Gillian's Island Read online

  I couldn't have predicted this moment, and though every inch of my body is alive with want and desire, my head is also trying to convince me that this, again, is a very bad idea.

  No.

  My heart wins out. My heart wants this, wants her, and I don't know what's going to happen after this...

  But I'm not going to stop because I'm afraid. Not now. Not again.

  I want this. And she wants this.

  We're choosing this together.

  Ivy breaks our kiss, and even through the mist surrounding us from the waterfall, even through the rushing curtain of water, I can see the bright desire in her eyes. She steps backward from me, holding tightly to my hips, and she tugs me with her, back behind the waterfall. I don't know where she's going, but I trust her, and I follow her as she pulls me softly, gently, drawing me to her like gravity.

  There's a hidden cave back here, behind the waterfall. The light streaming in through the curtain of rushing water is soft, distorted and glowing... The cave floor is rock, the ceiling and walls are rock, but with the light filtering in through the water, there seems to be a rainbowed arc suspended over the darkness, a rainbow shimmering in the air.

  “Wow,” I whisper in awe as I glance at our surroundings, my eyes wide in the black space. The cave doesn't go far back, so I would think the cavern itself would be drenched by the mist from the waterfall, but the rock is dry and cold beneath my feet, and—thankfully—it looks like no wild animals have made this place into a den. It's cool here in the earth, with the chill from the water making my skin break out in goosebumps, a pleasant change from the temperature of the island. I shiver a little, my skin prickling as I glance sidelong at Ivy, my cheeks flushed with excitement.

  And Ivy turns my body—slowly, her hands on the curves of my hips now, her fingers cool and pressing lightly at the small of my back as she moves me in a slow, sensual circle until my back is pressed against the cool rock wall of the cave. She pushes my body against the rock, and I shiver as she plants her hands firmly now, possessively at my hips, holding my gaze with her electric green eyes. And then she's kissing me again. Her hair drips onto my forearms as I reach out and wrap my arms tightly around her shoulders, and then the two of us connect, heart to heart, and I drink her deeply.

  She tastes of sweet, delicious things, impossible to name, but all that I crave is her mouth, is the taste of her, the softness and the heat of her as I feel my shoulders grind against the rock wall, feel the solidity of the earth beneath me as I surrender to her embrace, to the way that the wall holds me up, to the way that she holds me up. We are together, one creature, as we wrap ourselves tightly together.

  The slants of light shifting through the waterfall illuminate Ivy's long length as she presses against me. In the relative darkness in the cave, the soft light is all that I need, because my eyes drift over Ivy's curves and lines, making them out clearly; she is all I can see, and, God, she's beautiful. She has the kind of wild beauty that I never realized I ached for. She has the kind of beauty that reaches into the deepest, darkest spaces inside of me and brings me to life.

  She brings me to life.

  Ivy palms my left breast with her hand, flicking my already stiff nipple with a thumb as she smiles against my mouth with a wicked, slanting smile. I'm already moaning against her, the sound low and guttural, almost a growl as I press the back of my head against the rock wall, and I ache, every last part of my body aches for her touch, because my whole body is ready, longing for her.

  I want to touch her as much as she wants to touch me. I want to feel her muscles beneath my hands, want to feel the heat of her skin, want to learn every angle of her body with my my fingertips, memorizing her curves in the dark.

  So I let my hands drift over her broad, muscled shoulders, firm and hot beneath my touch. Her skin, in the darkness, is the color of honey and of the sky, gold and the blue from the waterfall tangled together in a dance of light.

  I shiver as she traces kisses to my jaw with her hot mouth, then to the lobe of my ear, licking my skin. She draws her fingernails lightly over my chest, and I'm alive, more alive than I've ever felt before; the pleasure of her touch, of her kisses, of her tongue, crests through me, traveling to my center, making my clit throb, making me aching, wanting, needing.

  I try not to betray all of the need roaring through me; I try to keep my motions slow and calculated. I want her to feel like I'm feeling right now. I want her to need me just as much as I need her.

  My fingers trace a path to her breasts: small and round and firm, and I love how they fit so perfectly into my palms, her nipples peaked and hard and hot against my skin. I pinch them gently, and she pants against me, setting her forehead against my shoulder, and that's when I begin to realize...she has been wanting me, maybe for as long as I've been wanting her. Her body is a well-tuned instrument against mine, and every small motion that I make, every lick and kiss and touch, causes her to move against me in response... There's no other explanation than that she's been longing for me, watching me, wanting me.

  And that knowledge fills me with courage, makes me bold as my body thrums with white-hot heat.

  I need her. I've been trying to ignore my needs for days, but now that I know she's felt the same, now that I know she wants me, too, maybe just as badly, that need reaches a crescendo inside of me.

  I push my back off from the cold rock wall in one smooth motion, shivering in the darkness of the cave as I grow even bolder. And then I'm reaching out between us, wrapping my fingers around her wrists, and I'm tugging Ivy down, pulling her gently down to the floor of the cave. The rocky ground is murder against my knees until I find a patch of moss and sink down thankfully there, tugging Ivy with me. Together we kneel, together we press against one another, and I push Ivy onto her back. My need roars through me as she smiles under me, as she draws her arms up and around my shoulders, pulling me closer.

  “I want you,” she whispers, her eyes wide in the darkness, the green depths of them flashing with a longing that my body responds to. I kiss her wet skin, tasting it, as I flick my tongue against her right nipple, palming the left one, circling them both with tongue and thumb as I tease her, making my motions as slow as I can stand...

  Because, God, I want her so much. I want to hear her cry out against me; I want to feel her hands in my hair, pushing and pulling me where she wants and needs me to go. I want to taste her, want to taste every inch of her, every part of her, and as I try to be slow and calculating about my seduction, Ivy decides that she'll have none of that.

  She does thrust her fingers into my hair, pulling me up her body with a low, delicious growl as she kisses me deeply. She takes my other hand, pulling it down the front of my body, begging me with the way her hips thrust upward, to please, please, please touch her there.

  I'm getting the feeling that Ivy and I are both tops in the bedroom (or, you know, the cave), and I'm not going to be topped right now. Maybe it's because I've been crushing down my needs; maybe it's because I'd convinced myself that there could be nothing between us... I was wrong, and I want to show her how I've felt. I want to show her so that there can be no more misunderstandings between us.

  So I smile against her mouth, gripping her hip with my hand, but my fingers do not drift any nearer to her center.

  “Not yet,” I whisper to her, smiling, panting, and then I slide my body, my hips in between her legs, and she moans against me, arching up against me, as my hips line up with hers, as my skin meets her clit. Her center is already so wet, so open, and I'm euphoric, that pure pleasure thrumming through me almost as fast as my blood.

  We move together, rhythmically now, her head thrown back, her mouth open, a deep, velvet moan escaping her full lips. I kiss her, kiss her mouth, her jaw, her neck, her clavicles, licking the long, sweet bones and tasting the delicious salt of new sweat as she curls her fingers into my hair, pulling me, moving with me.

  God, she feels so good against me, under me, but even as I satisfy each new cravin
g—to kiss her there, to taste her there, to feel her muscles against my hands, to taste her breasts and feel my own wetness against hers—new cravings are born.

  And I find that I can no longer keep myself patient, teasing.

  And that's when my fingers drift over her hips, down the slope of her belly with maddening slowness as she growls against my shoulder, as she tightens her grip in my hair. My fingers finally, finally drift between her legs.

  She is so wet, and a fire ignites in my own belly when I feel that wetness sliding against my fingers, as I move one fingertip slowly, almost lazily, across her center, down from her clit that is so hard and hot against my fingers. I brush the pad of my thumb against her clit now as I turn my hand, as I trace up, up...

  And in. In with two fingers to start, because she is so ready, so wanting my hand. She bucks her hips against me, but I move with her and a little against her, pulsing my hand in and out of her as she gasps, as she moans, as she writhes beneath me. We find the rhythm in each other, and we follow it with our bodies, heart to heart, as I wrap my arm around her shoulders, as I reach up and into her, curling my fingers and drawing out a note of pure pleasure from her exquisite mouth.

  Ivy's fingernails dig into my back as I move in and out and add a third finger, as the sounds of her wetness fill the small cavern, as the sounds of her panting, of her moans, drive me on, until the two of us move together, illuminated like mermaids in this watery blue world.

  It's timeless, this place, these motions, and I don't know how long we move together, but it seems like soon, very soon, that I feel her muscles begin to contract against me, and I pant in surprise, my own insides clenching as she tightens her legs around my middle. It feels so good, knowing how I'm making her feel, feeling her against me, feeling those muscles move as her orgasm begins to build. I created this; I created this crest of pleasure inside of her: she tilts back her head, mouth open, breathing out in a harsh sigh in the darkness...

  I cover her mouth with mine, and she drinks me in greedily, her lips trembling against me as she comes against my hand. She breathes out in a short, hard gasp, her eyelashes trembling against her cheeks, and she digs her fingernails so hard into my shoulders that my skin is going to be imprinted with little crescent moons.

  I draw out the orgasm as long as I think she can take it, and then I'm dragging my fingers out of her slowly, trailing her wetness down her thigh in a shining path against her skin. I see stars as I wrap my arms around her shoulders, as I pepper her face with kisses, her trembling, smiling mouth with a kiss so long that I steal another moan from her. I cover her body with my own, and I hold her tightly as the bliss rocks through her, her body trembling with delight beneath me. She sighs out, drawing her arms around me, holding me close.

  We lie that way for a long minute, and I try to hold that minute, memorizing the way that her body feels beneath mine, the slopes and contours of her muscled stomach against my own softer belly, the way her thighs feel under my own, the cradle of her hips holding me up, our legs entwined together, our feet tangled, the scent of her hair billowing out, mermaid-like and drying around her face in soft, satin folds of sweet blonde. Everything about her, beneath me, shivering from the orgasm I just created in her, fills me with this immense satisfaction, this joy that races through me, unfurling from my heart.

  She presses her mouth to my cheek, her hot lips open and wet against my skin, and I shiver against her. She's never looked more beautiful than she does right now, vulnerable and lovely, lying beneath me.

  But then Ivy smiles against my cheek, a slow, sly smile that reaches her twinkling eyes. And she's reaching up with a hand no longer trembling but strong, controlled, adamant.

  Wanting.

  Ivy wraps her fingers around my thighs, tugging me into the position she wants, and I chuckle against her, obliging, need flickering over my skin again and through my body like lightning, my entire body responding to her sure motions.

  A few moments ago, when I felt her muscles contract against my hand, felt her wetness...it was almost too much, and my body is wracked with the kind of pleasure that needs release. It needs release right now.

  And somehow, Ivy senses that, knows that. And she seems to know me, knows the deepest parts of me as she positions my knees on either side of her hips, drifting her fingertips over my hips and my belly, reaching up and twisting my nipples with sure fingers in the half-darkness of the cave.

  I breathe out in pleasure, sighing, as Ivy lifts her hips, pressing her center against my own. There's just enough pressure, just enough wetness for the two of us to slide together, and I'm closing my eyes, breathing out, as I lean back a little, pressing my hands to her knees, my breasts arching toward the ceiling of the cave as I push my hips rhythmically against her own, riding her in the cavern's darkness.

  Ivy grips my hips, and she grinds against me hard, her center against mine, an intoxicating pressure that is half pleasure and half maddening, because it's not quite enough for me, not from this angle.

  When Ivy sits up, I can see the dark desire in her eyes, can see them sparkling with mischief in the blue light of the waterfall.

  I sit with my legs spread wide, and she sits between them now, one arm gripping my middle, her other hand drawing fingernails lightly, lightly over my thigh, down to my opening.

  I gasp against her as she drags the pad of her finger gently over my clit, once, twice. All that I am is centered in that tiny space she touches, and I feel alive against her hand, blood pulsing through me as I throw my head back, gasping, trying to breathe, crying out against her.

  Ivy chuckles low and deep, a velvet laugh as she turns her fingers, pulling open my center now, my hot center that pulses to have the cold air from the waterfall brushing against it. I bring my head back, hold Ivy's eyes as she slowly pushes her fingers inside of me.

  It's euphoric and immediate, the throbbing of my insides against her fingers, and I push down, down onto her hand as she pushes up and into me. I whimper a little, folding forward and wrapping my arms around her shoulders as she holds me up. I wrap my legs around her middle, and then we're moving together in a rhythm again, her fingers inside of me, me wrapped around her, Ivy wrapped around me.

  It's been so long since I made love to a woman, and I've never made love quite like this—naked and drenched from swimming all day, completely wild and in the great outdoors. There's something extra wild about our movements together, something deep and primal about the way that we touch one another, exploring every inch of skin, yes, but also seeming to know exactly what to do to elicit pleasure from the other. If I played Ivy like an instrument before, she's certainly playing me like one now, knowing exactly where to touch, how to make pleasure roar through me in desperation, the very first trembles of an orgasm rising in me so quickly that it seems almost impossible...

  But then, “Oh, my God,” I whimper, as the first wave of the orgasm moves through me. But the first waves don't just explode from my center. There's something that unfurls inside of my heart, if I'm being honest, the moment that the orgasm begins to wrack my body. I'm gutted, undone, as the waves of euphoria wash over me and through me, carrying me away into a place where every atom in my body sings with the release of that perfect want and need, the release that Ivy has wrung from me.

  She stays with me, drawing the orgasm out like an expert, an artist, but then she stops, her finger resting against that most sensitive part of myself before she draws up her hand, draws it up and curls her wet fingers now around the nape of my neck, pulling me toward her for a kiss.

  My center is aching in every good way, my heart and clit still fluttering with the after-waves of the orgasm as she pulls me into her lap, my center resting against her hips. It feels so good to have her heat against my own as she wraps her arms around me, as I wrap mine around her, my legs, too, until we're folded up into one another, like this is the way we belong.

  I feel her heart beating against my own, and it feels so right. I feel so sure, so grounded and
centered and held, as she holds me tightly in the darkness, as I hold her. The two of us connected in every single way, heart to heart, mouth to mouth, soul to soul.

  Then we collapse to the side, rolling down onto the moss nose to nose, our bodies still tangled; we breathe out together, at the same time.

  I don't want to say anything, because to say anything right now would ruin this moment. I can feel that truth deeply, and honestly, all I want to do is feel.

  Because something has happened deep inside of me. I don't just mean physically, because obviously, yeah, I came quickly, effortlessly, against her, which is something that doesn't usually happen for me. Normally, I'm too self-conscious with a woman I've never had sex with to come at all that first time. Or, you know, the first five times.

  No. There was something more than that...

  It was as if all of the tension in my heart, all of the things that keep me closed off and remote, seemed to soften, all at once. Like the hardness inside of me washed away, and I opened myself to her. Because I did. I let Ivy in. I let her into me, into the deepest parts of me, and I trusted her.

  And I trust her still. Even after we've made love together, even though I don't know exactly what this means. Even though I don't know what tomorrow holds. Even though I don't know what's going to happen or what may come.

  Right here, right now, we're together. And I'm the happiest I've ever been in my whole life, that happiness radiating through me in a sublime, pulsing pattern.

  I'm filled with light and love as I hug Ivy tightly. We lie together, Ivy and me, and I hold her electric green gaze with my own.

  I don't know what's going to happen. And that frightens me half to death.

  But in this moment, I know one thing for certain: I've fallen for Ivy—hook, line and sinker.

  Chapter Six

  We were out of sight for most of the day, first with Ivy teaching me how to swim, and then with Ivy and me, well, having sex in a waterfall cave. I can't believe that that's something I've done. Granted, it wasn't exactly on my bucket list, but now that it's happened, I can't imagine my life without the perfect memory, the adventure, that we just created together.