Authors: Kiki Howell
Tags: #romance, #relationships, #erotic romance, #cruise, #mainstream romance, #mainstream
“Look at me,” he growled, that sound, that deep rumble of words that rose from deep in his chest, set her nerve endings on high alert.
Obeying, wanting nothing more than to be so-called
abused
by her captor some more, she turned her head to the sound of his voice. He stood beside the head of the bed, wide stance, eyes dark and glistening as his hair fell in wild waves around his face. He removed his shirt first, exposing for her, somewhat slowly, the artwork that accented his skin. The pop of his button and slide of his zipper had her squirming again. His jeans and underwear came off in one fast slide, and he stood before her naked, legs spread open, shoulders back. He gave her a lingering look before he moved again, in what seemed like long, tortuous minutes later.
Back on the bed, he undid her legs and flipped her again. The friction of the bed sheets re-ignited the burn on her ass. Yet, before she could squirm in pleasure, he spread her legs open, giving a little pull to open her as wide as her limber muscles would go before tying her back up. This time it was he who moaned, looking down on her. A vibration rumbled through her body as she could now see him standing between her legs at the foot of the bed with an erection full and long, a hardness that almost looked painful.
“You want this?” he asked as he man-handled himself, his hand pulling over the head, then down over the budging veins on his reddened skin.
To her credit, she gave him nothing, just braced her body, stiffened her mouth, fought the smile, and stifled the moan.
“Oh, so tough. You make me want to break you. We’ll soon see how tough you are,” he spoke as he moved his hand to the tray.
His big hand grabbed a little cube of ice before he climbed onto the bed. He gave her the best view, on his knees beside her, his ass her way, up high in the air, his hard cock poised between his open thighs. When he looked to her thighs, she bit her lip until she felt blood well to the surface just below the skin.
He moved the cold ice over her folds. The chill left behind a rush of pain, one that only made her juices flow more. Cold droplets fell between her burning cheeks onto her puckered hole, still tingling from his teasing finger. She could have taken much more, but she’d use that piece of information to torture him at another time.
That thought stopped her cold for a second. She stiffened up. She wanted more time and the cruise ended tomorrow. Pushing the thought aside, she concentrated hard on his next moves. He took another ice cube, and turned himself so he could circle her hard nipples with the chill. She closed her eyes, and the sound of the water below them, the boats going by, filled her with a sense of remoteness, of having this dark lord, or maybe knight in shining armor, to herself. She’d definitely taken to his geeky terms of endearment. She’d be his faerie princess or warrior anytime.
He interrupted her thoughts with the bite of his teeth over her slightly numbed breasts. He nibbled, sucked her in, and then licked. The ice returned a few times, soothing her hot skin. Her hips moved again despite her. He got up from the bed and grabbed the cup of water. After putting his fingers in it and dripping some over her lips, he took a gulp himself, and then, unexpectedly, dribbled some of the frosty water over her mound, making her push her hips up and down in an odd pleasure she’d never experienced before.
“That’s it, baby, let me watch you fuck the air as the water teases you, makes you want something to penetrate you with each drop that touches your needy flesh. You are bad. You want this, don’t you,” he said as he dripped water onto his erection and groaned, moved his hips back and forth in a seductive dance.
He moved to her then, the water back on the tray, and he straddled her face, placed his cock in her waiting mouth. He moved in deeper, making her adjust to his thickness, then, little by little, to his length. She took in all she could of him, letting him set the pace, being obedient, until a glimmer of her independent streak took over. When he was pulling his erection from her mouth, she lifted her head, and swallowed more of him than he would have tried to give her on his own, she knew.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he hissed, getting off the bed. “You have no control here.”
He moved between her bound legs and gave her light taps, small spankings to her mound. When she reacted positively, he separated her folds, took two fingers, and ever so slightly swatted her clit.
He shook his head at her cry of pleasure.
“Is there
anything
you don’t like?” He flashed her an evil grin, his eyes bright with wonder, or pleasure, or a mixture of both.
He slapped her clit harder a few more times and just as she felt about to explode with release again, he went for the whipped cream. He laughed at the sound of frustration that tore from her throat.
Covering her folds with thick, white cream, he proceeded to eat it off of her until she came hard, her hips jerking from the bed, making him hold onto her thighs to regain some control. She’d lost every ounce of hers. In fact, she almost lost consciousness. Even after her orgasm, he continued to clean her flesh, making little lightning bolts of pleasure rip from her stomach to her core, her body jerking with each ounce of pleasure she thought she wouldn’t survive.
Just when she felt she couldn’t hold back her scream of
stop
any longer, he stretched out his body beside her. His erection stretched out heavy on her stomach, and she wanted to struggle free of her binds and force him inside her. Gathering in strength again, he grabbed a strawberry and gently fed her, the act so different from the rest, her eyes misted with tears at the glorious nature of the giving act.
Patient, though his dick told her he was anything but, he fed them both slowly, had even lifted her head with another pillow to make it easier for her to swallow. The gentle moment didn’t last long, though. He made short work of wrangling himself into a condom before he untied her and scooped her body up. His erection between them now, yet still torturing her as it pressed against her abdomen, she pulsed to have him inside her; hard, fast, deep, but still she said nothing.
He bound her hands behind her back again, then took her hips in his hands and picked her up, only to lower her over his cock. He slid in easily, fast, spreading her until she stifled her cry of pleasure by biting his shoulder. He rocked them faster, and she followed along, matched him rhythm for rhythm. The rush of her orgasm, a hot wave, crashed through her, an all-encompassing pull, then release of sensations as she came hard.
He gave her no recovery time before he undid the scarf on her wrists, picked her up, and threw her on her back on the bed. Her legs wrapped tight around his back, holding on for dear life.
He positioned himself over her, his weight crushing, then releasing as he pounded into her and finally took for himself as another orgasm rushed her.
By the time he collapsed over her, he was so deep she lost all control of her limbs, the hot contractions ripping through her from head to toe, her body nothing more than a rag doll as tiny pulses continued to shoot through her.
She hadn’t even really heard his growl of pleasure through the high pitch of her own screams of release.
****
He spent the rest of the afternoon in awe of her. They ate a lunch he’d had the owner of the place put in the fridge. He’d paid a nice extra penny for that service, and oddly, for her, the woman he’d woken in the middle of the night, told him later that it had felt good to do.
After eating and talking, they went for a swim, naked in the pool. He’d wanted her so badly after frolicking in the water, watching her tan skin shine and her blond hair glisten in the tropical sunshine, that he’d made love to her, passionate but fast, to keep on time.
“Here,” he said, giving her the sundress he’d bought her when he’d stormed through the first store he could find to buy the scarves. “Sorry about the underwear. I was in some kind of zone. I shouldn’t have ripped yours off when I had none to replace them. I couldn’t seem to find any in the stores.”
“Nice, but I’ll forgive you. Will just keep my hands down to my sides in case of a breeze.” She laughed.
“You’re amazing, Sam,” he said, standing there, literally thunderstruck by her.
Never had such emotions welled up over him for any woman, let alone on the second date, if you could even call the times they’d been together dates. The whole idea of a thing called
love at first sight
should scare the shit out of him, but he just looked at her and, somehow, it didn’t. What scared him more was the cruise ending and never seeing her again.
“So, plan is we take the cab back to the shops, get out, and walk back to the boat together as if we are just having a conversation. You are allowed to have conversations?” He nodded.
“Yes, I am. I just need to make sure no one I know is around to see us get out of the cab together,” she answered with a shrug of her shoulders, pinkish, despite her tan, from their short time in the sun.
“Then what? Can we have dinner?” he asked.
“Ah, I’m sorry, I really can’t. As I said, we can eat in the buffet thirty minutes before close, but we tend to just eat in the dining room on the I-95, most nights. It would look suspicious if I did otherwise.”
“Okay, well, a drink later on?”
“Probably not. We usually only go out one night a cruise, just a schedule we got into. We usually hang around the TV room and turn in early. The guests get off so early the next day back in Florida, and we have to get our sections of the ship back to perfect for the next wave of passengers.”
“Wait, are you saying we won’t be able to see each other again?
“I don’t think so. I’m sorry. This was amazing, and under different circumstances…please don’t make this harder than it already is. We had an amazing time together, but we live in two separate places, two separate worlds for that matter… There just is no way to—”
He heard the crack in her voice; saw her eyes mist over as unshed tears gathered there.
“No, it can’t work this way. You don’t understand, scary or not, and it’s scaring the hell out of me right now, I have feelings for you, unexplainable, unbelievable, scary, whatever. I have to see you again. I have money. I can make anything happen, though, I swear, I’ve never been the type to offer such a thing. For you, I will make the exception,” he rambled, his heart beating double-time, a sweat breaking out over his neck.
“I have a commitment I made. I’ll be on this ship for two more months. We can exchange numbers. We can set up time to talk on the phone, text, even set up Skype. We get some time on the computers. But, I have to finish this out. I can’t just walk away, money or not, though I don’t see how that could help the cruise ship. They’re depending on me to work for them, to teach classes, to conduct sessions for the next two months. Then, I get off for an eight week vacation, and can decide if I will sign another contract or not.”
“No,” he shook his head, his breathing labored now.
“Yes. Sorry. Please don’t spoil this. I think you’re amazing, and, like I said, given the chance later, but even then you live in New York and I live in Ohio or back in LA. I just don’t know what we can do,” she said, her voice seeming apologetic to him, but laced with a hint of anger, maybe.
“Forgive me, but I don’t know how to say goodbye to you. This obviously meant more to me. I’m not afraid to admit it since I’ve never felt it before. My whole damn life I cursed the money, couldn’t see how it made anything better, and now, here it is, still useless to get me what I want, which is just a chance with you.”
“I’m sorry,” she apologized as her fingers touched his face briefly.
His skin tingled under her touch, throbbed at the loss the moment they were gone.
“We have to go,” she said, turning from him to walk away. For a second he hated her for being able to do so, for not turning over heaven and earth to find a way for them to be together, even to just date for the love of all that is holy.
They didn’t talk in the cab ride, though he held her hand. As much as it hurt, he found he had to touch her every second he could before they arrived in the town and couldn’t again. His brain reeled through a thousand thoughts, a thousand scenarios. Maybe he was more the spoiled rich kid than he liked to admit. Never had anything been unattainable to him before this. All he wanted was to date this perfect being, to get a chance to know her beyond two times, to eat a freakin’ meal together in public.
But, at the ship, she walked away with a mere wave of her hand, and though insane, he felt his heart truly break for the first time. He couldn’t talk her into his life. He couldn’t even buy his way into hers. He vowed to keep in touch, to get to know her any way he could over the next two months. Then, when her time on the ship ended, he would do whatever he had to in order to find a way for them to be together.
Chapter Five
Back on land, at work, Jaws found himself more predatory and shark-like than ever. In fact, a few buddies at work had made light of the play off his nickname in mentioning he’d been biting everyone’s head off since his trip.
Having beers, that first weekend back, with a few friends from work at a local bar, he sucked down his beer as if only the burn of guzzling the dark lager had the ability to fix his world, even though he knew it couldn’t. It could numb him, for a time, but, even then, unless he got drunk enough to forget his own name, he couldn’t get Sam off his mind.
He’d texted her every chance he got, sometimes until his fingertips ached late into the night. He typed for a living, so doing so much pecking at a tiny cell phone in the evenings wasn’t his idea of a great date. But, he took what he could get, and took his frustrations out on the heavy bag in his apartment every night that week, sometimes twice. Between his knuckles and the pads of his fingers, he actually had to get up one night for Tylenol. Not only did his hands actually throb, probably the carpal tunnel all the older guys at work complained about, but he also had a throbbing headache. His sexual frustration, no doubt, drained his brain.
“So, what the hell is up with you, man? Bad trip with the folks, I take it. You only yelled you didn’t want to talk about it all week, and then hid yourself in code the rest of the time. What gives? It’s like you’re different person since you stepped off that ship. Father take away your trust fund if you won’t go to work for him, or something?” His friend and teammate at work, Ben, pressed him, called him on his douchebag behavior.
“Funny, asshole. You know I don’t need his money,” Jaws stormed.
“It was a joke, to lighten up the mood. Shit. When are you going to snap out of it? We’re drinking beers, shooting the shit. Get it off your chest, man, and come back to us. Frankly, we want Jaws back. This new guy wearing his skin is a dickhead,” Ben added, his usual happy-go-lucky attitude muddied by his obvious frustration with Jaws.
“Fine. Sorry. Shit. I went on that stupid cruise to appease my parents for a time again, and… Look, I’m telling you idiots, right now, that if I lay this out there and you act your usual selves, I might start to throw punches. No, I’ll lay you out. I’m itching to hit something.” He growled, the deep vibrations of his words actually burned in his throat.
He gulped down the remainder of his beer as his friends, none of them knowing their way around a gym, all half his weight, nodded their heads in agreement.
“Seriously, dude, we’ll be cool. Obviously something is very wrong, and without sounding all girly and shit, we’re even more than concerned, now. Lay it out for us, and who knows, maybe one of us social outcasts will have something intelligent to say. Or, most likely, just getting it off your chest will make you act human again,” Chubs added.
He really was the one with the biggest heart. All his geeks friends whom he valued more than any other person in his life, he knew could be serious, would do their best to help. He knew they had his back.
“Fine, listen, I know I owe you all huge apologies after this week. But, seriously, I met a woman like no other on this trip. Don’t start,” he warned as they sat up and had started to make noises like they were teenage punks talking about the new hot chick in school. “You promised to act your age, here. At least pretend to be cool for a minute.”
“Sure,” Noob added, adjusting himself in his seat.
Noob was actually the only one of them who had a steady girlfriend. He’d lucked into meeting a video game addict like himself at a convention. Each sat on the edge of their seats, now, he knew, trying to play it cool while waiting to live vicariously through him. They’d said time and again, a stroke to his ego each time, how he was the cool one of the group, the only one with the looks to fool the girls, at least, for a time, into thinking him not a geek.
“You should have seen her, man. And, I didn’t even get a picture of her to prove it,” Jaws complained.
He didn’t need one as every inch of her body was an imprinted image into his very imaginative brain.
“She looked like a damn faerie warrior from one of our fantasy games, the one with blond hair and big green eyes that can defeat the dragon at the end. She’s a personal trainer slash yoga instructor on the ship. She’s a real adventurous type. I think her addiction to action movies made her get my geeky addiction to video games. She never flinched at any stupid thing I said. And, she had this body that wouldn’t quit. Soft curves in all the right places with light muscles. While the light to my darkness, and she called me her dark overlord, she matched me too, took me on with confidence,” he trailed off, ordered another beer.
“Wow, that does sound horrible. So, why the hideous mood?” Ton asked, shaking his head. “I’m assuming you hooked up and all. You get that kind of stuff.”
“She’s on the ship, idiot, and I’m here with you dweebs,” he agonized, grabbing up the beer the bartender set down and chugging it.
Geeks like them never got offended when they called each other names. They’d become terms of endearment, in a way, a way to show solidarity in their nerd-dom. A great group of guys, he couldn’t have asked for any better, anything further from the spoiled shits he’d grown up with.
“So, how did it end, then? You ever going to see her again?” Chubs asked, actual concern in the guy’s voice.
“We hooked up twice, and, I mean, like in amazing ways.” He shook his head and polished off the beer in his second time chugging. “I even, out of character, spent a shit-load of money trying to impress her. So, that tells you something. I’ve haven’t done that to impress a girl since high school, if ever really, and not like this. I got a damn weekly beach rental for four hours of sex. Anyway, I don’t think she felt the same about me, or she dealt with it better. She’s on the ship for another seven weeks. And, after that, who knows. I want her to come to stay with me during the eight-week vacation she has, but that is a lot to ask of someone you just had sex with twice on a ship.
“We’ve never even had dinner out in a public place. And, I’m out of my mind miserable. I’d really go as far as to say, I’m in love with her. What the hell, I find out that love at first sight is true, and we don’t live in the same zip code. She doesn’t even have a zip code!” he grumbled.
After his tirade, his friends did their best to cheer him up, to say anything encouraging. It helped as much as it could, as did the two more beers he had chased with shots of whiskey once he got back to his apartment, ensuring he’d pass out, maybe get some sleep.
****
“Hey,” she said, trying to sound happy to finally get to hear his voice rather than just send another text message.
They’d planned a time they could actually talk on the phone, which could be tricky depending upon time and place on a ship. Excited as she’d been to hear his voice, the husky tones of it sent ripples of need through her. She found herself wanting, as she had these past days on the ship. Paradise had just not seemed so bright since his departure.
“Where are you exactly?” he asked, his voice sounding rather flat, though maybe it was just the connection.
“St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, today. I’m sitting at a little outdoor coffee shop watching lizards crawl on the rocks by the water. They’re huge here, and they amaze me the way they move and how close to the people they get,” she mused, a frail attempt to bring him here with her.
“Wish I could see. Wish I was there. Shit, wish I could touch you, sorry. As I’ve said, I just miss you more and more each day. Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable but for the first time in my life, this is different. I feel different. And, maybe I am used to getting my way more than I realized but I want this. I want you. I can’t just let this pass and not give it at least a shot.”
“I told you, I’m feeling the same, although you don’t seem to believe me. Is that just because I won’t quit my job and come to you?” She sighed.
“No, I like that you’re committed, just doesn’t suit me at this time. All about me, just never realized it until I really wanted something. Looking back, guess I was the same way about my major in college. Shit, I’m the spoiled, rich guy I hate.” He laughed, though it sounded forced.
“No, you’re not, or I wouldn’t be interested at all. Trust me. It’s about all I meet on these ships. That type doesn’t interest me at all. You, on the other hand, you are solid, stable, to go along with your mystery. I’m intrigued, aroused, and I think you grounded me, something I needed even if I didn’t realize. Opposites attract, right? Though, I don’t think we are as opposite as we appear,” she added, the image of them, their bodies wrapped up together appeared in her head.
She wiggled in her seat.
“I can’t believe I’m going to say this on the phone,” she continued, “but I could go for being tied up and spanked.” She giggled but squirmed, feeling some more dampness in the panty region.
“Shit, I need to see you, Sam. I’m taking some time off and renting another house. Tell me the port of call and we’ll meet there. I can take a few days. We’re in the start of a game, not the end, so the team can pick up the slack. I’ll buy them drinks when I get back. Please, say you’ll meet me,” he begged.
She softened at the urgent sound in his voice. Never had she been pursued as such, or worshiped in bed the way he had with her in their brief, two times together. She craved him, she’d admit to that. She just didn’t know how their worlds would ever collide. He could easily be her newest adventure, one different from any other.
“Okay, how about Miami. We’ll be there in nine days,” she said, her finger on her calendar she carried in her purse just to keep time, something so easily lost at sea.
“Miami. Kinda busy. Won’t you be seen?”
“It won’t matter. You won’t be a guest. Just the odd way things work out. We have a day there in between. Stuck in port due to some scheduling glitch or something. Anyway, we get a one day reprieve, they say. One day to kick it up there, which we typically don’t. Just get a hotel room, any really, in Miami-Dade County. I’ll text you a time and place to meet in a few days. Sound good?”
“It does. I’m there, no matter what it takes, though I think the guys will be more than happy to get rid of me for a few days. They’re griping I’m not myself.” He sighed. “I’ve even apologized and I’ve tried to do better, but damn, you’re all I can think about. I get hard when just your image comes up in my mind. But it’s more than simple attraction. You know that, right? In fact, I plan to show you that in Miami.”
“I believe you. Listen, I have to go. These rates suck on my phone plan. I’ll text you the details in a few days, but go ahead and book your flight and the room. I’d ask if you really wanted to spend the money but I forget who I’m talking to.” She tried to make her voice sound light, even though her entire body felt weighted at the mere idea of ending this call.
“I miss you, Sam. I can’t wait to see you, to touch you. Text you soon,” he said before he hung up, not even giving her a chance to reciprocate the sentiments.
She opened her laptop, and for the first time allowed herself to look him up online. Googling his name, she couldn’t believe the pages of stuff that came up on him. A lot was just his family, and the articles about his father’s business, the financial statements, and such. The freakin’ numbers associated with those entries scared the shit out of her. Hell, she’d never even been in houses the size of his parents', as the splendid estate could be seen in all its huge glory from google earth.
The stuff on him was as equally impressive. The games he made looked amazing, and he’d won quite a few awards from whatever it was they had said he did. She didn’t speak the language, but she could appreciate the accolades he’d received, what he’d achieved. Geeky language at times and all, she loved the passion with which he lived his life, worked his job. She could fall hard for this guy if she just let go, right into a blanket of darkness to protect her light. Or would he extinguish it without ever meaning to? Would she get lost in his world of glitz and gemstones?