Accepting Destiny (15 page)

“Turn your head back, I want
to see your face when you come,” He whispers in my ear, his breath tingling against my skin. I fight the weight, but I manage to turn my head back to the side, as he pushes hard inside me, his thumb pressing against the now electric bundles of nerves. He circles his thumb and his other finger presses against my clit and mimics the motion of his thumb.

My senses are overloaded and all I can think about is fal
ling over the edge. “Look at me,” he says as I struggle to open my eyes. His green eyes have darkened, full of lust and something else I can’t explain. His tongue darts out to moisten his lower lip and the scene is so erotic, that my body convulses and spasms. “That’s my girl… come for me,” he whispers against my cheek, as I fall apart.

As my body relaxes
, I feel him snuggle against me, feeling the loss of his weight immediately. But he quickly pulls me against him and nuzzles my hair, placing gentle kisses on my neck.

“How’s your headache?” He asks quietly.

“Hmmmm? What headache?” I chuckle.

“
Good, then my work here is done,” he says, as he stands up, leaving my naked body sated and heavy on the floor.

I look up at him with heavy eyes, scanning his body. I can see his erection through his pants and I stare at it. “What about you?” I ask
, as I begin to sit up, to face his cock.

“We have things to do today, b
ut don’t worry, I’ll take you up on your offer, later. Hop up and let’s get dressed,” he says holding his hand out for me to stand. He pulls me to my feet and I am standing in front of him, my lungs burning for air. Wrapping my arms around myself, I duck out of his line of vision, to go upstairs and put on my hopefully, dry dress from yesterday.

“Alexandra?” He calls out from behind me. I turn to look at him, my arms still wrapped around my body, effectively covering my breasts and other private areas.

“What have I told you about covering yourself?”

I just stood there, looking dumbfounded I’m sure, but I don’t move my hands. “I-I’m sorry. I’m just not comfortable being naked in front of you...or anyone
, for that matter. You’ll just have to get over it,” I say, as I turn and run up the stairs.

I hear him exhale a deep breath, and then his feet hit the stairs behind me. I make it to the top before he does and bolt in to the bedroom
, quickly closing the door. I enter the bathroom and grab a towel, quickly wrapping it around me, before he comes barging in to the bathroom.

His eyes are on fire with anger and sympathy. Such a weird combination
, but I say nothing. He needs to let me be and let me get dressed.

He reaches forward and tugs on the towel, but I hold on tight to the thick cotton that protects my body from his eyes.
“No Jackson, let me get dressed,” I tell him, but he pulls harder on the towel. He is so much stronger than me, so my fingers give in and the towel falls from my body, pooling at my feet.

He steps closer to me, my nose almost pressing against his chest. I can smell his musky scent
, mixed with baby oil and I inhale deeply, wanting to remember that smell. He lifts my chin up to look at him, and his eyes have softened since he barged in, after chasing me up the stairs.

“Baby, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on. Why do you have such a hard time with that?” He asks softly.

“Really? You really have to ask that question? Look at me! No wait, don’t look at me,” I scream,as I try to bend down and pick up the towel, but he stops me before I succeed. “Jackson, I have issues, okay? I’m too short and a bit rounder than I prefer. Th
e
girl
s
aren’t where they’re supposed to be and my ass jiggles like two bulldogs wrestling under a blanket. I get it and I’m okay with me, but I just can’t figure out why you would be okay with me.”

There, I said it. I finally said what’s been on my mind ever since The Suit came barging in to my life
, three months ago in Miami. I flinch after I say it, because I know I’m fixing to catch hell from him. I close my eyes and wait for it, because I know its coming.

“Come here,” h
e says, as he turns to walk out of the bathroom.

Bending down to get the towel and wrap it back around me, I hear him from the bedroom. “Leave the towel.”

Damn, how did he know? Am I that predictable? Well, I need to come up with some new material, because he’s figuring me out too easily. I wrap one arm across my breasts, and the other over my bottom half as I move slowly towards the door. I know I am making a huge mistake covering myself, but I can’t help it.

I step outside the door and look around the room for him. He’s standing with the closet door open in front of a full length mirror. He crooks his finger at me
, in a come hither motion, but I freeze. I don’t want to stand in front of the mirror. I’ve seen myself and it’s not one of my favorite things to look at. I’d rather stare at Jackson.

He waits there for me, but my feet won’t move. I know what he’s planning and it really isn’t necessary. “Come here, Ally.”

My feet finally get their
Mojo
back and I tiptoe across the room towards him. He places his hands on my shoulders and turns me to face the mirror. I see me standing there, covering myself, but he is so tall, I can only see his chest in the mirror.

He brushes his hands across my chest and takes my arm, moving it to my side
, exposing my breast. He holds that arm down, as his other hand moves my hand away from my crotch and now I am standing there, completely naked and exposed in the mirror. My eyes are glazed over and my hair is a tangled mess, but I feel his eyes on my body.

“Look, Ally. Look in the mirror and see what I see. I see a beautiful, caring and loving woman. Cr
eamy skin and a body to die for,” he says, as his hands cup my breasts. “These are amazing. Soft and supple, your nipples like raspberries waiting to be sucked.”

He pinches my nipples and then lets them drop
, as his hands skim down my sides to my hips. He splays his large hands on my hips and gives a gentle squeeze. “And these.....” He sucks in a breath, “These, I could hold on to forever, so curvy and full. Child bearing hips, so sexy.”

Wait, what
?
Child bearing hips
?
He better back up and rethink that one!

He leans his head down and rests his chin on my shoulder, looking back at me in the mirror. “Do you see what I see, Ally?” I shake my head no, because I really don’t.

He leans down and tilts my head up, so I am looking at his eyes through the mirror. “You will one day soon, Alexandra. I will do whatever is necessary to make you see the beautiful girl I fell in love with. What do I need to do, to prove that to you?” He whispers in my ear, his heated breath, causing me to shiver.

“
I guess you’ll have to marry me,” I say, quietly as I tear my gaze from his eyes.

“Really? Is that what it will take Alexandra? Cause I
can make that happen, you know,” he smiles at me, and I suddenly realize what I’ve just said.

“I was kidding Jackson, you don’t want to marry me. I’m damaged goods and
nothing but a challenge to you,” I say as a tear drops down my face. He turns me to face him, anger now filling his face.

“No, you aren’t, damn it. I love you and I know you love me, e
ven though you can’t say it yet; but you will. And when that happens, I will be the happiest man alive. This is all new to you, and me. But together we will get through it and once all of this is over, you will marry me. Now, let’s go to town and get stocked up for the week.”

And just like that, the conversation is over.

The drive in to Apalachicola is about thirty minutes of a quiet two lane road. Deep forest to our left and the occasional glimpse of water, far off of the tree line on our right. We pass a few cars along the way and I watch Jackson as he drives. His eyes are on the road and back and forth between the mirrors making sure no one is following us. His knuckles are gripped on the steering wheel and I look behind us. There is no one back there. I wonder why he is so tense all of a sudden.

I place my hand on his thigh, and fe
el the hard muscle with my palm. He exhales a breath and I feel his leg relax a little. “What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Nothing really, just waiting on the security detail to catch up to us. I see him now, so I feel better.”

“Do you really think someone could find us here? We’re in the middle of nowhere, Florida....surely no one knows where we are.”

“Not taking any chances with your safety. You will be with me until this
blows over, and after that too,” he says, as he glances at me with a wink. I can tell his mind is elsewhere, maybe on that uncomfortable conversation in the bedroom. Honestly, what was I thinking? Challenging him to marry me, I must be out of my fucking mind.

I can see the wheels turning in his mind and frankly, it’s making me nervous. I have no idea why I brought up marriage of all things. I
’m not ready to get married yet, but then again, I am twenty eight years old.....maybe.... Nah. I need to shake these feelings off. It’s too soon and we haven’t had a normal relationship, if you know what I mean.

I think back to earlier in the summer
, when my life was just that. Normal. As the trees fly by us, I stare out the window and think back to those times. I realize I never want to be normal again.

We find a parking spot along the main road
, in this quaint waterfront town. I gaze over the river, at the boats there and people having picnics along the grassy area. The sun is shining down, reflecting off the water and I pull my sunglasses down over my eyes, so I can see better.

We start off at a small boutique store with women’s and men’s clothing, or what they call Resort Wear. Ha, I bet they don’t have my size here. Jackson heads off to the men’s clothing and leaves me to linger in the women’s. As I pick through the racks of clothing, I actually find a few things that fit. I gather some shorts and cute tops in my hands and then stroll through the bathing suit rack.

Humph, won’t be needing one of these.

“Have you found anything?” I hear Jackson
, over my shoulder.

“Umm, yeah a few things I think,
” I say as I hold my full arms out to show him. He smiles, looking down at the pile. “A few things?” He chuckles.

I look down and realize I have picked up more than I thought I would. “Yeah,
a
few,
”
I smile back up at him.

“Now for a bathing suit,” h
e says, as he starts going through the rack of woman’s swimwear.

“No, I don’t need one,
” I tell him, but he looks at me with thi
s
Here We Go Agai
n
look.

“Of course you do, we’re at the beach and we have a pool. You need a
swimsuit. Here, go try these on,” he says, as he thrusts a handful of garments towards me.

I glance down at what he is holding and shake my head. “I don’t do bikini’
s Jackson, you should know that,” I turn back to the rack, looking for the suits with the skirts on them. Yes, at twenty eight years old I want a suit with a skirt, like my grandma used to wear at the lake every summer.

He clears his throat and shoves the suits in my arms, while taking the pile of clothes I had draped over my arm. Damn he’s bossy, but we know that already.

“Fine,” I say as I take the itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow......okay, I’ll stop.

A lady lets me in to the fitting room and I drop the bathing suits on the bench, glaring at each one as I set them down. Really? He expects me to wear these? He must be out of his cotton picking mind. I lay the one piece on top of the pile that I snuck in, this will be the only bathing suit he will see me in. I examine the material and it has a mesh lining to help suck in excess body fat. Yeah, I need that. I slip it on, leaving my panties on of course.....wow, now that’s a sexy look, I snicker to myself.

As I pull the straps over my shoulders, I cringe. Really? This thing looks like crap, but it was the only one piece out there in my size. I guess it’ll have to do, because these tiny scraps of material Jackson handed me will not work.

“Let me see, Ally,
” Jackson says, outside the fitting room door.

“No, none of these are
working. Just give me a second,” I say, while putting my dress back on. Before I can pull the dress up, Jackson is barging in to the fitting room with more bathing suits in his arms. “Jackson! I said wait a second!” I squeal, as I pull the dress up.

“Try these, especially this one,” a
s he holds up a brightly floral print....bikini.

“I don’t do bikinis J
acko, I thought we covered this,” I say, as I snatch the small scrap of cloth from his hands, holding it up to my body. “Umm, no way Jose.....so not happening,” I toss it on to the bench with the others.

“Just try them on, Ally. You’
ll look fabulous in all of them,” he smirks, as he pulls the dressing room door closed behind him. “Fine, but I’m doing it for you...not for me,”

I slip my dress back off and grab the floral one he just brought me. I get the top on and amazingly
,it fits. Then the tiny bottoms go on over my panties and again, I’m thrilled with the wa
y
tha
t
looks. I pose and turn my body in front of the mirror. Humph, not too bad I guess. My skin is so white that the bright colors wash me out. Maybe I should go with the solid black.

So I try that one on too and find I am much happier with that. I’m already going to draw attention to myself by being in a tiny two piece
which I don’t need to add to that with bright colors.

I’ll get this one for Jackson
, and the one piece for me. He’ll just have to deal with it.

I get dressed and gather the discarded items
, handing them to the girl that was outside the door. “I’ll take these two and the others that gentleman has over there,” I say, as I nod towards Jackson, who is looking at something in the glass case.

“Very well. I can check you out
, up front,” I follow her to the glass case where Jackson is peering down at something.

I place the two bathing suits on the counter and reach for th
e stack that Jackson has laid aside, placing the items together. As she rings them up, I reach for my wallet and pull out my credit card. Great, more debt. Well, at least I’m making more money now and I can pay it off quicker.

Jackson slides his stuff over in to the pile and the woman doesn’t even flinch, but now I’m wondering if I’m going to be paying for his stuff too. I frown, but I don’t say anything. He’s too enthralled with something in the case and isn’t paying me much attention.

Once she provides us with our total, I suddenly start to sweat. Shit, three hundred and sixty five dollars? Ouch, but I hand her my card. As she takes it from me, Jackson’s hand comes out of nowhere and pushes it back. I look at him curiously, but he looks away and hands her his American Express Gold card. Yikes, I’ll never see one of those in my wallet.

Inside
, I’m relieved, but I still have to put up the act. “Jackson, you don’t have to do this. I can get my stuff,” I say, trying to hand the clerk my card.

“Nonsense. I brought you here empty handed, the least I can do
, is dress you for the week. Unless you’d rather stay naked all the time,” He curls his lips up at me and I start to wonder what that might be like. The clerk just smiles at us and continues with her duties, effectively ignoring our little banter. Hell, why should she care who pays, as long as one of us does right?

We take our bags to the car, placing them in the trunk and get ready to head somewhere else
, I guess. My stomach growls before we get much further and Jackson just grins. “Hungry?”

“Yeah, been a busy
morning and I skipped breakfast,”

“You need to not do that anymore, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

“Well, I was a little....umm, preoccupied this morning,” I smile, as he pulls me to his chest.

“That you w
ere, sweet girl. Let’s feed you,” he says, as he pulls me towards a little café, where we order a pizza.

“I need
to use the restroom, excuse me,” Jackson says, as he stands to head towards the restroom. “I’ll be right back, stay here,” he tells me, on a growl, like I’m going somewhere.

I nibble on my pizza and sit there qu
ietly, like a good little girl. Suddenly, feeling a little out of place, but I shake off the feeling and continue to eat. A few minutes later, Jackson comes back and sits down, a deceitful look on his face. I immediately wonder what he’s up to, but he starts eating his pizza before I can even ask. Who knows with this guy?

After lunch we take a stroll along the river hand in hand. This feels nice and normal for a change. We stop at the water’s
edge and he pulls a long box out of his pocket and hands it to me. “What is this?”

“Open it.”

I lift the top off of the box and move the cotton padding to the side. Underneath the cotton I spy a bracelet, silver with seashell charms on it. There’s a star fish, a clam shell, a conch shell and a few others I don’t know. “It’s beautiful. But when.....?”

He opens his devil eyes and they glow, “I didn’t really need to use the restroom. I ducked back to the shop and picked it up. Do you like it?”

“I love it, thank you.”

He smiles as he takes the bracelet from the box and fastens it on my wrist, the charms sparkling in the sunlight. But I’m quickly jolted out of my happiness when Jackson’s phone rings, indicating we have cell service here.

“Bentley.”

I try to eavesdrop on the conversation and I suddenly feel guilty for doing it, so I wander off towards the waterfront and soak in the sunshine, fumbling with the charms. I can hear him mumbling in the back ground, but I can’t make out what he is saying.

As I stand and look over the water, I feel him come up behind me and press his hands on my shoulders, planting a gentle kiss on my head. “Any news?” I ask, without looking back at him.

“Not really, they did confirm the emails
are from two different people, but, they are both female. I figured the bad ones were from a guy, but the profiler says it’s a woman.”

“A woman? Are they sure?”

He nods, “Apparently, but they are still investigating and won’t make a final call yet. It’s just an educated guess.”

“It’s gotta be Sally. Maybe she’s using two different email accounts.”

“It’s possible, IT is looking into it,” Jackson says.

I turn back to the water, suddenly a bit tired. “Come on, let’s get you back to the house an
d go for a swim,” He waggles his eyes at me. Oh yeah, like I’m really going to put on that bikini for him.

I turn and smack him in the chest
, then look up his eyes. Those green orbs really get to me and I find myself staring at him. He smirks at me with a knowing smile. “Mr. Bentley, you are so bad,” I say, as I start towards the car.

As we pull out
, I see a black sedan pull in behind us and I tense up a little. “Security,” Jackson answers my unasked question. I nod and pull my gaze forward to watch the passing scenery as we travel down Hwy 98 West, then onto 30A and back to Cape San Blas Road. I had no idea security had been following us around all day.

The travel time seems to have gone quicker going back than it did this morning. Maybe it’s because I’m tired and weary. The heat of the day has gotten to me and I’m actually ready to jump in the pool, though I may just jump in with shorts and a tee shirt.

Then I laugh inside, like Jackson is really going to let me do that.

We pull under the house and before I can even open my door, Jackson is there opening it for me. Who says chivalry is dead, huh? I climb out of the car a
nd we haul our bags upstairs, in to the bedroom. As I look around, I see it looks different. The bed is made and as I walk in to the bathroom, I see a wicker basket full of shampoo, soaps and other toiletries. Fresh towels have been put out and it smells clean.

“H
ilda arrived while we were gone,” Jackson says, as he enters the bedroom with an arm full of bags. “Did we really buy this much today?” He asks, as he looks at the barrage of bags on the floor and on the bed.

“I guess we did,
” I laugh.

“Well, get your suit on and let’s jump in the pool to cool off. Hilda is in the kitchen fixing dinner.”

He turns to leave and I start digging in to the bag for the one piece. I know he’s not going to be happy about this, but like I said earlier, he’ll get over it. I pull the plastic strip out of the crotch and toss it in to the trash can. I really wish I could wash this before putting it against my naked flesh, but he’s not going to give me time.