A Second Look: A Forbidden Second Chance Romance

by Lexi Aurora

  “He hasn’t fallen for me,” I said. “He just—”

  “I’ve seen that man with women. He’s in love with you.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  “What about you?” he asked. I looked over to him as we walked, trying to determine whether or not I could trust this man with the truth about my feelings. There was something inherently warm and kind about Jeremy, who was the only person who had made me feel remotely comfortable at the gathering.

  “I—want to get along with Sebastian,” I said. Jeremy laughed.

  “He gets along with most people, you know. Most people like him.”

  “Yeah, I know. He’s got that charm thing down perfectly.”

  “He does,” said Jeremy with a fond smile. “But he tells me it doesn’t work on you.”

  “It doesn’t,” I said. “I don’t fall for charm.”

  “Do you fall for money, Eve?” he asked. I gave him a sharp look, but his gaze was gentle and kind.

  “No,” I said. “That’s not—”

  “I just have to check,” he said. “Sebastian is very important to me. I love him.”

  I stared at his face, seeing all the affection there that he held for his friend.

  “I think he’s starting to grow on me,” I said.

  “He is,” said Jeremy. “It’s not hard to tell.”

  “Really?” I asked him. He nodded gesturing for us to divert from the path, making our way in the opposite direction of the shore on which the mansion was located. It was wild and mostly overgrown, but Jeremy managed to find a new path that had been raggedly cut through the trees.

  “Do you come out here often?” I asked, looking around at the lush green forest, taking it all in.

  “When I’m here, sometimes. I made this path myself.”

  “Just by going back and forth?”

  “Nah. One day I just got bored.”

  I laughed. “So you cleared a path through the woods.”

  “Yep,” he said. “Sebastian thought I was crazy for going to this part of the island. Everyone assumed that it was too dangerous.”

  “Is it? Dangerous?” I asked him.

  “It is. But it’s nothing you can’t handle. And we’re almost there.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Thanks, Jeremy.”

  “No problem,” he said. “If there’s anything else I can do—”

  “How much has Sebastian told you about what’s going on?” I asked him.

  “Pretty much everything, I think. He mentioned the birds and the notes.”

  “Any idea what it means?”

  “No clue,” Jeremy said. “I’m going to try to find out, though.”

  “Probably not a good idea,” I said to him seriously. “Two people have been killed. I don’t know if this has anything to do with the murders, but—”

  “It does,” Jeremy said. “It does. But I’m going to keep you and Sebastian safe, okay?”

  I smiled at him.

  “Sure,” I said. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said as we walked through the final few feet of trees and out onto the other side of the island. I gasped at the beauty of it as soon as I saw it. There were jagged, rocky cliffs, another waterfall pouring down into the vivid blue ocean. All around us were sounds of the wild— birds in the trees, the crash of waves against the rocks below. Jeremy took my hand and I looked at him for a moment.

  “I have to help you down to the cave,” he said. “It’s not too bad, but Sebastian told me he’d kill me if I didn’t hold onto you.”

  “I’m not surprised,” I said, taking his hand. He held me tight as we climbed the rocks. I felt nervous as we made our way to the ledge, feeling panicked when I saw that it was a sheer cliff.

  “What are we doing?” I asked him.

  “Look,” he said. “These rocks are like steps. It’s okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

  “Okay,” I said nervously, following him to the edge, relieved to see that he was right—there was a wide, natural staircase leading down to a cave behind the waterfall. Jeremy climbed down slowly, taking my hand as I took the steps carefully down to the cave. I looked around in wonder when we entered the cave, sparkling crystals hanging from the ceilings, a wall of water falling to obscure us from the outside.

  “Sebastian should be here in a few minutes,” he said. “He was supposed to come right after us.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’ll wait.”

  “Want me to wait with you?”

  I thought about it for a moment, then remembered how Sebastian had looked at me, and all at once I knew that the moment we saw each other, everything that was simmering between us was going to erupt.

  “No,” I said. “Thanks.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you soon. Think you can find the way home?”

  “I can go with Sebastian most of the way.”

  “Alright,” he said. “See you later.”

  “Bye, Jeremy. Thanks again,” I said, watching as he left. I stayed in the cave, waiting impatiently for Sebastian, filled with anticipation and some trepidation about what I knew was going to happen.

  Chapter 19: Sebastian

  I found her sitting on a rock in the cave, legs dangling over the edge, and when I came down the steps, she met my eye. I felt myself swell with desire for her, so fiery, it was almost unbearable. I stayed where I was rather than going to her, knowing that if she was within reach, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from touching her. She stayed where she was on the rock, too, lips slightly parted, saying nothing. Her features reflected my feelings and for the first time she wasn’t trying to hide it. We stared at each other for a moment, silent, the tension thickening by the second.

  “What do you want from me?” I asked her. She said nothing, but began to unfasten her dress, unbuttoning it to the waist so that her breasts were revealed to me. She met my eye again and pushed the dress down over her shoulders so that she was naked down to the hips.

  “I want you to love me,” she said quietly. “Will you love me, Sebastian?”

  “Every day. Every minute, every day,” I said to her. “God, for the rest of my life.”

  She gave me a sweet, pure smile, one that made something shatter inside of me, making me cross the cave to her in an instant. From where she was sitting on the rock, my hips were about level with hers. She looked up at my face with that smile, shy and perfect.

  “Why?” she asked me. “I was never nice to you.”

  “Didn’t matter,” I said to her, bringing my hand to her cheek, unable to look away from her gaze. “All that mattered was that you were clever and driven and so, so beautiful. And you never let me get away with anything. I can charm other women, I—”

  “I don’t fall for charm,” she said.

  “I know,” I said to her. “And that drives me crazy.”

  “I know it does,” she said, covering her smile with her hand, eyes dancing.

  “So what do you fall for, Evelyn?” I asked her. She studied my face, looking me over.

  “Criminals,” she said. “Rogues.”

  “Rivals?” I asked her.

  “Friends,” she said. I shook my head.

  “I don’t want to be your friend,” I said, wrapping an arm around her waist, bringing my lips to hers for a soft kiss. “Please let me be more than your friend.”

  “My love,” she said, kissing me back. “That’s what you are.”

  I smiled against her lips, everything within me lighting up.

  “Say that again,” I said to her, bringing my hands to her bare waist.

  “I think I love you,” she said. “But I don’t even—”

  “You don’t even like me,” I laughed, bringing my hands to the flat of her belly, touching her soft skin there before moving upward to cup her round breasts in my hands. I felt her nipples grow hard. I kissed her again, then again before her arms wrapped around my neck, her tongue slipping into my mouth with a sigh. I tasted her hungrily, reaching to her hips, pul
ling her panties down and off. I left her dress on so that she didn’t have to sit bare on the rock, even though all I wanted was for her to be completely naked, our bodies pressed skin-to-skin. I could tell she felt the same way as she started to unbutton my shirt, her hands shaking slightly. I watched her face as she undressed me, looking over my chest. She leaned in and nuzzled my neck, kissing the skin there, her hands rubbing up and down my front.

  “I always want to touch you,” she said. “Always.”

  “You can touch me as much as you want,” I said to her. She licked her lips, meeting my eye.

  “Promise?”

  “Yes,” I said, my voice coming out gruff as she slipped her hand lower, into my pants, to grab my cock in her small, warm hand.

  “Like this?” she asked, stroking me to full hardness, making my breath catch in my throat. She held my eye as she toyed with me in her palm, then finally pulled her hand out, unfastening my belt. My cock throbbed desperately when she took it into her hand again, taking control in a way I didn’t expect. She pulled me closer, met my eye and held it as she guided me into her pussy. I pushed forward to fill her up, groaning with pleasure when I felt how hot, tight, and wet she was, clenching around me already as if she was desperate for more. I waited there for a long moment, not wanting to pull out, wanting to feel myself deep inside of her. She watched me intently before I lowered my face to kiss her, as she started to move her hips against me with impatience.

  “Slow down,” I said to her, holding her hips still, starting to rock in and out of her, only barely. “Be patient.”

  “I don’t want to be patient,” she growled. I laughed.

  “I know,” I said to her. “But we’re going to take our time.”

  “Think you can hold on that long?” she asked, teasing me with her eyes, obviously making note of how tense my body was as I held back the urge to take her like an animal, make her cum in minutes. I could tell by the way she was trembling that it wouldn’t be hard—a few strokes deeper, faster in her pussy and she would lose herself entirely. Just the thought of it forced me to breathe and collect myself before I could move inside of her again. I did so slowly, long strokes of pulling almost entirely out before pushing back in, burying myself inside of her again and again. Her hips squirmed against the rock, trying to move forward, but I knew that if she started bucking against me I wouldn’t be able to hold back. It would be only minutes before she came, taking me with her, because I knew there was no way I could feel her cumming around my cock without finishing myself. So I kept moving slowly, looking into her eyes, occasionally tilting my face down to taste her mouth and her lips.

  “This isn’t fair,” she said in a pouty, moaning voice. I took her hand in mine, slipped it down her body, guided her to start rubbing her clit with her fingers.

  “Oh,” she gasped when she took over, rubbing herself in circles, pussy gripping me tight. I sped up the motion of my hips without thinking, desperate to take her even harder. I held her thighs apart with my hands and stared at her gorgeous flushed face, sweat dripping down her neck and between her breasts, which were high and ripe, nipples pink and ready. That was the reason I let go of her hips—I wanted to touch her everywhere. She breathed a sigh of relief when I brought my hands to her breasts, teasing her nipples. Her hips went wild then, riding against mine, driving me deeper each time I moved forward. I laid her gently backward, cupping her head with my hand to pillow it from the rock, using my free hand to wrap her leg around my hip. I held her carefully as I lowered my lips to suck on her breasts, making her whimper, hips starting to buck.

  “Sebastian, I’m—”

  “Do you love me, Evelyn?” I asked her, looking into her eyes. They rolled back into her head as she lost control of herself, unable to even focus on my face. There was no holding back then—not for either one of us—I sped up, moving with the rhythm that what she craved, cradling her close as she let out a loud cry that echoed against the rocks like the waves crashing below. Her pussy tightened, clenching and trembling around my cock as I rode out her climax.

  “I love you,” she said after waiting a moment for her speech to return. The words made everything more sensitive, more alive, and I had never felt pleasure as I did in that moment as I came deep inside of her pussy.

  “I love you too,” I said when I was able to catch my breath, holding her close to me. I lifted her body then and shifted our positions, climbing on the rock, pulling her to sit comfortably on my lap.

  “What now?” she asked, stroking my arm with her fingers, relaxing into me in a way I had never expected she would.

  “Now, we figure this out.”

  “What if we can’t?” she asked, turning her face to look at me over her shoulder. “What if we’re stuck here forever?”

  I chuckled. “What if I’m stuck on a beautiful, isolated island with the woman I’ve been in love with since we were kids?”

  “Have you really?” she asked. “I never got that vibe from you.”

  “Not even when I kissed you on graduation night?” I asked her, lifting an eyebrow.

  “I didn’t—I had no idea what that was.”

  “Yes, you did. That’s why you literally ran away from me afterward.”

  “I just didn’t want to kiss you,” she said. I chuckled again, planting a kiss on her neck.

  “That’s not how I remember it.”

  “And how do you remember it?” she asked with a smile.

  “This is what happened. We graduated and gave our speeches—”

  “Mine was better,” she said. I laughed.

  “We made our speeches and the only thing I could think about while you were talking was that I’d probably never see you again. And I hated that.”

  “So you kissed me,” she said.

  “I knew you’d need a minute to yourself after the ceremony. So I found you in the practice room, remember?”

  “I remember,” she said softly.

  “And you glared at me and I think I teased you about something.”

  “Probably,” she scoffed.

  “Definitely,” I said with a grin. “You got irritated as usual. But that look on your face—”

  “Annoyance?”

  “No. You wishing I would just do it already.”

  “I wasn’t even thinking about that,” she protested.

  “Right,” I said to her dryly. She blushed when she realized I knew she was bullshitting. We had been building up to that kiss for years, since the first moment we’d met each other and I knew that I had found my match, my equal in every way.

  “You remember it, though.”

  “I do,” she said. I kissed her sweet lips, savoring the flavor of her mouth.

  “Are we going to have to meet out here every time we want to do this?” she asked.

  “For now, probably,” I said to her regrettably. “Until we get this figured out.”

  “I hate that,” she said miserably.

  “I know. But we’ll do it. In a month, none of this will matter.”

  “None of it?” she asked, studying my face.

  “Nothing but you,” I said to her. She smiled at me, kissing me one more time before getting off of my lap and starting to button herself up.

  “We should get back or people will notice we’ve gone off together.”

  I groaned.

  “And we have separate rooms now.”

  “I know,” she said, frowning.

  “One month,” I promised her. “It’ll all be over.”

  “One month,” she said with a nod. I got off the rock and started to get dressed myself, then took her hand and helped her up the stone steps.

  “We can’t walk back together,” she said as we started along the path that Jeremy had made himself to the caves. “Not the whole way.”

  “I’m going to walk you most of the way,” I said firmly.

  “But—”

  “I’m not going to let you go completely alone. Let’s go,” I said to her. She grumbled somet
hing, but smiled when I took her hand as we walked along the path. We walked for what seemed like a long time in silence, before we could see the lit up house not too far away. Eve turned around and kissed me, looking into my eyes.

  “Wait a little bit before you head in,” she said. “Okay?”

  “Okay,” I said to her. “Please be careful.”

  “I’m always careful,” she said, kissing me one more time before turning away. I waited impatiently, watching her back until she disappeared, waiting only just a few more minutes before I hurried back up to the house. Jeremy stood on the balcony, sipping his drink. He waved at me when he saw me.

  “You leave Eve behind?” he asked in confusion.

  “No, she just came by here. She just went inside.”

  “No, she didn’t,” Jeremy said slowly. “She didn’t come past here.”

  “She what?” I asked, my heart speeding up, filling with panic as soon as he said the words.

  “She didn’t come through here. I didn’t see her out back, either.”

  “She must have gone in through the back door,” I said, hurrying in that direction before I even finished speaking the words. “You probably just missed her.”

  “You’re right,” Jeremy said, putting his hand on my shoulder to stop me. “Calm down, Seb. She’s probably in her room.”

  “I’m going to check it,” I said, though the sinking feeling in my stomach told me exactly what I was going to find there. I wasn’t surprised to find the room empty. I ran my hand through my hair, swiveling around to look at Jeremy.

  “Let’s go,” he said seriously. “I’ll check the top two floors, okay? You head to the basement and we’ll meet on the first.”

  “Okay,” I said to him quickly. “If you find her—”

  “I’ll bring her right to you. It’s okay, Seb. She probably went exploring.”

  “If she went exploring tonight, I swear to god—”

  “That’s all it is,” Jeremy insisted. “Go. Look for her.”

  Chapter 20: Eve

  My head pounded before I even opened my eyes. I felt dizzy and disoriented as my eyelids fluttered open, seeing only the pouring waterfall. I realized only then that I was back in the cave, laying down on the rock where I had just been sitting with Sebastian. I sat up and groaned when the pain in my head worsened.