CHAPTER 38 Miller Banks
Private Cabana
After dinner, we head to the promenade to walk the loop that circles the outer edge of the entire ship. Her hand is clutching mine. The air is cooler at night without the hot daytime sun beating down on us, but it feels balmy and comfortable.
“How are you feeling about everything?” I ask.
She sighs. “I feel like I should have stronger feelings than I do. You know? Like I should be upset and crying, but it sort of just feels like it is what it is.”
“I get that. Did you know Missy Nash and Eddie got divorced after forty years of marriage?”
“I guess I’d heard that. Doesn’t it kind of make you feel like we’re all destined to fail?” she asks.
I squeeze her hand. “Nah. If anything, I think it makes me feel like it’s never too late to start over.”
“But Missy’s here by herself. Is that starting over?”
I lift a shoulder. “Who knows what she’s up to. Maybe she and your dad will find their way to each other.”
She lets out a little cackle. “Oh my God. Could you imagine? ”
I chuckle. “Whatever happens, don’t you think your parents are better off apart if they’re unhappy?”
“I think maybe that’s why I don’t feel all that upset over it.
I haven’t been close with my parents in a long, long time.
Probably since high school, and then I moved out during college and never looked back.
But maybe I won’t feel this pressure to be the perfect girl anymore now that they know the truth. ”
“You’re pretty damn perfect to me, Summers.” I let go of her hand and slip an arm around her shoulder.
She leans her head on my shoulder as we continue walking. “You’re pretty damn perfect, too, Banks.”
We make our way past one of the pools, and I spot a row of vacant cabanas in the back row that are hidden beneath the shadows.
It’s sort of a daybed with a wicker frame and a retractable canopy with a shade on it that’s meant to block the sun.
A big cushion that’s almost like a mattress is calling us to lie down, and the pillows across the back look like a great place to lean back as we chat about anything and everything.
I walk over toward one, and we both sit and scoot back, putting our feet up as we lean back into the pillows.
“This is nice,” she says. “It feels like we can’t get any privacy with both our families on this boat unless we’re in our stateroom.”
“Watch this,” I say, and I flip the retractable shade screen on top of the cabana. At night, it becomes the perfect place for privacy.
She giggles, and we settle back in.
“I have a question,” she says.
“Go for it.”
“We haven’t really talked about this, and I feel kind of weird even asking, but…” She trails off, and a pulse of nervousness darts down my spine.
“But?” I prompt .
“But when February gets here, are you, uh, planning to actually walk down the aisle?”
It’s everything I’ve wanted since I was fourteen, Sophie.
I blow out a breath without saying those words even though they’re on the tip of my tongue.
And then maybe because of the salty sea air, or maybe because of the pina coladas and the rum drink…or maybe because something unlocked in her tonight when she found out about her parents’ divorce, she says, “Because I am.”
A sort of grunt escapes me at her admission, and I’m left without words for a moment.
“And not because we just told my parents about it or whatever. Because I want to.”
She turns a little on the cabana cushion, and then it’s like she makes a snap decision.
She moves over me, straddling my lap, and she drops her lips to mine for just a few sweet seconds before she pulls back.
She takes my face between her palms, and I can hardly see her in here with the shade screen in place.
Maybe that’s what’s fueling her confession—the darkness.
“Because the last few months have been the greatest of my life, and I realized that you’re everything I’ve ever been looking for, Miller.
You’re the ultimate book boyfriend. You’re always there for me.
You care about me. You make me laugh. And I want to marry you because I’ve fallen in love with you. ”
Holy shit.
Am I fucking dreaming right now?
Did she just say—
I let the words fall unfiltered from my lips. “I love you, too, Soph.”
Her mouth moves back to mine as we seal that pledge with a kiss.
I didn’t get the chance to tell her that fuck yes, I want to marry her.
I didn’t get to answer her question. I can do it later, though.
Right now, passion has taken over, and as her hips start to rock against mine, I know we’re both too far gone to even consider making it back to our stateroom.
We have all the privacy we need right here—and all the supplies, too, since I slipped a condom into my pocket before we left the room.
She reaches for my belt. She unbuckles it, and she pulls my cock out. She pumps her fist up and down my shaft a few times, and I hiss as I give into the feel of her hands on me.
I lift my hips to grab the condom out of my back pocket, and I tear it open and slide it on.
And then before I know what she’s doing, she’s lifting her dress up to her hips, yanking her panties to the side, and sliding down on top of me.
Holy fuck.
It’s heaven as I enter her from underneath, and her pussy grips greedily onto my cock.
She arches back as she continues to rock on top of me, and there’s no way I’m going to last. This woman just told me she wants to spend her life with me because she’s in love with me.
If I thought sex with her was good before, it had nothing on this moment.
It’s pure trust and adoration moving around us as we give into the very things I’ve pined for.
I just wish we could do this with nothing between us. No barrier, just skin to skin, me inside her as we move together in this rhythm that’s ours and ours alone.
“Oh God, Miller,” she whispers—or she tries to whisper—but it comes out as kind of a moan.
I know we should be quiet. We’re going to get caught if we’re not, but sex with her is such a moving experience that grunts and growls I cannot seem to control emit from me.
I’m drawing closer and closer to the finish line, and I reach under her and hold onto her ass as I control our movements from underneath her .
I’m sort of sitting up, and she drops her head to my shoulder. I feel her bite me there over my shirt just before she leans in and whispers close to my ear, “I’m coming.”
I feel her pussy as it squeezes my cock, the feeling sending me into my own climax. I pump up into her as her body continues to contract around me, and I let go, too, with a loud moan that anyone on the outside of the cabana could surely hear.
It was deserted when we walked up here. I’m not sure it still is. I’m not sure I care, either.
I pump into her a few more times as I ride out the wave of my release, and once the condom is full and my body is sated, I let go of her ass and wrap my arms around her.
She collapses down onto my chest, both of us fully relaxed.
I’m still inside her, and even though we both just came and the warm glow of satisfaction is rolling over each of us, I’m not sure I ever want to move.
We have to, eventually, of course. And when we do, I’m reminded of her words.
You know how when things are going too well, you sort of just expect it to all come crashing down?
I hope it doesn’t.