The Summer of Us (Mission Cove Book 1)

by Melanie Moreland

  I reached for her face, cupping her cheek and stroking it with my thumb. “If I remember right, you were a great problem solver, Sunny.”

  “Hmm,” she hummed, tracing along my shaft with her finger. Up, down, over, circling the crown, then repeating the circuit. She added her thumb, swirling it along the head, making me groan low in my throat when she wrapped her hand around me. “I am good at zeroing in—” she pumped me “—on the issue.”

  “Oh god, yes. Zero in, Sunny. For the love of god, zero in.”

  Bending over my torso, she hovered over me, her mouth almost touching mine. Her breasts brushed against my chest, her nipples teasing the hairs scattered along my skin. She licked my jaw, trailing her tongue along my neck and shocking me when she bit down at the juncture, sucking in the skin with a sharp nip.

  She winked. “Payback.”

  Before I could even react, she sank down on my aching cock. I shouted, gripping her hips at the sudden rush of heat, the warmth enveloping me. The intense pang of pleasure that shot through my body.

  “Fuck, Sunny.”

  “Yes,” she deadpanned. “That is exactly what I had in mind.”

  Then she began to move. Long, slow rolls of her hips. Pressing down, lifting up, stroking my cock with her inner walls as I groaned and hissed at the sensations. She grabbed my hands, lifting them to her breasts. I fondled and stroked her nipples, held her full curves in my hands as she moved over me. She bent backward, her hair brushing my legs as she took me deeper than I had ever been before. Her walls clamped down on me, rippling and clenching around my shaft. The effect of her altered position blew my mind.

  Destroyed any control I thought I held.

  Cursing, I grappled for purchase on her hips again, straining to get closer. Thrust up into her warmth. Shouted her name. Came without warning. My cock pulsated, emptying within her. Sunny gripped my thighs, a low, pensive cry escaping her lips as she arched and shuddered.

  “Linc,” she moaned. “Linc…Linc…Linc.”

  Then she collapsed on my torso, breathing heavily. I wrapped my arms around her, cuddling her to my chest, lost in the moment of warm intimacy with her. I dropped kisses to her head, whispering words of adoration and love to her. “Sunny, baby…” My voice trailed off.

  She lifted her head, sleepy and sated. “Hi.”

  “Hi.”

  She tapped my chin, a goofy smile on her lips. “Hi.”

  I chuckled. “Did I fuck the words right out of you?”

  She giggled. “I think I was the one fucking you, Linc.”

  “I love it when you talk dirty.”

  She wiggled a little. “I am dirty.” She wrinkled her nose. “Messy.”

  I chuckled. “How about a shower?”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Then pizza?”

  She hesitated.

  “Would you like something else?’

  “I love Chinese. I mean, love it. Where we lived in Nova Scotia, we knew an Asian family that had a restaurant. It was amazing and I was spoiled. Their noodles and ginger chicken were so awesome. I crave them. Mission Cove has one place, and it’s pretty bad. There must be some good places here?”

  “There are and, in fact, there’s a great one close. I’ll order us all your favorites.”

  She pushed off my chest. “Race you to the shower.”

  I watched her hurry away, enjoying the way her hips swayed and admiring the curve of her ass. She always had a great ass—even in our teens. It was the only thing that made watching her leave enjoyable. Still, I jumped from bed and followed. I wasn’t ready to let her out of my sight yet.

  Sunny gazed around the table, her eyes wide. “How much food did you order?”

  I slid a plate in front of her. “A lot. I wasn’t sure what you liked aside from noodles and ginger chicken, so I got what I thought you would enjoy, plus my favorites. We can pack up the leftovers and take them back to Mission Cove.”

  She sat down, reaching for the noodles. I grinned at her eagerness. One thing I had always loved about Sunny was there was never any pretense. She never hid the fact that she was hungry or enjoyed eating. I had always kept extra treats in my car for her when we were younger. So many girls at school picked at their food, refusing to let anything pass their lips that wasn’t in the form of salad or vegetables. I had observed the same thing in many of the women I had encountered in my adult life. It was a mystery to me, and I was glad Sunny had never adopted that mind-set. I liked seeing her enjoy the food in front of her. It made me less self-conscious about my own appetite, which to this day, was massive.

  We loaded up our plates, the kitchen filled with the low moans and exclamations from Sunny. I watched her chew a dumpling, slurp noodles, pick up some spicy beef in her fingers when her chopstick skills failed her, all while making noises that were oddly erotic. My dick hardened as she licked her lips, closing her eyes in satisfaction as her tongue lapped at the spicy sauce from the ginger chicken.

  “That, right there,” she groaned. “Oh my god, it’s better than sex.”

  I slapped my hand on the table. “You wanna bet on that, Sunny-girl?” I growled. “My cock is willing to take on that challenge—right on top of the counter behind me. You wanna throw down?”

  Her eyes flew open, her tongue frozen mid-lick. “Um, what?”

  I pointed my chopsticks at her. “The noises, the mutterings. You have no idea what you’re doing to me. You either need to tone it down, or we’re taking a break from dinner.”

  She blinked. Had the audacity to lean over and peek under the table. My casual pants were tented obscenely. She sat up. “Wow.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. She grinned, winked, then twirled a long strand of noodles on her chopsticks and, never breaking our gaze, slurped them loudly, licked her lips and hummed. “So…good,” she moaned. “So-so-good.”

  My chair fell back as I stood, towering over her. “I warned you.”

  She was out of her seat fast, grabbing a dumpling as she did. “You’re going to have to catch me.”

  I grinned maniacally. “Oh, baby, you’re on.”

  Sunny lifted her leg, bubbles drifting down her wet skin, sinking into the steaming water around us. I nestled her tighter to my chest, pressing a kiss to her damp curls. Our chase had ended fast, and I’d had her up on the counter promptly. I was inside her not long after, both of us climaxing quickly, in long, breathless shouts. Then, sticky from sex, she sat on my lap and we fed each other mouthfuls of food, the spicy morsels often dripping on our chins. I licked it off her smooth skin, but we were a mess. A bath was definitely in order, and I carried her upstairs, filled the tub, and we sank under the mounds of foam.

  Turned out body wash made great bubbles, and I had been over-generous with my squirts.

  “You okay, baby?” I asked.

  “Hmm,” she responded. “I’m great.”

  I held her tighter. “You are.”

  She tilted up her head, and I dropped a kiss to her full mouth. I would never tire of being able to kiss her again. I was addicted to her mouth.

  She sighed in contentment. “I love this tub.”

  “It’s yours. Use it whenever you want.”

  There was a beat of silence.

  “It’s a little far away from Mission Cove,” she reminded me, her voice gentle.

  “Whenever you’re here,” I assured her, the reality of our situation breaking in. She lived there; I lived here. Fewer than a hundred miles away, but when we were apart, it would feel like an entire continent.

  She was quiet, but I felt the tension creeping back into her shoulders. I bent over her ear. “We’ll figure it out, Sunny. Just live in this moment with me, right now.”

  “It’s more than I thought I would ever have again,” she admitted.

  “It’s the start,” I insisted. “We’ll find a solution.”

  She pulled away and turned in the water to look at me. Her curls were damp, tendrils falling down her neck and over her forehead. Her skin g
listened pink and wet from the heat and water. She was beautiful but looked troubled, a V forming between her eyes. I rubbed my thumb over the crease. “Stop, Sunny. Stop questioning this.”

  “How will this work, Linc? You pop down on the weekends, and I come visit once a month? We have enough sex to tide us over until the next time? Talk and text during the week?” She looked away. “Eventually, you’ll get tired of that.”

  I was honest. “Yes, I would. Very quickly, in fact.” Her eyes flew to mine, wide and worried. “Which is why that isn’t going to happen, Sunny. I lost too much of my life with you already. It’s not happening.”

  “My bakery—”

  I held up a finger to her lips. “I know your bakery is important, Sunny. And for now, yes, I will be there with you as much as I can. We will talk and text every day. I won’t even address the ‘have enough sex to tide us over,’ because there will never be enough with you. But as the future becomes now, we’ll figure it out.”

  “You don’t ever want to live in Mission Cove again.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “It was never in my plans, no,” I admitted, running my knuckles down her cheek. “But I didn’t know you were there.”

  “And now?”

  “Now that I found you again, I’m not letting you go. Ever. So, whatever we have to do, we’ll decide it—together. Here. There. Somewhere in between. But it will be us, Sunny. Not a summer of us, but a lifetime of us. Understand?”

  She regarded me in silence, then turned back in my arms and sank down in the water again. “Fine,” she huffed. “Bossy man.”

  She pushed away a mound of foam.

  “Possessive bastard,” she added, muttering under her breath.

  I hauled her up my chest and bit her neck. “Damn right, I’m possessive. Don’t forget it.”

  I heard her muffled giggle. I tightened my hold. “We’ll work it out, Sunny. Trust me.”

  “I do.”

  I liked those two words. I planned on her saying them again—in a totally different setting and with witnesses.

  And soon.

  I liked waking up with Sunny beside me. Even more, I liked being able to make love to her in the early dawn, listening to her low moans and feeling her clench around me as I took her from behind, holding her leg over my hip and slowly thrusting into her until she cried out my name. I followed not long after, with my face buried in her neck, her light scent filling my senses.

  We showered, ate the biscuits she’d made the day before, then left for Mission Cove. On a whim, I took a detour, and we stopped at the old summer camp. The camp had closed and the land sold, but Gerry and Cindy retained a small piece of the property and still lived there.

  I followed the road that led up to the old dining hall. Gerry and Cindy had converted it, and it now looked like a comfortable home.

  I stepped out of the car as Gerry opened the front door, stepping out on the porch. He was older, his hair gray, but he still walked tall, his shoulders straight. He approached the edge of the porch.

  “Can I help you?”

  Sunny opened her door and she slid out. “Hi, Gerry.”

  He beamed at her. “Hey, Sunny.” He indicated me. “Who’s your friend?”

  I pulled off my sunglasses. “Hey, Gerry.”

  His eyes widened. “Well, son of a bitch.” He hurried down the steps, shouting over his shoulder for his wife, then grabbing me in a bear hug. “Linc.”

  Cindy came out the door. She hadn’t changed, although her hair was white and her face had a few more wrinkles. But her warm smile was the same, and her hug was firm.

  They insisted we come in. Cindy bustled around getting coffee, Sunny offering to help her. Gerry showed me around, explaining how they’d remodeled the large building. “Cindy had knee surgery a while back, so we needed one floor. This is perfect for us.”

  “It’s great, Gerry.”

  We sat on the porch they had added, facing the lake.

  “I often wondered about you, kid,” he mused. “Your father—he made you disappear?”

  “Yeah,” was all I could get out. Memories of that summer, that perfect summer Sunny and I spent here, were overwhelming me.

  “I should have done something.”

  I shook my head, facing him. “There was nothing anyone could do, Gerry. My father was too powerful and determined to keep me away from Sunny or anything that made me happy.” I slouched back in my chair, staring at the water. “But he’s dead now, and his control is gone.”

  Sunny and Cindy joined us, a tray of coffee and cookies sitting on the table. I grinned around a mouthful of the oatmeal raisin cookie. It was another memory come to life. “So good,” I murmured, reaching for another.

  “We use Cindy’s recipe at the bakery,” Sunny informed me. “They are one of our biggest sellers.”

  I grabbed a third, not at all embarrassed.

  Cindy chuckled. “I see your appetite hasn’t changed.”

  “Nope. I was denied all the things I loved for so long. Now, I have them anytime I want.” I met Sunny’s gaze with a subtle wink, causing pink to spread across her cheeks.

  Gerry caught me and chuckled. “Nice to see the two of you together.”

  I lifted Sunny’s hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “It feels nice. Really nice.”

  We all laughed, and Gerry and Cindy caught me up on their life.

  “About four years after you disappeared, we decided to close the camp,” Gerry mused. “We were getting on, kids didn’t want to be counselors anymore, and our numbers were dwindling.”

  I nodded, already knowing what he was about to say.

  “We put the land up for sale, with the stipulation we keep a small piece for our retirement.” He sighed. “It was a hard decision, but we knew it was our nest egg.”

  He rested his arm on the chair. “Imagine my shock when we got an offer—a really good offer on the land—that allowed us to keep, in what was my opinion, the most valuable piece of the property. I was given a free lease that expires when both Cindy and I are gone.”

  I took a sip of my coffee, not meeting his eyes.

  “A further shock has been that the land has never been developed. A crew shows up twice a year, cuts back trees, makes sure it’s clean, even does the same work on my property, then leaves. No surveyors, no real estate people, no developers have ever been here.”

  “Hmm,” I muttered. “Odd, I agree.”

  No one would ever develop the land around them—I’d made sure of that. They had been good to me. Treated me well. It had been one of the first things I had bought when I put my plan into place. I was determined to look after them.

  “It’s amazing,” Gerry mused. “Same thing seems to be happening in Mission Cove. Unexpected gifts of property. Houses being rebuilt and sold at a fraction of their value. Almost gifted, some say.”

  Sunny looked between us, putting the pieces together.

  Gerry rested his elbows on his knees. “What are you doing these days, Linc?"

  I waved my hand. “This and that. Finance mostly.”

  “Uh-huh. Any property investments?”

  “I have my fingers in a lot of pies, Gerry,” I said smoothly.

  “I bet you do,” he said with a smirk. “I bet you do.”

  I let his remark pass.

  Cindy and Sunny got up and took the tray inside. They were talking about recipes and a new cookie for the bakery for Sunny to try.

  “She’s become a lovely woman,” he stated.

  “Yes.”

  “She part of your future, Linc? Or only for now?”

  “My future,” I stated firmly.

  “Good. She suffered greatly when you left.”

  I snorted. “I didn’t do so well myself, Gerry.” I shut my eyes. “I was locked up, no way to contact anyone, and scared most of the time.”

  “But you survived.”

  “I survived,” I agreed.

  He was quiet for a moment. “Are you living in your father
’s house?”

  I shuddered at the thought. “No. I’m having it destroyed.”

  “Going to rebuild?”

  “I haven’t decided,” I said honestly. “Maybe nothing.”

  “That would be a waste.”

  “As long as the monument to his stranglehold on Mission Cove is gone, I’m happy.”

  He didn’t say anything for a moment, rubbing his bottom lip. “Maybe you need to think again, Linc.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You are obviously rebuilding this town, Linc. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that all the improvements that have happened are in some way connected to your past.”

  I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t looking for thanks or glory.

  “I get you want to destroy the legacy of your father.”

  I snorted. “Legacy isn’t the word I would use. Reign of destruction, more like it.”

  “Fine. Then think, Linc. Destroying your father’s house—fine. But leaving the land empty? You’re missing an opportunity.”

  I faced him fully. “An opportunity?”

  He nodded. “Your father was all about keeping everyone down. Being king. He never reached out his hand to help people—he liked to keep them beneath him. You want to purge his memory? Then do something positive with the land.” He grinned evilly. “Something your father would hate.”

  “Do you have an idea?”

  He leaned forward. “I do.”

  We shook hands goodbye. “Don’t be a stranger,” Gerry said and waved his hand toward his house. “And I know, kid. I know this was you.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He clapped me on the shoulder. “Okay. Keep your secret. But I am forever in your debt. It broke my heart, thinking I would have to leave this place.”

  “That will never happen,” I vowed, then snapped my mouth shut.

  He winked. “It’s okay, kid. Your secret is safe. Remember what we talked about. Think hard.”

  “I will.”

  I slid into the car, and we headed for Mission Cove. I knew Sunny was already thinking of the list of items she had to take care of. My head was swimming with Gerry’s idea. It was simple but perfect.