19. Enjoyed The Ride
19
ENJOYED THE RIDE
“T his is awesome,” Charlotte said on Saturday morning.
She was in her bikini with a cute sundress over the top of it. Her sandals were off and she was sitting on the edge, her feet hanging over, her arms resting on a metal bar.
The boat was tipping and in a past life she might have been scared silly, but with Foster behind the wheel, she didn’t have a care in the world that the water was spraying all over her and she might fall out.
Nah, he’d get her if she did.
“I’m glad you like it,” he yelled.
“I’d offer to help,” she said, “but I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Stay where you are,” he said. “We are almost where I’m heading.”
Charlotte did as he said and enjoyed the ride. There were other boats around in the distance, but it was early yet. She was fine with that. She had no plans but to spend time with him.
If she wanted to see him last night, she didn’t text to see what he was doing. No reason to be clingy.
They’d had some kind of text daily and that was sufficient for her. If in the past she felt she needed more communication than that, she told herself, this was the change she needed in her life and she actually didn’t feel...needy.
He was home late last night too so he must have had to work. She didn’t want him to know she was watching either. Because that would come off as clingy. In her mind, she just saw the headlights flash by.
Her house was so small it was hard not to notice unless she was in her bedroom or the bathroom.
“I do feel bad you’re doing all the work,” she said. “I mean if you want to show me how to help, I’d love it.”
“I’ve got it,” he said.
He looked more relaxed than she’d seen him before. He had a bathing suit on that hung low on his hips and stopped just above his knees.
She liked to look at him. The muscles on his arms as he moved around the deck and tightened ropes and tugged at the sails. She had no clue what anything was called and didn’t want to sound like an idiot. To her, the sight of the man operating the vessel was more than enough.
It was so nice to be with someone who knew what they were doing rather than throwing money around and issuing orders to others.
It was close to thirty minutes later that they slowed down and were more or less in one spot of a cove.
“Where are we?”
“A little place to sit and watch the action,” he said. “You can see out further, but I like to drop anchor here.”
He moved over and started to lower the anchor into the water, the sails coming down also.
“Can we bring out the food I brought?” she asked.
She’d packed some breakfast and lunch food. He said they’d be on the water most of the day if she was fine with it. She had no problem.
“Sure,” he said. “I could eat.”
She moved to where he’d walked under the deck and watched as he grabbed their food. She’d got a quick tour earlier and seen the bed and tiny bathroom in there. She was shocked he’d fit, but he said he could take weekend trips if he wanted and had before. His form of vacation.
She thought that was a pretty great way to go even if the quarters were tight.
He handed it off and she moved to a bench where they could sit. She opened the basket and asked, “What do you want? I made muffins and cinnamon buns. Only those canned ones. Not sure why I got them. Just a childhood memory. A good one.”
She didn’t want him to think her entire childhood was miserable. It wasn’t.
“I’ll take a cinnamon bun,” he said. “I don’t remember the last time I had one of these. Probably when I lived at home. My mother used to make three cans of these and we’d still fight over them all.”
Charlotte laughed and passed him one while she took one too. “One of those nostalgic things we can’t outgrow,” she said. “Thank you for this. I know we’ve only been on the water for an hour, but it’s been the best. I wish we could have brought Marco, but there is no way he’d be okay with this.”
“Probably not,” he said. “Though we could have left him down below. Maybe next time. But I wanted you to try it out first.”
“This is the way to go,” she said. “I’ve been on motor boats before, but a sailboat takes so much work, yet you make it look rewarding at the same time.”
He snorted. “Yeah, I know. I told my sister I was bringing you out on the water today and she was shocked. She said I never bring anyone on my boat.”
“Ahh,” she said. “How come?”
“It’s my safe space,” he said.
“You’ll have to explain that to me,” she said, lifting an eyebrow and licking the frosting from her fingers.
He never seemed like someone who needed what she’d consider a safe space as much as a place to just be alone in his thoughts. Maybe she didn’t know him as well as she hoped she had.
He had so much privacy and alone time in his house daily, so needing the boat didn’t line up with what he’d said.
“I had a bit of a temper as a kid,” he said, laughing. “I knew it and needed a place to go to calm down before I got into a fight.”
“Fighting with your brothers?” she asked.
“Yes. I think I’ve got a much shorter fuse than the rest but not horrible. We are each different and I like space.”
“And there wasn’t a lot of space in your house growing up,” she said.
“Not even close. I used to find a closet or cubbies, cabinets. I think I was four or five and my mother thought I’d run off. We were on base and everyone was searching for me. I had no idea. I was hiding in the crawl space under the stairs next to boxes. I just needed someplace quiet.”
“Was it dark? I would have been terrified.”
“I had a flashlight, but no one realized where I was. I finally came out after a few hours to go to the bathroom and didn’t know what was going on. My mother wanted to throttle me.”
“And you would have felt horrible,” she said.
“I did. But from that point on, she realized that I needed to have a place to go that was just my own. I know I’ve got a full house now, but it’s not the same. The boat is that space now. I wish I could get out on the water more, but work is crazy.”
Now that made more sense and she was pleased he’d shared it with her.
“I know that feeling,” she said. “My hours are all over the place, but right now I seem to be more in this time zone. I’ve got a project in a few months in Switzerland so I’ll be on a different time schedule if needed.”
“Do you have to travel?” he asked, frowning.
“No,” she said. “They asked me if I’d be willing to when I went into this job and I said sure, but it’s not required that I’m aware of. I’m not opposed to it, but I find I like my little office. Maybe it’s my safe space too. How about you? Do you have to travel again anytime soon?”
“I have to go back to Atlanta at some point. Not sure when yet,” he said. “Just for a few days.”
“That’s not too bad,” she said. She finished her sugary snack and leaned back against the boat and looked out over the water. “I could get used to this.”
“I’m glad,” he said.
“Even if it’s infringing on your safe space?” she asked, poking him in the side.
“I don’t mind,” he said. “I could show you below deck more if you want.”
She let out a giddy giggle. “Are you asking what I think you are?”
“If you’re willing,” he said.
“Going to be hard to do it standing up this time,” she said.
“It is tight quarters, but I’m sure we can make do,” he said.
She left the basket where it was and followed Foster the few stairs below deck. He shut the door and locked it, then all but tossed her on the bed.
She landed with a thump and burst out laughing.
Here she thought in this small space he’d be a little gentler and instead he was proving her wrong once again.
She was thrilled!
She rolled though and straddled his hips while she pressed him down.
“I think it’s my turn,” she said. “I want to have my way with you.”
“I’m going to let you do it too,” he said.
He lay back and put his hands behind his head, his biceps flexing. “Take your shirt off.”
He reached down to do as he was told. She wasn’t removing her dress though. She could just lift it up and slide right on top of him.
She started to tug at his bathing suit and yanked it down fast. He was already barefoot too and was soon naked.
“There are condoms in that drawer.”
“I hope you put them in there for me this morning,” she said, squinting one eye.
“I don’t need them when I’m by myself,” he said. “And you’re the first person on this boat that isn’t a family member.”
Charlotte hadn’t expected him to say that and felt a rush of emotions in her chest that she’d been telling herself not to feel for a man who was holding back so much on her.
She opened the condom, covered his cock fast. She thought of playing with him more, but there’d be time for that later.
Right now, she just needed to feel him inside of her again.
She shimmied out of her bikini bottoms, lifted her sundress a little so she could spread herself wider, then lined up and dropped down hard.
“Do you know what I’m going to do?” she asked him.
“No,” he said, his hands still behind his head, but he was tense.
“I’m going to do to you like you did to me against the wall. Fair is fair, don’t you think?”
“I do,” he said.
“Keep your hands just like that and let me do the work.” She was rising and falling. “It feels to me like you do all the work all the time between us. This time it’s on me.”
“I’m not going to stop you,” he said.
She didn’t realize how much of a turn-on it was to have this power.
Her hands were on his chest, her fingers wide, feeling the muscles and watching him flinch. He didn’t have six-pack abs, but he didn’t have fat on him either.
“I love feeling you inside of me,” she said. “You’re so deep.”
“Keep talking,” he said.
“What?”
“Talk to me while you fuck me,” he said. “Say what you want. What you feel. Don’t hold back for fear you’ll be judged.”
Holy crap. How could he have known that about her?
She wasn’t sure she could bring herself to swear like he did. It was as if those words were trapped in her brain.
But she would do as he said because her body was taking over and maybe thinking was just too hard to do.
“I feel this fullness inside of me. I want to squeeze you tight when I move up and down. Can you feel that?”
She was concentrating as she slid up and then held herself tight before she dropped back down.
“Yes,” he said. “Do it again.”
So she did. Even if she wanted control now, she was going to do what made them both feel good.
“I’m so close to finishing.”
“Coming,” he said. “Tell me you’re close to coming. Coming all over me.”
She looked into his eyes. “I’m close to coming. All over you. So you can feel me as I do it. The wetness and the spasms inside of me. I want to feel you come too. Will you do it with me?”
“Make me,” he said firmly.
Oh man. This was nothing she’d ever experienced before and her body just took over.
She was bopping up and down on him and was only thankful for the fact that she had her bikini top on supporting her breasts because they were moving like never before under her dress.
“Ohhhh. I’m coming,” she said.
He reached up and wrapped his fist in her hair, pulled her down and sealed their lips together, then lifted up hard and fast into her twice until he was making as many noises as she was.
“Could you feel me coming?” he asked a minute later.
Now that they weren’t in the heat of the moment, she felt the flush fill her face.
“Yes,” she said quietly.
“Don’t get all embarrassed,” he said.
“It’s hard not to. I’m not used to that.”
“You’re used to being treated like a princess,” he said. “I’m not a prince or a king. Just remember that.”
“You’re the warrior,” she said quietly. “And that’s the best one to be.”