by K. L. Jessop
“Megan?”
I freeze. My blood runs cold at the voice behind me. Tingles run up my spine and spread over my head. It’s not him. It can’t be him. I start to walk on, but he calls me again.
“Megan, wait.”
Why is he here?
My palms start to sweat. I’ve not heard my name on his lips in so long.
Just breathe.
“Turn around… please.”
I slowly turn my trembling body; my heart is pounding to the point that it feels as though it’s going to explode. My stomach is nauseas and I’m struggling to hold it together.
When I latch on to his emerald greens, the impact of seeing him again rips the air from my lungs as my legs buckle. Catching me as I fall, he pulls me against his chest. He smells like summer flowers and the ocean. He smells like home.
“I’ve got you,” he says. His voice is gentle but his grip seems so powerful as I rest my head against his hard chest. “What are you doing here?” he asks.
I don’t want to move. I’m lost in the feel of him. “I could ask you the same.”
“I’ve just got back from seeing Rosa.”
I’m confused. That doesn’t explain why he’s here. “I heard you took the train.”
He pulls back slightly and lifts my chin. I keep my eyes closed. “I got an early flight back.”
So he wasn’t here for me. That little bit of hope turns to ash. My body trembles in his arms with the pressure of his against it. His warm breath beats against my face and if this is some fucked up dream, it’s not funny.
“Open your eyes, Megan,” he murmurs, brushing away the tear that falls.
My voice quakes. “I… I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because seeing you will hurt more than it already does. I’m finding it difficult to be in your arms. If I find your eyes once more, I’m likely to break.”
“I don’t want you to break you anymore than you already are.” His words have an edge of vulnerability. “But I need you to open your eyes. I need to see you.”
I finally open my eyes and the deep ache in my stomach is a mixture of pain and butterflies. He looks tired but just as beautiful. For a moment, being in his arms it’s as though nothing’s changed. Then my emotions hit me, only to my surprise it’s not relief, it’s rage.
What is this?
Everything that has happened and everything he’s made me feel these past few weeks bubbles inside and burns to the surface. I push on his chest causing his to step back as anger leaves me.
“I should be on a plane right now flying to out of here to try and forget you because you’ve broken my heart, but instead, I find myself having a conversation in the toilet with a random stranger about not knowing what’s the right thing to do. You’re like this beautiful disease in my heart that I can’t fucking get rid of and I hate you for that.”
He stays silent and it infuriates me more as my tears start to fall. “You’ve made me so weak it sickens me. I don’t even know who I am anymore, but what I do know is that I believe I know you better than you know yourself, and I also believe you’re running because you’re so wrapped up with your past you’re afraid to let yourself love. So if I’m wrong, I need you to tell me so I can work out the mess that has become my life. I need you to tell me you don’t want me.”
“I can’t do that.”
“You have to!”
“I can’t, Megan. I can’t say—”
“SAY IT!” I yell.
In two strides, I’m in his arm as his lips take mine, kissing me long and deep as he steels my breath. My legs once again weaken and he holds me up. I’m lost. The tantalizing touch of his tongue dancing with mine sends my body into hot and cold tingles. My fingers lace his hair as we fall into a world of just us while the noise of the airport swirls around us. This is no dream: it’s reality.
I pray to god it means something I’m longing it to be.
“Andrew…” I whisper at our disconnection.
He takes my jaw in his hands. “I can’t say you’re wrong because you’re not, I can’t say I don’t want you because I do and I can’t tell you to leave because I don’t want you to.”
My heart is pounding. I’m breathless.
“I should never have let you walk out of that door, Megan.”
“Why?”
“Because I love you.”
My heart stops. Warmth fills my stomach taking away the nausea as I stare back at him speechless. All this time I’ve longed to hear the words, the words so precious to my heart. “You love me?” I whisper.
“So much. I just panicked with everything that happened and because I was struggling with my feelings. I love you and I pushed you away because I thought I was doing right by you. Only now I see how wrong I was because I’ve put us both through all this hurt. Please forgive me.”
He doesn’t have to ask. I forgive this man so easily I can’t even control it. Maybe it’s because I know of his struggle when it comes to love. “I’ve never felt for anyone what I feel for you, Andrew. I honestly thought I was doing the right thing.”
“I know,” he whispers, brushing the tears from my cheek.
“I want to fight your wars with you.”
“At the time, I thought it was the worst move you’d made because you brought her into our world and I feared she change us. Only now I thank you, because it’s made me realise what I want and that’s you. I’m not going to let her take anything else from me. I love you, Megan. I love you so much it hurts.”
“I love you too.”
I kiss him.
Andrew loves me.
Andrew loves me!
That dark cloud shifts, taking the heaviness from my body. I’m lifted around his waist and the feel of him all around me drives me crazy. I’ve missed him so much. If only he’d have told me then neither of us would have had to go through all this agony.
Isn’t it funny how people make you stop and think about life? If that old lady hadn’t said what she did in the bathroom, I’d more than likely have got on that plane and jetted off to France not realising Andrew was just around the corner. So, I guess things are meant to happen for a reason, right? There is a reason why this all started six months previous with a steamy drunken kiss. There is a reason why he pulled me apart and found me again, and there is a reason why I’m here now, a hot mess and ready to go home. That reason is him, because without our whirlwind romance I wouldn’t have known what it feels like to love someone as hard as I do Andrew, and for that I thank him.
“Let’s go home and have lots of makeup sex,” he whispers.
I pull back to look at him as he starts to carry me out. “But I have a plane to catch.”
“Like fuck you do” He grins.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Andrew
“Oh, my God, Andrew, this is gorgeous.” Megan gasps as we stand at the top of Robertson field looking down at the carpet of red, the large poppy field in the countryside I’ve wanted to bring her to for a while. It’s been six weeks since I saw her at the airport. All I can say is thank fuck I came home when I did, otherwise I would have had to chase her around the world, and I would have. Because we’d been too busy exchanging our declarations of love, it meant her luggage flew out with the flight to London. Rosa thankfully sorted it out and happily brought it back. I think she liked the excuse to return to the bay for a long weekend. Things have been a lot better since we got back together. For starters, Lucas no longer wants to kill me, Megan is eating properly again and I have cut all ties with my mother, not that there were any to cut in terms of business or inheritance, but I’m no longer wanting to hear from her.
For the time being, we’re living in Megan’s house as mine is up for sale. Both of us wanting that fresh start, we decided it was filled with too many ghosts. It’s surprising how different a house can make you feel, and it was soon pointed out by Megan just how fucking awful the décor was. My life is brighter now and it’s only thanks to the beautiful woman st
anding beside me.
“Shall we go down and take a walk?” she asks.
“Not yet. I’ve got something else to show you first.” Getting back in the car we drive another ten minutes down the road and turn down a little country lane. It seems to go on forever until we eventually come to a small wooden cabin and a lake surrounded in tall fir trees.
“What do you think?” I ask as I help Megan out of the car.
“It’s beautiful. How did you find this place? It’s locked away from the world.” Her head looks up to the clouds. “And it’s so quiet.”
It is quiet. I’ve learned the difference now between what is normal quiet and what’s borderline insane. “It’s beautiful isn’t it? I saw it on Marcus’s laptop and knew I had to check it out. So, I did.”
“You’ve been here before?” her brows line.
“I came by with Marcus to take a look.” I snake my arm around her waist and hold up the key in front of her. “I bought it.”
“You bought it?” her eyes are wide. “As in?”
“As in it’s ours. I bought it for us to escape to whenever you want.”
She gets excited and starts hoping from one foot to the other. “So, this is all ours?
“It sure is, and we can do whatever you want.”
Her grin turns wicked. “Well in that case lets go get dirty.”
The inside of the house has a modern, country style with wooden flooring and an open fire, large sofas with throw blankets over the top and a small bar area to the right of the room. Megan makes herself at home by singing and dancing her away around the place as I unpack the food we brought with us.
“You do realise if we’re staying here, we have no spare clothes?” Megan shouts from the master bedroom that holds a four-poster bed. I can’t wait to get her hot and naked in that thing.
“Baby, with what I’ve got planned, we won’t be needing clothes.”
She comes back to me, wrapping her arms around my neck with that dreamy look in her eyes that I’ll never get tired of. “What do you have in mind, Mr Harris?”
“Get naked. I want you in that lake in five minutes.”
“I’ll meet you there in two.”
The outside is designed in decking with a long wooden pier just off the side of the lake. Birds of all different sounds tweet and sing in the trees as I wait for Megan to come out. It’s a little after dusk and the light from the cabin glows across the water. This is our place—a place where we can talk for hours under the moonlight before making love in front of a campfire.
“The last one in provides the first orgasm,” she shrieks, running past me and heading down the wooden pier completely naked before jumping into the water with a squeal. My laugh echoes around as I head on down to meet her. She’s crazy. I’ve done nothing but laugh since I’ve had her in my arms again. I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed it.
“How many more times? No matter who wins, I’ll always deliver the first orgasm.”
“Well whatever, but you’re a little over dressed.”
I strip off my clothes and before I have a chance to move she pulls on my legs. I enter the water with a splash as her giggle fills the space between us. Shaking the excess water off my hair, I start flicking water at her, skimming it in her face so she screams and turns away from me as I cover her hair and shoulders. Escaping from my water bomb, she dives under the water leaving me waiting for her to pop back up. She doesn’t.
“Hey, gorgeous. What are you doing over there all alone?” she shouts. I turn behind me, relieved to find her over near the ladder that’s at the end of the decking.
“Fuck you swim fast.”
I swim over to her; our eyes never leave each other’s and the closer I get, the more I want to feel her everywhere.
“Hi,” she whispers. She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me closer, our breaths beating against each other as we float in the cool water.
“Do you come here often?” I ask.
“No, but I’m likely to come here more as the view is spectacular.”
I raise my eyebrows and grin. “Oh, really?”
“Yeah. I mean just look at how gorgeous those trees are.”
She squeals when I jab my finger in her waist. “Tease.”
Her eyes stand out against the evening sky, turning the ice-blue to a smoky grey. Her face is makeup free and her lips are pink. She’s the most beautiful woman and she’s all mine.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“What for?”
“For making me happy.”
“I aim to please,” I tease.
A soft smile tugs her lips before I press mine on them. Teasing her sweet flavours as my hands grip her body, I pull on her bottom lip.
“How about we rethink our ‘sea sex’ to sex in a lake?” I whisper, moving my hand between her thighs. She hums softly and her eyes fall heavy.
“I like your way of thinking, Mr Harris. ‘Lake sex’ sound’s way more promising. I’m likely to stay in the water for starters.”
I push her back against the wooden ladder as her legs come around my waist, moving her hands above her to hold the step for support. I lick the water droplets on her neck, sucking her skin as she rocks against my thumb that’s on her clit, matching my thrust with my fingers that are inside her.
“You drive me wild, Andrew,” she gasps.
I love that I can get her this drunk on just my touch. I’m not even inside her yet and she’s blowing my mind. “That’s my girl,” I say as she tightens around my fingers. She kisses my neck, roughly lacing her fingers through my hair and tugging my head back so I groan.
“I need you to fuck me good,” she says, biting my earlobe.
I swirl my tongue over her hard nipple, sucking it in a wet kiss as her back arches, raising her chest up into my mouth as she moans. My dick is hard and is screaming for its release, but I wait, teasing her body a little more in the way I love and dragging my lips across her skin. The first thing I love to do with Megan is let her know just how much I adore her and her body, worshiping her with my touch so she feels so damn good it takes her a while to come back to earth. Being with her gives me a purpose for living: she is my everything, my world.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Megan,” I says as I push into her, filling her with my hardness as her hot muscles hug my dick. “And you’re all mine.”
“I’m yours. I’ll always be yours,” she moans.
I grip her hips and step back, pulling her body so her arms are outstretched on the wooden step of the ladder. Her tanned body is exposed, practically floating in the water as her stomach convulses with a result of her breathless anticipation. I’m yet to fuck her, but I know just by being inside her it’s sending her insane.
“Do you think you can hold on?” I ask.
“I’ll try. Just don’t let me go.”
“I’ll never let you go.”
I kiss a path from her breastbone up to her lips, and once I take her in my mouth I rock my hips, triggering her to moan into me. Her eyes lock with mine as I thrust into her, causing the water to flap around us and hitting the spot that has her falling apart at the seams.
Her soft breasts bounce with our rhythm and her head falls back into the water, letting her hair float around the side of her face as her lips part. Her knuckles are white with her grip against the wood and her legs entwine tighter around me to keep her in place.
“Andrew. Oh God, Andrew.”
Her raspy voice trails into the twilight sky and the low cabin lights reflects off her hair like an angel’s. Fuck, I’ve never felt so lucky. Her arms push against the ladder, sending me so deep inside her I growl. She contracts around my dick, crying my name, as her orgasm is hot around me. I’m a goner, filling her with my climax as the world spins. Sex with Megan only gets better. She has the ability to take me to another world that I often don’t want to come back from. Losing myself in her is breathtaking, losing myself with her in sex is something extraordinary. Her unsteady arms e
nvelop around my neck as her breath pants against my ear, holding me so tight as though she’ll falter any moment.
“That was way better than ‘sea sex’,” she gasps, biting the tender skin just under my jaw.
I laugh. “How do you know? We’ve never got around to having ‘sea sex’.”
“And after that performance, I never want to.” She grins, kissing me softly as I turn us in the water.
“I love you,” she whispers. “I love you so much.”
And she’s not stopped telling me. When she looks at me, she creates a powerful feeling inside that no one ever could. It’s as though she feels the depth of who I am just by looking into my eyes. She steels my breath yet helps me breathe all at the same time. I never want that to stop.
Not a day goes by where I don’t thank my lucky stars for having Megan, the sassy, crazy girl that once annoyed the absolute shit out of me. She’s calmed me. She is my light, my life and my love. She’s made me believe again, and I’ve finally become the man I’ve fought to be for years. At the start of my life, when just a small boy, I was made to feel unloved and worthless, and after a troublesome childhood and a marriage that ended in tragedy, I’ve realised that by having Megan that so many things are worth fighting for. I love her unconditionally, but most of all, I’ll be forever thankful to her for the rest of my life, because not only has Megan blown my world apart in all the right ways, she’s made me realise that I am worthy of more than what I’ve given myself credit for, and that no matter what, I can love and be loved in return.
“I love you too.”
Epilogue
Megan
Ten Months Later
It’s late Spring as I sit with Marcus and my brother and watch Andrew talking to Amelia down by the shore. Both of them are laughing over something, but whatever it is causes Andrew to wrap his arm around her waist and kiss her cheek.
“Hey, Andrew,” Marcus shouts. “Raise your hand a little higher please when hugging my fiancée, that ass belongs to me.”
We all laugh, and Andrew just grins back at him. There’s a small group of us gathered on Marcus’s beach. Marbles Cove is perfect for having the beach life but privacy from the public that inhabit the town. We’ve been here all day and the sunset is currently filling the sky with a deep orange.
