Real Men Do It Better (38 page)

“What else?”

“Passion. I want mad passion.”

“Good girl.” He leaned forward to kiss the back of her neck. “What do you want me to do?”

“Anything, everything. Make me crazy, Duncan. Make me lose it. I want to be taken under, swept away.”

“Rest your chest on the pillows, but keep your butt up.”

Wriggling, she did as he commanded. Her ass was high in the air, her juices rolling down her thighs.

Then at the same moment Duncan plunged his cock back into her pussy, he gently eased the tip of Siren’s Call into her ass.

Annie went wild. She’d never felt anything so exquisite. She cried out and her spine arched at the piercing intensity of the pleasurable ache blasting through her.

Duncan was wild, too. He slammed relentlessly into her, his cock was a blade. It felt as if she were coming apart. He moved his hips and his hand in unison, fucking her pussy with his cock, fucking her ass with the Siren’s Call.

She gasped, sobbing with rapture.

The dual invasion was more than she could comprehend. The sensations were completely out of the realm of anything she had ever experienced. Annie was transported. The pleasure was that intense. Her passion that great. He pounded into her. His cock finding her G-spot and working it over.

She was gasping and crying and begging for more. She was tumbling, soaring, shuddering.

Who knew, who knew, who knew it could feel like this?

Duncan. That was who.

“Annie,” he cried. “I’m coming.”

The muscles of her womb spasmed, squeezing his cock tight as her anus puckered around the cool smoothness of the Siren’s Call.

Their gazes met in the mirror.

Annie experienced a release that transcended any orgasm she’d ever felt. It sent her soaring, past time and place. Through galaxies and universes. In great writhing echoes of pleasure, she came and came and came.

In a haze, Annie heard Duncan’s moans mingling with hers, felt him shudder against her as he pulled the idol out of her, saw his face contort into a mask of ecstasy. Inside her she felt him swell, and then she felt the hotness of his release as it filled the condom.

His hands went around her waist and he fell to one side of the mattress, bringing her down off all fours, dragging her to the covers beside him. They lay together panting and spent. Touching, murmuring, kissing softly until they both fell into the deepest sleep either one of them had ever slept.

7

Annie woke before dawn feeling happier than she’d ever felt. She lay staring up at the mirrored ceiling, watching Duncan sleeping beside her. How many times over the last five years had she dreamed of this moment? She could hardly believe it. Giddiness stole over and she pinched herself just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

The thing she had never dared hope for because she’d wanted it so badly, had happened. She was reunited with the love of her life. For Annie, there had never really ever been anyone else.

Silently, so as not to awaken him, she slipped out of bed. She almost tripped over the Siren’s Call lying on the floor. She picked it up and took the idol to the bathroom with her.

Imagine: she had not only recovered the Siren’s Call her parents had spent their life searching for, but she’d also recovered the love she’d thought she’d lost forever. As she carefully washed the idol in the bathroom sink, she thought about the reason Duncan had dumped her all those years ago. It wasn’t because he’d had another woman, or because she wasn’t pretty enough for him as she’d always feared, but because he loved her too much to keep her from achieving her potential. Her heart clutched. She couldn’t wait for Duncan to wake up so she could tell him exactly how much she loved him.

She rinsed off the Siren’s Call, turned it upside down to shake off the water. There was lettering on the bottom.

What was this? Annie stared, struggling to absorb what she read.

Made in Taiwan.

What? She blinked. The Siren’s Call was made in Taiwan?

No. It couldn’t be. The Siren’s Call was over two hundred years old.

Reality slapped her hard as she scrutinized the figurine. This wasn’t the Siren’s Call at all, but some modern day replica churned out in a factory that made sex toys.

A con job.

A sick feeling curled in her stomach. Suddenly it all made sense. The map that Duncan had supposedly found in the
Lorelei
while diving all alone. The strangeness of the idol being hidden in the underground sea cave. The boat driver sailing away to leave them alone on the island. The tour boat showing up unexpectedly to bring them to the resort.

Lies. All lies.

It was a setup to get her into his bed.

She’d been had.

*   *   *

Ice cold water in his face zapped Duncan from delicious dreams about Annie. Shocked, he bolted upright, wiping water from his eyes.

“Annie … wh … what the hell?” he sputtered.

She was standing in front of him, totally naked, hair wild, eyes flashing pure fire. She threw the Siren’s Call onto the bed beside him. “Made in Taiwan, huh? Just how big an idiot do you think I am?”

“Annie, let me explain.” He reached out to her, but she slapped his hand away.

“You tricked me.” She picked her bikini bottoms up off the floor and wriggled into them.

“Yeah,” he admitted, throwing back the covers and leaping to his feet. “I did, but only because…”

“I don’t want to hear it.” She found the top to her bikini and put it on. “I thought you’d changed. I thought you were different. But you lied about the Siren’s Call. You did it just to get me in bed. You knew it was the one thing that would make me go diving with you. The one thing you could use against me to convince me to explore my passion.”

“That’s not the reason why.”

“I get that you wanted to screw me, what I don’t get is that you would make up a story about finding the real Siren’s Call. I can’t believe you would disappoint Jock like this.”

“Annie, will you please just listen?”

“I’ve had enough of your cock-and-bull blarney. What else was a lie, Duncan? The malarkey about giving me up so I would go to Harvard? The bullshit about needing to prove yourself man enough for me.” Her laugh was harsh and humorless.

“I’m going to make you listen.” He stalked across the room, determined to grab her and make her listen, but before he could get to her, she picked up his swim trunks and their wetsuits and ran out the door leaving him alone and naked with nothing to wear.

“Dammit,” he swore.

Annie Graves was the most stubborn, contentious woman he’d ever met. When it came to expressing her passion, she had the most repressed ideas. She was so scared to let go, so afraid to trust that something good had happened, she’d rather jump to conclusions and assume the worst.

Dammit all, he loved her for it. Because along with her flaws, she possessed the sweetest lips he’d ever kissed, the kindest eyes, and the most tender heart. She was different from any woman he’d ever known. Everything about her was unique. Her taste, her smell, the feel of her silky skin beneath his calloused fingertips. He was addicted to her. Fully, completely, couldn’t live with her, didn’t want to live without her. She made his senses whirl and his head spin and his heart pound like a jackhammer.

And one way or the other, he was determined that this time, he was going to hold on to her forever.

*   *   *

Back in St. Augustine, Annie was packing Jock’s things on a wheeled cart, getting ready to take him home. “Once I get your stuff loaded up and the car parked at the patient pick-up area, I’ll come back and get a nurse to escort you out in a wheelchair,” she told him.

Two days had passed since the ill-fated diving trip. She’d told her grandfather that Duncan’s map had been wrong. That there had been no underground cave, no Siren’s Call. He’d taken the news much better than she expected, and to her surprise he hadn’t asked questions.

She’d mentally put her heart in deep freeze so she wouldn’t feel the pain, but she knew it was there, lurking, waiting, ready to pounce the minute she let down her guard. Why oh why had she let Duncan Stewart back into her life? She felt utterly broken, and only the tasks of hiring a live-in nurse to stay with her grandfather and finding someone to run the dive shop kept her from dwelling on her dark situation.

“That looks like everything. I’ll be back in a bit.” Pasting on a perky smile for her grandfather’s sake, Annie kissed him on the forehead. She wheeled the cart down the corridor, headed for the elevator.

The elevator doors opened.

She started to walk inside, just as Duncan stepped out, carrying a gift-wrapped box. They both stopped in midstride, their gazes snagged on each other.

“Duncan.” She sucked in her breath at the crazy erratic beating of her heart.

“Annie.”

They stood there looking at each other, the elevator doors trying to close, then popping when the sensors detected the cart. In his eyes she saw all the same sorrow knotting her chest. Why was it always like this between them?

Because you love him.

Annie’s lungs constricted so tightly, she couldn’t inhale. “What are you doing here?” she asked breathlessly.

“Looking for you.”

“I don’t have anything to say to you,” she retorted coldly, desperate to keep from bursting into tears in front of him.

“Too bad. I’ve got a lot of things to say to you and you’re going to hear me out.”

“This isn’t the time or the place.” She hissed in her breath, struggling to keep from throwing her arms around his neck and begging him never to let her go.

“There is no better time or place,” he disagreed and eyed the cart. “What’s this?”

“Jock’s things. He’s being dismissed and I’m going back to Manhattan.”

“The hell you are.”

Then before she knew what he was doing, he pulled the wheel cart off to one side, grabbed her by the elbow, and tugged her through a door marked
LINEN CLOSET
.

Once they were in the linen closet amidst the blankets and sheets, he pushed her back against the wall and positioned his big body between her and the door. “You were going to leave town without saying good-bye?”

“There wouldn’t have been a point.”

“You want to leave things unfinished between us again?”

“Oh, we’re finished all right. I can’t forgive you for lying about the Siren’s Call.”

“I didn’t lie.” He thrust the gift-wrapped package at her.

“What’s this?” She looked at him warily, not sure what to do next.

“Open it.”

“You’re not going to win me back with a present.”

“Open it,” he ground out the words, his eyes flashing a warning. He was serious.

Tentatively, she reached for the box and undid the pink ribbon. She lifted the lid and there, nestled in pink tissue paper, was a mermaid figurine fragile with age.

“It’s the real Siren’s Call.” Lightly, she traced a finger over the idol. It bore little resemblance to the Made-in-Taiwan replica.

“Yeah.”

“You had it all along.”

He nodded. “I found it on the
Lorelei,
just like I said.”

She stared into his eyes. In spite of her fears, hope bloomed.

“I found her on the same day that Jock called to tell me Eric Hammond was going to ask for your hand in marriage. I knew I couldn’t let you marry him without giving us one more shot. Without explaining to you why I’d let you go. To show to you that I’d become a man you could be proud of.”

“Duncan.” She breathed, feeling suddenly light-headed with giddiness. “Why lie? Why the replica Siren’s Call?”

“I had to prove to you that the passion you felt for me was real. It wasn’t the Siren’s Call’s doing. I didn’t want you using the idol as an excuse.”

He stepped closer and she could feel his heat radiating over the length of her. The manly, ocean smell of him invaded her nostrils. The masculine sound of his voice made her mouth water. He reached up to run his fingertips along her chin. It seemed like years, not days, since she’d felt his touch.

“Don’t go back to Manhattan. Don’t marry that corporate lawyer. Please.”

His vulnerable plea tugged at her heart. “Duncan…”

“Forgive me. For being a damned fool. For not having the courage to tell you the truth about how I felt.”

She reached up and touched his dear, sweet face. “I’ll forgive you if you forgive me.”

“Annie, there’s nothing to forgive.” He pulled her close, his manly sea smell filling her nose. “I love you.” His eyes glistened with tears. “And I think you love me, too. Do you love me, Annie?”

The lump in her throat was so huge she couldn’t speak. All she could do was nod. Duncan lowered his head and kissed her, and Annie felt his growing erection tighten against her leg.

“Say it,” he whispered. “I need to hear it. I’ve waited so long to hear it.”

“I love you, Duncan Stewart.” Her eyes misted with tears. “I’ve loved you since I was thirteen years old. I loved you when I gave you my virginity, and I’ve never stopped loving you.”

He took her left hand in his and sank down on one knee.

“What are you doing? What’s going on?”

And then she saw the glitter of diamonds and her heart just sang.

“Will you marry me, Annie Marie?” He looked up into her face, his eyes vulnerable, his heart on his sleeve, waiting for her answer, a diamond ring the size of an ice cube poised above her third finger. “Please forgive me. Don’t let me be too late. Marry me, Annie. I want you now and forever.”

“Oh, Duncan, I’ve never wanted anything more. Yes, yes, I’ll marry you.” Tears of joy tracked down both their cheeks as Duncan slipped his ring on her finger.

He got to his feet, hugging and kissing her. “I’m never leaving you again.”

“Never?”

“Ever. You’re my woman, and I’ve been your man ever since that day you walked into the back room of the dive shop where I was sweeping up, wearing pink, rhinestone-studded flip-flops and chewing watermelon bubble gum.”

“You remember that day?”

“I’ve never forgotten it. I wanted you so badly I couldn’t think straight. But here’s the deal, Annie, I want you even more now.”