by Claire Adams
She hadn’t been quite so blunt during that period. In fact, she had been extremely fun. We had great chemistry, and the sex was pretty good, too. But inevitably, my work had kept me so busy that I started to bail on her more and more often. I’d been forced to cancel dates, disappear right after sex, and cut short dinners because of some emergency or another.
Now that I thought about it, Jennifer and I hadn’t even been together that long, four, five months tops. And yet, she’d had certain expectations. I’d realized later that she had earmarked me as the man she was going to marry. She had just forgotten to factor in how demanding my work really was, and after a while, she started getting impatient about playing second fiddle to my career.
When she had confronted me about it, I had told her that if I had to choose between her or my work, I would choose my work any day. In hindsight, I probably should have softened my words a little, but I’d had a hard day and was frustrated and annoyed.
She had stormed out of my penthouse apartment, and we hadn’t spoken for several days. When Jennifer appeared on my doorstep about a week later, I realized that what I had thought was a breakup, she had assumed was simply a fight. So, I’d had to make it clear to her that I wasn’t interested in continuing a relationship with her. She had left in a storm of anger, but not before breaking a few of my things. I was extremely glad to be an un-sentimental person that day.
My thoughts wandered from Jennifer to Molly. There were days when I felt I was finally growing up and changing, and there were days that I felt like the same wayward college kid who could never commit to one woman. Things felt different with Molly, but I wasn’t sure how long that was going to last.
Molly had been in love with me since she was fourteen years old. A part of me was intensely flattered by that, but it also terrified the life out of me. What if I ended up hurting her like I had hurt every girl that had come before her? The pressure was building, and I wasn’t sure if it was coming from her or me.
I was ruminating on my current circumstances when my phone distracted me. The moment I saw the name Emma flashing on the screen, I groaned. Just what I needed, I thought, another conversation with a woman who very likely had a problem with me.
“Hi, Emma,” I said, picking up. “It’s been awhile.”
Chapter 24
Molly
“Where are we going?” I asked excitedly.
We had spent fifteen minutes in a car driving along Oahu’s lesser-traveled roads. All the while, Tristan had refused to tell me where we were heading. It was nice to sit in the front seat of his convertible, with his hand wrapped around my shoulders. We probably looked like a still out of an old movie, and the thought amused me.
“You’re not going to tell me?” I asked.
He laughed. “I had no idea you were so impatient.”
It was a glorious Sunday, but it was the first time in weeks that I’d gotten to enjoy a weekend. Tristan and I had been working around the clock, and when I did manage to carve out a little free time, he was always busy. So this morning when I had woken up, I had been surprised to see him sitting at the foot of the bed with a huge smile on his face.
He had told me to get dressed because he had a surprise for me. Twenty minutes later, we were driving away from the resort in Tristan’s vintage blue convertible. He had kept quiet about where we were going, and a part of me was intrigued and excited to be left in the dark.
“I can be sometimes,” I nodded.
“Well, you won’t have to wait long now,” he said as he pulled up on the outskirts of the beach.
We got down, and he walked around to me and took my hand. “Ready?”
“We’re going down to the beach?”
“I suppose we are,” he nodded, as he led the way.
“Are we swimming?” I wondered out loud.
“This particular side of the beach is not ideal for swimming,” he said as we stepped onto the soft, warm sand.
Thankfully, I had chosen to wear my flip-flops and a comfortable sundress. “I’m not sure I packed my swimsuit,” I said, biting my lip.
“You won’t need a swimsuit,” he assured me.
We walked down the sloping beach where the waves were lapping against the shore. There were a couple of locals wading in the clear blue water next to a bright yellow motorboat.
“Mr. Tristan!” one of the men called as we approached.
“Akoni,” Tristan waved. “Is everything ready?”
“Everything is ready Mr. Tristan,” he nodded. “Have a good time.”
“Will do,” Tristan nodded, leading me straight to the boat.
I smiled at the men as Tristan helped me into the boat and started up the engine. A few seconds later, we were zooming across the water, and the three men by the beach became little dots in the distance.
“Okay, seriously,” I said. “Where are we going?”
Tristan laughed. “You’ll find out in five seconds,” he said.
I looked out into the horizon, and after a moment, I saw a little island in the distance. It was a tiny mass of land surrounded by shaded trees. I could make out a small structure enclosed within all the green. It looked like something out of a fantasy novel.
I wanted to ask more questions, but I was so consumed with the view that all my questions dried on my tongue as I admired how beautiful it looked. As Tristan pulled up on the shore, I realized that the house was possibly the only man-made structure on the tiny private island. The house itself was shrouded from view, and I could only see a few white shutters and a large ornamental balcony from my vantage point.
Before Tristan had docked the motorboat, I jumped out and ran into the island. It was lovely, and as I walked further in, the trees shielded the whole island from the sun’s harsher rays. I realized there were steps leading up to the house, whose architecture was almost Victorian in its intricate little details.
“What do you think?” Tristan asked, coming up behind me.
“This place is amazing,” I said. “How did you even find it?”
“The previous owner was looking to sell,” he told me. “And, I was looking to buy.”
“You bought the house?” I asked incredulously.
“The whole island, actually. It’s pretty perfect, isn’t it?”
“Perfect is definitely one word for it,” I agreed. “I can’t believe you bought a whole island.”
Tristan looked at me and smiled. “A little extravagant, do you think?”
“Just a tad,” I teased.
He laughed. “Come on, let’s go exploring.”
He took my hand, and we climbed the steps together. The house was a sprawling manor that could have doubled as an estate. “How big is it?” I asked, in amazement.
“Five bedrooms and seven bathrooms big,” he replied.
“Looks like more.”
“The rooms inside are massive,” he explained. “The original owner wanted fewer rooms and bigger spaces. The kitchen and dining room are huge, and the living room takes up half the space on the ground floor.”
“I can’t believe you bought a house,” I said, shaking my head.
“It’s an investment,” he shrugged. “And perfect timing, too. I closed this deal shortly before you arrived in Hawaii. Now whenever we need some alone time, we can just come here.”
I gave him a look.
“What?”
“When will we have time to come here, at all?” I asked. “We’re both so busy.”
“It won’t be like that forever,” he said. “At least, I hope not. We just have to be hopeful.”
The house’s interior was as lovely as it was on the outside. Tristan had been right about how large all of the rooms were. The furniture was sparse, but it was just enough for a house that wasn’t in continual use. We went through every single room while he went through key points of architecture. He was passionate about it, and it made me wonder why he hadn’t decided to become an architect.
We circled back to the massive livin
g room, and I settled down on the sofa. “Did you ever think about getting into architecture in college?”
Tristan sat down next to me. “I thought about it a lot, actually,” he admitted.
“But?”
“Dad was grooming me to take over his empire,” he said. “And…I guess I couldn’t turn him down.”
“Is that one of the reasons why your relationship with him was a little…prickly sometimes?”
Tristan looked at me and smiled. “I wasn’t aware that you were aware of my prickly father-son relationship.”
“You forget that I spent half my life watching you,” I said. “I noticed things—the way you spoke about your father was one.”
“He had a vision for my future, and I didn’t necessarily agree with that vision at first,” Tristan said. “But once I got into his line of work, I realized that I actually enjoyed it. And, I have gotten to dabble in architecture every now and again, it’s just not what I do.”
“It was lucky that you enjoyed running the empire.”
“I think about that every day,” Tristan nodded. “If I hadn’t, I’d probably still think about my father with resentment. But as it stands, I just miss him.”
“I can imagine,” I nodded, thinking about my own parents. “I don’t know what I would do if something happened to my dad.”
“Before he got sick, Dad was like a machine,” Tristan said, with his eyes far away. “He worked twenty-four-seven. Sometimes, it felt like he never slept. I swore to myself that I would never allow myself to work like he did; but now, here I am, working like he did.”
“He was probably lonely,” I suggested.
Tristan turned to me. “What do you mean?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know; I guess I just assume that people who work that much are naturally lonely. Why else would they give their lives over to work?”
He looked at me thoughtfully. “I had never considered that before,” he said softly. “And now that you mention it, he never really dated after Mom and he divorced. Maybe that was the reason he was so ambitious. Maybe it wasn’t just ambition. Maybe it was self-preservation.”
Tristan turned to me and sighed. “We only started seeing eye to eye when we knew we had run out of time,” he shared. “I never got around to asking all the questions that I was curious about.”
“Like?”
“Like… Did his career really satisfy him that much?” Tristan said. “Did ambition really fulfill his life? Was that the reason that he and Mom split up or did it come after? He got sick so fast, and afterward it was all about his illness. It didn’t feel right to bring up stuff that was ancient history.”
I leaned over and hugged Tristan. After a moment, I felt his lips on my head. I turned my face up to his, and we kissed slowly until it turned into a more passionate embrace. When we pulled apart, I could see the hot flame of desire reflected in his eyes.
“I like talking to you,” he whispered to me. “It’s easy—it feels natural. I’ve never had that before.”
“You’ve never been able to talk to any of your ex-girlfriends?”
“No, they were so…removed from my life,” Tristan admitted. “I just couldn’t open myself up to them.”
“But you can with me?”
“You’re different,” he said.
I smiled as he pulled me onto his lap, and his hands pushed up my skirt and started caressing my thighs. I could see his hard-on pressing up against the crotch of his pants, and I slipped my hands down and unzipped him. I lifted myself off his lap so that he could slip off my panties. Then we fucked on the sofa, christening Tristan’s new house.
After we were done, we embraced one another and lay on the couch, as he played with my hair. “This is nice,” he said, almost as an afterthought.
“This is all new to me,” I confessed. “I’ve never had a relationship like this one before.”
He looked at me questioningly.
“I mean, a relationship that is based on friendship and passion and love and sex. I underestimated how important sex can be in a relationship.”
He smiled. “That makes one of us.”
I smirked at him and got off the sofa.
“Hey,” he called. “Where are you going?”
“I want to go down to the beach.”
“That’s a great idea,” he nodded with a twinkle in his eye.
“Except I don’t have a swimsuit,” I pointed out.
“This is a private island,” he reminded me. “You don’t need one.”
He stripped down completely and stood before me—naked as the day he was born. I looked him up and down, feeling a little tingle between my legs.
“Your turn,” he said challengingly.
I started to strip. When I was naked, Tristan reached out and cupped my breasts in his hand. Then he took my hand and led me out of the house and towards the ocean. I felt like the modern-day Adam and Eve as we waded into the cool water together.
Once lapping waves surrounded us, I felt a brilliant and inexplicable sense of freedom. It was just Tristan and me, completely naked, surrounded by the ocean under a clear blue sky. It was perfect.
I felt my desire for him expand once more. This time, I pulled him to me and started to kiss him with purpose. Having sex in the ocean was an altogether different experience. It was harder, clumsier, and unpredictable, but it was also carnal and natural and extremely exciting.
Tristan fucked me hard as the water pushed us from side to side, and when I came, I threw back my head and screamed without inhibition, without reservation, and without any sense of self-consciousness.
Chapter 25
Tristan
I looked at the pictures lining my wall. They were all pictures of the resorts and hotels that my father had opened before I took over. The last couple of pictures depicted my own projects. They were smaller, modest hotels compared with my father’s, but I had opened them on my own, and for that, I was proud.
Still, opening a new hotel was never easy, and my first few attempts had not gone smoothly. Which was why I was sitting in my office, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Everything had been going so well lately that I felt as though something had to give soon. I wondered if I was simply projecting my fears about my relationship with Molly onto my career.
I thought about the last few weeks I’d spent with Molly. I had discovered so much more about her. I already knew she was passionate, kind, and intelligent. But I also discovered that she was decisive, emotional, and fiery. I realized that our opinions about film and art didn’t always match up, and when that happened, Molly would fight to the death to defend her point. She was so good at it that half the time, I found myself convinced. She was persuasive, but she could also be diffident. Just when I thought I had figured her out, she surprised me by revealing another layer of her character that I was ignorant of.
There were days when everything felt perfect. There were days when Molly was the only person I wanted to be with. She got me; she understood my job and its demands. She never got mad if I missed a dinner date, or disappeared right after sex, or could barely stand still long enough to ask her how her day was. She took everything in her stride. She seemed to enjoy working, and that, too, was attractive to me.
The flip side of the coin was my fear. The work had still not slowed down. I still had investors I needed to answer to, standards that needed to be maintained, and a chain of other enterprises that needed supervision. Just when I felt as though I were getting my head above water, something came up that pulled me under again. I had been meaning to take Molly back to our private island for a small sojourn, but I’d never managed to find the time after our first visit.
Some days, I was scared Molly was getting bored with our relationship. Other days, I was scared that I was getting bored with the relationship. Some days, I was simply too tired to be scared about anything. All I knew was that it felt nice to crawl into bed, knowing that Molly was in it, sleeping soundly.
On a whim, I picked
up my phone and dialed in Jason’s number. He answered almost immediately, and the sound of his voice made me instantly regret calling him.
“Tristan!” Jason said breathlessly. “Long time, man.”
“You sound like you’re going someplace?”
“I’ve heading towards a meeting that’s on the other side of this damn building,” he replied. “So I can’t chat for long.”
“I can call back later?”
“No, no,” he said quickly. “I want to hear how things are going.”
“Uh…things are going great,” I said.
I knew I should have told him about Molly and me weeks ago, but I always managed to find an excuse at the last minute.
“Molly told me she’s loving the new job.”
“Oh, you’ve talked to Molly recently, have you?”
“A couple of days ago,” he confirmed.
“And what did she say?”
“Uh…she told me she’s loving the new job,” he repeated, sounding a little surprised by my question. “I’m sure you know that, given you’re her boss and everything.”
It was obvious that Molly hadn’t told her brother about us. “I don’t see myself as her boss,” I said quickly, avoiding bringing up the topic.
“Even though you are?”
“As far as I’m concerned, she’s working with me, not for me,” I said.
“Whatever you say,” Jason said distractedly. “Did you call to say something specific, bro, or was this just a check in?”
It was my opening, the perfect opportunity to come clean about my relationship with his sister and yet, I couldn’t do it. I was overcome with this inexplicable sense of fear.
Once I told Jason, it would be real. There would be no going back.
It was an irrational fear. Whether Jason knew or not didn’t make our relationship any less real. But sometimes it felt like we lived in a little bubble in Hawaii. It was easy to forget that the same rules applied everywhere else, too.
“I just called to check in,” I said lamely.
“Awesome, keep me posted, okay?” Jason said. “I want to know about the resort. It’s just—”
