Escape (Billionaire Island)

She laughs. Just a slight laugh, but it’s beautiful. It’s joyous. It makes a grin split my face.

“You’re something, Emily Moreno.”

“Am I?” Her tone is slightly flirtatious.

I trail a finger over her soft cheek, down her neck. “You definitely are.” I lean in and give her a chaste kiss on the lips.

I pull back, but shock rolls through me as Em wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me into a clench, crushing our mouths together.

Unexpected…and awesome.

Her soft lips slide against mine, her tongue probes mine.

Em is taking charge of this kiss. Very different from our previous kisses, and I’m loving it. Really loving it.

I glide one hand down her shoulder to her breasts, resisting the urge to cup one. Instead, I slide my hand down her waist to her hips and around to one of her ass cheeks. I pull her toward me, let her feel my hard cock against her belly.

Then she unclenches herself from my grasp.

I’m sorry. The words are on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t bring myself to say them. I’m not sorry. Not sorry at all.

I want more kisses. I want more than kisses. I want to make love to Em, hard and fast, and then slowly and passionately.

But I won’t pressure her.

“I’m sorry.” The words I considered saying come from her lips instead of mine.

“Don’t be,” I say. “Never be sorry. If you’re not feeling what I’m feeling—”

She shakes her rapidly. “I am. I’m feeling exactly what you’re feeling, Scotty. I swear it.”

I inhale. I love the smell of the beach at night. Sand and saltwater and shells, but tonight, I get a waft of Emily’s citrusy perfume, her coconutty hair, her…sultry musk.

Yeah, I can smell her need. Her ache. Her want.

It mirrors my own.

Should I ask her if she wants to go to my hut?

No. She stopped the kiss. She wants me and I want her, but she stopped me from going any further.

“You want to walk back?” I ask.

She breathes in and reaches both arms out, as if sizing up her wingspan. She faces the ocean, closes her eyes, inhales again. “This place makes me think anything is possible.”

I want so badly to touch her, to kiss her, just to grab her hand even.

But I don’t.

I can’t.

I can’t disturb the picture she makes as she faces the sea, her eyes closed, her arms stretched out, her hair curtaining down her back, and her white dress flowing around her body in the soft evening breeze.

So I watch her. Take in the perfect embodiment of beauty before my eyes.

And I’m not sure I’ll ever tire of gazing at her.

13

Emily

The breeze on my flesh, the oceanic fragrance, the warmth of Scotty’s body… We’re not touching, but still, his presence invades me even as my eyes are closed. The flimsy fabric of my dress grazes my bare legs, the water tickles my toes.

And if I open my eyes, I’ll see the moonlight streaming onto the midnight blue sea.

So lovely.

I expect Scotty to say something. Or to touch me. Kiss me.

But he doesn’t.

He lets me be. Simply be.

Which comforts me.

He said I was safe here.

He’s wrong, but I am at least safe for this moment.

I open my eyes, turn to face him.

He’s gorgeous in the moonlight. It glints off his dark hair, creates a black veil over most of the colors in his clothing, but not his eyes. Not those olive-gold orbs that nearly seduced me the first time I gazed into them.

The darkness doesn’t affect them at all.

“You’re beautiful,” he says, his low voice even lower than normal.

I take a step toward him, my feet sinking in the sand. “So are you.”

He smiles. A wide smile that shows his sparkling white teeth against the dark of night.

“Will you do something for me?” I ask.

“Anything.”

“Take me somewhere. Take me somewhere on this island where you’ve never taken another woman.”

He widens his eyes, and for a moment, I fear a place like that doesn’t exist on the island.

I try to hide my frown.

He grabs hold of my left hand, entwines my fingers through this. “I know just the place. Are you up for a little danger?”

I hold back a scoff. I’m in danger just by existing. “What kind of danger?”

“There’s a cliff about a mile up the beach. It’s off limits to colonists and staffers. My buddies and I visited it once.”

“What’s so dangerous about it? Is it high?”

“No. Not at all. But parts of it are covered in coral, which can cut you up pretty badly, and neither of us is wearing shoes. But I’m not suggesting we actually get on the cliff.”

“Why are you suggesting it, then?”

“Because right before we get to the cliff is a gorgeous stretch of beach. The sand is snow white, and the sunsets and sunrises are glorious.”

“So you’ve been there with your friends…”