Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 83368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Her skin felt extra sensitive as he brushed against her on their way to the bedroom. She helped him slip off his jacket and hung it neatly in her closet, then she undid his tie and released it slowly from the collar of the shirt he’d so crisply ironed. She undid each button, kissing the skin she uncovered. He was patient with her for a while and then increasingly restless.
She tasted salt on his skin from all that dancing, and felt the heat from his belly on her lips, which made her even more hot. She kissed her way back up, and he was there, kissing her mouth, urgent and deep until she moaned low in her throat.
He turned her around and undid the zipper on her silk dress. He didn’t even let it hit the floor, but carefully held it while she stepped out of it. He hung the dress neatly in her wardrobe. There was something kind of sexy about the fastidious way he looked after her things even when she could feel his raging need for her. Besides, it gave her a little more time to pose in her fancy, barely-there underwear.
When he returned from the closet, he looked her up and down. “You do have some very nice lingerie,” he said.
She twirled slowly for him, letting him get a real eyeful, and then he kicked off his shoes, pulled off his socks, and slipped out of his dress pants. She walked right up to him and, with a firm but loving hand, tumbled him back on her bed. Finally, she had him where she wanted him. She slipped his boxers down and off, revealing how incredibly turned on he was. She climbed on top of him and kissed him, and then he flipped her onto her back and slowly and deliberately removed each piece of lingerie. After that, it was a little bit of a competition, her on top, then him on top, until they were kissing and laughing and worn out from teasing each other. When he slipped inside her at last, she felt that she’d remember this moment forever, and then he drove her up, up, and even as she tried to make the moment last, she was wrapping her legs around him, meeting him thrust for thrust, until it was too much, and she tumbled over the edge, crying out his name.
It had been the perfect day.
Just as they were about to go to sleep, he leaned over and whispered, “I love you.”
Mila went from feeling utter bliss to alarm. She moved her lips but found she was tongue-tied. Even though she’d thought those words to herself at her brother’s wedding, to say them out loud now felt dangerous, as though she’d be giving herself away.
Instead of responding, she kissed him.
He didn’t call her out for not saying the words back to him, but she thought she caught a tiny glimmer of hurt in his eyes. The last thing she saw was the moonlight glinting off his Saint Christopher’s medal.
* * *
Mila woke earlier than usual. It was just past five, the moon was still full, and the waves were huge. She nudged Herschel awake.
“Come on, let’s go out and surf.”
He opened one eye and said, “It’s still dark out there. You can’t surf in the dark.”
“You can when the moon is full. Anyway, it will be light soon. Come on!” She couldn’t quite understand this driving need to surf. Probably the fact that he’d said I love you, and she hadn’t been able to respond, had something to do with it. She did love him, she knew she did, but to say those words out loud would make her so vulnerable. She just wasn’t sure she was ready.
Going out on the ocean would clear her confused thoughts, and then perhaps she could say the words back to him. Until she had her surfboard under her and the wind at her back, she’d remain in this state of confusion.
So, she banged around the kitchen and made coffee, fueling them up for some very early exercise. If Hersch was brokenhearted about the way she hadn’t said I love you, he was hiding it well. He put on his board shorts and joined her in the kitchen, draining his first cup of coffee and then preparing an insulated mug for each to take with them.
Soon, they headed out, him with his boogie board and her with her surfboard.
* * *
When Hersch got to the water’s edge, he was shocked at how big the waves were. Scary big.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked.
He could feel her energy and could have kicked himself for blurting out I love you. He hadn’t meant to do it that way. He had meant to be cool and prepared. Maybe to say the words when he’d taken her away for a weekend in Paris or something, not throw them at her when they were both tired after watching her brother get married. What had he been thinking?