"Surprise me." I'm too nervous about being here, in your element, with your lawyer to deliberate a drink choice.

"I'm full of surprises." You wink and turn toward the bar.

Max stares at me with his head slightly c.o.c.ked, like he's trying to figure me out. "Well," he says, pulling his eyes away and picking up a pair of gla.s.ses on the table. "Merrick certainly is full of surprises, I'll give him that."

Is he referring to me? I guess a woman like me would be a surprise for you to have on your arm. "Yes, he is."

I watch your back. The last time it was faced toward me and you were standing at a bar, I ended up unconscious for two days. Not that I have any fear of that happening again. My eyes are on you willing you to hurry back to me.

"How did you find Turtle Tear, Rachael? Was it what you thought it would be?" Max peers over top of his frames with piercing gla.s.s-blue eyes. His tone's not unfriendly, but something in his demeanor has me on edge.

"I love Turtle Tear. It's more than I ever imagined it to be."

"Here you go," you say, putting a hand on my shoulder and sitting a martini gla.s.s in front of me with a curved, blue, blown-gla.s.s stem. It's shaped like a crescent moon. "It's a Champagne Supernova."

"Thank you. It sounds great."

You trail a finger across the back of my neck as you walk behind my chair and settle into yours. "I have something to tell you." You take my hand firmly in both of yours. Your dark eyes claim mine, and a ghost of a smile crosses your lips. "The only signature Max and I need is yours. I'm giving you Turtle Tear. It's yours."

I inhale and hold my breath. This can't be happening. My head spins. I grab the table with my free hand. "You can't. I can't accept that."

Your smile widens. "Remember when I told you it was yours. I wasn't kidding." Your eyes flicker to Max and back to me before saying, "I had to get you there, Rachael. This is why. I knew the hotel and the island belonged to you the first time we spoke."

"All we need is a signature," Max says, handing me his gold pen with a strangled smile and sliding a piece of paper across the table. "Beside the "X"."

I lean toward you and whisper. "Can we talk about this, please?"

You brush a strand of hair back behind my shoulder. "Of course. After you sign."

"Merrick--"

You place a finger over my lips. "I'm not asking, Rachael. It's yours. That doc.u.ment is the t.i.tle to the property. I've already signed it over."

"Why? I don't...I'm nothing to you."

Your chin drops, and your eyes go wide. "How can you think that? You have to know that's not true."

I shake my head. "I didn't mean...I'm not a relative or anything. Why not give it to Heidi or one of her kids if you don't want to keep it?"

You let my hand go and smack your palm lightly on the table as you sit back in your chair. "No. It's yours. Please sign the t.i.tle."

You gaze across the room. This conversation is closed. Fine. I'll sign and then give the hotel to Heidi myself. I pick up the pen and whisk my name across the line in black ink.

"Congratulations," Max says, snapping up the t.i.tle and closing it in a file inside his briefcase. He picks up a rocks gla.s.s on the table with a lime floating in clear liquid and ice. "To a successful renovation."

I lift my gla.s.s and turn my eyes to you. Your chest fills as you smile in relief and lift your rocks gla.s.s. The three of us toast, and your hand cups my knee under the table. "Thank you," I say. "I can't begin to understand..."

You lean over and press a kiss on my cheek. "I'm not asking you to understand. I only hope you won't kick me off the island." You chuckle and kiss me again, quickly on the lips this time.

"Why would I ever do that?" I tease, and lift my mouth to yours for a longer kiss this time.

"Well," Max says.

You and I part, reluctantly. Max stands and lifts his briefcase. "I'll leave you two to celebrate." We both stand, and he shakes your hand then mine. "Congratulations again, Rachael. Please let me know if you ever need anything."

"Thank you. It was nice meeting you."

"Likewise."

We watch him exit the lounge, and you pull me against you. "Thank G.o.d, I have you to myself." You tap my martini gla.s.s with a finger. "Please tell me you don't want this, and we can go to my room. h.e.l.l," you lift me off my feet, "I'll get fifty of them sent to the room if you do want it. I'm taking you. Now."

I hope your meaning of taking me doesn't just mean to your room, because I need you inside me so badly I could die.

Chapter Sixteen.

We sit on opposite sides of the jetted tub. My feet are in your lap, and your thumbs dig into my arches. Bubbles tickle my skin. You're completely relaxed with your eyes closed and your head leaning back against the edge. "You better not fall asleep on me," I warn.

"Never," you say, a slow, s.e.xy smile crawling across your lips.

"Why, Merrick? I don't understand." There's something behind your eyes, something hidden. I don't want anything in our way. I can't take a new challenge to get past if I want you.

"Why not, Rachael?" You sit forward, running your hand up my calf, over my knee, gliding between my thighs.

"You're too good at distraction." I moan, rocking against your hand. My foot finds you hard and thick, and I guide my arch up and down your length, stroking over and over. "You have to tell me. I know there's a reason you're not telling me."

"Is this a good distraction?" You slip a finger inside me and follow it with a second. Your other hand clasps my breast. Your fingers pinch and pluck my nipple.

"Oh..." I roll my hips and arch my back. "G.o.d."

"What were you saying?" You chuckle and circle your thumb over my c.l.i.t as your fingers move inside me.

"I was-oh!" Your fingers spark flames through me. My muscles contract and spasm. I explode in a rush of heat and melt in the bubbling water.

You pull me onto your lap and press your mouth to mine. Your kiss is tender and leaves me breathless. You lean your head against mine and caress my cheek. "You're so sweet when you do that. I could watch you over and over."

"I want you so much. You have to tell me why you gave me the hotel." Your chest is slick under my hands. I run them up your neck and tangle my fingers in your hair. "I want to trust you. You have to let me. No secrets."

You kiss me again, taking my bottom lip in your mouth before letting go. "I'll tell you. Let's get out first."

After stepping over the side, you scoop me out of the water and lay me in the center of the bed. "You sure we can't talk later?" The l.u.s.t in your eyes is unmistakable as they run over my body, and you lick your lips.

You straddle my legs and hold yourself over me dripping water onto my chest and neck. "You talk. I can't wait." I lift my mouth to your shoulder and lick droplets off your hot, wet skin.

You groan and push your knee between mine to open me to you.

"No." I sit up and scoot back. "You talk. I play. You don't talk, we don't play."

You let out a huge sigh and shake your head, smiling. "Of all the women I could've kidnapped."

I get to my knees and press your shoulders, leading you down onto your back. "Hands above your head and keep them there. You took me, now I get to torture you."

Sitting on your stomach with your long, hard arousal wedged snuggly between my a.s.s cheeks, I run a fingernail down your chest, over your nipple. "Talk."

"When my grandpa died," you suck air through your teeth as I lick the nipple I scratched, "Heidi and I got the properties, but we weren't old enough to own them, to own Rocha Enterprises. My dad didn't sell me the business until I'd already become very, very wealthy. Since he owned it in name when it went international, he wants it all. He can have it all, but not Turtle Tear."

I sit up and still your hips pressing into me. "That's why you did it. To keep the hotel out of his hands. That's why you took me."

You clasp my wrists. "That's why. I'd been looking for someone who appreciated it as much as I do. When you came along--"

I shut you up by thrusting my tongue in your mouth. I know what you did when I came along. Now I understand your desperation. If anyone would try to take Turtle Tear from me, I'd do whatever I had to keep it.

You push me to my back and break the kiss. "He'd tear it down. I couldn't let him do that." Your eyes are black granite.

"It's safe now. You trusted me with it. You know I'll cherish it."

You press your palm into my thigh and drag it up over my hip and my stomach stopping on top of my heart. You lift your hand and kiss where my pulse is pounding. "If you trust me with this, you know I'll cherish it."

I hold your face between my hands. "Like I've ever had a choice." I kiss your forehead, both of your cheeks, your chin. "You stormed into my life and took it over. I didn't have to give in, but G.o.d, you're impossible to resist."

Your mouth overtakes mine in a relentless, possessive kiss that leaves no question whether this is it or not. This is it. Finally. "I trust you, Merrick," I whisper, breathless and panting. "Please. No stopping." I reach between your thighs and grip you, stroke you. "I want you inside me."

"I will be. Let me touch you, taste you more first." You take my breast in your mouth, sucking and teasing the nipple with your tongue while your hand slides between my thighs. I let them fall apart and your fingers glide through my slick folds. You alternate between sweet little circles on my c.l.i.t that send sparks through my core and have me writhing, to slipping those talented fingers inside me, pressing and rubbing in just the right spot to make me thrust and rock into your hand.

"Oh G.o.d, I'm going to--"

"No," you whisper, your breath hot against my wet nipple, "don't come until I'm inside you, Rachael."

Your fingers pull out of me. You kneel between my thighs and roll on a condom. "I've never needed a woman this much. I never will." The head of your c.o.c.k nestles against my opening and you lean over me, resting on your forearms. Your eyes lock with mine and you thrust into me-hard.

"Ahh, you're so big!" I'm stretched and your thickness fills me, rubs all the right spots. "If you move I'll come-oh G.o.d, please." I grab your perfect a.s.s and arch into you, thrusting and rocking my hips. "Yeah, right there!"

You're not moving, just staying deep, deep inside me and letting me f.u.c.k you to make myself come. You kiss, lick and nip my neck and lift my b.u.t.t up off the bed. The angle intensifies the slow, smolder building to an explosion inside me. "That's right, baby. Take it. Take everything from me. Everything you need. Everything you want."

"Yes, I'm so close." I wrap my legs around yours and grind my hips into you. "So close," I whimper.

Slowly, you pull out, only inches, and thrust back in. Devastatingly slow. It feels so perfect, my eyes water. "Let go." You kiss my forehead. "I've got you. Take it."

Your hips roll, and fire ignites inside me. I throw my arms out to the side, gripping the sheets. "Yesyesyesyes. G.o.d, Merrick." I moan and gasp. You lift yourself to your knees, still thrusting, and rub my c.l.i.t, intensifying the throbbing grip I have around your c.o.c.k, dragging my o.r.g.a.s.m out longer, deeper.

A sob rips through me. Nothing has ever felt this good, this satisfying. My insides are shuddering. I wanted this, and I took it. For myself. This is all mine. You're all mine.

"You're so sweet, so beautiful," you whisper. "I love giving this to you."

The rush subsides, and I take your hand away from the oversensitive bud of nerves. "That was insane."

You flip me over on top of you, driving your c.o.c.k so deep inside me; I think I feel you in my stomach. I grip your thighs and lean back. "Take me again," you say. "Take all you want from me."

I lift and lower myself gently at first, then as the desire and heat begins to build again, I ride you hard, slamming down on your c.o.c.k to take you deeper and harder each time, gasping and moaning with pleasure. I grip you tight inside me. I want to make you come. Want to milk every drop from you. When you groan, I know you're close. When you get even bigger, even harder inside me, I know I'm going to roll over the edge again and lose myself to you.

The familiar sensation flares and intensifies with every stroke until it explodes. I throw my head back, spineless and tingling, holding on to you so tight I can't feel my fingers. "Merrick. Ah, G.o.d. It feels so good." As soon as I come down, your thumb finds my c.l.i.t, and I'm exploding again.

"Ah, f.u.c.k. Rachael. You're so tight." Your c.o.c.k throbs inside me. I lean forward, pressing my palms against your abs. You squeeze my b.r.e.a.s.t.s as our thrusts and strokes slow and we ride out the last waves of o.r.g.a.s.m.

I fall forward onto your chest and your arms come around me. "You're perfect." You kiss my head, stroke my hair. "You're beautiful. I don't deserve you, but I'm taking you anyway."

"That was so incredible," I mumble, surprised that I can utter one word let alone string a few together. I try to lift myself up and groan.

"Are you okay?"

"Perfect. Give me a minute for the feeling to come back into my legs, and I'll be ready to do that all over again."

You laugh. It rumbles in your chest against my ear, mingles with the rapid beating of your heart. "I might need more than a minute. I'm definitely up for a repeat performance though. There are several more positions I'd like to put you in Miss DeSalvo."

I raise my head to find your lips. You kiss me softly, deeply. We've turned a corner. There's nothing standing between us now.

All is forgiven.

I trust you.

I've given myself to you.

Epilogue.

"Rachael! It's good to see you again." Beck jogs up to me and takes my suitcase. The helicopter sits on the landing pad at the airport with its propellers spinning, ready to take me home-home to Turtle Tear. "This is all you're bringing?" he gestures to the suitcase.

"The rest is being shipped at the end of the week." I reach out and hug him. I can't help it. I'm so happy to be going back and he's the first tangible part of the island that I've had contact with in weeks.

Merrick went back two weeks ago. He stayed in Cleveland until my mom got back from the cruise. He wanted to be there to meet her and help me tell her I was leaving, moving to Florida.

She refused to come with me, refused to leave her home, but she'll stay for extended visits. I promised the best room in the hotel would always be hers. She wasn't happy about me moving away, but before I left, she told me not to worry about her and that she was proud of me.

Shannon shocked me by announcing she was moving in with Seth. She said what he has between his legs is too good for him not to know what to do with it. So she's planning to teach him. Her relationships always burn bright white, hot as the sun, then blaze out just as quickly. I hope this one lasts.

Beck puts a hand on my head, like always, making sure I bend down enough under the propellers. He helps me up and in the helicopter and buckles my restraints. When he's seated beside me and we both have our headphones on, he turns to me and winks. "Joan works for me now, not Merrick."

My shock has to show on my face. You didn't tell me you'd rea.s.signed her. "She does?"