She was bent over, grabbing a piece of paper, and she stood up see who it was who just called her name. She turned toward me and I gave her a wave. I had no idea how she felt about me.
Would she give me a chance?
Would she make me work to regain her trust?
Whatever she wanted, I’d do it. I’d do anything to prove my feelings to her.
She froze on the spot when she recognized me. In the same instant, the paper she had just caught flew back out of her hand. She yelled, “shit,” and started running after it.
Next thing I knew, she tripped and was struggling to regain her footing. She stumbled toward the cliff and there was a dip in the ground that caused her to lose her footing completely.
One second she was there, waving her arms to regain balance, and the next she was gone!
Before I’d even processed what had happened, I’d dropped my board and was sprinting toward her. She’d gone over the cliff!
I ran and ran, desperate to get her back in sight. I ran faster than I’d ever run before in my life. There was no way I was going to let the ocean take the woman I loved again.
As I got closer to the edge of the cliff I noticed the swell on the surface of the water and the crashing waves. The ocean wasn’t calm, it was rough, just like it had been the day I lost Carolyn.
I was a good forty feet above the water and as I got closer to the edge I didn’t slow down a single bit. I just ran right to the edge and leapt. Only when I was already in the air did I see Meadow below in the water, flailing her arms. Rocks were everywhere below me but I had time to process the fact that she hadn’t hit any of them.
She was still alive!
I hit the water like a ton of bricks. It felt like being in a car crash. Everything went black and silent. The water was ice cold. I sank and sank and wondered if I’d ever get back to the surface, and then, all at once I was gasping for air and back in the light of day.
I glanced around frantically, desperately searching for Meadow. She’d been there a second ago. I knew she was still there, somewhere.
I was dangerously close to the rocks and knew I wouldn’t last long in such violent waters, but I didn’t care about that. I couldn’t think about anything except Meadow.
I dove down into the water and came back up a few moments later. Where was she?
The waves were crashing down on me, driving me closer to the rocks, and in every direction, all I could see was the swell of the rising waves around me.
“Meadow!” I called. “Meadow!”
Water crashed over me and a mouthful of sea water choked me, but I kept calling her name.
“Meadow!”
I shouted and shouted and even as my brain started telling me I wouldn’t find her, I kept shouting her name. I started to lose my breath and when the next wave crashed over me, it caught me just as I was yelling her name.
The water crushed me, driving me under the surface, and I coughed and choked on the water in my throat. I struggled to swim, to get to the surface, but I was disoriented and couldn’t figure out which way was up and which was down. Another wave, and another, crashed around me, sucking me in the currents and then I felt sharp rocks ripping through the flesh of my legs.
Blood!
That was just what I needed. I was basically a piece of shark bait, drowning in the water at the bottom of a fifty foot cliff.
This was it. This was the end.
I realized it all at once and the irony of it struck me. The karma. I’d failed to rescue Carolyn and Tamara. I’d failed to rescue Meadow. And now I was paying the price for that failure. The ocean had given me two chances to save the woman I loved, and I’d failed twice. There wasn’t going to be a third time. The ocean was taking me now.
I swung and kicked and tried to swim but it was no good. The water and current was too powerful.
My lungs were burning, gasping for oxygen. My vision started to black out. I was dying.
This was it. The moment of truth. I’d finally gotten over the pain of loss, I’d finally allowed my heart to open up again for a new woman, and it was all being taken from me before it ever began.
And then, in the center of the darkness, I saw a glimmer of light. I’d heard so many times about the tunnel people saw when they were dying, and figured that was what this was. I swam toward it and the light got bigger and brighter. Then I realized, the light wasn’t the end of my life, calling me for heaven, it was a figure, moving.
It was a person. It was a girl. It was Meadow!
Dressed in white, reflecting the sunlight, she was trapped at the bottom of the water, but she was still moving. With every ounce of my being, I swam toward her, grabbed her body, and then pushed off the ground back for the surface of the water.
We broke the surface together, her in my arms, and together we gasped for oxygen, pulling the air into my lungs.
Meadow coughed and I held her tightly as I started kicking and swimming away from the cliff.
“Kane,” she gasped finally, as she caught back her breath. “I thought I was dead for sure.”
I was holding her so tightly I must have been hurting her, but there was no way I was loosening my grip on her. I wasn’t going to lose her again. If she went down, I went down with her.
“I’ve got you, Meadow. I’ve got you now, and I’m never going to let you go.”
I kept swimming, all the way around the cliff and in toward the sandy beach. The water grew smoother and less treacherous as we got away from the cliffs, and in a matter of minutes, I was pulling her out of the water and onto the warm sand.
“You’re safe now, Meadow. I’ve got you.”
I could tell by the look on her face and the way her body was trembling that she was terrified. She took a deep breath and held onto me even tighter. I lay her on the sand and lay on top of her, trying to do what I could to warm her up. I knew it was shock more than the cold that was causing her to tremble but my instinct was to keep her safe and warm, to protect her, now and for the rest of our lives.
From what I could tell, apart from the gashes in my leg, neither of us had suffered any injury from the fall.
“You don’t need to be afraid anymore,” I said in her ear as I felt her body relax.
CHAPTER 58
MEADOW
Words couldn’t begin to describe the feeling I had, being rescued by Kane. As he brought me back to the safety of shore, I knew in my heart that he’d be my man forever, and I’d be his girl. There’s something about being protected, about being saved, that shows you just how loved you are.
My doubts about my future with Kane began to melt away.
“You saved us,” I said, without thinking.
“What?” he said. “Us?”
“Me,” I corrected. “You saved me.”
He was holding me again, and I could have melted into those arms and stayed there forever.
Finally, I thought.
I’m home. I’m in the arms of the man I love.
All I’d wanted for the last month was to find my way back into Kane’s arms. It took almost drowning to get there!
I felt my stomach and wondered about the baby. Would it be okay after all that had just happened? I’d have to get to a doctor and have a check up.
I’d thought I was dead for sure. I thought I was going to drown, and then Kane’s arms were around me and I knew instantly that everything was going to be all right. I could feel it. He had that affect on me.
I was there, under his weight, still afraid to look into his face.
“Are you all right, Meadow?” he said. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, but you’re not,” I said, looking at the blood on his leg.
“I’ll be fine.”
“We should get to a doctor,” I said.
He nodded. He took his weight off me and I felt him turning me around so that I’d be looking up at him. I closed my eyes. I was still too nervous, too shy to look at him.
Something grazed my lips gently and
I realized it was his mouth. I opened my mouth and let his tongue enter. We kissed, our lips crushing against each other, our tongues dancing and intertwining, for what felt like an eternity. He held my head in his hands as he kissed me and I felt so good in his strong arms.
I’d always known he was coming back for me. It was a strange feeling, instinctive, I just knew it in my bones. I’d been worried the whole time he was away, but I hadn’t panicked. I knew it was temporary. From the moment I first met Kane, I knew I was going to be his woman.
Usually, his disappearance would have sent me into a tailspin, but something told me it was for the best. He needed to deal with the loss he’d suffered, and then he’d be back for me.
That time had come.
As we continued to kiss, our legs intertwined. His thigh got between mine and spread my legs apart. I felt his thigh against my pussy and it sent quivers of desire through me. I’d been craving his touch for so long. I yearned for his touch. I yearned to feel his manhood sliding into me.
Even if I hadn’t just been in the ocean I’d have been wet down there!
I felt something wet on my neck and shut my eyes, relishing in Kane’s attentions.
“Hey, get out of here,” Kane said.
I opened my eyes with a start.
A big German Shepherd was right above me, wagging his tail wildly and licking my neck.
“Oh my God,” I cried out, bursting into laughter. “I thought that was you, Kane.”
“It was me, until a second ago!”
We both laughed and laughed, as much from nerves and relief as from the humor of the situation.
I sat up and petted the dog, looking around for his owner. There was a man some ways down the beach waving at us and apologizing. The dog ran back toward him.
I turned and saw that Kane was staring right at me.
“Wow, Meadow,” he said when our eyes finally met.
My stomach got tense.
“You’re even more beautiful than I remembered,” he said and every inch of me melted.
My eyes welled up.
“What?” I said, shyly burying my face in my arm.
“Don’t you dare be shy with me, Meadow. Look at me.”
Reluctantly, I looked back at him and saw his smiling face. The way he looked at me proved that he meant what he said. In that moment, he made me feel like the prettiest girl in the world.
“I’m sorry I disappeared. I want to explain myself,” he started to say.
“It’s okay, Kane. I understand. I said the most awful things to you. Don’t you apologize, I am the one that’s sorry. I was horrible that morning. I never blamed you for leaving. I’m so sorry. It’s just that I had no idea, and with the shit my ex put me through, I over reacted. I shouldn’t have, but I did. I never meant any disrespect to you, Carolyn or Tamara. I was convinced you’d never want to see me again after that morning.”
“Meadow, believe me when I say that’s not the reason I skipped town. You said nothing wrong. Of course you jumped to those conclusions. Anyone would have.”
“Then why did you leave?”
“Well, because that morning, I realized something very important.”
“What was it?”
“I realized that you deserved better than the man I had become, and if I ever wanted to be with a woman like you, I needed to heal myself.”
My heart did butterflies as he spoke.
He continued.
“Losing Carolyn and Tamara destroyed me. It broke my heart and sent me into a very dark and lonely place for a long time. I secluded myself. I avoided everyone, and I especially avoided love. I thought I’d never love again. I was convinced I’d be alone forever. Until I met you.”
My heart moved to my throat and I couldn’t speak. He carried on.
“That night on the beach with you, that changed everything for me. It was like you brought me back to life, Meadow. You made me laugh. But more importantly, you made me feel. You showed me that my heart still had life in it, and that I could love even more deeply than I had in the past.”
“Kane,” I said, wanting to tell him I was pregnant, but he kept talking.
“That night with you was heaven. Being with you, being inside you, I couldn’t believe how deeply I felt it. I was alive, Meadow, and I could feel right from that moment that I was falling in love.”
“Then why disappear?”
“Because when I woke up in the morning and called you by the wrong name, I realized just how broken I was. I panicked. I knew I couldn’t lose you, I couldn’t blow it with you before we’d even started. So I ran away to make sure I fixed myself before really starting a relationship with you.”
“You’d never blow it with me, Kane.”
He smiled and reached out to touch my cheek.
“Well, I sure got scared. I don’t exactly have a good track record. The last woman I loved died, and I held myself responsible for it. For her death and her daughter’s. I was convinced I was cursed and that I was the reason they were dead. I promised to protect them and I broke that promise. I couldn’t risk blowing things with you too.”
My heart broke for him. Never had I witnessed a man speaking so deeply from the heart. He showed me such vulnerability and was completely opening up to me. It was a heartbreaking story and now I finally understood why he had disappeared. Sandra had told me about the accident, but hearing him explain it made it so much clearer. I grabbed his hand so he knew I was there with him.
“If you hadn’t come back, I would have died today,” I said.
He looked at me and his eyes started to fill with tears.
“You have no idea how I felt when I saw you fall off that cliff, Meadow. It was like my worst nightmare all over again. And when I leapt off the cliff, honestly, I didn’t care if I died. If you were going down, I wanted to go down with you.”
“But we didn’t go down. You saved us.”
“Us?”
I’d done it again. I was so desperate to tell him I was pregnant that I kept slipping it in to sentences. But it wasn’t time yet.
“You and me,” I said. “You saved us both.”
CHAPTER 59
MEADOW
“Meadow,” Kane said to me.
He was driving his Jeep and I was sitting next to him in the passenger seat. We’d just stopped by the medical clinic and Kane had the cuts on his leg cleaned. I’d been concerned about my baby after the commotion of falling off the cliff but the doctor ran a few quick tests and assured me everything was okay.
“Yes?” I said.
“When we get home, I’m going to fuck you.”
My stomach did a backflip. I burst out laughing.
“What?” he said.
“I can’t believe you just blurted that out like that.”
“Why not? It’s the truth.”
“I know,” I said, blushing, “but I never knew a man who spoke so dirty before.”
“You think that’s dirty, you should see what I put in my diary.”
“You keep a diary?” I said, vaguely remembering that he’d been writing in a little journal the very first time I saw him.
“Yup, and I can tell you, I’ve got quite a few entries dedicated to you lately.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes.”
“So what sorts of things do you write in there?”
He looked at me and smiled and I had to look away. The look on his face was too naughty. Like he was ravishing me just with his eyes.
“You name it, I’ve probably written it,” he said. “I believe that a man’s words can be every bit as seductive as his deeds.”
I blushed again. I knew that was true. A few choice words from Kane would have had me soaking wet in no time.
I uncrossed my legs and sat back in my seat.
“Go for it,” I said.
He looked at me and saw my hand was slowly creeping up under my skirt toward my pussy.
“Make me wet with your words, Kane. If you think you can.�
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He smiled and shook his head.
I pulled my panties down over my ankles and threw them at him.
“Hey!”
“You said words can be as seductive as deeds, so prove it.”
“Oh that does it, naughty girl. You’re on.”
I looked at him and put my finger in my mouth, sucking it seductively. Then I ran my hand back under my skirt and slid it deep into my pussy.
“The second we get home I’m going to sink my cock so deep inside you you’ll be begging me for mercy.”
“Oh, baby, you can do better than that.”
I took my finger out of my pussy. It was covered in my juice. I put it in front of him and ran my finger over his lips, coating his lips with my pussy scent.
His cock stiffened in his crotch and rose up, causing his shorts to tent up.
“I see you liked that!” I teased.
“I’m going to cum in you, Meadow. I’m going to fill you so deeply with my cum that you’ll be begging me to have mercy.”
Dirty talk like that had always been my weakness. I slid my finger back inside me and started toying with my pussy and clit. I threw my feet up onto the dashboard and really began fucking myself with my finger.
“I want to cum on your sexy tits. I want to cum all over your perfect little heart-shaped ass. I want to cum deep inside you, Meadow.”
“Ooh,” I moaned.
I was playing with myself so vigorously that I was starting to cum. The sensation in my clit combined with his filthy words really did a number on me. I cried out in pleasure as my orgasm rushed through me.
“That’s it, naughty girl. I’m going to cum in you so hard you’re going to get pregnant.”
When he said that I instantly stopped what I was doing.
“What?” I said.
“Oh, sorry. Was that too far?”
I wasn’t sure what to say. Did he want a baby? I prayed he wanted a baby with me, but I was still too scared to tell him I was carrying his child.
“No,” I said. “Not too far.”
“Maybe that was a weird thing to say,” he said.
I shrugged, wanting him to say more.
“It’s just, ever since that first night I came inside you, I’ve been fantasizing about making you pregnant. Is that too naughty?”
Bad Boy Brother Page 89
