After Simon prepared their food, he disappeared for the night, advising them he’d be back in the morning to fix them breakfast whenever they were ready, but to call if they needed anything before.
She could use a Simon in her life.
They ate out on the terrace overlooking the water. The sun had set, the moon rising and casting a silver glow across the water. And it was still warm outside. Tara lifted her glass of wine and took a sip.
“Does it bother you when I have a drink?”
Mick lifted his glass of mineral water. “No. Why should it?”
“Just wondered if you miss it.”
“Alcohol? Not really. It’s not good for me and I can’t handle it. But it doesn’t bother me to see other people drink it.”
“I can drink water or tea.”
He laughed and picked up her hand, kissed the back of it. “Thanks, babe. But there’s no reason you can’t enjoy a glass of wine. To be honest, I don’t even think about what you’re drinking. I’m too busy looking at your hair or your mouth or your tits or thinking about how great it was to fuck your ass today.”
She shook her head. “Such a guy.”
He waggled his brows. “Would you have me any other way?”
“No.”
“Okay then. Quit worrying about it.”
She did. They finished their meal and Tara stopped worrying about doing dishes. Though she still insisted on taking them inside and putting them in the sink, even though Mick laughed at her when she did.
“How about a walk on the beach?” Mick suggested.
“Great idea. That dinner was fabulous. I need to walk it off.”
Mick took her hand and led her out onto the beach. Tara inhaled the salty air and wondered how she was ever going to go back to the reality that was her life after spending a weekend at this idyllic paradise with a man like Mick.
“Tomorrow I thought we’d play some football on the beach.”
She snorted and leaned against him. “Trying to put me on the disabled list so I can’t work?”
“The thought crossed my mind. I’d have to keep you here on the island until you were well enough to travel.”
“I’d be at your mercy, day and night. I’m a slow healer, too.”
“How convenient. So how long do you think we could hold out here? A few months?”
She nodded. “At least.”
“That’d be tough.”
“You’d miss the start of the season.”
“Someone would have to do your job for you and handle all those headaches.”
She laughed. “Yeah, that would be a hardship.”
He put his arm around her and tugged her close. “Nice to dream, isn’t it?”
“This is paradise, Mick. I don’t know how people ever leave it.”
“Some might miss television and phones and Internet.”
“I don’t watch that much television anyway. I’m always on the phone at work, and it drives me crazy. And the only time I’m on the Internet is for work purposes. Getting away from it all here has been wonderful.” She stopped and stepped in front of him, the ocean waves sifting sand and water over her feet and ankles. “Thank you for this. It’s been the most amazing trip.”
He tipped her chin with his fingers. “I thought you might enjoy it. And it’s a nice break for me, too, before the craziness of the season starts up. I’ve never done the whole tropical island getaway, and when I saw it on the bid list, I thought of you and me and knew I had to win it.”
“Did you?” She couldn’t hide her grin.
“Yeah.”
He kissed her, a slow, sensual kiss that made her slide her toes into the sand and lean against him to hold on because she was getting dizzy. With Mick, she lost her senses, which was both a good and a bad thing.
She moved beside him again and they walked, not talking. She found she could be comfortable just being with him and not saying a word, though that tended to get her mind to working, and she thought about being here with him this weekend and what it all meant.
Total fantasy. Nothing real about it. Everything with Mick since the beginning had been built on fantasy. Dream dates and wishes and over-the-top fantasies come true. He was everything she’d ever dreamed of in a man, and everything she’d never dreamed was real. But what scared her about the two of them was the possibility that, like the fantasy of this weekend, there was no reality involved in it, nothing tangible to hold on to once the fantasy wore off.
Soon his football season would start, and he’d be so intensely involved in playing that he wouldn’t have time for her. And her business was taking off. She was getting more and more involved, her bookings were picking up, and she barely had time to see to Nathan’s needs. Once fall came he’d have games she’d need to attend, plus making sure he handled his schoolwork.
Where was there going to be time for a romantic relationship in both their schedules?
Maybe it was time to start seeing the reality of what she and Mick had together. It was a fun summer fling, and that’s all it was ever going to be. The sooner she came to grips with that, the better off she’d be. Before something stupid happened and she fell madly in love with him and started thinking they’d have a future together.
She’d had her heart broken once, and she wasn’t going to let it happen again.
Mick seemed to enjoy spending time with her, and okay, he seemed to like spending time with
only
her. But that didn’t mean anything. Men’s thought processes were utterly different from women’s. And men were inherently lazy, which meant that she was just easy to be with for the summer.
Wow, Tara, could you insult yourself any more with this thought process?
She hadn’t meant to, and she knew what she was thinking sounded bad, but it wasn’t what she meant. She and Mick got along great, they had fun together, their chemistry was smoking-hot, so why wouldn’t they be together? She wasn’t a demanding actress or model who needed to be seen and photographed and taken to events. She was fine doing whatever he wanted to do, and Nathan hero worshipped him, so there wasn’t even a problem with her kid.
Yeah, right. There’d been a huge problem when her kid had gotten drunk. And Mick had stepped in like a champion. How could a guy who wanted nothing more than sex from her have gotten so involved like he had with Nathan?
Maybe he was just a nice guy. No reason to read any more into it than what it was.
She was kind of the best summer fling he could have, right? And she’d made it pretty clear she wasn’t trying to put hooks into him, which would make leaving when his season started easy enough for him to do.
There was nothing holding him to her. Nothing holding her to him.
It was the perfect relationship.
So why didn’t it feel so perfect right now?
“You’ve been quiet.”
She lifted her gaze to his and offered up a smile. “Just enjoying the remarkable scenery.”
“You’re remarkable scenery. To hell with the ocean, the palm trees, and the sand.”
He drew them away from the water and dropped to the sand, pulling her down on top of him.
She laughed. “You’re pretty good for my ego.”
“Yeah, they’re paying me to boost you up a little.”
She arched a brow. “They? Who are they?”
He put his fingers to his lips. “I can’t tell you. It’s a secret. But trust me, they have your best interests in mind by hiring me on to give you a little lift.”
She laughed and pushed on his chest, lifting herself up to a sitting position. She slid her fingers under his shirt, loving the warmth she found when her skin met his. “So how much will I have to torture you to get the truth out of you?”
He laced his fingers behind his head. “Give it your best shot.”
She unbuttoned his shirt, pulled it aside, and splayed her fingers out over his chest.
“Holding me down to get the truth out of me?” he asked.
She didn’t answer and instead let her fingers drift over his ribs, down his stomach and even lower, dipping into his shorts to search for his cock. He lifted when she tugged on his shorts and removed them, tossing them to the side.
“Now I’m at your mercy.”
“So you are,” she said, taking his cock between her hands. She stroked him from base to tip, a slow slide of her hands, enjoying the feel of his cock hardening as she touched him.
“That’s torture.”
She smiled down at him. “Ready to give up your secrets?”
“No.”
She swirled her thumb over the crest of his cock, using the fluid that had gathered there to lubricate her movements. His eyes were locked onto what she was doing, but she was watching his face, his sharp breaths when she gripped him hard, the way his nostrils flared when she rolled both hands over his cock. She kept her gaze focused on his face as she bent down and licked his cock head, curling her tongue around his shaft, then dragging it down the underside. She licked his balls and he lifted, moaned, and sat up, spread his legs.
“Christ, that’s good, Tara.”
She rolled her tongue over the sac, putting each in her mouth, wanting to taste him everywhere before putting his cock in her mouth and drawing his shaft deep inside. She went down on him, letting him watch his cock disappear between her lips. She felt him shudder, loved that she made him weak the way he made her weak when he made love to her, wanted to take him right to the brink and over it. She held on to the base of his shaft and increased the suction as she brought him to the back of her throat, then eased up on the pressure, establishing a rhythm that had him grasping her hair and thrusting into her mouth with swift, hard strokes.
She laid her hand on his thigh and felt the dampness of perspiration, knew he held back, so she swept her hand along his shaft and fluttered her tongue across the soft head.
“Yeah. Oh, yeah. Dammit, that’s going to make me come. I’m going to come in your mouth, Tara.”
She hummed against his shaft, needing him to let her have it all.
He arched into her mouth and groaned, then tightened his hold on her hair as he let go, spurting hot come into her mouth. She held him there, swallowing what he gave her as he rocked against her, his entire body quaking with the force of his orgasm. She finally released his cock when he fell back against the sand.
“Damn,” was all he said.
Tara laid her head on his stomach, listening to the wild beat of his pulse, the upward rise and fall of his breaths while he smoothed his hand over her hair.
She lifted her head and gazed up at him. “Ready to give up your secrets to me?”
He laughed, raised his head. “Secrets? What secrets?”
“Damn you.” She picked up sand and rubbed it in his stomach. He lunged for her, but she screamed, jumped up, and ran, Mick on her heels. She knew she didn’t have a chance, and he was on her in seconds, tossing her to the ground. She squealed with laughter when he tackled her.
“Not fair,” she yelled as he pulled her under him, the top of her dress now around her waist. She didn’t care. “Your profession gives you an advantage.”
“Quit whining.” He grabbed sand and rubbed it between her breasts. She fisted a handful of sand and rubbed it in his hair. By the time they were through rolling around in the wet sand, Tara was convinced there was more of it on them than on the beach.
“Okay, enough,” Mick said, spitting sand out of his mouth.
Tara giggled and Mick pulled her up, threw her over his shoulder, and headed for their bungalow.
He turned on the shower while Tara stripped off her dress. They stepped into the oversized shower together and she laughed as Mick turned around. He had sand on his face, in his hair, and chunks of it hung on various parts of his body.
“Do I look as bad as you do?”
He brushed sand off her shoulders. “Probably.”
They lathered up and washed—rather thoroughly, since sand had gotten everywhere. Tara was thankful for the jets on both sides of the shower, and for the removable shower head, since she ended up with sand in uncomfortable spots of her body.
“Well, that was like a spa treatment,” she said once she’d rinsed the sand out of every possible crevice. “But my skin is utterly smooth now.”
Mick rinsed his face and turned to her. “Is that right? I think I should double-check to make sure you got all the sand out.”
Tara arched a brow, then held her arms out. “Inspect away.”
He turned her around and smoothed his hands over her shoulders and arms, then down her back. “Looks good here. Turn around.”
She did, and he locked his gaze with hers as he swept his fingers through her wet hair, letting his fingertips trail over her nose and across her lips. He bent and brushed his lips across hers. “Tastes sand-free.”
She sighed when he ran his tongue over her lips, slid between her teeth to taste her tongue before pulling away.
“No sand on your tongue.”
She laughed.
Her breath caught when he rolled his thumbs over her breasts, then caught her hips with his hands. “Yes, very smooth here, but I need to take a closer look down here.”
He dropped to his knees. “Spread your legs, honey.”
She did, bracing against the side of the shower when he leaned forward, his tongue snaking out to lick along the folds of her pussy. She tilted her head back and let the water fall over her face and hair, the heat and steam only adding to the pressure building deep inside her as Mick sucked on her clit.
She gasped when he slid his tongue inside her. He raised her leg and rested it over his shoulder, opening her further to him.
“Smooth, sweet, so soft here. He slipped a finger inside her, fucking her with gentle strokes while he lazily drew circles around her clit with his tongue.
It was the soft and easy that took her right to the edge—and over, shocking her that it was so quick. She gasped when she came, rocking against him while he held tight to her, making sure she wouldn’t fall as she rode out a delicious orgasm.