Sweet Nothings: A Bethany Beach Romance

by Lacy Hart

  “You want to grow the business then?”

  “Of course. I think if I had more space I could do much more here. I would love to do bread, but what I really want is the space and the staff to do cakes and cake decorating. I always loved doing that when I was studying to be a pastry chef. I still make some cakes on the side, usually out of my house because we just don’t have the room in the shop, but someday we will.”

  Damian grinned at me as he leaned back in his chair.

  “What?” I asked. “I know I’ll get there. It’s just going to take some time.”

  “I don’t doubt it for a minute. You have the talent, the strength, and the smarts. I can see you running a bakery empire one day.”

  “I don’t need an empire.” I picked up the menu and started to look it over. “I just want a little piece to make me happy.”

  Our waitress, a young blonde woman wearing the nametag of Wendy who I had seen in the bakery many times, came over and took our drink order. Damian and I went back to reading the menu, which was filled with some great choices of food with a Caribbean flair. I could already smell the crab cakes I planned to order, knowing that they were fresh and made perfectly here.

  After we ordered food, Damian and I kicked back, mixing conversation and drink with listening to the band. The band mixed in a little of everything, with classic rock, country, oldies, and even a little reggae Captain Caraway style filled the room. I opened up to Damian and told him more about life than I ever expected to say to someone I had known for just a few days.

  We had each ordered the crab cakes, and after devouring them and the perfectly-cooked fries that came with them, I pushed my chair away from the table a bit so I could breathe. Captain Caraway had just started up with his version of “My Girl” when Damian rose from the table and stood next to me.

  “Come on,” he said, holding out his hand for me to take. “Let’s dance.”

  Before I even had the chance to decline, he had whisked me off my feet and out onto the dance floor. Damian held my body close to his, putting one hand on my hip as we danced. I was no great dancer to start with, but in Damian’s arms, I suddenly felt like Ginger Rogers. He moved me around the dance floor with ease, leading perfectly. He was far from the men I had danced with before that did the typical box steps while looking at their feet.

  “You know how to dance, don’t you?” I said to him as I looked up while trying not to trip over my own feet.

  “Guilty as charged,” he answered. “My mother made me take dancing lessons when I was a teenager. She said boys need to know how to dance to impress a lady. I got made fun of mercilessly for it, but when it came to school dances, all the girls wanted to dance with me.”

  “So, you were quite the ladies’ man even back then, huh?”

  I laid my head against his chest as we kept dancing, listening to the beating of Damian’s heart as we moved. He had moved his hand up to the middle of my back, holding me tightly against him now. I relished being held in his arms this way and was disappointed when the song came to an end. The music stopped, and we stopped moving as people clapped, but Damian just looked down at me and stared right into my eyes.

  “Are you ready to go?” he said softly.

  I simply nodded up at him, and we walked back over to the table so he could pay the check and I could grab my purse. I was giddy when he took my hand to lead me through the crowded room now, and I caught a glimpse of Susan as we were headed for the door and gave her a smile. She gave me a thumbs up and then made an avid gesture to call her, letting me know she had to know more about my date.

  We got in the truck, with Damian holding the door open for me as I climbed in.

  “Well, it’s your choice where we go from here,” I said to him as I brushed the hair from my eyes.

  “Okay,” he said to me.

  The sun was just starting to set some as we drove along and back towards Bethany Beach. Within minutes we were turning towards his house and entering the driveway through the gate. The limo was still neatly parked where it had been the last time I had seen it, and Damian pulled the truck into the garage, giving me a glimpse of the other cars he had in there.

  Damian took our bags from the truck and carried them into the house. We hopped in the small elevator on the first floor and began to ride up. I started feeling very warm in the elevator, with the combination of the closeness to Damian, the drinks of the day, the smallness of the room and the feelings I was having all driving up my body temperature. We stopped on the second floor and got out, walking over towards the pool.

  “Want to go for a swim?” Damian asked me as he opened the door to enter the pool area.

  “Sure, that sounds like fun.” We hadn’t really gone swimming today, but I knew my suit was probably still damp from going to Seacrets.

  “I’m just going to run upstairs and change,” Damian said to me. “You can change in any of the rooms here, or out in the cabana if you like.”

  “Thanks.”

  I picked up my bag and walked passed the indoor area of the pool to the outside and entered the cabana. The cabana itself was quite large, maybe even bigger than my bedroom at home, and it held a couch, a closet filled with towels, a full sink and toilet, and even some lockers for storage.

  I rifled through my bag and pulled out my damp bathing suit, taking a close look at it. I then remembered the bikini Jodie had packed in my bag also and decided to put it on. It might be more revealing than I had wanted it to be, but it was dry.

  I stripped out of my dress and underwear and pulled the bikini bottoms on, making sure they fit nicely on my hips. I put the halter top on, tying it behind my neck, and then put my hair up into a ponytail, so it was out of the way. I looked at myself in the mirror on the back of the door to the cabana and adjusted the top, so it fit more comfortably and gave me a bit ampler cleavage than what I usually show.

  I felt nervous for the first time in a long time and in a way I didn’t typically feel. I never cared much about the way people saw me or what they thought about my looks. They accepted me for who I am, and that was that. I wasn’t going out of my way to impress anyone. But now I found myself checking and double checking how I looked, something I never did, and I almost felt hypocritical about it.

  I grabbed two towels from the cabana and walked out to the pool area. Even though it was still warm outside, I immediately felt a chill hit my exposed skin. I moved quickly to the indoor area of the pool and saw Damian wasn’t back yet. I sat on the edge of the pool, dangling my feet in the warm water, trying to play out in my head just what was going to happen the rest of the evening.

  I heard the door open and saw Damian walking through. He was dressed in black swim trunks, showing off his body once again. My gaze followed him as he placed some items on the chairs where I had put the towels. He came over to me and sat next to me, handing me a glass bottle of water.

  “I thought you might want something that wasn’t alcohol today,” he said with a smile.

  “Good idea,” I told him. “Glass bottles by the pool? You’re living dangerously.”

  “I know, but they are better than having those horrible plastic bottles of water around. At least these get recycled properly. My company is working on alternatives to plastic bottles for water, so hopefully, we can come up with something that is affordable and won’t pollute the earth. My scientists think…”

  I put my hand up to Damian’s lips to quiet him.

  “Let’s swim, Damian,” I said to him with a smile.

  I stood up and walked over to the steps leading down into the pool. I watched as Damian eyed me as I moved along, getting his first view of me in the bikini. It felt incredible to know he was watching every step I took from the time I rose to when I gingerly went down the steps and into the cool water.

  I moved over in front of where he was still sitting on the edge, ducking under the water to get my hair wet before popping back up.

  “Are you getting in?” I asked him.

  �
��I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “This was your idea, remember?” I said to him.

  I playfully splashed at him a couple of times to get him wet and then I saw him jump up. I swam quickly over towards where the inside portion of the pool led to the outside, hoping to beat him to the area, but he had jumped in and caught up to me right away. I let out a slight yell as I felt Damian grab at my foot as I tried to swim from him, but he grabbed me and then pulled me towards him.

  We were standing face to face, in that in-between area of the two sections of the pool. My heart was racing, and I was breathing a little harder as Damian stared at me with intensity in his eyes.

  “That bikini…” he said quietly. “You look amazing.”

  I placed my hands on his smooth chest, walking him back closer to the wall of the pool. When I felt his back bump the wall, Damian moved closer to me, bending down and kissing me lightly at first. Instinct took over, and I pushed against him, pressing my body to him closer than it had ever been.

  Damian’s hands moved down from my shoulders, across my ribs and rested on my hips. We kept kissing, with greater and greater intensity. It wasn’t long before his hands were working back up my body and untying my bikini top. He let the laces fall, and the small triangles of fabric covering my breasts quickly fell with them. My nipples perked up right away as I felt the water hit them directly, and once Damian had placed his right hand on my breast, caressing it as he kissed my lips, the rest of my body reacted just as strongly to him.

  Both of his hands traced my breasts, his thumbs gliding over my nipples deftly. My moans were stifled by the kissing that seemed relentless, and my hands were looking for places to go as they roamed his muscular back, chest, and abs. Every inch I touched was toned and strong, and when my hands worked inside his trunks, untying the drawstring so I could reach inside, I didn’t find anything different. I grasped his erection in my fist, moving my fist up slowly, and Damian growled hungrily, kissing my neck and shoulder while toying with my nipples. The more I stroked, the deeper his breathing was getting, and then I felt his hands slide down, tugging at my bikini bottoms to move them down my legs.

  Damian had managed to get them down past my thighs before I could wiggle out of them myself, and his hand pressed tightly up against my sex as I kept stroking him. When that first finger slipped inside me, I groaned loudly and felt my knees get weak. I was more than ready for him before, and my body ached to have him.

  Damian pulled his hand away from me and tugged down his swim trunks. I saw them bob up in the water next to us out of the corner of my eye before he placed his hands on my hips and pulled my wet, naked body to his. He spun me around, putting my back up against the wall of the pool, and his erection slid easily inside me. I wrapped my legs around his waist, holding onto his shoulders as he penetrated me time and again. The movements were slow and in rhythm at first, and soon I was moving up and down on him, my nipples hovering just above the water, electricity shooting through them and down with each movement he took inside me.

  It had been so long since I experienced anything like this that I didn’t know how long I could make it last. My body started to feel hotter and hotter even though we were in the cool water, and my legs gripped Damian tightly. Each thrust Damian made brought me closer and closer to the edge, and I heard myself panting. Damian sensed how close I was and looked me in the eyes as he moved. My arms stretched out on the pool edge as he withdrew from me slowly and then just slowly pushed back in. My hands slid along the wet marble edge, and my fingernails scraped along as I gasped. When I felt I couldn’t hold out any longer as he thrust deeply into me, I reached over, grabbed Damian around the neck and kissed him hard, moaning into his mouth as the orgasm washed over me.

  My pussy throbbed around him, my body held him tightly, and it was then I felt Damian tense up and push into me as he came. His fingers gripped my back, and he kissed me over and over before he rested his head on my shoulder as I lay against the wall of the pool. I eased my legs from around his waist as the muscles were on fire, and I gave him gentle kisses on the neck as my fingers pawed through his wet hair.

  Damian started to pull away from me slowly, but my shaking hands reached out to hold him there.

  “Don’t leave just yet,” I whispered to him. “My legs are like jelly. I might just sink to the bottom and stay there.”

  Damian took me in his arms and walked me over to the steps so I could sit.

  “We didn’t really do much swimming,” I said to him with a smile, still working on catching my breath.

  “I guess we didn’t. I suppose that’s my fault. Being with you all day, seeing how beautiful you are, I just couldn’t help myself. I had hoped the day might end this way.”

  “Well, it was your idea to go swimming. That last move was my decision. Those were the rules of the day.” I reached over and grabbed the pieces of my bikini as they floated near and bundled them up in my hands.

  “So, I guess that means I get to decide what happens next,” Damian said with an impish grin.

  “And what did you have in mind?”

  Damian climbed out of the pool and walked his naked body over to where the towels were. I watched him move, marveling at his physique once again, and I started to stir inside again.

  Damian offered his hand to me as he helped me stand up on my still wobbly legs. He wrapped a towel around my shoulders, slowly drying me off, and then handed me a fluffy white robe he had brought down with him. I slid the large robe on and let it envelop me, happy for the warmth it was bringing.

  “Are your things in the cabana?” Damian asked me. I simply nodded and watched as he walked out to the cabana, still naked, to get my bag. On his way back, I saw him look up and move a little faster than he had been before as if someone had seen him.

  “James is back,” he said with a laugh. “We might want to take the elevator up.”

  Damian put a robe on, took my bag and we both hustled out of the pool area to the elevator. The elevator door closed and it moved slowly up to the top floor. Damian stood behind me, kissing my neck the whole ride up, his hands slipping around my waist and inside my robe to feel my bare flesh.

  When the elevator doors opened, Damian peeked out first to make sure no one was upstairs. Nodding that it was clear, I dashed out of the elevator and over towards his room. Damian quickly followed, his robe swinging open as he got in the room and closed the door.

  I sat back on the king-size bed, feeling the comfortable mattress beneath me. Damian tossed my bag on a chair in the room and sat next to me on the bed before pulling me back, so I was lying next to him. He started kissing me again, untying the front of my robe so he could pull the sides open and lightly run his fingers over my body.

  “Spend the night with me,” Damian said softly as he started kissing my shoulder.

  “Damian, I have to open the bakery tomorrow, I can’t…” My voice trailed off as his kissing had worked its way down to my breasts and he placed light kisses on each one.

  “You can spend the night and still get to the bakery in time to open,” he said to me as he kept kissing my breasts. “You have plenty of clothes, and I’ll make sure to set the alarm, so you get up. Please, I really want you to stay. I want to wake up with you.”

  “I don’t know,” I said, almost breathlessly as Damian’s kissing was now working its way lower, across my stomach to my waist.

  “It’s my choice to decide what’s next, remember?” Damian was looking at me now from between my legs, kissing the inside of my left thigh. My body and will melted again.

  “Okay, I’ll stay,” I said to him. “But that means I decide what happens now.”

  “Oh? So, what happens next?”

  I shot Damian a smile as I saw his face between my legs. I reached down, taking the back of his head, and guided his face towards me. When I felt his lips and tongue dart inside me, I knew I had made the right decision for the next step.

  14

  Damian

 
When I heard the rapid beeping of a cell phone, I was jolted out of my restful sleep. Spending the night with my arms draped around Kelly, holding her close, had given me a sense of peace and happiness I haven’t felt for a long time in my personal life. We had spent the night exploring each other, and it was deep into the night before we had finally exhausted ourselves and curled up together in the sheets of my bed.

  My eyes were open, barely, when I saw Kelly crawl out from my arms and walk to the bathroom. I could see her shapely body move across the room as just the barest hint of light was making its way through the blinds on the windows. I heard the water in the shower start to thrum and rolled onto my back as I considered getting up and joining Kelly in the shower. My body yearned to be near her again.

  The shower didn’t last long, and Kelly appeared in the doorway of the bathroom, a blue towel wrapped tightly around her. She was surprised when she saw me sitting up in the bed, anticipating her coming back.