Lana(23)

“You’re so f**king tight that I’m going to embarrass myself, baby. I want you with me when I come,” he whispered. His sexy words, combined with all of the wonderful things he was doing to me, made me pant with my building orgasm.

He began to thrust, big, heavy thrusts that went on and on, his finger still working on me. He kept going until I began to clench around him with another glorious orgasm. “Yes,” he grunted as he began to shudder and come himself. “Oh, yes, Lana.”

After we’d recovered, he carried me up to his bed, tending to me and holding me. We spent the night together, and it was the best night of my life. He made love to me, over and over again, worshipping my body with his. The spell wasn’t broken until morning, when he was thrusting inside of me yet again. He had used me so thoroughly that I was deliciously sore, each movement reminding me of how much he’d enjoyed my body. He brought me to climax first, before he let himself go.

“I love you, Akira,” I said to him as he lay on top of me when we’d finished. My voice was quiet, but sure. “I always have, and I always will. I want to be with you forever. I don’t want anyone else.”

He stiffened at my words, immediately taking his weight off me and sitting up on the side of the bed, his back to me, his legs on the floor. “That’s not possible, Lana,” he said, his tone very final.

My heart stopped in my chest, my mind racing. “You said you and Milena had broken up,” I said, my voice sounding accusatory.

He turned to look at me, his features anguished and severe. “We are. This has nothing to do with Milena. This has to do with you. You have the world at your feet. And you’re still so young. You can’t possibly know what you want, at your age. You need to go to college. You need to go experience life and see the world. You’re unbearably beautiful, and smart, and your family’s wealth means that the sky is the limit for you. You have an amazing life ahead of you, and I would never dream of being the thing that stood in your way. This can’t be anything more than what it was, Lana. It was an incredible night, you were incredible, but I won’t tie you to this rock. I’m not that selfish.”

His tone was kind, even tender, but all I heard was a rejection. In just a few short minutes, he had stomped all of my dreams of a happy life into dust.

I was a little numb that morning as I showered, dressed, and left his house. He hovered over me, studying me with worried eyes as I prepared to leave.

“Are you okay, Lana?” he asked, his voice concerned. But he didn’t touch me, not once. He didn’t correct his clear rejection, or take it back. And he never even came close to saying that he loved me, too.

I left his house with a broken heart.

I galvanized myself into professing myself to him one more time, going to his bar that afternoon. I would hate myself if I didn’t give it my best shot. I couldn’t just give up on the thing that I’d always wanted.

I never even got a chance to speak to him again. I was told by the bartender that he was in his office. I went to the employees only section of the bar without asking. No one paid me any mind. They were all used to me doing as I pleased, since I had dogged Akira’s every step for years now, going wherever I wanted whenever I pleased.

I nearly barged into his office before I heard the voices nearly shouting inside. The door was open just a crack, and I peeked inside. Milena was pressed against Akira, his hand in her hair. They were embracing, though they were talking, not kissing, as it at first appeared. It was still a clear embrace, though.

“Don’t lie to me. I saw that little piece of jailbait leaving your house this morning! I’ll kill her!” Milena was saying to him, her voice low and mean.

“Leave her alone, Milena. It isn’t what it looked like. Lana is just a family friend with an inconvenient infatuation. Just leave her alone, k?” His voice was earnest and pleading.

I backed away from the doorway, my hand flying to my chest. He’s still involved with Milena, I realized in horror. I had shamelessly seduced him, not taking no for an answer, but he hadn’t wanted me. He was clearly concerned that he might lose the one that he really cared about, going by the earnest note in his voice. If he did lose her, it would be my fault. He must hate me, I realized, so disgusted with myself that I wanted to be sick. I was just a family friend with an inconvenient infatuation, he’d said. I walked away on leaden feet, feeling sick down to my soul.

I flew off the island that night. I didn’t return for eight long, desolate years.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The staff at the hospital recognized us both on sight. My family was well known on the island, and Akira was, well, Akira. He was a local legend. We got the local treatment, a nurse taking me back immediately and cleaning off my cuts in short order, Akira hovering at my back the entire time.

“She got you good,” the nurse said as she checked over the cuts very carefully. She was a local, a short, heavy-set woman with a friendly face and a long black braid running down her back. “But it’ll heal up in a few days. You don’t need stitches or nothin’.” She grinned suddenly. “Word is you won. Good job. Milena beat up my cousin a few months ago, and for no good reason. I hate that crazy bitch.” Word traveled fast on the island, apparently.

I couldn’t help it. I grinned back proudly. “I tried not to resort to fighting like a girl, but you gotta do what you gotta do.” Akira tugged on a lock of my hair. It was a reprimand, I knew.