I cried out in surprise when I took him fully inside of me.
I cried out again, even louder this time, when his finger brushed against my back entrance in a playful rub that was meant to tease and test the waters.
When I didn’t object, and only started to ride him, he got bolder.
Each time I lifted my hips and then fell back down, he’d brush against it.
Teasingly at first, and then more firmly the more I rode him.
Soon, when I came back up to slide him out of me, his hand followed as he finally breached the entrance with his little finger.
I froze, his cock head the only thing inside of me, and waited to see what else he would do.
He urged me to come back down, and I did, taking him in fully until my thighs were pressed against his thighs.
Then his finger in my back entrance slid deeper.
It didn’t hurt.
Not at all.
But it definitely felt extremely weird.
Then he pulled it out completely, leaving me feeling bereft.
To help combat the feeling, I once again started to ride him.
Then he replaced his pinky finger with his middle finger, and that was a whole new ball game.
Things started to tighten up in reaction to the stretching not-quite-pain.
And I felt like I was on fire.
My nipples were peaked hard.
My eyes were squeezed shut, and every single bit of my concentration was centered on not coming.
Too late, though.
I didn’t realize how close I was until I was on the very edge, tipping over to the point of no return.
Sensing my closeness, he shoved his finger in deep, then pulled me down so hard that I felt him in places that I hadn’t felt him before.
The orgasm that took me over was nothing short of spectacular.
Anything that happened with Luca never was, though.
It was always perfect.
Always all-encompassing.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I chanted.
Then his finger was gone, and he was urging me on, faster and faster until he exploded right alongside me.
All in all, it was less than five minutes from start to finish.
But I felt like my entire life had just changed right before my eyes.
“We’re going to have to do that again,” I said as I leaned back into him.
“Oh, don’t worry. We will,” he assured me.
Chapter 17
Blow me. I’m hot.
-Coffee Cup
Frankie
The next day we ran into Cromwell and his brother.
“Nice to meet you,” I said, offering Cromwell’s brother my hand even though it was the last thing in the world that I wanted to do.
Cromwell’s brother was seventeen but looked like he was at least twenty-five with the beard that he was sporting.
“Brent,” he said. “My brother Toby tells me a lot about you.”
Toby. Dr. Cromwell’s name was Toby? Since when?
“Umm,” I said, feeling slightly uncomfortable. “All good things I hope.”
Thankfully, he only smiled.
“Who’s this?” he asked, jerking his chin up in Luca’s direction.
Luca was busy using a net to catch fish.
He was standing about waist deep in the water and tossing a net designed to catch small baitfish into the water over and over.
The reason he wasn’t catching fish, I was sure, was because he was still learning how to use the net.
Each time he threw it, he ended up tossing it over onto itself, making the net downright useless since he wasn’t able to close the net onto the fish as he pulled it up.
But each throw he got better and better and better.
His eyes, however, were on me as he pulled the net in.
His hat was pulled down low over his head, and he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt designed to be cool and not burn him.
The only thing that could be seen were his hands and the underside of his chin thanks to the funny floppy hat I’d bought him at a convenience store as we stopped to get gas earlier in the day.
“That’s my fiancé,” I said, not liking the way Brent was staring at Luca as if he was the interloper instead of the other way around.
“He doesn’t look like someone that you would be attracted to,” he pointed out.
I refrained from saying, ‘And how would you know what I am and am not attracted to?’
Instead, I chose to ignore the kid and watch my man.
His next cast with the net went a little wonky, but when he pulled the net up, he had a rather impressive amount of fish in his hold.
“Nice!” I said, seeing them.
He waded out of the water and loosened the net over the bucket that he’d bought today to hold his baitfish.
Luca’s eyes flicked to Brent and then back to me.
His brows rose questioningly.
“This is Brent,” I finally said. “Brent Cromwell, meet my fiancé, Luca Maldonado.”
“Luca?” I heard said from behind me. “I thought his name was Riel?”
I sighed, not sure I wanted to explain this all over again. And I especially didn’t want to explain it to them of all people.
They’d made the last six months fairly miserable.
If it hadn’t been for Brent coming in and getting fixed up by Dr. Cromwell, then I wouldn’t have been put into the position I’d been put in. Nor would I have had to face my teacher every day from that point forward with a guilty conscience.
Each time I looked at him, I swore he knew exactly what I’d done.
Then the incident where Luca had told me about my neighbor being questioned, and him getting shot, bit.
Sure, they’d said that the entire thing had been ‘solved’ due to a kid admitting to the murder. However, I’d still gotten a really icky feeling in the pit of my stomach that they were still somehow involved in it all.
“Name’s Luca,” Luca said as he picked up a baitfish that’d fallen out of the net and missed going into the bucket. It’d been flopping around on the sand, hoping to make it back into the ocean.
He hadn’t made it, and I almost felt sorry for the little bugger.
Dr. Cromwell didn’t say anything to Luca’s abrupt tone, nor did he leave.
I didn’t know what to do, but my man sure did.
“We’re going to fish,” Luca said, surprising me. “You’re more than welcome to come.”
Dr. Cromwell looked as if he was about to say no, but Brent beat him to replying and accepted for them both.
“Sure!” Brent grinned, his smile creepy and uncomfortable.
I groaned inwardly, shooting Luca an annoyed look.
His lips twitched as he picked up the bucket. “We’re going down to the piers. A man I met a few days ago said there was some fairly good fishing there.”
“Sounds like fun,” Brent clapped.
The loud sound made me flinch and shrink closer into Luca.
Luca caught me around the waist with his free hand and ‘helped’ me down the length of the beach.
I smiled at his possessive move but didn’t pull away, loving that he was claiming me in front of a boy that was too intent on me, and a doctor who would rather be anywhere else but where he was.
“There’s the pier.” He pointed.
“Yo, kid.”
I turned to find the captain from yesterday spraying down his boat.
I’d liked him. He’d made the trip a lot of fun, not to mention he was scarred like Luca, claiming a piece of my heart just by existing.
“Captain Mike.” Luca let go of my hand and offered it to Mike.
Mike took it, shook it, then dropped it before turning to the two men behind me.
Brent was busy eating his way through a bag of cotton candy he’d bought from a stall somewhere behind us. We’d all heard him stop, and thoug
h Cromwell had stopped, too, neither of us had.
I was honestly kind of sad that they’d caught back up.
When neither Luca nor I introduced the two men behind us to the captain, the captain ignored them despite giving them each an off-handed glance.
“Coming for another ride before you…” He trailed off as Brent, when done with his food, decided to toss his plastic bag into the water instead of into the trash can that was fifty feet away. “Go pick that up,” Captain Mike ordered.
Brent snorted and started to walk away, but quick as lightning, he had Brent by the collar and was practically throwing him into the water between his boat and one much bigger than it.
All the locals watched on with a bemused expression.
As did Luca and I.
Dr. Cromwell didn’t have a chance to even react before his brother was swimming with the fish.
“Pick it up,” Captain Mike ordered. “Do you have any fucking idea how many sea animals die on that shit? Way too fucking many, that’s for sure. Get it.”
I just sat there gaping while Brent tread water.
It was more than obvious that Captain Mike was very passionate about his gulf. We’d listened to him talk about sea life during our trip and had even witnessed him personally stop the boat and pull out three pieces of large plastic during our trip the other night.
Not that Brent had known that or anything.
But still.
I had a feeling the kid would tread water forever if he didn’t get the trash.
Which he did… eventually.
All the while, Dr. Cromwell glared daggers at Captain Mike.
“Just fucking get the trash, Brent,” Dr. Cromwell hissed.
I cringed at how pissed he sounded.
Brent did, and Captain Mike even offered him his boat’s ladder to exit the water.
The moment Brent was on dry land, he glared daggers at Mike.
“I should fuckin’ sue you.” He glowered, pulling a very wet cell phone out of his pocket.
“Actually,” Captain Mike said as he nodded in the direction we’d been walking in earlier. “I just saved you from getting a couple-thousand-dollar ticket from that cop right there. You should be thanking me.”
We all turned to see a cop watching with his eyes hot.
“I’ve personally witnessed him giving at least four other people tickets today,” Mike assured us. “You’re welcome.”
Biting my lip, I turned away and widened my eyes at Luca.
Luca grinned wickedly and curved his arm back around my waist.
“Have a good one, Captain Mike. We’re going to fish your spot,” Luca said.
Brent and Dr. Cromwell stayed behind to do whatever they were going to do.
Luca and I didn’t wait for them.
And we ended up having one hell of a time fishing.
Well, he did.
I stayed where I was and watched my man do all the heavy lifting.
And in the end, we caught enough fish to even have dinner with.
***
“How do you feel about this recipe,” I read it off to him.
It was about an hour after the sun had set, and once again, we were avoiding the rest of our group.
A text came in while I was reading it to him, and he picked it up and glanced at my phone with a grimace.
“Who is it?” I asked once seeing his expression.
“Dr. Cromwell asking for that ‘insolent captain’s’ name.” He laughed, placing the phone down on the counter. “Why does he even have your number? Isn’t that weird?”
I shrugged.
“I’m assuming one of the other residents gave it to him,” I guessed. “What do you think about the recipe?”
He got up and walked to the kitchen. “Let me see if we have all of the ingredients for it before I say let’s make it.”
I admired his bare back as he went, my eyes scanning down his muscular form.
One particular spot caught my attention, and without thinking I decided to get up and ask him.
I lifted my hand once I got to him.
“What happened here?” I whispered, running my fingers along the length of his back.
There was what looked like a brand there.
Something that I could almost make out but wasn’t sure what it could possibly be.
“You really want to know?” he asked.
Did I?
I wasn’t sure.
I thought I did.
Which was why I said what I said next.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “I do want to know.”
“It’s a burn of my gun,” he said softly. “From as far as the doctors can tell, they heated the metal of my gun, then pressed it to my back as a brand.”
My breath hitched.
“And this?” I asked, pressing against the squares.
“Dog tags,” he answered.
I leaned closer, and my breath hitched.
“Those say Maldonado,” I breathed.
“Yes,” he confirmed.
I didn’t bother asking how or why.
He didn’t know.
I could practically see the frustration rolling off of him.
“If I’d seen this when I still thought you were Malachi,” I said. “I would’ve had some serious questions.”
He snorted. “I did have some questions. I have a lot of them, actually. But nobody seems to have the answers. Hayes might… but when he was done talking in there… I think he’s even more fucked up than I am, even though he doesn’t look it. I swear to God, he spaced out about ten times there, and I thought he was going to have to be given something to calm him down after. He’s just as fucked up, if not more so, than I am.” He paused. “I’m beginning to think that maybe not having my memory might be a good thing.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
Instead, I pressed my lips against his burns—or brands like he was calling them—and changed the subject.
“I know this might sound morbid,” I said softly. “And it’s not something that you can remember, but a couple of months before you left, you had a buddy that died over there.”
He didn’t say anything to that.
He couldn’t, because he couldn’t remember.
His shoulders did stiffen, though.
I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my face against his bare skin between his shoulder blades.
“You didn’t tell me that you were doing it,” I told him. “Only after you’d already done it.”
“Done what?” he pushed.
“Well, a few things,” I said. “You made me the medical power of attorney should anything ever arise with your death.”
He turned until he was facing me so that he could look into my eyes.
Those eyes, no longer like Luca’s but still somehow his, bored into me.
“You also made me executor of your will. Then you made me swear never to open your second letter until I was completely graduated from school,” I said. “Do you think it’s okay to open that letter now?”
He frowned. “What letter?”
I pulled away from him almost reluctantly and walked to my purse where I’d kept that letter for a long, long time.
He watched me walk back to him with it with his eyebrows raised.
“How many more letters do you have like that?” he asked as he watched me walk back toward him.
“Not opened?” I asked. “Just this one. But I have the rest of the letters that you wrote me still in a locker at home. Do you want to read them?”
He nodded. “I do.”
I handed him over the letter, and he studied it for a long time before ripping it open.
He turned it to the side so that I could read it as well.
Frankie,
If you’re following directions—something that you rarely ever do, so kudos to you if you actually managed to not read this, crazy girl—you�
�re reading this after you’ve graduated and you’re officially a doctor. Congrats, baby. I knew you could do it.
Anyway, I’m writing this letter on the off chance that something happens to me. Mostly because I know you so well.
You and me? We were meant to be. From the moment that I met you, I knew that you were my one.
The thing that I had with Katy? I had no idea how special love could be until you came into my life.
“Who is Katy?” Luca asked.
I grinned at the sound of annoyance in his voice.
“Katy was your high school sweetheart. You and she broke up a very long time ago—when you decided to be a SEAL,” I admitted.
His frown was ferocious.
“What?” I asked.
“I feel like I betrayed you by thinking I loved someone else,” he admitted. “I hope that you don’t think I feel anything for her at all.”
Oh, shit.
I was almost scared to tell him the next bit of news.
“Well,” I hesitated.
“Well what?” he pushed.
“Well…” I licked my dry lips and leaned into him. “You remember Logan?”
He double blinked.
“Logan…” he hesitated. “The Logan that I sometimes work with?”
I nodded.
“Yes,” he agreed. “I remember him.”
“Well,” I said. “Logan is kind of sort of married to Katy. Your ex.”
He looked at me wide-eyed.
“You’ve had to come into contact with someone that I’ve been with?” he gaped.
I patted him on his shoulder, loving that he was offended on my behalf, over something that he himself had done.
“Don’t worry.” I patted his chest. “You were never with her like that. And me and Katy are okay.” I paused thoughtfully. “She was really considerate and supportive when you went missing. I wouldn’t say that we were best friends by any means, but she went out of her way to always check on me. She was very sad that you were no longer here.”
He grunted something unintelligible.
Then went back to reading the letter aloud.
When Brandon died, I had this weird sort of urgency to take care of a few things. Every other thing I went into detail about in the other letter. This one is solely for the purpose of telling you one other thing.
I want you to have my baby.
Even if I happen to be gone.
If You Say So (KPD Motorcycle Patrol Book 6) Page 17
