Chapter Five

She dried her hair and let it fall loose around her shoulders, it’d taken over thirty minutes for to de-sand herself, with a little help from Jon. But so worth it, she smiled at herself in the mirror. The woman staring back at her was well sexed with her pink cheeks and glowing skin.

Moments like these almost made the unbearable weeks in-between not seeing each other ok, almost.

She scooped up the towels and dumped them in the hamper and then padded out to see what else the man could possibly have in store for her. She’d been thinking a lot about things before she came to St Bart’s, entertaining further her own ideas of an individual advertising firm in New York. Her father expected her to go as her relationship with Jon had bloomed, but she also knew she was holding onto the last thing her mother gave her before she died, the company.

Jon was sitting out on the deck in a white v-neck tee and a pair of camouflage shorts, and when he saw her he picked up the spoon and handed it to her. “Dessert?”
She plucked it out of his hand and slipped into the chair opposite him, where an ice-cream sundae waited for her slathered in chocolate, sprinkled with nuts.

“Where’s the cherry?” Her lips twitched at the mock horror on his face. “Oh god, this is good.” She savoured and dug in for more.

He scooped his own spoon and faced her, “I was going to make us share, then I decided that I needed you nice and revitalised for bedtime.” His brow waggled as he licked his spoon.

“More sex huh? Trying to kill me so I can’t go back?” That wouldn’t be a bad thing of course, she thought to herself. “God this house is amazing, I can’t believe how secluded it is for such a tiny island.”

“I can pick them,” he swirled some ice-cream around in his glass. “What would you say if I said that you owned this beach house, with me?”

Her eyes widened, “you’re kidding me?”

“Nope, had it done and dusted before I came. Just need your signature on the legal documents and it’s ours.”

“You bought property, in my name?” God, she shouldn’t be this pissed off at him. But she was.

“Our name LJ, it’s our first investment.”

“With your money.”

“It’s only money, I’m not asking you to pay your half, I’m telling you I bought it for you.”

“It’s a big thing Jon, I know we’ve said we needed to make some moves, and some changes but I’d have liked to be asked first.”

“I knew you’d get funny over this, LJ it’s just a holiday house. Hell, I’ll take your name off it if you want me too.”

She wiped her mouth with the napkin, and settled back. “It’s just a big thing. I would have liked to have been consulted on it, that’s all.”

He sighed and licked the back of his spoon. “What are we doing LJ?”

“We’re sitting having ice-cream and you’re buying the world with my name on it, that’s what we’re doing.”

“Oh for Christ’s sake.” The silverware clattered with glass as he stood. “I did it to show you, I’m serious about you, about us since you won’t move to New York.”

“What?” Ok, now she was mad. He’d never asked her to move to New York, she’d been thinking about it to discuss with him, while they were here in fact. But now, it just made her angry that he had been expecting her to do it. “Why do I have to be the one to move?” She knew damn well, and if this hadn’t happened she wouldn’t be as pissed off about it.

“I have more there.” The screech of her chair made him wince, “that’s not what I mean Lily and you know it. I meant-"

She held her hand up. “Oh, I know what you meant Jon, I know what you damn meant.” She turned, but stopped. “I was going to ask you while we were here how you felt about this, was going to ask to work it out but I had been considering starting my own firm in New York, so I could move. So I could be with you, but right now... I’m not sure even sure why I bothered.”

She left him standing there and headed out to the beach, it was dark and the cool night breeze stirred her as she trudged through the sand. Moments ago she was the one being pounded on the sand, not her feet. She shouldn’t have yelled, shouldn’t have been angry, what he did was thoughtful and romantic, he bought them a beach house in the middle of nowhere for goodness sakes. Who didn’t want that? But it was more than that, he should have known she didn’t take kindly to decisions been made out of her control. Him of all people.

She sank down on her butt and watched the ocean gleam under the moon, she needed to cool off before talking to him again. It was a big- no it was a huge thing her giving up her life in London, one she’d built from the ground up but she’d slowly come to reason that he was worth it. He was worth starting all over again for. Maybe it was that, that scared her the most. What if she moved, and it all turned pear shaped? That’s why she’d waited so long, until she knew he loved her. No one had ever loved her the way he had.

No one.

~

He was tempted to run after her as her sunny colored dress disappeared out onto the beach. He hadn’t seen that coming, he should have kept his mouth shut about the move to New York, he knew it was a hard subject on both sides. He scratched his head and headed back inside for a drink, a stiff one. He couldn’t move to London, it just wasn’t viable and he wasn’t being an asshole about it. It was the truth. If that wasn’t going to work, they’d just have to spend months with each other instead of this one week, two weeks here and there.

His work was able to be done remotely, apart from the recording and touring obviously but the rest he could work it in, with careful planning and preparation. Maybe he could set up an office in his apartment for her to video conference, and run her firm from when she stayed with him? The time difference would kill her though, but they could work this out. They had to; they had gone beyond the option of not working this out.

He hadn’t expected love to come around again like it did, but he knew the day he met her, she was different. She was so strong and so independent like Dot, but the difference was Lily knew how to inspire him, how to motivate him and he envied her drive. They worked so well as a team, but both knew when to stand back and let the other be. He’d let Dot do what she wanted, and truthfully not paid that much interest into it, but with Lily he yearned to know what she was doing and of course, he loved her like crazy. The kind of love that gave you twists in the belly when you thought about them and how much you missed them.

God he was stupid, how many times had he listened to Lily talk about the battle she’d overcome with her firm, to get where she was as a woman, knowing she’d worked twice as hard than he did.

He needed a cigarette.

He found his bag, fished out one and lit it swiftly. If Lily was anything like him, and she was, he’d let her cool down before talking to her again after he removed his foot from his own ass.

Chapter Four

Jon widened his stance, bracing himself for the impact that was his Lily. He hiked her up, sliding slowly into her as water lapped around him. “Like this, perhaps?”

Her heels dug into the back of his thighs and her hands raked up into his hair, all sea slicked and ropey. She groaned as he moved inside her, changing the angle when he let her fall back in his arms.

He trudged forward. Her body silky and warm as the tropical waters that surrounded the island. He tightened his grip on her ass, anchoring himself inside of her. “Just you and me LJ.” He breathed against her mouth, then her neck when she pulled her mouth out of reach. The surf sucked at her as he fought the undertow. He dropped her to the sand and stroked long and deep inside of her as sand pulled around them.

Digging his knee into the edge of the water he pulled out and drove himself deep, dragging her knee up higher. "Now I can see you." He pushed it higher so he could go still deeper, until her knee was even with his shoulder. He flipped it over her shoulder and looked down at her. "Now I can see everything." He watched as he disappeared inside of her.

Sand shifted under her back as he moved them, “oh god, Jon!” She rolled him so he hit the sand with a thud and straddled him, squeezing his hips between her knees. She laced her fingers in his, pinning them at shoulder level as she slowly sank down on him. “Now I can see you,” she barely rolled her hips as he cursed under her. “What was that?”She grinned, knowing she had him right where she wanted him. She’d never been as confident with men, as she’d grown with Jon, but now she felt like she had the freedom to do anything.

"Son of a--" he broke off and arched up to meet her swivelled hips. His hand reached up to find her hair, matted with sand and sea, it didn't matter. It wasn't silky now so he could get a good grip. He pulled her to his mouth, sitting up as he lifted his hips, rolling her again to her back. "I like to watch." He folded her knee up to her chest, groaning when he went as deep as possible. Her walls clenched him until milking was all he knew.

He pushed harder, faster, covering her body with his until her legs wrapped around his hips. And this time he rolled it so he was on his back once more. "Ride me," he said hoarsely.

Her palms flattened on in his chest, her nails raking through the fine hair. She squeezed her knees tight and let her inhibitions go as she slammed down on him hard. His cock swelled inside of her, and the course texture of sand coated skin slapped between them, over the ocean.

She arched over her mouth greedily finding his, while keeping the rhythm steady. His hands were free and had found other things to occupy themselves with, as he cupped her breasts and rolled his thumb across her nipples.

He rolled forward, his mouth zeroing on one salty tip as he sat up. At the same time it drove him deeper as she gasped and he sucked hard on her sensitive little nipple. Her arms wrapped around his neck, dragging him closer now.

His nails raked down her back, digging into her ass as she continued her forward rocking. Sand was in nearly every place he could think of, but it didn't matter just then. He sucked harder, until she arched back weakly. He moved onto the other side, her fingers fisting his sea matted hair.

She cried out, screaming through one orgasm and then riding headfirst into the next. She’d long forgotten that they were on a beach, outside in the middle of nowhere, she just didn’t care.

Her mind derailed in an instant, where they were, what they were doing in a public, but private place. She just didn’t care. All she cared about was that clever mouth and the way he made her feel, alive.

It became more urgent, lips and teeth raked over sensitive skin. Fingers dug in, and her hands wound through his hair, dragging him away from her breasts to her lips. The taste of wine, salt mixed with the dark flavor of him.

He'd crawled up off the sand, his legs out under her and hers over his hips, her feet digging into the sand. Her fingers curled around his biceps urging him to push her further, if she could possibly go there.

She lowered herself onto him, and the roaring in his brain intensified as she widened her thighs to show everything to him. Each sucking, pull of her body accepting him burned his gut and his balls as he tried to hold on. Sex and the after burn of no return plowed through him. He lifted his hips to meet her. He slid a hand between then and hooked his knuckle over her hood and found the painfully hard tip of her clit and rubbed. She tipped back; he cradled her with his knees and cursed as he had to put his hand down for balance. It left a new angle as he slammed into her, riding the tremors inside of her. He arched and swore as his arms burned but he pushed her past another orgasm and growled through his own.

She collapsed on top of him, heaving for her breath burying her head into the crook of his neck. Her body quaked with delicious aftershocks as she settled against him. His heart drummed against her ear while she came down from whatever cloud she was still floating on.

“Oh god, I can’t move...I can’t breathe.” She closed her eyes, the cool breeze now rolling in off the ocean, quickly melting the warmth away. He was amazing, and she loved him like crazy. There was no way she was going to let him go, if that’s the route he was thinking. Not now, not ever. “I still want my dessert,” she managed, the salt drying out her mouth.

He laughed and curled his arms around her back and kissed her forehead. He would be content to stay here with her like this forever, here in their little bubble. They’d done so well to create their own little bubbles, away from their real lives, they had to. It was all they had being so far away from each other. He looked around the beach and their clothes were nowhere to be found. "Do you realize how far down we are?"

She lifted her head and looked up, the twinkling lights from their beach house winked a distance away. “Well I’ll be damned,” she laughed and flicked his nose. “What are we going to do with you? You lead me into all kinds of trouble mister. I can’t seem to control myself around you.”

He smirked, “LJ – you were controlling me pretty damn well just before.” He rolled her onto her back and pushed up off her. When she pouted, he laughed and hooked her over his shoulder and started walking. “Who says you don’t work out when you’re on holiday.”

“I so need a shower, I don’t want to think about all the places I have sand, or I’ll freak out.”

His laugh was long and low as he folded his arm across her thigh. “Need a back washer?” That was his Lily all right.

“You’ll be washing that and my hair, and everything else. And then we get dessert.”

“Who says there is any dessert?” He found their clothes and scooped them up in his free hand and trudged further back up to the house.

“There better be, or you’re so not getting anymore sex.”

He lifted her gently down back onto the porch and tucked away the thick ropes of her hair. Even as sand slicked, matted mess, she was gorgeous. “There’s dessert. Ice-cream and hot fudge sauce.” He captured her delighted mouth in a kiss before popping her ass. “Now go start that shower, I’ll be there in a second.”

She squealed as she made a beeline the bathroom in the beach house. Their beach house, Jon picked up the papers he’d hidden earlier to show her. He’d bought it, not rented it, and in both of their names, hoping that this would go a long way to cementing their future together.

Chapter Three

She wringed out her hair as she stepped out of the shower and snagged a towel off the railing. God, she felt alive, there was something about the beach that made you feel like you that way. She stepped into her panties and slipped the light sun dress on over her head, and adjusted the straps. She rolled her hair up loosely and held it in place with a clip.

Her brow rose when the clang of china floated in from the kitchen. “Jon?” She peeked around the corner of the doorframe and stifled a giggle as he tried to manoeuvre something from the oven.

He held up his hand, “don’t, just don’t. Just go and sit outside.”

She nodded and bit back the smile as she walked through to outside, bands of purple and pink stretched high above them as the St Barth’s sun disappeared into the night. Small tea-light candles dotted the porch in red and blue glass votives that surrounded a table set for royalty. A bottle of wine was cooling on ice, and the china place settings gleamed in the candlelight. She sighed and slid into the chair and looked out over the ocean, why couldn’t all days be like this? She couldn’t even remember being at work, trying to massacre the holiday crowds for last minute shopping. It felt like another world away.

She sat up when he came out, and placed a shrimp cocktail in front of her, before putting down his own. “Tonight, I wine and dine you,” he slid into his chair and reached for the wine.

“This looks spectacular, Jon, it’s almost magical. Are you sure you don’t need a hand?” She remembered how well his cooking skills stretched. The man could do many things, cook just wasn’t one of them. It wasn't that he lacked the passion to, it was the patience.

He chuckled, “I had some help, don‘t panic it was delivered while you were in the shower.”

She laughed as she lifted her glass to his, “only you Jon, would order in a romantic dinner.”

“It came as a package.”

She plucked the little cocktail fork off the table, “Even the candles?”

“No, that was all me, my attempt at being romantic...I’m not a mushy guy LJ, but I wanted to make this special.”

She speared some shrimp and slipped it into her mouth, god that was divine. “You’re more romantic than you think Jon, I mean the house? The idea of being here alone for a week, was all you.”

He waggled her brows, “that was just to get you alone, so I could have my wicked way with you.”

“Well it worked. It’s more than I could hope for.”

He picked up his wine again, and held it in thought. She could see those eyes that didn’t ever seem to stop thinking, working overtime.

“This living apart thing is getting hard LJ.”

“Oh?” That line between them was not uncommon, but the way his eyes stayed on hers and his mouth didn’t move in a little quirky grin meant he was serious this time. She’d gone over this in her head and she’d tried to make sense of their living arrangements, there was no issue with the money thankfully, it was more the time. The time that they both had to take leave from their own lives to see the other was becoming harder.

Panic whirled in her belly, he didn’t want to end it did he? It had never been an option, and had never been even hinted at. She took a big gulp of wine; she knew this would eventually come up. Frustrated phone calls and many emails finding gaps in calendars were just many of the little cracks that had started to form.

He reached across the table and took her hand in his, “but let’s enjoy the meal that I slaved for hours preparing.” He squeezed her hand, winked and leaned back.

“All in the space of me having a shower, none the less.”

“You have long showers.”

She narrowed her eyes and smirked, mentally filing away the worry niggling at her.

“Hey, I’m not complaining, it’s worth the effort. Plus you’ll need it for what we’re doing for dessert.”

“Doing?” She asked as he cleared away the glasses and headed back into the kitchen.

“You heard, doing now wait for this main. I asked specifically for this.” He disappeared from her sight and she was left to think against the cooling night breeze in the candlelight glowed through the haze of the sea air coming in off the water. They were seriously alone out here, she couldn’t see a soul anywhere, it was true, something money could in fact buy. Paradise.

“Ta-Da!”He placed down the plate in front of her and she squealed, a fat lobster tail dripped with garlic butter next to fresh asparagus and carrots.

“Lobster, ok I might just marry you.” Their eyes locked, and he smiled before setting down some bread between them.

“If I’d known it was just ever going to take a Lobster Tail, I would have down that ages ago LJ.”

She beckoned him with her finger, “come here.” She leaned up and met his mouth as he bent down, wine and shrimp blended between them as they shared a sweet kiss. Her heart pounded against her chest as he broke away. “I love you Jon.” Be Damned if he was angling for a break up, she was completely in love with him.

He sank into his chair and pointed his fork at her, “you’re just angling for my lobster, admit it.”

She half-laughed as she picked up her glass, they always didn’t say it back to each other straight away and now she was just being silly, but a little reassurance would have been nice. God she sucked at this. Until Jon, Lily couldn’t even remember the last serious relationship she’d had. No one had been worth the effort, and most people were intimidated by her. But not Jon, he was very much the male version of herself at times but they both had qualities that complimented each other. He could at an instant, make her relax with his way and remove whatever stick she had up her ass. Over the last year, Lily had found herself being the one Jon talked through his business decisions to, she challenged his decisions and in turn made him validate his own thoughts.

Now she wasn’t so sure if she could go back to not having this.

“You know me so well.”

They concluded dinner with talking about his kids, and he touched on the latest developments for the new record and that the song-writing process had revealed that they were aiming for a social. He cleared away the plates and returned out to the porch and held out his hand. She took it and lifted it out of the chair and gasped when he dragged her in fiercely for a kiss.

She relaxed and wound her arms around his neck, pushing back his hair. “Dinner was wonderful,” she murmured.

“Uh huh,” he whispered as his mouth left hers for the curve of her neck. He nuzzled into her neck and sighed, “you’re not wearing a bra?”

Her cheek pressed against his hair, “nope.”

“That’ll make it much easier for what I have planned next.”

“Which is?” He pulled away from her, and tugged her off the porch into the sand, dragging her down the beach towards the water.

“Jon! What the hell are you doing?” She laughed as they reached the packed sand and he kicked off his flips.

“We’re going for a dip.” He pulled the shirt off, over his head and popped the button on his cargo pants.

“We are? Here?” She looked around, “now?” They were alone right? What if they weren’t really?

“C’mon LJ, don’t be a chicken.” She watched his perfect naked ass jog away from her into the surf.

She wrapped her arms around herself, “Jon? Seriously couldn’t we just use the spa bath?” She was a wimp, dammit. “Ok, ok..sneaky man.” She quickly discarded the dress and her panties and made her way into the water wincing as the cold spray unmanned her slightly. “Man.” Mortified, she made her way over to him, she had to admit that was kind of liberating.

He hauled her up into his arms catching her disbelief in a slanting kiss. He pressed her back until she arched with the force of it. Teeth clicked as they laughed and he eased her into the situation. This wasn’t so bad after all, and she’d long forgotten if anyone else was out there. Her hands slid down his shoulders to his chest and brushed her thumbs over his nipples.

He growled against her mouth as the beach faded and the water deepened surrounding them in cocoon of warmth as their bodies acclimatised to it. Using the natural buoyancy of the salt water, he curled her further around his hips. Kisses lingered from sweet to hot as they lost themselves in each other.

“I love you LJ.”

She looked up and met his gaze, smiled and crashed her mouth down on his. “Show me, right here, right now.”