Rebel: Chapter 24

Buenos Aires, Argentina Three weeks. That’s how long I’d had Penelope in my bed. They had been—without a doubt—the best and hardest three weeks of my life. The best because I had her curled into me at night, her soft moans in my ear, her body so sweetly encasing mine.

The hardest because it got more difficult every single day to keep my feelings—and our relationship—secret.

I’d gone surfing with her off the coast of Chile, sledded down the glaciers in Patagonia, made love to her as we passed through the Strait of Magellan, and when we’d passed through Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of our journey, I knew she would be what pointed me north when this was all over.

In a little over a month, we’d be able to go public. I could hold her hand, kiss her, claim her. Even though Penelope put off a don’t-touch-me vibe, it didn’t stop the guys from thinking they’d be the one to change her mind.

She still went to the bar as per her contract. Still danced, still smiled, still acted every bit the Rebel, and on nights when I chaperoned that little meat market, I sat like a tiny ball of rage, unable to tell each and every one of those asshats to fuck right off and leave my girlfriend alone.

Because they didn’t know she was my girlfriend. No one did.

Every time she smiled at me, laughed with me, hell, even when she ignored me in public, I fell a little harder for her, gave a little more of myself over to her.

I gave her my everything. Except Elisa. I hadn’t told Penelope my plan, yet. Not because I didn’t trust her, but because there was no margin for error. Not even the smallest hitch could happen, or it would all go south.

Which I knew, when she eventually did find out, would sound like I didn’t trust her. I just couldn’t afford another cog in the clockwork, even if that cog was my very heart and soul right now.

Elisa was my sister, and every complication risked her life all the more.

The minute he caught wind of what we were up to, or so much as stumbled onto her acceptance papers from Harvard, she’d pay in ways that scared the shit out of me. Ways that had cost us our mother.

“You’re sure these will work?” I asked the man in Spanish, thumbing through the documents. Elisa’s face stared up at me, the same brown eyes I saw in the mirror every day. She looked so much like our mother now, but there was no lingering sadness or defeat about her the way there was about Mom the last time I’d seen her.

“Those will work,” he promised.

“Thank you,” I said, handing over a huge amount of pesos and leaving his seedy little shop. I grabbed the first cab I saw and told the driver the address of the port as the sun began to rise. If I got back in the next ten minutes, Penelope would never know I’d been missing.

As I got off on deck nine, Lindsay caught up with me. “Early riser?” she asked.

“I could say the same about you. What are you up to?”

“Went for a little walk. It’s nice to get off the ship without the students sometimes, you know?”

“I do,” I said, thinking that I’d be off the ship in a hotel with Penelope tonight. Alone for the first time since Chile, and I had zero intention of leaving our hotel room.

“What do you have planned today?”

“I’m with the Renegades today, and then I have a cultural excursion tomorrow. Hey, it includes a tango demonstration. You should come with if you don’t already have one of your own.”

Her eyes lit up, and I cursed inwardly. I’d meant it in a friendly fashion, but Lindsay still hadn’t given up.

“I’d love to!”

“Great, I’ll email you the details.”

I made my excuses and got into my suite as quickly as possible, shutting my bedroom door. Penelope was already gone, no doubt at the gym with Landon. She’d been a maniac lately with twice-a-day workouts. Her body was perfect already, but she kept mumbling something about not being strong enough, and I’d lose her to the weight room. Not that I was arguing. I loved her body no matter what shape she was currently sporting.

I hid this set of documents with the others, my little treasure trove growing by the week. There was only one more piece I needed, and though it had to wait until right before we docked, I was going to need Penelope’s help to get it.

But that was something I’d worry about closer to that date.

I checked the time and placed the call.

“Cruz!” Elisa called out.

“Hey! How are you?” I got that immediate shot of relief that nothing had happened to her since the last time I’d made contact.

“I’m great. Where are you now?”

“Argentina.”

“That’s amazing. Everything still okay?”

“I don’t have a lot of time, but I wanted to tell you that I have it.” I lowered my voice, as if there was a chance I’d be overheard on her end.

“You do? It’s real?”

“As real as it gets until we get you a legal one.”

“It’s going to happen, isn’t it? You’re really coming?”

“You just hold on, Elisa. I’m on my way.”

I was getting her the hell out of there, no matter what it cost me.

…

“So how exactly did you manage this?” I asked a couple hours later, staring at the biggest ramp I’d ever seen.

“I called in a few favors,” a blond guy said, wheeling over. “I’m Nick. You must be Doc.”

“So they tell me,” I said, shaking his hand. “Penna talks about you a lot.”

“Oh yeah? All I’ve heard about you is what a giant pain in the ass you are.” He grinned, but he was completely blocked from my vision as Penelope came barreling past me, launching herself into his lap.

“Nick!”

“Man, it’s a good thing I can’t feel anything south of the border, because you’re probably crushing me.” He laughed as he hugged her back. “Damn it’s good to see you, girl.”

“You, too,” she said, pulling back with a huge grin. “Thank you for coming all the way down here. You have no clue what it means to me.”

“Yeah, I do.” His hands felt up her biceps, and I did my best not to hit the kid. “Damn. You kept your word. Two-a-days?”

“I’m an asshole,” Landon said, moving Penna out of the way so he could take her spot on Nick’s lap. “Santa, for Christmas I would like—”

“Get off me, asshat.” Nick laughed, and Landon hopped up only to be replaced by Pax leaning in to hug him.

“Good to see your face,” Wilder said.

“Yours, too,” Nick answered.

“Little John, my man!” Landon said as an enormous—

Holy shit.

“Penelope,” I whispered so only she could hear me. “Is that?”

“I’ll take care of it,” she promised, not looking at me before she ran off to embrace the guy who had been our getaway driver after the High Roller BASE jump.

His eyes flew wide as he saw me—recognized me. “Hey, aren’t you—”

Penelope got to him before he finished that sentence, dragging him away from the crowd. I watched their discussion, which was obviously heated, from the corner of my eye as the crew brought in the motorcycles. Among them were two minibikes.

“What are those for?” I asked Wilder.

“Practice,” he answered.

“Practice for what?”

His eyes widened, and he glanced between Penelope and me before calling her name. She ran back over, a flush in her cheeks that had nothing to do with excitement, if I had to guess by the look she shot me.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Doc would like to know what the minibikes are for,” Pax said with a false sweetness.

That flush of color deepened as she turned to me. “I’m learning a new trick today, and so is Zoe.”

I’d signed off on FMX practice, so I wasn’t surprised. “Okay, but you need baby bikes for it?”

Pax laughed and slapped her on the back lightly. “Oh God, this is too much fun.”

“Shut up,” she muttered toward him. “Currently I’m one of the only women in the world who can backflip a motocross bike.”

“Right.”

“Zoe would like to learn. So we brought in a minibike because she’ll need to get the flip first before we can add in the weight of a full-sized bike. She’s been working out, her muscles are building, and this is the first step. We have a foam pit to start with, so she won’t come to any harm, and I’m the best person to teach her.”

My eyes narrowed. “You’ve also been lifting weights and doing two-a-days, if I’m not mistaken. What exactly will you be doing that requires that kind of buildup?”

She sucked in a breath and raised her chin. Never a good sign when it came to this woman. “I’ll be learning how to do a double backflip.”

“A double backflip.”

“Right.”

This was when my lack of experience was glaringly obvious. Jump out of a plane? Got it. BASE jump? No problem. Anything with a parachute and I was golden, but motorcycles? Unless it involved driving it from point A to point B, I was pretty damn clueless. I’d simply trusted that this was their realm and given her the benefit of the doubt.

Obviously I’d fucked up.

“And how many women in the world have ever successfully completed a double backflip?” I asked.

From my peripheral, Pax looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself, but I didn’t take my eyes off Penelope.

“Well, I would be the first.”

My jaw snapped closed so fast that my teeth clicked. I sucked in a deep breath and told myself to react as her advisor and not her boyfriend. The fact that this powerhouse of a woman carried my heart within her body couldn’t play into this right now. Later…well, that was later.

“Why is it that a woman hasn’t completed this trick?”

“Well, typically the bike is too heavy, and the girls can’t get enough height or build up enough strength to get the bike around twice before they land,” Nick answered, having appeared out of nowhere.

Or I’d just been too focused on Penelope to notice.

I looked up at the massive ramp and the foam pit that lay just beyond it. “And what happens if you can’t pull the bike around for the second rotation?”

“She lands on her head and snaps her neck,” Nick said with a shrug.

Holy fucking shit, I was going to be sick. I’d seen battle wounds, held one of my friends as he died, and still I’d never felt the gut-shaking nausea that gripped me when I pictured that happening to my Penelope.

“That’s not going to happen,” she snapped at Nick. “Stop trying to scare him. Dr. Delgado?”

I pulled my eyes from the ramp to hers, trying to remember that in this arena I had no claim on her, no right to shake the shit out of her or kiss the stupidity from her beautiful, brilliant head. “Miss Carstairs?” I said as formally as I could manage.

She winced, but not big enough for anyone else to notice. “That’s why we have the minibikes. Strength won’t be an issue today. Just the motion of the flip, and we have the nets and the pit to make sure we’re okay. This is about as safe as we get.”

“Today.”

“That’s all I’m asking you to sign off on right now. Today. Once you see that I can handle it, I’ll bring you a proposal with the next step.”

“What’s going on?” Leah asked, looping her arm around Pax’s waist.

“Penna just told Doc about the trick,” Wilder answered.

“Oh? Ooooooh.”

If we’d been in private, I would have let her have it. Would have let her into my head, where she was about to test the very limits of my sanity. But we were in public, so the best I could do was send a subtle glare in her direction.

“Right, so, if that’s all, I’ll go get warmed up,” Penna said with a forced smile.

The others scattered, and, as Penelope passed me, I whispered, “This conversation is not over.”

“I figured as much,” she responded, then looked up at me. “But you have to trust me enough to know that this is my job. I know my limits. My friends know my limits. And yeah, I push them, but this is a safe environment, I promise.”

“Yeah. Still not over.”

“Noted,” she said, and walked off to gear up.

I sank into the chair next to Little John, who was under a shaded canopy. The weather was steady in the high seventies, but the sun could still be brutal. “She told you?”

He shook his head and stared me down. “She told me enough for me to know that you shouldn’t be doing whatever it is you’re doing.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“You’re her teacher.”

I looked around to make sure the cameras were nowhere near. Of course we were left alone. We were just the stagehands, and the cameras were on the stars. “I wasn’t that night we met. I was just a guy in a bar, and she…she’s Penelope.”

“You should have come clean to the school, to the other Renegades the moment you both realized it.”

Thank you, Jiminy Cricket.

“Yep, but we didn’t, and now we’re here. I should have been stronger. I should have told her no, but like I said, she’s Penelope.” I watched my woman walk over to the bikes with Zoe, clad head to toe in protective gear. “And I am apparently a weak man. God, is she really going to be all right?”

Little John looked back and forth between us for a second before sighing. “Today she’ll be fine. She’s mostly refreshing and working on the mini. Don’t stress. And as for being weak, well…I know what it’s like to tell that girl no, and if what she wanted was you—is you—then you never stood a chance. I’m not sure Gandhi could resist Penna when she wants something. But I’ve never in my life seen her want a guy, which is why I haven’t outed you to the others.”

“Thank you,” I said, loathing almost every choice I’d made. I hated being on the wrong side of any ethical issue, let alone one this big, but when it came to Penelope, there was no line I wouldn’t cross, no evil I wouldn’t commit to keep her.

Because I was in love with her.

Fuuuuuck. When had I let that happen? When I’d made love to her in Chile? When we’d fought in the classroom? When my anger at her was overcome by my sheer respect for her fearlessness? Even earlier, when she’d done dishes with me at Grandma’s house? Maybe it was even before that, on her birthday when I’d realized I couldn’t stay away from her, that she was a magnet and I was a compass, my north facing wherever she moved to.

Or maybe it was from the beginning, when I’d stepped out of that Ferris wheel. Little John was right: I’d never stood a chance.

“But I’ll tell you this,” he drawled on, and I tuned back in to the conversation. “If you ever hurt her, you won’t have to worry about Pax and the boys, because I’ll kill you with my bare hands.” He cracked the top off a soda like he hadn’t just threatened my life and started to drink.

“You won’t ever have to worry about that. I’d move heaven and earth to keep that woman safe if she’d just let me.”

Little John laughed. “And welcome to life with the Renegades.”

…

The morning passed in white-knuckled nausea as I watched Penelope first take the ramp with her full-size bike she called Elizabeth. She performed trick after trick to the applause of her friends.

Every time she went airborne, my stomach dipped. Logically, I knew she was good—the best in the world in all actuality—but my heart wouldn’t shut the hell up, screaming that she could kill herself at any moment.

This wasn’t one stunt that had been meticulously planned and executed once. No, this was hours and hours of prolonged torture with a hundred opportunities for her to get hurt.

When she landed the single back flip perfectly, I split into two sides. The first swelled with pride that she was so fucking spectacular. The second screamed inwardly that she took such needless risks.

They moved the giant pit into place with the help of four forklifts as Penelope worked with Zoe.

“Why Zoe?” I asked as Leah took the chair next to me, the text I’d assigned for history in her lap.

“Because she asked,” Leah answered. “Penna knows what it’s like to be a woman in a sport that doesn’t make a lot of room for them. So she puts the personal shit aside and helps.”

“Personal shit?”

“Zoe ties her value to her vagina,” Rachel answered standing next to me. “Penna doesn’t put up with that, but she’s willing to help her out of the hole she dug herself, so that says more about Penna’s character than anything.”

I slowly brought my gaze around to Rachel’s, my eyes wide.

“What?” she shrugged. “That girl is a piece of work.”

“Dr. Delgado, may I ask you a question?” Leah opened her book.

“Sure,” I answered, my stomach clenching in paranoia. Had I looked at Penelope too long? Smiled too wide? Had Leah put it all together?

“Do you think that Eva Peron made Juan, or that it was more of a mutual rise?” Leah asked. “Sorry, I know it’s not office hours, I was just wondering.”

Relief flooded me. School questions, I could handle. I almost laughed at how these two women could not be any different, yet they were two of Penna’s closest friends.

“Okay, first,” I said to Rachel, “What? She’s maybe a little flirty, but—”

“Rachel’s just pissed that Zoe shacked up with Landon while they were broken up for a couple years. Give her a break, Rach. You won. She lost.”

Holy shit, it was like I was back in college, except I’d gone to college through night classes and online courses while I was in the military full-time, so I’d never had this level of drama to contend with.

Completely ignoring everything that had just been said, I turned back to Leah. “Second, Eva Peron was a force of nature who I believe would have helped propel any man she wanted into office, but when coupled with Juan Peron’s military experience and general charisma, they were pretty much the power couple of Argentinian politics.” I looked back to where the woman I loved used her hands to explain something to Zoe as the three guys looked on. “But I will say that I don’t think Juan would have had a chance without her. He was the lucky one in that relationship.”

I folded my hands in my lap and bit my tongue, choking back the bile as Penna began to work with the minibike, under-rotating the flip again and again into the foam pit, only to be pulled out by the crane they’d brought over.

Leah looked up and glanced between where Penna failed another attempt and I held my face in my hands. “Don’t worry. She’ll get it. As for Zoe…” She sighed as Zoe landed on her back in the pit, the small bike on top of her. “She’s never had the same dedication as Penna, and these tricks are all about commitment once you’re in the air.”

As the clock hit about three p.m., Penelope landed the first double rotation, hitting her tires into the pit. She came up with her fist raised, and the Originals rushed toward her, hugging and jumping.

She looked over at me, and I wanted nothing more than to do the same, to wrap her in my arms and tell her how very proud of her I was even though she continually scared the shit out of me.

The look that passed between us felt too intimate for public viewing, but I didn’t break eye contact until she did, our smiles soft and saying what we couldn’t.

Rachel noticed, lifting an eyebrow at me but saying nothing as she walked off.

Little John knew, and Rachel had suspected since the night of Penna’s birthday. We had to be more careful. We had only six weeks left until we docked, and I couldn’t afford to mess up now.

Elisa couldn’t afford it.

…

“You haven’t said a thing to me since this morning,” Penelope said as she tossed her bag on the canopied bed of our beachfront bungalow.

We were thirty miles outside the city in the quietest, most exclusive resort I could find. Things needed to be said, and we couldn’t chance ears or eyes. Plus, I wanted to hear her scream my name again.

Private bungalow it was.

“It’s because there’s so much to say that I really don’t know where I could possibly start,” I answered, dropping my bag next to my side of the bed.

“You’re pissed about the trick.” She crossed her arms under her magnificent breasts, making them rise above the neckline of her pink sundress. Her hair was loose down her back, and, if I didn’t know that had been her under all that gear on the bike, I never would have guessed that Rebel was my Penelope.

But she was.

“I’m pissed that you didn’t tell me. That you let me walk in blind like an asshole.”

“You signed off on practice. You never asked what tricks we’d be doing.”

“That’s not fair.”

“It’s true. And you know what else? If you were just my advisor, you wouldn’t be half as pissed. You’re not pissed at Rebel for not telling you, you’re mad at your girlfriend, and that’s what’s unfair.”

“Hell yes, I’m pissed!” I growled, trying to keep my voice down. “How long have you been planning that?”

“About three weeks,” she admitted, dropping my gaze.

“And in those three weeks, in any of our time together, it never occurred to you to say, ‘hey, babe, I’m going to attempt something that might get me killed?’ Or did that just slip your mind for twenty-one days?”

“I don’t want to fight with you,” she said softly.

“I don’t really care. If this is the only time we have together to work this out, then we’re going to stand here and fight it out.”

She bit her lip, and damn I wanted to kiss it free. All day I’d been fighting every instinct in my body that screamed to get my hands on her. I needed to feel her heartbeat, hear her breathing, see her come apart, know that she was really unharmed. Was I going to feel like this after every freestyle session she had? Fuck my life. I’d never survive it.

“You cannot hide this shit from me,” I said, trying to maintain some semblance of calm. “Not as your advisor, not as your boyfriend. I’m not going to like everything you do, but you can’t blindside me like that.”

“I’m sorry, but you don’t get a say.” She shook her head to emphasize her point.

“I don’t what?”

“You. Do. Not. Get. A. Say. You can approve our stunts because of some stupid-ass legal deal, but you don’t get a say in what I do with my body. That is my job, Cruz. That is what I’ve loved to do since I was seven years old, and you don’t get to bust into my life and suddenly decide that you are ruler supreme or get mad when I’m doing exactly what I did before you showed up.”

“For fuck’s sake, Penelope! I’m not just mad, I’m terrified! How hard is that for you to understand? Do you have any idea what it’s like to watch someone you love pull the shit that you do? To know that they are more than aware of the danger and that’s why they didn’t tell you? That’s not partnership, that’s treating me like I’m inferior. At least if I’d known what you were going to do, I could have resigned myself to it more than five minutes before you put on the gear.”

“What did you say?” her voice was soft, incredulous.

I raked my hands through my hair, tugging in frustration. “I said that you scare the ever-loving shit out of me, and you can’t seem to understand that I’m having a hard time processing that.”

Her mouth dropped open. “No, after that.”

“That you don’t trust me enough to tell me what the hell you’re up to?” I flinched. Shit. I was the pot calling the kettle black here. I hadn’t told her anything about Elisa. Not in all the time we’d had together.

Who had two thumbs and was a huge hypocrite? This guy.

But there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about that. Telling her may have opened my careful plan up to mistakes, and the bottom line was that it put Penelope in real danger, and I wasn’t willing to risk it. Even for Elisa.

“You know what? I’m going to step outside for a moment. I honestly think this argument has made its point. I’m pissed you didn’t tell me. You don’t think I have a say, and maybe you’re right. We’re kind of at an impasse, so let’s just cool off.”

I turned, kicked off my shoes and socks, and walked out of our bungalow through the sliding glass door. The area just outside was shaded by tropical trees, but once I stepped onto our private section of beach, the sand was perfectly warm between my toes. I walked a few yards away to a cave-like grouping of boulders and leaned against the sun-warmed stone.

I had to tell her about Elisa. I couldn’t keep it from her anymore, but the risk…all of it was on me. I was the one who would get fired if we were caught. I was the one whose sister wouldn’t get to college if I failed, or worse if my father found out what we were up to. I was the one who was in love with Penelope, not the other way around.

When it came to risk in life, Penna might be the one on the ramp, but I was the one without the helmet.

I watched the waves from the Atlantic Ocean come ashore in gentle pulses. The sound was soothing when my brain was such a fucked-up place to be. Closing my eyes, I let the rhythmic crash of the water fill my head, washing away everything else. When I opened them, Penelope stood in front of me.

“Hey.” No matter how mad or how scared I’d been, I was ass over head in love with this woman.

“You love me?” she asked quietly, a slight lift to her voice at the end.

Had she just been in my head? “What?”

She licked her lips nervously and then raised her chin. “Inside, you said that I didn’t know what it was like to watch someone I love pull the shit that I do. Did you mean it? Do you love me?”

Well, guess I let that slip. Smooth, Cruz. Real romantic right there.

“Yes,” I answered. “I’m in love with you, Penelope. How could I not be? Look at you. You are everything. Beautiful, bold, brilliant, kind. Everything I’ve ever wanted.”

She didn’t respond, instead staring up at me with more than a touch of shock, or maybe wonder?

“Penelope?”

Silence was definitely not how I pictured this moment going. Not that I’d ever put much thought into it, but if I had, this was not on my list of desired outcomes. Damn, did I scare her off? Was she that skittish over the L word?

Slowly, she lifted her hands to my face and smiled so brightly she could have lit the world with her happiness. As if she’d flicked my “on” switch, I took my first deep breath since letting my feelings slip. That pit in my stomach disappeared, replaced by an emotion I was scared to call hope.

“I love you, Cruz.” Her voice was soft but strong—just like she was.

“You don’t have to say it just because—”

She shifted her hand so her thumb crossed both my lips.

“I’m not. I’m saying it because it’s true. I tried to fight it; our relationship is already so complicated. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over this last year, it’s that we have to say the things that demand to be said. Regret is its own heartbreak, and I refuse to regret a single thing about you—about us. So I’m saying it loudly. I am in love with you. Your honor, your determination, how you treat your family, but mostly I love you for the way you make me feel—cherished, like I’m something precious, protected, but still free. I love you because you’re stubborn, and you push back when I’m wrong, but you’re strong enough to step aside when I’m right. And yes, I’m glad you said it first, because I’m not sure I would have had the courage to.”

I gently took her wrists in my hands, pausing to place a kiss on the inside of her palm before I freed my mouth from her hand. “So you love me.”

She raised an eyebrow, and I nearly laughed. “Isn’t that what I just said?”

My arms went around her waist, and I tugged her to me. “Yeah, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of hearing you say it.” I’d never given enough of myself to a woman to love her, and I sure as hell hadn’t had one love me.

She leaned up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to the outside of my mouth. “I love you,” she said. Then placed another along my jaw. “I love you.”

“Thank God, because I love you so much I’m not sure how to breathe around how monumental it feels.”

I kissed her, sealing my words with my mouth. Before I could press her against the rocks, she backed me against the boulder. Her tongue slid into my mouth, all peppermint candy, tangling with mine until I groaned, my hands slipping from her waist to her ass. She kissed the same way she lived—with nothing held back. Was it any wonder that I was madly in love with her?

Her hands ran through my hair, her nails lightly scratching at my scalp, and the little whimpers she made in the back of her throat had me harder than the rock I leaned on. I’d never been so continuously turned on by a woman in my life. It didn’t matter how many times I took her—how many ways. The sex got hotter every time we touched.

She stepped back, her breasts rising and falling rapidly. God, she was so beautiful every moment, but when she started to spin out of control? So fucking exquisite.

As if she’d come to some decision to a question I wasn’t privy to, her eyes took on a gleam I couldn’t discern before she was back, her mouth on my neck. I groaned, leaning my head against the rock.

She tugged at my shirt and I obliged, ripping it over my head.

“I will never get tired of looking at you,” she said as her eyes raked over my body. “Or touching you,” she whispered as her fingers trailed down the lines of my pecs to the outside of my abs. “Do you trust me?”

“With my life,” I responded instantly.

She made me feel like every model and superhero rolled into one—someone who just might be worthy of loving her. Her kiss drove me mad, until I lost all care for where we were. My hands were in her hair, then on the straps of her dress, then under her hem, stroking up her sweet thighs. She was a fire I’d never be able to quench.

“Enough to give me control?”

It took conscious effort, but I paused, kissing her gently. “Do with me what you will.”

Then she slipped from my hands, rained kisses down my chest and stomach, until she dropped to her knees in front of me.

“Penelope?” I asked.

“I’ve wanted to do this for forever.” The heat in her eyes was nearly my undoing.

Then she slid my board shorts down just low enough that my dick sprang free. My breath abandoned me when her hand closed around me and began to stroke up and down the length.

That. Felt. Amazing.

Then her tongue swirled around the tip, and my hips rocked forward once before I got control of myself. That tongue was pure fucking magic.

When the head disappeared into her gorgeous mouth, I nearly came at the image. She sucked me in deep, her mouth impossibly hot and wet, and I had to remember to breathe.

“Penelope,” I moaned, my hands on her head.

She gripped my shaft with one hand and perfect pressure, then moved up and down with her mouth, swirling her tongue as she went. There were too many sensations to pinpoint one, so I quit trying. Quit thinking.

“Tell me how,” she said.

“God, baby. If you do it any better, I’ll be dead.”

“Good,” she said with a smile, and then took me inside, caressing me with the flat of her tongue while I slid toward the back of her throat.

So. Fucking. Perfect.

White-hot shots of pleasure ran through me, and my hips subtly thrust into her mouth. She moved with me, and when she moaned, the vibrations sent me nearly sky high.

I felt that tingle at the base of my spine, the tension that marked my approaching orgasm, and cursed. In control or not, I was not coming in her mouth right after I’d told her I loved her—after she’d told me she loved me. I wanted to be inside her, deep and hard. Wanted to hear that now-occupied mouth screaming my name.

I jerked my hips back, and she released me with a pop.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, her eyes impossibly blue and wide.

“Not a damn thing,” I said, tucking my dick back into my shorts with a hiss. I threw my shirt over my shoulder, and then lifted her up under her arms.

I kissed her, nearly mindless, but not so far gone that I would miss out on this. Lifting her by her ass, I smiled as she wrapped her legs around my waist. Her sundress rode up until it was her bare skin in my hands.

All I had to do was slide her panties to the side and I could be inside her.

I walked us into the bungalow and sat back on the bed so she straddled me.

“I could have finished you,” she said against my mouth.

“Oh, I’m well aware. You were just about there, Pen. But I’d rather finish you.” I ran my thumb along her lower lip. “God, this mouth.”

I tugged her soft lower lip with my teeth, and she whimpered. Giving in to her little demand, I kissed her thoroughly, until she was grinding down on me, her hips moving in a circular pattern that made me lose just about every thought in my brain.

Gripping the hem of her dress, I pulled it up and over her head, leaving her in just bra and panties. A snap later, the bra was gone, setting those glorious breasts free. Unable to help myself, I slipped one into my mouth, swirling my tongue around the pebbled tip until she moaned my name. Then I suckled, loving the sharp bite of her nails in my back.

Driving Penelope out of her mind was quickly becoming my favorite pastime.

She knocked me to my back and then stripped off my shorts, taking control again. I pushed up and pulled her panties over the flare of her hips, then pressed a hot kiss to her belly as I let them drop to the floor.

“I can’t wait,” she said, her breathing ragged as she straddled me. “Please, Cruz.”

One hand on her hip to steady her, I slipped my thumb along the seam of her core. She was drenched and ready, thank God.

“Please?” she asked again, angling her hips so her entrance was right at the tip of my straining erection.

Fuck, she was so wet, so hot as I slid through her folds.

Before I lost my mind, I reached over, pulling a condom from my bag and tearing it open with my teeth. A second later I was covered.

“You never have to beg me,” I told her.

She responded by lowering herself inch by inch until I was buried in her to the hilt. She squeezed me tighter than a fist and hotter than the sun. Nothing compared to this. Nothing.

“I love you,” she told me, her eyes open and bright.

Except that, I thought as she moved, her eyes locked with mine as she started to ride me.

“I love you,” I swore, pulling her in for a kiss, open and deep, nothing slow or tame left in me.

After that scene on the beach, I wasn’t sure how long I could last. Damn, the woman was perfect and so sexy. Her motions came faster with a deeper grind to her hips, and the tone of her moan told me she was climbing but not quite there.

Gripping her hair lightly, I tilted her head and set my mouth to the spot on her neck that drove her crazy. Then I concentrated on anything but the sweet glide of her body on mine, or that burning in the base of my balls that told me I was close.

Slipping my empty hand between us, I strummed her clit and felt the immediate tightening of her thighs around my hips.

“That’s it, baby.”

Then I swirled and pressed, using the combination I knew would send her flying. She tightened all around me, throwing her head back so that her hair brushed my knees.

“Cruz!” she screamed as her sex rippled around me, squeezed me so tight I had no choice but to join her as my orgasm overpowered. I emptied into her, as she collapsed against my chest.

“I love you,” I whispered into her hair, just because I could.

She looked at me, her eyes hazy with release. “I love you, too. I just didn’t know how much until you told me.”

Cupping her face in my hands, I kissed her softly, sweetly, imagining that’s how I’d kiss her good night every night for the rest of my life.

Because in that moment, I knew without a doubt that there was no one who could possibly compare to Penna Carstairs. She was it for me.

I just had to pray that I was strong enough to hold on to her, because I wasn’t sure I’d survive losing her.