A Summer To Remember (Seasons of Love & Lust Book 1) (10 page)

Chapter Eleven

Martha’s Vineyard was amazing. Although all the spots in the world where the rich and beautiful gathered had a certain feel and appeal, the roaring Atlantic Ocean, the mansion, and being with my friends made the experience much more magical.

I had to admit finally being on Paul’s arm didn’t hurt the situation one bit, though it was a bit annoying to see Ashley there with my brother. They were definitely sleeping together by the way they were all lovey dovey, and I know it shouldn’t have bothered me but it did. I couldn’t help but feel the only reason why she was still around was because she wasn’t with Paul and wanted to prove to him she could be happy and he was the one who’d lost out.

She didn’t know Paul at all, because he had a one track mind and all he seemed to see was me. It was Thursday afternoon and still Independence Day. Most of us had been up since ten in the morning and when we weren’t sunning our asses next to the perfect pool in the back of the mansion, we were fixing drinks and goofing off.

I finally separated Talia from Gerald and convinced her to walk on the beach with me.

She acquiesced, albeit reluctantly. We walked along in silence for a while.

“Gerald is pretty hot, isn’t he?” she said at length. “He’s got all this money and you would never know it because he is so down to Earth and cool.”

“Well your parents would certainly love him, that’s for sure. I can practically see your mother frothing at the mouth about him being her potential son-in-law.”

“Jesus, Jerrica, who am I kidding?” Talia shook her head. “I can’t marry anyone at the moment and I can ill-afford to be involved, especially with someone who doesn’t possess an artistic bone in their body. I take that back, Gerald learned both the piano and the cello when he was a teen, but it was just to keep him well rounded. He broke his right wrist playing tennis and there went any kind of serious music career. Not that he cared, because his head was firmly placed in the business world. I think he would be able to understand me though, and maybe…maybe he can help me finally forget about Seth.”

I knelt down on the sand and grabbed a beautiful seashell that had washed up along the shoreline. “You know I have always supported you in your decisions and I think it is great you and Gerald are getting along. You don’t plan to do anything with him this weekend, do you?”

“Of course not.” Talia knelt down beside me and grabbed the seashell from my hands to study it. “That wouldn’t exactly endear him to me, now would it? He’s a great conversationalist and we talk about everything. Pop culture, art, film, music…he’s a huge fan of Scarlet Fever and was quite shocked to find out I co-wrote their biggest hit to date. Other than that, there is always finance to talk about but I am completely hopeless on that front.”

“Perhaps he can give you some pointers,” I remarked before we both burst into girlish laughter.

“Oh, and I suppose all your talk with Paul is about financial bullshit as well?”

“No, not really.”

We both stood and I dusted the sand off my knees. “The only time he has ever mentioned the subject was because of Kevin’s issues. Turns out the bastard was doing a little insider trading. Paul and Jude found out about it but didn’t know what to do because they weren’t sure if we were still close or not.”

“I hope you told them they could stick it to him as much as possible. Fucking asshole. After everything he put you through and with what happened in the Hamptons, you don’t owe that bastard anything.”

We set off walking again. “Of course I told them both as much, and Kevin is no longer an employee at CDG. In fact, he’s about to be brought up on charges and these are the kind he can’t wriggle out of so easily.”

“There you two are!”

Talia and I turned at the same time to see Autumn and Savannah walking toward us.

It was so cool for it to be the four of us again and I smiled at them both as they joined us.

“How great is this weekend? Did you check out some of the eye candy on offer?” Autumn threw a loose strand of her platinum hair over her shoulder. “Seriously, girls, it doesn’t get much better than this. Martha’s Vineyard and a house full of hot men. What is a girl to do?”

“Uh oh,” Savannah said. “Do tell who you have your eye on?”

“Cyd Campbell is
hot
but I don’t think he’s interested in me. He keeps giving Ashley the sexy eyes look which certainly doesn’t sit well with Jude. They have been bickering since you two left and we just had to get away. Jesus, you’d think she was some freakin’ goddess or something. First she was with Paul and now Jude. I don’t see that being a long term relationship.”

“It won’t be,” I cut in. “Jude gets bored easily. I am surprised he’s been with her as long as he has. Things just might get sticky after this weekend.”

“I hope they do,” Autumn replied. “I’ve always had a soft spot for Jude you know.”

“God knows why…he’s such a player, Autumn,” Savannah interrupted.

“I think I smell a bit of jealousy,” Talia sing-songed. “Please do not look at me that way and tell me you don’t have a thing for Jerrica’s brother.”

“Gag alert!” I exclaimed. “Seriously, if any of you like my brother like
that
, I sure as hell don’t want to know about it.”

“Then maybe you can understand how cool he’s being about you and Paul and go easier on him,” Talia suggested evenly. “Seriously, Jerrica, I think Jude is being as cool as he can be and you haven’t been exactly one hundred percent behind him. Think about it: Paul is like his brother, and then he finds out you two have feelings for each other? How must he be feeling right now?”

I threw my arms in the air in exasperation. “Well, for one, I didn’t just develop a ‘thing’ for Paul. It has been a long time coming. Second of all, I really do adore Paul and this isn’t a crush or just infatuation. I have loved the guy for as long as I can remember. I had feelings for him way before Kevin even came on to the scene and I thought perhaps if I found a guy that was like him, maybe those feelings would slowly vanish but they never did.”

“Then we want you to be happy, Jerrica,” Savannah said. “We all got sick of the male merry-go-round after Kevin, and if Paul makes you happy then we are all excited for you.”

Talia grabbed Autumn’s hand and then took Savannah’s. “How about a group hug, huh? To seal this friendship and to remind us that we have all been through some relationship troubles but through it all, we have always seen one another through.”

We embraced and for the first time in a long time. I was completely satisfied because I had my friends back, and besides finding a great guy, friendship was definitely at the top of my list.

***

That evening, everything went from bad to worse as far as Jude and Ashley were concerned. By the time we sat down for dinner, she had decided to seat herself next to Cyd and hung on his every word like the vacuous bitch she truly was while Savannah sat next to Jude and discussed men’s clothing.

Paul and I were late for dinner as usual, but it wasn’t because we’d taken the plunge and that is what was starting to drive me crazy. I wanted to be with this man desperately and he teased me to no end but the results were always the same. It was never the right time and I didn’t know how many times I could bitch slap my libido into place before it overtook me completely.

“You two sure did take your sweet time…what were you doing exactly?” Autumn teased.

I swear I would have knocked her sideways if she wasn’t one of my best friends. “We weren’t doing anything except showering and getting dressed. Would you like a detailed agenda?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Ashley said. “When we were together, Paul had a certain technique that
definitely
drives every woman he’s been with crazy…me included. I’m sure he was just trying it out on his new conquest, isn’t that right, Jerrica? It’s not as if you have a great track record with men. How long is this one going to last? A week? A month? Perhaps a bit longer before you get bored and your eyes wander to yet another one of your brother’s friends to fuck?”

“Who do you think it is you’re talking to?” Talia interrupted in an icy voice. “How dare you think you can talk to my friend any way you like?”

“It’s no problem, Tal, I can fight my own battles.” I glared at the icy brunette with the stunning bluer than blue eyes. “And speaking of whores, how many have you been through? First Paul, then Jude, and now you have moved on to Cyd? Damn, woman, as they say in some hip-hop songs, you sure do know how to get around…and around.”

“Don’t you dare act so self-righteous!” Ashley shrieked. “You know nothing about me!”

“I know all I need to know, sweetie, and that is more than enough. You’re nothing but a socialite fishing for a rich husband. What is so sad about your predicament is you don’t even try to hide it. You’re just here trying to see what kind of great deal you can get and if someone better comes along then I pity the guy who falls for you.”

Ashley stood and faced me at the dinner table. “Oh yeah? And what does that make you? Some poor helpless little freak who can’t even have children because Kevin squelched on the money and you had to get that bad abortion at Vassar? You don’t think the whole of high society knows about that? Did Jude act surprised when you told him? What about Paul? Did he cry the required crocodile tears and tell you everything is all right?

“Kevin
used
you, and when he was through with you, he told everyone what happened and why he dumped the great Jerrica Peterson. He said you couldn’t have babies because he made sure to ruin you the way your father ruined his family. And you know what the funny part about the situation is? You fell for that weak game and his even more pitiful charms hook, line, and sinker.”

I stared at the young woman who wore a smirk so wide it almost looked like a smile belonging to The Joker from a
Batman
film. She wasn’t just making this up and everyone in our circle of friends knew about my humiliation at Vassar College?

My face felt so hot, I knew it was scarlet from embarrassment, anger, resentment, and hurt. I swallowed my champagne in a couple of painful gulps, stood, and walked out of the dining room. There was no way I would ever let that cunt see me run but I certainly didn’t have to put up with her company if I didn’t want to.

The first thought in my head when I made it to the suite I shared with Paul was to flee. However, I didn’t bring my car and there was nowhere to go. I was trapped here, at Martha’s Vineyard, with my whole past naked and exposed for the world to see, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

I flung myself on the bed and grabbed a decorative pillow, pushed it to my face, and screamed out my sheer frustration before the tears began to flow like water and there was nothing I could do to stop them.

The door to our suite opened and I felt Paul take me in his arms as I continued to sob. A deluge of emotions had opened up inside me and were flooding to the surface. I couldn’t stop them no matter how hard I tried and I continued to cry like a baby. Gut-wrenching, heart-rending aches of pain and chaos erupted inside of me and although I knew I should have been angry, some part of me felt free. It wasn’t a secret I had to cling to any longer and although that should have made me at least somewhat relieved, all I could absorb at that moment were the rawness of my feelings.

Paul didn’t say a word and allowed me to cry until the tears dried up and there was nothing left to grieve for, including the child I had so callously thrown away, or my own ambivalence about what this would mean about my future in high society with all my friends knowing the miserable truth about me and my shitty past and ruined reputation.

This had all happened because I had crappy taste in men and had chosen someone like Kevin to make special only to assuage the pain of not being able to have the man I wanted. The one whose shoulder I had cried upon and who continued to hold me as if I were the most precious gem in the world.

I wondered if it was possible to fall more in love with Paul than I already felt at that moment.

Chapter Twelve

How could I not fall deeper in love with him than I was already? Yet he still wouldn’t make love to me or touch me for some strange reason. I wanted to share my body with him, not because I was horny, but I needed to feel him and have him inside of me, with me, knowing he felt the same way about me as I felt about him.

“I could make up all kinds of shit right now and tell you Ashley embellished the story or she’s not telling the truth, Jerrica, but both you and I know that isn’t so. I didn’t tell you and neither did Jude, and not because we were ashamed or wanted you to be humiliated the way she did to you. Jude’s known for years how I have felt about you and as far as I was concerned, it was a closed subject.”

Paul cupped my face. “Jerrica, you have always been the woman for me. I told Jude a long time ago I would be willing to lose our friendship to with you. I would be willing to be with you regardless—kids or no kids. Seriously, I have been in love with you from the moment you ran down the stairs with your brown hair in those silly little pigtails, and those eyes…God, I remember your eyes. They were so full of hope and innocence.

“I would do anything to see that again inside you. I want to see you happy and peaceful. I hate that hardness that has etched itself into your gorgeous blue-gray eyes because it simply isn’t you. You’re not that jaded and you aren’t a whore. You slept around, so what? Do you think I care about that? I’m not perfect, and God knows I don’t expect you to be. Please, just give me a chance to prove how much I love you and we can make all of this go away.”

My lips were mere inches from his. I leaned in closer until they touched his and he kissed me gently at first. When my mouth opened and allowed his tongue entry, our kiss turned passionate and my stomach flipped with butterflies. Every part of me ached with the need to be touched and caressed by him.

He had brought me back to life with a kiss and I couldn’t help but think of the beauty in that sentiment. He’d saved me and he didn’t even know it. I loved him all the more for just being there for me. He was the one, and tonight I would prove we were meant to be together forever.

Everywhere Paul’s lips ventured, my skin burned with passion and longing. His lips kissed my jaw then began to devour my neck and collarbone. I threw my head back and allowed him to unzip my modest sundress, his hands supporting my back as his fingers trailed up and down my spine.

I sighed when he finally lowered the straps to reveal my breasts which were slightly paler than my tan. My rosebud colored nipples stood at attention and were ready for his tailored touch to make its mark. He caressed my breasts softly, rubbing the nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, and squeezed hard enough for me to moan.

His mouth covered mine again as I laid back on the bed and his body pressed firmly between my splayed thighs. Working on their own, my hands found his pants, unbuttoning and unzipping his trousers, and found the hardness of his cock which was unencumbered by underwear. I caressed his length and he moaned into mouth before he separated reluctantly.

“Not yet. There is not going to be anything fast about this night. I have been dying to taste you since that day in your office and tonight, you’re going to let me,” he whispered against my neck.

Paul pulled my dress off leaving only my sexy lace thong behind. He rearranged me by pushing me further onto the bed and spread my legs, all the while playing with the sides of my thong. He stripped them from my body unceremoniously and parted my legs as far as he could get them.

His mouth sought out my clit and he sucked hard on it, teasing me with his tongue. He ran the tip over my outer lips before probing my inner lips and tasting me, then he would flick the tip of his tongue over my clit gently yet firmly and I spread my legs as far as they would go.

Two talented fingers worked their way inside me and played with my G-spot while his other fingers splayed my sex like some exotic flower and continued to tongue and caress me.

I could feel myself close to the precipice though I knew this would be one of many orgasms I’d be allowed to have that night. His mouth suckled on my clit again as his fingers caressed my G-spot and that was it, the feeling of pure pleasure at the end of the rainbow. I gasped, my hips rocking back and forth with him as he drew out the orgasm in waves of pleasure I’d never known before. It was the most beautiful and decadent thing anyone had ever done to me.

I lay there naked, my hands caressing my breasts and trying to catch my breath after my explosive orgasm. He crawled toward me and removed my hands, replacing them with his own. Paul’s mouth worked over my right nipple first and I moaned as he licked it before grabbing the nipple between his teeth and pressing gently. The feeling was intense and insane.

He then switched nipples and did the same thing to my left nipple and the sensations that surged through my body couldn’t be explained in words. He knew exactly what to do to turn me on and I was so wet I could feel the juices from my aching sex slide down between my open thighs.

I flipped him onto his back. “My turn.”

It was a complete and utter joy to rid him of his polo shirt and expose the hard, hairless chest which was tanned to perfection. I teased his nipples with my tongue then dipped my mouth lower, between his ribcage and down to his belly button. When my tongue flicked in and out, his six-pack abs shivered with sheer anticipation.

I stopped abruptly and stood over him, naked and wanton, yet not the least bit ashamed. “Do you want me to take your pants off or should you do it?”

Paul maneuvered himself without moving me off his body and removed his pants. His cock was now on display and it was beautiful, long and thick with blue veins that pulsed beneath the surface. The head glistened with pre-cum and he was so hard, it lay flat against his stomach.

It would be so easy for him to be inside me but neither of us were done with foreplay yet.

“I know it is silly but I just want you to know I am clean. I get tested regularly and after my last sexual encounter with Ashley, I had my doctor do a full panel of blood work so I’m safe.”

“Well, with the somewhat promiscuous lifestyle I’ve lived, I couldn’t afford not to be safe, although I did insist all the guys I was with after Kevin used condoms. Latex, not lambskin…except Brandon. Neither of us had one so we barebacked but I have never done that with anyone except those two guys. I was recently tested too and my results were clean. As you know about my little situation, I don’t take birth control since multiple doctors have told me a nun has a better chance of conceiving naturally than I do.”

Now that the whole “safe sex talk” was out of the way, I grabbed his cock and positioned myself so I could tease him with my mouth. I licked the underside of his manhood from scrotum to tip and his breath increased tenfold. I slid the head of his cock into my mouth and suckled, adding much needed pressure.

“Fuck,” Paul murmured softly.

I slowly allowed more and more of his pulsating manhood into my mouth until I had successfully taken in his whole length, and that had not been an easy feat. I had to control my breathing through my nose because the head of his cock was inside my throat. It was definitely an exercise in gag control. Caressing him, I allowed my mouth to work slowly before removing him and then repeating the gesture again, over and over.

His face was scarlet and I knew he was close. I stopped teasing him and slipped him completely out of my mouth, then I tongued his balls and teased his perineum with my very talented tongue.

Paul grabbed me and threw me on my back, my legs spread, and his warm, hard body fit perfectly between them. He teased my inner lips with the head of his cock before he slowly entered me. He kept sliding just a few inches inside of me before pulling out. The act itself was sheer torture and every time he gave me a few more inches, I bucked my hips to try to gain more but he was too quick and agile.

Finally, he plunged his whole length inside of me and the exquisite pleasure followed by a dull ache and yet even more pleasure was too much to take. His thrusts were well timed, deep and meant for maximum pleasure and effect. The feel of our flesh, both inside and out, pressing against one another was a sheer joy that couldn’t be described. My wildest dreams hadn’t pictured such a perfect scenario.

He sat up and threw my legs on top on his shoulders, sliding inside me again and again, speeding up with just enough friction that I felt like my whole body was going to come unglued, then he would slow down and the torture was beautiful and exquisite.

This lasted for more time than I could remember before he pulled out of me and laid down on his back. “Come on, ride my pony, babe.”

I laughed and climbed on top of him and he guided his cock inside me again. I began to really enjoy the give and take between the two of us. It was maddening in its intensity and because I got to control the pace, I rode his cock harder and harder. I teased him ever more viciously, sliding his length inside me before I gyrated my hips and squeezed down on my Kegel muscles against his hardness.

“Christ, you keep doing that and I am going to come. I have held out for as long as I possibly could but you’re driving me insane,” he whispered.

I leaned over and kissed him again. It was soul-stealing, spell-binding, passionate kiss, and as our tongues mingled I knew I was close too, especially since his right thumb had found my clit and caressed me deeply and seductively.

Our back and forth play lasted until I could ride him no more and with a final squeeze of my muscles around his cock, he pushed down and caressed my clit with an intensity I’d never felt before and I came in a shock wave of emotions.

My whole body seemed to light up with a mixture of fire and ice and I held on to the feeling as long as possible as we both rode out our orgasms in a mixture of satisfaction and defeat. If we could have made it last any longer we would have but we were as emotionally spent as our bodies were physically.

Paul sat up and with my body close to his, my naked breasts pressed against his chest as I rested my head on his shoulders, we basked in the afterglow of mind-blowing sex. A moment like this could never be adequately described with words. We rested against each other and closed our eyes.