After Him: An Enemies-To-Lovers Romance (Virgin Island Series Book 1)

by L. L. James

  Marek placed a raw, needy kiss on her plump lips, and then sank to his knees before her. “I wanted to do more of this last night, but I just needed to fuck you. Hard.” His tongue whipped out and glided across her moist entrance. “Now you’re mine. Lift your leg.”

  Her eyes were closed and her head was tilted back against the wall, but he saw her tiny nod and felt his blood pressure steam when her long, curvy thigh raised to rest on his shoulder. He drunk her in, the sight of her gorgeous pussy up close and personal, her sweet, earthy scent—until he could hold back no more and placed an intimate, open-mouthed kiss on her very core.

  She tasted so sweet, so hot. Marek’s mouth moved over her, sucked on her plump peak the same way he kissed her mouth. Openly, carnal and deeply passionate—until he felt the leg on his shoulder shake with impending release.

  Needing to push her over the edge, hard and intense, he slipped two fingers inside her velvet sheath and stroked her, added pressure to her silken walls until he felt her begin to pulse around him. Her cry of release echoed off the walls, her hands dug into his hair. Carm came like a tidal wave, the force of it rocking her against him and away in a swaying motion.

  The bright tropical sun streamed through the open French doors, birds sang outside high in palm trees, celebrating the glorious morning as he lowered her leg and stood up. He needed to see her when he exploded inside her, wanted to watch the desire on her face captured in the brilliant sunshine.

  Marek lifted her sated body to his, kissing her hard and deep and thorough as he maneuvered them out the door onto the patio. He didn’t stop until they reached the steps to the grass. Lowering them both, he sat on the step with his elbows on the landing behind him, Carm straddling him.

  She laughed and threw back her head, the balmy breeze stirring her sex-tousled hair. His heart clutched hard in his chest at the sight of her in the morning light, flushed from his loving, her eyes sparkling with delight. His cock throbbed almost violently with need for release. Fuck, he thought he’d explode if he wasn’t inside her soon.

  Leveling her blue eyes on him, she shifted and worked their clothing aside, before coming down in one smooth motion onto him. His thick, hard shaft filled her completely. He threw back his head, exposing his corded throat and groaned with pleasure. The feel of her pussy tight and slick around him almost drove him over the edge right then and there.

  They didn’t speak, had no need for words. They let their bodies do the talking as she rode him outside in the salty air, under the glow of the early morning sun. Their eyes stayed locked on each other in silent understanding as they rocked in perfect rhythm.

  Marek climaxed with her eyes on him, a soft smile playing on her lips, the sunshine turning her blond hair into a golden halo. And he thought he’d died, gone to heaven, and she was his angel.

  Twenty-Three

  Carm watched Marek and Landon drive away down the narrow lane, still surrounded in the warm afterglow of their lovemaking. Sex with him this morning had been different, more tender. A look she’s never seen before had glimmered in his eyes while they’d made love on the back steps of his house. The way he’d rocked with her, slow and gentle, was so different than their normal passion. Usually they wanted each other so desperately it was an almost violent coupling.

  But this morning he had watched her with that special something in his hooded gaze, until his head dropped back and his eyes had closed in orgasm. She suspected that she knew what that special something was. And Marek knew it too. It was up to him to decide if he had the courage to give voice to the special something or not.

  He was damned well going to admit he was in love with her, if she had to hog tie him and threaten it out of him.

  A sound from the drive caught her attention, and Carm focused on the narrow gap in the foliage just as a small red car shot through the opening. It was Marek’s housekeeper, Mrs. Carrins.

  She watched as the short, plump woman wiggled out from behind the wheel and slammed the door behind her. Without a glance in Carm’s direction, the middle-aged woman gathered her equipment from the trunk and headed toward the front door. Once she reached the porch where Carm stood the housekeeper gave a curt nod and pushed the door open.

  Did she detect a sniff of contempt, disapproval? Carm narrowed her eyes after the short woman and bit back a grin. Well, that was just too bad. The housekeeper needed to get used to it. She wasn’t going anywhere.

  It was cute—in a rude sort of way—that the housekeeper apparently didn’t think she was good enough for her Marek. It presented a challenge to her to win the protective Mrs. Carrins over. And she loved a good challenge.

  Raking her hands through her loose hair as she strode back into the house, Carm decided it was time to give her sister a call. Time to give Kate the address so she could overnight her birth certificate to her. Marek was due for a push in the right direction, and being able to leave Tortola any time she wanted was definitely a big push.

  She considered herself a patient woman, but that particular quality was quickly running out. As was Kate’s pregnancy. It was coming down to the wire and she and Marek needed to make some decisions.

  Well, she’d made her decisions. He needed a good prodding to make his. It was times like this when she remembered the electric cattle prod her father had used for their cows to get them to go where he wanted. The thing was darned effective on those cows. Horrible and mean, but effective. Made a girl think, though, how one could work on a reluctant, dragging-his-feet male. Zap! Make a decision. Oh, not quick enough. Zap! That’s what I thought. Good boy.

  Carm laughed at her internal musings and the mental picture it provided. In a wrong, sick sort of way, the image of zapping Marek on the butt to get him moving held a certain kind of appeal. There was something inherently frustrating to a female about a reluctant, exceedingly slow man. Just about every woman could relate to Carm’s little cattle prod fantasy to get a man’s rear in gear.

  She made her way down the hall toward the office and continued her musings as the sound of pots banging and clanging came from the kitchen. The truth of the matter was that women tended to have a time frame for things. A certain period of time for things to progress and flesh out in a relationship.

  And Carm’s time frame was getting shorter by the day.

  Sighing as she entered the cool, welcoming room, she walked around to the thick leather seat and sat down. Letting out another breath on a puff so strong it feathered the hair around her face, she reached for the phone. And stopped. This call would put a cut-off date to her time on the island with Marek. She was pretty certain they’d passed some milestone this morning, but that instinctive fear that lives in every woman in love had her gripping her hands together to keep them from shaking uncontrollably. It crept up her throat, closed her airways, and made it hard to breathe.

  “Get a grip, girl. It’s only a phone call.” But it wasn’t just a phone call. It was the end. As soon as Carm received her proper identification she was free to leave the island. Had to leave the island. Family was family—and Kate needed her. This call was her ticket back home, to Kate and to everything that had been normal.

  It would bring everything to a head and force Marek to make a choice. And it terrified her. Would he let her leave with nothing resolved between them? Would he come to the States with her? Did he even love her with the same consuming need that she loved him? Or even at all?

  Carm never considered herself a coward. Then again, she’d never been in love like this before. And the thought of forcing answers from Marek when their relationship was so new and delicate made her stomach clench and slither with nausea.

  There was no doubt that she trusted him. Trusted him enough to risk it all for him. But what if he feels trapped, pushed into a corner when she pushes the issue with him? What if he walks away from the pressure? Away from her?

  How will she ever know if she doesn’t make the call?

  Nothing ventured, nothing gained. That’s what her father used to tel
l her. Was she willing to venture it all? Well, she really didn’t have a choice. Her time in limbo was at an end.

  Carm straightened her spine and inhaled deep. Lacing her fingers together straight up over her head, she practiced some yoga breathing. She rolled her head from side to side after she released her hands, then let out a sound of disgust. At herself, at the whole situation.

  “Damn it. If he wants to be with you, he’ll be with you. No amount of time is going to persuade him one way or the other. Either he does, or he doesn’t. So, get on with the phone call already.” Tough self-love did the trick and Carm reached for the phone, her hand only shaking slightly now. Dialing the long distance number with her heart thumping hard and heavy in her chest, Carm swallowed around the lump in her throat and waited for the connection.

  It came on the second ring. “Hello?”

  Wait a minute. “Hi, this is Carm. Where’s my sister?”

  “Thank God! Carmen, it’s Mallory. Something’s happened to Kate.”

  Fear gripped and squeezed at her heart with a ferocious appetite. Sweat slicked her palms as she jerked out of the chair. “What happened? Is she in the hospital? Is the baby in trouble?”

  Carm glanced around the room blindly as terror clawed its way inside her. At the sound of the crack in Mallory’s voice, her heart sank into the pit of her greasy stomach.

  “She’s. . . she’s in the hospital, Carm. She started having contractions about an hour ago. She’s in labor. She wanted me to wait here for your call to tell you. Then I’m going down to the hospital to be with her.”

  Fear and anger erupted in her, ugly and vicious. She swung around, grabbed a piece of pottery next to her and threw it hard against the far wall. It shattered into a thousand pieces of sparkling red and green porcelain. “Damn it! I should have been there. Tell me everything, and get a piece of paper right now. I have something for you to do.”

  Silence reigned on the other end for a moment, and then came the sound of drawers slamming. “I’m looking for a pen. Kate left an envelope on the kitchen counter and said I needed to get an address from you to write on it. She said you lost your passport and can’t get back home without what’s in the package.”

  “It wasn’t lost. It was stolen. Look in the right hand desk drawer. I keep pens in there for correcting my students’ papers.” Her voice was thick with unshed tears. Kate.

  “Ah, I found one. I’m ready. What’s the address?”

  Carm swallowed hard and relayed the address to Kate’s friend and fought back tears. She should have been there. If she weren’t so damned selfish and caught up in her own soap opera, she would have been there for her sister.

  Guilt mingled now with the anger and fear for Kate, turning her voice hard. “Get that envelope overnighted in the mail as soon as you get off the phone. Do you hear me, Mallory? I can’t leave here without what’s in that envelope.”

  “I promise I’ll go straight to the post office.”

  Carm raked a hand through her hair. It was back to shaking like a leaf. Only this time for an entirely different reason. “What did the doctor say? Can they delay her delivery? She’s only thirty weeks.”

  With a death grip on the phone, she waited for Mallory’s response. “I’m not sure if they can for long. They did mention trying to delay it for a single day or two so that they could give her some sort of injection that would help the baby’s lung development, though.”

  A tear slipped down her cheek, hot and wet. “They can’t stop her labor? Is she too far gone for that?” Her voice cracked and faltered into silence.

  “I don’t know. They gave her a shot of magnesium, but I’m not sure it did any good. I left right after that to get back here for your call so I could get this envelope overnighted to you.”

  Carm pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers, applying pressure, and closed her eyes. “Thank you. You’ve been great. Tell Kate I’ll get a flight out the minute I get the papers tomorrow, and I’ll be home as soon as I possibly can.”

  “I will. Kate knows you’ll do everything you can.”

  She dropped her hand and pinched her lips together in a flat line. Suddenly Carm’s problems seemed so insignificant. When Mallory’s voice prodded her, she said, “I will do everything I can. Tell her I love her and to hang in there. I’ll be home soon.”

  “She knows you will. She wanted me to tell you not to beat yourself up for not being here. No one could have predicted she’d go into labor ten weeks early.”

  Looking at the shattered pottery scattered across the hardwood floor, Carm muttered, “Yeah, okay. I’ve got to go now, don’t forget to go straight to the post office.”

  “I won’t. See you soon, Carm.”

  “Yeah, see you soon.”

  She hung up the phone and let the tears flow freely down her cheeks. How could she not beat herself up? She was down in the sun and surf, falling in love and having amazing sex—all while her sister was alone, scared, and delivering a baby way too early.

  What else could Carm do but blame herself?

  “You ready to do some recon work, bro?”

  Marek glanced at Landon as they strapped their seatbelts on and waited for the chopper to warm up. They’d had a hell of a morning at the police station. Apparently the cops had found the culprit who’d vandalized his jeep. It had turned out to be some young punk kid trying to impress his drug lord boss.

  Turned out the kid was also responsible for trashing Carm’s room at the Green Island Inn. Marek had thought the death threat note a nice touch, if a tad dramatic. The kid’s intention had been to scare them away from looking into what was happening in his coffee fields on St. Kitts. Score some points with the cartel leader.

  Marek remembered those days. He recalled what it was like to be the little gopher kid with no respect, wanting to prove himself a man. Except he’d never trashed a vehicle or tossed a room in his quest for validation.

  And Marek had had his mother, who was a hell of a parent.

  This kid wasn’t more than thirteen or fourteen, and had no parents. The guys he worked for in the drug cartel were the only family the child knew. Instead of feeling anger toward the boy for beating the hell out of his jeep and for his stunt with Carm’s room, Marek felt for him. Heart to heart. The kid needed a positive role model and enough food to eat so that he didn’t have to steal it.

  The dark skinned, dark eyed ruffian was so thin and underfed he was all skin and bones. And attitude. Rebellion burned like kerosene in his brown eyes, even as his empty stomach had let out a pathetic growl of hunger. Though he’d tried to hide it, the boy had been scared half to death. Marek saw it, hiding behind the defiant tilt of his chin. Saw it lurking deep in his eyes.

  In the end Marek had decided not to press charges. Instead, the boy was going to do time working for him to pay off the damages done to his jeep and the hotel room. He figured the kid deserved a second chance at a straight life, like he’d been given. Only this kid was a whole lot younger.

  It was almost scary the way Marek had seen himself in that kid while he’d sat spewing filthy words across the room toward him. His heart had taken one look at that boy, recognized him. Beneath the long, ratty dreadlocks, the tattered clothes and bad attitude, Marek had recognized a terrified kid in need.

  Didn’t mean he was getting off free, however. No, the brat had destroyed a room in his mother’s beloved inn and had wrecked his jeep. Marek decided to let the kid spend the day in a holding cell with all the time in the world to think about his life and his choices, while he and Landon went over to St. Kitts to play spies.

  It also gave him time to figure out what he wanted to do with the sullen punk. The kid had no home, no family, and no one to tell him he deserved a better life.

  Marek had two choices. He could let the kid live with him, or he could talk to his parents. They had some experience with punk teenagers. But, he had a feeling once he talked to Carm about Kypher—as the kid called himself—she’d demand that the boy live with
them. Being the school teacher and nurturer that she was

  Considering that he was thinking about her like that--including her in his decisions—meant Marek had his answer. Whether he was ready for it or not.

  He loved Carm and wanted her to be in his life. Always. And when he got back to the house tonight he was going to tell her. Tell her that he wanted her to stay on Tortola with him, make a life with him. Make a family with him. He needed to tell her he wanted to spend the rest of his life loving her with everything he had in him. And he had to tell her how much he needed her. It was long past time he told Carm what was in his heart.

  Merde. He’d still rather have his balls clamped in a vice.

  Letting out a pained sigh, Marek reached for his sunglasses and put them on. Landon geared the chopper up for take-off and grinned. “I love this part, man. The take off rocks my socks.”

  He grinned back in complete understanding. The feel of a vertical lift-off kicked ass. “I know what you mean. It’s a rush. Kind of feels like the same sensation as falling in love.”

  Landon grimaced, slicing him a knowing look. “Shit. You went and did it, didn’t you? You can’t hide behind your sunglasses, bro.” Marek flipped him off. “Thanks for that nice middle finger suggestion. I’ll consider that. Dude, I told you she was it for you. You knew it the minute you saw her that night at Big Bubba’s. Have you told her yet?”

  That’s what he appreciated about Landon. He could flip the guy off and he didn’t blink an eye, didn’t get offended. Marek grinned and shook his head. “Nope. Not yet. I’m going to tonight when we get back. You know, I hate to admit when you’re right. But I gotta say, man, that you were right on when you said love could be pretty damned sweet.”

  The pilot shrugged and leveled the big black helicopter in the air. “Yeah, it has its moments.”