Chapter 11
11
OWEN
“Where the hell are we?” I look out of the car windscreen, into the dark as Jade parks her hired Jeep Wrangler.
“Welcome to Aphrodite’s Rock.” She unbuckles her seatbelt, jumps out of the car, and motions for me to get out too before I’ve even blinked.
Fuck me, this woman moves fast.
Fast jets and fast driving. I held on for dear life as she tore along the cliff-topped roads on the way here.
I mean, I enjoy driving fast and we have incredible countryside roads in Castleview Cove to do exactly that. But at night, in the dark, on a road you don’t know, it’s scary, and Jade just gave a whole new meaning to living life in the fast lane.
She scares the shit out of me in so many ways. Which freaks me out, but I’m also here for it too.
“What are you waiting for?” Her voice is muffled as she shouts from outside of the car because I still haven’t moved. Then she turns on her heels and starts running away.
“Shit,” I hiss, unclipping my seatbelt, and leap out of the jeep as her silhouette disappears into the darkness .
Pulling my phone out of my shorts pocket, I tap the flashlight on and call out her name as I slam the car door closed. The warm salty air hits my nostrils, the faint sound of breaking waves radiating in the distance.
“I’m over here.” Her phone light flickers in the black of night as she swings it through the air.
I jog toward her, and the ground changes as I hit pebbles, kicking them up around my legs and into my sneakers.
“You’re so slow,” she teases.
“I didn’t realize it was a competition.” Slightly out of breath, I grab her waist, pulling her into my arms to tickle her sides.
“I’m not ticklish.” She doesn’t react to my wiggling fingers.
“What? How is that even possible? That’s surely not a thing?”
“It is and I’m not.” She elevates herself to her tiptoes and smacks a kiss to my lips. “Clothes off. We’re going for a swim.” She moves back, quickly places her phone on the pebbled beach, then removes her dress, followed by her gold sandals.
“No way. There could be sharks.” My voice goes a little squeaky. I love surfing and swimming, and as a hardened Scot, I’m thick-skinned and can tolerate the bracing temperature of the North Sea in the winter surf, but sharks? Nope, not doing that, never.
“There won’t be any sharks.” She pulls a white stone out of her bra before whipping it off. She’s standing there in only her lace panties, and my brain disconnects from my spinal cord momentarily.
I realized she pulled something out of her bra, and my curiosity pulls me back to reality. “What’s that?” I point at the white stone.
Holding it up between her fingers, she shows me a shiny white pebble, barely an inch in size. In the dark, I can just make out a tiny pillar box with a red poppy on the front of it. “My lucky charm. I wear it in my bra, next to my heart most days, and always when I fly.” She looks melancholy. “My dad gave it to me.” Her eyes drop to the stone as she rubs the pad of her thumb over it. “He said it would bring me good luck.” When she looks up, her mouth is tilted up to the side. “It has.”
I gulp so loud I’m surprised she doesn’t hear it over the waves crashing against the rocks that line the edge of the beach as it suddenly dawns on me that I want to keep her close to my heart. Forever. Because she feels like my very own good luck charm.
Standing almost completely naked on the beach, she meticulously places her stone on top of her clothes. My head in a spin, I use my torch to look around the beach, to check no one else is around.
“It’s just us,” Jade reassures me excitedly. “Nobody comes down here at this time of the night.”
I shine my torch in her face. “Is this what we do now? We skinny dip by moonlight together?” Although I quite like the thought of that.
“Yes. Strip,” she says authoritatively, stalking toward me, her full breasts bouncing as she moves. “Or I will undress you myself.” Her brows raise as if she’s challenging me.
Having only known each other for a few days, it strikes me how comfortable we are with each other already. Jade seems to have shed any initial body insecurities she may have had as she swings her flared hips my way.
Enjoying every delicious curve of her body, I continue to watch her as I push my arms out to the sides. “Have at me then,” I counter as I shuck my sneakers off my feet.
My shirt is gone in a flash. Next, she crouches, unzips my shorts, then pulls them and my boxers off, throwing them over her shoulder. When I’m naked, she pushes herself up on her tiptoes, placing another chaste kiss on my lips.
Kissing seems to be another thing we both like doing.
I look down at myself, growing hard, my cock excited to be near her nakedness. “Why the hell am I completely naked and you’re not?”
“Have at me.” Smirking, she pulls an elasticized hairband off her wrist and ties her hair up into a messy bun. Like a magnet, my eyes automatically follow the silhouette of her hourglass curves as she offers herself to me.
Sliding her panties down her hips and legs, I then drop to my knees onto the shingle beach, too lost in her and our what comes next moment to care about the sharp stones against my skin. My lips seek her pussy and her whimpers get lost in the warm wind as I use the tip of my tongue to flick her clit.
“Owen.” She moans, thrusting her hips, wanting more. I grin against her skin, then inhale her sweet scent of tangerines and deep amber. “You smell fucking amazing.” I softly bite her now swollen clit.
She grabs my face, guiding me to stand, then hungrily kisses me. “I might drive you crazy, Owen, but you make me feel like a wild woman,” she mumbles before she bites my bottom lip. Without warning, she grabs my hand, pulling me past the pebbled part of the beach and down into the sand along the edge of the shore. Then she leads me into the blackened sea as we wade deeper.
She squeals as she hits the colder than expected water, and I roar when the Mediterranean Sea hits my skin. “Fuck me sideways,” I hiss. “I think I lost my testicles.”
Jade bursts into a fit of giggles, and I reach for her, threading my arms around her waist.
Her hand disappears below the water, making me flinch when she cups my junk and says, “I think you’re right.” She squeezes my now shriveled cock, her teeth chattering together.
“You’ll have to warm him up to make him come out again, Hotshot.” I wink, my eyes now adjusted to the darkness.
With a loud laugh, she wraps her arms around my neck, jumps up, then threads her legs around my waist, hooking her ankles behind my back, before kissing me for what feels like forever. Her kiss hits hard, pulling me into her orbit, making me feel as if I’m weightless.
Between kisses, she says, “Do you know why you’re here?”
“Nope.” I kiss the side of her mouth.
She points to the enormous rock to our right that’s standing like a soldier guarding us.
I pull her closer when she starts speaking. “Legend has it that this”—we both look at Aphrodite’s Rock—“is the birthplace of the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite. She was created from the foam of the sea. Cronus caused the foam by castrating his father Uranus and throwing his genitals into the water.”
I shake with a combination of laughter and feeling colder since we aren’t moving. “Great, we might find a pair of testicles in here after all.” I wrap myself around her tighter to keep us warm.
“We might.” She fights hard to hide her smile as she continues, obviously desperate to tell me the story. “Local folklore says that anyone who swims around the rock will be blessed with great and eternal beauty. But Greek mythology says that if you swim around the rock three times, you will find true love.”
Her last words stop my heart for a millisecond.
Our eyes locked, I can’t tear my gaze away from her angelic face that I dreamed about last night.
“Is that what you want, Jade, to find true love?”
She whispers, “I did for a very long time. Then I gave up.” My heart plummets from my chest into my stomach. “That was until yesterday.”
Giving me hope and being coy, I ask, “What happened yesterday?”
“I met a guy.” Her voice is playful but with a hint of uncertainty.
“Is he nice?”
She bobs her head twice, slowly. “He’s wonderful, but no one, not even himself, has ever allowed him to shine.”
Her words trigger my vulnerabilities. “You don’t know him well enough to say that.”
“I do. I’m a great judge of character and I feel like I already know him, because he shared part of himself with me last night, something he rarely does, if ever.” She plays with the wavy hair at the base of my neck, curling it around her fingers, hypnotizing me with her touch. “He told me since the day he was born he was expected to be, act and do everything a certain way. Never allowed to make his own decisions or carve his own path. So he gave up trying; with his girlfriend, his friends, family, work.”
As if someone turned down the noise levels, the crashing waves around us seem to stop, reflecting how she makes me feel: calm and steady.
She’s got me all figured out.
What a woman.
I’m enchanted by the way she’s looking at me with her big blue eyes, and brick by broken brick, she dismantles the wall I’ve built up around my heart. “He may have been selfish in the past, but he’s trying to change. He thinks he’s being selfish by running away, except for the last year he tried to do what he thought best to bolster the family business and maintain its legacy. All while he was dying inside.” She rests her hand over my heart. “He knew deep down in here”—she taps the center of my chest—“that love and people can’t be bought, but he was doing what was expected of him, even at the cost of his own happiness. His cousin told me everything today, including that his mom and dad married as part of a business deal. His sister did too and his mother did nothing to protect her children from their inevitable fate.” She shakes her head in disapproval. “Loving your children unconditionally, protecting them—” She stalls, as if emotion is building in her chest. “Love should be freely given, not bought or exchanged. She should never have put you in that position.” Her eyes turn watery. “Love and marriage are sacred. They mean something. They allow you to form a bond that no one else understands. It’s limitless and transcends intimacy. It’s about being partners spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Marriage is not a tool to be used to bargain with, and the guy I’m talking about knew that, too. So, he broke the cycle.”
So many emotions I’ve been holding on to expel through my next breath, suddenly making the tight muscles of my chest loosen and relax. “He did,” I exclaim. I fucking did. I broke the chain.
Jade lays her forehead against mine. “Love is about feeling that connection… that feeling that you can’t ignore.”
My voice cracks. “Fate.” I know what she’s getting at.
“Kismet.” She smiles confidently. “Us meeting. We were predetermined. I know it because I feel it, Owen. Destiny, on the other hand, is what we choose to do from this moment moving forward.”
Always one to be cautious with my heart and feelings, I decide to be honest. “I don’t know what happens next. I have nothing to offer you.”
“One day at a time, Owen. ”
“I have to start again.”
“Press the reset button and start here.” She looks over her left shoulder, up at the towering rock. “Tonight, under the moonlight, you’ll start your own legendary story. Swim around the rock and make it mean something specific to you. Not legend or folktale, not myth. Give your swim meaning.”
“To find my purpose.”
She twists to face me again. “Set an intention and let it go. Hand it over to the deities and demigods. You’re in the perfect place to ask the Greek gods for help, guidance, support. Anything your soul desires, Owen. Just ask,” she whispers, quietly adding, “Swim once. Let inspiration come and ideas percolate. Swim twice, then, and only then ask for what you want. And don’t be specific; go general. Ask for happiness, feeling good, comfort, the perfect job, a bed to sleep in, a home, but no detail. Let the gods and goddesses do the work for you tonight. The last swim, release and unattach yourself from the outcome.”
She renders me speechless. I’m at a loss why she thinks I am worthy of her time, or why she brought me here to do this.
“It’s time. Your time,” she says.
I gasp when she unwraps herself from around me, fully exposing me to the freezing temperature of the water, making me shiver.
As I look out across the now calmer water, right on cue, the clouds clear, exposing the full moon, its light dappling and twinkling across the surface of the waves.
“Full moon forgiveness.” Jade pushes herself through the dark water that looks like liquid ink.
My body brews with emotion and excitement at taking the first step along a new pathway, and even if Jade’s mumbo jumbo doesn’t work, I join her, slicing through the sea, as if carving my highway.
“What does full moon forgiveness mean?” I ask, choosing to swim breaststroke so I can keep my head above the water and navigate in the dark.
Jade is clearly spiritual and as the only woman to make the cut on a highly male-dominated team, I’m guessing she uses positive mindset rituals, like this one she is having me do, to push herself, to make every day matter, and grow.
Breathlessly, as we get close to the rock, she tries to keep her voice level as she continues to swim. “Forgive yourself for your past, forgive others to help you move forward, let go of any grudges, shed the hurt you feel or have placed on others. Fully forgive to let the good in. The full moon is all about completion. Let the cleansing energy of the moon water bathe you.”
“You’re so weird,” I say, laughing nervously. I want to believe her, but at the same time, I can’t help pooh-poohing her hocus-pocus.
Coming to an abrupt halt, unable to touch the bottom of the ocean, she treads water to circle around, spraying water in my direction. “Do you trust me?” She looks fierce, the fire in her tangible.
“I barely know you.” If I’m being honest with myself, I feel like my heart knows her, and she’s what’s been missing from my life.
“Oh, you know me, Owen, you know you do.” Her eyes roll as she calls me out. “Ask, believe, release. Trust the process. Go.”
I won’t ever grow tired of her telling me what to do.
As she leads from the front, I watch her move through the water as we bask in the moonlight together.
In silence, I do everything she asks, because no one has ever taken the time or had the energy to put up with my entitled ass and spoiled smart mouth.
What do I have to lose? My life is currently in pieces, and if this is the first step to help pick up the parts and glue them back together into a completely different shape, then I’m all for it.
I want change, and I want my life to have meaning. It’s all been pointless and lacking substance so far. As long as I am safe, warm, and happy, well, that’s all that matters.
As we reach the finish line of the last lap around the rock, I feel relaxed, as if the swimming immersed me into a kind of meditation.
Lost in our bubble of calm, we swim away from the rock, toward the smaller ones scattered along the shoreline.
As we reach the shallower water, Jade flips onto her back, trying to catch her breath, her chest heaving from the exertion of our swim.
Floating on the water, she looks every inch a Pre-Raphaelite goddess as her pale skin creates a glowing silhouette around her.
I swear to all the Greek gods as I stop breathing when the swell of her breasts and small belly pop out above the surface, making them look like tiny white sandy islands.
“You’ve no idea how beautiful you are, Hotshot.”
She tips her head further back to wet her hair before she tilts her hips and lowers her legs into the water. I anchor my feet, steadying myself into the sand below as she swims into my arms. “And you are very handsome.” We’re chest to chest, and she laces her legs around my back again.
I like how easily she accepts my compliments; her confidence gives me confidence.
“Thank you.” I hug her tightly.
“How do you feel?” She lays her head on my shoulder, her breathing returning to its normal pace, reminding me what great shape she has to be in to do her job.
“Better.” I feel great, energized, ready to take on the world.
“What did you ask for? In fact—” She lifts her head suddenly, then places her pointer finger over my lips. “Don’t tell me. That’s your secret.”
“Okay,” I answer against her finger, my intrigue getting the better of me. “Did you ask for anything?”
“I did.” Her voice is full of excitement. “I asked for?—”
Not wanting her to share her innermost desires with me either, I swallow her words, kissing her lips, which taste of salt and possibility.
“Thank you for bringing me here.” I’m grateful she knows what I need even when I don’t, and our kiss deepens, turning erotic. I can’t hold off any longer. “I want you.”
“Then take me.” She anchors her hands against my chest as I capture her lips with mine. Against her mouth, I say, “Not here. I want to spread you out and take hours enjoying your delectable body.”
“Hours?” Her little moans are deep and needy when I lay a path of soft kisses down the curve of her neck.
“Yes, hours, although I may not last five minutes inside of you. You’re so sexy and my cock really fucking likes you.” I slide my now hardened length between her pussy lips. Being this close to her makes my heart thump against my ribcage.
She gasps, lacing her fingers into my hair at the base of my neck. “God, Owen, I want you inside of me. Now,” she demands.
“I don’t have a condom.” I can barely get my words out as the thick tip of my cock teases her clit.
“I had a contraceptive shot before I arrived here, and I had a medical a month ago. I’m clean.”
“Me too. ”
“You had a contraceptive shot?” Her chest, full of laughter, shakes, pressing against mine.
“Smart ass.” My hands cup her ass and I give one of her cheeks a pinch.
“Ouch,” she squeals, her hips bucking in reply, aligning the head of my cock perfectly with her entrance.
I inhale deeply, letting my nerves almost get the better of me, and she slants her mouth over mine, our noses squashed against each other’s faces. I’m consumed by her, and she settles my nerves as I’m surrounded by everything Jade: her scent, her touch, her sounds. Her.
Opening my eyes, I find her staring at me. The moon highlights her beautiful face that I never want to stop looking at.
She tightens her thigh grip around my middle, and feeling desperate, I close what little space there is between us, pushing one arm under her ass and my other around her waist. “Tell me again how much you want me.”
“I want you, only you.”
My mouth lifts at the side with satisfaction, knowing she wants me . “Is this what you asked for when you swam around the rock?” I slip my cock inside of her, almost stumbling at the enormity of what we are about to do, because this isn’t just anyone. This is her; my fresh start. We’re about to change everything and I know without a shadow of a doubt this is where I’m supposed to be. Until my last dying breath, with her.
“Yes. I want you. Please, Owen.” Her needy pleas turn into a long groan as I enter her fully. Her wet, tight pussy pulls me into her body. Fighting the urge to come, I can’t control the deep groan that leaves the back of my throat.
I squeeze my eyes shut. “Jesus. Fucking. Christ, Jade,” I grit out between my clenched teeth, steadying myself momentarily, resting my lips against hers. “You feel so fucking good.” My chest fills with emotion as this incredible woman trusts me with her pleasure.
She moans as I thrust my hips into her as best as I can while standing, legs braced in the ever-sinking sand. “You’re so big.” Her walls tighten around my cock.
“I need to fuck you right, Hotshot.” Walking through the dense water, I carefully sit her down on one of the large smooth stones at the edge of the beach that has been carved by the sea.
Still buried deep inside her, I feel like a god myself as she looks up at me with her ecstasy-filled eyes. I brace one hand against the rock and the other under her ass.
“Owen, I need you to move.”
Groaning when she tilts her hips, I bury my face into her neck, breathing her in. A desperate need overwhelms me and I can’t hold back anymore. I begin to fuck her, my body lighting up when she digs her feet into my ass, urging me to move faster, her arousal coating my cock.
She arches her back off the rock, scraping her nails across my shoulders, instructing me to fuck her faster, making the salty water splash all around us. I reach up to pinch her nipple, hard, her legs spreading wider for me as I roll my hips, welcoming the feeling of her tight walls sucking me in.
The sounds of waves, our combined moans and breathless cries, and our wet bodies slamming together create our own symphony as we chase our release in the dark night, and I commit it all to memory because I never want to forget this moment.
Wanting to savor every minute, I slow my pace and rest my body over hers. Cupping her face, I kiss her breathless as I lazily slide back and forth, teasing her G-spot, but not enough to make her shatter .
Rocking together, I whisper in her ear, “You feel like heaven. Say my name.”
Without missing a beat, she calls my name. “Owen.”
“My name on your lips as I fill you with my cock is the hottest thing I’ve ever heard.” I kiss the shell of her ear.
We stare at each other as if neither of us can believe we are doing this. An involuntary smile breaks free from my lips.
“Your body feels incredible against mine. And you are so fucking tight.” The spiraling feeling in my chest I’ve had for days is no longer an issue, as it’s replaced with a deep desire to be consumed by this amazing woman.
Exploring each other with desperate hands, we can’t stop touching as we move together in perfect harmony. We are perfectly matched.
I give her what she needs as she digs her fingernail into the skin of my ass. “Owen.” She calls out my name when I kiss her soft skin and run my hands up the slight curve of her waist.
“Fuck, Hotshot,” I curse. “Your pussy was made for my cock.”
“I want you to go faster, Owen. Please,” she begs.
Impatiently, she grabs my hand and places it between us. Moving my thumb to her clit, I rub it softly at first. Her cries echo around the bowl of the cove. Showing me what she likes, her fingers press on top of mine as our hips move together in a perfect rhythm.
Her eyes never leave me when she cries out, “Oh my God, I’m gonna come.” She curves her other hand around the back of my neck.
“Come for me, Hotshot.”
“Whatever you do, don’t stop.” She pulls me down to her, our lips crashing together.
Our tongues curl around each other as I piston my hips, desperate to make her feel good as our souls join in a life-changing moment.
Excitement and pleasure race through my body and as if she’s hit by a spark of lightning, she comes. Arching her neck, our eyes lock and her blue gems slay me as if she’s looking deep into my soul, awakening parts of me I never knew existed.
Her fluttering walls set off my own orgasm, and we both cry out together. I pour my release inside of her as her pussy continues to clench, milking me of every drop as I struggle to catch a breath, sliding back and forth more slowly, not wanting to stop.
Head back and eyes closed, her chest heaves as her grip on my hand loosens.
“You look beautiful.” I take in her relaxed body that’s draped across the bleached sandstone. The shorter strands of her now drying hair whirl about in the wind like wild flames resembling the fire coursing through my veins as we connect in a way I haven’t felt with any woman—or, correction—in a way I’ve never allowed myself to feel because I knew that eventually, my parents would choose my wife for me, anyway.
Not anymore. I choose Jade for myself and they don’t get a say in my life anymore.
As I stare down at her, I’m filled with a possessive need to protect her, and then it hits me like an arrow to the heart: I want to take care of her and Poppy. I want her to be mine in every way.
Suddenly, nausea rolls in my stomach, and I feel like my heart is already breaking at the thought of what follows next because we are only here for four weeks, and I’m clueless about what that is.
I lean down, reaching for her, to pull her soft lips to mine. Longing to touch her, to know that what we just did was as monumental to her as it was to me. “You are perfect, Hotshot.” I nibble her bottom lip.
With her eyes still closed, blissed out, she sighs in a dazed-like state and kisses me back.
Sliding my cock out of her, pulling her sleepy body off the stone and into the water with me, I carry her onto the beach, then carefully lower her to the ground. “We need a hot shower.” She giggles. Fucking giggles, and it’s a sound I love so much already.
“We do.” I tuck the wet hair on both sides of her face behind her ears. “Let’s go home.”
“I don’t want to.” She presses her body up against mine and nuzzles into my neck. “It’s been a long day, but I want to spend the night with you,” she mumbles.
“Did you ask the gods for that, too?” I brazenly ask.
She snuggles into me deeper. “I asked to find true love with someone who loves Poppy as much as I do.”
My heart squeezes at the word “someone”, because I want that someone to be me. “He’d be one hell of a lucky guy.”
“You would.” She yawns, unaware she said “you”.
Her words filling me with confidence, I push my shoulders back as if I’m a showy peacock. “C’mon, Hotshot. Let’s get you home.”
She moans as if annoyed, her teeth chattering slightly as the cold finally hits her. “I don’t want to drive. You tired me out.” The energetic woman who bounced into the water and swam faster than me around the rock is now gone.
“I’ll drive.” We dress quickly, eager to find warmth back in the jeep.
Not wanting to end our evening together, I drive slowly back to the villa. The entire time, Jade holds my hand on top of her thigh .
“We should move to Cyprus. It’s so pretty,” she mumbles, almost dozing off.
Taking my eyes off the road for a moment, I glance her way. “You and Poppy?” I ask, amused at her sudden lack of stamina, her head rested against the window.
She doesn’t answer as she finally succumbs to sleep, and I go back to focusing on the cliffside roads I’m not familiar with.
We’re almost back at the villa, and Jade makes me jump when she mumbles in her sleep, “I’d move here with you, Owen.” Before I can get too excited, she follows it with, “No, we don’t need a parachute. Just the pancakes,” and I laugh out loud.
My brain snaps when I realize I would move to be anywhere with her. It won’t matter as long as I’m with her.
My first request to the gods: find a house to call home.