Chapter 17 Ditch Plains

Foster

After weeks of sneaking around, I'm done. I've memorized every curve, dimple, and bend of Mila's body. She's mine and I'm not letting her go. She's branded my soul and I want her close to me forever.

I'm waiting for her when she knocks at the door in the morning.

I pull it open, drag her in, and press her against the wall.

Her eyes skim down my chest and take in the fact all I'm wearing is a pair of board shorts.

"Hi," she says in a soft breath.

"Hi." That's all I need to start kissing her. God, she tastes sweet and soft and everything Mila. "What did you tell your dad?"

"I'm scouting out a new venue for a charity benefit."

"Excellent." I kiss her again and her fingers scrape down my back as she mews in my ear.

Henry walks in and coughs. "You two at it again?"

I laugh and stop kissing her. Her lips sputter and turn pink .

"You up for the beach today, Henry?" I ask him, looking back over my shoulder at him.

"Always up for the beach."

"Go get ready." Henry grins and walks out and I turn back to Mila. "Did you bring your suit?"

She nods. I'd told her to bring it in case Henry felt up to the trip. "Are you going in the water?"

"Yep. I'm learning to surf."

She raises her eyebrows. "You are?"

"I suck at it, but yeah, Henry's coaching me. Mostly teasing me."

She chews her lip and grins. "I can't wait to see it."

"Good."

***

I reach across the console of Henry's truck and tug off Mila's shades. She looks at me with curious eyes, but I just smile and knock her cap off her head.

"Hey."

"No sunglasses. No ball caps."

A grove deepens in her brow, but I'm not worried and clasp her hand in mine. Time's up for her. I'm done hiding in lighthouses and sneaking her up to my apartment. We're going out to the beach together. I'm going to touch her and kiss her and I want everyone to see.

"Ditch Plains has that long, crumbly, mellow break. Reminds me of So Cal." Henry is in the backseat of his truck, looking through the front windshield at the two-foot waves on a stretch of Long Island called Ditch Plains.

"Not too big or too crowded today," I say. It's the first warm day of spring. The tourists haven't arrived yet, and the locals aren't in a hurry to get out until the water warms up. "You want to stay in the truck or sit on the sand?" When the weather's tough or his back is hurting, Henry watches the waves from the truck while I work out or try to surf.

He rolls down the back window and pokes his head out. "Ah, the smell of wooden houses and septic tanks. I'll sit on the beach."

Mila giggles and we all get out of the truck. I set Henry up with an umbrella and a beach chair. "This a good spot?"

"Good as any that aren't on a board."

"I'll ride some waves for you," I tell him. I'm a more confident swimmer now, but I still don't take chances and don't go out too deep.

"You get up and stay up, I'll believe it. Till then, I call bullshit. You're paddling for me. You're not riding."

"I'll ride some for you too," Mila says .

"Thank you, sweetheart," he smiles up at Mila with all the charm of Malibu Elvis. The man has not lost his touch with women at all and Mila appears smitten with him as all women do.

Mila and I return to the truck to grab the boards. When we get back to Henry, we sit on the sand next to him to watch the waves. The low tide exposes the barnacle-covered rocks that are usually underwater.

"You guys go. Don't sit here with me." Henry waves us out to the water.

"We can stay." Mila is sweet to offer, but Henry likes to sit alone on the beach and revisit his memories of the days before the beach was overtaken by Gidget and tourists.

Watching Mila take off her clothes and struggle to put on a wetsuit has to be the best part of the day. I suit up too and enjoy her eyes on me. We walk out past the break. The cold water wakes us up and energizes us. A swell rolls in and I catch it with the back of my board, try to pop up, and crash into the water. It's the popping up part I need to practice.

Mila's never been surfing before so she's flailing around trying to figure out where to put her board to catch a wave. I paddle up next to her and our boards clunk together. She laughs and says, "We are not good at this."

She's wrong. If she's smiling, we're good. "We'll get there. Plenty of time to practice." I lean over in an attempt to kiss her, but end up falling into the water again .

After I climb back up and sit on my board, I pull hers next to mine before the next wave rolls in. "Love you, Mila."

She smiles and her eyes twinkle. "Love you too, Foster."

It feels good to say it out loud again. We've both known it for a long time.

"Proud of you for getting in the water."

"Got the right motivation."

After a good forty minutes of fumbling around in the waves, our fingers are blue and pruned and we carry our boards back out to Henry.

I wrap her in a towel and sit down next to her.

"You guys suck," Henry says.

"Truth," I reply.

"You need to time the waves. Get to know the rhythm. Be one with the ocean."

"That's why you are the Malibu Elvis and I'm merely unstoppable."

"You can learn it. Look out there. See the swell? Watch it roll in and break. Now watch a thousand more and you'll get it. And paddle a lot faster or you won't catch shit."

"Next time. "

The wind blows us dry and I fish some sandwiches out of my backpack. Peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat. Not the fancy finger sandwiches Mila is probably used to, but she smiles and takes a big bite. "Oh my gosh. I haven't had PB&J in forever."

Good. I'm glad she likes my offering.

I hand her a water bottle and she opens it and takes a sip. "So," she says in a leading tone. "Did you hear?"

Uh oh. "No. What?"

"Rocco Maretti's walking around with a black eye." She twists her lips into an ironic grin.

"Huh. Is he now?" I act like I don't give a shit, which I don't.

"You have any idea how that happened?" she asks me.

"Nope." I keep my eyes on the waves and take a bite of my sandwich. I'm not owning up to nothing, but I would love to share the satisfying feeling of the crunch of my knuckles on his privileged rich-boy face.

"Donnie said you kicked his ass."

Henry grunts and chuckles. I spent a good half an hour debating with him if I should beat the crap out of Rocco. He attempted to appeal to my rational side. Don't make enemies. He'll come back for revenge. Could make me look bad in her father's eyes . He even convinced me to drop it. But Rocco showed up at another fight, and I invited him into the octagon with me. He accepted. His stupid decision. He knew I was undefeated, but his inflated ego wouldn't let him back down. I crushed him easily. I did hold back and tried not to break any of his bones, but only because of Henry's warnings. Needless to say, he won't be touching Mila ever again.

"First rule of fight club is never talk about fight club." Donnie's a dick for telling her. I'll deal with him later. If he wasn't her brother, he'd be black and blue by tonight.

She bumps me with her shoulder as she squints into the sun. "I'm not mad it happened. I just wanted to be there to see it."

Ahh. A surge of pride makes me smile. "From now on, you come to all my fights. You're in my corner." I wrap my hand behind her neck and pull her in for a PB&J kiss.

She stiffens at first, but I refuse to lighten my grip. She's kissing me wherever we go. If we're on the beach, at a fight, in a restaurant, at the gelato shop, anywhere we go from now on, my lips will be locked on hers and I want everyone to see it.

***

When we get back to my place, I pull her inside my room and kiss her next to the door, too impatient to carry her over to the bed. She smells like sun and sand and salt water.

I lift her sundress over her head and toss it on the floor. She tugs at my shirt and pulls it off .

"God, Mila. You smell good. You feel good." I kiss her again and she's just as hungry for me, her tongue reaching and searching for urgent contact.

"Mmm." Her fingers work my swim trunks open as we kiss and my hard cock springs free. She grabs it in her palm, and we both groan into the kiss. She drops to her knees and wraps her hot lips around my dick.

I have to moan at the slick heat and the teasing flick of her tongue. "God, woman." She palms my ass and pushes me deeper into her mouth till I hit the back of her throat. This woman was made for me.

My hands twine in her hair and I throw my head back and savor the feel of her mouth on me. She's heaven. Everything about her is pure heaven, but I don't want to come in her mouth. I want to be inside her.

I pull her up and kiss her again. I want to kiss every inch of her. I spin us and press my full weight into her, smashing her against the wall. We work together to get her bathing suit off, giggling when it gets stuck in her hair. She lifts her knee and wraps it around my hip. I step out of my shorts and grind into her. She bucks back and I can't wait. I can't wait any longer to have her. "Right here. Right now."

"Yes."

That's all I need to hear and I'm positioning my dick between her sweet folds and working my tip inside, not the whole thing. I'm on the precipice of heaven and I want to watch her face as I jump over the edge with her.

I push into her slowly and her tight wet heat sucks me in. Her mouth opens and her eyelids fall as she gasps when I'm fully planted inside her. "Sexy as hell, Mila. Never seen or felt anything like it before."

"Me too. So good."

I pump slowly out and her hips jut out, trying to coerce me back in. No problem. I'm done with slow and start thrusting roughly up into her. She grunts with the force of it. "You got it, babe? You can take it all."

"Foster…"

I know what she wants. She needs me to get her there fast. I pull both her knees up around my waist and prop her against the wall. That gives us the right angle. Her breasts are pressed up against my chest and we both grunt with each thrust. I want it to last forever, but when she stiffens, moans and pulses around me, I can't hold back. I'm pistoning into her and giving it all to her. My vision clouds and my dick throbs inside of her, blowing out a load so big, so huge, it's everything. We fall into a hot wet kiss, and my thrusts drag both our orgasms out. Her mouth is still hungry like she could go again. I set her feet down on the floor and pull out. My come runs down her leg and it's hot as hell. I love seeing that .

I kiss her neck and chin. "Mila. My love. Ti amo molto." I don't speak Italian, but I looked it up for her. I wanted to say it to her in a special, familiar way.

Her eyes open and she smiles a sated grin. "Anch'io ti amo. I love you too."

I lift her up and carry her to the bed. I fall on top of her and realize we did something stupid. "Are you on the pill?"

She laughs. "Yes, but you're a little late asking."

"Shit."

"It's okay." Her fingers comb the hair over my ear.

"If you got pregnant, I'd be fine with it."

She gasps and blinks, her fingernails pressing into the skin of my neck. "Foster…" She says my name with a warning tone.

"What? It's true. We'd make beautiful kids together. Never said that to another woman." Shit. I'm surprised I said it myself.

She blushes and looks down.

But saying it makes me realize it's time to say a lot of other things. I roll off her, but keep my hand on her tummy.

"Not waiting any longer, Mila. Tomorrow, we talk to your dad and tell him about us. We deal with the consequences together. "

She shakes her head and bites her lip. "I don't want him to ruin this."

"We won't let him. If he's the loving father he says he is, he should support his daughter in finding and choosing the person she loves. I've earned so much street cred with him, he'd have to work really hard to find a reason I'm not good enough for you."

She takes a deep breath and turns her head to the side to look at me. "What if he scares you away? There's been other guys I was interested in."

I growl and squeeze her hip because I really don't want to hear about other guys. "You really think he can scare me away? After all these years and all I've done to get my chance with you? He knows me. I have money now. I can pass for Italian. There's no reason for him to reject me for you. If he does, screw him. We don't need his consent."

She nods but it's not convincing.

"Tell me right now, Mila. If it comes down to it, you'd choose me over him."

Her chin dips and her shoulders droop. "Don't make me choose." She sighs like it's a cardinal sin to walk away from a man who beats you and controls you.

I pull back and stare at her. "Is this a difficult question? Even now? Because maybe you're not feeling what I'm feeling, but this is important. This is us. Explain to me how you could make that choice." There's bitterness in my voice, but I can't hide it.

Her eyes plead with me to understand, but I just don't get her. "Since my mom died, I'm the glue. I work hard to keep the family together. Without me, they would all fall apart."

I soften my voice because yelling isn't going to solve this problem. "The weight of the Bianchi universe is not on your shoulders."

Her fingers trail down my cheek and she slants her head. "Please. Don't make me choose. Let's find a way to make it all work out. I'd never ask you to choose me over Henry."

I kiss her and stand up. We're quiet for a long time as we use the restroom and dress. I can still smell her enticing scent on me so I leave her there and walk to the kitchen. I hadn't even thought of what I'd do if I had to leave Henry. I'd always assumed I'd never leave him for any reason. But if it came down to her or him, what would I do? I'd be torn up inside. That must be how she's feeling now so I need to try to understand. I grab a beer from the fridge and rest my back on it as the door closes.

She steps into the kitchen and leans her shoulder on the doorframe.

"I get it," I say to her and take a sip of beer. "I get it."

"You do?"

"Yeah." I raise my arm for her to come to me .

She does and tucks her shoulder under my arm, her hand coming to my bare stomach.

I kiss the top of her head as she runs her hand up and down my chest. "We'll talk to your dad tomorrow. Hopefully he won't make you choose. I want you to have everything you need."