Authors: Mallory Hart
“Is this enough?” he taunted her, increasing his speed. The well of desire pooling in her core knew it wasn’t. Every fiber of being needed more. She shook her head with a heated face. He licked his canines. “What do you want?” His voice was filled with a twisted pleasure as she moved beneath him desperately.
“I want you to fuck me,” she cried. His face cracked with delight as he pulled his fingers out of her. She gasped at the sudden absence, but screamed when he sunk his hard member into her slick entrance. He went fully in, a wicked expression on his face as he watched her open her mouth in a silent cry of ecstasy. He pulled out and plunged in again. She whimpered in pleasure as his hips moved at a torturous slow speed and ran her nails down his sides, earning a hiss of surprise from him.
“Faster.” She didn’t have to beg again. He thrusted hard, over and over again. His speed increased as she quivered around him, muscles tightening. He cursed under his breath and his movements became more manic. She cried out, voice rising as his intensity increased. Her nails dug into his back as he grunted. She rolled her pelvis into him as he thrust into her one more time.
His eyes rolled back and she cried out as their releases exploded together. Every nerve ending cried out in pleasure as their bodies pressed against one another with passion. The swell of the explosion lasted for what felt like several minutes.
She listened to his heavy breathing and watched their chests heaving up and down in perfect unison. He slid out of her with a soft moan and collapsed beside her. His arm curled possessively around her waist as he crushed her against his chest.
“Mine.” The possessive roar rumbled through the entire cavern.
They fell asleep to the rushing water.
Chapter 10
The fire was what found them. She could hardly believe her eyes when she spotted the dot of something on the horizon. It had to be a mirage. She still screamed.
“A ship,” she cried with a cracking tremble. Jack was selectively stacking the wood he’d scavenged from driest to least dry. Wet tinder was plentiful on the island, but useless. He leapt to his feet to scan the ocean after her announcement. He shielded his eyes with one hand and squinted to study the approaching vessel.
“Shit. You’re right,” he said with a numbed awe. They stared as the dot grew larger. The flying flag was the first thing their vision could make out. An emergency response team.
“Rescue,” she mumbled breathlessly. It felt impossible. She trembled and slumped to the ground in awe. Even when the ship anchored and a safety boat came out to meet them, she was still reeling in disbelief.
They’d been lost for three weeks. That’s what the medics told them as they checked their vitals and prodded them for any sign of tropical disease or injuries. He mentioned someone named Chloe kept calling the tipline to scream that they weren’t doing enough to find them and Allison nearly peed herself laughing. Maybe she’d gone mad on the island after all.
“I hit my head,” she explained to one of the doctors as he felt the small lump on the back of her skull.
“It feels okay, but further scans will let us know for sure. He shook his head in disbelief. “We weren’t expecting to find you two alive,” he admitted. His team members shot each other shared guilty looks over that comment, but she knew it was true.
Jack stretched his arms above his head with an exhausted yawn. “Well, we’re not in the habit of dying.” He was laid out on one of the cots, being as disruptive as possible.
She smiled at the revival of his cocky sense of humor. Their tanned arms brushed up against one another. The examining doctor rested his eyes on them for a brief moment, but then turned as he stood.
“Let’s get you guys some hot food.”
Jack snuck a kiss on her cheek as he ran after the doctor with a cry of excitement. She shook her head with a laugh as she followed them down the hall. Warm food, a soft bed, and strong arms. That sounded like paradise.
***
Drinking a piña colada with a cute umbrella for garnish was worlds apart from sucking the water out of a real coconut for survival, she decided. Her body leaned back into the canvas lounge chair with a relaxed sigh. She was settled underneath a huge umbrella. After the amount of sun she’d gotten on the island, she didn’t need any more tanning. She was burnt to a near crisp. She cast a jealous look over at the man floating on his back in the crystal blue pool.
“How did you tan so golden out there in the harsh elements?” she asked accusingly. He opened one lazy eye and smirked at her from his liquid domain.
“It’s the lion in me, babe.”
She flushed and looked around, but there wasn’t anyone out here with them. There wouldn’t be. The resort had given her a private area for the next month because they felt so bad.
“Let’s get some food,” she begged.
“Take a bite out of me.”
The corner of her mouth perked up. “Can I do that after we eat?”
A sudden spray of water covered her body and she squealed. He chuckled with a naughty grin as she glared down at him.
“Oops,” he said, strong arms clutching the side of the pool. Her mouth opened to say something smart, but his muscles provided an excellent distraction.
She paused and smiled.
“Maybe I will take you up on your offer after all,” she purred.
He cried out playfully as she jumped into the pool beside him. They tumbled against one another as she sprung up on the surface, lips crashing with laughs as their hands explored each and every inch.
The difference between a resort island and an uncharted island was obvious, but her heart felt heavy with gratitude for the bit of land they’d crashed on. It brought the two of them together in a way that she didn’t think was possible. His lips danced up her neck and she sighed happily.
Three weeks of being stranded with this man and she was head over heels in love. His smile melted her, she thought before she splashed him wildly in revenge. They laughed until they kissed underneath the sun together.
She heard later that they began calling their island “Lucky Island,” since they never thought that they would find the two stranded survivors.
A smile crossed her lips as she watched him underneath the glowing sunlight. She was lucky to have him.
Their rising laughter faded into the rising summer heat.
Epilogue
The phone had ringed just one time before an eager voice picked up picked up. “Hello? Alli?!”
“Hey, Chloe,” she began, then quickly brought the phone away from her ear as a torrent of yelling and scolding assaulted her.
“You call me
now
, and entire week after being rescued? What the hell, Alli. Is that all I am to you? You better start explaining yourself. You have no idea how worried I’ve been–”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry Chloe,” Allison said sheepishly to her best friend, as she rubbed her forehead. “I guess I’ve been sort of busy, and maybe a little too traumatized to think clearly.”
“That’s…that’s true,” Chloe relented. “You’ve been through a lot. I was just completely beside myself all this time. I don’t know who’s more traumatized, you or me. Okay, probably you, but seriously, I’ve been going out of my mind.”
“I’m sorry to have worried you, sweetie.”
“Whatever, I’ll get over it. When the hell do you get back?”
“Today. I’m hopping on the plane soon. It’s funny, but I’ll be back here in a few weeks to finish the assignment. I’d lost my camera equipment in the crash, so I wasn’t able to shoot anything. Once the insurance pays for a new set, I’ll be back here again in no time.”
“I can’t believe you’d even
want
to go back after what happened. Just make sure the next flight there lands safely this time, will you? Hopefully that good-for-nothing Jack isn’t the pilot again. He isn’t, right?”
“So you knew I was with him this whole time?”
“Alli! I followed every detail of your mysterious disappearance. Of course it had to be him to have crashed you onto an uncharted island! That jerk!”
“Actually…” Allison twirled her finger around the coiled landline of the hotel’s phone booth, “it might have been my fault that we crashed. I sort of tripped into the cockpit and…”
“Oy, okay Alli. You can tell me all about it in person. Talking about this before your flight home is bad ju-ju.”
Allison smiled at her friend’s lightheartedness.
“I’m just glad they found you and that you were able to finally get away from the bastard.”
“About that, Chloe…If it wasn’t for Jack, I don’t think I’d have survived on that island alone.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure he was a ton of help, but don’t sell yourself short, missy.”
“No, I mean it. Jack is…he’s
amazing
in the wild. He’s…he really belongs out there; it’s like his second nature, you know what I mean?”
There was a sharp gasp. “He told you, didn’t he? That he’s a lion shifter.”
“Well, it was more that he showed it to me…wait. You
knew
?”
“Lion shifters are bad news, Alli. They don’t give a rat’s ass about monogamy–you know, a lion’s pride has many lionesses. And Jack, he’s the
king
. Like, of
Australia
. I’m telling you, you don’t want to touch that with a fifty-foot pole.”
“Chloe, how the hell do you know so much about this?”
“Huh? Well, it’s complicated…I think I may have said too muåch. You know what? Let’s just forget this convo, and I’ll see you back when you get home, okay? We’ll discuss everything over a few glasses of wine. How does that sound?”
“Er…I–”
“Okay, great,” Chloe laughed nervously. “Well, I’ll see you, Alli. Don’t get your cute ass marooned again. At least never again with
him
.”
“I won’t–”
“Okay, love you. Bye!”
Click
.
Allison slowly placed the receiver back on its holder.
That was weird.
A knock came from the door, and she opened it to find Jack who promptly scooped her up into his arms.
“Ready to head to the airport, babe?”
“Yeah. It’s just…I had a bizarre conversation with Chloe just now. She said something about you being the king of Australia.”
Jack’s expression darkened. “That woman needs to be taught a lesson in restraint,” he said through clenched teeth.
“What did you say?” She looked at him with curiosity.
He sighed in frustration. “Suffice it to say that she has a few secrets of her own. Now, let’s hurry; the driver’s waiting for us.”
“Oookay,” Alli grabbed her luggage handle reluctantly. “But someone had better explain everything to me once we get back home,” she said with a fire in eyes.
THE END
Click
Here
now
to
JOIN
our
Exclusive Readers List
and
INSTANTLY
get access to more e-books, and be the first to hear about the newest releases!
BECAUSE
we’re building a community of avid
Romance Readers
like you, and we want you to
BECOME A MEMBER
today!
Here is a FREE Bonus!
The Beast Spell: Bear Shifter Romance
CHAPTER 1
The smell of fresh earth and warmed asphalt still lingered in the air here. She rolled down her car window and inhaled the soft breeze. It brushed over her skin, and she admired the way her mocha skin glittered in the rising sunlight. A hand-painted sign welcomed her back: Prescott, Arizona. She almost laughed at the weathered white letters looking more worn than when she left for college. This place was a small town with pride in their beaten up sign, and she’d always be a Prescott girl at heart.
When she left this place, she had a teenager’s body and small dreams. Kiara, the girl, had come back as Kiara, the woman with a full hourglass figure that stopped men in their tracks, and a business degree in a gold-trim frame sitting in the backseat of her SUV. Right beside it was a file box filled with the business plan she’d worked on for the last year of college. Her dreams were big now, and they were going to come true. All of them. The rush of determination surged through her whenever she thought about it.
Willow Road. The blue sign was so small she’d almost missed it. She hooked a sudden right turn and bumped up the radio to belt along to one of her favorite pop songs, “Grown Woman” by Beyoncé. As she rolled down the street, she beamed at the tiny park where she used to hang out as a kid. Then her eyes spotted a faded peony-pink house with a small driveway leading to a tin roof carport. Her mother called a month ago to say it was up for rent and the perfect size for a starter home.
She parked her car underneath the carport and swung her door open, and a huge smile crossed her face. This place had just the rustic markings that she’d been dreaming of. Her answer had been an immediate yes after her mom had sent her the pictures. It needed a little love, but she’d buff and shine it into an absolute gem.
She slipped a hand underneath the doormat to find the key the realtor left and walked into the quaint kitchen. Nostalgia hit her hard as she ran her fingers lightly across the tile counters. Every home in Prescott had charm like this, including her childhood home on the other side of town. She would visit her parents tomorrow after the movers came by, she decided.
A loud growl erupted from her stomach, empty already of the granola bars and iced coffee from the road trip, and she put a hand over it.
“I get it,” she said with a laugh. “Let me get out the luggage first!”
She pulled two vintage suitcases from the car and lugged them into the kitchen with a satisfied grunt. The tenant before her had left an ornate mirror behind when they moved and she admired the reflection of the woman she’d returned as. Her eyes were brushed with gold and lined with black kohl, making her chocolate amber eyes pop. Her chocolate skin had never glowed with more excitement for life. Maybe it helped that she’d started investing in skincare products. Her high school self would’ve balked at the amount of time it took her to get ready now. More than five minutes? No way!
Thinking about high school brought her back to lazy evenings filled with nerdy conversation at Dan’s Diner. Her stomach erupted once more at the memory of her favorite place to grab breakfast.
Her first meal back would have to be special, she reasoned. Dan’s it was! She locked the house up and hopped back into her SUV. Another pop song was blaring, and she sang all the way, dodging potholes that she still remembered being there from years ago.
The diner was located near downtown, but not far from her new place. She turned into a parking lot sparsely dotted with a few other vehicles. The early morning crowd had vanished, and the lunch crowd wouldn’t be around for another two hours.
Would she see anyone she knew? Would they even recognize her? She smoothed her colorful skirt and plunged into the restaurant with a brave face.
Dan’s had a permanent smell of hot coffee and bacon grease, and she’d never realized how much she had missed it. A woman with feathered gray hair and round glasses offered her a booth by the window.
“What can I get ya, dear?” The waitress asked after handing her a crinkled menu.
“Orange juice, please,” she replied, “Plus a buttermilk pancake stack with a side of thick-cut applewood-smoked bacon.”
The woman nodded and vanished behind a swinging door into the kitchen. Kiara stretched her arms and settled into the booth, surveying the old decorations that still lined the walls: old pictures of baseball teams, state fair awards, a picture of the first streetlight the town had built. They’d come a long way! Her town was ripe for her new business venture, and she couldn’t wait to get started.
The waitress dropped off her juice and glanced down at her. “Honey, if you haven’t noticed, you’ve got an admirer at the bar,” she said with a conspiring winked.
Kiara stared at the retreating form of her server and glanced towards the bar. There was a rugged man with a stained apron tied around his waist loading up the coffee maker.
Definitely not him.
Her eyes traveled to the only other person left other than the waitress – the dark-haired ruggedly handsome man sipping on a cup of coffee. To her surprise, he was staring right at her.
And he was looking mighty familiar too. His realization clicked before her own.
“Kiara?”
Her eyebrows rocketed upwards.
No way
.
“Owen?!”
If she’d left Prescott as a scrawny girl, then Owen had stayed to become a demi-god. She nearly gaped when he stood up, dragging roughly six more inches of height with him. Not to mention muscle. And here she thought that she was the one who had won Prescott’s late bloomer prize. His shoulders were twice as broad, and his muscles flexed powerfully underneath a fitted gray V-neck. As he approached, she felt her throat dry up as he smiled, flashing white teeth, noticeably devoid of the silver braces he’d once had.
“I can’t believe it’s you!” They both said in unison.
“Can I join you?” He asked, motioning to the booth.
“Of course!” She said, and he trotted back to grab the cup of coffee he’d already ordered. The waitress came by with another little wink as he headed back, dropping off Kiara’s order.
“Well, your taste hasn’t changed too much,” he said with an irresistibly sexy smile and pointed to her food. She felt her cheeks grow hot at the sight of his grin. She shook her head and thought back to their high school days of discussing comic book heroes and fantasy genres; the memories came rushing back.
“It’s my first time back in years. I had to grab an old favorite,” she said with a shrug.
“Dan the man does make the best pancakes in town,” Owen said with approval. “Even after all these years.”
“Do you remember when we use to argue seriously about
Dungeons and Dragons
in these booths? We were such passionate… nerds.”
He laughed, nodding with nostalgic excitement, and his glowing smile spread wider across his face as he leaned towards her. A whiff of his musky cologne hit her she felt her heart skip a beat.
“I know I was a bit of an awkward teenager, but to tell you the truth, I didn’t know it back then. I lived in a happy bubble, with good people like you to laugh and enjoy it with. Kiara, I’m really happy to see you again. I don’t know how we ended up not staying in touch.”
“That…” Kiara said, raising her hand guiltily, “would be my fault. I got so busy with college, then business school. I know that sounds like an excuse, and maybe it is. I guess I wanted to come back to town after accomplishing something. I didn’t want to be that nerdy girl anymore.”
“Well you certainly aren’t anymore, are you?” His gaze followed down the lines of her busty form.
An excited tremor ran through her entire body. This was the last thing she’d been expecting to come back to in Prescott. He’d grown into a man, but his boyish youth shined through when he grinned at her. His cup of black coffee, letting off plumes of steam upward, seemed mature and rugged compared to her pancakes. Did flashes of her high school self show through?
They sat in the booth for hours. The lunch crowd came and went. They ordered lunch until he had to leave for a work assignment. Her mind reeled for reasons to pull him back to her, to brush her fingers against the smoothness of his skin.
“Owen, are you free tomorrow? I could use your help.”
“You beat me to the punch. Here I was about to ask for your number… again. Unless it hasn’t changed?”
She smiled. “It has, and… of course, Owen since it’s you,” she said with all the sass she could muster, even as she felt a sudden wave of girlish bashfulness flutter in her stomach.