“Definitely. Just give us a minute, okay?”
“Okay. I’ll wait here.” She turns to my father. “Call Brooke and the boys and tell her we found Paige!”
Mac hides me as we make our way carefully to the door. When we get inside, he takes my hand and we walk to the bedroom to get some clothes. I’m overcome with emotion by the time we reach the room. Tears form in my eyes, and not the happy kind.
“You okay?” Mac asks, wrapping his arms around me.
I nod. “I think so. I know I should be happy, but I don’t know what this means for us.”
“We’ll figure it out together, Paige. You and I.” He cups my face with his hands and kisses me long and hard. “I’m in love with you and no matter what happens when we leave here, that won’t change.”
“Me too, Mac. I’m crazy in love with you. We can make this work, can’t we?”
“Can and will, baby.”
And I believe him, I do. But as we dress in silence, my mind starts spinning. What if he changes his mind when we leave? What if this was all just a fantasy and when we go back to reality, what we had will break?
I put on a brave face and take his hand as we go face the world.
Chapter 12
Mac
I’m back at my house. It’s late at night, and I’m alone. I sit outside on my veranda, listening to the waves crash against the shore and sipping a cold beer. Paige is at a hotel with her parents, who were too overwrought with the thought of her death over the past week to let her go tonight. I get it. If she were my daughter, I’d feel the same way. Hell, I do feel the same way and I only just met her.
I don’t know how I’ll fall asleep tonight without her, even though it’s been one hell of a long day. When we arrived back on St. Lucia, there was a huge media presence there. Paige’s parents took center stage with the whole thing, as they’ve been the face of what I now understand has been world news. I stood back while they hugged her and held her and answered questions for the reporters. Of course, they didn’t give me much credit. Her father can’t even look at me after everything, and I don’t blame the man. First, I took her up in the air when I had no business flying. I could have easily gotten her killed. Then when they found us, I was pounding away at her pussy right out in the light of the day. So, he’s pretty much going to hate me for life. Her mother seemed like she didn’t know what to think. When she looked at me, there was a strange grin on her face that said she might have seen a little more through her fingers than she was letting on. The thought of it makes me blush.
After the press conference, I was hauled upstairs at the airport to deal with everything I fucked up when I left here. The two biggies of course are flying out without permission and leaving my Jeep parked on the tarmac. By the time I pay the fines and pay for having my helicopter towed and repaired, I’ll pretty much have to forget my plan to pay off my house this year. But it could be worse. I could have my pilot’s license removed for what I did, and the fact that I didn’t should make me feel very lucky.
But I don’t feel lucky. I feel lonely. And scared, too, if I’m really honest. I don’t know if I’ll ever see Paige again. She could decide to leave tomorrow morning and not tell me she’s going. She could easily go back to her real life and forget all about me.
I go inside and grab another beer, then down it while I stand at the kitchen counter. That ought to be enough to fall asleep. I hope.
I take a long, hot shower, imagining she’s with me under the spray of the water. I can still smell her scent on my skin, I can still feel the curves of her soft, delectable body against me, I still ache for her like I’ve never ached for another woman before her. The taste of her honey when she comes, the taste of her tongue when she opens her mouth for me. The feeling of her tight little pussy as it pulses and throbs and grips my cock. I need her, even if I have to give up my life and move to New York just to be near her, I’d do it. I’d hate it there, but I’d do it for her if it’d make her happy. If she wanted me there with her, I’d go.
But for now, I need to let her go. Let her decide if she wants me to be part of her life or not. If you love someone, set them free…
Fuck me, I don’t want to set her free at all. I want to chain her to my bed and keep her here forever, creepy as that sounds.
I get out of the shower and collapse into my soft bed, feeling the emptiness that fills the room and overtakes my soul. I need her. And if she doesn’t come back to me, I don’t know how I’ll go on without her.
I think about our last moment together. She was just about to get in the limo with her parents and she asked them to give us a minute. She hugged me, long and deep, and then looked at me with tears in her eyes. “Did you mean what you said, Mac? Did you mean it all?”
“I did, and I always will.”
“You sure? Because if you’re not, I can leave now. We’ll always have what happened on that island, but it doesn’t have to go anywhere if you don’t want it to.”
“I want it to, Paige. I want it to last forever. If you don’t, then I won’t ask you to stay. I’ll be here loving you from a very long distance, but I want you to be happy, so if that’s not with me, don’t feel bad.”
I wiped her tears with my thumbs. “You go get some rest. Go have a taste of your real life and see if it’s sweeter to you than what we had.”
Chapter 13
Paige
“No, Dad, it wasn’t like that at all,” I hiss at him.
We’re at breakfast in the hotel lobby and the waiter has just dropped off a carafe of coffee at the table. My father is asking if Mac was forcing himself on me and if I need a counsellor to help me when we get back home.