Chapter 24
Moira
“Okay, this is
the first time I’ve had you alone since you got here…
you need to spill everything right now,” Lisa says, and I tear
my gaze away from Zach as he swims in the Atlantic Ocean.
Turning to my
sister, who sits beside me on the beach in a lounge chair with a big
floppy hat on her head, I smile at her briefly before turning back to
look at Zach. “Not much to tell.”
God, he’s so
freaking gorgeous. He’s wearing a pair of navy-blue board
shorts that hang low on his hips, and I can’t help but stare at
the “V” cut muscles at the bottom of his abdomen, which
are only second in beauty to the washboard abs he sports. He’s
utterly perfect… lightly muscled but not too bulky with an
absolutely smooth, hairless chest. His legs are powerful, just the
perfect size for his towering height.
“Geez, Moira…
your tongue is practically hanging out of your mouth while you stare
at him,” Lisa says with a snort and slaps my arm. “So
dish. Give it to me.”
I peel my eyes off
Zach, giving a brief glance at Adam as he plays with Colleen and
Samuel in the shallower water, and then turn to look at Lisa. She’s
lying on her side in the lounge chair, staring intently at me.
“It’s so
crazy,” I tell her, because that’s the best way to
describe Zach and me. “I mean… at first, when I was
bringing him back to the States, he couldn’t stand me. He
refused to engage with me and was fighting against me at every turn.”
“Like how?”
she asks curiously.
“Like refusing
to eat with utensils and refusing to wear clothes.”
Lisa’s jaw
drops, and then she whispers, “He went naked?”
Nodding my head, I
tell her, “Around the house.”
“Oh, God…
fantasy come true,” she murmurs. “You lucky bitch.”
“I didn’t
feel lucky,” I tell her truthfully. “It was frustrating
as hell because I couldn’t cross that line with him.”
“But clearly
you did,” she points out. She knows this for a fact, because
when I came out into the kitchen this morning, she handed me a cup of
coffee and said, “I don’t even have to ask if you had a
good night last night. I clearly heard you did.”
My face went up in
flames, then I was horrified that the kids had heard us, but she told
me to relax, that they had slept through it. Then she nudged my
shoulder and whispered in my ear, “But it sort of got Adam and
me worked up, so thank you for that.”
Geez. Now my sexual
escapades were making others horny. Just great.
“So, what
changed?” Lisa asks.
“I just
couldn’t resist him. I wanted him too much. So I gave in and
submitted to it.” I don’t provide any more clarity on the
details, and she certainly doesn’t need to know my submission
meant that he put me on my knees and fucked me without emotion from
behind. While that first time felt amazing, when I think back on it,
I don’t ever want to go back to that place again. Seeing all
the depth of feeling Zach gives me now when we come together has
spoiled me too much. I have his emotion now… I’m not
giving that back.
“What are you
going to do?” Lisa asks, and I know exactly what she’s
asking. She and I email each other almost every day, and we talk a
few times a week. I’ve kept her updated on Zach’s
progress, and she’s well aware that he wants to return to
Caraica.
“Zach has sort
of committed to stay here a year. So I’m going to make the most
of it,” I tell her simply.
“But at the
end of the year?”
“He returns to
his home… in Caraica,” I tell her sadly.
“And what will
you do?”
“Probably die
of a broken heart, I’m thinking.”
“Oh, sweetie,”
Lisa says in commiseration, swinging her legs over the side of her
lounge chair. Planting her feet in the sand, she leans forward and
takes my hands. “I’m sorry. Maybe he’ll decide to
stay.”
Shrugging my
shoulders, I give her fingers a squeeze. “I doubt it. I don’t
think he finds anything here that rivals his love for his home.”
Lisa’s eyes
soften with sympathy. “Do you love him?”
“Getting
there,” I admit dejectedly. “But it’s completely
one-sided.”
Leaning over to the
cooler that sits at the end of our chairs, Lisa reaches in and pulls
out two beers. After she hands me one and opens her own, she says,
“It’s still early. A year is a long time. Feelings can
develop.”
“Or his
longing for home can worsen,” I point out as I twist the cap
off my bottle. I take a long sip and then lean back in my chair,
pointing my face up to the hot Carolina sun and letting its warmth
seep in to me.
“Well, just
judging by the way he looks at you, I think there’s a whole lot
more to the way Zach feels than you give him credit for.”
Turning my head to
look back at Lisa, I ask, “What do you mean?”
She merely nods
toward the shore’s edge, and I turn to see Zach walking out of
the water toward us.
Rather, toward me.
Raking his eyes over my body, he gives me a penetrating smile. His
eyes are warm and hungry as he takes a hand and runs it through his
wet hair. God, I could just perish right now from how beautiful he
is.
Zach stares at me
the entire time he walks our way, and Lisa mutters, “Geez…
you two are going to need to get a room just from that look.”
I snicker to myself
and watch Zach reach into the cooler to pull out a beer.
“Have fun in
the ocean?” I ask.
“I did, but it
would be more fun if you came out there with me,” he says with
a licentious grin.
“No way. I
already explained to you I don’t go in water where I can’t
see my feet. You do understand there are sharks out there, right?”
Zach laughs and
flops down on the chair next to mine, kicking his long legs out and
resting his beer on his taut stomach, which is dotted with sparkling
drops of sea-salted water.
“Mommy,”
Colleen screams from the water’s edge. “Come look…
sand crabs.”
Lisa gives a
disgusted look and makes a dramatic shudder. “Ew… I hate
those things, but the kids love catching them.”
Standing from the
chair, she leans down and punches the end of her beer bottle down in
the sand to hold it upright. “A mother’s duty is never
done.”
Zach and I watch her
walk to where Adam and the children are squatted down near the tide
line, pushing their fingers through the wet sand and looking at the
crabs.
“Have I told
you how hot you look in that bikini?” Zach asks me, and I turn
my head to look at him. His eyes drift down to my breasts, and he
licks his lips.
I bring a finger up
and trace the edge of the material that sits on the inner swell of my
breast. “What? This old thing?”
Zach’s blue
eyes darken to the color of denim, and his voice is rough when he
says, “Let’s go back to the cottage.”
I give him a sweet
smile. “No way. We’re hanging on the beach today with my
sister and her family. No time for sex.”
His look is sinister
when he leans over toward me and runs a finger down my leg. “I’ll
make you pay for that later.”
Grabbing his finger,
I pull it up to my mouth and bite the tip of it. His breath rushes
out in a hiss, so I lick the end and he gives a soft moan. “Maybe
I’ll make you pay instead.”
Zach jerks away from
me and leans over the side of the chair. Grabbing a towel from one of
the three large bags we packed with various supplies, he tosses it
over his lap and grumbles, “Christ… you gave me a
fucking hard-on, and I can’t do a thing about it.”
Leaning over in my
chair, I stroke my hand down his arm. “Poor baby. Tell you
what… I’ll give you a stupendous blow job when we go in
later and take a shower. How does that sound?”
Zach groans again
and leans his head back in the chair, squeezing his eyes shut.
“You’re killing me, Moira. Absolutely killing me.”
“Why is she
killing you?” I hear and look up to see Adam strolling up. He
reaches into the cooler and grabs a beer, easily popping the top and
taking a huge chug. Flopping down in Lisa’s abandoned lounge
chair, he places his feet to the side in the sand.
“Abandoned the
sand crab hunt?” I ask, avoiding his question, which would have
only been satisfied with the embarrassing answer that I gave Zach an
erection.
Adam shudders the
same way Lisa did, except his seems more genuine. “I hate those
little fuckers. They’re like little spiders with shells.”
Laughing, I tease,
“So you leave it up to the woman to handle those things?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely,”
he says with a wry grin. “I have no problem with the woman
doing those things. I even make her kill the spiders we find in the
house, which I’m betting makes me seem like a lame-ass to
Zach.”
Zach laughs in good
nature. “Nah, man. Spiders give me the willies too.”
“Yeah,”
Adam agrees as he waves his beer bottle around. “But you can be
all manly and say that. You freakin’ hunt monstrous anacondas
and battle alligators. You’re allowed to be afraid of spiders.
I don’t have that type of street cred.”
We all three laugh
in unison as we watch Lisa comb for crabs with the kids.
“So, what are
you going to do with the rest of your time here?” Adam asks
Zach.
“Going to try
to find a job to keep busy. I don’t like using Randall’s
money.”
“Are you two
going to stay in Atlanta?” Adam asks as he absently brushes
sand off his legs.
“For now,”
I say. “Then we’ll go back to Evanston when classes start
up for winter semester.”
Adam nods in
understanding. “But you’ll definitely go back to Caraica?
You don’t want to stay here?”
My body stiffens
slightly over Adam’s probing questions. It’s not that
he’s asking anything inappropriate, but it makes me uneasy
because Zach has only recently committed to spending time here and
part of me is afraid he really didn’t mean that offer.
“That’s
my plan, but I’m going to stay here for at least a year,”
Zach says smoothly, and while it still hurts every time he talks
about leaving, I’m relieved to hear absolutely no regret in his
admission that he’s going to be staying for a while.
“Gotcha,”
Adam says, and then he turns in the chair to look at Zach over me.
“So, tell me… what’s it like… really…