It would be a full six weeks before all their schedules aligned, and so they made a date to meet in Miami at her mother’s favorite Creole restaurant. She was looking forward to seeing her parents in person. It had been a long time. She had video chatted with them three times a week while she was away, but it had been months since she had seen them last.
She heard the doorbell ring. She glanced at the clock. It wasn’t yet 11:00 a.m., and she hadn’t been expecting anyone. No one came to visit her on the island. Most of her friends were in academia and lived all around the world.
She opened the door, and her heart jumped. Flipped. Went right from her chest and into her throat. Elias was there, looking absolutely gorgeous and a little unsure of himself.
“Hi.” She was breathless. She couldn’t help it. She couldn’t hide it from him. She’d never thought she would see him again, but he was at her doorstep.
“Hi. I know it’s early, but I was hoping I could take you out for lunch today.”
She grabbed his arm and tugged him inside without saying anything.
“I should have called. I was going to call, but I didn’t have your number.”
She smiled. He definitely seemed uncertain in the moment, and it amused her. He was such a beautiful man, with a smile that must have made hundreds of women jump out of their underwear. Yet he acted as if she might turn him down.
It was wildly satisfying to her. She stepped forward, looped her arms around his neck and kissed him lightly on the lips. “You want to take me out, huh?”
“Yes.” He smoothed his hands down her back, which she found arousing and comforting. “Very much so.”
“Why do you want to take me out? Is it because you want to go to bed with me again? I slept with you before. You have to know how much I enjoyed it.” She kissed his jaw.
He shut his eyes. “I like you, Cricket... I just want you to know that I’m not just using you for sex. I took your virginity. That means something to me. It’s a gift you can only give once, and I want you to look back on that night and not have any regrets about it.”
Her stomach did a weird flippy thing, and she knew in that moment that she had tumbled a little bit in love with him. She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him with everything she had. “My room. Right now.” She slipped her hands up his shirt, feeling his warm muscled back.
“Lunch first.” He made no move but kissed her again, his tongue sweeping into her mouth. “I specifically came here to take you out, not to sleep with you.”
“It’s too early for lunch...”
“We can have brunch instead,” he said as he slid his hands down to her behind and cupped it.
“I look a mess right now.” She kissed his neck. “I can’t possibly leave the house looking like this.”
“You look delicious to me.”
“I’ll need to take a bath. A very soapy, very warm bath. You want to join me?”
“I can’t say no to you.”
She led him into her bathroom and turned to face him, staring at him for a moment. She couldn’t believe he was here. She had been thinking about him, craving his touch, and now he was here before her and that beautiful experience they’d had wouldn’t just be a onetime thing that she would only relive in her dreams. But she was going to feel his hands all over her body again, and she almost couldn’t stand it.
“What are you thinking about?”
“What are you thinking about?” she countered, unwilling to give up her thoughts.
“You.”
“Good answer, sir.”
“Take off your clothes. I’ve been thinking about seeing you naked for two days.”
She stripped off her tank top and the soft cotton T-shirt bra that she wore beneath it. She didn’t know how to be sexy. She had never felt sexy before, but being around Elias had changed her a little bit. She didn’t feel like her normal academic self. She felt womanly and sexual and happy. “Your turn.”
He peeled off his shirt, revealing his six-pack, and her mouth went dry. It should be illegal for one man to be so damn fine.
“Your turn again,” he said to her in his husky voice.
She grinned at him and turned around to wiggle out of her shorts. She heard him groan in appreciation and took it a step further, bending over the side of the tub to turn on the water.
“What the hell are you doing to me?”
She heard his pants unzip and his shoes hit the floor with a thud.
“Don’t move.” She felt him behind her, and then his hands were on her hips, his erection brushing her backside. She instinctively pushed her behind toward him, and he slipped inside her. She was incredibly aroused. His slow slide inside her felt so incredibly good that she almost blacked out. He shifted their bodies so that her hands were braced on the side of the tub and she was bent over before him.
He pumped into her with fast short strokes that were different from the other two times they’d had sex. She was finding that she liked it, the frenzy of it. The sound of his heavy breathing, the sound of their skin slapping together and her name on his lips. Every hard push inside was bringing her closer to orgasm.
He chanted her name. Over and over again. He was enjoying her, enjoying being inside her body. She’d never thought she would have this feeling, but this man was an unexpected gift. Had he chosen to walk away this afternoon and never look back, she would still be happy. Because he had already given her so much in such a short amount of time.
“Please, Cricket. Please come for me. You feel too good. I can’t hold on much longer.”
He didn’t have to ask, because she felt herself clenching around him, waves and waves of exquisite pleasure carrying her away. Elias let out a guttural moan and spilled himself inside her. After a few moments of recovery, he stood her up straight, pulled her into him and kissed her deeply. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “You provoked the hell out of me, but you’re new to sex and I should have waited to make love to you in bed.”
“Don’t be sorry. I might be new to intercourse, but not to sexuality.”
“That was the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard a naked woman say,” he said with a devastatingly delicious grin.
“I’m a nerd. I can’t help it.”
“You’re the most beautiful nerd in the world.”
“You’re very good at making a woman feel appreciated.” She gave him a quick kiss before she turned away to check the temperature of the bathwater and add bubbles. “I’d bet you end up going home with a lot of women you meet in bars.”
“I don’t.” He shut off the water and stepped inside the large tub. He groaned in pleasure and then held out his hand for her to join him. She leaned against him and shut her eyes.
This was what heaven must feel like. The hot water. The scented bubbles. And Elias’s large hard chest and arms surrounding her. “Why don’t you take a lot of ladies home?”
“I don’t date a lot because of my work.”
“What do you do for a living? I don’t think we discussed that.”
“We did. I’m a trauma surgeon at Miami Mercy.”
She stiffened. Miami Mercy? An uncomfortable feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. Her mother was chief of surgery there. She was his boss.
“What’s the matter?” He trailed his fingers down her arm. “You don’t like surgeons?”