CARA’S MAN - TAROT: THE FOUR OF SWORDS

by Fawn Lowery

  “I have to go to the other side of the island today,” he said. “I’d like it very much if you’d go with me.”

  Her heart jumped in her chest. “I’d love to,” she said, jumping at the chance to spend more time with him.

  “It might not be very relaxing,” he hedged, cocking an eyebrow at her.

  Why would he say that? Cara wondered.

  “But I promise you a pleasant sail around the island.”

  “On a boat?” she quickly blurted out.

  He laughed out loud.

  She felt embarrassed and giddy all at once. Embarrassed that she had reacted to his invitation with such silliness and giddy because he wanted to spend more time with her.

  The waitress appeared suddenly and placed their food before them. Cara picked up her fork and attacked the fluffy omelet, her appetite in full force. One thing she could say about having to rest — she was eating more — and maybe enjoying it too.

  His knee rubbed teasingly against hers beneath the table and when Cara glanced in his direction, he was watching her with a curious look in his blue eyes.

  “How long are you staying on the island?” he asked, his fork poised in mid-air, a bit of omelet on it.

  She met his gaze. “Until the end of the week.” She halted her words. But I could stay longer — if you wanted me to, she thought silently. If only he wanted her to —

  “Business dictates?” he inquired, his tone serious.

  “My business is my life,” Cara said matter-of-factly. She poked a bite of omelet into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “Though I’ve been told I need to learn to relax, to step back and look at things from a different perspective.”

  Gabe suddenly reached across the table and covered her hand with his. “I learned the hard way how important it is to take time off and gather your senses, Cara.”

  His hand was warm covering hers and at first she was bombarded with sensual feelings — since his knee was pressing against hers as though they were suddenly growing together — but then she realized he was trying to convince her not to leave the island at the end of the week.

  “Do you believe in love at first sight?” he suddenly asked.

  Cara almost choked on the food in her mouth. If she answered with her heart, she’d have to say yes, since she’d often been accused of being just a hopeless romantic. Well, so what, if she believed in eternal love and the Easter Bunny —

  Gabe suddenly shook his head and resumed his eating. “You don’t have to answer that, Cara. It’s silly — and I’m usually not such a —“ His words broke off suddenly. Glancing around the dining room, he waved the waitress over and ordered a bloody Mary.

  Tears suddenly welled up in Cara’s eyes and she tried her best to hide them from Gabe.

  “What?” he asked when he saw her face.

  Cara dabbed at her eyes with the corner of the linen napkin. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m just a hopeless romantic.”

  “Honey!” Gabe exclaimed reaching for her hand. He leaned across the table toward her, her left hand clutched in both of his, a look of total disbelief in his eyes. “Then you really do believe in love at first sight?” he asked, his words barely a whisper.

  Cara stared at him. This display of sensitivity on his part made her heart swell with adoration. Suddenly she wanted to be in his arms, feeling his body against hers.

  “I suppose I do, Gabe.” Her throat went suddenly dry.

  “Then you don’t think I’d be rushing things if I asked you to stay a little longer on the island?”

  “I don’t know if I should,” she began. Too many times in the past she had thought a relationship was going to work — only to have it fall apart when she least expected it.

  “God, Cara! I look across the table at you and all I can think about is wanting to make love to you,” he confessed, his voice a hoarse whisper.

  Her pulse skittered in an erratic beat. His words wrapped around her heart in a tight grip. Could this really be happening? Could she be falling in love with Gabe?

  “Perhaps this … thing between us … is just lust, Gabe,” she ventured to say, staring at him to gauge his reaction.

  His gaze never wavered. “I have no trouble identifying lust for lust’s sake, Cara. I’m not some love-sick teenager.”

  “I didn’t mean —“

  “It’s all right. Really. I don’t want you to think I’m rushing you.”

  The waitress was in their midst again, delivering the drink Gabe had ordered. She set it before him and took leave silently, and Gabe quickly picked up the drink and swallowed it in a few short gulps.

  Cara chuckled at him. Had their conversation gotten so serious that he needed to douse his thoughts in an alcoholic drink at eight-thirty in the morning? The thought that he might really be developing feelings for her filled her with hope. But could she afford to stay longer on the island to find out?

  “Lust is a real … and viable thing, Gabe,” she began, her heart racing.

  He leaned toward her, a slanted smile on his lips. “Woman, you could drive me to drink,” he informed her. “Or make me swear off women altogether.”

  She had little doubt that women didn’t fawn over him — he was a handsome, very successful man, and perhaps her face mirrored her thoughts for he chuckled audibly.

  “Cara, you’re the first woman I’ve fucked in over six months.” He raked one hand through his hair. “It’s a damn wonder I could get it up after such a long abstinence.”

  * * * *

  Was it lust he felt for Cara? Hell yes! But it went further — from lust to an emotional attachment that surprised the hell out of Gabe. It had happened so fast — so unexpectedly.

  He knew she was coming toward him, even before she spoke his name. He could feel her presence, sensed her body drawing nearer to his. It was uncanny. And it was wonderful.

  He turned and took her hand, drawing her against his side as they crossed the lobby to the front entrance of the hotel. The boat was reserved and waiting at the pier.

  The boat was a cabin cruiser with a lower deck that had a small galley and a bedroom. Cara took her tote bag below while Gabe started the boat’s motor and pulled away from the dock. Momentarily they were underway and Cara had little knowledge of where they were headed — aside from Gabe saying they were going to the other side of the island.

  When Cara returned to the main deck of the boat, she saw Gabe sitting in the driver’s seat on the upper deck. The sky was cloudless, and the Caribbean was placid. A soft breeze blew the pale blond tresses at her temples and the sun warmed her bare arms. She gazed around the boat, a luxury cruiser by her standards, with its teak wood trim and twin decks, and spied the red padded cushion on the built-in seating spanning the boat’s main deck. Momentarily she stretched out on the cushion nearest the upper platform where Gabe sat, and leaned her back against the rail, enjoying the movement of the boat and the undisturbed beauty of the water.

  As earlier, her thoughts were of Gabe and their conversation over breakfast. She sighed and turned her gaze to the left side of the boat. A rough shoreline was visible, dotted with greenery and sandstone boulders. Typical of the island, she thought, remembering what enticed her to the resort in the first place.

  She’d been on the island going on a month, and while she found it quite difficult at times to rest and rid her mind of all work-related details, she was beginning to think that she had found some fragment of inner peace — a prerequisite for a happy life, according to Dr. Johnson.

  She glanced in Gabe’s direction. She wondered if he was wrestling with his thoughts, as she seemed to be. They hadn’t spoken since boarding the boat. She threw her legs over the side of the padded seat and stood up, quickly grasping the railing on the top of the boat’s side to keep from falling. She had never tried to walk on a moving boat and found she had to hold on to steady her feet. She found it a bit humorous. She made her way to the ladder leading up to where Gabe steered the boat, and climbed up the short flight of steps. />
  Gabe glanced at her as she plopped, laughing, into the seat beside him.

  “How long does it take before you get sea legs?”

  He winked at her with one blue eye. “I like your legs just the way they are,” he said. He reached across the open area between the seats and rubbed her left thigh. “They’re long, and shapely, and I’d love to feel them wrapped around me.”

  She felt herself blush at his words. She’d never been exposed to such personal or sexy compliments about her body. She dropped her gaze from his, feeling that further eye contact might bring more of his sensual musings to light.

  “Did you bring your bathing suit?” he asked, a slanted smile on his handsome face. “Not that I plan on letting you put it on —“ He paused his words and gave her another wink.

  “You didn’t tell me we would be swimming,” she reminded, a feeling of desire rising inside her.

  “There’s a picnic lunch in the galley too.”

  “You thought of everything,” she quipped, laughing.

  “I’m a guy with a lot of ideas.” He raised one hand and pointed toward the shoreline. “That’s our destination.”

  Cara followed his pointing hand with her eyes to spy a construction site in progress. She had been on enough building sites to know that the land was being cleared in order to begin a project. She remembered then that Gabe had said he was on the island to build a resort and hotel complex.

  Gabe cut the motor of the boat and the craft eased against the sandy shore, and then came to an abrupt halt when its bow dug into the sand. He turned thoughtful eyes on Cara as he levered himself out of his seat.

  “All ashore!” he announced, reaching for her hand.

  He helped her climb out on the bow of the boat, and then spanned her waist with both hands to set her on the shore. But he didn’t turn her loose once her feet were planted firmly on the ground; he merely wound his arms around her waist and pulled her against his body.

  Cara didn’t object one bit to being in his arms. In fact, she had already decided his embrace was a wonderful place to be. His arms were strong, muscular, and gentle on her body. She sighed and raised her mouth to receive his kiss.

  His head descended to hers and his lips took total possession of her mouth, devouring her lips and poking his tongue inside to taste her sweetness. Cara wound her arms around his neck and splayed the fingers of her right hand in the thick auburn hair at his nape. She dashed the thought that a number of construction crew might be watching them from the rumbling, smoke-spewing machinery crawling about the land. It didn’t matter. She was in Gabe’s arms and it felt so right for her to be there.

  His hands began to move on her back, lowering to clasp her buttocks. He pressed her close, allowing her to feel the impression of his rising cock against her belly.

  “I’ve been thinking about you all morning,” he whispered, pulling his mouth away slightly and staring down into her upturned face.

  “This is hardly the place, Gabe,” she whispered. But he had aroused her as well with his kisses, his inspecting hands, and his rising hardness.

  Reluctantly, he agreed. “I suppose you’re right,” he said. “I don’t need an audience to make love to you.” He looked thoughtful for a second. “Though the notion has a certain appeal.” He gave her a warm squeeze before releasing her.

  Have sex with Gabe while others watched? The idea was totally arousing and for a second Cara almost creamed her panties. Surely he was joking — wasn’t he?

  She kept staring at the back of his head as he picked his way through the dense underbrush on the island to the rough clearing where the machinery churned out clouds of black smoke. Was this guy for real?

  Bulldozers and large landrovers were all ready on the scene pushing the vegetation into large piles around the perimeter of the site. The stench of diesel motors was terrible and the noise was almost deafening. By the time Gabe halted his feet near the clearing, Cara was wishing she had waited for him on the boat.

  “This will be the biggest resort on the island. It will dwarf the Beachcombers Resort by five hundred rooms,” he said in a loud voice.

  She noted the exuberant look on his face at starting a new project. She smiled at him. She knew exactly what he was experiencing — that excited awareness of creating something new, that complete feeling of expectation as the project got underway. She pulled in a deep breath. In so many ways she was envious of Gabe, envious in a way that only those in their line of work could understand.

  He wound one arm around Cara’s shoulders and pulled her against his side as he stood looking over the ground being cleared. Momentarily one of the giant bulldozers stopped and the driver waved at Gabe. And Cara knew he would be going to meet the man, to have a walk about the clearing and to discuss the area necessary to commence the project.

  Cara stood on the sidelines; her eyes pinned on Gabe as he walked with the man around the clearing. She watched the way he walked, how he swung his arms, the confident way he took the lead. Confidence had always impressed her — especially in a man.

  Her brow wrinkled as a thought came to her mind. Was she attracted to Gabe because of who he was? Because of his success — his confidence in being, perhaps, the best architect in his field? She had long been in awe of him. Could this attraction to him be merely the outcome of her adoration?

  Her musings were unsettling in a way. Indeed, it had been easier to believe she was merely fulfilling a lusty need for him than to think she might be imitating a fan falling in love with her idol.

  But she was a fan of his — and he was her idol. She shook her head. Surely she was mature enough to know the difference between idolizing someone and being genuinely attracted to him or her.

  Maybe it would be best to leave the resort at the end of the week and return her mind to her business. Maybe she should just agree that her time with Gabe was a summer fling — like a shipboard romance — only on dry land.

  She accessed his body with her green gaze. He was magnificent — tall, robust, handsome. And she felt her senses becoming aroused just imaging him stripped naked, his long cock hard and ready to thrust into her body. An audible mew slipped from her mouth. She had never felt so lusty about a man in all her life.

  She watched Gabe come toward her, his business concluded as the man with him returned to his bulldozer. She needed to get her thoughts straight about him — before they spent much more time together. But how could she decide how she felt about him when she was constantly bombarded by her own feelings of sensual want and lusty needs every time she laid eyes on him?

  * * * *

  They were far out to sea when Gabe cut the motor and joined Cara on the main deck of the boat. He wafted his eyes over her trim figure as she turned to look at him when he braced his legs apart to stand against the rocking of the boat.

  Their eyes met and suddenly a tacit message seemed to pass between them. Cara’s pulse jumped in her wrist as Gabe stripped out of his polo shirt. He stood before her, clad in khaki pants and brown leather boat shoes, his auburn hair blown askew by the breeze.

  She watched as he crossed the deck to her and sat down beside her. He pulled her against his bare chest. His lips pressed firmly against hers in a hot wanton kiss. In the next instant, he pulled his mouth away and yanked her t-shirt over her head, exposing her lacy bra.

  She gave a little yelp of protest. It was such a surprise — though not fully unexpected. She had been privy to several sensual glances from Gabe since they had returned to the boat and gotten underway on the return trip.

  His mouth worked along the curve of her neck, nibbling sensually on her smooth flesh, until his lips caressed the rise of her breasts pushing over the lace cups of her bra.

  A sensual moan escaped Cara’s lips and she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. His mouth felt so good on her sensitive flesh. Without further beckoning, she reached the clasp on her bra and released it, tossing the garment to the floor of the boat.

  “Suck my nipples,” she w
hispered, thrusting her mounds into Gabe’s face. “I love to feel your mouth on me.”

  He didn’t disappoint her. He cupped each firm mound in his palm and sucked her taut nipples between his lips, then teased the rosy buds with the tip of his wet tongue.

  Cara clasp his head between her palms. It felt heavenly — his hot mouth suckling and licking her breasts. She let a ragged sigh leave her throat as her temperature shot up a degree. The soft breeze caressed her bare skin and the worry that someone might see them vanished the second she realized land wasn’t to be seen in any direction. They were completely alone — free to disrobe and enjoy each other any way they saw fit.

  She was suddenly almost overcome by the desire to touch Gabe, to fondle his male cock, to feel its girth in her hand. She reached out her right hand and stroked his pants front, feeling the firmness she sought just hidden beneath the khaki fabric. With nimble fingers, she released his fly, freeing his hard cock into her palm.

  “Oh babe!” he said, his mouth sucking wildly on her nipples. He pressed his abdomen forward, pressing his cock against her palm, and then he lowered his hands to her crotch and stroked her flesh through her white cotton slacks. “Oh babe!”

  Wild thoughts raced through Cara’s mind. “Let’s get naked and go for a swim,” she said, her breath coming in short gasps. His fingers were quickly working her into an orgasm through her clothing.

  She stood suddenly and pushed her slacks down, then reeling slightly from the rolling motion of the boat, giggled and grabbed hold of Gabe’s hand. In the next instant he was supporting her while she stepped out of her shoes and then kicked her slacks and panties aside with one foot.

  She was standing before him naked, and so aroused she feared that if she didn’t jump into the water right away — she’d have to fuck Gabe right there on the deck of the boat.

  He laughed out loud, as though aware of her aroused state, and stood to remove his pants, but Cara’s fingers took over when he reached for the snap and she soon had his pants sliding along his muscular legs to land in a rumpled heap around his feet.