter. It had all brought us back to this place, the instant our sun and moon aligned and finally we could be together.
Our kiss softened, and our lips drifted apart. “You won’t regret this, Ellie. I promise I will spend every day for the rest of my life showing you just how much I love you. This is going to work. We’re going to work. I know it.”
“I hope so. I’m freaking out.” Her face pinched with her nervous laugh and I closed my arms around her. A deep sigh released her tension, and I felt her head press into my chest. “You had better not change your mind, Liam. There isn’t enough Jack in the world to help me recover if you do.”
“I know you’re a planner, so plan on this. Plan that I’m going to love you every day. Plan that this is never going to end. And definitely plan on many, many years of hearing about my big hard man boobs.”
The last of her tension released with a laugh. “They make really good pillows.” She pressed her cheek in deeper and I rocked her in my arms.
“Do I need to be scared Louie and Nita are going to fly over here and kill me for keeping you hostage?”
“They know. Surprisingly, they are okay with this. Well, Louie’s still struggling to get on board.”
“They know?” I peeked down at her. “You mean to tell me you knew all night you were staying, and you let me spend it in agony thinking you were leaving?”
Turning her face up to mine, she pursed her lips. “Well I didn’t know know. But I was leaning toward it. I just promised I wouldn’t commit to it until...”
“Until what?”
“Until you said you loved me. I needed to know.”
“Well, Jesus! Why didn’t you say so? I could have said it the minute I saw you in the street that day and saved myself a lot of agony!” I laughed.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because it’s crazy to still love you after ten years apart. Because it’s really hard to put yourself out there. Because I’m an idiot, apparently.”
“But you’re my idiot,” she said and leaned up, placing a kiss on my lips.
“But I do love you, Ellie. So much.”
“I love you, too, Liam. Who’d have thought those two kids on the beach would still love each other all these years later?”
I blew out a sigh. “Could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble if someone would have just told us what we had was special and we weren’t going to find it anywhere else.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” She laughed. “Are we really doing this? Am I seriously staying in Naples?”
“I’m more than game if you are. Ultimately, the decision is yours. But I hope you meant it when you said you’d stay.”
“I meant it. I still mean it. But that doesn’t mean I’m not questioning my sanity.” That nervous chuckle slipped out again.
“Do you know what I think?”
“I’m guessing you’re gonna tell me?”
“I think walking away is what would make me question your sanity. When we were eighteen, we didn’t know any better. We were young and hopeful... we thought what we had would come along again. Now we’ve experienced life and the world, and now we know that this,” I pointed between us, “doesn’t exist anywhere else. This is special, it’s rare, and it’s worth fighting for. The people who think us doing this is something crazy are just the unlucky ones who haven’t experienced true love... love at first sight. If I hadn’t been through this myself, I might think us crazy, but it’s real, Ellie. Walking away? That would make you crazy.”
“Well, when you put it that way, I’m a little less inclined to check myself into the looney bin.”
“So, you’re really staying?”
“I’m really staying.”
“I have an idea. Give me a minute.”
She watched me while I stepped away just out of earshot and pulled out my phone. I did a quick search and then dialed the number. After a hushed call, I hung up the phone.
“What are you doing?” she called over.
“You’ll see,” I said, turning back to her.
“More surprises?”
“Get used to it. I love surprises. Come on.”
I held out my hand, and she came up and grabbed it. We walked together back down the beach to the path that led back to Positano.
“Hop on,” I said, dropping her hand and patting my back.
“Should I get used to this, too?” She giggled and hopped up. I felt her arms around my neck and those long legs wrapping around me. The stir in my pants made me move off quickly, wanting to get somewhere I could have them wrap around me the way I really wanted.
We laughed and chatted as I carried her back up to Positano. When we got back to the center of town, instead of turning toward our car, I followed the stairs up the opposite direction.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“You’ll see.”
We got to the road and a small black car was waiting. I waved at the driver who hurried around to the back and opened the door.
“Welcome, Mr. Jansen.”
“What is this?” she said, sliding down to the ground.
“You’ll see,” I smiled and waved her in.
“If you say, ‘You’ll see’ one more time.”
“You’ll see,” I teased back and induced one of her famous eye rolls.
After a short drive winding up Positano, we pulled up to the hotel.
“What are we doing here?” she asked, stepping out the door the valet opened.
“I thought we should celebrate your decision properly. Come on.”
We stepped inside to the small office and I gave them my credit card and signed the forms. They quickly ushered us through the small villa until we made it to the door on the fourth floor.
“Welcome to the honeymoon suite,” the valet said, bowing as he opened the door to the extravagant room.
Ellie’s face dropped when she stepped inside, and it brought a smile to my own.
“Holy shit, Liam. Are we staying here?”
“Yep.”
“Holy shit.”
“Thank you,” I said to the valet when he pointed to the terrace where a small table draped in white cloth stood with a bottle of chilling champagne and two glasses. The lantern and candles on the terrace glowed with the warm candlelight and, impressed with how quickly they had set up the suite, I slipped him fifty euro and sent him on his way.
“Liam! There’s a private pool! And look at this glass bathtub!” Her voice echoed across the tile floor and I closed us inside the elegant room.
She popped out from around the corner, eyes wide with awe.
“You like?” I asked, making my way across the room to where she stood slack-jawed.
“Love! Liam, did you just do this from the beach?”
“Yep.”
“The car, the suite, the candles, and... ooh! Champagne!”
She hopped out onto the terrace and I followed her.
“It’s incredible,” she said, and I stepped behind her and followed her gaze to the lights glowing across Positano below us. Our panoramic view stretched out over the whole city, and even in the dark, you could still see the ocean.
“You’re incredible.” I wrapped my arms around her waist and let my chin settle on her head.
“This must have cost a fortune.”
“You’re worth it, Ellie. I’d heard of this place, but it’s even better than I imagined. And lucky for us, I called tonight and there was a cancellation for the honeymoon suite this morning. It was meant to be... just like us.”
With a sigh, she pressed her back into me. I leaned forward, brushing her hair from her shoulders and ghosting a kiss across her skin. She shuddered, and I pressed my lips into hers again.
The plunge pool on the balcony beside us glowed blue. The lights shined up from the
bottom and collided with the soft glow of the lanterns flickering at each corner, creating rippling lights surrounding us.
“Care for a dip?” I asked, my breath brushing across her skin and I felt her quiver.
“That sounds amazing,” she breathed. “I’ll go get my new suit.”
“Suits? Whatever for?” I whispered, and I moved my hands to the halter top and worked my fingers through the knot until the straps fell off her shoulders. A long, slow pull of the zipper down her back and the dress dropped at her feet in a heap.
Sliding my hands down her shoulders, they slid over her bare breasts and she moaned as they continued down her stomach to the lace thong. I worked the thin material over her hips and soon they joined the dress at her feet.
A slow turn brought her to face me. The blue lights reflected in her eyes, and she smiled, stepping out of her shoes and taking a seductive step away and into the pool. She paused, casting a tantalizing glance over her shoulder. A soft breeze blew across the balcony and tousled her hair as I watched her perfect silhouette disappear beneath the water.
“Coming?” she asked, pressing the button that sent the water churning and popping with bubbles.
“Oh my God, yes!” After ripping off my shirt, I fumbled with the buttons on my jeans, hopping on one foot then the other while I hurried to get them off. When I jumped in the pool, her squeals echoed off the stone wall as the wave rolled over her.
“Liam!” She laughed and wiped the wet hair from her face. When her eyes met mine, the playful look on her face dissipated and I saw the passion radiating from her eyes.
I reached her in a stride, my hands grabbing her face with the same force as my lips crushing down onto hers. Responsive arms wrapped around my neck, and I pushed her back to the edge of the pool. I tasted the fruity drink on the tongue that danced with my own, our desperate moans mingling into one sound.
Her hands slid to my chest, fingers gripping my muscles before they slid south and grabbed ahold of my cock. The pleasure from her touch sent my head spinning and my own hands wandered to her breasts. They swelled in my grasp and I squeezed them before sliding a finger across her hard nub. I tasted the pleasure on her breath when she moaned, and I returned it with my own as her hand worked over me.
The Big One (Second Chance Romantic Comedy) Page 16
