Chapter Fourteen
April – Kauai
“Mmm. If this is an example of what the lifestyle of the rich and famous is like, then maybe I could get used to the idea over time.”
Matthew laughed at Sasha’s lazily uttered statement. “Yeah, there’s really not much to complain about here, is there?”
“Here” was the posh Gregson resort on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, where he had brought her for a week’s vacation. Ian had been more than happy to arrange for them to stay in the owner’s suite, a privilege usually only reserved for members of the Gregson family, top executives of the hotel firm, and special guests like politicians, celebrities, or very close friends of the family. Matthew and Sasha counted themselves fortunate enough to fall into the latter category.
Sasha took a long drink of iced tea, then lifted her face skywards as a cooling trade wind provided momentary relief from the hot Hawaiian sun. “Tessa told me all about this place when she learned we’d be visiting. But her descriptions didn’t do it justice. I think I could be awfully happy taking up residence here permanently. Oh, not necessarily in this suite, but on the island itself. From everything I’ve seen so far, Kauai is definitely my idea of paradise.”
Matthew nodded as he refilled both of their iced tea glasses from the pitcher that was being kept cool in a mini-fridge. One of the many amenities of the luxurious suite was an outdoor kitchen that included the fridge, a large gas grill, a separate wine refrigerator, and a prep sink. “I agree. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Hawaii over the years, but never on Kauai until now. We usually stayed in Maui or Kona.”
She pushed her gold rimmed aviator sunglasses higher up her nose. “Is that the reason you selected this island for our trip?”
“That might have contributed to the decision,” he admitted. “I wanted this vacation to be something special for the two of us, to go somewhere neither of us had ever been. But Kauai also has a reputation for being quieter and less commercial than some of the other islands, and I liked that idea a lot. The privacy we’ve had here so far has been great. And this has easily been the most relaxing vacation I’ve had in almost twenty years.”
“Better than all the family camping and boating trips you took growing up?” she inquired.
Matthew had fondly recounted those happy memories to her, and Sasha had heard additional stories from his parents during their visit to San Francisco last month. She’d smiled wistfully at the images their tales had conjured up, and had only been able to use her imagination to get the full picture. Her own frenetic childhood had been nothing like what Matthew had known, and for all of the exotic places she’d traveled to with one parent or the other, she would have gladly traded all of them in order to experience the sort of family bonding that he’d known.
He shrugged. “Different sort of relaxation. Back then it was to have a break from studying and school. Now the stresses have definitely multiplied, and become almost too much to take at times.”
“You know, I would have been perfectly happy to go camping or backpacking with you,” she told him. “As much as I’ve enjoyed being pampered and waited on these past few days, a camping trip up in the mountains sounds pretty good, too.”
Matthew grinned. “It’s probably still a little cool for camping, especially considering how much snow we got in California this year. But I’ll definitely keep your offer in mind for the future. Have you done much camping?”
Sasha nodded. “I wouldn’t say a lot, but Linda loves to camp so I’ve been on several trips with her and a group of her friends. The very first time I went camping was the summer I was sixteen. God knows neither of my parents would have ever dreamed of doing something like that. I mean, can you imagine my mother sleeping in a tent? Or my father eating hot dogs and beans?”
“Not even remotely,” he replied readily. “Though I’m just guessing they’d both like this place a lot.”
“You’d be correct. My dad would be spending half his day in the water. He and his brothers used to do some surfing in Brazil when they were teenagers. Unfortunately, knowing my father, he’d spend the other half of the day drinking too much and flirting with every pretty female who walked by. While my mom would split her time between the spa and finding ways to pick a fight with my father. So for those reasons alone I’m very glad they aren’t here with us.”
“Me, too.” He reached across their side by side padded lounge chairs to claim her lips in a long, lazy kiss. “For a lot of reasons.”
Sasha gave his heavily stubbled cheek a tender caress. In the four days they’d been here, Matthew hadn’t bothered to shave and she found that she liked this new look of his and told him so.
“Yeah?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her suggestively. “Like enough to make you want to jump my bones?”
She pushed her sunglasses down her nose low enough to give him a glare of mock severity. “You do realize that practically all you’ve talked about since we arrived is sex?”
His answering smile was both sexy and adorable at the same time. “That’s because you’ve spent almost the entire time we’ve been here wearing either a bikini or nothing at all. How can you blame a man for thinking about sex constantly when he’s got a gorgeous woman like you by his side?”
Sasha sat upright on the lounger, wrapping her arms around her knees as she pulled them tight against her chest. “Mmm, if I lived in a place like this year round I think I’d want to wear a bikini all the time. And I wouldn’t really need shoes at all. And I think practicing yoga at sunrise each morning on this beach would be more than worth getting up so early.”
Matthew, too, sat up, and gave her knee a squeeze. “Man, that would really be the life, wouldn’t it?” he asked wistfully. “Imagine saying to hell with everyone and everything else and living on this island permanently. I’d sell the business, buy some land here and have a house built exactly to our specifications. We could swim and sail and go for hikes on the trails. Though I think you might need to wear shoes for the last one.”
“I guess so.” She grew silent for a few moments before reminding him, “But you’re forgetting something here - your kids. If you lived here all the time, you wouldn’t get to see them very often. And I’m just assuming Lindsey wouldn’t agree to give you custody.”
“You’re right. But unfortunately not because she wants them with her. She’d actually love nothing better than to be footloose and fancy free, and to do whatever she wanted without having to be responsible for them. But she wouldn’t agree to give me custody as a way to spite me. Besides, as much as Casey would love living here, Hayley wouldn’t be able to survive for too long without being near a hair salon or Bloomingdale’s.”
Sasha placed her hand over his. “Well, no matter. After all, it’s just a fantasy, isn’t it? You’ve got a lot of other responsibilities besides your children. Responsibilities that you aren’t supposed to be thinking about this week. Feel like a swim?”
He set aside their glasses before taking her by the hand, and then doing a slow jog through the sand until they reached the edge of the water. To Sasha, the biggest attraction of this suite wasn’t the huge rock shower or the enormous king-sized bed or the round-the-clock private concierge service. Instead, it was the proximity to their own secluded stretch of beach, where they could swim and sun and relax to their hearts content without ever seeing another person. She had learned to swim as a small child during the times she spent with her father and his family in Brazil, and though she rarely had the opportunity to do so nowadays, Sasha still loved to spend time in the water. There were three different pools located here at the resort, but they had yet to make use of them, preferring instead to swim in the ocean.
Matthew was a strong swimmer, having spent so much of his youth vacationing on Lake Michigan, and was enjoying this opportunity as much as Sasha was. Given that this section of beach was located on a secluded inlet, the waves were considerably calmer. Sasha took advantage of the tranquil waters,
flipping onto her back and simply floating for long minutes, closing her eyes against the glare of the sun.
It had been a long time since she’d had a real vacation, she thought. The quick visits she made to Katya in Los Angeles didn’t really count, since they were so stressful and exhausting that she’d return home more worn out then when she’d left. And she had been so intent on building up her massage practice and increasing attendance at her yoga classes that she hadn’t been to Brazil in almost five years. Of course, she had seen her father two or three times a year, but only when he visited her in San Francisco or accompanied her to L.A. And it had been even longer than five years since she’d been to Paris to see her aunt and uncle.
As she flipped over and began to swim slowly to shore, Sasha wondered if Matthew would be interested in accompanying her some day to visit her family in both Brazil and Paris, and decided she would find a way to pose the question during their stay here. Matthew seemed so eager to please her, to do things for her, that it was difficult to imagine him saying no, especially since she had yet to ask him for anything. That didn’t seem to stop him, however, from buying her things anyway.
When he had initially made the arrangements for this trip to Hawaii, he’d offered to take her on a shopping spree so that she could select whatever she needed. And when she had refused, as usual, he had taken matters into his own hands.
She had met him for lunch at his office, something she’d only done a handful of times since they had started seeing each other. A couple of those times, when Matthew had been especially busy, they had eaten inside his office since he’d only been able to spare a few minutes.
Sasha had suspected something was up when she’d spied the huge smile on Elena’s face. Matthew’s PA had taken an instant liking to Sasha the first time they had met, especially when she discovered that Sasha spoke fluent Spanish. Elena would often speak to Sasha in Spanish, usually when she was expressing concern about how stressed Matthew was that day, or that he hadn’t taken the time to eat breakfast. The two women had become good friends, with Elena cautioning Matthew repeatedly to “hold on tight to this one, boss, because you aren’t ever going to get this lucky again.”
This time, however, instead of sharing her latest concern about Matthew in Spanish, Elena had been grinning ear to ear, and almost fidgeting with barely concealed excitement.
“Hey, chica,” she’d greeted. “Wait until you see the surprise the boss has waiting for you. It was just delivered a few minutes ago, and I have to confess I peeked in one of the bags.”
Sasha had regarded Elena quizzically. “Well, I know it’s not lunch since we’re supposed to be meeting Ian and Tessa Gregson today.”
Elena had shook her head. “Not food, no. Go, look. And don’t argue with him about accepting this, okay? He’s so excited he reminds me of my kids when they were little on Christmas. So don’t burst his bubble, chica.”
Sasha had been even more confused after Elena’s warning, and had entered Matthew’s office warily - only to gasp in astonishment at the sight of half a dozen shopping bags piled on his sofa. The bags all bore the Neiman Marcus logo, and from the twinkle in Matthew’s eye as he’d stood to greet her, Sasha had known that the bags were for her.
“Since you wouldn’t let me take you shopping for our Hawaii trip,” he’d told her as he picked up one of the bags, “I decided to do it for you. Well, I might have asked Tessa for the name of the personal shopper she uses, but I picked out most of this stuff myself. I, uh, hope you like it all.”
“Matthew. I can’t - ” she’d begun to protest, until she had remembered the warning Elena had given her moments ago. And since she had zero desire to piss off the rather terrifying PA, Sasha had merely sighed as she’d begun to look through one of the bags.
He’d bought her everything and more than one could need for a week in Hawaii - bathing suits and cover ups, sundresses, shorts and tank tops, jeans and T-shirts, flip flops, espadrilles, trail running shoes, hats, sunglasses, beach bags. He had thought of absolutely everything, including three new yoga outfits and a beautiful robe of sage green silk.
“I won’t tell you that this is far too much and that you really shouldn’t have done this,” she’d begun. “Especially since I’m guessing Elena is eavesdropping right about now and will chew me out big time if I don’t accept all of these things gracefully. So - thank you, Matthew. Everything is perfect.”
She’d twined her arms around his neck and pulled his head down to meet her kiss - a long, leisurely meeting of lips and tongues. But, as she’d lifted her head, she had whispered in his ear, well out of Elena’s hearing, “Even if it is way, way too much!”
Sasha smiled at the recollection now as she emerged from the surf. She was wearing one of the half dozen new bikinis Matthew had bought for her - a tropical print of yellows, oranges, and pinks with a strapless bandeau top and low-cut bottoms that tied on each hip. All of the price tags had been carefully removed from all of the things he’d bought her for this vacation, but Chad, who had helped her pack, estimated that just this one simple bikini had probably cost upwards of two hundred dollars. Sasha had been appalled at that revelation, and had half-threatened to return everything to the store and then donate the money to charity. It had been Chad who’d gently reminded her that buying her these things obviously meant a lot to Matthew, and it was his way of giving back to her for everything she’d done to help him. Sasha had uttered a sigh of resignation, and continued packing her suitcase.
She was toweling herself off when Matthew finished his swim and began to walk across the sand towards the suite’s secluded veranda. Four days in the Hawaiian sun had already given him a tan, darkening his previously pale skin. He’d been a little self conscious on their first day here while stripping down to his swim trunks, admitting that he had spent precious little time outdoors over the past few months.
Her gaze traveled slowly from his stubbled face, then down to his naked torso. There was a sprinkling of light brown hair across his chest, just the right amount for her taste. He was lean and toned, with a defined six pack and chiseled biceps, but wasn’t overly brawny or muscled. Thanks to the changes he’d made to his diet - he was practically a vegetarian by now and carefully limited his alcohol intake - his abs were flat and hard, and there wasn’t a spare ounce of fat anywhere on his body. He reminded her yet again of a triathlete - strong and lean and super-fit.
As he reached for a towel, he met her gaze before breathing in sharply. There must have been something in the way she was staring at him - lust, admiration, desire - because suddenly those very same emotions were mirrored in his own eyes.
“See something you like?” he asked in a husky voice as he tossed the towel over the veranda railing.
Sasha stepped in close enough to place a hand on his chest. “There’s a whole lot of things I see that I like,” she replied suggestively, then tugged playfully on the waistband of his trunks. “And even more things that I can’t see right now.”
Matthew’s hands bracketed her hips, holding her still as he rubbed his erection against the notch of her thighs. “I second that opinion. Though in your case this bikini isn’t hiding very much.” He bent his head until his lips touched the side of her neck. “You were right earlier. You should definitely wear nothing but bikinis ninety percent of the time. Especially since your body was specifically designed for them.”
She groaned as he took her mouth in a long, searching kiss, while his hands roamed over her buttocks, belly, and torso - fondling, caressing, arousing. Moments later he took her by the hand and quietly guided her into the master bathroom, then turned on the taps in the rock walled shower while they stripped out of their bathing suits.
In a move that left her gasping, Matthew pushed her up against the shower wall, the hot water streaming over their naked bodies. His chest was flush against her back, effectively trapping her in place as his hands returned to explore the curves and hollows of her body.
“
I love your breasts,” he rasped in her ear, cupping the gentle mounds and tugging at the nipples. “They’re the perfect size, the perfect shape. All natural, just like you.”
“Ohhh.” Her head fell back limply onto his shoulder as he continued to squeeze her breasts. “They - they aren’t very big.”
“They’re perfect,” he repeated. “Absolutely perfect. There’s not one thing I’d change about them. Same thing with the rest of your beautiful body.” His hands skimmed down the sides of her rib cage to rest on her waist, while his wet lips traced a sensual path from her neck to her shoulder blades. “And I love the color of your skin, especially after you’ve been out in the sun for a few days. It reminds me of a café au lait. Or dulce de leche. Delectable.”
Sasha whimpered as one of his hands squeezed her ass, then slipped between her legs where she was wet and slick and impatient for his touch. Both of them gasped as he thrust two fingers deep inside of her vagina, her hips instinctively moving in sync with each pumping motion.
“I want you just like this,” he growled, even as he began to position the tip of his cock at the entrance to her body. “All wet and hungry and willing. Let me, Sasha.”
She gave a little cry of alarm as he pushed his way inside, burying his fully erect cock all the way to the balls. She had to stand up on her toes slightly to accommodate him as he began to pick up the pace of his thrusts, his hands on her hips holding her still for him. Her breasts were crushed up against the surprisingly smooth rock wall, the surface abrading her nipples just enough to make it arousing.
As usual, Matthew was a quiet lover, not one for dirty talk or saying much beyond a few whispered endearments or groans of pleasure. Sasha preferred it that way, content to let their bodies say what needed to be said. And when he brought her to orgasm, she didn’t feel the need to announce it to him loudly, especially since it was more than obvious by her gasp of pleasure, and the way she shuddered against him over and over. He was a bit more vocal when he followed her over a few moments later, crying out in satisfaction as he emptied himself inside of her.
Serenity (Inevitable Book 5) Page 24
