Together we stood and watched Amelia sleep in her make-shift crib. Chase wrapped his arms around me and rested his head on my shoulder.
“She’s so beautiful,” he whispered. “Just like her mother.”
I turned my face to try to look at him, difficult with him being so close. He shifted and his lips brushed mine.
I closed my eyes and let myself sink into his kiss. His eyes were dark and heavy-lidded when he broke away. I pressed a finger to his lips and slid my other hand into his, before leading him out of the room.
“The bed is back there,” he said.
“So is the baby,” I said. “You have other bedrooms.”
“I also have couches, counters, and bathtubs,” he teased.
“You’re missing the point.”
“I get your point. I can make love to you on every surface of this house, as long as your baby isn’t in the room.” He stopped walking and pulled me back against him, sliding his hands down my back.
“I guess you get the point,” I conceded. “Where then?”
“Tonight, I want you under the stars.”
“Outside?” I gulped.
“No one will see us. The beach is private, and the courtyard has walls,” he said as he pulled his shirt off.
“Okay.” I didn’t need convincing.
The night air was comfortably warm. I slid into Chase’s arms, and he pressed his lips down to mine. I had been hot and bothered and in need of his touch for days. He held me close, crushing me to his chest. Our tongues danced, and I no longer cared where we were, if we were together.
He untied the sarong I wore around my hips. He guided my hand into the front of his shorts.
“I thought we would pick up where we left off earlier,” he said against my mouth.
I stroked him longer and harder.
“I wanted my cock in your mouth,” he commanded.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” I wanted to taste him.
He smiled as I sank to my knees in the soft sand, pulling his shorts down with me. He made guttural sounds of pleasure as I licked the length of his cock before taking it in.
He tasted of fresh air and salt, and Chase. He grabbed a fistful of my hair and arched his hips.
I slid my lips over him, sucking him in. Scraping my teeth against skin as I eased back before doing it all again. I grabbed onto his muscular ass. I wanted all of him. He sank his fingers into my hair, holding my head close, guiding me to the right rhythm.
“Fuck, Gem. Stop.” He pushed my shoulders back and pulled his hips away.
I looked up at him and blinked. I felt like he had taken my favorite toy away, I wanted to cry.
“Was it bad?” I asked.
“Fuck, no, that was fantastic. I want to do more with you tonight than have you suck me off.”
“But you’ll let me do that later sometime?” I really liked the idea of bringing him to orgasm with my lips and tongue.
“Later. Right now, it’s my turn.”
He held out his hand to help me up. Once I stood, he lifted my t-shirt over my head and reached around me to unhook my bra. Instinctively I wrapped an arm around to cover myself. Chase gently pulled my arm down.
“You don’t have to hide or be shy around me. You are my beautiful sparkling Gem. I want to feel your eyes on me. Look at me, touch me.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. He was always so handsome to me, even when he was a teenager. I ran my fingers over his shoulders and down his chest. He was roped with thick hard muscles that he worked hard for.
As his chest hairs tickled my fingertips, Chase tickled my skin, touching me in a similar fashion, exploring, seeing, memorizing. He guided me backward until he lay on a lounge. Pausing only to remove my panties, he guided me across his lap, until I was straddling him.
“I left the condoms inside,” he said in a low voice.
“It’s okay, I can’t get pregnant,” I almost slipped and said ‘again.’
“Good thing for birth control,” he said.
I smirked. Right, I hadn’t been paying attention the first time, and it had failed me once. And here I was pregnant again with Chase’s second child. I loved him, and I would have all the children he gave me.
I lowered myself onto his length. He filled me, completed me.
He sighed. “You look like a goddess framed by stars.”
I looked up, and he was right, the sky was full of more stars than I could ever remember seeing. I looked back at Chase. This would be the perfect time to tell him. I needed to say, ‘I love you,’ and ‘we are having another baby,’ but I couldn’t form the words.
He rolled his hips, and slid his hand between us, flicking across my clit. All thoughts left my brain as driving want and need replaced cohesive function. I ground into him. He grabbed my hips and thrust up.
“Oh, Chase,” I cried out. Each thrust reduced me further into goo.
When he sat up and clamped a mouth to one of my nipples, it was all I could do to hold on. I rode him, but he was clearly in control. No longer able to form words, I let out moans and squeaks of pleasure. I wanted to scream, but my breath got stuck in my throat as my lungs barely worked.
He rolled, and our momentum took us off the lounge. I landed on my back with a woof of air escaping. I fought to catch my breath as I started laughing.
Chase let go of my breast long enough to kiss me again.
“Yes, yes, please don’t stop now,” I begged against his mouth
I didn’t notice paving stones and sand digging into my back. All I knew was Chase above me, Chase thrusting into me. I pushed my hips up to meet him at a frenetic pace. I needed all of him. He gave himself to me harder, faster.
I screamed when wave after wave of orgasm crashed into my body. I could no longer meet Chase’s pounding thrust for thrust. When he came, he filled me with heat and the slickness renewed my orgasm. This time I could feel the pull of my muscles milking him, sucking him in.
“Fuck, oh, damn.” He collapsed across my chest. “What have you done to me, woman?”
I cradled him to my body. Not wanting this moment to end. But it did eventually. Chase sat up. He grimaced and touched his knee. I rolled into a position on my hip.
“It looks like you scraped your knee in the fall,” I said.
Chase looked from me to the lounge, and back. “I don’t remember falling off, do you?”
“Only because I landed on my back, we were occupied.”
Chase leaned in and captured my lips with his. The kiss was lingering and full of desire.
“I’d like to be occupied with you again,” he said with a lustful groan.
“Yes, please, but in a bed, and maybe after a shower. I have sand in delicate places.”
Chase helped me to wash the sand away. I found out that all that working out in a gym and drinking protein shakes wasn’t for looks. The man had strength. He held me up against the tiled wall of the shower while we were occupied with each other’s bodies again.
“We are sleeping in the same bed or is that not allowed around Amelia?” he asked. His fingers slid back and forth across my breasts where the towel I had wrapped around me gave way to skin.
“There’s nothing wrong with sleeping together,” I said. “Besides, I like sleeping next to you. Thank you for inviting us to your home.”
He slid his arm around me. “I love”—my heart leaped to my throat— “having you here. The house seems ridiculously large when it’s just me.”
I hoped my smile hid my disappointment. He wasn’t ready to tell me he loved me yet. I hadn’t said anything either.
We spent another glorious morning at the beach before we flew home. I hadn’t managed to tell him anything important like I was completely in love with him, or that we had a child together and another one on the way.
New York felt bleaker than ever. Especially when Mom announced that John had called Orchard View looking for me.
“He has my cell number, he could call me directly,” I complained.
“I think he does it so that he can order other people about and not do the work himself,” Mom said.
I called him. He wanted me to be available so he could discuss something regarding the properties if he drove up on the weekend.
“I’m in the City for some appointments,” I lied. “Why don’t we meet for dinner?”
He agreed, and the following evening we met. I could have taken the elevator up to his office after work hours, but he still didn’t know I worked for him.
“You should be careful with tanning beds,” he said as soon as he saw me. No hello or greeting of any kind. He went straight to what I was doing wrong.
“Excuse me?”
He waved his fingers at his face, and then at mine, indicating the sunburn I had across my cheeks. “They put new bulbs in those things and don’t say anything, and then you get burned like you did. My business partner got a sunburn too, only his is natural.”
“Your business partner? You know I know who Chase Campbell is, our fathers…” I shook my head. John would never think I knew anything. “How do you know his isn’t from a tanning bed too?”
“Oh, he has a house on St. Maarten. He’s down there whenever the weather gets like this.”
