Captive: a Paranormal Romance
Page 13
“How much later?” I replied, raising my brows at him and puckering my lips. “When do you get to break out of here?”
“Not long...” he muttered, looking around at the various machines they had hooked him up to. “They'll come in soon, and be shocked at my levels. Then they'll come back in an hour and be flabbergasted. Doctor Garcia knows what to look for. He said I can likely be dismissed by dinner, if there aren't any complications. Some seafood on the shore then a stroll on the sand?”
“You're really eating this up with a spoon, aren't you?” I laughed.
“I couldn’t imagine any way I'd rather spend my time,” he murmured. “I'm going to squeeze every last bit out of Cartegena, and my first trip out of that house, as I possibly can. And I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else but you.”
The water was crisp and refreshing, but cooler than I expected. The roller coaster of a day played over and over in my head as we walked along the shore, holding hands. I watched my toes as they brushed through and sunk into the dark, wet sand.
Casey had been right about how quickly he'd be dismissed from the medical center. Doctor Garcia had done a quick ultrasound to check for abnormal clotting—his major concern for complications from Casey's rapid healing. But when that had looked normal, Doctor Garcia cleared him for dismissal. After the necessary paperwork and getting Casey unhooked from all the machines and dressed, we left, only about two and a half hours after the procedure.
We stopped at a restaurant along the beach and sat on the thatch-roofed patio and decided to be adventurous and try some of the traditional Colombian fare. We shared shrimp ceviche and tasty patacones—little fried patties made from plantains and served with a variety of salsas—and sipped mojitos as the sun sunk into the glimmering ocean horizon with an impressive display of pinks, golds, and oranges. For entrees, Casey chose a dish called Escabeche de Pescado, or “marinated fish”, and I tried the waiter's suggestion of the restaurant's empanada sampler.
Feeling completely full by the time we were finished, we walked the beach back to our hotel, which went a long way to helping settle the large, satisfying meal I had consumed. Once back in the room, Casey ordered a bottle of champagne from room service.
“How much is that in US dollars?” I asked as I snatched the room service menu from him after he hung up the phone.
“Um, about two hundred and fifty?” he guessed with a shrug.
“Two hundred and fifty dollars for a bottle of champagne?!” I squawked.
“You're worth it,” Casey murmured, running his hands along my forearms.
He sat on the edge of the bed and I stood in front of him, still staring in disbelief at the room service menu. “Maybe, but the champagne certainly isn't,” I retorted. Casey laughed.
“I just want this night to be special,” he said, pulling me in closer so I was standing in between his legs. “Tomorrow morning, we are going to leave here, and...we're going to have a long road ahead. I wanted to spoil you. And to thank you. I couldn't have done any of this without you. You rescued me, Alex.”
He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed my bare stomach, sending flutters across my entire upper body.
“I don't think I can ever repay you,” he whispered, his stony lips brushing against the soft skin of my abdomen. “But I'm going to try.”
He pulled me into his lap, slowly and gently. Wrapping me completely in his arms, he stared deeply into my eyes. His full, perfect lips parted slightly and my own lips were drawn to them, lowering toward him instinctively. When our lips met, there wasn't the immediate surge of lust and urgency that had overtaken us before. Our kiss, our caress, stayed slow, tender, full of affection and emotion. The flames of passion still burned in my chest and my core, but we kept on in the sensual, drawn-out, delicate tempo.
He laid back on the bed behind him, and my body moved with his, draping completely over him. His thin t-shirt allowed my mostly bare, bikini-clad skin to feel every ripple and ridge of his firm, brawny chest. His strong arms stayed wrapped around me, tightening and tightening, pulling our bodies as close together as he possibly could.
In a tantalizingly slow motion, he pulled loose the knots of the bikini top and let them fall, then slid the skimpy, orchid-patterned triangles out from between us, leaving my breasts bare. He took a hand to one, caressing the supple flesh in a soft yet steady massage that made me immediately tender and aching under his touch.
“Casey...” I sighed, unable to keep his name from escaping my lips. He moaned in response, and his attention shifted to the knot on my coverup skirt, which he untied and pulled away from my body, giving him access to remove the bottom of my bikini.
I easily slipped his thin t-shirt over his head, then loosened the ties of his tropical swim trunks and pushed them down to his knees, where he shimmied them the rest of the way off with his feet. He was ready and waiting, as he had been that morning in the shower, and seeing him in full glory again drove me wild with desire that threatened to break our smooth, gentle rhythm and send me into frantic need.
As if sensing my sudden onslaught of arousal, he slowly, gently lifted my hips and positioned himself underneath me, then entered me in an agonizingly gradual glide. I gasped as he settled his full length inside me and stayed there, wrapping his arms around my back in a caring, tender embrace. His lips found mine after my gasp and secured me in a soft, loving kiss.
Everything about this was different. In fact, it reminded me of our first time together, when we were just eighteen. We were slow then because we were scared and inexperienced, but there was a depth of emotion and affection when we were young and thought we loved each other that I hadn't felt since that night—until now.
We made love—unhurried, tender, deeply passionate love—for hours, until the white crystal moon was high over the shimmering water in the navy night sky and a chilled sea breeze crept in through our window. Room service had come by and knocked on the door at some point, with the over-priced champagne, but we never got out of bed to answer or retrieve it.
Under the luxurious white sheets of the bed, we held each other, skin-to-skin, and as I listened to his breath and his heart beat, I realized I had never felt this close to anyone before.
“Where do you want to go after we pick up Carly?” he whispered, his lips rustling in my tussled espresso hair.
“Hm...London?” I teased.
He laughed out loud, then let out a mock howl. “Aaaaoooo! Werewolves of London.”
I giggled, then sighed, pulling him in as tightly as I could. “What if we just come back here?” I purred into his chest.
“Mmm, I could live with that,” he murmured. “But...”
“But what?”
“Well, I was thinking...maybe you could go back to school.”
“Oh, shit,” I cursed, loosening my hold on him a bit so I could pull back and look at his face. “I forgot to call the program director and withdraw from my classes this quarter.”
“No, no,” Casey shook his head. “Not dental hygiene.”
“What then?” I asked, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
“What you were going to do, before you got pregnant and had Carly,” he said, brushing at my hair tenderly.
“I was going to go to Cal State for my English degree, on that poetry scholarship, remember? And—” I cut off as I finally realized what he was saying. “If I went to a University now, for English...that would be a four year program. Five or more if I got my Masters so I could teach.”
“I know,” he said with a wide smile. “You're rich, remember?” he added with a wink. “You should do what you want. Follow your dream.”
I took a deep breath to try and collect my thoughts. “I...I don't know if that's still my dream. I just—when I realized I couldn't go I think I shoved it down so far and made myself forget about it.”
“Well, no rush, anyway,” he murmured, caressing my bare shoulder under his thumb. “It's March, so you'd be enrolling for Fall semester if you did decid
e to go that route. But...think about it. I can do my job from wherever. I told them I was having brain surgery, so they gave my three weeks of leave.”
He shrugged his eyebrows and grinned a knavish grin and we both broke into a fit of laughter.
“Little do they know you only needed half a day,” I chuckled.
“They were very concerned,” he laughed. “But, with the savings we have from the Howler app sale, and my regular income—hell, we could probably afford to live wherever we want and bring Ariel with us to help with Carly.”
I nuzzled back into his chest and squeezed him tight. “I like the sound of that. All of us together again.”
“Mmm, me too,” he said. “Our little family.”
My heart filled with love and contentment, until it was so full as I lay in Casey arms in the beautiful beachside room that it felt like it might burst. We fell asleep in each other's arms, and my last thoughts before drifting off were of our new life together, wherever we were going after we picked up Carly in Nashville, and how utterly happy we would be.
A note from the author
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the book and fell in love with characters as much as I did!
Please consider leaving a review, as it is an invaluable feedback tool for both readers and authors alike.
I'd also like to invite you to visit my website, www.authormarisol.com. There is information about my other books, news about upcoming titles, giveaways, and opportunities to get free copies! Again, thank you for your support and I wish you happy reading always!
Connect with me on Facebook
and at
www.authormarisol.com
Books by Marisol Logan
THE ELEMENTALS SERIES
BOOK I-Lord and Servant
BOOK II-The Second Talisman
BOOK III-The Twin Dragons
BOOK IV-Daughter of the Diamond (April 2017)
BOOK V-Queen of the Earth (May 2017)
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
Captive
SHORT STORIES
Hometown Hero