by Lexy Timms
“Kallie?”
“Hmm?” she asked.
“Do you want anything to drink besides water?”
“No, actually. Day drinking isn’t a pastime of mine I indulge much. Though I am ready for those fish tacos you spoke so highly of.”
“Coming right up,” he said with a smile.
The tacos were rushed out to them and her mouth was salivating. From the first bite she took until the last one, she moaned and groaned over her food. It was delectable. A treat she never would’ve indulged because of her judgment on the outside of the building. She forgot for a little while that she was eating with someone, and immediately blushed when she found Ash staring at her.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “They’re just really good.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me about anything. It’s nice to watch a woman enjoy her food instead of pick around at it.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Most women that come to the island don’t eat much. I guess it’s so they can squeeze into their clothes from high school. It’s nice to see a woman enjoy her food.”
“Are the island women not known for eating? Or are you a man that gravitates toward all the tourists?”
“On St. Barts it’s hard to get away from the tourists. But, you never have to worry about an Italian woman not eating.”
“What?” she asked with a giggle.
“I went to Italy a few years back. Stayed for a couple of weeks. And the women there can put away some food. It’s magnificent.”
“So you’ve been to Italy.”
“Mm, yes. Have you?”
“No. I’ve been to Ireland,” she said. “Prague. I had a brief stint in Australia. But that’s about it.”
“I went to Australia once. Too many poisonous animals for me to want to make another visit back, though.”
“What took you to Australia?” she asked.
“Besides the incredible surfing? The food,” he said.
“Have you ever surfed in Hawaii?”
“Oh, that’s where I learned to surf. The waves there are smooth during the day and choppy by night. It’s the best of both beginner and advanced worlds of surfing. It’s why Hawaii’s so popular for the sport.”
“Have you always led a nomadic life?” she asked.
“I’ve always wanted to. And now I get to.”
“Must be nice,” she said.
She took another bite of her fish taco and allowed her mind to wander. She figured a nomadic existence would be lonely, but Ash seemed anything but. He seemed content traveling anywhere he wanted to go without the worry of a corporate nine-to-five job. Happy to live a simple life and work odd jobs to provide just the exact amount of money he needed to continue living and traveling. Surfing and flirting with women.
Kallie’s eyes drifted back down to the street below them as she finished off her last taco.
“What’s on your mind, Pretty Kallie?”
“You’re not going to stop calling me that, are you?” she asked.
“Not as long as you stay the way you are,” he said.
Even though she knew this was his game, she couldn't help but smile. She knew he wasn’t looking for anything serious. She knew his endgame was to get her in bed. But that was a good thing, because in the back of her mind, she wanted that as well. She wanted a man to show her some attention and shower her with compliments before whisking her away to a world of pleasure. She wanted that instant connection without the messy confines of having to build a relationship with someone.
The more time she spent with him, the more Eris’s words echoed off the walls of her mind.
And it didn’t help that his broad smile was addictive.
Ash didn’t hesitate to settle their bill, not allowing her to see the final tally. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but she shrugged it off. It couldn’t have been much given the kind of job he had, so she let it slide as she stood from her seat.
“Care to take a walk?” Ash asked.
He held his hand out for her again, but this time she didn’t hesitate to take it.
“I think that sounds nice,” Kallie said.
Then the two of them headed out from the restaurant.
Instead of walking back to his car, they crossed the road. Ash led her through the traffic and onto the other side, then the two of them scurried down an embankment. The grass quickly turned to sand as they made their way through the brush, her fingers laced tightly with his. She wanted to ask him where they were going, but he seemed too excited to stop. His legs were carrying him faster and faster and she was running in a feeble attempt to keep up with him.
She almost yanked her hand from him before they dumped out onto a private beach. Untainted by tourists and glistening underneath the rays of the sun.
Standing there with him as his thumb traced the top of her skin was oddly intimate. She felt close to him. Closer than she’d ever felt to James over the past year of their engagement. Kallie stood there against him, leaning closer into his strong frame, and soon he unlaced their fingers and slipped his arm around her waist.
She didn’t want to pull away from him.
She liked the way his body draped around hers.
“It’s beautiful,” Kallie said.
“It’s better with you here.”
“Have you always known about this place?”
“I found it a few days ago when a current swept me out to sea with my board.”
“Oh my gosh. Does that happen often?” she asked.
“Not really. But sometimes it does catch people off guard. That’s why surfers tether their boards to their ankles. If all else fails, it’s something they can float on until someone can come get them.”
Kallie squeezed tighter against him and felt Ash tighten his grip around her. The wind whipped around the small cove, rustling her hair and fluttering her beach dress. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to take in the moment. The closeness. The romantic intimacy of it all. She didn’t know when she would have another moment like this with any man, and she wanted to commit all of it to memory.
But her old ways came crashing to the forefront of her mind and she quickly pulled away.
Chapter 8
Ash
Ash was shocked at the quickness of her movements as she pulled away from him. Like she’d been shocked from a trance. He could tell she was about to back away from him again. Backtrack for the city and leave him in her wake. And he wasn’t ready for that. His plan wasn’t complete. He knew she wanted this, but she was fighting something, and he wanted to fight it with her. He wanted to peel back those layers and punch through those walls and plunge himself between those delectable thighs of hers.
“Come dancing with me,” Ash said.
He watched Kallie whip her head around to him before she furrowed her brow.
“What?” she asked.
“Come dancing with me tonight. It can be part of her surfing training.”
“How is dancing part of my training?” she asked.
“Part of learning how to surf is understanding how to move like the waves. Bob and weave like them. Undulate like them. If you go dancing and dig your toes into the sand, it throws you off balance. It helps you to practice all the things we worked on in the water today.”
“That seems like a bit of a stretch,” she said with a grin.
“And yet it’s got you smiling,” he said. “Come on. There’s a bonfire and there’ll be lots of music, drinks, and food. It’ll be a good time. I promise.”
She giggled and the sound filled Ash with a latent joy. He watched her mull the proposition over in her mind as her gaze turned back out toward the water. He wanted to know why she was so hesitant. Why she kept pulling away from him when it was so obvious she didn’t want to. Was it conditioning? The way she was raised? Did she have her heart broken recently? Or maybe a friend was pushing her? He wanted to know what made her tick. What made her journey out to St. Barts in search of
a vacation.
There was always something with every person, and he wanted to know what drove her to the island.
“I admire your inventiveness,” Kallie said.
“In your world, is that a yes or a no to tonight?” Ash asked.
“If you want to go dancing with me, why don’t you just say so?”
Her head panned back around to him and he saw a fleeting glimpse of pain in her eyes. He reached for her hand and to one of her fingers, slowly inching her back toward him. He laced his fingers with hers and studied the pain behind her eyes.
Heartbreak.
A broken heart had sent her to the island he loved so dearly.
“I want to go dancing with you,” Ash said. “I want to hold you close and look into your eyes and talk with you like I did at lunch. I want to watch you smile as I twirl you around and I want to feed you drinks until you’re stumbling with elation and joy. Can we do that, Pretty Kallie? Will you let me give that to you?”
He watched her eyes dance between his for what seemed like an eternity. There it was. The truth behind his playful ways. He wanted to spend time with her. To talk with her. To hold her close to his body. She felt too good in the water and that damn table at lunch had put too much distance between them.
He wanted her like he had her. With their fingers laced and his arm tightly adhered around her waist.
“I’ll meet you at the Cabana around eight?” Kallie asked.
“Then I’ll definitely see you there.”
Ash walked the two of them back to his car before he dropped her off on the side of the road. He watched her walk back to her villa and noted which one she was in. He sped back to his place so he could get ready for the night, and he was strangely nervous. As he put on a pair of board shorts and buttoned down his polo shirt, he found that his hands were shaking.
Sure, he’d had plenty of women in his life. Plenty of conquests and one-offs to warm his bed with. But he never made anything serious. A bit of flirting, a bit of sass. Possibly a meal or two. Or maybe some drinks. The women came flying out of their bikinis and he would be there to catch their naked bodies against his. He enjoyed the fleeting flings. The women in every place he went. They all had something new to give, and he wanted to explore the beauty of their bodies.
Like Italian women with their fluid tongue in bed. Or Australian women and their need for dominance. Or Hawaiian women and their thick asses that bounced luxuriously against his hips whenever he pounded into them from behind.
But never had he made things serious. Perhaps he was worried that women would target him for his money. For the trust fund he’d be able to live off of for the rest of his life. His parents had set one up for him to be released when he turned thirty, and right on his birthday, he packed up his shit and left. He grew tired of his family’s antics. Of the constant need to project their fortune onto those they found below them. His father was a stickler for tradition and his mother was never allowed to leave the house without being perfectly pinned up. It made him sick, and all because his father could trace their fucking lineage back to some bullshit European royalty.
He came from old money, and when old money talked, people listened.
Women especially.
As soon as they figured out who his family was, dollar signs appeared in their eyes. Always. Their charms and tunes changed, and suddenly they were throwing themselves at him. Willing to change anything and everything about themselves to garner a life of luxury for the rest of it.
But maybe Kallie was different.
She seemed different.
Maybe that was why he was so nervous.
He shrugged at himself in the mirror before smoothing out his shirt. It didn’t matter anyway. She was a good time, and in a couple of weeks she would be gone, and he would be on to his next adventure. Maybe he’d fly to the Maldives and see what they had to offer. Spend a few days in Bora Bora soaking up the waves. Or maybe he’d fly back to Hawaii and do some night surfing before burying himself into a toned, thick-thighed surfer with tits that overflowed her wet suit.
He went down to the Cabana and left his bungalow behind. Ash was a guest of the island in the more exclusive bungalow that sat away from everyone and everything else. Completely private with all of the amenities anything like that could offer. Jetted tubs. Walk-in, steam-mist showers. The perfect view of the sunset from his infinity pool and a hot tub he could infuse with essential oils to help him relax.
Not that anyone else had to know that, of course.
Ash preferred his beach bum disguise. One that made him perfect pickings for a fast and casual vacation romance. But never a man a woman would want to settle down with. That was the point. In his disguise and in his laid-back ways, no one would ever know his family owned half the fucking East Coast.
Which meant he could fuck with no-strings attached and get away without a woman becoming clingy to his wallet.
He walked up to the Cabana, but when he saw Kallie, his mouth went dry. She was dressed in a tight metallic gold dress that clung to every fucking curve her body had to offer. And his hands began to shake again. The halter-topped dress exposed the expanse of her back and her smooth skin glistened in the pale moonlight. She was in a pair of flip-flops with her hair billowing in the wind, causing the veins in his groin to throb.
Fuck.
She looked like a million damn bucks.
She turned to smile at him and he instantly found himself smitten. He grinned as he walked up to her, then offered his hand and gave her a small twirl. The toned muscles of her back twitched and his pelvis began to ache.
What he wouldn’t give to see her naked body riding his cock.
“Pretty Kallie, I think we’ve upgraded,” Ash said.
She giggled and shook her head as a smile slid across her face.
“To what?” she asked curiously.
“How about ... Elegant Kallie?”
“Doesn’t roll off the tongue like the other one does.”
“And we do like tongues, right?” he asked with a wink.
He loved watched that beautiful tint roll across her skin.
“So where’s this awesome bonfire you were talking about?” she asked.
“We could go to that. It’s there. Or...?”
“What are you about to get me into, Wild Child?”
Ash’s eyes widened at the nickname as Kallie threw her head back and laughed.
“If you have a nickname for me, then I have one for you,” she said.
“I like it. So, if I’m the wild child, then we’re definitely going to the other place.”
“And what other place is this?”
“You’ll see,” he said.
The club was hopping and the base was thumping. Women in bikinis and bikini tops were dancing on tables and swiveling their hips. Black lights illuminated the room and people were grinding against one another, and the bumping of the crowd kept pushing them together.
“Are they supposed to be the choppy waves of the ocean?” Kallie asked over the music.
“You could think of it like that, sure. In which case, I’ll need to help steady you on your board.”
Ash moved behind her and his hands fell to her hips. Her bare back was pressed against his shirt and he cursed himself for not unbuttoning it. Her body was hot against his and his hands swirled her hips, her thick ass rubbing up against his groin.
Her body was damn near making him hard.
The music was loud and her body was fluid. She moved with a grace that could only be attributed to the most wonderful of women. Her knees weren’t locked and her hands were in the air, and Ash found his lips pressed closely against her ear.
“The waves would have nothing on you,” he said.
Kallie giggled as she pressed her head closer to his lips.
His hand slid lower, grazing along her thigh. Her hands hooked around his neck and pulled him closer, and he took the cue in stride. He slipped his leg between her pliable thighs and felt her sit down
slightly onto it. The warmth from between her legs pulsed his cock, and his hands began to shake. Her pussy. Her wetness. It was right there, cradled against his skin. His hands ran up the curves of her waist and slid up her arms, his hands finding hers and lacing their fingers together.
The music transitioning into yet another song as Ash wrapped his arms around Kallie. Their fingers threaded and her arms crossed over her body as her cleavage spilled from her dress. His lips graced the shell of her ear again and he felt her shiver. Giving into the want that was coursing through her veins.
“Pretty Kallie,” he said into her ear. “You are a wonderful dance partner.”
She smiled and the innocence behind it pulled him in. He wanted to feel her naked skin against his. Next to his in bed. He wanted to spend the night plunging in and out of her body, watching her writhe with pleasure underneath him. He wanted to know what she tasted like. What she felt like. How she moved and undulated against him as his cock sank into her. He wanted to feel all of these things with her, but there was something else.
Something he’d never experienced before.
He wanted to take up to her.
And that took him by complete surprise.
Chapter 9
Kallie
It felt good.
Better than good.
She felt exhilarated. Free. Beautiful in all the right ways. Her hips were grinding against Ash and his leg was thrust between hers. The tendrils of his mahogany hair felt so good laced between her fingers. His nose danced along the shell of her ear as he whispered compliments in between the changing of songs.
She couldn't remember a time where she’d felt this alive.
Kallie was glad she went out. Ash was charming, funny, and a wonderful dancer. His hands commanded her hips without controlling them, and every once in a while, his fingertips would brush against her skin. She found herself wanting him to open his shirt. Wanting to feel the strength of his lean chest against her back. She was entranced by this man who seemed to be good at whatever he put his hands on.
