Page 38 of On The Beach

"You gonna come again, aren't you, Belle?"

"Yes." I couldn't look away from his piercing gaze. It was like we were holding the universe together between us in perfect balance.

"That's my Belle," he ground out as my spasms began, first slow and then hard.

I cried out at the assault on my senses. Nothing like this had ever happened before, not even with that two-hundred-dollar designer clitoral stimulator I had bought. This was something entirely different.

When he poured into me, his grunts of release as loud as mine had been, I promised myself that I'd enjoy the hell out of Mick because I didn't think I'd ever have this kind of perfection again.

CHAPTER 11

beneath the beach bottoms

MICK

Iwatched Belle from across the Coral Cove, her brow furrowed, fingers tapping impatiently on her laptop as the signal flickered in and out. She was trying to connect to her work systems, but between the dodgy Wi-Fi and the lack of a proper cell tower on the island, it was a losing battle.

I was almost enjoying watching her try toreconnectto her work world, the one she wasn't sure if she wanted to escape. I could relate to Belle; maybe that was why I was attracted to her.

"Or maybe because she has a brain, unlike all the bimbos you've been screwing around with?" RiRi offered.

"I screw around with you, and you're no bimbo," I reminded her.

She waved a hand. "Wewerefriends with benefits. That's different."

RiRi had a point. I enjoyed Belle's sharp mind and the way she talked about her clinical trials, but deep down, I knew I'd have to face the truth I'd been avoiding. I missed parts of my old life. I missed the work.

"Fucking hell." Belle pounded on her keyboard. "Damn it, I got disconnected again."

I smiled.

She looked out of place, but in the best way possible, like she was one foot in and one foot out of Reef Harbor, not quite ready to fully let go of wherever she'd come from and not willing to give into the island charm either.

"Try sitting between the window and that ledge there," RiRi suggested. "I sometimes get a signal there."

Belle moved her laptop. My eyes followed her.

Franco nudged me, a grin already forming on his face. "You look like a schoolboy with a crush."

I scoffed, shaking my head. "It's not like that, man. She's too big city."

But even as I said it, I didn't really believe it. Belle was the kind of woman you noticed, the kind you remembered—smart, funny, way too serious for her own good.Andshe was relentless in all the ways I'd once been.

"So what? Big city never stopped you before," Cato chimed in, raising an eyebrow. "Back when you lived in Boston, you used to bethebig city."

"Yeah, well, I don't miss it," I muttered, more to myself than to them.

But Cato wasn't having it. "Don't pretend like you weren't the biggest hotshot out there for a while. That fancy lab, the startup?—"

"Christ, Cato, let it the fuck go."

Helaxion. That was the company I'd founded with some others. Not friends but colleagues. We respected one another. When I decided to leave, they'd understood that I needed to step away. I was into the science and not the business. I wasn't thefaceof the company; they were. I preferred to be in the background. I had my private lab where I worked with a trusted team—the team that was now spread across the worldworking on breakthrough innovations in universities and pharmaceutical companies. None of them were still at Helaxion. They'd been friends, but I hadn't stayed in touch.

"Score." Belle pumped her fist in the air. She looked at me with bright eyes, "I got in."

I raised my beer bottle in her direction. "Good for you, Babycakes."

She started to speak with someone from her team on her headphones, and just like that, I was back, remembering the early mornings at the lab, the takeout boxes stacked in the corner, the endless meetings with investors who barely knew the science but were always counting the profits.

---