You Were Mine (Rosemary Beach #9)(18)

I nodded, and he moved me fast. I was on my back as he pulled my bottoms down my legs. I was completely naked. No guy had ever seen me naked. I was suddenly very nervous.

Tripp didn’t notice, though. His focus was completely on my most private area. He pushed my thighs open, and the light in his eyes got brighter. That could not be attractive down there. Why did he seem to like it so much?

He lowered himself until his head was between my legs. His finger was on me again, but this was different. I was completely open to him. Not hidden under my bottoms. “You’re even beautiful here,” he said in a soft whisper as he ran a finger slowly down until it met with the opening it had entered earlier.

“Ahhh, Tripp,” I said as my hips bucked involuntarily from the touch of his finger.

“Mmm-hmm,” he replied before the heat of his tongue touched me.

“Aaahhhhh!” I screamed at the contact. It was so much better than feeling his finger, which I thought would be impossible.

“Tastes better than I imagined,” he said against my heated flesh, then licked me again. I couldn’t breathe. I was lost. This was too much and not enough.

Tripp’s mouth began to taste me with wild abandon as he slipped his tongue inside me, then back up, circling the most sensitive area there. Each time he touched that one spot, I cried out his name. I couldn’t stop myself.

The growing feeling inside me escalated, and I knew I wanted whatever it was. If I died from this, I’d be OK with that. It was worth it. I just wanted more. I felt as if I was about to fall, and I wasn’t sure where.

“Tripp,” I said, grabbing at his shoulders.

“Come for me, sweetheart. I want to taste it,” he said as his hand moved up my body to cup my breast.

I exploded, or at least the world around me did.

Tripp

Present day

She hadn’t looked over at me once. It was deliberate, too. Smiling to myself, I stopped watching her so closely and turned my attention to Woods as he took a seat beside me. “You good?” he asked me. This was a regular question from Woods. Especially since I’d told him about my past with Bethy.

“Yeah,” I replied, not wanting to put a damper on his weekend. “You ready to get hitched?”

Woods grinned and turned his gaze to Della, who was standing at the bar fixing herself a glass of water. “More than anything in my life. I’d have married her sooner had she let me. But Della deserves a fairy-tale wedding. I wanted to give her that.”

Della turned to look at Woods as if she knew we were talking about her and smiled at him sweetly.

He slapped my knee and stood up. “Good chatting with you, but I’ve got to talk to my beautiful fiancée in the back room about something.”

Woods was gone before I could reply. He wasn’t taking her into the back room to talk. Chuckling, I turned my attention back to Bethy, who was sitting between Harlow and Blaire. Smiling. Really smiling. She was happy. Whatever they were talking about made her smile. I had missed that smile so damn much. She never smiled for me now.

Grant moved over to sit down beside Harlow, with his baby girl tucked close to his chest. Harlow said something to him, and he grinned and leaned over to press a kiss to her lips. I watched Bethy as she took in their happiness. There wasn’t resentment in her face. But there was longing. It made me ache. I hated knowing Bethy was alone. I hated that she wouldn’t let me near her.

The pilot came over the speaker and told everyone to prepare for takeoff. Rush walked over and took Blaire’s hand, pulling her with him to sit in a more private area. Bethy looked lost in that moment. Like she wasn’t sure where she fit in now.

Thad took the now-vacated seat beside her and said something to make her smile. I wanted to knock his pretty-boy teeth down his throat and thank him at the same time. He’d seen what I had seen, and he’d gone in to fix it. She would let him. He hadn’t broken her heart.

I leaned back in my seat and buckled my seat belt like everyone else. I rested my head against the back of the seat and closed my eyes. I couldn’t sit here and watch Thad entertain Bethy for the next two hours. I was glad he was there for her, but watching it was too hard.

When Della and Woods had told everyone we would all be put up in our own private huts, I had expected something less luxurious. This was far from a hut. I stood inside a small house that sat directly on the clear blue water. There was a walkway to the main part of the island and to the other “huts.” Stone walls and a fireplace were only part of the surprising accommodations. The entire house was open on all four sides, giving me a water view wherever I looked. At night, the walls came down at the touch of a button.

The king-size bed that sat in the center of the room was surrounded by white gauzy shit that hung from the ceiling. I set my duffel bag on the bed and walked out to the water to get a good look at my surroundings. This was definitely a fairy tale. Woods hadn’t been kidding. He’d gone all out.

Movement to my left caught my attention, and I turned to see Bethy walking out of the next hut over, wearing a bikini. She hadn’t noticed me yet, so I stepped back inside, just out of sight. I watched as she coated herself with sunscreen before lying down on the double-teak lounger. There were only two huts on each of the twenty extensions from the island. My only neighbor was Bethy. She wasn’t going to like this, but I wasn’t going to let her know right away. I’d wait until it was too late for her to ask for another hut.