Chapter 94

We took a few minutes to clean up, then went down to brunch well-rested and in a glowing mood. In fact, if it weren’t for Agent Tang lurking around the property somewhere, this would have been the most perfect and romantic weekend I’d ever spent. Thankfully, we hadn’t seen much of Agent Tang.

Just being with Charles here was amazingly restful. It helped that Brindle Cove seemed to exist without worrying about finding another story to write, or staying safe, or trying to ditch our guard. Here we could just be.

Gwen greeted us in the kitchen, the last of pancakes and bacon cooking. “Good morning, you two. How did you sleep last night?”

“Like a baby,” I said.

“Yeah,” Charles teased. “A big baby who kept stealing the covers.”

He grabbed a piece of bacon off the platter. His mother swatted at him with the spatula.

“Stop that,” she scolded. “Wait for the entire family.”

“I want a piece. I want a piece,” the kids yelled, clinging to Charles’ arms.

He laughed and snatched a piece for each of them off the platter as well and then made a show of saying, “Don’t tell Grandma.”

They laughed and scampered off into the dining room.

“So, what are your plans for today?” Gwen asked.Charles shrugged. “I think we’re just going to enjoy each other’s company. Ever since we ran into each other again, it’s been one thing after another. There have been investigations and all sorts of bad stuff. I don’t really want to relive it now. I know I’ve told you about it all over the phone.”

She gave him a sympathetic look. “Don’t worry about it. I understand, and your agent is sitting in the living room with a cup of coffee and his phone out, a great big reminder of all your troubles. I don’t know if he’s texting or if he’s just reading the news. But he seems glued to that.”

“I used to think dedication was an admirable thing now. I’m not quite so sure,” Charles snarked. “But all of that aside. I think Elena and I are just going to take the day and wander down to the beach and maybe go into town and get some ice cream.”

“Well, that does sound like a lovely day. I’ve got everything we need for a lobster boil tonight. So make sure you’re not going to stay out too late.”

“Yes, Mother.” Charles gave her a smart salute accompanied with a cheeky wink, then led the way to the dining table.

The two of us did exactly what Charles told his mother we would do. We crossed the lawn in the mid-morning daylight. If we weren’t by the ocean with its steady wind, the day would have been hot.

Hand-in-hand, we wandered down the garden path and through the small stand of trees out the other side. The ocean sprawled before us. Small dunes of dun-colored sand reached down to where the waves crashed in, tumbling blue and white with foam.

A stiff breeze blew the dune grass, rustling the grasses. But we must have been on a private beach dedicated to all of the cottages along the shore here because there wasn’t another soul on the beach. I did see one person out in the water swimming, but that was it.

“This is amazing,” I said, then I realized we were probably being watched and turned around, but Agent Tang was nowhere to be seen.

Charles grabbed me and gave me a big hug. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Mother promised that we wouldn’t have to deal with him today. I don’t know how she got him to stay back at the cottage, but she’s given us our privacy, at least as long as we’re on the beach. I’m sure he wouldn’t have agreed if we had gone into the town. But maybe if we end up going, we can get him to buy the ice cream.”

“We’re finally alone,” Charles said as he drew me into his arms and nibbled at my lip, his breath warm against my ear.

He kissed down the length of my neck. His fingers slipped between the buttons of my blouse and caressed my breast.“On the beach?” I whispered, though no one was there to hear me.

He shrugged against my shoulders. “We just had sex in the middle of a store. What’s the difference? We’re more alone here than we were in the dressing room.”

“The sand,” I protested.

He chuckled. “I have a blanket. And you’re all out of excuses.”

“This is what you meant when you said you didn’t need to come when we were back in the bedroom.”

He just grinned in response.

Charles led me around the backside of a sand dune and pulled a rolled-up blanket out from under his jacket. He spread this on the ground where we would be hidden from view if anybody happened to leave the other cottages and walk along the beach. Then he drew me down to sit beside him.

We kissed in time to the croon of the waves on the shore. The only one who interrupted our solitude was a lone seagull flying overhead.

This time, we took our time to make love. He carefully unbuttoned my blouse, kissing my chest and the swell of my breasts above my bra.

I leaned back on my hands, arching toward him, sighing as he moved aside the lacy fabric of one cup and took my nipple in his mouth to suck on it.

I pulled his shirt off over his head, tracing my fingers along the outlines of the muscles on his chest and abs, running slowly down until I reached the button on his pants. He closed his eyes. When I undid this and slid the zipper down, leaving enough room for his growing erection to push his boxers out over the top of his pants, he let out a sigh of his own.

We gently stroked and teased one another, touching every erogenous spot we could think of to increase arousal. It became a game to see how turned on we could get one another without actual sex.

Somehow, being with Charles was far more intimate in the daylight on the beach. All alone, this allowed us to focus on one another, to go slow, and enjoy each other.We weren’t rushed in a bedroom, worrying about who was hearing. We weren’t sneaking about in a changing room in the city. We weren’t trying to be quiet in the bedroom so that the guards didn’t hear.

All of a sudden, making love took on a whole new meaning. I could see the love in his eyes clearly. It mingled with desire, morphing into something far more potent than just lust. We weren’t having sex because we were horny. We were having sex to connect with one another.

So when he pushed me down to the blanket and spread my legs, I welcomed him.

Every touch felt like a caress, like an exclamation of his feelings for me. When he pressed inside, a feeling so deep and powerful overwhelmed my body that I nearly came.

He took long, slow strokes as if he wanted to feel every inch of my body along his shaft with each pull, memorizing the details of the inside of me. In return, I memorized the feel of him. Each soft curve and twitch of his member as it rubbed inside me, drawing up deep pleasure.

We stayed on the beach for hours, forgetting all about going into town for ice cream. Over and over, we made love to the sound of the surf, spending the time in between getting to know one another, the stupid things neither of us had bothered to ask with adult life breathing down our necks.

I found out about Charles’ favorite color and what his dream pet would be. We talked about our relationships with the moon goddess. Charles believed in her as a real influence but not as an actual being. But he never laughed when I swore she was as real as anyone else. I’d always felt a connection to the goddess I couldn’t explain any other way.

Only when Charles’ stomach let out a momentous growl did the passage of time dawn on us. He stood, offered a hand to help me up, and then shook out the blanket.

“I can smell Mother’s lobster boil. I hope you’re hungry.”

“Ravenous,” I said, smacking his butt. “Hurry up.”