Chapter 15
Sandcastles
Lexi woke up to sun shining through the curtains and Josh’s heavy arm draped across her stomach.
Her core pulsed with an exquisite rawness, put there by the sexy man beside her who had used her well for most of the night.
She’d gotten in plenty of her own licks—figuratively and literally—until Josh and she had finally collapsed, utterly spent, their bodies entwined.
A sliver of sheet covered half his butt and the space between her upper thighs and belly button.
Her breasts were fully exposed, her nipples ultra-sensitive from Josh’s attentive mouth, and for once in her life, she didn’t feel the need to cover them.
That fact left her feeling deliciously wicked, and she realized she loved that feeling of wantonness, of wild sexual abandon.
He’d given her that. And to think she’d been attracted to Neil!
What was the old saying about judging books by their covers?
Josh, aka Mr. Smartass, not Neil with his white-toothed smile, turned out to be the perfect hookup for this vacation.
Hookup tasted wrong on her tongue, though.
An errant vision popped into her head where they lay like this many, many years from now, in a bed of their own.
She shook off the ridiculous thought. It simply wasn’t possible to fall in love with someone after only two days.
This was lust, plain and simple, but oh, how fortunate she was to have found the perfect companion to unearth needs deep inside her she never knew existed.
He satisfied them all. Completely. Being with him made her feel feminine, beautiful, powerful—like a whole woman, cherished by the man beside her, who saw her for the being she truly was.
He stirred, and his hand immediately moved to her breast. His rough palm caressed her. “Morning, baby. How’s my girl?” His voice was thick and muzzy with sleep, and it struck a tender chord in her heart.
My girl. Oh, she loved hearing him say that.
It had a nice possessive ring to it that resonated, which was absurd because, again, she barely knew him.
And yet she knew him extremely well—knew what hit his “go” button, knew how to pull the filthiest talk from him, knew how to satisfy his own formidable cravings.
All of this she knew far better than she’d ever known Conrad after three years.
She pushed hair from Josh’s forehead and traced his hairline with her fingertip. “Tired, sore, but in a good way.”
His eyes were closed, and one side of his mouth curled into a satisfied smile.
“Yeah, I’m a little tired and sore myself.
Not complaining, though. Totally worth every minute with you.
” He squeezed her breast, and his thumb began toying with her nipple as if on autopilot. She reveled in the intimacy.
She feathered the backs of her fingers over his sandpaper jaw. “What should we do today?”
“Besides what we’ve been doing?”
“Yes,” she laughed. “Besides that.”
“Well, let’s not leave that out of the plan.
” She didn’t intend to. Strong arms hauled her to him, her back to his front.
He wrapped his warm body around hers, crossing his arms over hers in a protective hold.
“Mmm, you feel good. Why don’t I take you out for breakfast?
There’s a place called the Conch Shell Café I heard someone talking about.
It’s supposed to be good. We can figure out the rest of the day while we eat.
Maybe rent some bikes and go sightseeing? ”
“What, besides the beach, is there to see?”
“There’s supposed to be a museum and some shops to poke around in.”
“I like that idea.” Spending time with him doing anything sounded like the perfect way to while away the day.
“How about a shower first? Yours is big enough for two. I’ll soap yours if you soap mine.” She could hear the heat in his timbre.
“Already? We just woke up,” she laughed.
He thrust his very hard shaft against her ass. “And you’re already making me crazy.”
A knock on the door with a call of “housekeeping” had her scrambling from the bed. “Um, I’m not quite ready yet. Can you come back in …”
“Two hours,” Josh called helpfully.
“Yes, sir.” The voice retreated.
Lexi glanced back at Josh, now propped on an elbow, sans sheet, a lusty grin on his face. He patted the bed beside him. “Come here.”
She began a slow walk back to the bed, a smirk etched on her face. “I thought we were going to breakfast.”
He shrugged. “You just gave me two hours. It’s looking like lunch instead.”
She dove onto the bed without a single word of argument.
After they finally left the room, they strolled down the beach and ducked into the Conch Shell Café, where a waitress whose name tag read “Helen” jotted down their orders.
Josh picked up Lexi’s hand, and held it between his, stroking it lightly with his thumb.
He gave her a piercing stare that made her tummy flutter.
It wasn’t lust reflecting in his gray orbs, though.
It was something far more intimate, if that were possible, delving layers deeper than the mere physical connection they shared.
She returned the look, imagining they were the only diners in the café.
The only tourists in town. The only people on the planet.
The unblinking stare should have been squirm-worthy, but it wasn’t.
Sitting across from him and delving into his eyes while he caressed her hand was the most natural sensation in the world.
The bubble they shared popped when Helen returned to fill their coffee cups. They exchanged a secret laugh that had the woman’s lips twitching with a smile. Their bliss was rubbing off on other folks.
After filling themselves with a lunch of eggs, bacon, and pancakes, they spent the next few hours checking out the little town.
The museum turned out to be a shell museum that was closed on Mondays, so they stopped at Sun-Sand-Books, where they browsed the mystery section and discovered they had several favorite authors in common.
At a cute little florist shop called the Sand Dollar Florist Boutique, Josh insisted on buying a small box of handmade chocolates to share later and a net bag that held seashells in a variety of sizes and colors for her—a memento of their time together.
The romantic gesture broke off a little piece of her heart and reminded her that moments with him had an expiration date at the end of the week.
They headed back to the beach, where Josh stopped to help a kid build a sandcastle. The boy was struggling with the construction, which kept falling down, and Josh got the okay from his mom to lend a hand. Of course he did. What woman could say no to this man?
Lexi helped Josh move the construction site farther up the shore and away from the encroaching waves, and they spent the next hour getting wet while building several towers to the boy’s specs, with a lot of laughter and chatter in between.
She couldn’t remember feeling so free, so alive, so replete.
If only she could bottle up the sensations and hold them to her forever.
She paused to dust off her hands and sat back on her heels, observing Josh’s easy interplay with the kid.
As they walked away later, she asked him if he had nieces and nephews—or maybe even a child of his own.
Sure, she had deep biblical knowledge of him, but these were the kinds of facts in short supply.
She wanted to know everything about him.
“No,” he chuckled. “I don’t have any children, and no nieces or nephews.
I’ve spent a lot of time around kids, though, in goalie camps and children’s hospitals and different charity events.
I even used to help out at the dance studio when I was home for the summer.
Kids are a bag of laughs. I love looking at the world through their eyes—takes me back to my own childhood, when life was simple.
They’re so straightforward and unapologetic.
I love that.” One more piece of her heart might have broken off and melted. “How about you?”
“No kids of my own and no siblings, so no nieces or nephews. I’ve never really spent much time around them. Couldn’t you tell by how awkward I was with that little boy?”
“Not at all. You seemed very comfortable.” He took her hand and laced his fingers with hers. “I bet you’ll make a great mom someday … if you want kids, that is.”
“I do. How about you?”
“I guess. Maybe. I don’t know. Haven’t spent much time thinking about it because it’s been all about hockey for so damn long. First I’d have to find a woman I could see myself having kids with, then I’d have to make sure she could put up with my bullshit.”
“What bullshit?” Lexi scoffed.
“Good point. While I myself am a real catch—and if you believe that, I have some crocodile-infested swampland I’d like to sell you—being involved with a hockey player makes for a stressful life.
I’ve watched some of the trouble my teammates go through.
It’s not easy on the wives and girlfriends when they don’t know how long they’re going to stay in one location, if they can put down roots, if they’ll have to yank kids out of their schools and away from friends.
It sucks when that upheaval happens, and the player has little or no control.
He’s a commodity. His family lives or dies by the same set of rules.
” He swung their hands back and forth. “Look at my situation. If I had a wife, I’d have to break the news to her that I’m moving to Russia.
Unless she’s from there, I doubt she’d be too keen on moving halfway across the globe with me.
And if she decided to stay back in the US and not be with me?
Those kinds of moves are tough on players too.
I’d want my wife with me. You know, the old ‘someone to come home to’ thing. ”
“If you’re on the road half the time, though, you’re not always coming home to someone anyway.”