“I’m full of surprises, Mr. Wright. You should pay attention.”
“Joely. Joely, damn it you have to stop.”
She lifted her mouth, gasping when his tongue flicked her clit again. As soon as she started to touch him things had gotten out of control. Now they were both on the floor of the cave, her body draped over his, her mouth on his erection and his doing deliciously wicked things between her thighs.
“
You’re
not stopping,” she moaned, licking the tip of his shaft. “Why should I—Oh, Austin, don’t stop.”
He bit the inside of her thigh and grunted in frustration. “It’s your fault. I’m a starving castaway and you taste like paradise. But if you don’t stop sucking my cock I’m going to come, and I’m not ready for this to end. I need to be inside you.”
God, she loved a strong man, she thought hazily when he lifted her off of him, reaching for her again almost immediately to lower her onto her back. It made her dizzy. Happy. “You can’t fling me around like a doll and expect me to do whatever you want just because you have a talented tongue and pretty eyes, buddy. You’re not the boss of me.”
Austin was already sliding a condom on his thick erection. When had he reached for the box? “You like my eyes?”
He lowered himself between her thighs and reached for her wrists, holding them trapped above her head. When she wrapped her legs around his waist impatiently, he groaned, “What do you want, Joely? What’s your fantasy?”
She tightened her legs around him. “You tell me, Professor. It’s your dream.”
“My dream is all about you, baby. Giving you what you want.”
Her eyes fluttered closed when he pressed his lips softly to hers, sensual lips seducing her with the taste of her own arousal. His mouth muted her long, low cry when his hips started pressing forward, his cock stretching her sex almost to the point of pain.
Oh God. This was real. This wasn’t a dream. She could have caught her breath if this were a dream. She turned her head to gasp for air. “Austin. Fuck.”
“I know,” he rasped through gritted teeth. “I knew the moment I saw you you’d be—
Joely
, baby, you feel so good.”
She bent her knees, lifting her legs higher on his back and tilting her hips to take more of him, and they both moaned in reaction. The fists gripping her wrists tightened as he fought for control, sinking into her slowly. Too slowly for her peace of mind.
“So you dream about torture?” she asked shakily.
Austin’s smile was hard. “I’m not going to rush this. No matter how badly I want to lose myself in oblivion, no matter how tightly your sweet pussy grips my cock, I’m going to make this last. You deserve to be savored, Joely Jones. And this…” His hips rocked forward another inch. “Fuck, I’ve waited so long. I never want it to end.”
Joely lifted her head off the floor and scraped her teeth against his chin, groaning when he thrust deeper in response. She couldn’t move enough to tempt him into quickening his pace. He held her arms and he was covering her body with his own. But his words had made her helpless.
You deserve to be savored…
Her reaction to him wasn’t something she could explain away with the insanity of the day. It wasn’t the whiskey she was drunk on—it was him. This moment. The rest of the world, the island…everything else disappeared and there was only this. His hips pressed against hers as he filled her completely, his face buried in her neck as he whispered her name.
This was what Miranda was talking about. Why Vardalos waited. Why her plane always had passengers desperately clutching invitations. Not sex. It was more than that. So much more it scared her.
And then Austin started to move inside her and she couldn’t think of anything but that.
More.
“Oh my God.”
“Joely.” He pressed his lips to her cheek, his breath coming in rough bursts. “I’ve got to…let me…”
He could do anything he wanted, as long as he didn’t stop. She whimpered when he released her wrists and slid his hands under her knees to lift her legs over his shoulders. The move raised her hips off the ground and she felt him sink deeper inside her. So big. So deep. “Oh!”
“Yes,” he whispered fiercely, his hands dropping down by her shoulders, his hips pumping faster against her, as if he couldn’t help himself. “Fuck yes, that’s it, baby. That look in your eyes, that’s what I see every damn night when I turn off the lights. I see those soft lips part and hear you crying out my name. Begging me to make you mine.”
“Harder,” she dared him breathlessly. “Austin, please.”
“
Joely
.”
The sound of skin slapping together as he lost his grip on his control echoed in the cave, joining the sounds of pleasure she couldn’t hold inside as he took her, claimed her the way she needed him to. Her body was on fire for him. She never wanted it to end.
“Yes,” she moaned, her nails digging into his arms. “Don’t stop, Austin. In me so deep…don’t stop.”
“Joely…God, I can’t. I can’t stop. I never want to stop.”
Whispered promises and ragged groans filled the cave as she climbed higher and higher, her body reaching, yearning, desperate to reach the top. She’d never been this high before unless she was flying. Never wanted anything so badly as she wanted to stay here like this. No tomorrow. No doubts. Just need.
“Austin!”
“I can feel how close you are. Are you going to come for me, baby?” His deep voice was harsh with restraint.
“Yes,” she promised, knowing he could feel her whole body straining against his, her heels digging into his back. “So deep. Don’t stop. I’m coming.
Oh God, Austin
.”
“Joely!” He called out her name as he came with her, both of them shattering against each other like waves breaking on the island. Falling apart. Falling together.
She was falling. Lost.
She knew she was crying because she could feel the tears on her cheeks and the wall paintings lit by the flickering candlelight were blurred.
It didn’t matter that I ripped it up, did it? You were determined to give me my fantasy.
With her body still glowing and trembling with aftershocks, and taking comfort in the feel of Austin pulling her into his arms, Joely tried to ready herself for what was coming. The other shoe. She knew fantasies like this ended when the guests went home. And they all left Eden in the end.
Someday Joely might be the only one left.
Her body told her mind to stop ruining the moment and she snuggled against Austin’s warm body, listening to his heart. She wasn’t alone at the moment. She needed to enjoy it while it lasted.
“I usually wake up before this, so I’m not sure if I’m supposed to tell you how I’m feeling right now.”
She smiled at his words. “I think we just cuddle in communal silence.”
“Are you certain?” Austin’s fingers threaded through her hair. “I’m not one of those guys who rolls over and falls asleep after having the best sex of my life, in case you were wondering. I like to think about it. Talk about it. Recreate it multiple times throughout the night, to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.”
“So this is what afterglow with the Professor feels like. I always wondered.”
He tugged a strand of her hair playfully. “Joely, before this goes any further I have to tell you—”
“Hush.” She raised her head and looked into his eyes. “You don’t have to tell me anything. I mean it. Post-coital confessions are highly overrated. In Eden, you get a free pass. Now, unless you’re ready for that recreation, you should just stroke my hair and celebrate your success.”
Austin’s smile was beautiful. “I knew you loved it.”
“I was sure my screaming gave it away.”
“I can’t be sure of anything with you, Joely. It took four trips to the island and getting stranded just to get you to notice me as anything other than a guest.”
No. It didn’t. “Maybe four is your lucky number.”
His hand slid down to her hip. “Well then I know what I need to aim for tonight.”
Her skin started to tingle. “That’s ambitious. I suppose I could help. For science.”
“Do you doubt me?” He laughed. “I’m not
that
much older than you. Just for that I might have to break into Ginger’s necessity bag and steal something to tease you with in between the repeat performances.”
Her cheeks heated. He noticed. “You’re in trouble now, Joely. Fair warning, this has just begun.”
She knew.
She couldn’t fall back to sleep. Her dreams had been fragmented and confusing, and since she’d opened her eyes she couldn’t stop herself from watching Austin sleep.
What had the man done to her? She thought about the hours before they’d fallen into an exhausted heap and bit her lip. What
hadn’t
he done was the better question. She was devastated. Destroyed. He’d been merciless and tireless and…she’d loved every second of it. They’d both gotten progressively more daring, more aggressive as the night went on. That last time… Joely blushed, thinking of the things he’d said to her while she sat astride his lap and his fingers pressed the pilfered plug deeper into her ass as she rode him.
“Knew you could take this. You could take us both, baby,” he’d moaned against her nipple. “Would you like that? I know you would. I saw how you reacted to his game. Tasted in on my tongue. I can give you what you want, Joely. I have to. I’m addicted now, baby. Wrapped around your finger. I thought I had everything mapped out, but now all I can think about is making you come again, feeling you gripping me so tight.”
God, what was he saying? Was he asking her to…with
both
of them?
Her orgasm had been blinding, her head filled with images of Court and Austin taking turns. Sharing her.
She reached up and tied her hair in a sloppy knot to get it out of her face, reaching again for the only thing that could distract her from Austin. And sex with Austin. And Austin mentioning sex with Court.
The pilot’s journal.
Sitting naked on a cave floor reading the pages of a journal that was over seventy years old by the light of a scented sex candle was a little surreal. But the man who’d leapt from the pages of the diary made her forget everything else and focus on the story.
He’d been a private pilot for a family with royal connections after the war. He loved his job, but not as much as he loved his boss’s daughter. Their relationship was as impossible as it was clichéd, but he was young and stubborn and he knew a secret given to him by a trusted, if eccentric old commander—coordinates to an island rich with treasure.
His lover begged him not to go. Told him money didn’t matter to her and neither did her family’s consent. But the pilot’s pride sent him soaring off into the sky and straight into a storm to prove his worth. A strange storm he could not maneuver around had brought his plane down. He’d found the island, but the price was high. He was alone with no way to get his plane off the ground again. He was lost.
For weeks he was sure he was going to die with his true love never knowing he was sorry. And wrong. There was no treasure on the island. No gold or silver. No pirate’s booty or secret Nazi cache.
It was the island itself that was the prize, he soon realized. When he needed something, it appeared as if by magic. Food. Fresh water. Shelter from a sudden storm. And dreams. So many wonderful dreams that kept him hoping he would see his heart’s desire again.
“This must be the Garden,” Joely read his words in a whisper. “From the bible stories I read as a child. Lost to man for all our faults. I have never seen such beauty, or felt so close to heaven. It is perfect here in every way but one…I am an Adam without his Eve.”
He’d called it Eden too. Joely couldn’t help but smile at that as she read on. When he realized what the island could do, he spent the rest of his days focusing on what he truly wanted. Even when he decided to go exploring and made his map, he took something with him to remind him of her. He imagined being rescued and showing up on her doorstep so many times he could smell the flowers she kept on the windowsill and feel her tears on his cheeks as she welcomed him home.
When she reached the last page, Joely could feel tears on her cheeks as well.
I saw her again last night. The same dream as before.
She’s leaning against the railing of a large freighter ship.
A red scarf flies behind her as she waves to me where I stand on the shore.
Is my mind deceiving me? Am I foolish to hope?
How would she know where to look? After the way I left, why would she try?
I have no other choice. If there is a chance to see her again,
I will stand on the shore until the tide carries me away.
If I can hold her once more and hand her my heart,
I will carry the secret of this island’s treasure to my grave in thanks.
“Joely? Baby, what’s wrong?”
Austin knelt beside her and wrapped his arms around her. She hadn’t heard him. She’d been too lost in the story. “Nothing. Nothing is wrong. He survived, Austin. The island brought her to him.”
He looked over her shoulder, reading the last page in silence. “How do you know it wasn’t just a dream?”
“Eden dreams aren’t ordinary. It’s not her style.” She shrugged. “And I know. The same way I knew I would meet your friend Theo and come to the island with him. The way I knew Eden would be my first and last real home. The way I know that, for some reason, no one is looking for us. I don’t think they know we’re missing.” She shook her head in confusion. “I’m not sure how that’s possible.”
The arms around her tensed. “What else do you know?”
She knew it usually made people uncomfortable when she talked too much about what she could do. “I don’t know everything, and I can’t read thoughts, thank goodness. I don’t know how you were injured. Or why you’ve come to Eden so many times. I don’t know if Vardalos’ new ladylove is going to like me popping over to go swimming or watch movies, and I’m not sure if he would let me build a place here, on the other side of the water from this cave. A girl can dream, but I can’t be sure.”