Tempted At Twilight

“Why do you let her do that to you?”

“She must not be very confident if she has to tear me down to pull herself up. In an odd way, it makes me feel better. If someone that physically perfect has doubts about themselves, then I realize that I’m not so different.”

“Everyone feels shitty about themselves sometimes.”

“And that applies to you, too?”

“Of course.” He nodded.

“Not about your looks. I wouldn’t believe someone who looks like you would.”

“Are you flirting with me?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Am I? I never tried before. I didn’t think I knew how!”

He grinned at her again. He was doing that a lot tonight. He felt a little bit like an idiot, but it felt good. He needed any reason to feel good lately. Without the hospital he was feeling lost, empty. For the first time in his life he was idle, and he sure as hell didn’t like it. “If you weren’t flirting, what do you call it?”

“Being honest.” She took a long sip of her drink. “Maybe it’s this stuff that’s making me extra honest this evening.” They both heard the sound of heels clicking on the floor in the distance, and Elias knew that his conversation with this quirky woman was about to come to an end.

“I’ll leave you to enjoy your friend. It was nice speaking to you, Cricket.”

“I enjoyed speaking to you, too, Elias.”

He got up and walked back to his spot at the bar just as a woman rounded the corner. Cricket was right. Her friend was beautiful. She was tall, with caramel-colored skin and light eyes. Her body was toned, her hair long and ruthlessly straight, highlighted with different shades of blond. She was perfectly made-up and perfectly dressed. She was perfectly boring.

“Hey, Bug!” She smiled brightly. “It’s great to see you.”

“Hello, Giselle. How are you?”

“Great! Just great.” She hugged Cricket. “What a cute little dress you’re wearing. I could never pull it off, but you have never been afraid of wearing things you find in the thrift store.”

“I didn’t get this in a thrift store. I got this in a little boutique downtown. The one you’re always talking about.”

“Oh.” She took the seat across from Cricket. “Do they carry your size there? I didn’t think they carried anything over a size ten.”

“They do,” Cricket said, her nostrils flaring a bit.

“Good. You can carry the extra weight so much better than most people I know. I’m glad they have clothes for larger ladies.”

Elias felt his nostrils flaring a bit. He wanted Cricket to tell the woman to go to hell.

“Everyone deserves nice clothing,” Cricket responded cheerfully. “So what’s going on with you? I know there must be something if you wanted to see me.”

“I just wanted to catch up. You are one of my dearest friends.”

“Were you working late? That promotion you got must be keeping you busy. You were nearly a half hour behind schedule. But I know you must have been too busy to text me. Us career girls have to really put our noses to the grindstone to prove we’re just as good as the men, so I understand your tardiness.”

Elias wanted to applaud Cricket. She wasn’t a pushover. He liked that.

“I’m sorry about that. I was on a call.” She reached across the table and gave Cricket’s hand a light squeeze. “So, are you seeing anyone? I’m still with Arnold. It’s getting serious! But don’t worry, sweetie. You’ll find someone someday. Women can have children well into their late forties nowadays.”

That was it. Elias left his spot at the bar and walked back over to Cricket’s table. He didn’t spare a single look at her friend before he took Cricket’s chin between his fingers and kissed her full, pouty mouth. He wasn’t sure if that was the stupidest thing he had ever done or the best decision of his life, because he felt the immediate spark of sexual attraction in their kiss.

He lifted his head briefly, looked her in the eyes and kissed her again. This time she slid her hand up his jaw and kissed him back a little more deeply than he had kissed her.

“I’m sorry that took so long,” he said to her as he slipped into the chair next to her. “I got our dinner reservations moved back another half hour.”

“Dinner.” Cricket nodded, giving him a conspiratorial grin. “Can’t wait.”

“Um,” Giselle said. “Hello. I’m Giselle, and you are?”

“Elias.” He nodded his head but didn’t extend his hand to shake. “I’m Cricket’s boyfriend.”

“Isn’t he gorgeous?” Cricket laughed.

Giselle looked stunned. “Uh... I... I—I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

“Well, Elias walked up to me and introduced himself, and I’ve been taken with him ever since.”

“Oh, how sweet,” she said, looking and sounding disbelieving. “I’m happy for you.” Her eyes narrowed. “Tell me, Elias. What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a trauma surgeon.”

“Here on the island?”

“There are very few traumas here. I work at Miami Mercy. I’m on leave right now. I broke my wrist and haven’t been cleared to return yet.”

“My boyfriend is in pharmaceutical sales. He’s at your hospital a lot. Maybe you know him.”

“I don’t. I don’t ever speak to drug reps unless they are bleeding out on my table.”

“Where did you go to medical school?”

“Miller.”

“You got into one of the best hospitals in the country.” She nodded. “Did you meet Bug at a work function?”

“No. It was purely by chance, and I couldn’t seem to get her off my mind ever since.”

None of those things were lies. If it were any other day, he might not have been there. He might not have even given a second look to Cricket or cared that she was being disrespected by her rude friend. But it wasn’t any other night. Tonight he wanted something to take his mind off not being able to work, and he was glad that Cricket was that something.

“So, are you getting serious? Your mother will be pleased, I’m sure,” she said rather stiffly. “Who wouldn’t love another doctor in the family?”

Another doctor? She’d told him she wasn’t one, and he had believed her because he spent a lot of time around doctors and she seemed a little more free-spirited than most of them. But maybe he didn’t know as much as he thought he did.

“It doesn’t matter what my mother thinks. It only matters that I’m happy, and right this minute, I’m incredibly happy.”

Giselle frowned, almost like she didn’t understand what Cricket was saying. “I didn’t mean to keep you two from your date night.”

“You’re not!” Cricket said. “Elias wanted to meet you.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you.” He nodded as he took Cricket’s hand and raised it to his lips. “I want to know all of Cricket’s friends.”

“That’s nice.” She stood up. “I’m meeting Arnold tonight, so I have to run. It was good to meet you, Elias. Cricket, I’ll call you?”

“Yes. Catching up with you is always fun.”

She walked out then, and as soon as her heels clicked out of earshot, Cricket turned to him. “What on earth possessed you to do that?”

“I don’t like the way she speaks to you.”

“I can handle myself, you know.”

“I know.”

“You kissed me.” She tilted her head and studied him.

“I did, and then you kissed me.”

She had soft, plump lips. They were perfect for kissing. He could have just sat down beside her, held her hand and pretended like he was her boyfriend, but he’d kissed her. He had to kiss her. It seemed like the right thing to do in that moment. It might have been one of those impulsive moments that his boss was so fond of pointing out. There had been no thinking involved. His mouth just moved toward hers.

“Do you like tacos?” she asked.

He blinked at her for a moment, confused by the change in topic. “Yeah.”

“What about frozen custard?”

“The soft-serve kind?”

“Of course.”

“Yes.”

“Let me wine and dine you,” she said with a grin. “Or maybe I should say convenient food and converse with you.”

“You are so weird,” he said again, shaking his head. “I would love to have tacos and custard with you.”

Chapter 2

Hideaway Island was one of those small coastal islands that felt a little bit like paradise wrapped up in a warm blanket. Cricket had spent her childhood in Miami and her early adulthood in the New York area. But she had spent all her summers there on the island. It was how she recharged her always draining batteries, and tonight she felt full of electricity.

There was a beautiful man strolling down the beach beside her. His feet bare, his pants rolled up, his eyes taking in the scenery around them. She didn’t blame him. Hideaway Island had to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Especially at twilight, when the sky was purple and orange and the breeze kicked up and the air smelled like ocean and sweetness and something magical that she couldn’t identify.

They had stopped at the food trucks lined up in front of the boardwalk and dined on a bench before they embarked on their stroll. She felt at ease with Elias when she shouldn’t. He was a stranger. A stranger whom she had met in a bar! He could be some kind of con artist or murderer. She had already witnessed how smoothly he lied to Giselle about being her boyfriend and a surgeon at one of the best hospitals in the country, but despite all of that, despite all the rational thoughts that were always firing in her head, she liked him. She liked talking to him, being in his large presence. There was something safe about him.

There was also the fact that he’d kissed her tonight. She had been kissed before, but his had been the sweetest, because it had been so unexpected. She didn’t have time to worry about her breath, or what he was thinking or how she looked. She had just let herself be kissed. And she had kissed him back. Tingles, warmth and sparks all felt like trite ways to describe how she had felt when he was kissing her, but there didn’t seem to be other words for it. All she knew for sure was that she wanted to feel that sensation again, and it was going to have to be tonight.

Before her rational thoughts returned and she talked herself out of having more fun.

“Do you live on the island, or are you here just visiting?” she asked him.

“Visiting. I have family here. You and I met tonight because I needed to escape them.”

“Not a wife and kids, I hope.”

“Yeah, Serena is pregnant, too. I can’t take all her complaining and the kids running around the house like a bunch of wild animals.”

Cricket stopped in her tracks and looked up at him.

Elias took out his phone and snapped a picture of her.

“What the hell!”

“I had to get a picture of your face. It was priceless. You’re gullible.”

“You’re a great liar. Let me see the picture.”

“No.” He slipped his phone back into his pocket. “You might delete it.”

“Is it that bad?”

“No. It’s cute.” He wrapped his arm around her as they continued to walk. It was nice. His body was so large and hard, and for once in her life she felt petite and protected and liked for who she was. “No kids, wife or girlfriend. I’m single. My sister is a newlywed, and there is nothing worse in the world than being stuck hanging out with two people who are in love.”

“I could think of a couple worse things.”

Elias sighed. “I really like my sister’s husband. He’s exactly who I would have picked for her.”

“But?”

“We’re twins. We went to the same college. We lived next door to each other until she sold her town house. She used to call me every day. We were close.”

“You’re not anymore?”

“We are, but it’s different. Her husband comes first, which he should. But I kind of miss being the first person she tells all her stupid crap to. It used to annoy the hell out of me when she called me just to chat, but it was a part of my day. Now it feels like something is missing.”

She smoothed her hand down his back, and he looked down at her with a sheepish grin.

“If you ever tell anyone I said that, I might be forced to kill you.”

“Got it. Men break out in hives whenever they think someone might know they have a feeling.”

“I’m a manly man,” he said, deepening his already-deep voice. “I snapped my wrist and went in to work the next day with duct tape wrapped around it.”

“You didn’t.”

“No. It hurt like hell. I’m pretty sure I started crying and passed out.”

She laughed. “I don’t believe that, either.”

“I just remember my brother cursing and saying something about our mother flying to the States to kill him.”

“Your mother doesn’t live here?”

“Costa Rica. She moved there after my father passed away.”

“Oh.” She went quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s been many years now.”

They continued to walk on in silence until they came up to a set of houses that were directly on the beach. “My house is right up there.”

“Is it?” He looked at the house and then back at her. “It’s nice.”

“It is nice. Would you like to see it?” She was inviting him inside. She didn’t want this night to end. It had been surreal and comfortable and wonderful, and it wasn’t even 8:00 p.m. yet.

“Yes, I very much would.”

Her heart beat faster as they walked quietly up the path that led to her beachfront home. She had never done this before. She had never met a man who she was this attracted to, who she wanted to spend so much time with. First dates had always been horrible for her. Awkward. Panic inducing. But she had met Elias by chance. There was no time for her to get worked up, to overthink, and tonight she wasn’t allowing herself to think at all. She was living in the moment. Doing what made her feel good.

“Whoa,” he said when she let them in.

Her home was beautiful, a gift from her parents, but Cricket really knew it had been her father’s idea to give her this house when she finished her second doctorate. It was an overly generous present, but her father adored her and knew how much she loved this island and cherished the summers she had spent there as a child. It was nothing to him to give her this gift, even though her mother was against it.

Cricket, after all, was the heiress to one of the largest tech fortunes in the world.

“I know it’s a little sparse right now. I haven’t spent much time here until recently.”

“Where were you?” he asked, looking around.

“My lab was based in Boston, but I traveled a great deal.”

“I heard you say something about research. What kind of research do you do?”

She hesitated for a moment. There was nothing romantic or sexy about her job, but she was proud of her work. Her mother told her she should never be embarrassed of showing off her brain. But the older she got, the more she realized that men didn’t necessarily want to date a woman with a bunch of fancy letters after her name. “I’m a medical scientist.”

“A PhD?” he asked, stepping closer.

“Yes, I’m afraid I have two of them.”

A devastatingly sexy smile crossed his lips. He then grabbed her bag and tossed it aside before he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her again. His lips were open, his mouth wet, his tongue warm. She immediately went slack, and he brought her body closer to his. Large, hard, hot. Those were the only words she could think of to describe him. He smelled so good, like ocean air and aftershave and soft-serve vanilla ice cream. She could get drunk off his scent.

“Tell me to go home,” he said into her mouth. “Right now. Tell me to leave.”

“I can’t. You leaving is the very last thing I want.”

“I was hoping you would say that.” He pulled her cardigan off and kissed that little curve that connected her shoulder to her neck.

A moan escaped her as his hands slipped up her dress to skim the backs of her thighs. “You’re so beautiful,” he told her as he hooked his thumbs into her underwear and slid them down. “I want you so damn much.”

She sought his mouth again, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him with a heat that she had never experienced before. She felt his erection against her belly, and it caused her to grow wetter, even more aroused than she was when he had started all of this. She’d had only one serious boyfriend, one sweet, lovely man whom she would have happily spent the rest of her life with, but he’d never made her feel this way. He never wanted her with as much hunger as Elias possessed.

“Take me to your bedroom.”

She took his hand without thinking, and he winced.

“I’m sorry!”

“Don’t be. You can kiss it better.” He lightly pressed his lips to hers.

“When’s the last time you took anything for your hand?”

“This morning. But I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“I am worried. I need you to touch me all over my body, and for that to happen I need to know you’re not in pain.”

“If you take me to bed, I promise you the only kind of pain I’ll be in is the good kind.”

She smiled at him and took his other hand, leading him into her en suite bathroom. It was a luxurious bathroom by anyone’s standards, with a huge jetted tub and a rainfall shower. There was a view of the ocean from the window.

“This bathroom is bigger than my bedroom,” he said to her in a low voice. “I would like to spend some time in here if we can.”

“We can.” She went to her medicine cabinet and opened it up in search for a bottle of pain reliever. Some of the contents came spilling out, including her birth control.

“I guess I don’t have to wonder about that,” he said and then unzipped her dress. She had on the ugliest underwear. A beige strapless bra. Her white cotton panties had been left on the floor somewhere near her front door. She had never thought she would be here in a million years. She didn’t even own sexy underwear, but Elias didn’t seem to mind at all. He unhooked her bra and with his uninjured hand cupped her breast, squeezing it ever so slightly as his thumb stroked over her nipple.

She swallowed hard, almost forgetting what she was supposed to be doing. But then she remembered she wanted him to have two pain-free hands so that she could experience even more of his pleasure. She picked up the bottle and closed the door to the medicine cabinet only to come face-to-face with herself in the mirror. Only she didn’t recognize herself. Her hair was windblown and wild, her mouth was slightly open, her lips pouty and kiss swollen. She was completely naked, and a large fully dressed man was looking at her with such open appreciation that it made her knees weak.

But the most marked change was the look in her eyes. There was arousal there, pure and naked lust. She hadn’t thought it was possible to look like that. It didn’t mesh with the image she had of herself in her mind.

“Do you see how sexy you are?” he asked as he pulled her nipple between his fingers. She bit her lip as the pleasure took over her. “I can’t wait to be inside you. To feel you wrapped around me. I can’t help but feel that you are what I need right now.”

She trembled. The power of his words alone made her tremble. She took a small step away from him and filled a glass with water and handed it to him.

“Pills now.”

“Open the bottle for me.”

She complied, but she did it as she walked back into her bedroom, feeling freer and more confident in her body than she had in all her twenty-nine years. “Sit down,” she ordered. He did so with a sexy grin that she was growing to love more by the minute. “Take these.” She handed him the pills and began to work at the small buttons on his shirt. She knew his body was in spectacular shape, because she felt every hard-muscled line when she was pressed against him. But now she could see him in all his glory. Beautiful brown skin covering tight abs and a powerfully built chest.

“I like bossy women,” he said and set his glass of water on the nightstand before he pulled her closer. “Have I mentioned how incredible your behind is?” He cupped it, his fingers digging into her flesh.

“No, but a lady always loves a compliment.” She pulled off his shirt and then pushed him back on the bed. She unzipped his pants and gave him a silent signal to lift his hips. She was growing wetter and wetter with each piece of skin she had revealed. It was something special to have a gorgeous naked man in her bed, one who she knew wanted her, one who was so aroused that she was afraid he wasn’t going to fit inside her.

He pulled her on top of him, their naked bodies colliding. He groaned as her breasts rubbed against him. “Beautiful girl...” His voice was husky and breathy. He ran his hand down the length of her back. “Everything you do turns me on. We need to slow this down before I embarrass myself.”

“I promise you,” she started but trailed off when his lips looked too kissable to pass up, “that you never have to be embarrassed with me.”

He rolled over so that he was on top, his body pressing hers into the mattress. “I want to touch you.” She felt his heavy erection between her legs. She had wanted to run her hands over it, her lips, feel the weight of him.

“I really want this to last.” He kissed her slowly and so deeply that she felt like she was falling. “Talk to me. Tell me something about yourself.”

“As a child I had a cat named Sophie. She was fat and orange and I loved her to pieces. Your turn.”

“My older brother played baseball his entire life, but I find the sport kind of boring and have only watched the games that he played in.” He kissed behind her ear and ran his hand over her hip. “That was a deep, dark secret that you can never tell another soul.”

“Juicy. Perfect for blackmailing.”

“Tell me something else,” he said as she felt him press against her opening, running his head down the length of her lips.

“Deep and dark?” she panted.

“The deeper the better.”

She suddenly got overwhelmingly nervous. This had felt like a dream up until now, but he was in her bed, nearly inside her, and she had never thought this would happen. She had all but given up on men. “I have something big to tell you.”

He must have heard the panic in her voice, because he stopped what he was doing and rolled them to their sides. “You’re married. You share this house with your husband, and he’s about to burst in here with a shotgun.”

“No! Of course not.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Strike two.”

“You’re not going to tell me you’re a man.” He touched her between her legs, slipping a finger inside her to stroke her. “I can tell.”

She cried out. “No. I’m a virgin.”

* * *

“Excuse me?” She was lying to him. She had to be lying to him. Cricket was definitely an enigma. She was odd and brainy and probably leaps and bounds smarter than he was. But she was so damn funny and sweet, and she had the body of a video vixen hidden beneath her cute sundress and prim cardigan.

She was a sex goddess and he was lucky enough to be taken to her bed, and she was telling him that she had never been with a man before? He just didn’t believe it.

“You don’t kiss like a virgin.”

“I’m only one in the technical sense.”

“Explain.”

“I was with a man for over five years who was born with a defect and couldn’t...you know. It was fine, because sex wasn’t terribly important to me, and he did other...intimate things to make up for it. But we broke up three years ago and I haven’t made it this far with a man since.”

“Have you tried? All you have to do is look at a man and he’ll want you.”

“I want you.” She slid her hand up his cheek and kissed him softly.

He wanted her, too, and this revelation should have shaken him, but he was surprised to find that he wanted her even more. To be the first man inside her, to be the first man to have her body like this. “I’m glad you told me.”

“You aren’t going to walk away right now. It will kill me if you did.”

“I’m not walking away. I can’t, and I don’t want to.”

She let out a sigh of relief. He was surprised by her more and more each moment. She didn’t see herself the way he saw her. Thick and delicious. So incredibly sexy that it made his teeth hurt. Being with her wasn’t just a want, it was a need. For the first time since he had snapped his wrist, he wasn’t feeling so damn empty. He stroked between her legs as he kissed her. She moved against his hand, her hips moving in a way that made it hard for him to believe that she was a virgin. He felt bad for her. She was clearly a sexual person with needs that had gone unfulfilled for so long. He felt even worse for that poor slob of a boyfriend. It must be torture to be this close to perfection without being able to have it.