She gave her head a gentle shake. “Sure, it hurt at the time, but I moved on. That’s how teenage love works sometimes.”
Huh. That wasn’t what he’d expected, but…“Well, I’m glad.” And then he even admitted, “I didn’t move on so fast myself. But eventually.”
“Good,” she whispered so quietly he almost didn’t hear it.
And something in the utter softness of her voice reminded him all over again, and made him wonder if…if there was still any part of Holly Pettit that was still fragile? Maybe not. And…hell, maybe it didn’t even matter. Either way, he was…damn, he was downright smitten.
“Holl, it’s…it’s amazing to see you again, to be with you like this again. Can I see you tomorrow?” And he was surprised by how hard his heart beat after he posed the question, like a kid asking out his first date.
“I really don’t like to strand Lori,” she said. “I mean, we came on this trip together.”
But he was quick to assure her. “You don’t have to strand her. How about I meet you two at the pool, or the beach?”
“Don’t you have to work?”
He cast her a quick smile. “I’m kind of a big shot here, fishie. I can take the day for myself if I want. And I want. Meet me on the beach at noon?”
Chapter Six
Holly lay on a lounge chair on South Beach in a white bikini—she owned several given that she lived in Vegas, where swimming pools were everywhere—and taking in the scene before her. Hotel guests filled the chairs on this particular stretch of sand, which meant lots of couples, along with groups of singles like her. Still, when she watched the stream of sun worshippers walking in both directions at the water’s edge, she saw the wider mix that populated South Beach on any given day: Along with typical families and middle-American couples here on vacation, she noticed gay men in skimpy Speedos holding hands, teenagers chattering to each other in Spanish, older retirees shading their faces with wide-brimmed hats, and more than one set of tits given that this was the only clothing-optional beach in the continental United States.
She'd have felt a lot better if Lori were lying on the vacant chair next to her, but half an hour ago, her friend had run into a guy she'd met last night while Holly had been busy with Trey, and now she was gone. That was what she got, she supposed—it made perfect karmic sense. And now she was stuck facing Trey alone.
“Are you sure it's okay, Holl?” Lori had asked her before leaving with the tall, dark, and handsome type who had seemed so taken with her. “I know you were counting on me being here with you today.” Lori knew everything that had transpired last night, and of course it wasn't okay, but Holly hadn't had the heart to say no. Especially when Lori had looked so taken with the guy—and it turned out he was from Orlando, same as her, meaning there could be potential for an actual relationship.
Yet the longer she sat there alone, the more unsettled she felt. The way she’d ended up last night—feeling so close to him in moments, being so swept back in time—was bad enough. And she’d thought that having Lori here to keep things with Trey from getting too personal today would make meeting him here okay. But now she felt…vulnerable. And she’d thought she’d quit feeling vulnerable years ago. She didn’t like knowing she was even still capable of that. And over Trey Kennedy? It seemed a cruel twist of fate.
Spotting yet another topless girl strolling up the beach, she glanced down at her own bikini. She’d certainly never gone topless here when she was young—the very idea had seemed no less than scandalous and she recalled feeling jealous and a little horrified by the women who were bold enough to do that. But now…now she was as bold as anyone. Or at least she could be when she wanted to.
So…hmm, maybe being bold right now would be a good idea. Maybe it would remind her and Trey both—one more time—that she wasn’t the same little girl he’d deflowered. And if it freaked him out some to find her lying there with her boobs on display, all the better.
Sitting up, she reached behind her back to untie her triangle top, then pulled the string behind her neck as well. As she drew the top casually away, tossing it on the lounge chair near her feet, she was thankful her life in Las Vegas had given her the confidence to do so with comfort. Lying back on the chair, she felt subtle looks, glances. Some from curious women. More from admiring men. Of course, those men might approach her since she was alone. But if so, she could handle it. Even if she was on a quest to change her wild ways, she’d picked up many skills in Las Vegas that served a girl well in life.
Lulled by the sun and perfect temperatures, Holly soon let her eyes fall shut. And despite the fact that she lay on a crowded public beach wearing only a pair of tiny bikini bottoms, she actually began to feel a little bit relaxed, at ease. Maybe Trey wouldn't show up. Maybe he'd have some regrets about last night, too, and decide to just let it be what it was—one night of hot sex between old lovers.
And maybe that would be cathartic enough for her. Maybe she'd somehow be able to forget the old feelings he'd made her feel. Maybe.
“Wow.”
Trey's voice instantly cut through her near-sleep state and—oh Lord—if she wasn't mistaken, had just made her nipples harder than the sea breeze already had. She opened her eyes, well aware that his wow didn't sound freaked out so much as…turned on. Clearly, a rash miscalculation on her part. And after the way he'd been last night, she supposed it had been pretty foolish to think she could shock him merely by baring her breasts on a topless beach.
“Hi,” she said.
Lust laced his grin. “Hi, fishie.” Then his gaze dropped pointedly to her tits before rising back to her face. “Those are nice.”
She couldn't hold in her smile. “You've seen them before.”
“Been a while,” he reminded her. “"And I was sorry I didn't get to see them last night.”
And—oh no—there was something in how their eyes met just then, with her breasts bared before him that way, that she felt in her bikini bottoms. She was getting aroused again, too, just by being this way with him and knowing that he liked it, that they were sharing it. Even lying on a public beach, it felt as if she were revealing herself only to him, only for him—and as if he knew it, too.
“But, uh…” He stopped, pointed down at them. “It looks like they might be starting to burn a little.”
She gasped, glancing down. Damn it, she hadn’t even thought of that—which proved that she clearly didn’t have her head on nearly as straight as she wanted to today.
“No worries, though,” he said quickly. Then gave her a short wink as he went down on one knee and began rummaging in her beach bag as comfortably as if it were his own—until he pulled out a bottle of sunscreen. And after flipping the cap open, he squeezed the coconut-scented lotion into one palm, set the bottle aside, rubbed his hands together, and bent over her to begin massaging it warmly into both breasts.
She drew in her breath at the shock, the pleasure. Yes, you could go topless on South Beach, but you didn’t usually see—well, at least in most places—what pretty much equated to foreplay right out in the open. Yet it never occurred to her to try to stop him. Simply because it felt so good. In her breasts. In her pussy. She bit her lip, trying to hold in the moans that wanted to escape her, and the whole time she found herself still peering up into his sexy brown eyes, so much closer to hers now than they’d been just a minute before.
She didn’t know if the people around them were watching, and she hardly cared. All she knew was that the man knew how to make her tits feel incredible.
When finally he was finished, he leaned close and whispered, “There. Now you’re ready.”
She let out a sigh—and, boy, was she ever. Ready for the sun. And ready for much more. Funny, after some of her wilder experiences in Vegas, she’d almost thought that she no longer had the capacity to get this turned on this easily. But it seemed, like it or not, that Trey was showing her maybe she didn’t know herself nearly as well as she thought.
After a little time sunbathing
, Trey reached over from the lounge chair next to hers and touched her arm. “Come into the water with me.”
She just looked over at him. For a little while, they’d flirted—about her breasts, and the rest of her body, and he’d mentioned what they’d done last night—but then talk had slowly turned to the beach, the people passing by, the weather. And even though she’d remained aroused, she’d begun to think the hot sunscreen application hadn’t meant anything big, that the passion was waning a little, that she could still have a nice normal day with him here, without anything more happening. But now, the mere look in his eyes told her differently.
“I’m…not in the mood,” she said. Which was a lie, in every way. The summer sun was hot beating down on them and a dip sounded nice. And a dip with Trey sounded even nicer, the mere thought making her cunt spasm lightly.
He gave his head a teasing tilt. “Now, you know fishies like water. Come on, fishie,” he said, getting to his feet and reaching a hand down to her.
And…she took it. Because she couldn’t quite not.
Within moments they were wading into the Atlantic, and despite herself, Holly felt sexy and alive wearing only her bikini bottoms while most other people around them were in full, normal swimsuits. Whereas, before, the curious and admiring gazes of strangers hadn’t particularly affected her, now they did—now they made her feel exciting, daring, devil-may-care. But what affected her most was when Trey’s eyes met hers, sparkling warmly on her beneath the Miami sun.
Soon they’d made it out past where the waves broke and found themselves chest-deep in the water. They held hands as they jumped over the calmly rolling tide, laughing, talking. But then somehow they were suddenly kissing, and his hands were on her tits again—and then on her ass as she wrapped her legs around him beneath the ocean’s surface.
And mmm, he was deliciously hard against the crux of her thighs, and she found herself moving against him, undulating in the same leisurely, rhythmic pattern of the incoming waves, her body primed for pleasure now, pleasure that seemed to come so easily with Trey. She remembered that from their youth, when sex had been fresh and new—it remained beyond surprising to her that even now he could thrill her so much.
They kissed more and soon she came, the water and the fact that they were in plain sight of other swimmers somehow intensifying the orgasm as it rushed through and over her as wild as those waves that crashed onto the shore just yards away. And when it was done, Trey smiled and said, “You amaze me, baby, but I love it.”
And she said nothing, still pretty amazed herself. And still far more caught up in Trey Kennedy than she wanted to be.
That night, Holly found herself sitting across from Trey at one of the Imperial Palms’ outdoor restaurants—this one on the beach itself. Though she wore a sexy, dressy sundress and he khakis and a button-down shirt, they’d both left their shoes on the stone walkway that descended into the sand. Tiki torches burned around them as the sun began to set.
As Trey told her more about his job and his life here, she wondered why she’d agreed to meet him again tonight. She shouldn’t have, of course. But Lori was still off with her new man, and Holly hadn’t particularly wanted to spend the rest of the weekend alone. And it was only one more day anyway—after another day at the beach tomorrow, she’d reconnect with Lori and they’d both be headed back to their respective homes.
When Trey asked her more about her life, she tried to keep it vague—and exciting sounding. Though the last part wasn’t a stretch—her adult life so far had been exciting, and a lot of fun. But she still didn’t particularly want him to know she’d given up her professional dreams due to their breakup ten years ago, so that was the part she kept fudging her way around.
“You amaze me,” he told her then, his eyes narrowing on her tightly.
“You said that earlier today,” she remembered. And then found herself asking without quite meaning to, “What in particular are you so amazed about?”
He gave his head a sexy tilt. “Honestly? The sex,” he said. “I mean, I just never saw that coming when we were young. So I can’t help it—your freer sexual attitude intrigues me and gets me hot. And guess I’m still just wondering how you got from where you were then to where you are now. You, uh, keep blowing me off whenever I ask you about that.”
In reply, Holly only shrugged. “It’s because I don’t really have an answer for you, I’m afraid. People just change and evolve sometimes, that’s all.” She paused, took a sip from her wine glass. “Though…I’m sorry if I’ve ruined some illusion you had of me from our summer together.” And she meant that. There was a tiny part of her that missed that much more innocent girl, and didn’t like the idea of him missing her, too.
But, as if reading her mind, he said, “No, it doesn’t ruin anything. You’re still you.”
Though that surprised her. Because…was she? That same girl he’d known? She’d told herself over and over again that she wasn’t, and truly, she felt different inside, deeply altered. “I’m surprised you think that,” she admitted.
“Why, fishie? Doesn’t matter how confident or worldly you are, or how many people you’ve fucked. You’re still the girl I loved—I can see her in you in moments when you probably think I don’t.”
And good Lord—nothing Trey had said to her since her arrival had unsettled her more. Even if she might—in rare moments—miss that girl, she’d left her long behind. “I’m really…not that girl, Trey,” she insisted.
“Sure you are,” he said easily, as if he knew something she didn’t.
So maybe the time had come to…shock him, really shock him this time, to just put it all on the table and tell Trey Kennedy exactly how sexual she’d become. “Trey, I’ve had sex with other women. And I’ve had sex with more than one guy at a time. I’ve been with as many as three or four people at once. I really am…changed. I’m no longer that emotional, clingy girl you knew.”
But to her dismay, he didn’t look the least bit stunned or turned off by what she’d shared. He simply gave her yet another confident, knowing look as he said, “Clingy, maybe not. But I know you’re feeling the same thing I am this weekend—old emotions. Just as strong as when we were teenagers on this beach together.”
“That’s not true,” she denied quickly.
“Prove it,” he said.
“How?”
“Let me fuck you again tonight, Holly. But this time I get to call all the shots.”
Chapter Seven
Holly let out a breath and hoped he couldn’t see her chest deflating. “You want me to give up control? To prove I can do it without feeling emotional?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“I like control,” she told him bluntly.
“Yeah, I picked up on that.”
“So the answer is no.” It wasn’t as if she hadn’t let him have some control already while they’d fucked, but she thought they’d at least traded it back and forth. No way was she interested in letting him take away her power when they were having sex.
But Trey didn’t look defeated—if anything, she thought he appeared…completely determined to have his way with her. “How about this? How about we go up to the penthouse suite, which is vacant tonight, and we just say…anything goes.”
She didn’t answer for a long minute, even as their gazes met across the table. She grew aware of Latin music echoing from somewhere up the beach. The last thing she wanted was to let Trey gain more of an emotional hold on her than he’d already managed to over the last twenty-four hours. So to agree—even without surrendering control—would feel almost like…suicide in a way.
When they’d first encountered each other, she’d been so sure she could fool around with him without feeling anything—but the plain truth she kept trying to avoid was…she felt a lot. Too much. And she had to turn him down now—she had to. Somehow she almost feared her very soul depended on it. Say no now and maybe you can make a clean getaway from this weekend without missing him too much when it
’s over, without feeling too much of that ancient sensation of colossal loss from ten years ago.
And yet…she wanted him. Madly. Wildly. She wanted to feel her skin hot against his. She craved having his hard cock back inside her—in fact, if she was honest with herself, she’d been aching for that ever since her orgasm today in the ocean. Orgasms were great, but there was nothing like being well and truly fucked, deep and hard.
And it’s only sex, right? She was good at only sex. She’d come here good at only sex; she could get her edge back and be good at it again. And it would be…the ultimate victory. Not only over him now, but also over herself.
“Fair enough,” she finally said, though her voice came out in little more than a whisper. And for a fleeting, frightening moment, she feared she’d just made the wrong decision.
But then she took another sip of her wine and tried to let it gird her. I can do this. I can fuck him and not care. And then those old demons will never haunt me again.
By the time Trey led Holly to the hotel’s most luxurious suite on the top floor, it was all he could do not to rip her clothes off. Just looking at her pretty eyes, her full lips, all through dinner, had kept his desire at a fever pitch. Of course, maybe part of it was remembering all they’d done together just since yesterday, but deep inside, he knew it was more than that. It was more than discovering Holly’s wild sexual lifestyle. It was more than the excitement of shared lust.
It was about…the past. About the fact that he’d never dreamed he’d be with her again, and now, here they were. It was about all those old, buried emotions coming fully back to life—same as if he’d taken a pressed rose out of a book and seen it burst into full bloom. And he was going to make damn good and sure Holly felt all that, too, in a way she couldn’t deny.
South Beach: Hot in the City Page 4
