4. Amy

CHAPTER 4

AMY

Idon’t know what I’m doing as I slip my hand into Xander’s and allow him to pull me to my feet.

As I stoop long enough to grab my sandals, I wonder if this is what the start of a romance movie feels like.

Or maybe this is a horror, and he’s the man who’s about to kill me while the audience screams at me for being so dumb.

Xander glances at me, his dark hair falling across his forehead, shifting with the breeze. His ocean eyes seem to stare past the walls I’ve built around myself, whittling me down to the core.

He tucks his hands in his pockets, leading the way down the sandy shore to the wet sand at the water’s edge. “So, if you could be doing anything with your life, what would it be?”

I press my lips together, listening to the crash of the waves. “I want to open my own bakery. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time — before my grandma passed, I promised her that I was going to see it through. It’s been a few years though, and I’m still stuck in a job I hate. It feels like I’m letting her down.”

“We may have just met, but for what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re letting her down.”

There’s a distant look in his eyes as he kicks a small shell, sending it sailing to the water.

Has he lost anyone?

It’s not the kind of question I’m going to ask a stranger, no matter how kind and welcoming that stranger may seem.

The last thing I want to do is scare off the only person who’s willing to talk to me right now.

“What would you be doing?” I ask, shifting closer to him when the waves crash against my ankles, sending a spray of cold water up my legs.

He hums. “I’ve thought about that, and I have to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever had an answer. It always just seemed like I could do whatever I wanted, and everything would be fine.”

“I’m jealous. I wish I had that kind of freedom with my life.” I smile and kick a small clump of seaweed back into the water when it brushes against my feet. “I thought that everything was going to work out one way or another, but then things just started to spiral. And once you’re in that place, it’s kind of hard to stop.”

“Are you in trouble?” Xander asks, his voice gentle as he looks down at me.

“No. Nothing that bad.” I clap my hands to my cheeks. They feel more like scorched earth than skin right now. “I have savings and a good job, but the job sucks, too. I hate being bossed around and disrespected for the work I do.”

“I understand that. I spend most of my day in meetings where I’m supposed to be in charge, but everyone else around me tells me what I should be thinking or how I should behave. It’s exhausting.”

“What do you do for work?” I ask. He looks too clean-cut to work in one of the trades. His hands are too clean for a mechanic, and his forearms aren’t muscled enough to be in construction. He looks like the type of man who would be in the corporate world, but he’s too young to be high up unless he’s working at a startup.

Xander shrugs, his hands in his pockets. “Human relations.”

“That makes sense.” I gesture to him. “You don’t have the look of someone who spends all day in the sun.”

“Did you just tell me I look sickly?” he says, pretending to be aghast, his hand flying to his chest while the corner of his mouth twitches.

If the earth would open up and swallow me whole right now, I would die a happy woman.

“No, I mean, not really?” I groan and look out at the water as he starts laughing. “You know, you’re decent at making me flustered. Normally I’m able to carry on a conversation without making a fool of myself.”

He snorts. “I don’t know in what world you come off as a fool. We might have only just met, but I can tell that you’re a competent woman.”

I stop and turn to him, not quite believing him. “You really think so?”

“I do.” He looks out at the water as the sky gets darker, stars dancing above the waves. “It’s getting late. Are you staying nearby?”

“Yeah, I was able to get a hotel, fortunately.” My throat goes dry.

I could invite him back to the room. I don’t think I’m quite done talking to him yet.

He might be the only person on this island who’s fluent in English.

But I know it’s more than that. There’s something about the way he looks at me that makes it feel like life is being breathed back into my soul.

Maybe it’s the sea air or the long two days of traveling, but I want to be someone else for a night. I want to be the kind of woman who takes an attractive stranger back to her room for the night.

The words are on the tip of my tongue, but they die on my lips before I can force them out.

Xander gestures in front of him. “Lead the way. I’ll make sure you get back safely.”

“I didn’t think there would be much crime going on in a town this small.”

“Have you seen much beyond the harbor?”

I give him a sheepish smile, shaking my head. “Not really. I found a place to stay, and then I came to the beach.”

“I’d avoid walking on that section of the beach during the daytime if I were you. It’s private. Belongs to the castle, and the king can be an ass, or so I hear.”

I groan. “Great. We’ll add trespassing on royal land to the list of things that have gone wrong in my life in the last two days.” I shake my head and look up at the sky. “Enough of the pity party. It’s been going on for too long already.”

Xander smiles. “Don’t stop your pity party on my account.”

“I would rather hear more about you.” I dodge a smashed shell on the boardwalk. “Tell me something about yourself that nobody else knows.”

“Sometimes I think about leaving all this behind and starting over where nobody knows me,” Xander says, nodding to the town on the other side of the boardwalk. “There are more people on the island than you would think, but the towns are clustered so close together that they may as well be one city. It seems like no matter where I go, I can’t outrun my past.”

“What are you running from?”

He shrugs, and I can practically see the defensive wall he constructs between us. “A lot of things sometimes, other times nothing at all.”

“Cryptic.” I nod to the little hotel as appears in front of us, the outside light casting a dim yellow glow. “This is me.”

“Well, it was nice meeting you, Amy. I hope that you’re able to find your way to Mykonos.”

I pause a few feet from the door, and he stops beside me. His charming smile makes my heart beat so fast that I’m sure it’s going to pop out of my chest. “Do you want to come inside?”

The smile falters for just a moment before he nods.

My pulse pounds, my hands clammy as I pull out the key to my room and lead the way into the hotel and down the hall.

I push open the door, and all of a sudden it feels like all the oxygen has been sucked out of the room.

With Xander standing so close, the warmth from his body surrounding me, I don’t know what to do.

He shuts the door behind us, twisting the lock into place before taking the key from my hand and setting it to the side. Our shoes drop to the floor as I reach for the light, letting it fill the room.

Hands skim my waist before he pulls me flush against his body, the outline of his hard cock pressing against my lower stomach.

Lips press against mine, gently at first, as my hands slide up his chest, over his taut muscles and behind his neck.

His tongue sweeps along the seam of my lips, encouraging me to open them until his tongue is twining with mine while he walks me backward toward the bed.

The backs of my knees hit the edge of the mattress, but we stay standing.

Heat pools in my core as I tug on his hair lightly, guiding him to my fluttering pulse. He lets out a low chuckle that has me clamping my legs tight together while his tongue traces patterns on my skin.

“You taste like salt and sunshine,” he says, his voice raspy when he pulls away to look at me. “Are you sure that you want this?”

I reach for the hem of his shirt, tugging it up slowly and revealing the toned muscles beneath.

Xander whips the shirt over his head and throws it to the other side of the room before reaching for the tiny straps that hold up my dress. He eases them down my shoulders, kisses trailing after them.

The dress falls from my body as he guides it, the silky material pooling on the ground and leaving me in nothing but a thong that is really little more than a scrap of fabric.

He gets to his knees in front of me, fingers on the sides of the thong. “You’re beautiful.”

I put my hands on his shoulders to steady myself, but it’s quickly over when he gives me a gentle push, forcing me to sit down on the edge of the bed. “You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to.”

Deep blue eyes burn with a million different questions, but they give away the desire there. “I want to know if your pussy tastes as addictive as the rest of you.”

“Oh.” My head drops back, eyes shutting as he slides his tongue through my folds, circling around my clit.

He sucks the sensitive bud as his fingers slide into me, pressing against my inner walls.

“Yes.” I look down at him, gaze hazy with lust as he keeps sucking and flicking his tongue, his fingers rocking harder and faster into me.

Xander crooks his fingers, driving them against a spot that has my legs shaking. I tip over the edge, rocking my hips in time with his fingers, taking as much of him as I can until the waves of pleasure subside.

Smirking, he gets up, shedding his clothing. “I was right. You’re delectable.”

My cheeks flame, but the compliment is soon at the back of my mind as he hovers over me. Muscles in his arms flex before he flips us over.

I straddle his hips with my hands on his chest. Sliding my core against his cock, I moan, the head slipping through my arousal and just entering my pussy.

His hands trace my curves, leaving fire in its wake as one hand cups my breast. He massages it while his other hand cups the back of my head, pulling me down to him.

Our tongues tangle as I sink down onto him, moaning when he throbs and shifts his hips, plunging deeper into me. It feels impossible to take him all. He stretches me in the best ways possible.

My clit brushes against him with every roll of my hips. His tongue sweeps through my mouth, teeth nipping at my bottom lip.

I rock my hips faster, needing more of him.

Heat builds low in my core with every movement, inner walls fluttering around him.

Xander groans as he pulls his mouth away from mine. “Yes, just like that. Come for me, Amy.”

My name on his lips is a drug. I keep rocking against him while he matches the pace from below, his hands landing on my hips and holding me tight while he slams into me.

His fingers slip between us, pressing against my clit.

“You feel so good.” I dig my nails into his chest as I come, riding him as he stiffens. His thrusts slow before he pulls out, his chest heaving.

Before he finishes, I move down his body, taking his cock into my mouth.

“Holy fuck.” His head tips back as his hands sink into my hair, holding it back from my face as I trace the vein in the underside of his length with my tongue.

I bob up and down his length, hollowing my cheeks and sucking hard. He moans as I do, rocking his hips. He forces himself deeper into my mouth, his thrusts slowing when he comes.

He keeps thrusting until I’ve swallowed every drop he has to give.

When I pull back and drop to the bed beside him, he rolls onto his side and props himself up, looking down at me.

There’s only desire as he leans in and kisses me like we’re the last two people in the world.

This may be a horrible idea, but at least I’m going to have one hell of a story to tell when I get home.