Hidden Depths(47)

“He’s there. I was just out there and saw him.”

“Oh.” The woman’s smile dimmed, making her look a little less glamorous. “That’s odd. I’ve been calling.” But then she seemed to remember her self-possession and flashed a flirty look at Cassie’s dad. “And unlike some men, Evan never screens me.”

“I’m sure a guy would be nuts to ever screen you.” Her dad grinned.

Uh!

“Maybe he’s shacked up with somebody,” Tommy offered blithely in Cassie’s direction, ensuring she was this close to sticking her tongue out.

“Oh no, Evan would never bring a girl to his island.” Cassie couldn’t quite remember her own mother, but what she had seen of other people’s, they seemed awfully know-it-all about their kids. “I’m sure of it.”

“A guy?” Tommy teased, completely for Cassie’s benefit, no doubt, and Mrs. Reynolds did that tittering thing.

“Uh, no. Though I wouldn’t mind that at all,” she added for everyone’s benefit.

“I can take you,” Cassie said.

“Although you could too, Mr. Bailey,” Tommy noted.

“Mind your own business,” her dad snapped.

“I don’t usually just barge in on my son like this, I hope you know. But I was nearby and he’s seemed a little down.”

“Well, as I said, I was just there and he was fine. He took the groceries and, ah…” Both Tommy and her dad were now looking at her intently. “I mean I barely said five words to him actually, but he seemed fine. Okay, I mean.”

“I’ll take you, if you like, Amanda,” her dad said suddenly.

The woman looked around, a little unsure, and then said, “I really shouldn’t go without calling first. And having him answer, I mean! I’ll give him a little time. He gets into his moods sometimes. So like his father in some ways. So perhaps I’ll hang around for a day or two, have dinner, do some antiquing up the coast.”

Her dad smiled. “We have quite a nice restaurant a few miles out of town.”

Cassie huffed and headed through the connecting door to their apartment adjacent to the store.

* * * * *

That night there was no moon. Evan’s bedroom was as dark as a tomb. And though Andrea had thought of tombs many times in her life, she had never thought of one in as comforting terms as she did now, all wrapped up, literally, in the dark with her lover. It felt positively Shakespearean.

Since the house was set up on one of the cliffs overlooking the water—not the highest cliff, but plenty high—the only respite from the total dark was the occasional ghostly dot of light far out on the horizon, moving slowly but perceptibly across the big, black window. A ship miles out to sea making its way through the night, she knew.

Or maybe just the soul of some long-lost lover.

In Evan’s arms, in Evan’s bed, she felt as if she were the patron saint for all doomed before her who had thought to cheat death or life or something with this intense emotion.

Before they became lost again.

Evan pushed his cock deeper into her and she murmured an appreciative sigh.

“What language was that?” he asked softly.

“Language?” She hadn’t realized that whatever she had moaned had included any actual words, in English or otherwise. So she didn’t bother answering. She didn’t know anyway.

He continued with slow, languid pushes into her, a sweet taking and then pulling away. She couldn’t see her own hand in front of her, let alone her lover, but she could feel every fiber of him with her being.

“What language do you think in, Andrea?” he persisted.

“I’m not thinking right now, in case you haven’t noticed.” Her legs wrapped around the backs of his and her fingers rubbed the hard muscles of his neck, his shoulders.

“Is it Greek?”

She froze and he could not have helped but feel it, but continued to move against her, inside her, no condom again, the two of them obviously having lost their minds, until she reciprocated beneath him, giving herself over to the rhythm of it again, forgetting his questions.

If he would only let her.

“Whoever you are, I want you.” He murmured the words into her ear and followed them up with a long, soulful kiss that left her humming, no words involved this time, she was sure of it. “Do you understand that?” Lifting one of her legs higher, he deepened the angle of how she lay beneath him, under him, and her heel just naturally went to his ass, digging into the hard muscles as he thrust.

“You’re not exactly keeping it a secret, Evan.”

“I want you here.”

“I am here,” she murmured gently as he nuzzled her neck.