Love Me Knots (11 page)

Relief filled her. She hadn’t expected him to balk, but part of her, the part that was always afraid of losing him, had balled tight. “We’ll learn together.” She reached her hands up to loop around his neck, pressing her lips to his.

“I’m not sure we’re finished talking,” David said against her mouth.

“We’ve got time.” Krista rubbed her belly against the erection that hadn’t lost its heat. She licked at his lips. “Right now, I just want to start with what we already do well.” She let go of his nape, lowering her hand to wrap her fingers around his shaft. She felt his deep groan in her own throat, a surprising sensation made even earthier by the water streaming from all directions.

David backed her up against the tiled wall, his hands on her hips to hold her still. He slid them up her flanks, cupping her breasts, his thumbs finding her nipples, caressing them with teasing flicks. She arched into his hold, shuddering and closing her eyes when he brought the aching tips to his mouth. He toyed with her, drawing deep, laving the pebbled flesh that seemed to burst into flame at his touch. She felt every firm suck deep in her core. Need bloomed, fiery and devouring. She needed him inside her. Now.

“Please, David.” Her hands clenched his shoulders, pulling him up.

He bit the underside of her breast and she gasped, her hips bucking into his.

“I need you.” She tried again to rub against him, but he kept himself just out of her reach, out of her body, while he licked and sucked a path up her neck.

He pulled back, looking at her with eyes that blazed. “Good.”

Her knees threatened to collapse. He must have realized that because she found herself lifted, his hands under her bottom, her thighs clamping around his lean hips. His fingertips slid inward, parting her already swollen folds, caressing her entrance as if he just couldn’t help himself.

Her moan echoed off the tiles. She tried to shift, but his hold wouldn’t allow it. She was completely open to him, completely his. She simply had to trust him to give her what she needed. Ceasing her straining, she relaxed and let him sink a finger inside her. It wasn’t nearly enough, but she flexed her inner muscles on it, gripping him in a wet vise.

Strain showed on his face, the corners of his mouth pulling down as he fought for control. She licked one side, laughing as he growled. “I don’t want you in control,” she whispered against his cheek. “I want you to need me as much as I need you.”

“Do you?” he murmured, rubbing that finger against her inner walls. “Because what I want to do is dive into you until you’ll never be able to think of ever leaving me again.”

“Okay,” she replied, breathless.

His eyes glowed, the blue of his irises burning with an intensity she could feel in her soul. He pressed his thick length through her folds. Slow and unyielding, he let her slide onto him until she’d taken every inch. His lids lowered almost completely, not quite hiding a possessive light that made her heart sing. Come what may, she belonged to this man, but she could finally see—he belonged to her too.

“Oh, David,” she whispered, shaking in his embrace, their lips grazing in the stillness in time to their heartbeats. She felt bare, stripped to the rawest core of herself, open in a way she’d never been before. But so was he. A world of emotions swirled in his eyes, exposed and offered up to her like the greatest of sacrifices.

He loves me
, she realized, unable to find her voice again in the shockwave of that revelation. If she were the wrong kind of woman, a cruel kind of person, she could crush him with an unthinking flick of her lashes. That knowledge gave her courage to lean into him, to lick his lips and say the words she wasn’t sure he’d ever heard before.

“I love you.”

But he’d hear them from now on. Every day. For the rest of her life. And if she had anything to say about it, he’d believe them for the rest of his.

She didn’t get a chance to tell him so because, as if she’d lit some kind of fuse, he suddenly began moving, holding her close and pistoning into her. Her back slid along the tiles and the water sprayed over their straining bodies. Each thrust was more demanding than the last, but she maintained that eye contact, unable, unwilling to let him go.

Deeper and deeper he moved into her, until her cries echoed through the water. She held on, squeezing and gripping his shoulders, opening her thighs wider for him. The orgasm crashed through her like a massive wave, pounding through every limb and stealing her breath. It seemed to ripple through him, too, because she felt him quake violently against her. Inside her.

Yes, she decided, laying her head limply on his shoulder. This was where she belonged. Perfectly. Exactly. Rightly.

And if a tiny part of her heart cried out that something was missing…well, there was time. This was only the first step.

David stared down at the woman in the bed, her hair still damp despite the fact that they’d left the shower behind hours ago, and watched her sleep. For reasons he couldn’t discern, she’d decided to forgive him. She’d even apologized when he was fairly sure she didn’t have to. Even now, sleeping deeply, she wore a smile on her face. As if she’d found the answer to all the questions that had been plaguing her the last two years. Maybe longer.

His questions, though, had only just begun.

What had changed her mind? What had she seen in his eyes in those raw moments while they made love in the shower? Because something had most definitely given her a sense of peace while he was left feeling—no,
knowing
—something was left undone.

She’d wanted to know what he was feeling, but she’d never asked. What did that mean? And could all this happen again when she didn’t see what she wanted to? If he failed to be what she needed on any given day?

He lifted the ends of her hair and watched them filter through his fingers. His father had been right about the colors. He couldn’t count them all, the deep chestnut, the rich auburn, even the occasional strand of gold. They all came together into a blend of dark caramel. It was beautiful.

But until he could figure out the right words to say, he didn’t really have the right to be touching it. He shouldn’t be here, with her in this bed. He wasn’t unselfish enough to leave, though. A few moments longer, he decided, running his hand over her arm and back again. He had to remember what Taylor had said.

A grand gesture.

Show Krista not only how he felt, but also how he saw her.

I need a man who loves me.

Slowing his hand, he looked at the closed wardrobe with the mini-office tucked inside. The fax was still there, waiting. Just because she’d let him in didn’t mean she didn’t deserve what he should have been giving her all along.

He finally realized what he’d been missing.

Slipping out of the bed, he padded to the bathroom and pulled on the uncomfortably moist pants and shirt. Then, silent as possible, he opened the wardrobe and pulled out the fax sheets. Making less than a whisper of sound, he drifted out of the bungalow and headed onto the walkway. He almost made the turn toward the hotel, but something stopped him.

Grand gesture.

Changing direction, he headed to the larger bungalow closer to the end of the pier. Part of him wondered if this was a bad idea. But she’d said they were her friends. He knocked. Before his third rap, the French door opened to the still-somewhat-disturbing smile of a very happy Cobb.

David looked him up and down, wondering exactly where this strange man came from. He wore only some kind of skirt, much like the fabric Krista had been wearing, only this one was green and printed with the shapes of palm fronds. And the knot at his waist left something to be desired.

“Did I wake you?” Not that he was one to point fingers about the mid-afternoon hour. And Cobb
had
taken a blow to the face, though his mouth didn’t look any worse for wear.

“Me? Oh, no… Why, did you want to?” Cobb blinked as if he had something in his eyes.

David frowned, wondering what it could be. The sun wasn’t setting at his back just yet. “No.”

Cobb’s happy demeanor shifted, but his sigh seemed to wash it away. “You really are straight, aren’t you?”

It was David’s turn to blink. “As in heterosexual?”

Cobb nodded.

That he needed incontrovertible proof gave David pause. Exactly what kind of vibes had he been sending out? “Irreversibly.”

The younger man’s bottom lip seemed to fill right before his eyes. “You’re sure?”

“Cobb, leave the man alone. No means no.” Jake’s gruff tone rumbled its way out the door. With a swoosh of sound, the other door opened and they had company. Hopefully more rational company. “Hey, the shiner looks good on you.”

For the briefest of seconds, David wondered if that compliment should concern him. Then again, Jake didn’t seem the type to knock him to the ground for affection. “Thank you.”

Jake glanced at Cobb, then shrugged when Cobb looked back blankly. “What can we do for you?”

“It’s actually something I want you to do for Krista.” He allowed himself to relax enough to smile. She always told him he should let his guard down more. “I wondered if you might keep her busy for me for a few hours.”

“Like shopping?” Cobb brightened again.

David sent a questioning glance at Jake. “Would that work?”

“Depends, how deep in debt do you want to get?”

Inborn aversion to debt gurgled to life. David squelched it. “I’ll need her back here at sunset. So…about two hours?”

“I don’t know.” Cobb’s face wrinkled with what looked like serious doubt. “How could we get anything decent done in two hours?”

Jake rolled his eyes. “I’ll take care of it. When do you want us to pick her up?”

“Now.”

Cobb did some kind of whole body wiggle that had Jake shaking his head.

“What should we tell her?” Jake asked, apparently ignoring his friend.

David smiled again, deciding he could go with that line of thinking. “Tell her it’s a surprise.”

{

“This sucks,” Krista grumbled for the fourth time in an hour. She’d awoken to excited knocking on her front door, her bed empty and not a single trace of the man who’d driven her to complete exhaustion. She sucked on her straw, not much enjoying the virgin piña colada in the swirl-shaped cup. “What kind of surprise is he planning?”

“He didn’t say.” Jake nodded politely at yet another woman giving him the eye.

“You should just wear a sign that says you’re gay.” Irritation with the world in general gnawed on her nerves. The guys had kept her on the other side of the resort near the shops and the pool. The downside was that all four of them were getting all kinds of attention from men and women alike while she stewed in a soup of unexpected anticipation. “No one’s going to figure it out if you don’t.”

“It wouldn’t matter. That girl’s too drunk to read.”

A quick glance at the brunette sagging over her drink at the other end of the bar didn’t help Krista’s mood. She had twenty minutes left and it felt like days. Ricky and Stevie were in the pool, soaking up the adoration from strangers since they claimed she wasn’t any fun.

“Cobb’s up again,” Jake warned.

Krista almost sobbed. “Why do they keep letting him sign up?” She turned in time to see Cobb—barefoot, shirtless as usual, with just low-rise leather pants and multicolored leather bracelets wrapped around his wrists—reach for the microphone. Since they’d arrived, he’d already had three turns on the karaoke stage. “Please, God, not another Pat Benatar song.”

As it was, she never—ever—wanted to hear “We Belong” again.

“I think the guy running the thing likes him.” Jake nudged her shoulder with his, chucking his chin toward the older, almost-five-foot-tall man grinning like a loon as the opening strains of “My Heart Will Go On” began rolling out of the speakers.

“I’m heading back.” She hopped off the stool and started walking. It didn’t take long to hear Jake’s feet on the pavement next to her.

“Your boyfriend said sunset.”

She pointed up at the darkening sky. “This counts.”

“Don’t you want him to finish whatever it is he’s doing for you?”

She turned onto the paved path that led to their part of the resort. She could hear the slow waves of the surf already. “Since when are you on his side? I thought you offered to kick his ass for me earlier.”

“Yeah, when I thought he might be a jerk. He seems decent enough.”

“You just like him because he’s not remotely after Cobb.” She rolled her eyes, increasing her pace, and came over the last dune of manicured grounds. The bungalows were just ahead. She nearly skidded to a stop, able to see her own, lit from below with dozens of tiny lights.

Jake stopped next to her and whistled. “I guess he is ready.” She felt a nudge to her arm. “Aren’t you going to get in there?”

She wanted to. But suddenly, she was so afraid. “This isn’t something David would do.”

“So?” Jake pushed her forward again. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Yes?” she croaked.

“So what’s the problem?”

Hope. Hope was the problem. David…romantic? She’d thought she might be asking too much of him too soon. What if this wasn’t what she thought and it blew up in both their faces?

“Stop thinking. The man wants to do something nice for you. Now get over there before the water knocks out all his hard work.”

She smiled, realizing he was right. Before she left, she went to give Jake another kiss on the cheek. “Thanks Jake. For everything.”

“Yeah, well, don’t start thinking I’m your fairy godparent or anything. I look like shit in a tutu.”

She laughed, walking toward the pier. “You know, I was just thinking. If Cobb has such a bad crush on David, that could be good for you.”

“How’s that?” he called and she turned, continuing to walk backward.

“Look in the mirror, dufus. Black hair, blue eyes, grumpy temperament… You got more of a shot than you might think!” With the wide-eyed expression on Jake’s face to keep her laughing, Krista started running toward her bungalow.

Close up, she saw a wide net tied to the stilts of her bungalow, and floating in the pocket were small bowls filled with broad-petaled white flowers, a small votive lit at the very center. Delighted, she found a line of them starting at her gate and leading into the open bungalow.

She tiptoed her way inside, discovering the dark interior lit up by another dozen flower bowls. She smiled, looking around in wonder. The line led her into the dining room, where David was sitting at the table, a final bowl lighting the place setting in front of him.

The firelight glowed on his face, flickering across the smile that spread slowly over his lips. She took in the soft white shirt she could guess was new. It wasn’t buttoned all the way, leaving visible that little patch of skin she liked so much. In his hand he held a roll of paper, tied with a dark ribbon.

Unsure what to do, she stayed in the doorway until he reached out his hand for her. “What is all this?” she asked, stepping round a flower bowl.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful.” She clasped his hand and let him pull her onto his lap. He pressed the paper roll into her hands. “What’s this?”

“Our contract.”

She looked down, the joy and excitement in her leeching away.

His hand wrapped around hers on the firm scroll and he used the other to tip her chin up to face him. He pressed a small kiss to her lips, chaste but hopeful. Then he said something that sent her world spinning sideways. “Burn it.”

Her eyes nearly popped. “What? Why?”

“Because it’s a lie,” he answered quietly, staring at the papers as if they’d done something wrong to him. He looked at her again, jaw set, his eyes reflecting the candlelight as if it were a blaze. “When we first met, I practically forgot my own name. I was sure I’d say something, do something wrong, something you’d consider an insult. When you didn’t, I didn’t know how to hope for more.” He swallowed, lifting the papers. “I didn’t know how to keep you. Never imagined you’d want to stay. So I came up with this. The worst lie I’ve ever told in my life and because of it, I’ve been lying ever since.”

Guiding both their hands, he held the end of the contract over the small flame. For a quiet moment, they watched the flames climb around their agreement, eating away at the paper and ink in small crackling bites. Only when it grew too bright, too strong to hold together, did he direct the burning end into the water of the flower bowl. It extinguished with a hiss, leaving an acrid smoky haze in its wake.

“I don’t want you to stay with me because you signed a piece of paper.”

“Da—”

He pressed his finger to her lips, gently quieting her. “Let me say this. I’ve been practicing, trying to get it right. I don’t want to make any mistakes tonight.”

She nodded, pursing her lips into a soft kiss even as she held her breath.

“I don’t want you to stay with me because you signed a piece of paper, and I don’t want you to have to guess how I feel. I’ve been thoughtless with you. Unappreciative. Not because I don’t appreciate you, but…well, it seemed unnecessary to me. All my life, talking about things you already knew was unneeded. But you’re not someone I can take for granted that way. You need the words. You deserve the words.”

Krista gulped in a breath, trying to keep her emotions from getting the best of her. Already, though, tears were leaking from the corners of her eyes.

“I never meant to hurt you.” He wiped the moisture from her cheeks, the caress so gentle she almost missed that his hand was shaking. “I’m probably never going to be good at saying this at the right time or the right way, but I’m going to keep trying until I learn. I love you, Krista. I have from the first second I saw you and I will until there’s nothing left of me in this world. Probably longer than—”

To hell with mistakes.
She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him so hard the chair almost tipped. Only his hand jerking out to grab the table edge rebalanced the chair enough to keep them upright. She laughed, hugging him tight with her arms and her knees on either side of his hips. “I love you too,” she whispered in his ear before pressing a kiss to that as well.