Page 33

CHAPTER 32

GRADY

J ill had been so excited to get me out there, with my folks, on the island where I’d spent so many good summers. It stung to see that enthusiasm drain out of her.

No, get sucked out of her, by my father’s single-pointed obsession.

But it wasn’t just his obsession. We’d shared the goal of captain since I’d put on my first pair of skates, since I’d picked up my first hockey stick.

After dinner we sat around the living room, listening to Lexi regale us with stories from her physical therapy internship. Jill’s eyes had gone wide more than once and I had to keep reminding everyone she hadn’t been an athlete; for her, it wasn’t quite as easy to understand why someone would want to put themselves through Lexi’s torture just to get back to the sport they loved.

No one questioned how much torture I’d endure for hockey. Not even Jill. Because we all knew there was no limit. Whether that was a good thing or not, it was the truth.

“Come on,” I said to her, eyeing the clock. “We’ve got time for a little island tour before we have to catch our ferry.”

Jill’s eyes lit up, and the sight of it hit me straight in the chest. It had gotten to the point where I was okay if she was okay, and the other way around seemed just as true. After a day with my family, I thought we could both use a little time to ourselves.

“The keys are on the hook,” my mom called with a smirk on her face as I led Jill toward the side door.

“Keys to what?” she asked as we popped out onto the gravel driveway.

“To this bad boy,” I said, pointing to a pumpkin orange golf cart.

Jill shook her head, her smile wide in the spotlight off the porch. “Seriously?”

“Hop in, hot stuff.” We had plenty of time, but I was eager to get some space between me and the mountain of expectations on the other side of that door.

Jill climbed in beside me and I turned the key, the loud, long tone was the only sound as I backed it out onto the road.

“I’ve never ridden in a golf cart,” she said, wiggling closer to me on the bench seat as she took a hold of the handle in front of her.

“You’re in for a real treat then,” I joked, feeling like I might have built this experience up a little too much. But the minute we got going, the sand crunching beneath the tires of the nearly silent cart, and the wind in Jill’s hair, I changed my mind. This was exactly the kind of moment I was looking for.

“The stars,” she sighed, leaning to look out the front of the cart.

“Pretty great, right?”

She looked back at me, her eyes gleaming. “It’s gorgeous, Grady.”

No. She was gorgeous. Everything about her was more beautiful, more inspiring, more impossibly alluring the more time I spent with her. I was never sure of what she was going to say or do, but I knew it would make me laugh, or smile, or think like I never had before.

Even that night, shucking corn beside me as my mother went on about island gossip, Jill had taken it all in. I knew she’d think she was awkward or too quiet or some other messed up criticism she’d gotten from Asshole or society or god knows where. But she’d been exactly what I needed. In that moment, she’d been the one thing I knew I could rely on. And I realized that maybe in my whole life, I’d never had that. Not really.

My family loved me. I didn’t doubt that. But it was different. I’d kept so much from them over the years. But I’d kept next to nothing from Jill. And in a matter of weeks she’d shown me who she was, while letting me be the most honest version of myself I’d ever shared with anyone.

The waves grew louder as I took a turn off the main road and the coast rolled out, rocky and wet to our right, the mist from the tide as it crashed against the boulders landing on my skin. It felt cool, and the salty tang hit my lips like a shot of electricity.

When we came to the backside of the island the houses thinned out and I turned the golf cart into a sandy pull-off, a worn footpath between a boulder and some high sea grass leading down to the rocky shore.

“Come on.” I hopped out, rounding the back of the cart and holding out my hand. Jill took it with a curious look on her face and I guided her by the moonlight down onto the tiny cove.

“Great place to hide a body,” she murmured, humor lifting her words and making me laugh.

“Don’t tell Joey.”

Jill stopped short, laughing so hard she bent forward before she regained herself.

“I’ll try to not be worried at how amusing that idea was to you.” I sniffed, hiding just how much I loved seeing her like that. Jill had been on edge all afternoon, no matter how hard she’d tried to hide it. So, to see her come loose was a relief for both of us.

“Don’t worry,” she cooed, patting my shoulder as she stepped onto the rock with me. “He’s not mad anymore. I could tell at brunch the other day. You’re good.”

I was good so long as I didn’t hurt her. I knew the rules. Hell, I agreed with them. But Joey would never understand just how impossible it would be for me to hurt his sister. Not with how I felt about her. Not with how much I . . .

“Is that the Big Dipper?” Jill asked, her head tilted all the way back as she surveyed the blanket of stars overhead.

I swallowed past the tightness in my throat, looking up with her. “I think so.”

She turned, her hands landing on my chest as she lowered her voice. “You’re supposed to say, ‘No, the Big Dipper’s right here,’ and then put my hand on your dick.” She giggled, but when she slid her hand down my body and felt just how hard I was, her giggles cut off abruptly. “Oh.” She swallowed.

“As if I’m not half hard every second I’m around you?” I laughed under my breath. She was adorable when she was clueless.

“Sorry?” she whispered, biting her lip, like that made her any less enticing.

I leaned close to her ear, nuzzling her hair before I said, “Don’t be sorry, gorgeous. You’re not trying to drive me crazy; all you have to do is exist and I’m there.”

It was almost too dark for me to see the way Jill’s cheeks heated, but I knew the minute she dropped her head that she was blushing.

“Well, I guess it’s only fair,” she muttered, plucking absently at the hem of my shirt while she avoided my eyes.

I hopped down off the boulder, putting myself at her waist and looked up at her. “Are you saying you’re wet for me right now?”

Jill looked around, seeing the same thing I did; nothing but ocean, rocks, beach grass, and stars. It hadn’t been my goal to fuck Jill on our tour, but when she looked down at me like I was a dream she didn’t want to wake up from, I could hardly resist delivering.

She swept her fingers through my hair. “You know the answer to that.”

Damn fucking right I did. Skimming my hand up her leg, the fabric of her long maxi dress pooled around my arm as I reached the apex of her thighs. I dipped between her folds, and my fingers came away slick.

I closed my eyes, licking her wetness from one digit at a time, and Jill tightened her grip. Her half-lidded gaze met mine and I crooked my finger at her. I pointed to the boulder she was still standing on. “Put that pussy down here.”

There was no hesitation, no question. Her trust went to my head like a fucking drug and I swore to myself and the night sky above that I’d never do anything to put it at risk.

When Jill sat, her legs swishing back and forth over the edge of the boulder, I let myself just take her in. She was relaxed even as she looked up into my eyes with a heat that made my cock painfully hard. Being wanted by her was like being knighted or something, chosen and special, and damn if I didn’t want to never be undeserving of that.

The rock she was on had an advantageous slope to it, tilting her toward me as I knelt in front of her. I gently eased her back until she was flat on the stone, her eyes fixed on the universe overhead.

When I gathered her dress up at her waist, Jill’s breath caught, the cool ocean air meeting her wet cunt. Leaning on one arm over her, I left a trail of warm kisses up her throat. “You going to be quiet for me, baby?”

“As quiet as the ocean,” she breathed, her tight pussy pulling at the fingers I’d slipped inside her as she took fistfuls of my shirt in her hands.

I grinned, knowing those waves wouldn’t cover as much as she thought. “You’re soaked, gorgeous,” I said, slicking her wetness up over her clit and watching her eyes flutter shut.

“I’ve been wet all day,” she hissed, her head pitched back as I strummed harder and faster.

The thought of Jill being turned on since that morning rose like a wave inside me. “I should have taken care of you before we left,” I bit out, feeling selfish for leaving her hanging.

Her fingers curled into the collar of my shirt and she tugged me closer. “Maybe I wanted to wait,” she said, her eyebrows raising before they bent with need. “Maybe I like how you make me feel.”

“ Fuck, baby ,” I said, my face dropping into the crook of her neck. Jill was sexy every day, but right then I thought I was going to shoot my load before I even got inside her.

I ripped my wallet from my back pocket, pinching the condom in my fingers when she stopped me. “I’m on the pill,” she breathed, her eyes on mine.

Frozen above her, I panted out a few breaths, doing the math in my head. I’d gone bare maybe three times in my life, and all of them were fucking mistakes. But this? This would be different.

“Are you sure?” I told her, hinging at the hip so I could look into her eyes.

She cupped my cheeks, bringing me down for a kiss as gentle as it was searing, our tongues tangling as the pressure built in my balls.

“Take me,” she whispered, her expression so open and sweet, I shuddered through my next breath.

My hands moved to the soft skin of her sides, wrapping around her and stroking as I kissed a line between her breasts, over her belly button and down to the thin fabric of her thong. With her eyes on me, I carefully stripped it from her like every inch of her was precious—because it was.

When she was laid bare in front of me I stood tall, my eyes only on her as I tugged my cock from my shorts. I watched her chest rise and fall, her stomach quiver as I pressed the head between her folds, wetting myself with her pussy and teasing her clit. The heat, the slick fucking heat of it, had my eyes rolling back in my head. But I forced them open, locking on Jill’s gaze as I slid inside her tight, wet cunt in one swift stroke.

“ Grady ,” she gasped, her head pitched back, her hands fisting at the sand covered stone.

Hearing my name scrape out like that undid me. I pumped into her, building my pace as I rubbed her clit, the heat from her cheeks traveling down her neck and across her chest, like a fiery path of pleasure exploding across her skin.

I was so close, the orgasm building so fast at the sight of her. When I fell forward catching myself with one hand while I stroked her with the other, I was close enough to hear her moans. Little murmurs bursting out of her on repeat.

Yes.

There.

Please

Grady.

Please.

Her needy little cries surged through me and I lost it.

“Come for me, Jill,” I growled, thrusting into her, our bodies slamming together as she inched up the rock. “Come on this fucking cock, baby.”

Pitching forward she wrapped her fingers around my arm, digging in until the pinch of pain rocketed up my spine. Her pussy clamped down on me, as she cried into my shoulder, her voice muffled by my skin and the wind and the ocean crashing around us.

“ Fuck, yes ,” I grunted, her name sputtering out of me, as I came hard and long, the waves pulsing one after another as her greedy cunt fisted my cock.

I’d never come so hard in my life—stars dotted my vision and the world was soundless as I panted over her. Her wide eyes held mine with solace and sweetness, grounding me to her and this moment.

“ Grady ,” she whispered, curling up into me. I wrapped my arms around her and spun so she was sitting on my lap and held her there as the waves crashed just off shore, as the stars and moon moved through the black night sky. I’d have held her forever if I could, because I loved her.

I was completely in love with her.