by Vawn Cassidy
‘Sounds ominous.’ I grin, and he laughs. ‘It looks great in here by the way.’
And it does, several tables have been set up with stands full of cupcakes, cookies and cake pops all wrapped in pretty transparent bags and tied with curling ribbon. Along one side of the gazebo, he’s set up an old fashioned sweet cart with jars of different candies and sweets, lollipops and liquorice. There’s also an old fashioned heavy brass weighing scales and stacks of striped paper bags.
‘Thanks.’ He flushes happily. ‘Here try this.’
He hands me a stick of rock in candy apple red. I turn it over and look at the end and see The Bay, etched into the sweet, hard candy. Unwrapping the clear cellophane, I take a tentative lick and feel the flavor burst on my tongue.
‘It tastes like apples.’ I smile.
‘Yep.’ He nods. ‘That one is called Poison Apple. It’s part of my Enchanted range.’
‘It’s brilliant.’ I smile. ‘You branching out then?’
‘I’ve always had an interest in making sweets and candies.’ He shrugs, blushing slightly. ‘And I figured if we’re going to be getting more tourists into the bay it might be nice to have some of our own signature rocks and candies for them to buy as gifts.’
I glance along the display of all his newest creations. There are beautifully wrapped bags of individual candies in various shapes. Large round and long twisted lollipops and the traditional striped sticks of rock.
‘These are incredible, Colin,’ I tell him sincerely, watching as he smiles in pleasure.
He’s so cute that I could literally pick him up and put him in my pocket. He’s not much older than me in his late twenties. He only opened his cupcake shop a few years ago, and he bakes like a dream. His hair is a gorgeous vintage red colour, like something you’d see on a silver screen actress, and he has a light dusting of freckles across his nose and vivid green eyes. I don’t think he gets how pretty he actually is, but he’s also really quite shy and a little nerdy.
I wonder if he gets out much or if he’s trapped in his bakery and now, sweet factory, like a little mad scientist creating sweet treats.
‘Um.’ He clears his throat when he catches me staring at him thoughtfully. ‘I made some Watermelon flavoured hearts.’ He picks up a bag and hands it to me. ‘I know it’s one of Beck’s favourite flavours, so I thought you and he could share them.’
‘Oh my god, you’re so cute, Colin.’ I smile as I reach into my pocket for some money.
‘No.’ He shakes his head slowly. ‘It’s on me.’
‘Thanks.’ I watch him solicitously, and I wonder. ‘When it slows down, after the festival, come down to Sully’s, and I’ll cook you the best meal you’ve ever had on the house,’ I offer sincerely, determined to get him out and socialising more.
‘Okay.’ He nods shyly.
I take the bag of heart shaped candies and popping the stick of rock back in my mouth, I head out of the gazebo and down to the grassy dunes overlooking the beach.
Weaving through the crowds, I step out onto the sand and laugh loudly. Along the beach, in front of the surf school, are a row of several large holes, each surrounded with a heap of sand, wooden sticks, sails, and accessories.
I look over and see Georgie waving at me. Apart from organising several surf events over the next couple of days, she volunteered to host the sandcastle building competition. This time however, she’s decided to go with a theme. All the contestants have two hours to build their own pirate ship made entirely of sand.
I find myself checking out all the entries as I head toward Georgie shaking my head. I come across Jesse who has not only buried Quinn in the sand but is recreating the scene from Friends where they cover Joey in sand and give him a mermaid’s body complete with breasts. However, given that this is a family event, he has at least given him a couple of seashells for modesty’s sake. Chuckling as Quinn grins and gives me a thumbs up, I stop at one of the large holes that has been dug in the sand and peer in.
‘Molly?’ I laugh.
Her head pops up out of the hole where she appears to be building a bench to sit on, and she cackles loudly. She’s wearing a rather risqué peasant blouse and corset, with tight fitting trousers. Her hair is tucked under a pirate hat, and she has large gold hoops dangling from her ears. To my utter delight, I see she’s wearing her crocs, only this time they’re a bright lime green pair.
‘Nat! Ahoy there!’ She looks down. ‘Mid-shipman! Friendlies off the port bow!’
Suddenly another head pops up out of the sand.
‘Bernard?’ I grin.
His head is covered with a knotted red and white handkerchief, and his bushy white handlebar moustache has been waxed into Salvador Dali curls at the edges. He’s wearing an eye patch and has an inflatable parrot attached to his frilly shirt.
‘Ahoy!’ he booms. ‘Permission to come aboard… come on, lad, grab a bucket and spade.’
‘Thanks.’ I grin widely. ‘But I have to be down at Sully’s soon, I just wanted to see Beck first.’
‘Very good then.’ He nods. ‘Carry on. You’ll find the object of your esteem somewhat to the stern, about fifty paces as the crow flies.’ He waves a pink plastic spade in that direction.
‘Thanks, have fun guys!’ I move on.
‘Nat,’ Georgie calls out as she tosses me an ice cold bottle of water from the cooler next to her. ‘Beck’s further down the beach, make sure he drinks plenty, it’s going to be a hot one.’
I shoot her a salute and make my way further through the throngs of people. Finally, I see a low barrier where a section of the beach has been divided off far enough back that it won’t be disturbed by the tide.
I stop and stare in amazement. Where there had been a huge pile of damp builders sand delivered a few days earlier, there is now the beginnings of an incredible sand sculpture.
It’s a huge pirate galleon, which has been split down the middle, and from which protrudes a giant sea monster, its tentacles wrapped around the ship. Although the rough shape of the Kraken and the stern of the ship are there, they don’t yet have as much detail as the rest of it. Beck’s been working on it since dawn, and it’ll probably take him all day to finish before he’ll move onto the next section of the beach, which has been ear marked for him to create a different sculpture tomorrow.
I move further through the people, watching in fascination and stepping closer, so I can marvel at the incredible detail. He’s created waves made of sand all around the base of the sculpture that look so real with their foamy swells crashing over each other. The tentacles of the Kraken are exquisite with small round suckers clinging to the ship as it tears it apart. The front section of the ship has a mermaid figure head, and you can see the detailed wooden planks. It even has little cannons poking out of the small square hatches. Once again, I’m absolutely blown away at the talent of my boyfriend.
My boyfriend… I beam, glancing down to see the object of my affection as he moulds another cannon from damp sand.
‘You look hot.’ I grin, holding up the bottle of water and waving it. As he looks up, I see he’s wearing my aquarium baseball cap with a little black fin shark on the front.
His gaze skims down my body, and I flush as his eyes darken. He stands and moves over to me slowly taking the bottle gratefully. He unscrews the cap and takes a long gulp. I watch his throat muscles as he swallows and wish we weren’t in such a public place, so I could do extremely dirty things to him right now.
‘You’ve got a whole sexy Orlando Bloom/Will Turner thing going on right now,’ he says quietly, his voice a delicious rasp that coils around my stomach and squeezes. ‘I wish we were alone.’
‘That’s just what I was thinking.’ I smile slowly.
‘Later, baby.’ He winks. ‘And I want you to keep the costume on.’
I glance down at my pirate outfit. ‘Really? A pirate?’
He shrugs. ‘Like I said, Orlando Bloom.’ As if that explains everything, but being an Orlando fan myself, I can’t really disagre
e.
‘Fine.’ I grin. ‘Then you can’t complain when I put the elf ears on you, so you can be Legolas.’
‘An elf?’ He blinks.
I eye his blonde hair, which is long enough to touch his shoulders now, tied back in a messy knot beneath the baseball cap at the nape of his neck.
‘Uh, hmmm.’ I nod, and he chuckles. ‘This looks incredible by the way,’ I tell him, turning my attention back to the sculpture.
‘It’s coming along,’ he agrees modestly. ‘You heading down to Sully’s?’
‘Yeah, meet me there later?’
He nods and drops a quick chaste kiss on my lips before returning to the sculpture. Glancing down at my watch, I realise I’m running late, so I turn and jog back up the beach towards Sully’s, heading up the wooden steps to the terrace and into the building toward the staff room. I wave to my sous chef, Hayley, and my line cook, Toby. They’ll be in the main kitchen today handling the restaurant while Mel and I have set up a station on the deck, overlooking the beach for takeaway tacos.
I open the door to the staff room and stop dead when I see my sister and Beck’s older brother Reed, in what looks to be a low heated discussion. They stop mid-sentence and turn to look at me. Pia’s face instantly softening as she sees me.
‘Pia?’ I step into the room and let the door close behind me. ‘What’s going on? I’ve been worried about you. I haven’t been able to reach you for days.’
‘I know,’ she replies quietly. ‘My phone got damaged, and I haven’t been able to replace it yet. So, I came to see you instead.’ She swallows hard, her hands restlessly fidgeting. ‘I wanted to apologise.’
‘For what?’ I frown.
‘It was my fault.’ Her shoulders curl as she folds into herself slightly. ‘What happened the other day. Avery found your phone number in my phone and gave it to Father. He also showed him the photos from the social media posts I had of you on my phone, so he knew where to find you. I’m so sorry. I should’ve been more careful.’
‘Pia, it’s not your fault. You have nothing to be sorry for.’ I step forward and pull her into my arms, feeling her body tight with tension as I hug her. Something’s going on with her, and I’m determined to find out what it is. I look across to Reed whose troubled eyes are locked on my sister, but I can’t read his expression. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Nothing.’ Pia steps back and shakes her head.
‘But…’ I begin but stop when the door flies open.
‘Nat.’ Mel pops her head around the door. ‘Oh, hello, Pia, love, I didn’t know you were coming today.’
‘Um, it was a spur of the moment thing,’ Pia murmurs.
‘You want some lunch?’ Mel asks.
‘Actually,’ Reed interrupts. ‘Pia agreed to help me run some errands.’
I stare at the two of them, and for a second, I’m sure I see a brief flash of gratitude and… relief in her eyes.
‘Pia,’ I begin again, but Mel interrupts.
‘I’m sorry, Nat, but you’ll have to catch up with her later. There’s a queue halfway around the restaurant for the taco stand, so I need you out front.’
‘Okay.’ I nod reluctantly before turning back to Pia. ‘We’ll talk later?’
‘Sure,’ she agrees, not quite meeting my eyes.
‘Nat!’ Mel calls, and given no other choice, I head out.
The rest of the day passes in a taco fueled blur. There’s a never-ending queue, and by the time night rolls around, I could quite cheerfully never see another taco again in my life if it wasn’t for the fact I have to do this all over again tomorrow.
The customers have dwindled down to almost nothing as I clean down the taco stand and pack everything away.
‘Well done, love,’ Mel kisses my cheek fondly. ‘You did great.’
‘Tell that to my feet,’ I grumble. ‘I can no longer feel them.’
She laughs warmly and heads into the main restaurant as Beck climbs the steps, handing me a cold beer.
‘Hey, baby.’ He kisses me softly, and I lean into him, burying my face in his neck. ‘Long day?’
‘I think they’ve broken me,’ I mumble against his skin and feel him chuckle.
‘Come on, let’s head home.’ He strokes my back comfortingly. ‘You’ll feel better once you have a shower and put your feet up.’
‘I can’t,’ I sigh. ‘I need to go find Pia and speak to her.’
‘She’s gone, Nat,’ Beck tells me softly.
‘Gone?’ I pull back and frown. ‘Where?’
‘Back to London,’ he replies. ‘Reed called me and asked me to let you know. Pia says she’ll call you as soon as she gets a new phone.’
‘But…’ I shake my head trying to organise my thoughts, which isn’t easy as I’m exhausted. ‘Did Reed say anything else?’
‘No, he called from the hospital, and said he’d been called in and had to work.’
‘Something’s not right.’ I scowl. ‘And I think your brother knows something.’
‘We’ll find him and ask him tomorrow,’ Beck soothes me. ‘And if not, we’ll go and see Pia ourselves, okay? But you’re tired, and it’s been a long day. Come home, baby.’
‘I guess.’ I lift my beer and take a long satisfying pull as I watch Beck. ‘This shower you mentioned, will I have company?’
‘Of course.’ He smiles slowly. ‘You’re going to need someone to wash your back for you.’
I grin as I poke my head into the restaurant to let Mel know I’m leaving, and hand in hand we walk down the steps and back along the beach, sipping our beers slowly and enjoying the sound of the crashing waves and the cool breeze coming in off the water.
We pass by the sand ships from the competition earlier, some of which are pretty good.
‘Who won?’ I ask.
‘Some kid and his sister from Basingstoke I think.’ Beck lifts his beer to his lips and sips slowly as we pass his finished sand sculpture.
‘Wow.’ I stop and stare. ‘That’s insane.’
I try to take in all the minute details of the pirate ship being ripped apart and dragged down by the Kraken, but it’s really too dark to see properly.
‘You can get a better look at it tomorrow,’ Beck replies.
‘Did you get loads of photos?’
‘Yeah.’ He nods. ‘Juni did too, and she’s plastered them all over Sully’s social media. There was also a local news crew around earlier.’
‘That’s so cool.’ I grin. ‘My boyfriend is so talented.’
He growls playfully and grips my neck pulling me in for a deep, wet kiss. I can taste the beer on his tongue as it slides against mine, and I moan.
‘I’ve been waiting to do that all day,’ he whispers against my lips.
‘Come on.’ I tug his hand toward the bottom of the path, which leads up to the cottage. ‘I want to get naked with you.’
He chuckles, and we climb up the familiar path. We don’t stop when we reach the top, we don’t even pause when we reach the door, we simply head straight up to the bathroom and flip the light on.
Setting my beer down on the counter, I strip quickly and turn to switch the water on, feeling Beck’s hot skin at my back. We stumble into the shower, all tangled limbs and tongues as the water pounds down on us. I hiss as he shoves me against the cold tiles and drops to his knees, swallowing my aching cock and forcing me to cry out.
My fingers tangle in his hair as he pulls back and licks my balls, sucking them into his mouth one by one before moving back to the thick head of my dick and suckling tightly.
‘Fuck,’ I gasp out. ‘Stop. I don’t want to come yet.’
He stands slowly, his mouth curving into a deep smile, dimples winking at me and making my stomach tighten. He’s so fucking gorgeous. There are moments like these when I can’t quite believe this is my life, can’t believe… that he’s all mine.
‘I love you,’ I mutter as my gaze trails over his swollen lips.
He leans in and kisses me again, slowly, deepl
y before pulling back and resting his forehead against mine.
‘I love you too, Nat, so fucking much.’
I watch as he slowly grabs the shampoo and pours some into his hands, reaching up and washing my hair, pressing the pads of his fingers to my scalp, and massaging so thoroughly that my eyes practically roll back into my head, and I’m almost surprised that I’m not purring like Artie.
He takes his time, picking up the shower gel and lathering up my body, washing me intimately and reverently. All of the earlier heat and desperation sliding away to be replaced with this slow seductive spell he’s weaving around us as the shower steams up.
When he’s done, I switch places with him, manoeuvring him under the water and washing his hair before reaching for the soap and running my hands all over his body. I turn him so his hands are pressing against the tiles as I kiss across his sun kissed shoulders and down his spine, grazing my lips across each vertebra until I’m on my knees for him.
I grasp and massage the gorgeous curves of his tight cheeks before spreading them and swiping my tongue along the length of his crease. I hear him hiss as I return to his rosy little pink hole, lapping at him. Running my tongue around the rim before sliding it into his hole. I alternate between licking and suckling his puckered opening and penetrating his hole with my tongue as far as it will reach.
My balls are drawn up so tightly, aching with the need to come. My dick is throbbing and twitching with how desperately it’s turning me on to eat him out, but I don’t touch myself. I want this to last. I can’t get enough of him. Especially, when he groans and pushes back further against my mouth.
‘Nat,’ he gasps. ’Nat.’
I rise slowly, pressing my chest to his back, my cock nestled against his crease as I reach around and wrap my hand around his dick, stroking slowly as I kiss and nibble his neck.
‘What do you want, love?’ I ask and feel him shiver as the endearment rolls easily from my tongue.
‘I want you inside me,’ Beck whispers.
‘What?’ I stop moving, sure I’ve misheard him.
‘I want you to fuck me,’ he replies.
‘You want me to top you?’ I breathe heavily as my cock gives a sharp twitch.
