by Jillian Neal
Evie had wondered back to an open cabinet of mismatched pots, pans, and Tupperware pieces. She was pretending to cook.
“Ryan,” Sienna’s voice strangled over his name. She gestured towards Evie.
“Tonight,” he husked in her ear as he grabbed a handful of that sexy ass and then spun her in his arms and tried to pacify his more licentious side with a long drawn kiss.
After settling a large quilt on the sand, Ryan and Sienna made Evie a plate of food. “Daddy!” she squealed after a few bites. She dropped her sandwich when she stood to race down the beach. “Look at the turtle!”
As Ryan only had eyes for Sienna dressed in a skimpy burnt orange bikini and a short, open kimono cover up, he’d missed the mama turtle padding out towards the water. He and Sienna raced after Evie, who was squealing her delight.
When they caught up to her, she was thrilled with the turtle’s slow progress back to the water. Ryan lifted her up in to his arms. “She’s a mommy turtle. She just laid her eggs up here on the beach, and when the babies are ready to hatch, they’ll crawl to the ocean just like she did.”
“Don’t they need their mommy to stay with them? Will she teach them to swim?”
“She took good care of them.” Sienna smiled. “See, she tucked them safe in the sand away from the water where they’ll be warm. She needs to be back in the ocean, but they’ll be okay. And when they’re ready to have babies of their own, they’ll probably come right back here to lay their eggs. Isn’t that neat?”
Evie nodded, but her eyes stayed trained on the turtle. She was mesmerized. “Can I pet her?”
“I think we better let her get in the ocean as fast as she can. We don’t want to bother her.”
When the turtle disappeared in the chilly waters, Ryan set Evie down. She took one of his hands and one of Sienna’s. “Swing me, please!”
With delighted grins, they lifted her up in the air, reveling in her squeals of delight. They returned to the quilt and restored her lunch to its plate. Evie turned inquisitive once her little belly was full of grapes, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, chips, and Sienna’s homemade applesauce. “Do you know how to swim?” She folded her little legs and turned her huge brown eyes on Sienna.
“I do know how to swim, but it’s still too cold right now.”
“I want to swim like Ariel because she’s very beautiful, and she sings lots of songs, and she would get to pet the turtles because she would be their friend, and she gets to marry Prince Eric.” Evie seemed quite certain that was the path to happiness.
“Well, Ariel is very beautiful, but just promise me that you’ll never give up your fins and especially your voice for any guy, even if he is a prince.” Sienna’s irritation tumbled out of her mouth without her meaning for it to. Ryan’s adamant nod and reassuring grin soothed her momentary panic.
“Exactly!” he agreed.
“I promise,” Evie assured her. “I’m going to marry my Daddy.”
Sienna beamed at her. “Well, he is a very handsome prince.”
Ryan chuckled and kissed the top of his baby girl’s blonde hair and then brushed his lips over Sienna’s smile.
“You could marry him, too, if you want to.” Evie seemed very excited by that idea, almost as excited as Ryan.
“That sounds like an excellent idea.” He winked at Sienna, wondering if somehow he could really make that very thing happen. Sienna shook her head at him, but couldn’t quite hide her dizzying grin.
Twenty
By the time Ryan and Sienna walked Evie from the Lobster Shack where they’d had dinner, past Mac and Molly’s, and then out to the Gypsy Beach dock, she was yawning more than she was talking. They’d made a quick stop before dinner at Wright’s Drugstore. Sienna had entertained Evie looking at the coloring books while Ryan stocked up on condoms and lube. Sienna had very discreetly pointed out her preferences without Evie noticing.
As they pressed onward, Ryan scooped Evie up and tried to memorize the way his heart swelled with love when she nuzzled her sweet little head against his neck. He couldn’t imagine not being able to hold her or having to go weeks without tucking her in at night.
The moonlight rippled over the rolling waves and the lull of the crashing waters was soothing her to sleep. “I think it’s time for bed, baby girl.” She gave him a half nod, barely able to hold her eyes open.
She’d played in the sand all afternoon and had pretended to cook in Sienna’s kitchen until Ryan offered to take everyone to Gypsy Beach’s fanciest restaurant, The Lobster Shack. Shack was really the only fitting description. It sat just off the pier overlooking the water. They’d had some flood damage, but a few repairs had been made. The patrons ate at bench picnic tables whether they were eating inside or out. Crab traps, overgrown plants, old life vests, and fishing nets all but blocked the front door, but the seafood was outstanding and the hush puppies were Sienna’s favorite. Ryan loved watching her inhale them. He loved that she wasn’t afraid to eat. He loved that she had no qualms showing off her beautiful body, even if she didn’t believe him when he told her how stunningly sexy she was.
There was a peace within her that Ryan found intoxicating, and just as it had been since she was fifteen years old, it swirled in vast juxtaposition with her longing to take flight. She thought her breasts were entirely too small and her ass was entirely too large, but she didn’t care enough to let it stop her from enjoying her life. He knew she was absolute perfection, and he planned to spend the rest of his life showing her that.
All Alexa did was bitch and diet, even though she was quite attractive right up until the moment she spoke. Her curves had been all Ryan cared about when his mother presented her as the girl he was to date if he wanted to shut his parents up.
Not lingering on the dock, they walked past the tiny beachfront shops to the other end of the cove to the McNamara’s house. He managed to get Evie’s nightgown on and her teeth brushed before she was fussing from being so tired. He rocked her for a few minutes and then laid her in her bed sound asleep.
He’d been fighting a losing war with possessive hunger and need for most of the day. Watching Sienna with Evie had his head spinning with the longings of his heart. She would be a fantastic stepmother for Evie, but tonight, he wanted her raw and primal. Every time she whisked by him and he caught the perfume of her, he ached. That flirty bikini had barely obscured the tattoo that had the enviable position of being permanently attached to her lush ass.
He wanted to spend all night satisfying that craving look that formed in her eyes whenever they lingered on him. He wanted to fill that sweet pussy until they were both thoroughly spent. His tongue craved the flavors of her. His hands longed to feel her silky skin with nothing covering her. Longed to pound into her, to open her, and drown himself deep inside of that slick wet heat that she made all for him. He wanted to devour her, and he was tired of waiting.
He’d been on ragged edge all fucking day. Alexa, the Inn, the break-in, whatever had John looking so concerned, Roby’s shit claims, Sienna’s worry over Evie, it had all taken its toll. He needed to make a claim, to tell the world that he wasn’t going down without a fight. All he needed was Sienna.
The shiver that worked up from Sienna’s abdomen felt like it might have been an earthquake in her very soul. Ryan was putting Evie to bed. Hoping he wouldn’t mind, she borrowed one of his UGA sweatshirts, and had taken up residence on the lower decks of the McNamara’s beach house, desperate to be closer to the water’s constant rolling kiss of the shoreline.
The sweatshirt wrapped her in his scent and his warmth, but tonight the cold came from somewhere deep inside of herself. Fear set its glacial chill throughout her body. She stared out at the water, certain that she was standing where she’d longed to be for the last decade, but far too many things clawed at her desperation to be content.
Images of her Inn ransacked haunted her. Ian’s wrathful vengeance whenever something hadn’t gone his way bulleted through Sienna. That was the only time she’d
experienced a home being destroyed. She’d run away, of course, but where had his spiteful vengeance gone once she’d left? Was he still angry with her? Could he have followed her? Was that some kind of warning? She’d never told him about Gypsy Beach or Nana. She’d never said much of anything to him. He’d had a nice apartment in Coto de Caza, and they’d had fun running the kitchens in several upscale restaurants where he was a chef. All Sienna really wanted was someone to talk to, someone that could teach her more about cooking, and somewhere to live that wasn’t her van or some hotel room where the roach colonies outnumbered the patrons.
The few times she’d slept with him she’d thought the sex was horrible. She’d had no choice but to compare it to Ryan. And it was absolutely nothing when set side by side with the awe-inspiring passion that flowed between her body and Ryan’s when they made love. Ian was nothing more than a passing distraction from her pain, and they’d both known that.
Anxiety eating at her, Sienna swept down a few of the plank wood slats that led her closer to the shore. Should she tell Ryan about Ian? Tell him how horrible his temper was and how he frequently rampaged through his own apartment. Ryan would blame himself, she knew. If Ian hadn’t gone through the Inn, who had? Should she tell the police to be on the lookout? Would they even care?
The moonlight caught the glimmering curl of the foaming tide, revealing the dizzying greens and purples hidden in the waves. Nana. Sienna choked back more tears. The thought of someone’s hands being on all of her grandmother’s beloved trinkets and books bruised her psyche. She’d tried so hard to hide her fear and her anger from Ryan and Evie. She didn’t want to add to his burdens. His seemed to vastly outweigh hers. Loneliness and desperation drew her closer to the water’s edge with magnetizing force.
All of the nightmares that had been her life for so long. The running, the certainty that monsters were chasing her, the narrow escapes seemed to suddenly converge. The riptides of tormenting dreams could no longer hold her captive. Every twisting turn suddenly made sense. Nana was gone, that was true, but Ryan loved her. He always had. That belief brought breath back to her half-drowned lungs.
Wrapping her own arms tighter around herself, she knew whose arms she sought. She knew the path she longed to take. She knew that he could make all of the terrorizing fears disappear so thoroughly from her soul that it would be as if they had never existed at all.
Realizing her misstep, she spun back. She’d been heading the wrong direction once again. She’d stumbled one last time in the darkened maze. Like her own personal compass rose, she reset her course back towards the only thing that had ever been able to save her. And there he was. Her own True North was coming to rescue her.
Concern and love were armored in his drive. “Sienna, baby, you okay?” In a few quick steps, his arms were around her, and she was home.
Twenty-One
Desperate for more, needy for his arms to encapsulate her in his heat, for his lips to kiss away every wrong, for their bodies to exist as one, for his passion to flood through her, melting away the icy grip of terror that had taken up residence in her soul, she angled her head upwards seeking his mouth.
With a thundered groan, he captured her lips with his own. The kiss was somehow reckless and still commanded consent. Her lips parted, and with a rattled hum of need his tongue plundered her mouth. He nipped her bottom lip and then sucked away the slight pain. A ragged desperation seemed to exist within them both.
His hands firmly grasped her backside and drew her body into the thick, rigid pressure of his erection. Sienna gasped, starved for his unyielding fullness, for his raw passion to rip away every insecurity she’d clung to for far too long.
“Ryan, please,” she whimpered, but the wind carried away her plea.
His eyes flashed in white hot desire. He’d heard her.
Nuzzling her face with the stubble of his chin, he traced the ridge of her ear with his tongue before sucking her lobe. Sienna shivered. Her entire body longed for more. “Tell me, sweetheart. Tell me what you need, every single thing.”
He lifted his head and met her urgent gaze.
“I need you. Just, please, make everything else go away. Please.” Her body swayed against his, desperate to feel every hardened plane of muscle and to be filled with him.
“I’m gonna make everything better, baby. I’ll make it all go away. Everything but you and me. I’m going to take you to bed and own you. The only thing I want on your mind is how good it feels when you’re in my arms and how hard you need to be fucked.”
“Now!” Bold determination burned through her.
Another echoed groan lit the salt-soaked air as she took his hand and raced back inside the house, desperate for him to fulfill his promises.
Shoving him down on the sofa, she crawled in his lap, straddling her legs over his as she began grinding against the fierce bulge in his jeans.
Frenzied with desire, Ryan had the sweatshirt up over her head and in the floor in one half second. God, she was so needy it made him wild. It seemed some part of her now believed his vows of love that he planned to make every day for the rest of their lives, but she needed something more. She needed the passion that she ignited from him. She needed to be tended to so thoroughly she had no doubt of the burning lust that consumed him.
As she slid her body up and down along his denim covered cock, he brought her left breast to his mouth, sucking and nipping her until she shook in his arms. Those sweet, ripened, little peaches so tender. Her rosy nipples drawn into tight beads of craving need. Saliva flooded his mouth. He granted her right breast equal pleasure, then drew them together so he could bathe them with the fiery heat of his tongue. As he sucked each of her nipples back and forth in syncopation, greed rocketed upwards from his groin, flooding through his body, lighting every cell with a carnal urgency that ravaged any ability to slow this down.
He pulled the loosely fitted, thin, cotton shorts aside. He wanted to see her lips glistening with need. A deafening growl reverberated from his lungs as he watched her press herself against his now painful erection. “In my bed, right fucking now, baby. Let me see that pretty little ass and those sweet lips.” He swatted her backside as she leaned upwards, bringing her slight breasts back to his mouth.
“Oh God, yes!” Her breathy vow of approval had him clenching his jaw, ordering his body to comply. He wasn’t losing it tonight until she was thoroughly spent.
Flinging off clothing as they sprinted to the bedroom, Sienna stared at Ryan as he kicked the door closed and turned the lock. “All mine. Show me.” His orders urged her onwards. The desperation in his eyes burned away all of her shame. They weren’t seventeen-year-old kids anymore. She was a full-grown woman, and he seemed to understand every potent desire of her soul.
Her shorts hit the floor with a soft swish of fabric. In two quick steps, he was on her. His right hand cupped her mound. His left kneaded her backside.
Sienna felt the rebellious fire that she’d suppressed for so long spark anew. From deep within her, it burned for him. This time she wanted to be tamed. No longer a raging wildfire unable to be contained, she’d found the only man that had ever been able to satiate the heat and extinguish the flames keeping her from being parched and destroyed, rescuing her not only from every foe that set to do her harm but also from herself.
“I said show me, Sienna. On your knees, baby. Shake that sweet little ass for me before I fill you full.”
A frenzy of elation spiraled through her. She gave into his commands and her own heady desires. The intoxication of tapping into her own femininity of sharing the juxtaposition of her wild soul mixed with her meek heart, of giving that to him, flooded raw ecstasy through her. His acceptance of her, just the way she was, stripped away the fears and doubt.
The fire they shared raged in his eyes as she crawled up on the bed. His desire filled her with power and fervent sexuality. Her body rolled as she lowered herself to her elbows and pushed her backside out towards him, desperate for his touc
h. She stared back at him, daring him to take what he wanted.
“So fucking sexy, baby. Spread your legs. I’m hungry.” His callused hands grasped her ass and angled her back as he dropped to his knees to access her.
He nipped her left cheek, making her gasp.
A dark chuckle filled with greed echoed from him. “Sorry, baby, that was all for me, but I promise the rest of this will be for you.” Then, with the sinful glide of his tongue teasing her opening, Sienna shook with fevered need.
Gathering the wet heat between her lips with his fingers while his tongue continued to feast, he tempted her clit, drawing tiny figure eights until her entire body begged for release from the heavenly torture. Her legs trembled, and with another deep stab of his tongue inside of her she flooded his mouth with liquid sex.
Jerking his finger from her clitoris he proceeded to suck the nectar he’d forced from deep within her. All too soon he stood and traced over the tattoo that ran from high on her waist down over her ass. “So damn sexy. You are perfect. I need you, Sienna. I need you every single day. Can you take me, baby, or do you need a little more?” His fingers sought to find out if she was primed. He pulled away for a split second and she heard his jeans and boxers hit the floor then he returned adding another finger to her opening.
Desperate and more than prepared, Sienna rocked her hips against his hand. Her body gripped his fingers and pulled them deeper hungry for more.
“So ready, baby. You know you need it, don’t you?” She was so wet Ryan almost lost it all then and there. Every rasp of his rough hands against her soft, pliant ass made her drip until her thighs were slicked with her heat. Staring at her shaking that sexy ass, mesmerized by the way the tattooed bird appeared to fly with the rise and fall of her hips, he tore open a condom and sheathed his cock.
