by Jess Dee
Was that what she wanted? She’d spent three months forcing herself to live a life without him, and now he was here, taking her right back to the very place she’d fought so hard to move away from.
Sienna’s heart raced. Her knees grew weak and her skin prickled with emotion.
Did she want to be with Ben? She’d been so overwhelmed to have him back, she hadn’t stopped to ask herself the question.
More than that, was she content not to have Josh? Her gut yelled no, but he’d left so fast she hadn’t had time to think about it.
And she didn’t have time now. Not with Ben grinning triumphantly at her. “We can be together again, baby.” The joy and relief were audible in his laugh. “We can be Sienna and Ben.”
Sienna and Ben. Ben and Sienna. Together again.
His mouth consumed hers in a feverish kiss.
As his tongue swept past her lips with assertive familiarity, Sienna automatically gave herself over to the demands of his passion—just like she had every other time Ben had kissed her over the last eight years.
He moaned carnally, his arousal evident in every shallow breath, every soft caress.
Sienna opened herself up to his touch and his kisses, and waited for the magic of the island to descend over them, just like it had descended over her and Josh.
Hours later, she snuck out from beneath Ben’s arm, slipping away from the heat of his body. Careful not to wake him, she tiptoed across the carpeted floor and closed herself in the bathroom.
For the first time since she’d left her bungalow earlier that evening, Sienna had a minute to herself.
She rested her head against the door, closed her eyes and let out a very long breath, relishing the solitude.
It took a couple of minutes to fill the bath, but submerging herself in the hot water was exactly what Sienna needed. Her body had adjusted to life without sex, which meant that the day of loving had made her muscles ache pleasantly, and her pussy and ass tingle.
The water soothed away her discomfort, lapping over her breasts and soaking up any residual stiffness. It eased the exquisite tenderness that remained from Josh’s and Ben’s wild and wicked thrusting, and brought an overall sense of calm to her physically.
What it could not soothe was Sienna’s underlying sense of sadness.
Sienna should be on top of the world. She should be the happiest woman in the world. She had her fiancé back. She had her life back.
So why did the knowledge that her future was once again melded to Ben’s make her want to drop her head in her hands and sob?
Chapter Eleven
Josh’s feet pounded across the sand, the tiny grains blisteringly hot from the afternoon sun. His lungs burned from lack of oxygen and his muscles screamed from the torment he put them through. He didn’t care. He pushed harder, faster, needing to run through his pain.
He’d tried swimming out to the dolphins earlier, thought playing with them might take his mind off Sienna. But his punishing strokes through the water must have scared them off. When he’d arrived at the spot where he’d seen them frolicking just moments before, they’d scattered.
He’d tried sailing, hoping the wind through his hair would blow the cobwebs from his mind, help him see he’d made the right choice in letting Sienna go. Sitting on the cat had done nothing but remind him of the day before, when Sienna had sat beside him and confessed she’d had a crush on him for five years. Confessed that all she’d wanted to do, even if it only lasted five minutes, was fuck his brains out.
The memory had him bent over in agony. He’d let the anguish wash through him, eat him alive, and then he’d turned the Hobie around and sailed back to shore. He couldn’t be there. Couldn’t sit in the same spot where he’d sat yesterday without Sienna by his side.
So he ran instead. Just like he ran every day. Four-hundred-meter laps up and down the beach. He ditched his shirt and shoes on one of the deck chairs and sprinted along the shoreline, away from the hotel, away from prying eyes. Away from the bungalow Sienna now shared with Ben—if they hadn’t already headed back to Newcastle.
Sienna had gotten her five minutes with Josh, and then some. He’d have preferred longer, like maybe a lifetime of longer, but things hadn’t worked out that way. She was with Ben. Like she should have been all along. Josh had just been a temporary blip in her radar.
Fuck, Lye. Have a pity party, why don’t you?
Christ, he was pathetic. A fucking baby, crying over spilled milk. Nah, too clichéd. He was his mother, crying over spilled gin. Or his father, crying over a nine-year prison sentence. Maybe he was both of them, crying over the life he wanted but could never have.
Not the life. The woman. And the girl. Sienna, the princess, so far out of his reach he’d been crazy to dream, even for those five minutes, that he might have her.
Girls like Sienna didn’t choose boys like Josh. They didn’t choose losers. They chose the Ben Cowleys of the world. And they lived happily ever after.
The figure on the sand ahead of him brought Josh to a careening halt.
She stood alone, at the end of the beach, hurling something flat and white into the sea.
What was it?
She leaned over, picked up something else, aimed and threw it too.
A shell.
Josh edged closer, his heart pounding in his ears. Not from the sprint, although that left him gasping for breath, but from the shock. She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be alone. She should be in her bungalow, or back in Newcastle, with Ben.
Sienna hurled another shell into the sea, yelling something as she did so. Josh wasn’t sure what she yelled—her voice vanished in the wind.
He inched closer still, moving silently, determined not to interrupt her. He listened more intently.
Christ, she was gorgeous. Not that he could see her face, but her blonde curls whipped behind her in the breeze. She’d crammed that luscious flesh into a tight singlet, and again wore shorts that showed off an endless length of leg. Her butt, full and round, was pushed out towards him every time she flung her shells, reminding him he’d never gotten a chance to take her there. Never had the pleasure of burying himself in her ass—even though he’d promised her he would.
There were a lot of things he’d wanted to do with Sienna he’d never have the chance to now.
It was just a sad, sucky fact of life.
Josh heard what she said as she flung the shell this time. Heard the word “Engagement” dancing in the air before it plopped in the sea, just like the shell. The next throw was accompanied by a name. Ben’s. And on the third throw he heard his own name.
He waited for the splash, but it never came. Sienna hadn’t flung the shell. She held it in her hand now, staring at it. “Josh,” she said again, and then there was silence. A long length of silence.
Josh didn’t dare breathe or move. He simply stood where he was, waiting. Filling his eyes with the sight of her. Wondering what the hell to do next.
He knew he should turn around and walk away, just liked he’d done last night. But this time something stopped him.
Sienna raised her hand to fling the shell, yelling out Josh’s name again. She had to let him go, had to throw the shell in the water. Had to drown her sorrows.
So why couldn’t she pry open her fingers? Why were they clasping the shell so tight they’d started to cramp? Why were tears running down her cheeks and her heart beating so hard she thought it might smash straight out of her chest?
She stared at her hand, knowing the answer. She’d known the answer all along. Since the minute she’d recognized the man standing beside her chair at the pool as Josh Lye, she’d known.
“Josh,” she said again, wiping her other hand across her eyes. She yelled his name. Loud.
She had to find him, had to speak to him. Now.
“Josh,” she screamed, knowing he couldn’t hear her, knowing she’d have to look for him, search the whole resort if necessary. She’d do it too, just so long as she got to talk to h
im again.
“Josh,” she called as she took off, racing toward the hotel as fast as her legs would carry her. Tears fell from her eyes, blinding her.
She almost didn’t see him, almost ran headfirst into the man standing mere meters away from her. She managed to stop seconds before crashing into him.
Sienna blinked once, then again, barely believing her eyes.
“Josh?” This time his name was a murmur. It was all she could manage.
“Right here, princess.”
She swiped at her cheeks, brushing away the tears.
Josh.
It really was him, standing before her, looking utterly gorgeous. Hot, sweaty, half-naked and utterly gorgeous. “Wh-what are you doing here?”
“Watching you.” His answer was immediate, as if he hadn’t thought about it.
“Why?”
He ran his gaze over the length of her, the action scorching her from head to toe. “I went for a run along the beach, the same as I do every day. I didn’t expect you to be here.” Josh looked into her eyes, making her breath catch. “When I saw you, I couldn’t walk away.”
“Uh… Oh.” She’d been about to search every nook and cranny in the resort to find him. Tripping over him one or two steps into her hunt had her thrown her for a loop. “You startled me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay.” It was okay. Very okay.
They stared at each other. Sienna couldn’t stop staring, couldn’t get enough of him. Josh, the boy of her dreams. The man of her dreams.
“You called my name,” Josh said.
She nodded. “I was looking for you.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
Why, indeed? She’d been so desperate to find him, to tell him why, yet now that he stood in front of her, she wasn’t at all sure what to say. “There’s something I need to say to you. I would have said it last night, but you left too quickly.” Lordy, her heart raced so fast she could hardly talk.
He looked at her with an unfathomable expression. “I’m here now. You can tell me if you still want to.”
“I do.” She nodded, affirming her words.
Josh waited.
She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t find the strength and the honesty to express what was in her heart.
He let out a long sigh. “It’s okay, princess. You don’t need to say it. You don’t need to say anything.” He reached out and stroked her cheek, sending hot thrills through her skin. “Just know that if you should wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep, somewhere out here, there’s a man dreaming very adult dreams about you.” He ran his thumb over her bottom lip, just once, and then he turned around and walked away.
Oh, dear God. He was leaving her—again. No, no, no! He couldn’t. She couldn’t let him. Had to stop him.
“I love you too,” she yelled after his retreating back.
Josh froze midstep, his foot still in the air. He turned around slowly. “What did you say?”
“I said I love you too.” Shit, the tears were back, clouding her vision. She couldn’t see his face, had no way of knowing what he was thinking.
Sienna began to shake.
“What about Ben?” Josh asked coolly.
“He’s…gone.” Sienna wrapped her arms around herself to stop the shivers. It didn’t help.
“Gone where?”
“Back to Newcastle.” Her skin was covered in goose bumps.
He shook his head, looking confused. “Why?”
She swallowed. “I asked him to leave.” It had almost killed her, almost broken her heart all over again, but it had been the right decision for both Sienna and Ben. Hopefully, one day soon, Ben would be able to see that too.
“You did?” Josh took a step towards her.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She chewed on her lower lip. “Because our relationship is over.”
Another step. “He came back for you.”
“I know.” She nodded. “And in doing so, he confused the heck out of me. Made me think I still loved him. Made me think I still wanted a future with him.”
“You don’t?” His question was a hoarse whisper.
“A part of me will always love him, will always love my memories of him. But our engagement is over. It has been for a long time.” Their relationship had died months before she’d officially ended it. “Seeing him again was a shock. Hearing him say all those things about wanting me back, well, it made me nostalgic, made me long for what we’d once had.” Because what they’d once had had been good. “But then you left, and I was alone with him. And I realized the magic wasn’t there anymore. Whatever Ben and I once shared has died.” While the knowledge was liberating, it still made Sienna terribly, terribly sad. She’d lost Ben all over again. But… “The magic in the room last night was there because of you. Not him.”
“Si…” He stepped closer.
“You created the magic, Josh. Not him. It sparked the second I saw you by the pool and exploded into something undeniable when we made love yesterday afternoon. Ben got caught up in our magic. Yours and mine. That’s why the sex was so good. It wasn’t about him, it was about us.”
Josh took one final step, and he stood in front of her, close enough to raise his hand to her cheek and wipe away her tears.
She took a shaky breath, luxuriating in his touch, in the tingles that flowed through her as a result. “I was crazy about you as a school kid, Josh Lie-With-Me. But yesterday I fell in love with the man you’ve become.”
“You did?”
“I did.”
He closed his eyes, almost as if in prayer. “And you’d still want that?” he asked, his voice sounding as shaky as she felt. “You’d still want five minutes to lie with me?” He opened his eyes, watched her intently. Waited for her answer
She shook her head vehemently. “No!”
Josh dropped his hand so fast she never saw it move.
She grabbed it, brought it back to her face, held it there. “Five minutes would never be enough for everything I want with you.” She smiled, then grinned through her tears and quoted him, word for word. “There are so many ways I wanna make love to you, you’ll be ninety before we’ve covered half of them.”
Josh groaned, the sound emanating from somewhere deep inside him. “I wanna make love to you too, princess. But I’m a selfish man. I won’t share you. Not ever again. I can’t tolerate the thought of anyone else touching you. Can you live with that?”
“If you love me, I can live with anything.”
“I do love you.” He pulled her into his arms, crushed her against him. “Christ, I’ve loved you since forever, don’t you know that by now?”
Sienna held him just as tight, wouldn’t let go. “I’m a slow learner, apparently. But if you could give me a gentle reminder every now and again—”
His mouth cut off the rest of her words. His lips met hers in a kiss so heated, every chill that had wrapped around her skin melted in his embrace.
The kisses they’d shared before faded to insignificance. As his tongue swept into her mouth, claiming her, making her his, Sienna knew this was the kiss to end all kisses. This was the real the deal. The kiss that sealed her fate.
She was Josh’s. Without a shadow of a doubt.
Her heart belonged to him completely. Him, and no one else. And his mouth told her his heart belonged to her—and no one else. Which was a damn good thing, because Sienna was just as selfish as Josh. She too refused to share.
She smiled as she kissed him, couldn’t hold back her joy. She didn’t try. Ben was gone, officially a sad memory from her past. Josh was here, with her. He loved her, like she loved him. Happiness exploded inside her, like the sun coming up.
“Josh?”
“Yeah?”
“Will you do me a favor?”
“Anything, princess.”
“Lie with me?”
“For the next ninety years at least,” he promised as he too
k her hand, and together they sprinted across the beach, back to her hotel room.
About the Author
To learn more about Jess Dee please visit her website at www.jessdee.com. Or you can drop by her blog: http://jessdee.wordpress.com.
Jess loves to hear from her readers. You can contact her any time at [email protected].
Look for these titles by Jess Dee
Now Available:
The Tanner Siblings
Photo Opportunity
Ask Adam
Circle of Friends
Only Tyler
Steve’s Story
A Question of…
A Question of Trust
A Question of Love
Winter Fire
Three of a Kind
Going All In
Raising the Stakes
Full House
Bandicoot Cove Anthology
Exotic Indulgence
Island Idyll
Print Anthologies
Risking it All
Three’s Company
Coming Soon:
Speed
See You in My Dreams
Hidden Fire
Print Anthologies
Red Hot Winter
Three of a Kind
Tropical Desires
Fate is a wind that can change at the drop of a heart…
Paradise Found
© 2011 Vivian Arend
Bandicoot Cove, Book 2
Paige has enjoyed every no-strings-attached minute with her two Australian lovers, Trent and Mason. Over the past eleven months, they’ve surfed, hiked…and explored their seemingly limitless sexual chemistry.
Her lovers’ invitation to the opening of a new resort comes at the ideal time, because in a few days she’s returning to Canada. It’ll be a fitting swan song for their easygoing relationship. A chance to fulfill a few fantasies and then escape before her men realize she’s broken the rules by falling in love with them both. Better to take flight than be forced to choose.
