by A D Seeley
“Inac?”
“Hmm?”
“Is there a reason you don’t want to kiss me? Is there something wrong with me?” she asked as she sat up and turned so she could look him in the eye. She could see wheels turning inside his head. “I can take it if you don’t like me like that. I guess I’m just confused because one minute you act like you like me, and then the next…?”
She couldn’t believe she had brought this up. It must be the wine. She didn’t feel as shy as she usually did.
His mouth a tight line, he said, “There’s nothing wrong with you, Hara. You’re a beautiful woman; inside and out.”
“Then why don’t you want to kiss me?”
“It’s not that at all.”
“Then what is it?”
“I don’t want to move too fast for you.”
Out of everything she’d thought he might say in response, that had not been one of them.
“What makes you think that would be too fast?”
“You just don’t seem like someone who would want just a physical relationship.”
“And you think kissing me would do that?”
He was silent for quite some time, digesting his thoughts.
“I think,” he finally said, his brow furrowing like it was difficult to say this, “that you aren’t used to feeling this way. If we move that direction, I know with how attracted to you I am, that I wouldn’t want to stop. I also think that, because you don’t know what you’re missing, when you find it out, you won’t want to stop either. I don’t want to be something you regret.”
She wanted to melt. It was so sweet that he was respecting her as much as he was. She wasn’t just falling for this man, she had fallen for him. And hard. The white lilac was definitely right that this was her first love.
The excitement from her realization made her want to move so she stood up, pulling one of his hands. Laughing, he stood up too.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his smile so large that the corners of his eyes crinkled. The effect made him seem innocent.
“I want to dance,” she replied as she began twirling around. As she did, she unbuttoned her ruffled, creamy silk blouse and threw it on the couch so she wouldn’t sweat all over the fine, expensive material. She left her white silk camisole on—it would be okay to sweat on the camisole since she usually wore it under something.
“I think you’ve had too much wine,” he said from where he stood slightly back, watching her dance around by herself with her face to the sky and her arms outstretched above her, her knee-length skirt twirling around her like flower petals.
She stopped to look at him, offering her hand.
“Come dance with me.”
“There isn’t any music.” But he was smiling as he stepped up to her and took her in his arms.
“The ocean can be our music,” she said, looking up into his eyes, a part of her registering and loving the fact that he was so much taller than she was. Finally, she’d found someone who made her feel like she was actually a delicate girl and not some Amazonian giant….
Inac took the lead, moving her this way and that, twirling and dipping her until she began to feel dizzy from the combination of dancing and him. To right herself, she laid her head on his chest, finally getting the opportunity to really breathe him in. He smelled amazing. A little bit like the ocean, some like the rich forest, more like spices. She could breathe his musky scent in forever. It was like it was made just for her enjoyment. Now that she thought about it, it was remarkable how similar it was to how she had imagined it to be. Surprisingly close to the scent she’d been sure she could smell in her room that fateful day before her date with Eric.
Now that her ear was over his heart, she could hear it hammering, and he seemed to be swallowing a lot. Because she knew that she was doing the same thing, she was sure why his body was acting this way. He wanted to kiss her as much as she wanted to be kissed.
Hara pulled her face away from his chest to look up at him, to which he responded by putting a hand to her face, his thumb tenderly brushing across her bottom lip. Her brain didn’t know what to do, but her body did. Without any conscious thought to do so, she felt her mouth open only enough to kiss the tip of his thumb.
With a small lick of his lips, he moved it away as he brought his other hand to her other cheek, cradling her face between them as his freshly-moistened lips slowly made their way down to hers. This time, he didn’t pull back.
The moment before Inac’s mouth was going to meet hers, she sucked in a shallow breath. It had barely filled her lungs when she felt the soft caress of his lips. Why had she never kissed someone before? It was amazing! Better than she’d ever imagined! Electricity, beginning where his mouth was touching hers, was surging throughout her entire body, deliciously singeing her nerves.
The sensation ended too soon because Inac pulled away. But she wasn’t ready for it to end; he had only given her a couple of small, tantalizing kisses.
“Mm-mm. Don’t stop,” she begged in a breathy tone, putting one hand to the back of his neck to pull his mouth back down to hers as she played with the prickly stubble there—just as she’d thought, it was like rough velvet. The moment she could feel his mouth touch hers, she eagerly pressed her lips against his. It felt so nice that she wanted to push the envelope; to get more than this.
Trying to think of something she could do to take this further without it going far enough for her to be labeled any of the names Crystal was labeled with, she began playing with the bottom of his shirt at his back with one hand, lightly grabbing at the bare flesh under it. Probably following her lead, Inac tore it off himself before throwing his arms back around her waist and his mouth back over hers. This time, he gently slipped his tongue into her mouth. She could now feel that it contained a piercing, though it wasn’t a spike like his other two facial ones. She wondered why she’d never noticed his tongue piercing before….
A part of her was saying, “Girl, you barely got your first kiss and now you’re Frenching him? And he isn’t even wearing a shirt either. You have to stop, girl.”
But another part was saying, “But I don’t want to stop. This is so nice. I want more. I want everything.” Apparently, her brain was playing its own Angel versus Devil game.
She let her hands explore his broad, muscular back as their mouths memorized each other’s—she was surprised to find that the silver spike under his lip didn’t hurt when it rubbed against her. Soon, Inac began maneuvering her and she was more than willing to follow. It wasn’t until he laid her down on something soft that she realized he’d moved them back over to the couch.
She looked up at him, for the first time seeing that the large black tribal tattoo that covered his right arm moved up over his shoulder and disappeared around to his back, as well as running along one entire side of his torso, connecting to the one on his neck. In the middle of it was a fresh scar from his bullet wound. Before, she’d always been shy about looking too much at the skin of his that she’d been able to see. But, now that she had exposed the tight muscles she had felt under his shirt, it was all she could look at.
She didn’t get to appreciate the tattoo, or his hard abs and chest, long enough because he soon laid over her, moving his mouth back to hers. But she did get an enticing glimpse of his rippling muscles every once in a while.
He only kissed her a few times before shifting his lips to her neck. A voice in her head kept telling her to stop, that she was being an S-L-U-T, but another one told that voice to shut up. With every lick, nibble, kiss, or sucking motion on her neck, ears, and collarbone, she just wanted more and more…especially since his round tongue piercing felt so absolutely wonderful wherever he rubbed it against her.
Taking a page from his book, she rolled them over to do the same to him, though she straddled herself around his waist to help her balance. He was obviously enjoying himself as much as she had been. Plus, now that she could hear the moans and ragged breaths he made with each movement of her
mouth, she didn’t feel embarrassed for the ones she had made—apparently they were as instinctual as all of this seemed to be.
Her hair kept getting in the way, falling into their mouths and forcing them both to pull away to dislodge it before they choked on it, so she sat up to tie it into a knot. Inac watched her as she did so, a smile on his face showing how pleased he was, as well as promising of better things to come.
“Are you sure you’ve never kissed a guy before?” he asked, his voice deeper than usual as she began lowering herself to kiss him now that her hair was out of the way.
“I swear. Why?”
“Because you are really good at it.”
She smiled, situating her mouth over his and sticking her tongue into his mouth this time.
When she moved it back to his ear, he moaned, “Damn, Hara….”
She whispered back, nibbling his ear, “What did I say about swearing?”
“Sorry. If you don’t want me to, I’ll never swear again.”
“Good.”
The angel in her head was now screaming, trying to get her to stop. She didn’t want to listen to it, though.
Inac started playing with her camisole, trying to pull it up over her head so she raised her arms to the pale coral sky, letting him do so. Now only in her skirt and dainty white lace bra, she let him roll her over to once again take control. He ran the back of one finger slowly down the length of her long, bare torso as she arched her back, lifting that very torso into the air as though doing so would lengthen the caress. That was when everything changed. When she arched, he kissed her abdomen just above her belly button with one hand around her waist and the other now moving up her back to masterfully work at the clasps of her bra. It was as this was happening that her necklace fell to her cheek, reminding her of what the angel voice had been trying to beat into her all night. The voice that the alcohol had repressed. She may not have had much of it, but it was much more than she was used to.
“Wait,” she said, pushing Inac’s chest up and away from her.
“What?” he asked through his labored breaths, looking down at her bra before moving his eyes back to her face. He was mesmerized by the lacy material and seemed to want to see underneath it very badly.
“I can’t do this.” The heat of his body, the taste of his mouth and flesh, the intoxicating scent that hovered around him, all of them had worked a hypnotic spell over Hara. A hypnotic spell that had almost cost her what she prized most….
“Do what?” he said, his breaths coming in fast and shallow gasps as he continued to play with her bra.
“This,” she said, gesturing at her bra, which was still on, but only barely. His fingers were still frozen on the clasps, just waiting for permission, and by the looseness of her bra, she could feel that most were undone. “Inac, I don’t want to lose my virginity tonight. I mean, I do, but I don’t. Does that make any sense?”
He nodded before moving his other hand to her bra and she felt him re-doing the clasps better than even she could do them, and she was a girl and wore a bra every day! When he was done, he pulled away and said, “You’re right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let it get this carried away in the first place.”
“Are you mad?” She couldn’t tell what was going on inside that mind of his.
He chuckled, making her feel foolish. “Of course I’m not mad. At least not at you,” he said before giving her an innocent kiss on the lips.
“Then who?”
“Myself. Like I said, I shouldn’t have even taken it this far. It’s just….”
“Just what?” She felt like he was about to open up his walls a little.
“Just….” He shook his head. Whatever he had been about to say—to admit—he had obviously decided against it.
Instead he stood up, a daredevil smile on his face. Then, before she even realized what he was going to do, he jumped on a handrail, whooped, and did a front flip off the side of the boat.
She heard a splash before she even made it to the place where he’d jumped from.
“Inac!” she called, looking into the dark water far below. She was glad he’d stopped and anchored the boat halfway through dinner because she never would have known how to do that and he would have drowned as she sailed off to who knew where.
His head popped out of the water and he wiped it from his eyes. He was laughing, splashing water up at her, which didn’t quite reach her with how tall the boat was.
“What are you doing?!” she called down to him. “Are you insane?!”
“It comes with being an Adamson!” he yelled back, laughing extremely hard.
“Come back to the boat! You’re gonna get eaten by a shark!”
“There aren’t any sharks!”
“How do you know?!”
“I just do!”
“Well, no matter what, come back!”
“But it feels great! Come swim with me!”
“I don’t know how!”
“Then grab a life preserver! I won’t let you drown! I promise!”
She believed him. But could he really protect her from sharks?
She shook her head.
“Come on, Hara! Live a little! Besides, it’s the best thing to cool you off after a heavy make-out session!”
She couldn’t deny that she needed to cool off. But still….
She looked over at the life preserver attached to the railing. It was a small white tube that she would easily be able to fit around her. When she looked back at Inac, who was still treading water, she made up her mind. She would do it.
She was about to tell him so when his smile disappeared and he began looking around in the water.
“Are you okay?!” she yelled.
“Yeah…!”
But he didn’t look okay. He was acting like something was in the water with him. Suddenly he was tugged under, fighting something that had him.
“Inac!” she screamed, tears coming to her eyes when he surfaced again, fighting for air before being pulled down under for a second time. This time, he didn’t resurface.
“Inac!” she kept calling over and over again. When he hadn’t surfaced again minutes later, she collapsed to the ground, bawling. Inac had just been eaten by a shark and she didn’t know what to do.
“Aww. I’m touched you care so much about me,” his voice said from behind her.
She turned around to find Inac alive and whole, a delighted smile on his face. Apparently he thought that making her believe he’d been eaten by sharks was hilarious.
“You,” she said with a mixture of anger and relief as she walked the few feet over to him, lightly pounding his chest a couple of times in anger before collapsing into his arms, still blubbering—she was too woozy from her worry to hit him with any real force. He was soaking wet, but she didn’t care. He was alive, and that was all that mattered just now. “You jerk,” she said between sobs. “I hate you, you jerk. You’re such a jerk.” She knew she was getting hysterical, but she couldn’t do anything about it.
“Man, Hara, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out,” he said as he rubbed her back, which was still almost bare because she hadn’t put her shirt back on. She just hadn’t thought about it when she was trying to deal with the death of the man she was falling in love with.
She knew it was inappropriate to have him holding her when she was only in her bra and skirt, but she couldn’t let go of him. She had once vowed never to let a man see her at this stage of undress before she was married, but she’d already broken that today. Besides, there was nothing sexual in their embrace just now. How could it be when one person was crying so hard they had the hiccups? She was probably wiping snot all over him, too….
She pulled back a few minutes later to look him in the eye.
“Don’t you ever pull anything like that on me again!”
“I won’t. I swear,” he said, rubbing her tears away with his thumbs before lightly kissing her once.
She nodded before laying her cheek back on his
chest. At least he was being sweet—he was stroking her hair—to make her feel better after his stupid joke. Her hiccups were almost gone, only happening once or twice a minute now.
Once she had completely calmed down, Inac pulled away.
“So what do you say we teach you how to swim?”
“Right now?”
“Yeah. Why not?”
“It’s dark now.” Sometime during her sniveling, the sun had finished its descent.
“I have flood lights.” Then, flashing that grin of his, he said, “Come on. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“I don’t have much of one. I’m the kind of girl who plays it safe.”
“No. You’re the kind of girl who used to play it safe. But today you’re Hara, Wild Woman. You rode on a bullet bike, you went for a ride on a yacht, you drank wine for fun, and you made-out with a dashing young man,” he finished with a crooked grin.
She smiled. He was right; she wasn’t her usual self today. And she liked it.
“Okay. You got me on that.”
“And how does it feel?”
Her smile widened. “It feels great. It’s like everything’s finally in color.”
He laughed at her before pulling her close and saying into her ear in the tone of a rascal, “Then how about living a little more? Come swim with me. I’ll hold you so you won’t drown. We don’t even have to go far from the diving platform. I’ll submerge it so you can sit on it.”
“The what?”
“The diving platform. Well, it doubles as a tender lift, but it’s submersible. Basically, it’s a metal platform that isn’t underwater when we’re sailing but we can put down into the water to either lift a small boat or raft, or for scuba divers to use. Also, you can keep Wave Runners on it. It makes them and boats or rafts easy to launch.”
