‘I’m not done with you yet, Alex.’ His lips morphed into a confident and cocky smirk. I’d infuriated Richard by never admitting that I enjoyed what he did to me, because other than those early days in Glasgow I hadn’t. But it made Castle feel good to know how he made me feel, and I so wanted to please him.
‘More,’ I whispered, feeling my cheeks flush. He followed the route I’d taken around his body, gently exploring, caressing and kissing, his touches light as a feather, until my skin was hypersensitive to his touch.
‘I’m going to touch you properly now,’ he whispered in my ear. ‘But I want you to watch yourself as I do. See how your body responds to me, how much it loves it. I want you to see yourself fall apart on my fingers.’
‘O … okay,’ I stuttered, giddy with anticipation as he held my hips and nudged me in the direction of the dressing room, drawing me to a halt in front of the full-length mirror. I immediately cringed and tried to shrink away from it. My scars were like bright neon signs screaming “Richard King’s Property” all over me, but Castle shook his head as he held me in place.
‘You’re here, with me. You own your body, Alex, not him, and tonight you’ve given it to me. For tonight, it’s mine. Look in the mirror, see my face and my hands touching you. Feel my hard cock against your backside telling you just how desirable I find you. Tell me who owns you tonight?’
‘Y … you,’ I said feebly, wanting to close my eyes or drag them away from the reflection in front of me, but Castle’s were holding mine prisoner now.
‘I can’t hear you, Alex. Who owns you tonight?’
‘You.’
‘Louder, mean it!’ he ordered as his hands splayed over my stomach, hiding the word King.
‘You!’ I cried. ‘Touch me, touch me before I die of starvation!’
I almost sobbed as his right hand moved lower and he rocked his hips against my backside, rubbing his length against me as he kissed the crook of my neck, his gaze still on mine. My legs parted like the Red Sea the moment his fingers slid over my mound and went exploring, slipping and sliding as they navigated my folds.
‘I’ve never felt anyone as wet as you, Alex. I fucking love it,’ he muttered against my skin as his lips mapped out a trail that had the hairs on the back of my neck rise and my skin crackle.
He found my clit and it was like striking a match as he ignited me. I caught his rhythm as he played me and I started to rock against his hand, his hips following as they ground against me. I covered his hand on my stomach with my own and mimicked us earlier as I moved down to help him build me higher, pressing his fingers into me harder and urging him to move faster. I was close to detonation as we watched each other in the mirror, rutting like wild stags.
‘Look at our hands, look what I’m doing to you, feel it,’ he urged.
‘Yes … yes.’ The noise of our breathing and our fingers moving in my wetness was even drowning out the sound of the waves slapping against the pillars that held us above the ocean. ‘Castle, please,’ I pleaded, needing a release.
‘Fall when you’re ready, Tiger, I’ll catch you, I’ll always catch you. Jesus, your wildness and beauty takes my breath away.’
As he sank two fingers inside me, and started to pump them while he strummed my clit, my jaw dropped and started to judder. I looked at our reflection, and imagined us joined at the core as he filled me with his cock, instead of just his fingers. That thought alone was enough to make me explode and flood him with my arousal as I collapsed back against his chest, my legs turning to jelly as I trembled.
‘I’ve got you, Alex. I’ve got you,’ he soothed.
I gasped as he carefully turned me, then picked me up in his arms, as if I was as light as one of the many hollowed out shells that were scattered along his shoreline. His lips met mine as he carried me back towards the bedroom. I was about to tell him that I needed a picture painted, but stopped myself. There was no look of harshness or anger in his eyes, just adoration and desire. He carefully lay me down, positioning my bottom at the edge of the bed as he kneeled in front of me.
‘Stop,’ I ordered. ‘I’m so wet.’
‘Kind of the point,’ he replied with that oh so sexy grin, as he lifted my ankles and draped them over his shoulders. ‘Fuck, even the scent of you is driving me crazy.’
‘Oh!’ I exclaimed, my fingers tightly gripping the sheet below me as he took a long slow lick, dragging the flat of his tongue over my clit.
‘Okay there?’ his muffled voice asked as he did it again and I trembled with delight.
‘Less talking, more licking,’ I ordered breathlessly.
‘I kind of like you in charge,’ he chuckled, before doing as he was told. It was my turn for my self-control to be pitiful as what seemed like seconds later I shattered into a powerful orgasm and bucked against his face, my fingers moving to clasp his hair.
‘No,’ I cried when he moved back in after I’d just come down. ‘Oh yes,’ I exclaimed a few moments later as he started to build me up again. ‘I agree, you can keep doing that for hours.’
I smiled in a blissed-out stupor when he finally rose up and carefully crawled up my body, planting kisses on every square inch of skin he could see.
‘Do you need to rest?’ he asked between long, leisurely kisses.
‘No, I want you inside me and …’ I hesitated for a moment. ‘On … on top.’
‘You’re sure?’ he frowned as he studied my face and I gulped and nodded.
‘Just be gentle for my first time this way, please and I really don’t want–’ I broke off, and shook my head.
‘You don’t want what, Alex?’ He stroked my hair as he held my gaze. ‘Be honest with me so I don’t ruin this.’
‘I don’t like condoms,’ I whispered. ‘They remind me of … I just don’t like them. I liked us bare the other night.’
‘You’re still safe?’ he asked, not pressing the matter further. I nodded vigorously and let him settle between my thighs, taking a few deep breaths as some of his weight pressed me down into the mattress. ‘You keep your eyes open, on me at all times, Alex.’
‘Okay,’ I nodded as I pointed my toes and curled my fingers around his bulging biceps. ‘Fuck me.’
‘No, this is me making love to you, Alex. Fucking will come a long time down the line, when I have your complete trust and heart.’
‘You have my trust now,’ I whispered.
‘Not fully. You’re still shaking.’
‘I’m so sorry.’ My voice was barely a whisper this time as I gazed up at him. He shook his head.
‘Never apologise, you’re giving me a beautiful gift, Alex, and I’ll take it any way I can get it. We have all the time in the world to explore each other and find our own way.’
I gasped as he moved his hips forwards, easily sliding into me with one smooth fluid movement, aided by copious lubrication he’d coaxed from me during countless orgasms this evening.
‘Wrap your legs around my waist,’ he murmured against my lips, going even deeper, forcing me to gasp as I did as I was told. ‘Now move with me, feel my rhythm and follow it.’
‘Yes,’ I moaned as he stoked me, building up the heat inside of me again. He held himself on his forearms, just leaving us connected from the waist down. Long, slow, gliding thrusts that I parried with thrusts of my own. I could feel his pubic bone stimulating my clit as his cock swelled inside me, stimulating every single nerve ending I possessed. With every drive into my core, he was breathing life back into me, chasing the shadows away. In and out, faster and faster, he was building me up, all while removing my defences brick by brick. ‘Castle,’ I cried.
‘Stay with me, Tiger, I want us to fall together,’ he rasped, his forehead damp from exertion as our pace reached a frenetic level that left me breathless. I’d never truly fallen before, whether it was over the edge of a precipice as I climaxed during missionary sex, without abandon or fear, or whether it was falling in love. But right in this moment, I was ready to do the first one, and I ha
d a feeling it wouldn’t take much of a push to make me do the other. ‘Alex, fuck, hold on,’ he groaned as I felt my muscles rippling around him, milking him as hard as they could.
‘I’m going … to … come, Castle, I can’t … so good … it’s too … good,’ I cried.
‘You’re too good, never … had it … so … good.’
We nearly lifted the roof off with our fervent cries as we jumped and fell together, spiralling like a pair of autumn oak leaves to the ground. I wrapped my arms around his neck and yanked him down to smother my body from top to toe, joyful to realise that it didn’t frighten me. He didn’t frighten me. I started to cry tears of happiness at the realisation, as he peppered my face in kisses and I held him tightly.
‘Are you okay, Tiger?’ he asked as we stayed locked together.
‘Yes, I’m so happy. Thank you.’
‘Thank you,’ he whispered back, lifting his head and tilting my chin up to make me look into his eyes.
‘Is your code name really python?’ I asked to break the intense crackle of emotion surging between us right now.
‘No.’ He gave me a wicked grin.
‘Are you ever going to tell me?’ I pouted.
‘Wolf.’
‘Because you have a six-pack?’
‘No,’ he laughed. ‘Because I make women howl.’
‘Urgh,’ I moaned, swatting his arm. ‘You’re still inside me and you’re bringing up other women?’
‘There is no one else for me, Alex,’ he said, his face morphing from playful to serious in an instant. ‘I’m not falling, I’ve already fallen, so hard I feel broken when you’re not in my field of vision. I love you, Tiger.’
‘You do?’ I couldn’t keep the astonishment and wonder from my voice.
‘I do, and I’m going to treat you so well that you have no choice but to fall in love with me too.’
‘I think you could be an easy man to fall in love with, Tate Castle,’ I whispered sincerely.
‘I’ll take that for now,’ he confirmed with a wide smile, then made me squeal as he rolled onto his back, taking me with him. ‘Now sleep. I need you refreshed for round two as soon as I’ve recovered.’
Chapter Fifteen
Alex
December – A Month Later
‘GODDAMN IT,’ I muttered as I tried the landline again. Nothing. And I didn’t have any signal on my mobile either. I looked out of the closed bi-fold doors at the raging, tumultuous ocean that was normally an inviting clear blue, but was now dark and foreboding. The beach house shuddered and groaned with the force of the wind, which was throwing up waves onto the deck to splatter the glass doors, not to mention the driving rain threatening to shatter the panes. I hugged my knees to my chest from my huddled-up position in the centre of the bed.
Castle had warned me that we were in hurricane season, but other than remembering him telling me that it was dangerous to go out when the wind was in full force, I couldn’t remember any of his other survival tips. I’d been too distracted with idyllic scorching hot days filled with painting, good food, playtime with Rosie, and my nocturnal activities with the man I was starting to find it hard to breathe without. I just wished I knew if he was okay. He’d headed to Tortola this morning with Rosie, leaving me painting for fun, then I had my session with Ester, who had been most put out to find her early evening flight for her well-deserved vacation had been cancelled and she’d need to unpack.
I was worried sick not knowing if they were okay. Half an hour ago, Pepper Island had been peaceful and serene, its usual warm and tropical self, then in the blink of an eye it had changed into something unrecognisable. Just like Richard had the moment I landed in America. I tightened my grip around my knees as I took calming breaths. I’d come such a long way in my recovery. Ester had been incredible, as Castle had promised, but so had he, building my self-esteem and confidence day by day. But I still hated that Richard was out there somewhere, still unfound, probably raging as violently as this storm, at the knowledge that I was out of his reach. For now. But I couldn’t hide out here forever. Tom and Janice needed me.
I screamed when there was a loud bang as the door flew open, and a surge of seawater spewed across the beach house floor.
‘Alex!’ Castle’s frantic voice reached my ears seconds before he hurtled into the open-plan space, soaked to his skin, his hair plastered to his forehead. The relief on his face to see me sitting in the middle of the bed was probably matched by my own to see that he was safe.
‘Where’s Rosie? Is she okay?’ I cried as I scrambled up and he ran to meet me halfway. We collided together as he grasped my face and kissed me, crushing me to his chest.
‘She’s safe in the hurricane shelter, where you were supposed to go at the first sign of trouble.’
‘Hurricane shelter?’ I blinked up at him.
‘Do you ever listen when I give you an order? We need to move, now.’
‘Where did this come from, it was fine half an hour ago,’ I yelled over the noise of the wind and the open door slamming against the wall.
‘It was due to skirt us, but changed direction at the last minute. Hold my hand and don’t let go, it’s rough out there,’ he warned me as we walked through ankle-deep water to the door. I gasped as we stepped out onto the deck and the power of the storm took my breath away. ‘Hold on to me,’ Castle warned as he indicated that he wanted to try and shut the beach house door to minimise any damage.
I clung to his waist as he braced a foot against the wall and pulled the door against the force of the water trying to get in. With a final show of strength, he yanked it shut, and I slipped my hand into his pocket to retrieve the key and locked the door, not entirely convinced it was going to do any good.
‘Oh my God,’ I yelled as I looked at the water we needed to wade through to get to the shore.
‘We’ll move together, you in front, me at your back with my arms around your waist. Take deep breaths as some of the waves may go over our heads. We’ll be fine.’
‘We could go back inside.’
‘Too dangerous,’ he bellowed over the howling wind, which was hurting my eardrums, and crash of the surf. ‘If there’s even half a house left here to come back to in the morning, we’ll have got off lightly.’ He manoeuvred me to face the water that we were already ankle deep in before we even took a step down, and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist. ‘You don’t look back if we get separated. You keep going and you head up to the security team’s house, understood.’
I whipped my head around to give him a horrified look. Even with the din that surrounded us, I hadn’t missed the undercurrent of fear in his voice. ‘I will not leave you behind, Castle.’
‘Yes, you bloody will. My daughter’s up there terrified, Alex, she’s counting on at least one of us making it back.’ His jaw was set in a rare display of stubbornness. I gritted my teeth and turned my head away from him. This was not the time or place for an argument, but if he thought I’d just keep going if he let go of me, he had another think coming. ‘Now move.’
I took a deep breath and just how we were in perfect synchronicity in the bedroom, we moved in tandem down the steps into the unusually cold and murky water. Castle braced his muscular thighs as the powerful currents started to buffet us back and forth, trying to drag us under. I clung to his hands that were locked into place like a belt buckle around my waist as the water level rose higher, reaching up to my chest as we left the last step.
‘Breathe,’ he yelled as I saw a wave returning from the shore. I sucked in a lungful of the salty air and we leaned forwards and braced for impact. We came up coughing and powered forwards again. It literally was two paces forwards and one back, with countless waves trying to knock us down along the way, but slowly the power of the water didn’t feel so forceful as its level began to drop. More importantly he was still holding on to me. ‘Faster, let’s get out of this.’
I nodded, unable to reply, having taken in a mouthful of seawater the last time we
were submerged. We left the water behind and stumbled up to the beach where he let me go. I bent over with my hands on my knees and coughed it up.
‘Okay?’ he mouthed as he took my hand again when I straightened up. I just nodded and tried to keep pace with him as he started to run, both of us barefoot.
I’d thought the worst of the danger was wading through the angry ocean, but here, as well as the driving rain, there was debris being tossed through the air. We had to duck and dodge leaves and small branches that were whipping past, but we couldn’t escape the painful blast of sand burn as it bit into our exposed skin. My eyes were burning.
As we started the climb up the path towards the house, I felt like I was in one of those blockbuster disaster movies that always looked terrifying on screen, but you assumed never happened in real life. Well here I was, slap bang in the middle of it. Tears were streaming from my eyes as they tried to expel the grit, but I didn’t have a spare hand to wipe them. I was holding on to Castle’s hand for dear life with one, while using the other on the ground as we scrambled along the wet and slippery path like primates against the force of the wind.
There was a sound like thunder and lightning ripping and cracking the sky above us. When I glanced up I vaguely saw the outline of something dark towering over us then falling. I realised it was a palm tree and Castle was right in its path. I screamed a warning, let go of his hand and shoved him forwards, falling flat on my face on the ground. My hands reached up to cover the back of my head in a futile attempt to protect myself as I braced for impact.
I heard the crash and the sound of wood splintering and felt the earth tremble below me, but it took a few moments for me to register that I wasn’t in any more pain than I’d felt when I hit the rocky path below me. I lifted my head and wiped my eyes on the inside of my T-shirt and saw the trunk of the tree mere inches from my face.
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