Page 13 of Paradise Found
“Hard to find a word to represent your ancestors from all over the world,” he quipped, his understanding evident. “But I like it,hapagirl.”
When he offered his boyish grin, Oleanna had to look away. He smiled at her like she was sunshine and candy and Christmas all rolled into one.
How would he look at her when he found out she’d been lying to him?
That she had let her pride get in the way of common sense?
Would he look at herat all?
Or go back to seeing her but not seeing her?
They were only a few minutes from the cottage. She didn’t say it out loud, but her confession sat bitter at the tip of her tongue.
I live forty-five minutes from your mansion in Minnesota. My family cleans your house. We’ve met and talked a handful of times before yesterday. When I go back home, I’ll have to stay away from your zip code in order to keep this stupid ruse a secret and to hang on to whatever semblance of dignity I have left. But now? Right now, I couldn’t care less about secrets or dignity or zip codes. Right now, all I want is you.
Instead of confessing, she looked at his chiseled profile and hoarded as many memories as she could of this perfect day with the perfect guy.
They arrived as the final afternoon rays grazed the flowers at the back patio. She called Aunt Eleanor to make sure they did not need her for anything.
“Put the groceries in the cottage,iha,” she said, using the Tagalog family nickname for young lady. “And remember what I said earlier?”
Over breakfast at the main house that morning, her aunt had queried Axel’s decision to stay for two weeks. Oleanna admitted her attraction to their guest, as well as her fear that once he learned her identity, his interest in the local girl would fade. She would revert to the maid he never noticed.
“You worry too much,” her aunt had commented. “If you like him, date him.”
“I’m leaving the day after tomorrow!” She’d guffawed, surprised by her aunt’s liberal attitude.
Aunt Eleanor had simply shrugged. “You work too hard. Why not vacation, too?”
Why not indeed, she decided now, before turning to Axel. “After we unload the groceries in the cottage, you want to go for a swim?”
“Absolutely!”
And there it was, the boyish grin and the sweet enthusiasm of a man she was going to enjoy for as long as she could.
In a locked closet, where cleaning products and an expensive router were stored, was a dresser for clothes that belonged to the family. She grabbed a bikini she kept on-site for when she stayed in the cottage. Axel got dressed even quicker, waiting for her while lying on the hammock, shirtless and gorgeous with two beach towels over his torso.
When she walked out in her pink bikini, he almost fell off the hammock. Scrambling on his legs, he was in front of her in a flash.
“Oleanna, I don’t know how it’s possible but since I got here, you’re more beautiful every minute.”
“OK, wow, that’s… thank you,” she stuttered, not sure what to do with his earnest compliment. “You’re less red,” sheresponded, deflecting attention away from her own red face. “Are you feeling better?”
He kissed the corner of her mouth before whispering in her ear. “I’m so much more than better.”
They held hands while walking to the beach. When they approached the shore, fingers still entangled, Oleanna had the weirdest sensation that everything led to this. That whatever fate he talked about yesterday found her, too.
That’s how she felt.Found.
Brimming with joy, she jumped into the next wave. For half an hour they played like kids: chasing each other and riding the current, floating on their backs and diving into salty depths.
And when the orange glow hit the midnight tones of a blue ocean, they clung as if each was the other’s savior. She wrapped her limbs around him, her pliant core pressed against his throbbing erection. They submitted to the wildest currents of their sexual attraction.
They kissed with fevered desperation. His hand caressed one breast while the other kneaded her bottom. She clung to him from under his armpits to avoid the tender skin of his shoulders. Where her hands grabbed, his back muscles clenched. She shifted to reach between their bodies, running a palm over abdominal ridges to find the band of his swim shorts. Slipping inside, her hand clasped his hot, rigid manhood.
When he groaned into her neck and sucked, she squeezed her legs tighter around him, swirling her hips to a primal rhythm. Axel’s whispers of praise made her core clench.
“Oleanna, you’re blowing my mind. You know that, baby?”
