Up in Flames (Rosemary Beach 13)

I owed this to her. She needed to know the truth. What they were doing to her was wrong. Nan was special. She’d been misunderstood her entire life, and this was just one more cruelty she would have to overcome. She’d never forgive me, and my telling her would only make her hate me more.

But she meant enough to me that I wanted her to know. She would probably be my one that got away, the one I’d remember years from now and wonder about. It was done now. All of it.

It was time I peaced out.

Nan

My body was beautifully exhausted when I stretched the next morning. Sunlight was streaming into my suite, and strong arms were around me, pulling me against a wide chest that made me feel safe. After our delicious meal and two bottles of wine, we had come back up to my suite and had incredible hot sex for hours.

Never had I actually had sex for two hours straight. I didn’t know that was possible. That wasn’t even counting the foreplay, either. Straight-up sex that went on for two hours. I’d lost count of my orgasms. He was better than my dreams but so similar.

I touched my cheek. The slap he’d given me had startled me, because I’d thought that happened in my dreams only. Apparently, I had been wrong. It didn’t sting, and I knew there would be no mark left. I moved my hand to touch my shoulder, which had been bruised from my too-real dream, and it was still tender. Gannon hadn’t even mentioned it, but then, we had been kind of preoccupied.

“You’re on birth control.” It wasn’t a question as much as a statement, but I still nodded my head. He didn’t even sound as if he had been sleeping. His voice was the same deep, smooth darkness as always.

“I’m clean. I get tested often, and since I was last tested, I haven’t been with a woman.”

We had gotten carried away last night, and the condom had broken. Neither of us had seemed to care and had continued on after he ripped it off and tossed it. This morning, I hadn’t even been worried about it. I trusted Gannon. It was probably stupid, but I couldn’t help it. I just did.

“Me, too,” I told him. “I’ve never had unprotected sex, though. Until now.”

His arm tightened around me. “Good. I don’t want to have anything between us again.”

My heart did a silly flip, and I wrapped my arms around his and smiled. I was happy. Completely and totally blissful. Never in my life had I felt like this. I knew he wanted me. I knew he would protect me. And I had fallen in love with this insane, brilliant, sexy man. I hadn’t meant to. I never let my heart actually love, but I had this time. I’d let it love him because it trusted him.

I wasn’t sure he could love in return, but I’d enjoy what he did give me. Until he left. Closing my eyes tightly, I tried to keep the sadness of that thought away. I was happy, and I would enjoy it. Every moment I got.

“Do you want to run after breakfast?” he asked close to my ear, and I shivered from the warm tickle of his breath.

“Yes,” I replied. If he was going, I wanted to be there.

“I know a good place. It’s where I run when I’m in town.”

Smiling, I snuggled closer to him.

“You keep wiggling that hot ass on me, and we’ll fuck before breakfast. I was going to give that tight little pussy a break this morning, but you’re asking to be fucked.”

The naughty way he talked about sex made me want more of it. He was right, I was sore, but when he talked to me like that, I didn’t care. I wanted more. So I did what any woman in my position would do. I wiggled my ass.

He had me pressed on my stomach, jerking my bottom up with his tight grip on my waist, before I could draw another breath. Two pillows were shoved under my stomach, and then his hand came down hard on my left butt cheek. “You want fucked. I’ll fuck you.”

He was rough but not as much as he had been last night. The fact that he put pillows under my stomach trying to make me more comfortable and the way he eased into me instead of slamming into me made my heart swell. He cared. He was taking care of me. Even with his dirty mouth and threatening attitude, he wasn’t willing to hurt me.

That in itself was enough to make me reach my first climax quickly. The gentle way he ran his hands over my back and grabbed my bottom was all it took to send me to my second one. I was going to die from too many orgasms and too much sex with this man, but I just didn’t care. It was a good way to go.

Red Rock Canyon was breathtaking. I enjoyed my run along the beach every morning at home, but this was different. It was a trail of canyons, peaks, and ledges. I wanted to take it all in, but I also wanted to take in the way Gannon’s body looked when he ran. Especially his muscular legs in those shorts. It was very distracting from nature’s beauty.

We didn’t talk much during the run, which was good. I didn’t want to run and talk. My mind wandered when I ran, and it was almost as if I was out here alone with my thoughts. I wasn’t, of course, because Gannon’s presence was always there tempting me to look his way.

Frustratingly, he hadn’t even glanced my way once, and I’d worn the tight short and sports bra he had mentioned in my dream. It seemed that real-life Gannon wasn’t driven to angry sex by the sight of me in this outfit. Damn fantasy.

Hikers passed us as we turned our run into a jog near the end. I was used to a flat landscape, even if it was sand, and that was easier than this terrain. My breathing was hard, and sweat was running down the middle of my bare back. I reached up and wiped away the sweat on my forehead with my arm and breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived back where we had started.