Key West (36 page)

Her smile bordered between sultry and sweet. “I never
dreamed
it,” she said as they began to move against one another in slow, deep strokes. “But you surpassed even my dreams.”

He couldn’t resist kissing her, tasting her tongue with his, nibbling softly at her tender berry-colored lips, all while he eased his shaft in and out, in and out—slow, deep, slower, deeper. Each time he reached full immersion, she closed her eyes, looking profoundly pleasured. “How does it feel?” he whispered.

“My body is so full with you, I can’t even describe it.”

It was the slowest, gentlest sex they’d ever had—and Chris couldn’t recall a time in his life when he’d been more deeply aroused, more sated by each and every slide of his cock into her tight little cunt.

He squeezed her ass as they continued the slow, drawn-out ocean sex, soon splaying his fingers wider, letting both of his middle fingers seek her other tiny opening. When they raked over her anus, he molded her ass slow and tight, drawing on the skin at the center, stimulating the hot little fissure.

She moaned, her breath trembling. “Start that and this won’t go slow anymore.”

He smiled. It was a grand dilemma—whether to fuck slow and steamy or hot and hard. “Much as I’d like to, we can’t go slow forever.” He reached for the aperture once more, pulling tighter this time as he squeezed and curled his fingers inward.

Another hot groan escaped her. “God, that’s brutally good,” she growled.

Her very tone, hot and animalistic, drew a low moan from his gut and made him thrust harder into her. She let out a cry of pleasure.

“I want to make you scream,” he whispered through clenched teeth. “I want to make you come so fucking hard. I want to give you a pleasure you’ll never forget.”

“You’ve already done that, over and over again.” A sexy smile broke through the heated passion on her face. “But don’t let that stop you.”

As he drove his cock hard into her pussy, he reached once more for her asshole, but this time, he thrust the tips of both middle fingers inside. She sobbed with the shock of it, although he knew the near-agony on her face was actually deep, unexpected pleasure.

“I love your tight little ass, baby,” he rasped, driving his erection deep into her.

She moaned and met the lunge, her ass sinking farther onto his fingers.

After that, there was simply no going slow—her body wouldn’t allow it. Locking her legs full around his waist, she rode him, writhing her clit against his belly, her asshole against his fingers, which he thrust in time with each stroke of his cock. She cried out desperately with each hot entry and her sounds of pleasure took him closer and closer to ecstasy.

He fucked her so hard that he couldn’t speak anymore—could only groan with each deep ram into her hungry cunt. Her cries came high and lost-sounding as she rode him harder and harder, fucking him more and more wildly.

They writhed together in fierce, untamed sex, struggling against one another in the water, their movements creating small splashes, her hot groans filling him as much as his shaft filled her pussy. Drawing one finger from her ass, he thrust the remaining one in deeper, as deep as it would go, and she thrashed even harder, harder, until he spat through gritted teeth, “Come! Come for me!”

After a few more pronounced thrusts, she leaned her head back and sobbed with wild pleasure, and he watched her mouth, her eyes, felt her ass clench around his finger, her pussy tighten even more around his cock.

“That’s right, angel,” he said more softly. “Come. Come hard. Don’t stop. Keep coming.”

He kept thrusting his finger, fucking her deep, holding the same hot rhythm, never letting it fall off. She continued to howl her satiation, her cries like nothing he’d ever heard from her before—and would never hear from her again—but at least he’d made her feel it, at least he’d given her a pleasure that deep.

When finally her cries turned to whimpers, she opened her eyes to pull him into a kiss, and that was what pushed him over the edge. “Oh God, me, too,” he said, then felt the assaulting bliss as he spurt his seed up into her, pulling her down, hard, hard, hard, on his throbbing cock. “Yes, yes,” he whispered as the pleasure stretched long and draining, as his cock finally emptied itself completely in her sweet pussy.

She fell against him in a huge hug; he held her warm and tight and knew in that moment without fail that
this
was what life was about.

Moments later, he carried her naked up onto the beach, laying her down on the blanket and wrapping them both up in it to peer at the newly risen crescent moon, looking like a bright smile in the dark sky.

They exchanged slow, sweet kisses.

He said, “Stay.”

She blinked up at him. “What?”

“Don’t go back. Stay.”

He heard her sigh. “But I have a life there. A business. I’ve worked hard to build my business.”

“So start a new business here.”

Carrie was at once amazed, touched, and frightened. She knew she’d fallen in love with him, and she knew they’d just had the sexual liaison of a lifetime, but she’d only known Chris for a week. She had no idea how many girls he might have gotten this involved with, how many times he might have made such a request.

Deep inside, she knew this wasn’t an everyday thing for him, though, just as it wasn’t for her. In fact, she was forced to recall his story about the one girl he’d loved who hadn’t loved him back, and he wondered if maybe it was possible he felt
exactly
as she did now—but even so, there was so much at stake.

Her beloved bookstore. She’d built it from nothing into a thriving business in a time when most independent stores failed. How could she possible abandon what she’d worked so hard for in exchange for what, honestly, was an uncertain life? What would she do here? How would she make a living? How long would their romance last?

It was all too quick, too fast. She’d let go, surrendered herself, her beliefs, her heart—but with the understanding that this was temporary. How could she let go of her entire existence completely?

She gazed into Chris’s eyes, turned dark by moonlight. “How would you feel if I asked you to give up your business and come to Maryland?”

He flinched and she knew the question had hit home. “Not great,” he admitted, “but…Key West is a lot more fun than Maryland.”

“And Maryland is where I’ve worked just as hard as you to establish a business I love.”

He sighed, glanced down, softly kissed her breast. “You’re right. I understand about your business. I know what a huge part of you it becomes, how it means everything.”

She leaned her forehead against his, and could scarcely believe she was turning him down. “Maybe I’m passing up something wonderful, Chris, I don’t know. But I can’t stay.” She gave her head a slight shake and worked to hold back the tears that threatened. She’d worried so much about leaving Key West with a broken heart, but she’d never dreamed it would be
her
decision that would break it.

* * * * *

He woke the next morning in her hotel room, in her arms, after another night of mind-blowing sex. Like at the beach, they’d started out soft and slow and ended up rough and raging. He’d been tempted to ask her one more time to stay, but had resisted. He’d known from the start that she was a woman on vacation, a woman on the rebound from a tragically broken engagement, and that this was her chance to cut loose for once in her life. It hadn’t been meant to turn into love, but for him, it had, and it only meant he’d have to get over her and find a way to guard his heart a little closer from now on.

They ordered a room service breakfast and ate on the balcony. She acted cheerful, so he tried to, as well. He found himself wishing it were twenty-four hours earlier, that yesterday was starting over with brunch at Blue Heaven and that they’d have their day at the beach all over again.

“I can drive you to the airport,” he said across the table.

She shook her head. “I made arrangements to ride with Amy and Cole. They’re flying back today, too, from Miami, and our flights leave at almost the same time.”

He couldn’t help being disappointed. He’d looked forward to the three hour drive up the Keys as a chance to say goodbye. “When do you leave?”

She’d already dressed in light summer pants and a matching top—something Carrie the Angel would wear. She checked her watch. “In about an hour.”

He nodded, not quite knowing what to do or say. Maybe they’d said it all already.

After eating, she walked to the balcony railing and gazed out on the ocean. He followed and let his arms circle her from behind. Without warning, she turned in his arms and kissed him hard and desperate, then peered up into his eyes. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

He only nodded.
I love you.

Last chance. Last call for telling her the thing that might make her stay.

But he still didn’t say it. Memories of a rejection that had scarred him held the words inside. Besides, if she didn’t want to stay, three little words weren’t going to change anything.

When it was time for her to go, he walked her down to the lobby, waited as she checked out, then pulled her rolling suitcase out to the breezeway where Cole and Amy had just driven up in their rental car.

“Guess this is it,” he said, holding her in a loose embrace.

“Yeah, guess so.”

He sank his mouth down on hers in what he intended to be a short kiss goodbye, but which lengthened with the knowledge that it would be their last—and he hoped like hell it was reminding her of all the incredible passion they’d shared.

When it finally ended, she bit her slightly swollen lip and gazed up at him. Neither one said goodbye. She finally broke the gaze and climbed in the car. They looked at each other through the window until Cole pulled away.

Chapter Fifteen

Carrie tried to return to the bookstore the next morning with a happy heart. And indeed, it was good to pick up Dickens from the cat-sitter, and good to see all her beloved books, as well as the historic old building that held them—but inside she was sad.

What didn’t help was having her mother call first thing at nine a.m. to check on her. Of course, she’d expected the concern—when her mom had last seen her, she’d been fleeing from the heartbreak of a ruined wedding. There was no way her mother could know the much more brutal heartbreak assaulting her now.

The second time the phone rang, it was Jon. “Babe, it’s me.”

Just hearing his voice made something wither inside her. “What do you want?”

“To apologize. To make things up to you somehow. I’m begging you, Carrie, give me another chance.”

She simply sighed. She didn’t need
this
right now, too. “Jon, it’s too late.”

“It’s never too late, babe,” he said, sounding like a sappy love song.

How could she get through to him? How could she explain that she really wasn’t all that upset about what he’d done anymore because her time away had made her realize how little she cared about him. “Jon, I accept your apology, okay? Truly, I do. But it’s time for us both to move on.”

“Move on to what, Carrie? We’ve been in each other’s lives so long, I don’t know how to exist without you.”

She understood what he meant—at first, she’d thought she’d never get by without him; they’d seemed like such permanent fixtures in each other’s world given their ten-year history. Now, she thought she might miss the habit of his friendship—but that was all. “You’ll exist fine, Jon. Trust me. We’ll both exist just fine.”

It took awhile, but she finally got off the phone, hoping she’d convinced him that she wasn’t interested in rekindling their relationship. The truth was, it was hard to imagine having a relationship with anyone but Chris at the moment, and she had a feeling it might be a long time before she dove back into the dating pool.

Two book sales and a cup of coffee later, the phone rang again, and this time it was Diana. “I’m coming home,” she said.

“What for?”

“Because you sound awful. Clearly, I was wrong to talk you into going on vacation without him.”

“Oh, Diana, you’ve got it all wrong. Vacation was…wonderful. In fact, I…met a guy. A really hot, perfect guy who changed the way I look at life.”

Her sister paused slightly. “And
he
broke your heart now, too? My God, what’s his name and how do I find him? I’ll kill him.”

Carrie couldn’t help laughing, even amid her depression. “You don’t understand. He actually asked me to stay. And I said no.”

“Oh.” Diana sighed. “So you weren’t…in love with him or anything serious?”

“No, that’s not it. I
was
in love with him,
am
in love with him.”

“Then why on earth did you say no?”

“Because of the bookstore.”

“Forgive me, Carrie, but that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m coming home. I’ll take off work, get a flight and be there tomorrow, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

* * * * *

True to her word, and against Carrie’s will, Diana showed up the next day. And Liz, too! Diana had called their older sister in New Orleans and declared a sisterly emergency.

“You’re both out of your minds,” she told them over a bottle of wine at her apartment late on the evening of their arrival. “I’ll be fine if you’ll just give me, say,
a day or two
to recover.”