Gypsy Love: A Gypsy Beach Novel

by Jillian Neal

  She gave him a sexy smirk and rolled those beautiful eyes. “Well, since you already broke your own stupid rules, can I have another kiss?”

  “Stupid, huh?” He leaned in and took her lips with decadent greed. He drew her tongue into his mouth and sucked away her ability to argue with him. He robbed her of breath and all rational thought completely. His teeth nipped her bottom lip before he proceeded to suck away the shiver of desire that accompanied the heady sensation. His hands rasped down the sides of her breasts. Her nipples throbbed in agony against the lace of her bra. He felt the tightened beads of her press against his thin shirt. “So fucking tempting, baby. You’re going to be my undoing. I want to strip you down and suck those sweet nips until they feel better. I want to know what you taste like, but tonight, please, I just need to know that I didn’t push anything on you.”

  She tried to protest. She didn’t need him to be a gentleman, but his worry over her wasn’t something she’d felt in so long her body drank in his care, just like she yearned for more of his devastating kisses.

  At some point they managed to break free of the haze of lust that had consumed them on the pier. He wrapped his right arm over her and led her back to his car.

  He refused to come into her room under the pretense that she was far too tempting. Arley highly doubted that, and she hated not understanding where he stood. Did he really think she was attractive? His straining erection while they’d made out did seem to be proof that he did. So, I had to meet the most perfect guy in the world, and his mother turned him into a gentleman.

  She told herself to stop complaining. What woman didn’t want that? He’d even talked about extending their whirlwind relationship beyond the next two weeks, but she was far more interested in that worshipping her body head to toe thing he’d mentioned. Frustration and the slight sting of rejection that continued to haunt her chaffed at the raw. Why did men get to call all of the shots anyway? Who did he think he was?

  Without much thought beyond her own irritation, she sank down at the desk right beside the door and turned on her laptop. Miraculously, her fingers began to move. The beginnings of what might be a tapestry of words flowed out of her sexual frustration. A character, a new heroine with pluck, and grit, and bravado, took shape in her mind. Who cares if she ever published again? No one could stop her from writing for her. This book could go any way she wanted it to go. No editors, no publishers—she could do whatever she wanted. This was, after all, her book.

  Terror that he somehow hadn’t really made Arley understand how badly he wanted to fuck her pitched and tossed in his gut. What if he’d just made her feel more rejection? He paced in his room and stared at the door with constant debate about flying back across that hall and showing her just how badly he wanted her.

  Unable to talk himself out of it, he made it to her door in four long strides. He lifted his fist to knock but halted. He leaned in to listen to the melody he heard. The strikes of her fingers against a laptop keyboard made him smile. Something had her writing again. He hoped against hope that he’d given her enough of whatever would help her get through the terror that had brought on her writer’s block. He turned and paced quietly back to his room.

  Tomorrow, he’d make certain that she knew how badly he wanted to bed her. How luscious and beautiful she was. How he wanted to devastate her mind, body, and soul with the heat of his lips, the sweeps of his tongue, the prods of his fingers, the glide of his hands over her soft skin, and the force of his painfully hung cock. But for right now, she needed to write until she believed in herself and her abilities again.

  The knowledge that she was writing pleased him, but it didn’t make climbing into his bed alone any easier. He stripped and settled in. There was so much he wanted to know. He longed to feel the bead of her nipples in his palms. He wanted to know their color and to watch it deepen as he aroused her. Then he wanted to suck them and bite them until she was begging for more. If she’d asked him one more time that night, he would have given in.

  He wanted to grasp that lush backside in his hands and work her into a frenzy as he dipped his head between her thighs. He wanted to know what her juices would taste like on his tongue. He wanted to know exactly what it would feel like to press himself into her. He wanted to experience her body tugging him deeper and nursing his cock. He wanted to fill her to overflowing and bring her over and over again until she was capable of nothing but letting him cradle her in his arms while she slept, thoroughly sated.

  He wanted to bury himself deep and explode inside of her. He needed to own the secrets her body kept from everyone else. He longed to discover just what drove Arley Copeland to the brink of ecstasy and what would keep her there perpetually. He just didn’t want her to regret anything involving him, and the little stunt her ex pulled had to have left some deep scars.

  Six

  The next morning he blocked her path back up the stairs after breakfast. Thankful that Kent and Donna had left the evening before, he was still terrified that he’d hurt Arley’s feelings. Certain that knowing he’d located the article her ex had pulled out of his ass would only further her completely unnecessary embarrassment, he didn’t know how to explain why he’d turned her down so adamantly. He desperately wanted her to trust him, and the pain of all that had happened to her still haunted her eyes when she thought he wasn’t looking.

  “Hey, I was thinking I might walk around this tiny little town. Would you come with me? I feel like I need to apologize about last night. I swear I was only trying to be a gentleman. I want to take care of you.”

  There’d definitely been an icy chill in her demeanor at breakfast, but she finally gave him that smile that warmed his soul.

  “Please.” He gestured towards the front door. “I never meant to hurt your feelings.”

  “I know. I shouldn’t have let it upset me. For what it’s worth, thank you for being a gentlemen, but I’m a big girl, John.” Her head lowered with each word of her allowance.

  “I’m really sorry.” The crushing blow settled harshly in his gut. How had he fallen for her so thoroughly, so quickly? He didn’t know, but he was determined not to hurt her again. That went against everything he was.

  Fiery challenge lit in her eyes as she lifted her head. She glanced around to make certain that no one else could hear her. “If I spend the day with you, am I going to end up in bed alone again tonight?”

  His jaw flexed as he stepped closer with a predatory gaze that weakened her knees and her earlier resolve to punish him for turning her down. “You certain that’s what you want? You know, after everything you’ve had going on, that you want to be with me like that. I’m not always a gentleman. I don’t do casual quickies. I take my time. I know what I want, and by the time I’m finished I’ll know precisely how to give you what you need. I won’t leave one silky patch of your skin untouched, and I’ll know every hidden away spot of your beautiful body. I will own you thoroughly, and I mean that in every possible way you could imagine it. You’ll have no doubt where my intentions lie, but I still don’t do well with half measures, Arley, and we did just meet.”

  Unadulterated passion and carnal energy sizzled up her spine. Her breaths were quick and shallow, but before she could inform him again that she knew what she wanted, Sienna appeared in the hallway. She glanced uncomfortably from John to Arley and forced a concerned smile. “I was going to head into Wilmington in a few minutes. Would you still want to go to the big bookstore with me? Evie needs some new books and I want some, too. They don’t have many kids’ books at Bandana. If Ryan has to read Pinkalicious to her one more time, he’s probably going to go insane, so I’m trying to ward that off.”

  Arley was visibly torn. John kept up his pleading gazes but offered the required chuckle. He needed to course correct for his mistake the evening before.

  “But if you two had plans, we can do it another time.” Sienna volunteered readily. “Actually, you know what, why don’t you two go do whatever you were about to do, and we could g
o tomorrow?”

  “That’d be great! Thank you.” Relief eased the tense set of Arley’s brow. “Just let me get my sunglasses.” She turned and raced up the stairs to her suite.

  Much to John’s delight, she made a quick reappearance. He liked that she didn’t make much fuss over her hair and makeup. She was beautiful without effort. He liked that she was willing to be natural with him. Natural and open was precisely how he wanted her.

  They headed out the front door, hand in hand. The way she studied the quaint beach town landscape around her made him grin. She noted every single thing. It’s what authors did.

  “I wrote a little last night,” blurted from her mouth as soon as their feet hit the sandy shore. He was thrilled she was so pleased and that she wanted to tell him that she’d written.

  “Good girl,” he stopped her in her tracks and spun her back into his arms. He wasn’t big on making out in front of Ryan and Sienna, but he needed another taste of her luscious lips. If she was willing to see where this landed them then so was he. What harm could a few weeks or months do in the long run anyway, and by God, he ached for her. His right hand tracked down to her sweet little ass. He grabbed a handful and massaged heatedly. With a heady moan of approval, she took over the kiss and nipped his bottom lip.

  His eyes flashed in intrigue. “Gonna be like that, huh? Don’t get in over your head, baby doll. You never know what I might do.”

  “I’m hoping I get to find out.” She came right back. Her confidence seemed to be making a rapid reappearance.

  He stopped short of asking her what happened when he had her rights back and he headed back to Atlanta and left her in Birmingham. He wanted the memories to be good ones. He didn’t want there to be emotional baggage when this inevitably ended, and she was already scared.

  “When did you and Sienna decide to go to the bookstore?” He asked instead as they meandered further into the town of Gypsy Beach.

  “I slept some, but then my new character woke me up. She said a little more, but then she stopped talking again. I need to figure out her hero counterpart. I’m still struggling, but that’s the most I’ve written in almost two months. Coffee always helps me write, so I went downstairs kind of early to see if I could figure out the coffee maker. Sienna was up. She said she wasn’t feeling well. She made me the best coffee I’ve ever had, and we talked. It means a lot to me that she asked me to help her get books for Evie. Savannah won’t even let me babysit Nash. It’s like I walk around with a scarlet A around my neck. Keep your animals and children away, she writes naughty books.”

  John watched her newly found confidence take another downward turn. “Please tell me his name is not actually Nashville.”

  She started giggling again. “Nashville Montgomery. If it was a girl she was going to name her Hialeah.”

  “Dear Lord, your family is truly crazy.”

  “I tried to tell you.”

  The desperate need to protect her welled in his body. He wrapped his arm over her as they continued their journey.

  “Oh, John, look at that! It’s a wishing well. How sweet.” She took off towards a tiny pink shed with the words Gypsy Wishing Well painted on a sign hanging from the porch. The place was just opening up and the overly sweet smell of frying funnel cakes wafted in the air. He followed her up the two steps that led to the porch.

  She leaned down to read a small painted plaque. “Gypsies of old settled these shores. Listen to the magic song of love when the little children dance and sing. When the tides twinkle in the moonlight, love is near. Make a wish, spin around, drop it down to the ground. Gypsy magic will abound.” Arley gazed through the slat of the large wooden box. “John, look, there are thousands of wishes in there. That’s so cool.”

  He wasn’t certain he understood her fascination with the wish box, but he loved that she was so excited by it. He watched her eyes dance in elation and couldn’t help but grin at her exuberance. “I’m sure at least one of those belongs to Ryan and Sienna. They used to vacation up here when they were kids. Summer loves year after year and all that.”

  She stood with another one of those beaming grins that undid him completely. He recognized the curiosity that lit her eyes the next moment.

  “That’s so sweet. I love it when true love stories come true. Hey, is Sienna …?”

  “A Gypsy? Oh, yeah.”

  “Really? That’s kind of cool don’t you think? I mean, this whole town is so sweet, and you can kind of feel the mystery in the air. I love it here.”

  “I don’t know. I guess it is kind of cool. Ryan sure as hell thinks so. Sienna makes him happy. That’s all that matters to me.”

  With a deep breath, she turned and headed back down the small steps. “Yeah, happy seems like a really good ending.” Her eyes sought his.

  “Yeah, it sounds good. I just hope that’s where they end up. Who knows what will happen in the next fifty years or so?”

  He caught her slight sigh, but she didn’t seem to disagree with his assessment. She dragged him up a neon green, plank board ramp and through the doors of Mystic Mermaids, an expansive souvenir shop. He loosened up. She was having fun. That was all that mattered. She bit her lip as she gently placed a gigantic pair of hot pink sunglasses over his eyes. He laughed and slid them down his nose giving her a cocky grin as she laughed hysterically.

  “Oh, oh, oh, I think we should get this.” He removed the sunglasses and slid a fake coconut bra off of a nearby shelf, fitted it over her breasts, and gave it a quick tie in the back. His cock perked up and took notice as he discovered that she kept quite a rack hidden in the loose dresses and shirts he’d seen her in thus far.

  “Are you feeling me up inside a souvenir shop, Mr. Rowan?” She sassed as she arched her back and showed off her fruit shell covered breasts.

  “Don’t worry, baby doll, I’ll do it again later when I get you back to the Inn.”

  “If you don’t mind, I think I’d prefer it without the coconuts.”

  “Whatever you want, but it’s a good look, trust me.” He waggled his eyebrows making her crack up again. “Do they taste like coconuts, Ms. Copeland?” He continued to harass her.

  “You’ll have to wait and see.”

  He leaned and gave her a hungry growl. “You know what, I’m fucking tired of waiting.”

  She seemed so certain she was ready to jump into bed with him. He decided to test her theory. With a quick glance around to locate the security cameras, which were all pointed at the front and back doors, he loosed her breasts of the coconut bra, flung it back on the shelf, took her hand, and quickly pulled her into a dressing room.

  He preferred sex with a heavy dose of carnality. He preferred to indulge the fantasies of the women he was with along with his own. Quickies sure as hell weren’t his thing. He wouldn’t fuck her in a dressing room, but he was very interested in seeing just how far she’d be willing to go in a store. He knew she had a wild side she kept buried because she was terrified of proving her critics right, but he wanted her uninhibited, eager, and ready. If he’d somehow made her feel rejected the evening before, he sure as hell would make certain she knew how bad he wanted her now.

  As soon as she heard the lock on the door slide into place, she edged closer. Abandon lit the hunger in his eyes.

  “Come here to me, baby girl.” Taking her hand, he jerked her forward and devoured her mouth.

  He silenced the slight moan that shivered from her throat with the force of his tongue. “Be quiet, sweetheart. Don’t make a single sound.” He touched her lips with his index finger, stroking her cupid’s bow.

  With that, he turned his head and continued his feast. His right hand wasted no time tracking under the loose sundress she was wearing. He grasped her thigh and longed to go higher. Tired of fighting with himself, he kneaded her soft flesh with his hands and worked them up to her ass. She rocked her body against the steel hard erection she felt prodding her lower abdomen. A moment later her hand was grasping him, palming his denim covered coc
k that threatened to sever the zipper of his jeans.

  She widened her stance, and his hand accepted the invitation on his behalf. He stroked the wet scrap of cotton between her legs, listening as her breath caught. Her body trembled against him. “You’re so wet for me. I can’t have you here, sweetheart, but let me take the edge off, let me make it feel better. Can you be a good girl and keep quiet for me, no matter how good I make it feel?”

  “Oh God, yes, please.” She breathed the plea in his face.

  “Such a good girl.” He husked as he pulled the panties aside and dipped his fingers deep between her folds. Liquid heat consumed them. She needed to be undone thoroughly. She was so damn tight, this was only going to make her more hungry, but he couldn’t stop himself. He needed to see her unravel into spools of ribbons in his capable hands.

  He cupped her left breast and her nipples rose obediently, so hungry for his attention. Damn, he needed to see her. He wanted more. “I can’t wait to see your pretty little pussy, baby. Wet and full all for me. When I get you back, I’m gonna lay you out and see just how wet I can make you before I drink you dry, but right now, I want you to come for me like a good girl.”

  Her chest rose and fell in rapid pants in an effort to catch her eluding breath. He stroked the tightly coiled nerve endings of her g-spot rhythmically, whipping her into a frenzy. “Come on, baby. I said come for me. Don’t make me tell you again. Be a good girl for me.”

  “Oh, God!” She gasped as her body seized under his insistent persuasion. She shook frantically and clung to his arms. Her body spasmed around his fingers as she unfurled all for him. Her abdomen quaked against his cock, and he kissed her again to keep a thundering groan from escaping his own mouth.

  While she stilled, he held her tightly in the strength of his embrace. Her head fell to his shoulder. She buried her face against his neck, hiding in him. That was all he’d wanted. He cradled her closer still. “That feel better, baby doll?” He felt her smile spread against his collarbone. “Now, watch me.” She lifted her head as he gently extracted his fingers, brought them to his mouth, and sucked the spicy nectar of her. Another flutter of voracious hunger shuddered through her. Her eyes flashed in desperate hunger. Still trying to prove how badly he wanted her, he kissed her again.