On The Beach (Modern Vintage)

15. Stories From The Bottom

CHAPTER 15

stories from the bottom

MICK

I wasn't the moonlit-walk-on-the-beach kind of guy—unless, of course, I was trying to charm my way into a woman's panties. But since Belle was already a sure thing, it was weird as hell to find myself strolling side by side with her down the beach like we were extras in some cheesy Hallmark movie. The sky had melted into a deep purple, stars starting to poke through one by one, and the night was warm, a gentle breeze rolling in off the ocean. Belle was quiet, her usual energy muted, her edges softened. I glanced over at her, watching as she gazed out at the water, her eyes distant, lost in thought.

How had this crazy fucking woman had such an impact on me?

Even during my mainland life, Belle wasn't the kind of person I went for. I liked my women non-nerdy and more sophisticated. I liked them experienced. I liked them polished. I liked them…easy.

Belle was, in some ways, so much like me with her passion for science and saving lives. How long before she got jaded? How long before all of this lost its appeal, and she went looking for an island to disappear in?

I didn't want that for Belle. I wanted her to succeed in her wildest dreams, whatever they were. I wanted her happy and satisfied. I also wanted her with me.

What. The. Fuck?

I wrapped an arm around her and kissed the side of her head. Yeah, this was the kind of shit I hadn't done with a woman since Mia. I didn't do romance. I fucked. Roll the theme music of Shaft . Who's the beach bum that's a sex machine to all the chicks? Mick. You're damn right.

I was too cool for the happily-ever-after shit.

But as the warm and soft woman next to me leaned into me, I was too hot and bothered by her to be anywhere near cool.

"This way." I nodded toward a hidden path that led up to a small, rocky cliff overlooking the beach. "Got something to show you."

She raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at the blanket I had tucked under my arm.

"I promise it's not gonna be a crazy hill-climbing hike."

She smirked and followed me, her sandals crunching on the sand as we climbed to the top. When we reached the ledge, the view opened up, the shoreline stretching out below, moonlight glinting on the waves. I set down the blanket I'd brought along, and we settled in, side by side, looking out over the horizon as the stars filled the sky.

"Pretty amazing, huh?" I came here often and alone. But with her, the view felt different, new.

Belle tucked a stray hair behind her ear. "It's beautiful. Feels like the whole world's just…paused."

We sat in silence for a while, listening to the waves.

She was going to be out of my life soon, and I needed to give her a part of me. I wanted to tell her something real, which wasn't just jokes and island charm. I thought back to my old life, to long nights in labs and the endless hours in meeting rooms that seemed to blur together. To the moment, everything had fallen apart, and I'd ended up here.

"Back then, I thought I had it all figured out until it all fell apart. For the past three years, I felt like I've figured out who I really am."

"And who are you?"

"That's the thing, Belle, I'm not sure I know anymore. I went from being a workaholic to a beach bum, and now…I feel like a piece of fucking driftwood."

Her eyes widened, and she looked at me with surprise. Yeah, lady, I'm not sure why I'm vomiting this shit to you either. But here we are!

"Don't you think that's too black or white?" she mused. "I think you know who you are—you are someone who wants a peaceful life without conflict. You have a huge problem with disloyalty and?—"

"How do you figure?"

"The disloyalty part?" she asked, and when I nodded, continued, "Just that when your fiancée cheated on you with her trainer…which, by the way, is such a cliché, that was a deal breaker for you."

"True," I admitted. "That's exactly how I felt that there was no going back from that."

Belle's expression softened. "I'm sorry, Mick. But that's who you are. I also know RiRi told me that you fund a whole lot of stuff around the island, from the school to the clinic to…well, Franco."

I laughed. "He's always short."

"You believe in taking care of people around you. That's also you. I don't know what you did before you came here—but I believe that you're a man who cares, a man who has a big heart, and one who burned out and wanted a simpler life, which is why you sleep in a hammock," she finished.

For someone who didn't know a lot about my past, she definitely knew me . I wasn't surprised. "Looking back, I think I was more in love with the idea of the life I thought I was supposed to have. You know, the success—the whole ladder-climbing game."

Belle nodded, watching me closely. "I don't like the ladder-climbing thing much, but in my business, if you want funding and your own lab; and if you want to influence, you have to play the game."

"You any good at it?" I already knew the answer to that.

"I suck at it," she admitted, as I knew she would. Belle had an almost na?ve openness about her, the way she let people in and showed them exactly who she was. She didn't have the polish or the pretense to hide her feelings. She wouldn't be able to play politics if there was a gun to her head.

Like now, I could see that she was feeling a whole hell of a lot more than she or I were prepared for about this relationship…or fling…or whatever.

But you feel the same, Mick, which means you're just as fucked , the asshole with the pointy horns sitting on my shoulders cackled.

"I was damn good at playing the game, at wearing a mask." I traced a finger down her cheek. "Do you know that if you wear a mask for a long time, it becomes your face?"

She straightened and held my face gently in her hands. She kissed my lips tenderly. "I think you're one of the most authentic people I've ever met."

That stung. Deep. She saw me as authentic while I was lying to her about who I was. She'd never find out, though. She'd leave with the knowledge that Mick Bottom, the certified beach bum had been a transient lover of hers, and she hadn't found Dr. Augustus .

"Sometimes you don't realize how much you're missing yourself until you get out of it. Reef Harbor wasn't exactly planned. More like it showed up when I needed it most. It gave me the time and space I needed to find out who I was."

She smiled, and I fell for her. Hard . "And who are you, Mick Bottom?"

I was a man in love. That was the first thought that emerged in my head. Stupid fucking useless head!

"A man who's going to fuck your brains out tonight," I said salaciously.

Yeah, that was better, and so much for being my true self.

She tilted her head and smiled. "I'd like that."

I chuckled, a little nervous that she'd find out how gone I was for her, that I'd give myself away before she left the island. "And, you? Who are you, Isabelle Volnay?"

She gave me a soft smile, then looked back at the stars. "I'm a woman who's finding herself."

I watched her, feeling that tug in my chest, the one that kept showing up whenever she was near.

That night, there was a poignancy between us. If I wasn't such an asshole, I'd even said that we made love. But since I was a grade-A jerk, I decided we fucked a storm.

But we didn't.

I wanted to savor her. We had only two nights left, and I wanted to memorize her.

I'd have to get rid of the bed after she left and shove it back into RiRi's storage. Not because it wasn't comfortable, ‘cause it was. I didn't think I could stand the memories. I already knew that. I knew that this sexy woman who couldn't hold her liquor had already indelibly marked me. The enormity of my feelings that had swamped me in such a short time didn't match what I'd felt with Mia, and we'd been together for nearly three years. I couldn't remember those feelings clearly— except for the part where I felt like an idiot for getting cheated on.

Maybe I'd never loved Mia. Maybe that had all been part of Dr. Augustus' life plan.

I brushed caresses across her face and down one arm and then the other. She moved languidly, not rushing me, maybe feeling the same need as I did to prolong our lovemaking. There was that fucking term again.

We. Were. Not. Making. Love.

Her skin was like satin, I thought like a lovesick fool. I came across a mole between her breasts and licked it. She shivered slightly, moving a nipple close to my lips. "You're so fucking responsive, Babycakes."

I suckled her and listened to the tremble in her voice when she moaned.

"Better?" I murmured.

"The other one, too."

"You're so fucking smooth, so gorgeous. I'm a lucky son of a bitch."

"I think we're both lucky." Her eyes were closed, her naked body beautiful against the dark blue sheets. She was a sultry siren who'd ensnared me.

"Yeah, we are." My voice caught as I kissed her stomach, moving further down, wanting badly to taste her.

She was writhing by the time I got below her navel.

"Mick, hurry."

"Not gonna tonight, Belle. We're gonna make it last all fucking night," I promised.

I stroked her silky thighs as I parted them. She'd gotten a tan, I noticed in the bright moonlight. With a thoroughness I wasn't usually known for, I began to trace every curve, every fold, every crevice between her legs with my tongue.

Her cries became louder when I circled her clit, her hands in my hair urgent. I dipped my tongue inside her, and her flavor exploded inside me. Every time I was with her, since that first time, it was like there was something new between us—like every time was the first fucking time.

What's next, Mick? You gonna write poetry? She walks in fucking beauty?

But she did walk in beauty, just like the cloudless and starry skies atop Reef Harbor; and all that was best about the dark, and the light sparkled in her eyes.

"Mick, I wanna come," she whimpered.

"Slowly. We're going to take it slowly tonight." My cock was steel-hard, and I wanted nothing more than to enter her and stay there all night. But then it would be over, and I didn't want that. I wanted to keep her with me. Keep her scent inside me.

I looked up at her blue eyes. "You want me?"

"So much."

I wanted desperately to ask if she was in love with me. For some wild and unfathomable reason, I wanted her to tell me she loved me. Her eyes were so expressive, and I could see her pleasure in me, in us. I saw how she softened whenever I was with her. I saw how she felt.

Damn it! I didn't have time for this shit. I didn't have time for love. We were fucking. That's what this was.

I crawled up her body, wanting to put my emotions in perspective and end this sap fest I had going. Sex was familiar. The body would take over. I thrust inside her, and instead of the blank mind I expected, it was as if all the colors of the rainbow exploded.

"Mick, baby." Her legs went around my waist, and I looked down at her.

Fuck it!

"Say you love me," I demanded harshly.

We both stilled for a long moment, and then she smiled sweetly at me. "I love you, Mick. "

I didn't know why this woman's words should mean so much, and thankfully, since I didn't have a therapist on call, I'd never have to find out.

I began pumping in and out of her. She moaned, arched against me, her eyes on mine.

"I want to feel you come around my cock." I bit her lower lip hard and licked the tangy blood I released. "I. Want. Everything," I roared.

"You already have it," she breathed.

That was it.

I slowed down, wanting to feel each silken caress, her orgasm, her release, her .

I had this burning desire to hear her tell me again that she loved me. I wanted the words from this charming, beautiful, smart, and na?ve woman. I wanted her to love me. I wanted to feel loved and cared for. I wanted…so fucking much from her, and I'd take it. Two nights! That's all we had, and I'd take and take and take from her so that after she left, I could breathe, survive, and get on with my great life on my great island.

Great lonely island!

I shuddered when she orgasmed, absorbing her release into me, feeling her pleasure like it was my own.

She put a hand on my cheek. "Tell me," she whispered.

Emotion swarmed in my eyes.

"You're the most beautiful thing I've ever laid my eyes on." I kissed her mouth. "You're the most…most woman I've ever been with."

She brushed her lips against mine. "More."

"You're exquisite in your innocence, your charm, your passion." I moved inside her, feeling her more deeply than ever before. "Until you leave, Belle, you're fucking mine ."

I wanted to give her the words she asked for, but I hadn't said that to a woman since Mia. I didn't know how to frame them, not anymore .

"It's okay." Her tone was kind and understanding. She wasn't going to pout or pressure me. She wasn't going to be annoyed that I asked her to tell me she loved me but now refused to give her back the words.

Her hands stroked my back, and her hips lifted against mine. Skin against heated skin.

"Faster, Mick."

I gave her fast, and her nails scored my back, wanting more of me, and I gave it to her.

Faster. Deeper. More. More. More.

I felt like I was going to pass out because I was feeling too much, all of it, everything. Her hands cupped my ass and then moved to squeeze my balls. I thrust into her with a hoarse cry. "Like that, Belle. Just like that."

I erupted inside her, completion making me shake. This was pure ecstasy, I thought. I didn't know where she began, and I ended. Where her pleasure started and mine finished.

"You're fucking everything," I told her as I collapsed on her. “ Everything , Belle."

She continued to stroke my back as she pulsed around me, protecting me, taking care of me, touching my soul by giving me hers.