by Skye Jordan
He leaned forward, pressing his hands to the table at her hips, the muscles in his arms and shoulders taut. She wrapped her arms around his neck, whispered, “You never could. Love me, Troy.” Then tilted her head and kissed him.
A low hum started in his throat, but as he gripped her hips and thrust home, the sound erupting from his throat transitioned into a low, primal sound of passion, one that rumbled through Giselle, raising her own pleasure.
With slow, deep, solid thrusts, he laid her back on the table, kissing her mouth, her neck, her shoulder. He hooked one arm behind her knee, pulled her thigh high and wide, and held her gaze as he drove deeper.
“Feel so good, Ellie.” His eyes closed, and his forehead pressed to hers. “Missed you so much.” He kissed her gently. “Love you so much.”
The emotion behind those words, the twist of almost-pain in his expression cut at her heart, but her body continued to rise with pleasure, and she held on tight as his thrusts quickened and another orgasm rose to the surface.
“Mmm…Troy…”
“Let go, El,” he rasped, kissing her lips, then pressing his forehead to her jaw. “I’ve got you.”
The climax rocked her body off its axis. She bowed, screamed, and slammed a hand to the table for balance, curling her fingers around the edge as it crashed and rocked through her. Troy quickly followed, his hand covering hers, fingers threaded, head up and his gaze burning into hers as he broke.
The passion in his gaz just before they closed, the expression on his face as the orgasm slammed through him, was so very different from what she’d seen in the club or at the hotel.
This was her Troy. The real Troy. The Troy she loved. The Troy she wanted.
The climax finally ebbed, leaving him sweaty and weak. His arms shook, and he dropped his head to her chest, his quick, heavy breaths washing her skin with heat. “You fuckin’ turn me inside out.”
As she combed her fingers through his damp hair, Giselle closed her eyes and smiled at the pure sensation of joy filling her from the toes up.
For as long as she could remember, she’d been searching for a home. For a family. And she’d had it all along—in Troy.
Troy stood waist-deep in seawater off Malibu’s shore, waiting for Giselle to paddle back to him, but she’d given up and collapsed against the surfboard, cheek pressed to the fiberglass, arms dangling over the side.
God, she was the cutest thing ever. “Come on, El,” he yelled. “Get your fine ass back out here.”
She turned her head and rested her chin on the board. “I’m dead. My arms have turned into noodles.”
A wave slipped past him, splashing his chest while the sun warmed his face and shoulders. “You promised to keep trying until you rode one wave all the way in.”
“That was before I found out it’s a lot harder than it looks.”
That was very true—surfing was way harder than it looked. And Troy was more than a little surprised she was in the water at all. This was the first time Giselle had ever stepped foot in the ocean, and all in all, she was handling it pretty well.
That devious part of him sparked to life, and he dove under the water, swimming below the surface until he reached the board, when he heard her calling out, “Troy, stop it.”
He popped up beside her. “Boo!”
She screamed and dropped to the board laughing, making Troy laugh too. She was such a good sport.
“Would you stop?” She splashed him.
He sank down until his mouth was halfway underwater, then circled the board gurgling the Jaws theme song. “Da…da…” He started softly, slowly, building speed and volume as he moved. “Da, da…da, da… Dun, dun, dun, dun…dun, dun, dun, dun…”
“Stop it.” She splashed him some more. “That’s so creepy.”
“Dun-dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun-dun. Dun-dun!” He launched out of the water, landing on the other half of her board, and slid on his belly like a seal until his nose touched hers.
Her grin was bright and happy, filled with the kind of joy he remembered from their early years together when they were so in love and believed anything was possible.
And here they were again—in love, with all sorts of possibilities ahead of them. So many more, in fact, than there had been then.
“Well, hello there, beautiful.” He tilted his head and kissed her. “Mmm.” He tilted his head the other way and kissed her again. “Mmm.” Then again.
She smiled. “What are you doing?”
“Deciding which way you taste best.”
“How about this way?” She wrapped her hand around the back of his head and moved in for a hot, slow, openmouthed kiss. Sliding her tongue against his, she sighed into his mouth, and Troy’s head went light. Despite the cold water, his cock hardened. But what monopolized his attention was the deep twist in his heart.
When she pulled away, his eyes fluttered open. He caught her chin between his fingers, dropped a soft kiss on her lips, and met her eyes when he murmured, “I love you so fucking much, it hurts.”
Her smile brightened, and her face beamed like the goddamned sun, which made Troy feel invincible. Then she rubbed his nose with the tip of hers, and he melted like butter. He was so fucking gone over her, it was pathetic. “I love you too.”
He kissed her again, still unable to believe he was hearing those words from her mouth. They’d shared them a lot over the last two days together. Days filled with long, slow lovemaking sessions. Extended naps curled together on the sand under the sun. Laughing and teasing and tickling.
Definitely some of the best days of his life.
“I’ll let you show me just how much as soon as you ride a wave.” He slipped back and off the board, then dragged her out to sea.
She dropped her forehead to the board and groaned.
He turned her toward the beach. “Scoot up so you’re ready to jump.”
His attention turned out to sea as he gauged the waves while holding her board with one hand.
“Here you go, Ellie. This one’s perfect. Get ready.”
As the wave rose in a smooth swell of beautiful sea green about ten yards behind them, Troy kicked off the bottom, got up some momentum while watching the wave over his shoulder to time his send off, then shoved the board into the wave’s path. “Go.”
She paddled, gauging the wave’s speed.
“Up, El,” he yelled. “Pop.”
With her hands braced on the board, Giselle jumped, pulled her feet underneath her in a wide stance, knees bent.
“Yes,” he murmured, watching her use her arms for balance as the board pitched beneath her feet. “That’s it… You got it…”
And when the wave broke beneath her, and she was still standing, Troy’s excitement exploded in applause and whistles. She pushed her fists overhead with a scream of triumph just before the surf tipped the board sideways and Giselle dropped into the water.
Troy swam toward shore, ready for a break from the sun. He stopped a few feet away from where she sat, waist-deep in the ocean on the mostly vacant, residents-only beach and shook his head like a wet dog.
“Troy…” Giselle complained.
He grabbed the board, hoisting it to his shoulder as he pushed to his feet. Then offered his hand and pulled her up, wrapping his arm around her waist for the walk to the porch. There he propped the board against the railing and stripped the surf skin from Giselle’s top half, laying it over the rail to dry in the sun.
“Okay,” she said. “That sport’s fun versus work ratio is way out of whack.”
He chuckled. “That’s because it takes practice. For your first time in the ocean, I’m pretty damn impressed.”
She gave him a sassy little grin. “Why, thank you, Mr. Jacobs. I had a fine instructor.” She reached out and ran her fingers down the center of his chest. “And I do mean fine in so many different ways.”
He grabbed her hand and kissed it. Life was perfect. He couldn’t ask for anything more. At least nothing more than to keep Giselle in hi
s life, because she was all his life was missing—a thought that brought their dwindling time together back to the forefront of his mind, and angst to the forefront of his heart.
He wrapped an arm low on her waist, cupped her jaw with the other, and looked directly into her eyes. “These have been some of the best days of my life, Ellie.”
Her smile widened and softened. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
He wanted to stay upbeat, stay positive, play the no-doubt-in-my-mind card, but he had so much of his heart riding on this, on her, on them. He ran his thumb across her soft cheek and searched her crystal-blue eyes. “Please tell me we can make this work.”
Instead of fluffing him off with promises, instead of assuring him with all her heart, doubt and worry crept into her eyes, darkening them to twilight. “I guess we still have a lot to talk about.”
His angst turned to fear and burned like a hot coal deep in his gut. He slid his hand around the base of her neck and held her gaze. “We’ve both been able to set everything else aside and put each other first for the last few days. I know we could find a way to mesh our personal lives with our professional ones. It won’t be easy, I know that too. But I’m more than willing to do what it takes if it means more of this.”
He dropped his head and kissed her with all the love, all the passion he’d had locked away for so long, leaving them both breathless. He pushed his hands into her wet hair and tipped her head back until her eyes met his. “Are you willing, Ellie?” he asked, half-terrified of the answer but still needing one. “Am I worth the work, the sacrifice, the trouble it will take to keep us together?”
“What kind of question is that?” she chastised with a frown. Then stroked his jaw, her expression softening. “Of course you’re worth effort and sacrifice. And yes, I’m willing to make them. I love you. I just think you’re oversimplifying our situation.”
Frustration and fear tangled with all the love from the past, more love from the present, and created a messy knot of desperation around his heart. One that could turn dark if he let it. One that would turn dark if he lost her again.
“Baby, there’s never been anything simple about you or me. Put us together and you can kiss simple good-bye. I’ve known that from day one. But none of it could make me turn away from you.”
She stroked his cheek with cool fingers and searched his face with those beautiful eyes. “God. I wish I had half your strength. You’re so amazing.”
“Are you kidding? You’re twice as strong as I ever was. And together, Ellie, we’re unbeatable.”
She smiled again. Nodded. “You’re right about that. Together, I do think we’re unbeatable.”
Hope sparked in his heart. “That’s my girl.”
But something still felt off when they wandered into the kitchen and Giselle pulled open the fridge, staring into it but not actually looking for anything.
“Hey, have you seen my phone?” she asked, finally, drawing out two water bottles and turning to hand him one. “I should touch base with Chad. We’ve got a lot pending right now.”
Troy’s spark of hope flared into a lick of panic.
She scanned the kitchen counter, picked up a few things to look underneath, then checked the table and everything they’d pushed onto the floor a few days earlier before strolling into the living room.
“I can’t remember the last time I had it,” she said. “God, I hope I didn’t lose it. All my contacts are in there.”
He caught up with her in the living room as she straightened from rummaging around the coffee table, and slipped his arms around her waist, nuzzling her cheek.
“You promised me a week. It’s only half over.”
She turned in his arms with a soft smile. He leaned close, but instead of kissing her, ran his tongue over her lower lip. She responded the same way she always did—her body softened and her lips parted. It was so hot. So damn sexy to see and feel her respond to him like that. To feel her want him like that. An instant and powerful turn-on. He set his water on the coffee table and pressed his very cold open hand against her belly.
She gasped. “Oh God.” She laughed and pulled at his wrist. “That’s colder than the ocean.”
“I know just how to warm it up.” He slipped his fingers beneath the edge of her bikini bottoms and kept his eyes on hers as he pushed slowly over her mound and stretched his fingers over her sex with a long, low growl. He stroked back and forth a few times, and by the time his fingers were seated into her soft folds, her eyes were heavy-lidded.
“I love touching you,” he said in a rough whisper, moving the tips of his fingers against her opening. “I love feeling every part of you.”
She grabbed his bicep with one hand for balance. Her lids were heavy, her eyes sparking with lust. “God, that feels…”
She wriggled her hips a little, moving her body against his fingers, and her eyes rolled back in her head. Her teeth sank into her lower lip.
“Baby, that’s so hot. Feeling you rub on me.”
“Goddammit, Troy…” She lifted into his hand, and he met the rock and roll of her hips, spreading her wetness over her folds, pressing his palm against her clit. She moaned and dropped her head back, lips parting. “So good.”
With his free hand, he pulled the ties on her top, and it fell away, leaving her almost naked. He pressed his hand to the middle of her back again, arching her spine to bring her breasts closer, then bent his head to stroke and tease her nipples with his tongue. One, then the other, then back to the first, while his fingers probed and stretched. teased between her legs.
Her sounds of pleasure soaked into him like tendrils of fire, snaking over his skin, invading his blood. He felt like he was burning from the inside out.
Lifting his mouth from her breast, he cupped the back of her neck, threaded his fingers into the hair at her nape, and mirrored the work of his hand with his mouth, stroking her lips with his tongue as he circled her opening, plunging into her mouth as he drove into her pussy.
He felt her orgasm building in the taut stretch of her muscles, the quickening rise of her hips to his hand. Heard it in her rapid breaths, in the rising pitch of her sexy sounds.
Troy relished the sensations, kept the steady build, holding back just enough to make her work for it, make the tease last a little too long, so her climax was that much harder, stronger, better. Wetter.
“I want you drenched when I slide into you, Ellie.” He held her head at an angle where she had to look him in the eye. “I want you to come hard. Gush. Get all juicy for me.”
“Mmm,” she whimpered, rocking harder and faster, her brow tightening with that telltale sign of imminent release.
“Then I’ll hammer home. Slide and drive. Slide and drive.” He matched his words with his hand, stroking gently against her, then pushing hard between her legs. “You want that, El? You want me?”
“Yes.”
“Are you ready to come?”
“Yes.”
He kissed her, just little sips of her lips as he changed the position of his hand, putting more pressure, more motion on her clit.
“Ah God…” Her head dropped back, and pleasure rolled from her throat just before her whole body tightened and she came, the orgasm jerking her muscles and washing her face with a blissful expression, filling Troy’s heart with the same.
As she floated back to earth, he unfastened his swim trunks, pulled a condom from the pocket—he never went anywhere without one with Giselle around—and rolled it on. Then he slipped her bikini bottoms off and turned her toward the sofa.
She melted into the soft cushions and opened her thighs, the most beautiful, most welcoming sight he’d ever seen. Troy knelt between her legs and pushed deep on one thrust. Giselle bowed. A little sound ebbed from her throat. She crossed her feet at his back, stroked her hands up his arms, cradled his face and pulled him to her, where she kissed him and kissed him and kissed him while he made love to her just like he’d promised, in deep, passionate thrusts.
Giselle stretched and glanced over her shoulder and found Troy’s eyes still closed. Smiling, she rolled over and ruffled his hair, snuggling close and absorbing his heat and scent. “Relaxing is tough work, huh, Renegade?”
“Mmm-hmm.” His sleepy murmur made everything inside her warm and grow like a flower in rich soil.
Giselle’s stomach growled, and she pulled her gaze from Troy’s handsome face to check the time on the nightstand clock. Two p.m. They’d loved the morning away after her surfing lesson.
She rolled out from under Troy’s arm and pushed to her feet. He didn’t flutter an eyelash, didn’t move a finger. She leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Want something to eat?”
He made a noise that could have been construed as just about anything.
“I’m going to take that as a yes, since we haven’t eaten in hours.” She couldn’t stop smiling as she straightened and added a flare of drama when she added, “No, no, don’t get up. I’ll bring it to you.”
His mouth curved in a sleepy smile, one that made her heart swell until she was sure it would burst.
Giselle pulled one of his T-shirts over her head and wandered through the house, squinting at the afternoon sun glistening off the ocean and spilling through the windows that looked out on the multimillion-dollar view. She felt loose and languid and loved to perfection. For the first time in longer than she could remember, she felt so completely and utterly happy and fulfilled and complete—as long as her mind stayed within the confines of this setting. Once it wandered outside these walls, outside this beach…
She sighed as she entered the kitchen. Not yet. She wasn’t going to face those thoughts yet. There would be a lot to talk about. A lot to work out. And even though she believed they could do it, that together they could figure it out, a sliver of fear wound through all the dark places in her soul, pushing doubt to the surface.
