“Yes, I’ll always make you come, Tayia. I’m the only one who ever will. Say it.”
“Yes, only you, Blake.”
Instead of finishing me off with his mouth, he lowered his jeans and slid inside of me. When his eyes met mine, I saw a mixture of love and possession. He laced our fingers together and ran his tongue along my bottom lip.
“You’re mine, Tayia. All fucking mine.”
I brought my hand to the back of his head and smashed my mouth to his. Blake rocked slowly into me as I wrapped my legs around his waist, opening every part of myself to him—body, heart, and soul. The ridges of his thick shaft touched my inner walls with each measured thrust. It was as if we were made to fit one another. I felt him everywhere and exactly where I needed.
Our tongues slid together, never losing contact. His hands gripped my hips as he glided deeper into me. My orgasm coiled tightly from low in my stomach and spread its way over my entire body as I cried out into the night sky. The sensation seemed never ending as my body convulsed under his while my muscles gripped him repeatedly. I was faintly aware of Blake’s own cries of release as I felt him stiffen and pull back his hips just in time to spill himself in hot pulsing spurts onto my stomach.
We lay like that for a while, kissing each other’s damp skin and letting the world around us come back into focus. This felt right. Being together like this always felt right. Yet here we were, in the woods behind the house, hiding the beautiful thing we had together from Harley and Fox, who claimed to be watching a movie but ended up making out on the couch. Blake and I had to wait until we could slip out of the back door and to our spot in the woods undetected.
“Blake?” I said while running my fingers through his hair as he rested his head on my chest.
“Hmm?”
“I was thinking that maybe it’s time we talked to our parents . . . about . . . us.”
Blake stiffened in my arms, and when he didn’t speak, my heart sank. That wasn’t the first time he’d reacted that way. For my twentieth birthday, he’d wanted to take me out to dinner and stay the night in a fancy hotel in Key City, except we’d never made it there. He’d wanted to come up with an elaborate lie to tell Harley as to why we’d be gone together overnight. When I’d suggested we tell the truth to everyone, it had sparked a huge argument. We’d ended up spending the night locked in our separate rooms, completely ruining my birthday.
Later, Jonna and I used the already purchased hotel package to go to a party in Key City. That was the night she met King.
“Blake?”
“Tay.” He sighed. “You know why we can’t.”
“Why?”
“Don’t play dumb. We’ve been through this before. People won’t understand.”
“I don’t care. I love you, and I want to be with you in public where everyone can see. I don’t want to keep being a dirty little secret.”
“Yeah, but you’re so good at being dirty,” he mumbled as he nuzzled the side of my neck.
“Stop it. Stop trying to distract me. I’m serious.”
Blake blew out an exasperated breath as he sat up on one elbow. “What? What do you want to do?”
“Tell our parents at Christmas that we’re together.” His eyes grew wide and his face contorted in an expression somewhere between shock and horror. Christmas was only a month away.
“No.”
“No?”
“Tayia, if we go public, we may as well end things now. Our parents won’t accept it. You know that. The entire island will go fuckin’ crazy. They think we’re blood related. Our parents are married, remember? I don’t give a shit what they’d say about me, but they’ll eat you up and you don’t deserve that. I won’t let it happen. Nobody will understand. Nobody.” He cupped the side of my face as he pleaded with his eyes. “Don’t do this to us. I’ll lose you, baby. I know it.”
“Blake, if we keep hiding this, you’ll lose me anyway.”
“Hang on a second. I thought you were the one at the beginning who said you were content with only the two of us knowing.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve changed my mind.” I sat up and crossed my arms over my bare chest. Suddenly, the sultry atmosphere the woods had provided earlier felt cold and hollow. Our voices echoed in the dark, the grass was beginning to itch, and I thought I saw two sets of little red eyes glowing in the distance. I got to my knees and crawled around, gathering my discarded clothes. We dressed in silence. Blake’s movements were jerky, indicating he was just as angry as me. I went to stand in front of him with my arms crossed while I waited for him to speak.
“I just can’t, Tay,” he said quietly while keeping his eyes lowered. “If you’re asking me to choose between ending this now or waiting for it to happen after everyone finds out about us, I choose neither. I love you, and I’ll be with you this way forever, or for as long as you still want me.”
“I think you’re wrong, Blake. If you love me half as much as I love you, we’ll be fine as long as we have each other.”
“I do love you, Tayia. God, I love you so much it physically hurts sometimes that I can’t tell anyone about it. I let people believe that I’m talking about my feelings for Lucy when I really want to tell them that it’s you.”