“No more headaches? Stomachache? Dizziness?”
“Nope. All gone. I feel great,” Samantha said.
“Good. Then we can finish what you started last night,” Lucas said.
Samantha squeaked as he lifted her, depositing her firmly in the middle of his bed.
“Lucas, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have thrown myself at you like that. Not after you’d been so kind as to care for me when I was crying. It wasn’t fair of me,” Samantha said, trying to talk through the feelings that pulsed through her body as he nibbled gently at her neck. “I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you like that.”
“You can take advantage of me all you want, but I want our first time to be when you’re sober,” Lucas said, bracing his hands on either side of her so he could look her in the eyes. “Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind a tipsy roll-around in the bed. But not for our first time. I want you to remember every moment of it.”
“Um,” Samantha said – very poetically, she was sure.
“‘Um’ is right,” Lucas said, nibbling at her lips before pulling away to look her in the eye. “This matters. We matter.”
Chapter 35
We matter, Samantha whispered to herself as Lucas took her under with his kisses. It was a simple statement, but the words wielded their power on her. When was the last time someone had put her first? Aside from Lola, nobody in her life saw her for who she was, was patient with her, or wanted to take care of her. Here was this man, whom she’d only known for a matter of days, seeing her more clearly than anyone else in her life.
Was it because she’d met him at a breaking point? When her shields were down and he could see through her tough exterior to the woman inside who begged to be loved? How could someone who’d only just met her seem to know her so well? It felt right, she realized, as she met him kiss for kiss.
Like no other man before – this felt right.
“We matter,” Samantha said, aloud this time.
Lucas’s smile flashed in his face and for an instant she saw the vulnerability that lay behind his confident exterior. He wanted her, but this wasn’t just a game for him, she realized. He truly wanted her – all of her – and was opening himself to her.
Lucas delivered as he’d promised, exploring her with an impossible slowness that brought her body to a painfully awakened need. Tracing his lips down her jawline, he brushed his tongue lightly over the sensitive spot at her collarbone, blowing warm breath across her skin. She shivered in response, her body going liquid as she began her own exploration.
Free to touch the body she’d been staring at all week, Samantha ran her hands down the muscles of his shoulders, clenching at his back when his mouth nudged the folds of the robe aside and his mouth found her breast. Gently, he lapped at her nipple, teasing it until she panted, wanting more from him.
“Sensitive there, are you?” Lucas asked, turning his attention to her other breast until Samantha moaned beneath him, wanting him to never stop and wanting oh so much more at the same time. Her body felt loose, drugged even, and she forgot to explore more of him as he nearly brought her to the brink of pleasure simply from teasing her breasts with his mouth. By the time he moved lower, his mouth tracing a slick path over her stomach, Samantha trembled with a wet, hot need that completely undid her.
Bypassing where she wanted him most, Lucas made his way to her feet, kneeling between her legs and smiling a wicked smile when her hands clenched the sheets. Samantha let out a little mewl of frustration.
“I still have so much to explore,” Lucas said, and she jumped as he caressed her ankles, sliding his hands up to stroke gently behind her knees. It was an entirely unexpected spot to feel so damn good, and her legs trembled as he brushed a feather-light touch up and over the inside of her thighs. “Beautiful Samantha, I’ve wanted to unbutton you since the first day I saw you reading on the beach.”
“Unbutton me?” Samantha gasped the question as he continued to gently stroke her thighs, a light rhythmic touch that had her legs opening of their own accord, all but begging for him to give her the relief she so desperately sought.
“Even from down the beach I could see how tightly wound you were. In your prim one-piece, huge beach hat, and sunglasses, and about a gazillion things to set up a wall around you. It all but said, ‘go away, no touching.’ It drove me crazy.”
“It… I…” Samantha closed her eyes as he slid one finger across her slick heat.
“It made me want to peel back the layers, get you a little messy, see who you were without all your walls up.” Lucas grinned and slid his fingers inside her in one smooth motion, and Samantha tipped over the edge and careened blissfully down the slope of the wave of pleasure that ripped through her body. Lucas continued to speak as he stroked her, bringing her right back up to the next cusp of pleasure.
“You were so much like me, you see? Wound tight, stressed to the max, and a little bit lost. I could see myself in you. No pun intended,” Lucas said. Despite the onslaught he was wreaking on her body, Samantha found herself laughing helplessly as another wave of pleasure shot through her. It amazed her that she could laugh under the onslaught of sensations he was wielding on her body and his relentless attack on the walls she’d so carefully built around her heart. It had never been like this, not with any other man. The way he spoke to her, how he treasured her body, spent time teasing responses out of her so he could learn what she liked – no man had taken this much time with her before. None of them had truly wanted to.
“Don’t you see?” Lucas asked, pulling away and kissing his way back up her body. She felt the hard length of him press against where she wanted him most, and she moaned, wrapping her legs around his back to bring him closer. “My soul recognized yours.”
Totally lost in his words and the emotions he was pulling from her, Samantha all but drowned in the tawny green depths of his eyes as he drove into her, claiming her as his. A part of this scared her: He wasn’t allowing her to hide her deepest self from him in a cloud of alcohol or a quick vacation hookup – he was speaking to her heart. Lost on the tidal wave that rolled over her, Samantha hung on as Lucas showed her what love could really feel like.
And when they both finished, trembling together in one final rush of pleasure, Samantha clung to him and wondered if she would ever be the same.
Chapter 36
“I should go back,” Samantha said, later in the day. They’d made love two more times and she felt weak and wobbly – and if she had to admit it to herself, more than a little vulnerable.
“Okay. Don’t forget our date tonight,” Lucas said, brushing a hand down her arm and pulling at a lock of her hair.
“Date?” Samantha asked, shivering in response to his touch.
“Yes, date. Remember? You said you wanted to eat dinner while you sat in a swing at my restaurant. The lady asks and I shall deliver.”
“Oh, I completely forgot,” Samantha said and then blushed. Was it rude that she’d forgotten he’d asked her for dinner?
“I’ll take that as a compliment to my lovemaking,” Lucas said, teasing her before he leaned in for a long, hungry kiss. When she pulled back, his eyes had that lusty look about them that she was already beginning to know too well.
“Save it for later. After dinner. Maybe we’ll even have a tipsy roll in bed after dinner,” Samantha said with a laugh.
Lucas kissed her hand. “Wouldn’t that be fun? I’ll get you to show me your secrets.”
“I think you’ve seen most of them.”
“I’ll find more. So much to discover…” Lucas called after her as she laughed her way down the walk and crossed the beach. It was another stunning day in paradise, Samantha mused, a smile hovering on her lips as she took in the turquoise water lapping at the sand. A light breeze tickled her hair. It wasn’t hard to see the appeal of living someplace like this. Even though Lucas had stressed that island life had its own unique set of challenges, the views more than made up for it, in her opinion.
; Samantha hummed her way up the path to the Laughing Mermaid, then let out a little shriek as Jolie popped out seemingly from nowhere to accost her.
“Aha! The walk of shame,” Jolie said, hand on hip as she eyed Samantha’s dress – the same one she’d worn last night.
“Ah…” Samantha was about to make up a lie, then realized she had nothing to feel guilty about. “Damn right. And if I recall, that’s exactly the same outfit you had on last night too.”
“No shame here,” Jolie said, flouncing hair that was decidedly messier than it had been the night before. “And I’d call this more of a strut than a walk, no?”
Jolie swaggered up to the house, a giggling Samantha in tow. At the base of the stairs, she turned and grabbed Samantha’s shoulder, surveying her with a surprisingly serious look.
“Did he take care with you?”
“He did. I made a fool of myself last night and he was a total gentleman,” Samantha said.
“Good. Now, I consider you a friend, so don’t take this wrong the way – but if you hurt him, I’ll hunt you down and make you sorry. Understood?”
“Me? Hurt him?” Samantha’s mouth dropped open. She was so used to everyone running roughshod over her and her feelings, it had never once occurred to her that she could have the power to hurt him. It felt odd to have the tables turned on her.
“He’s a good man. Take care with his heart,” Jolie said, and squeezed her arm before disappearing into a door down the hallway. Musing over her words, Samantha peeled off her clothes and snuggled into her own bed, more than ready for a siesta after the unexpectedly athletic morning she’d had.
Even so, she found herself giggling and pounding her feet against the bed. For once, she was deliriously happy. She couldn’t even bring herself to tell Lola about the newest developments yet. Somehow it had gone from something innocuous and fun to gossip about to meaning so much more. Samantha wasn’t ready for it to be picked apart, or even to gush over it with anyone. She wanted this pure moment of bliss all to herself for now.
It was a feeling she didn’t want to forget when reality claimed her at the end of her vacation.
Chapter 37
“She saw me, you know,” Irma told Lucas. He’d been lounging in his hammock, idly throwing the ball for a happy Pipin when Irma had strolled up to chat.
“You showed yourself to her? I’m surprised,” Lucas said, studying her. He still remembered the first time he’d seen Irma in her true form. It had taken many a night of rum and more than one discussion with the ladies before he’d finally believed that there was more than met the eye with his neighbors. Only when he’d learned that they had shown themselves to him because they truly trusted him had Lucas accepted the gift of both their power and the vulnerability they’d given to him. He’d never told a soul.
Granted, he was always honest when he told people he believed in mermaids. Typically they laughed it off and it ended with that. But the hard, honest truth was that he was living on an island where mermaids existed. He’d never wanted to give them a reason to distrust him. As a result, they’d taken him into the fold like he was family and he’d enjoyed more than one night watching them frolic through the waves, while he smiled from the beach in amazement that such magick existed in this world.
“I’m not sure she’ll remember. The rum hit her fairly hard. But she needed to see – to believe in something more than her sorrow in that moment.” Irma shrugged, looking out to the ocean she called home.
“She was having a moment.” Lucas wasn’t sure he felt comfortable sharing Samantha’s woes with Irma either.
“I see a lot of you in her,” Irma said. Lucas’s lips quirked involuntarily as he thought about his rude joke earlier that day, but luckily Irma was still looking out to the waves. “She craves family.”
“I may have been lost when I came here, but I still had a support system,” Lucas said. “I feel like Samantha’s broken.”
“There’s nothing wrong with getting broken. That’s how the light gets in to push out the darkness,” Irma said, turning to smile at him. “And I think it’s your job to help her trust in others again.”
“That’s a big job to take on,” Lucas said. “I can’t heal other people. I could barely get myself together, if you remember.”
“You’re stronger than you realize. So is she. Sometimes all somebody needs is someone who has faith in them. You can build a foundation with this one, Lucas. I like her for you,” Irma said, crossing her arms over the tie-dye sarong she’d wrapped around herself.
“I like her for me too. But let’s be honest – it’s early days yet. She still plans to go home. Where does that leave me?”
“That’s what you’ll have to figure out,” Irma said.
“It seems like a lot to expect of someone – to ask them to give you a chance when they’ve only just met you,” Lucas pointed out, bending dangerously low out of the hammock to scoop up the ball Pipin had dropped in the sand.
“The heart knows.” Irma tapped her chest.
“Does it, though? That could be good old-fashioned lust, you know,” Lucas said.
Irma laughed, shaking her head at him. “You’re old enough to know the difference.”
“We still have so much to learn about each other. What if it all goes wrong?”
“Ah, humans. You waste so much time waiting for everything to be perfect. Don’t you understand that there is no perfect? Being alive is the perfect. That’s it. Be alive together and embrace the moment. You’ll figure out each other’s quirks and what makes the other person furious or cry or laugh. But this…” Irma touched her chest once more. “This knows.”
“I can’t argue with you when you play the human card,” Lucas grumbled, and Irma bent to tousle his hair and give him a kiss on the cheek.
“I wanted you for one of my daughters,” she said, “Hell, I even sized you up for myself once upon a time. You know we take so much pleasure in the more sensual aspects of living.”
“Ah…” Lucas felt tongue-tied for the first time in a long time.
“But I knew you weren’t for us. I wondered why, but I trusted that. I think Samantha is the why. She’s here, Lucas,” Irma said. Then, having dropped a decidedly worrisome bomb in the middle of the otherwise relaxing siesta he’d been having, she strolled away.
That’s what women did, he thought, glowering down at Pipin. They came in and messed up an existence that he was currently enjoying quite a bit. He answered to no one and lived his life as he pleased. And as far as he could tell, life with Samantha would be a rollercoaster of emotions; the woman was not remotely easygoing – laughing one moment and stammering or crying the next. And if he was honest with himself, he was lonely. Lucas saw a deep vulnerability beneath Samantha’s steel spine. A wounded flower, Lucas thought, and threw the ball for Pipin again.
He only needed to help her find her roots so she could finally bloom.
Chapter 38
“I’m so excited to try your restaurant,” Samantha exclaimed while Lucas found a parking spot later that evening. She’d been right – there really weren’t many marked parking spots. Cars were tucked haphazardly where there was space along the side of the road and in alleys, and nobody seemed to pay any mind.
“It’s nothing fancy, but I hope you’ll like it,” Lucas said, casually reaching for her hand. Samantha felt a delightful little tingle trail up her arm. This was nice, strolling the little village where people greeted Lucas by name and music carried out of the open-air bars and restaurants. It was so different than back home, where everything was closed up and air-conditioned. Here the restaurants were open to the ocean breezes that carried the spicy scents of the fresh catch or the nightly special.
“I don’t need fancy,” Sam said. “I wanted to go there because it looked fun.”
“You haven’t had a lot of fun in your life, have you?” Lucas asked as they drew near his restaurant.
“Unfortunately, not really. You’ll have to teach me,” Samantha said wi
th a laugh, and smiled as Javier hailed them from behind the bar. The restaurant was doing a brisk business and Samantha could see why. It was built around a few large palm trees, which poked up through the roof, and twinkle lights were hung in streams across the ceiling. Low music pulsed through the restaurant and nearly all the swings hanging at the long teak bar were taken. Two swings, tucked around the corner of the bar, had a reserved sign in front of them.
“Those would be ours. Best seats in the house,” Lucas said, nodding at people as he tugged her to the corner and gave Javier a complicated handshake over the bar.
“These are great,” Samantha said, and hoisted herself onto one. She’d worn loose palazzo pants that evening, on account of the swing, and a breezy pink blouse with hibiscus flowers scattered across it. The swings were suspended on thick nautical-style rope, and rocked easily when Samantha gave a gentle push against the bar with her feet. Delighted to find her feet didn’t touch the ground, Samantha laughed, gleefully swinging back and forth a bit.
“You like?”
“It’s so ridiculous and so simple,” Samantha laughed at him as he sat next to her, “but it just brings back this feeling of childhood. What a great idea.”
“Thanks. I wanted to do something just a little different. We’ve had a really good response to it,” Lucas said.
“I can imagine,” Sam said. “Plus look at this view. You can look out over the water during the day and at night still watch people stroll through town. If the food is any good, I’d say you’ve got a winner on hand.”
“We kept the food pretty simple. We offer some local dishes and bar food, just a good mix of easy food so almost anyone can find something to eat. Is there anything in particular you’re craving?” Lucas asked.
Sam knew he wasn’t implying anything with his question, but she couldn’t help but eye him hungrily. Catching her meaning, he laughed and leaned over to brush a soft kiss on her lips.
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