by Tia Siren
“It’s okay. My brother was ten, so he remembers more about her than I do. He talks about Mom sometimes.”
She found it odd that he didn’t mention his dad talking about her, and she couldn’t help feeling even more compassion for him in that moment.
They kept walking as the tide ebbed and flowed. Her feet got wet, and she stopped for a moment to take off her sandals. They’d wandered far from the resort already and were putting more and more distance between themselves and it with every passing moment.
“Hey, where are your friends?” Gray asked suddenly.
“Oh, they decided to go to Miami to hang out with some people they met.” She didn’t say too much, as she didn’t want to give anything away. As far as she knew he had no idea who she really was, and she wanted to keep it that way. She never could tell if people liked her for her or if they only tolerated her because of who her father was.
“Hmm. It was pretty shitty of them to just ditch you like that.”
“No, they invited me but I didn’t want to go. I don’t really party like they do, and they don’t really like the same stuff I like. We went to school together all our lives. That’s the only reason we’re friends. I mean, I think if we had just met each other randomly somewhere else, we probably wouldn’t be friends at all.” Riley gulped, a bit surprised at herself, as she’d never admitted that bitter truth to anyone before, as true as it was. She did not have any real friends, people to hang out with simply because she liked them. Like everything else in her life, her friends were just part of the plan. “To be honest, my folks really want me to stop hanging out with them. They’ve always been a little wild, but they’ve gotten really crazy over the last year.”
“Legal drinking age, huh?”
Yes, and they also came into massive trust funds, she thought, but she only nodded and answered, “Pretty much.”
“My friends changed a lot after I went away to college. Before I went I knew lots of guys here, but when I came back in the summer I had to work a lot, and all those guys were either busy at college or doing whatever people who don’t go to college do—you know, working and getting married and all.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Getting married? Seems too young to me.”
Gray flashed that sexy smile at her. “I know. Me, too. I figure that before I commit my whole life to someone, I need to know for sure that she’s the one I want to stay with forever. Plus, it’d be nice to have enough money to make sure we can live comfortably.”
She wasn’t sure if Gray was actually a chauvinist or if he was just a nice guy, a gentleman who wanted to do well by a woman he loved. She decided to go with the latter but asked, “You don’t think your wife could help with that?”
“I hope so. I like independent women. I really do. I just can’t stand it when men take advantage of girls like that and expect them to pay for everything. It’s a partnership, the way I see it.”
Riley smiled, glad he wasn’t a chauvinist at all. “Yeah, I hate that too. I don’t mind to pay my share, and when I do get into a relationship I want it to be…equitable, with both of us working toward the same goals.”
“You mean like a house and all that?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Good. I mean, no offense, but I don’t see how two people could live in a tiny studio. I haven’t been to New York, but if the studios there are like the studios here it seems like it would be too cramped.”
She giggled, happy he remembered she wanted a studio apartment and that he was teasing her. “Well, I don’t see myself getting married for a long time, and when I do… Well, by then I’ll probably have outgrown that place anyway.”
She wondered if that was true, and that question nagged at her as they reached the long stretch of the pier and turned around to head back toward the resort. There was nobody else on the sand, and for just a moment she felt the joyous sensation that it was theirs, all theirs, that they owned the entire beach and the whole wonderful display of stars, moon, waves, and hissing sand. It felt like it all belonged to them, that it had been created just for them. It was such a delicious thought. The whole world seemed like a romantic backdrop for whatever was happening between them. Riley didn’t know what that was, but she knew Gray was back to being the guy she had met the night before, and she liked that guy a whole lot.
“What about you? Where do you want to live?” Riley asked.
His eyes went toward the resort, illuminated and standing tall against the night sky. “Anywhere but there,” he said.
She sighed. “I can see that. So they give you a room as part of your pay?”
He said nothing and just shuffled his feet in the sand, looking uncomfortable.
“Sorry,” she said, realizing she’d crossed a line. “I didn’t mean to… Oh, shit, that sounded awful, like I’m digging into your earning potential or something.”
He chuckled and shrugged. “So why here? I mean, why did you choose to vacation here?” He purposely changed the topic and she suddenly wasn’t sure how to answer.
Her feet stilled, and his did, too. Riley grappled for words. “I came here because I figured it’s a great place to have an adventure. So far, though, I haven’t seemed to be able to… Well, I guess it’s my fault really. I mean, in real life I’m just so busy with school and family and everything else that I never really learned to have fun. I was hoping I might find out what I really like, but I haven’t managed to get past all that other stuff. I’m all worried about what’s gonna happen when this vacation is over, and that’s keeping me from enjoying anything. It’s like I’m stuck or something. We’ve never been to this place before, so I wanted to try something different. Now that Megan and Lorna are gone, I’m really on my own. I guess that’s pretty exciting, but it’s new to me. I just… Gosh, I’m babbling, huh? Sorry.”
“So you’re pretty sheltered back home, huh?” Gray asked.
“More like…cloistered.”
They started walking again. With every step she took, Riley knew she wanted him. If there was an adventure to be had, it would be with Gray. More than anything else, she wanted him and whatever would come from that.
When they reached the resort and climbed the low boardwalk steps, he offered, “I’ll walk you to your room.”
She knew she should say no, since he could likely get in trouble for fraternizing. She knew he knew it, too, and the fact that he was willing to risk it made her heart pound hard and fast. “Okay.”
They boarded the elevator, and the doors closed with a soft clatter. As the steel box rode upward, their bodies touched and bumped into one another and more squiggles of sexual tension raced across her flesh. When the door opened to a long interior hallway, she led the way down to her room.
“This is me,” Riley said, pausing in front of her door. Her mouth was dry and her nipples stiff and aching. Juices filled her panties and flowed into the fabric, making it sticky and damp. She took a deep breath and found her courage. “Would you like to come in?”
Gray nodded. “I would, Riley, but, uh… I’ve gotta tell you—”
“Tell me later, okay?” she interrupted, her eyes pleading for understanding. Whatever it was, it could wait. It had to wait. She could not stand it to be any other way just then; she knew her tiny mustard seed of courage would evaporate like dew if she did not go through with it right then and there. Her brain would analyze every little thing, and she would drown in her own insecurities and ask him to go if he waited even a moment longer.
After they stepped inside the room, Riley softly closed the door behind her.
Gray turned to face her, and in an instant she was in his arms, his mouth planted firmly on hers. His body pressed against hers, and she felt the prodding of his dick against her lower belly. Gray let his hands wander up her legs, stroking and caressing the soft flesh of her inner thighs. He grabbed her hair and tugged it, his lips grazing over her neck and ear. She moaned at the delicious touch and gasped for breath. In the next moment he was guiding her face ba
ck to his. His tongue met hers, thrust around it, and wrapped it in a slippery, wet embrace before pulling away again. When his tongue returned it took her senses along for the ride, wetting her everywhere and making her insides ache with desire.
His lips left her mouth and grazed her neck again. Shivers shot down her spine and she clawed at his back, sliding her fingers under his shirt to touch his bare skin. He was all heat and muscle, soft skin and flexing bones. Her legs spread wider, her ass jerking and thrusting as she humped at his lower body, desperate to impale herself on his stiff member. It reminded her of the girl at the tiki hut today, but she didn’t care.
Gray growled something into her hair and captured her mouth again, his tongue demanding hers. She arched her back, and her breasts flattened against his chest. They walked, still completely entangled, to the bedroom. Gray dropped her on the mattress and he followed her down with a low growl. He shrugged out of his clothes, shucking them so quickly that she had little time to appreciate his body as it came into view.
Her nipples rubbed against the fabric of her dress and his warm body. They ached for his touch, for the feel of his tongue on their hard, pebbled surfaces. She wanted to feel his mouth there, to feel his fingers twisting and tweaking them.
The dress finally lifted over her head, exposing her skin to his gaze. His pupils dilated as if he’d just caught a whiff of some potent drug. Then, as if he could read the wishes wafting through her mind, his teeth teased her nipples, biting down and pulling. She cried out as her legs instinctively bolted up in the air and her hands clutched desperately at his chest.
His fingers stroked her panties, rubbing against her center as her aroused clit throbbed, moving her toward climax. He continued to torture her with experienced motions and touched her wetness. He pinched her labia together, making her clit throb in anguished need.
“Please…” she whispered. “Please, fuck me.”
Gray muttered, “I have a condom in my shorts.” He levered himself off her for a moment and reached around on the floor. He hooked the shorts with a single finger and dropped them on the bed. He thrust a hand into a pocket and came up with a wallet. He opened it, and found a condom before tossing the wallet to the dresser and tearing the wrapper open.
Riley whimpered, digging her heels into the mattress as he unrolled the condom along his thick, throbbing erection. She’d never wanted anything so bad. Gray seemed just as eager. He ripped her panties off, yanking them down without any pretense of wanting to go slow. He thrust inside her, not bothering to be gentle. Their mouths collided again as he withdrew, then entered her again, driving hard and fast within her. Her slippery walls closed and opened, and her breath rasped in and out just as quickly. His cock sank deeper, bringing both of them to the brink once more.
His hard member rubbed against her wet, swollen lips as he teased her, holding himself just outside her body for a long moment.
Riley groaned, thrusting against him harder and faster, using her own body to mime what she wanted him to do to her. She wanted him to do it, to fill her with his throbbing, thick erection. She wanted to feel him in there, stretching her.
When he began to enter her, she sucked in a deep breath and clutched his arms with her nails, tearing away flesh in long scratches that he seemed too excited to even feel.
He thrust hard and fast inside her, his hand slipping down to tease her clit, taking her over the edge and into a world she could not control.
She rode the waves of her orgasm; every thrust inside her took her back to the quivering, shuddering climax she had experienced in the beginning. Her words were lost in an inarticulate cry, and her hips lifted higher, giving him a better angle of penetration.
“Oh, fuck, you feel so good,” he whispered as his dick began to throb and pulse, deeply buried within her tight, slick tunnel.
His fingers furiously worked her clit as his cock remained inside her and his nasty words filled her ear, sexy endearments that made her quiver and throb, taking her over the edge again.
The aftershocks were equally intense and mind-blowing. Riley couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t care. Gray’s body drove hers back into the bed, pressing her deeper into the mattress. Her inner thighs were stretched and aching, but she didn’t mind in the least; it was all part of the adventure.
Riley was rendered speechless, with her eyelids stuck at half-mast and her body still tingling and pulsing. Her pussy ached in a pleasant way, and her toes kept curling as Gray lay beside her, his chest heaving with exertion.
They lay there, lost in the moment, Riley thinking that had been the best adventure ever.
When her stomach growled, she slapped a hand to her taut midriff, utterly embarrassed. “Oh!” she squealed.
Gray laughed. “It’s okay. I was just about to say I’m starving.”
“I had half a salad for dinner,” Riley admitted, shifting so she could look into his eyes. “My offer of dinner still stands, by the way…and I insist on paying this time.” She didn’t want to be insulting or push the independent woman issue, but she knew he could not be making much at his summer job, and he didn’t seem to have any solid plans for working after the summer. She knew tourist towns like that one often folded after the season was over, and if the jobs dried up the income had to dry up as well. She didn’t want him spending his hard-earned money to feed her again.
“I can afford dinner,” Gray said.
“I’m sure you can, but I’m independent, remember? You paid last night, so it’s my turn. It’s only fair.”
He paused.
His hesitation made her nervous. She wasn’t sure if he was going to turn her down or not. Does he have something—or someone—else to do? she worried. The jealousy he unearthed in her bothered Riley, as she wasn’t used to such a strong emotion and had no idea how to handle it.
“Deal,” Gray finally said.
As they climbed out of bed, Riley expected to feel awkward and embarrassed, but Gray seemed so totally natural that she relaxed and just went with it, something she never did. They chatted a little while they dressed. Gray told her he was off the next day, and that made her smile.
They wandered across the street, which was still as busy as ever, toward a small seafood restaurant.
“Do you like boats?”
“Um, define like.”
His laugh was infectious. “I mean, do you like them enough to go out on one with me tomorrow?”
Her heart skipped at the thought that he wanted to spend his day off with her. Of course, it sank when she also realized that the next day was her last full day of vacation. “I should warn you. I love to swim, and I love the ocean, but I have a huge, almost pathological fear of swimming in the ocean.”
He took her hand and guided her past some young drunk guys. When they assaulted her with a round of wolf whistles and cat calls, Gray ignored them. She appreciated that he didn’t feel the need to go all macho and hands-off-my-woman with them, but then she wondered why he didn’t bother to say anything. Oh, for Pete’s sake! Why was she acting like they were a couple? After all, they had only hooked up, and he was probably used to that sort of thing. She managed to quell all those thoughts just as Gray spoke again.
“Well, why is that?”
“Huh?” she asked, lost in her thoughts.
“Ocean swimming. Why don’t you like it?”
“I don’t know. I guess I saw too many of those awful shark and sea turtle horror movies when I was a kid.”
After they crossed the street, Gray stopped on the sidewalk. His hand caught hers again, and he swung her around to face him. “Okay, the sharks I get, but sea turtles?”
She fidgeted. “Yeah. I saw this really crazy ancient movie with a killer sea turtle, something about a girl who was a ghost. I don’t recall the name of it, but it turned out that the sea turtle wasn’t just homicidal. It was the actual devil. In the last scene, the thing swam into the sea, like, way below the water, with this guy hooked to its shell.”
Gray’s mou
th hung open. “You’re shitting me.”
“Not at all. I’d never joke about that.”
“You do know sea turtles are vegetarians, right?”
“I didn’t say he ate the guy. He just…dragged him down into the ocean. That sea turtle was the devil, so maybe Satan’s a vegetarian,” she said, giggling. It felt good to make a joke, since she was so serious all the time.
Gray grinned. “Now I have to find this movie and check it out.”
“Well, like I said, it’s pretty ancient. I doubt it’s even on DVD.”
As they started walking again, Gray said, “I can’t promise we won’t see dolphins, but I’ve never seen a shark up close, if that makes you feel any better—at least not any big enough to tip the boat over and kill us.”
Riley grew nervous just thinking about it, and she actually shuddered. “Okay, fine. I’ll do it.” As soon as the words left her mouth, her brain went into a panic. What!? Have I just lost my mind? No way do I wanna go out on a boat! She cleared her throat. “I can’t promise I won’t freak out. I think that’s the biggest reason I decided not to go to Miami with my friends—that and because they’re hanging out with some rapper.” Adventure, Riley. That’s what you’re looking for.
His eyebrows lifted. “A rapper?”
She grimaced. “He calls himself Pro Bono.”
“Hmm. Does that mean he raps for free, or is that how he landed his lawyers?”
His swift wit slewed over to her, and she answered without thinking, “I doubt there’s much deep meaning to it. He’s really just another trust fund kid who decided to rebel by spitting rhymes. It’s a stupid name either way.”
Gray laughed. “I’ll give you that. Oh! Here’s the place.”
They walked in, and the succulent aroma of boiling seafood and frying onions and garlic hit their nostrils. The smell was nearly as overwhelming as the din. Riley scanned the crowded dining rooms with some misgiving, but Gray seemed to know the guy at the desk, so they were seated quickly.
