9. Karol

He stood back, and I grinned at him.

"What?" I asked. "What's that look?" I couldn't read his expression.

"I can draw, too. Did I mention that?" he asked, and my lips twitched.

"Really?" My head tilted. He extended his hand, and I took it. He pulled me up and tossed the piece of driftwood he'd been scribbling on the sand with to the side. I rubbed the sand off my ass and moved to where he'd been working.

My heart stuttered in my chest.

He'd drawn a big heart in the sand with K+D drawn in the middle. I turned to him. His eyes burned with heat and something else I had a feeling matched what I felt.

"You're talented."

"You have no idea." He winked, and I blushed.

We'd been seeing one another for the last two days. We'd been inseparable. He'd brought me lunch at work both days, and we'd met at the diner for breakfast. Not to mention the bonfire dinner we'd shared the night before in the very spot where we were tonight.

Abby thought I was loopy and hadn't been shy about being in over my head. But when I showed her a picture of him, she'd gone straight to the freezer, pulled a pint of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey, and called me a lucky bitch. That was her giving me her approval in sister talk.

A hot and heavy as our make-out session's been and how we'd fogged up the windows in his truck the night before, we hadn't done anything past that.

And it was starting to drive me crazy!

Two days, and I was a horny, slutty, needy bundle of nerves. I'd even tried to get myself off the night before, but I couldn't get there on my own. He hadn't even touched me, and I already felt like he'd ruined me.

He didn't want to rush, and I'd thought that was sweet. But now? It felt like the biggest tease. Especially with his sexy innuendos.

I turned and grabbed my phone and snapped a pic of the heart in the sand with the ocean behind it. Dan came up behind me and kissed my sunburnt shoulder.

"Thank you for hanging out with me this week." His scruff against my sensitive skin mixed with the warmth of his breath made me shiver.

"Thank you for having me," I whispered and turned in his arms.

I was done waiting.

I wanted him, and I knew for a fact, because I could more than feel it, he wanted me, too. I'd left work early, and we'd hung out at the beach all day. I'd watched him surf, and he had even given me a lesson. One that had felt like foreplay with how his hands had never been far from my body.

"Wanna get into the water?" I asked, tossing the phone back onto the sheet that held all our things.

"Race you?" he suggested, and I grinned. He was an ex-Navy SEAL. I shouldn't have been so excited to race him. But I had a trick up my sleeve.

"Sure." I grinned and then frowned, looking over his shoulder. "Oh my god, what's that?" I asked, pointing behind him. Distracted, he turned, and I took off. The deep, rich sound of his laughter sounded behind me, but I kept running. High-stepping into the cold water and not stopping until I dove in and came up for air. A split second later, he was there, holding me, bringing me into his body and pressing his mouth to mine.

He tasted sweet, like the fruit we'd been snacking on, slightly salty from the water, and uniquely him. "Fuck, you taste good," he groaned when he pulled away.

My limbs wrapped around him, and he held me. There was a confidence and strength he had all the time, but in the water, it was different. It was like he could be a superhero in it.

"I was thinking the same thing about you," I whispered and leaned in to kiss him again. My tongue sought his, and before I knew it, I was rubbing myself against him. "Dan," I panted. My eyes opened.

"Kare Bear, fuck, baby." He swallowed hard. "We should?—"

"Please." I didn't want to hear the reasons we should wait. He was sweet and a total gentleman for trying to save me from myself. "I want you." It wasn't a secret, but I said it out loud. I'd learned a long time ago that when you wanted something, you had to go after it. Ask for what you wanted before you took it.

"Fuck." His nose pressed against mine. His gaze bore through me. "Not in the water."

"Fine." I shimmied away from his hold and swam back to shore. I didn't to look behind me. I didn't have to. I knew he was close by. I walked out of the water and straight to where we'd left our things.

In silence, we started to pack up, quietly but quickly shoving everything I'd brought into the bag. When my hand reached for his, he took it and led the way toward his rental. Silently, he pulled me to the side of the condo. I opened my mouth to ask if he'd changed his mind, but he opened a door I'd thought was a shed of some sort, and my eyes widened.

"We're sandy," he muttered, but it was the heat in his eyes that had me aching for his hands on my body again. There was something his gaze that made me think he wanted to do more than wash off the salt water in the outdoor shower.

"We are," I agreed.

He dropped the bag at his feet and pulled me inside. Reaching over me, he turned the water on for the outdoor shower. When he moved back, we stared at one another for a moment. My skin filled with goose bumps. I loved the way he looked at me. Like he couldn't believe I was real. I stepped back and reached behind me to undo the bikini top I was wearing and let the fabric drop to my feet.

His gaze darkened and he licked his lips. "My girl"s fucking beautiful." He stepped forward, and my eyes fluttered shut when his two big hands reached up and cupped my breasts.

"Such a fucking pretty girl. Look at you," he hissed. Before i could manage to open my eyes, his mouth was there. Pulling on one nipple, his hot, wet mouth sucking while his fingers teased the other.

"Dan!" I gasped. My hand grabbed his head, pulling him closer. "Please don't stop." His deep guttural sounds vibrated against my overheated flesh. He took turns showing attention to each breast before he dropped to his knees and rested his hands at my hips. His caramel gaze connected with mine.

"You still good? You with me?"

"Very." I nodded with enthusiasm. "Please." I wasn't sure what I was begging for. I wasn't a virgin, but I hadn't had a guy go down on me in the shower. Is it possible?

I was about to ask when he started to tug on my bottoms. They slid down my ass, passed my thighs, and pooled on the floor. Silently, he had me step out of them, kissing my knees and thighs until he showed me just how possible it was for him to eat me in a shower.

The fresh cool water cascaded down my back, and I held on to the wall behind me. My hips started to work against his face while his wickedly talented tongue showed me just how talented he was.

The man was a pussy whisperer.

He didn't lick me like it was a chore or a step to get his later but like he enjoyed it. Like he was getting off on it almost as much as I was.

"Dan, oh god, Dan! That's just—" His hands moved up my thighs. "Dan." He held me in place. My hands dug into his hair, and my heart rate raced. "Dan, oh god?—"

"Fuck, baby," he rasped. "You taste so damn good. So fucking sweet," he growled against my pussy. His tongue swiped my folds and circled around my clit. His fingers entered the mix. He started to finger me. I was so wet there was no resistance when he added two. He stretched my walls, and I cried out. Then my leg was hitched up and over his shoulder. My fingers tugged on his hair while my other hand dug into the wall behind me.

"Dan, I'm, I'm so…" I tried to warn him, but he didn't let me. His lips wrapped around my clit, the tightening inside me coiled up, and I exploded.

My head hit the wall, but my hips never stopped moving. It was like I needed him to wring out every bit of pleasure from my body.

"Good fucking girl, look at you." He didn't stop. Dan kept gently lapping at me. I gasped when his fingers slipped from my body, but I didn't have to wait long. He kissed my knee and set my leg back down on the ground before standing up and kicking his swim trunks off. He stood, and my eyes widened. I licked my lips at the sight of him.

I'd felt him.

Pressed against me when he held me.

I'd assumed he was big, but seeing him was a whole other story. Thick and long. I wondered if I wrapped my hand around the base of him, if my fingers would be able to touch. His mushroom-tipped head was wide and ruddy. Almost angry. It strained toward me, almost bouncing off his abs.

"You're big." I swallowed, hardly recognizing my own voice.

"We'll fit," he promised. His hand reached out, and our bodies pressed against one another, skin to skin.

"You're huge." My hands skated down his abs, my eyes entranced with how they flexed. A droplet of clear fluid sat at his tip. I was tempted to touch him and lick it off.

"Baby." His lips twitched. "We'll fit," he reassured me, and I nodded.

"You're so warm," I whispered. His skin felt overheated even through the hot water raining down on us.

"You're soft." His lips touched mine. "You still with me? We can stop," he offered, and whatever hesitation I had been feeling vanished.

I rushed him, and somehow, he was prepared.

His arms engulfed my body and picked me up. My legs wrapped around his waist, and our mouths crashed together. Fused to each other, we didn't have to say another word. We knew exactly what was going to happen.

He pressed his thick manhood against my entrance while the water from the showerhead pounded down on us. "Fuck, you're soft. Warm, wet."

"Dan," I purred. "Please, fuck me." I wasn't above begging for what I wanted.

"No," he growled. He took one long step and pressed my back against the wall, sliding his thickness back and forth against my pussy lips. Pressing his pubic bone perfectly against my clit. If he kept doing that, I'd come again. I had a feeling he knew.

"Dan, please fuck me."

"No." He shook his head. "I'm not going to fuck you," he hissed, swiveling his hips just right.

"But—"

"If I take you, any way, hard and rough, soft and slow, it's never fucking. Ever," he laid out. The gravity of what he was saying, the intensity, I knew he wasn't just giving me sweet words. He meant it. My lips parted. I couldn't look away from him. His eyes pierced through me, and I felt it all the way to my soul.

"What is it? If it's not…" I licked my lips. "If it's not fucking, what is it, Dan?"

"I'm making love to you, beautiful." His lips didn"t quite touch mine. They hovered hairsbreadth close. "Making love," he repeated, and I nodded.

God, that was a good answer.

"Make love to me, Dan. Please."

"I should have you on a bed." His lips touched my jaw, then my chin.

"Dan," I gasped. A bed would have been good, and we'd get there, but I didn't think I could wait. His thick tongue touched my pulse point. "Please love me."

"Say that again," he demanded in a low growl.

"Love m—" The words turned into moans when he thrust inside of me, filling me, stretching me to the hilt, stuffing me full with his cock. "Dan!" I cried out. My nails dug into his shoulders. He stilled, and his breathing sounded choppy.

"Shit, too much?" he asked, his body taut, almost trembling.

"No." I shook my head. My lips tipped up, and I rested my forehead against his. "Perfect." And it was. I felt full. Complete.

"Yes, baby, complete. Together always. Fuck. Can I move? I don't wanna hurt you."

"Please, please move. Love me. I need it. Need you, Dan. Please, baby," I begged, and being the hot stuff he was, he did.

He moved in and out, pressing his hips against mine. Our breaths synced, and the heels of my feet dug into his ass. He moved like a man who was in complete command of his body.

"More. More. More," I chanted greedily.

"Fuck!" he grunted, giving me what I'd asked for.

And I met him stroke for stroke, thrust for thrust. Each of us racing toward the bliss of oblivion we were looking for.

And we found it.

I saw stars. His head buried into the crook of my neck. My skin absorbed the deep sounds of his release. He filled me to the brim, and when he set me down on his lap while he sat on the bench in the shower, I felt his seed drop out of my body.

In the heat of the moment, I hadn't thought about the consequences. I wasn't on the pill not only because I wasn't having sex, but it messed my body up.

"Umm, Dan?" I glanced up at him, but his eyes were already on mine. His hands on my thighs moved between my legs, pushing his cum back into me.

"I'm going to sound like a fucking dick right now, but I hope it takes." My world stilled.

"It takes?" I repeated, but I couldn't pretend I didn't understand what he was saying. I couldn't ignore the way our minds were so in tune to one another's.

Like our hearts, a voice whispered, and it left me a little dizzy. Or maybe that was the orgasm we'd just had. I leaned my head on his shoulder, and his hands never stopped stroking my body.

"Karo, I'm falling hard for you baby," he confessed, and when I looked up at him, all the words lodged in my throat. "I know I'm coming on strong, and I know we just me?—"

"It doesn't feel like it," I interrupted. Lines creased at the sides of his eyes.

"It doesn't," he confirmed. "I've never felt this way. Not even close." My hand moved to brush his scruffy jaw.

"I know this is going to sound funny considering what we did and, umm…"

"What is it?" he asked, not rushing to get me up and out of his place. Even though, technically, we hadn't stepped foot into his rental.

"While you're in town, if you meet someone else?—"

"I'm gonna stop you right there," he grunted.

"I just mean?—"

"I know what you mean. Baby, there is no way I'd ever put you in danger, and you think after the time we've spent together and what we just shared, I'd ever put that at risk?"

"You're on vacation," I reminded him, and maybe myself, too. It could have been so easy to let myself fall harder that I already had. To let myself fall into an illusion thinking everything would somehow work out in the long run. The reality was he was leaving in less than two weeks. And I had to make the most of our time together.

"I am."

"And you're a guy." I winced. Great job, Captain Obvious!

"I'm a man, Karol," he corrected. There was something about his confidence, the way he spoke and looked at me, that made me believe that would make a difference. "It's been over a year since I've been with someone. I'm not taking this lightly."

"I was trying to say, if you met someone else while you're in town, I'd prefer for you let me know."

"Okay," he agreed easily. "And just so you know, I don't share. You're mine."

"For as long as you're here?" I asked because I was me. I wanted him to tell me no. That I was his forever.

"For as long as you'll have me." Always, the answer was on the tip on my tongue, but I couldn't say it.

"Dan…" We can"t go saying things like that.

We had an expiration date. But as I stared at him and his hand touched my face, pulling my body closer to his, I knew that didn't matter.

"Okay," I agreed. Even though I had a feeling it would end with heartache on my end, there wasn't a chance I'd ever regret it.

"Yeah? You saying you're my girl?"

"Hmm." My lips twitched while I pretended to think about it. "Maybe if you do that thing again." His brows rose and his gaze turned hot.

"What thing? With my mouth?" His lips touched mine. "Or with my fingers?" He kissed my neck. "Or?—"

"All of it." I gasped when his scruff tickled my skin. "But maybe on a bed?" I suggested. He growled and stood quickly, taking me with him. I giggled.

Thankfully, he grabbed a towel and covered me up before he rushed out and into his place, not caring if the neighbors caught a glimpse in the darkness. But his butt was so cute, I didn't mind someone catching a peek.