Veritas (24 page)

“Yes,” Grey hissed as Lauren’s fingers clamped onto her nipples at the same time her clit was sucked between soft, hungry lips. “Lauren…” Her eyes fluttered shut when she was answered with a low moan that reverberated through her.

“Let go,” Lauren encouraged, sliding her hands down to Grey’s hips and pulling her into a faster rhythm. She hummed softly when Grey began moving with her, and lapped eagerly at every inch of skin that came within reach.

Grey’s head fell back as she gave in and began really riding the ravenous mouth between her legs, her hips canting back, drawing attention to her clit before rocking forward when the sensation became too much. It did not take long at all for release to sweep through her, and she cried out Lauren’s name as she came.

Lauren moaned softly at the sound of her name being torn from Grey’s throat, and she watched with unabashed awe as Grey came undone above her. She felt powerful, even though she was not in the position of power at the moment, and she sighed when Grey’s hips rolled away from her.

“Jesus
.” Grey flopped onto her back on the mat beside Lauren. She laughed at the feeling of Lauren’s fingers tickling her inner thigh, and shook her head as she covered Lauren’s hand with her own. “Lauren.”

“Tell me about
it.” Lauren chuckled softly under her breath as she rolled onto her side and pressed a wet kiss to Grey’s thigh. “We definitely need to do that again,” she added with a smirk as she laid her head on Grey’s hip.

Grey smiled as she combed her fingers through Lauren’s hair. “Which part?”

“All of it,” Lauren answered without hesitation. She winked at Grey as she moved just enough to flick the tip of her tongue over Grey’s clit.

Grey groaned as her body reacted immediately to Lauren’s touch. “Don’t go starting anything you can’t finish
, Murphy.”

“Who says I can’t finish this?” Lauren
slid the tip of her tongue around the swollen bundle of nerves, and smiled at the way Grey’s legs spread wider for her. “I think you like this.”

“I have n
o idea what you’re talking about,” Grey deadpanned. Her breath hitched at the feeling of Lauren’s lips brushing the lightest of kisses over her, and she sighed as she ran her free hand over the back of Lauren’s thigh. She wrapped her fingers around Lauren’s knee and gave it a light tug. “Me too.”

“So
ambitious,” Lauren teased, letting Grey’s hand guide her as she rolled onto her knees and wrapped her arms around Grey’s thighs.

“Absolutely,” Grey agreed, her breath falling in warm waves over Lauren’s center. She smiled as she
slid her hands over Lauren’s thighs to her hips, pulling Lauren down to her mouth. And, as she began to match Lauren lick for lick, she could not help thinking that it was going to be a long, glorious afternoon.

The sound of happy voices made Lauren look up from the plate of apple nachos she was making, and she smiled at the boys as they skipped merrily into the salon. “Hey, guys. How was the beach?”

Reid’s eyes grew wide when he spotted the snack Lauren was making, and he grinned as he scampered for the middle barstool.
“Apple nachos!” Apple nachos—apple slices drizzled with caramel and chocolate sauce and topped with chocolate chips—were his favorite snack that Lauren made for them.

“We found the treasure!” Peyton and Max added as the
y climbed up into the chairs on either side of their little brother, greedily grabbing at the apple slices and trying to hoard the ones with the most chocolate chips.

“Dad has it,” Reid shared.

“Well done, you guys.” Lauren leaned forward to give each of the boys a high five. “You’ll have to show me later.” Movement in her periphery caught her attention, and she looked up to see Grey walking into the salon with Kim and Will. She blushed at the knowing smirk Kim shot her, and turned to wet some paper towels for the boys to use as napkins.

“Lauren made nachos!” Reid announced to his parents.

“I see that,” Kim said. Reid’s face was already smeared with caramel and chocolate, and the twins looked like chipmunks with their cheeks stuffed to bursting. She chuckled under her breath as she shook her head and ruffled the boys’ hair. “So, good afternoon?” she asked Lauren with a sly grin.

Lauren’s blush deepened, and she nodded. “Very good,” she
conceded with a smile. Though, to be fair, even calling the afternoon ‘very good’ was an understatement. She was honestly impressed that she was able to walk.

“What’d you do?” Reid asked. “Did you swim at the beach too? I saw a shark!”

“It wasn’t a shark, Reid.” Peyton rolled his eyes and slapped his forehead dramatically. “It was just a fish.”

“It was a shark!”

“Was not!” Max argued.

“Quiet game on three!” Kim yelled. “One…two…three!”

All three boys shut up and glared at each other.

“God, I love that game,” Kim muttered as she reached past the boys to snag a piece of apple.

Lauren laughed. “My parents used to do that one to us, too. And then it changed into the 'who can hold their breath the longest' game.”

“I’m gonna remember that one
,” Kim said, nodding as she looked at her sons. “Of course, with these three, they’ll probably hold their breath so long that they pass out.”

“But, they won’t be fighting.” Will grinned and flashed Lauren a thumbs up. “Thanks for the idea.”

“My pleasure.” Lauren looked past the Muellers to Grey, who was running a hand through her hair as she looked at one of the screens at the navigation center. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” Grey nodded as she turned to face the group. “Was just checking some things to make sure that we’ll be okay to jump over to Road Town before it gets dark.”

“We get to go more sailing?” Reid asked.

Peyton and Max grinned victoriously as they slapped the table and pointed at him, clearly celebrating the fact that he was out of the game because he talked.

“We do,” Grey told him. She turned her attention to Will and Kim and smiled. “If you guys want, Lauren and I can watch the boys tonight and you two can go have a night out on your own. It will be our last night in a port with any kind of nightlife, and we—” she waved a hand between herself and Lauren, “—thought that you guys might like a little grown-up time.”

“That would be great, thank you,” Kim said, smiling at Grey and Lauren before looking at her husband. “Whattaya say?”

“I never turn down offers for free babysitting,” Will answered with a grin.

It was hardly free babysitting, considering how much they had paid to charter the yacht for the week, but Grey just smiled and nodded. “We kinda figured we owed you one.”

“So do we clear out of British customs tonight?” Will asked.

Grey shook her head. “
First thing tomorrow morning. I want to get there right when the office opens. Then we gotta head over to Cruz Bay on Saint John to clear-in with U.S. customs. We can do lunch aboard the boat, or else you guys can grab something in town—there are quite a few family-friendly restaurants that are pretty good right by the customs office—and then we’ll skip over to Christmas Cove.”

“Are there reindeer there?” Peyton asked excitedly.

Max threw his hands up in the air and did a little victory dance in his seat. “I win!”

“Well, the silence was nice while it lasted,” Kim sighed.

“No reindeer, sorry buddy,” Grey told him with a regretful smile. “But, there are some really cool fish, and if we’re lucky there might be a few sea turtles.”

“Turtles are cool,” Max said, grinning at his brothers, who nodded their agreement.

Grey smiled. “Good. So—” she clapped her hands and looked pointedly at Lauren, “—I’m gonna throw the lines and get us moving. We have a spot reserved in the harbor, but I want to try and get there before it gets too packed to maneuver.”

“I can throw the lines for you, if you want,” Will offered.

“That would be great,” Grey said. “Thanks.”

“Us too!” The boys yelled as they hurried to shove what was left of the apple slices into their mouths.

“Finish chewing before you get out of those chairs,” Kim warned. She shook her head at the way her sons groaned and began chewing with a vengeance to try and finish first. “It is not a race.”

“Yeah right,” Will chuckled. “Have you met our kids?”

Kim just rolled her eyes. Everything with the boys was a race. Whether it was seeing who could get dressed the fastest, or who got to the bathroom first to brush their teeth, nothing was done without it being some kind of competition. “Yeah.”

“Here, guys,” Lauren told the boys as she set open bottles of water in front of them. She smiled at the mumbled
“fanks”
she got from the trio, whose mouths were still full despite their best efforts. “How many apples did you fit in there?”

“You don’t want to know,” Kim answered drolly. “They watched the Nathan’s Hot Dog contest on the fourth with their cousins, and it’s been all downhill from there.”

“Better than when they watched Ninja Warrior with your brother,” Will pointed out. “At least we haven’t taken any trips to the ER for this one…”

“Yet,” Kim added with a resigned shake of her head. She looked at Lauren and explained, “The boys thought it would be fun to climb their doorframes like the ‘ninjas on TV’
—” she framed the words with her fingers, “—and Max fell and broke his wrist.”

“Ouch,” Lauren muttered. “Me and my
brother used to do that, though. Would drive my mom nuts.”

“Done!” Peyton announced. He looked at his brothers, who were still chewing like maniacs, and grinned. “I win.”

“Not a race, Pey,” Will droned.

Peyton just grinned. “Hey,
Dad. Can I have the treasure chest?” He held his hands out as his dad pulled the box out of their beach bag. “Grey, come look!”

Because the salon-side of the counter was crowded with the Muellers, Grey walked around the peninsula to stand by Lauren in the galley so they could be appropriately wowed by the boys’ find. She smiled at the way Lauren leaned into her when she put a hand on the small of her back, and leaned forward interestedly. “Whatcha got?”

Reid finished chewing in a hurry so he could answer Grey’s question. “Dubballoons.”

“Duh-bloons,” Peyton corrected.

“That’s what I said!” Reid argued.

“No it’s not,” Max said.

“No backing out of that babysitting offer,” Kim told Lauren and Grey.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Grey assured her. “Like I said, we owe you some alone-time.” She smiled at the boys and added, “So, who’s gonna help me get this boat moving?”

“Me!” the boys all shouted as they leapt from their chairs and took off running out the door.

Grey chuckled and gave Lauren’s side a quick squeeze before she started after them. “I’m gonna keep them so busy this afternoon that they’ll pass out as soon as they’ve finished dinner,” she told Kim.

Kim just laughed. “Good luck with that,” she told Grey as the brunette disappeared onto the back deck.

The Muellers’ last day aboard the
Veritas
was a hectic whirlwind of island-hopping and clearing customs, and by the time they were anchored in Christmas Cove, everybody was ready to just relax. That meant more swimming for the boys and their father, while Kim stretched out on the trampolines to watch them as she soaked up the last few rays of the day.

Because Lauren was busy in the kitchen preparing a special dinner for the family’s last night aboard the boat, Grey gathered bottles of root beer for the boys and a couple bottles o
f Saint John’s Ale for Will and Kim and carried them out to the front of the boat. Seeing the family enjoying themselves made her smile, and she laughed out loud as she watched Peyton go flying off the starboard pontoon with an excited, “Watch this!” before landing a textbook belly flop.

“That had to hurt,” Grey commented as she set the tray of drinks down onto the small walkway that cut between the forward trampolines. She grabbed one of the beers and held it out for Kim. “Here you go.”

“My son, the rocket surgeon,” Kim chuckled as she sat up and took the bottle from Grey. “Thank you. And, thanks again for watching them last night so we could go out.”

“It was
—”

“Wonderful,” Kim interrupted. She sighed and peered over the edge of the boat to where Peyton was cry-laughing in his father’s arms. When she was convinced that he was okay, she rolled her eyes and turned back to Grey. “The boys cannot stop talking about how much fun they had making pizzas with you two and playing games, and I just want you to know that Will and I really appreciated the opportunity to spend a little time alone.”