Chapter Twenty-Three PHILLIP
Chapter Twenty-Three
PHILLIP
I wake up in Casey’s bed and lean over to kiss her shoulder. She groans in protest, and I smile, stringing kisses down her arm.
“I’m sleeping,” she moans into her pillow making the words come out garbled.
“ So ? Wake up,” I tease, snaking my hand underneath the blanket until I can curve my hand around the base of her spine.
I don’t want to acknowledge it, but already, sadness tinges the air. It’s our last full day together. Overnight, we’ll sail back to Fort Lauderdale, and all the guests, including Casey, will disembark from the ship starting at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. I’ll leave slightly before that.
We’ve established what we’ll do. I’ve told Casey that I agree with her about keeping our relationship as it is: a lighthearted fling. I’ve promised her, and yet I can’t seem to reconcile the decision. It feels like I’m doing the wrong thing. I might be respecting her wishes, but is it cowardly not to push her on it? Not to indulge these wild feelings?
I don’t want to do it now. Not this morning when I have her pliant in my arms. She turns over, smiles sleepily up at me, and suggests that last night should have sated me enough.
She makes a good point. Yesterday afternoon, we ran from the pool to my suite, still sopping wet as we tumbled onto my bed together.
Then, even through dinner, we could barely eat.
“Stop,” she said, biting down on her smile.
“I’m not doing anything,” I replied.
She rolled her eyes. “You know exactly what you’re doing.”
We’d ended up in her suite after dinner. And now this morning, it’s like I’ve never held her before, never kissed her. I want her with a fierceness that feels untamable. Scary, even. But I don’t tell her. I turn her head, cradle her cheek, and kiss her as my hand slips up her thigh, bunching her pajama shorts. My fingers tease her panties, and then I tug them aside. I want to feel her there, but I touch everywhere else instead, torturing us both.
Finally, when I sink into her, my body pins her down; my hips thrust against hers, and she cries out loud enough that surely everyone can hear. We don’t care, though. There’s nothing outside these four walls.
“ Casey ,” I say, my lips pressing against hers.
My heart races so fast, and I want to tell her how I’m feeling then, but I don’t have the courage. I shake my head and push off her and go to the shower to cool off. There’s nothing to be done.
The arrangement stands.
Later that morning, Casey talks me into going out on an excursion with her on Grand Cayman. It’s a three-mile hike followed by a swim beneath a waterfall. I need to work, but Casey points out that I can work tomorrow and every day after that. After she’s gone.
I hate that she says it so casually as if it’s not as painful for her as it is for me.
I agree, though if I had the choice, Casey and I wouldn’t leave her suite all day. Why bother?
Still, we go and join a small group.
Our guide is a little nervous because I’m tagging along. After a few comments like “Sir, if you’d prefer a different route” and “Mr. Woodmont, is the pace okay?” I tell him to pretend like I’m not here, and we both seem more relaxed during the second portion of the hike.
Casey keeps up well, even though her tennis shoes aren’t the best fit for the strenuous trail.
“I assure you, I’m fine. Sienna and I did a hike early on that had me wishing for death. This is a cakewalk in comparison, I promise.”
Around lunchtime, we break through the last leg of the trail and find ourselves in a true tropical paradise. Centered in the clearing is a crystal clear swimming hole fed directly by a series of small waterfalls that flow down from the hilltops above us. A canopy of overgrown trees and foliage shades the scene. With how otherworldly it looks, it could be a secret meeting place for all kinds of magical creatures. Casey could be one. A nymph or a mermaid. She smiles as she slips out of her hiking gear. She’s in a one-piece bathing suit, but it’s very revealing. Her lush curves, every little dip and valley I’ve come to know so well. I walk over and spin her, leading us toward the water’s edge.
My hand grips her waist, and I feel her shiver.
I hate that we’re not alone. I’d take her right here on the grassy trail. Tugging her bathing suit down and ...
“Should we jump in together?” Casey asks, drawing me out of my thoughts.
I smile and nod, letting her take my hand so we can leap into the cold water with gritted teeth. It has to be at least ten degrees colder than the pool on board Aurelia , and we both come up shivering. Casey laughs and swims over. Our feet tangle below the surface as we tread water.
“Let’s go closer to the waterfall,” she says just before she sets off like we’re in a race.
I catch her easily, coming up alongside her as the water roars overhead. It’s not a very large waterfall, but we still keep a careful distance from the deluge pouring into the swimming hole.
We spend the next hour swimming and eating our prepared lunches, our group spread out in small clusters. The air surrounding the swimming hole is so moist and hot that within seconds of pulling myself out of the cold water, I’m eager to go right back in.
Eventually, our guide calls out to everyone, letting us know it’s time to head back.
I don’t move, of course. A moment ago while Casey was sipping her water, I broke off and spoke with him. When Casey looks at me now, I shake my head.
“We’re staying back for a moment.”
It makes for a seamless transition as everyone gathers their gear and treks off down the trail, leaving the two of us alone in the forest.
Casey worries her bottom lip between her teeth before asking, “Shouldn’t we head back? How are we going to know where to go?”
On the marked trails with a thousand signs? We’ll manage.
I don’t tell her that. I shrug and stand. “Let’s swim.”
I’ve been out of the water for too long. I’m hot and sweaty. And I need her.
Casey doesn’t get in after me, though. I break through the surface and turn back to see her staring at the trail where everyone left. It’s been long enough that we can’t hear them anymore, but I think she’s just making sure the coast is clear before she turns and walks over to a large rock that juts out over the shallow side of the swimming hole.
“I’m hot, but I don’t think I can get back in that cold water again.”
I swim toward her. “Suit yourself.”
She lets her feet dangle over the edge, testing the cold water and recoiling back. “I just got warm again,” she protests.
That’s fine by me. I like her propped right there on the water’s edge. The perfect height for what I envision.
Casey watches me swim closer, but she doesn’t realize how nefarious my intentions are until I position myself beside her rock and I take ahold of her ankles to spread them apart.
Her eyes go wide. Her cheeks pink. “Phillip.”
Even as she protests, she scoots her bottom closer for me. Giving herself over to the moment.
“Anyone could—”
“Let them.”
I lower my face between her legs, kissing my way up her inner thigh, slowly easing her into the idea of letting me have her like this. Then her breathing picks up, and her body starts to relax. I press her thighs apart even more and hook my finger in the side of her bathing suit bottom and peel it back. For too long, I look at her. I know it makes her squirm being exposed like this, but that makes it all the more fun for me. Eventually, my head lowers, and I press a kiss to her inner thigh again, working closer to the final destination that will have her toes curling and her head tipping back. She angles her hips up for me, giving me all the access I need to taste her.
I feel her shaking. Her arms straining to hold herself up the longer I continue.
I reach an arm around her back, ensuring she won’t go anywhere.
I love feeling her come apart strand by strand, unspooling before me until there’s a sharp cry, a tense pause, and then a passionate groan of ecstasy. I take her there on the bank of the swimming hole, swapping positions with her so that I don’t hurt her. She sits over me, straddling my hips. I tug the straps of her bathing suit down, freeing her breasts, and then my lips and mouth cover her, sucking and tasting as she slides down onto me, taking me deep as she rolls her hips, lifts, and sinks even lower still.
I scrape my teeth along the peak of her breast, and she fists her hands in my hair. Already, she’s close to coming again, and I pick up my pace, unbothered by the hard rock beneath me. I’m numb to everything beyond her as I reach up to kiss her lips, holding her against me so our wet bodies are flush. It’s so intimate that it almost hurts to have her like this. I feel her squeeze me, tightening, breaking with a passionate cry, and then I find my own release, seeing stars behind my closed lids, feeling as though the universe has condensed down to a single pinprick before it explodes back with blinding light. We stay there, catching our breath. Neither one of us says a word, even as we eventually stand and dress. Even as we start back up the trail, hand in hand. The truth is so obvious to us both that it’s better just to stay silent.