Page 29

Chapter

Fifteen

“I told you,” Alannah whispered in such a broken voice that it gutted him.

Jake had been so sure it was working. He could feel pleasure building inside her, it was plain to see on her flushed face and hear in her breathy moans, then all of a sudden it had vanished.

What her parents had done to her had messed with Alannah’s head in more ways than he’d realized.

And he wasn't sure he could help her find a way to undo it.

There was nothing he wouldn't do to help her, but in the end, she had to be the one to finally shrug off the way her parents had seen her and truly see herself.

That was her problem. When Alannah looked at herself, she didn't see the strong, vibrant, resilient, sunshiny woman who would go out of her way to help a person in need.

Instead, she saw a baby not wanted by its parents, one they were constantly putting up against her sister, and then criticizing all the ways they didn't think she measured up.

She saw the girl who could never do anything right, who never got any time or affection, who lived in old second-hand clothes discarded by their golden child.

She saw the girl who was made to do all the chores around the house, who was punished for any imperfect grade at school, who wasn't allowed to have hobbies because they cost money that should go to the child they loved.

She saw a failure because even her own parents didn't want to love her.

How did he help her see herself as the woman she really was?

The woman he saw her to be.

“Don’t give up, sunshine,” he told her, holding her in place by gripping her hips with both of his hands when she tried to move out from underneath him.

One of his hands shimmered with the evidence of how close she’d been to letting go and allowing herself to have the pleasure she so badly deserved.

“We tried, it failed. I failed,” she added as though that was how she truly saw it.

Alannah had never been allowed to have time for fun as a child unless she was able to get away from her parents.

Their cruel words and heartless attitudes to their second daughter had damaged her deeply, and he so badly wanted to help her heal those wounds.

“We didn't fail,” he corrected. “We had a little bump in the road, but that’s okay, we can just try again.” As far as he was concerned, he’d spend the rest of the day if that was what it took touching her until she finally let go of the barriers she’d built and let pleasure flood in.

Those barriers were built with every nasty word her parents had ever said to her, every time they’d denied her comfort when she was hurt, scared, or sad, every time they’d told her she would never live up to her sister and that she would never amount to anything.

Dismantling those thick walls would take time, but right now they had oodles of it.

“Try again?” Alannah gave a derisive laugh that was nothing like her normal, beautiful, light-giving one.

“Why not?”

“Because this is embarrassing enough, I don’t want to keep proving to my best friend over and over again that I am truly broken.”

Hearing her call him her best friend rankled in a way it never had before. It was true, of course, and he didn't want that to change, and yet at the same time, he would never have offered this if he didn't want something to change.

Tears shimmered in Alannah’s eyes. Combined with the glow of the fire, it made them seem like pools of pure gold.

That was exactly how he saw this woman, as a precious metal who deserved everything good in the world.

It wasn't that she wasn't good enough for her parents, it was that they had never deserved her.

She was too good for them. Too good for him.

“No, sunshine,” he said firmly as he moved so he completely covered her.

While he made sure he didn't crush her with his much bigger body, he did allow a little of his weight to press onto her, reminding her in every way he could that she wasn't alone.

He was right there, and he wanted to help her overcome the burdens her parents had unfairly saddled her with.

Wide eyes looked up at him and she sucked in a breath at his proximity.

There was no way for him to hide the evidence of how beautiful he saw her, how turned on he was watching her as pleasure built inside her, it was nestled between her legs, and if she was willing to try again, he’d do everything he could to give her what she deserved no matter how hard it made him.

“You are not broken. Say it.”

Those wide eyes seemed to somehow widen further. “S-say it?”

“You heard me. Tell me. Tell me everything amazing about you, how you are the complete opposite of broken.”

“I'm … I don’t … what am I supposed to say?”

Balancing his weight with one arm, his hand claimed one of her breasts, tweaking the nipple and making it pebble.

“Tell me how beautiful you are, inside and out. Tell me how smart you are, building an entire business on your own. Tell me how much you care for people, that you volunteer at the homeless shelter, that you donate to charities, that you’ve given people the shirt off your back because they needed it more than you. ”

“Wh-what does that have to do with anything?”

“How could a woman who does all those things be broken. You are not what your parents tried to make you. They tried to crush you, but you were too strong for that. All you have to do is finally believe once and for all that everything they said about you, to you, it’s all untrue. Lies. Can we try again?”

Her tongue dipped out and dragged along her bottom lip, making him groan. At the sound, a small smile quirked up the corners of her mouth. “We can try again.”

“Can I make love to you, sunshine? I'm clean, never gone bare before, and I think you're on birth control.” That hadn't been his original plan, he’d thought his mouth and fingers would be enough, but she needed to feel all of him so there could be no doubt how hard she made him.

“Y-you want t-to?”

Annoyed that she asked it like there was any doubt, he shifted so he could grind his erection against her bare center, making her gasp. “Any doubts about that?”

When she shook her head, he raised an eyebrow at her, silently asking for an answer to his question. He could tell she was considering it, but he had no clue what her answer was going to be until she gave a small nod.

“Words, sunshine.” The only way they were doing this was if she gave her express permission.

“Okay. I'm clean and I am on birth control. I want you to … make love to me.”

Shoving down his pants, he didn't hesitate. Alannah was already wet, ready for him, and the more time he gave her to think, the more she was going to try to talk herself out of this. One thrust was all it took to bury himself deep inside her, and she gasped as he filled her.

“Look at me,” he ordered. She needed to see that this was him, see the truth in his eyes, know that he didn't think she was broken.

Dinted and damaged, yes, but never broken.

Honestly, Jake didn't even think it was possible to break this woman. She was too damn strong for that. Even after everything she’d been through over the last several days, she was still there, trusting him in the most intimate of ways.

Her big, golden-brown eyes locked onto his, and he allowed everything he felt for her, all the admiration and awe, to shine through.

Reaching between them, he took her bud between his thumb and forefinger and rolled it, making her moan, her internal muscles quivering around him.

“Say it,” he ordered.

“Say what?”

“That you're not broken. That there is nothing wrong with you. That you're holding yourself back, preventing yourself from feeling the pleasure you deserve, that you were never what your parents told you you were.”

“I-I'm not b-broken.”

“Like you mean it this time.” No longer holding himself still, he rocked his hips, pulling back and then thrusting into her again. “You.” Thrust. “Are.” Thrust. “Not.” Thrust. “Broken. Say it.”

“I'm not broken,” she said, stronger this time.

“Again.” Jake picked up the pace, thrusting harder, faster, his fingers working her bundle of nerves with every single one.

“I'm not broken.”

“Again.” She was close, he could feel it. Her body was wound tight, now all she had to do was let herself detonate.

“I'm not broken.” Alannah roared the words out into the quiet, peaceful little island, and he pressed hard against her bud, and finally got the response he’d been hoping and praying for.

Letting go of the old bonds, Alannah set herself free.

Her internal muscles clamped around him, and she cried out her release as she let herself fly high, taking every drop of pleasure she deserved.

Not letting up, Jake continued to thrust and never stopped touching her bundle of nerves, prolonging her orgasm for as long as he could, and then, when he felt it waning, he picked up the pace, working her toward a second.

Crushing his mouth to hers, he kissed her like he’d been dreaming about when they were on the yacht.

She tasted sweet, like something he’d never experienced before, and as he shoved her into a second orgasm, succumbing to his own, Jake wondered how he was going to move forward with his life, never getting another taste of her.

Or if he even wanted to.

October 19 th

6:42 P.M.

This was crazy.

How could she be stuck on a deserted island, with no means of getting off, scared about the future and what it held for her and Jake, and yet at the same time feeling so amazingly free and light inside?

It was like a burden she had been carrying had suddenly been taken off her, and it was wonderful.