Page 46 of All I Desire

Chapter Twelve

MATTHEW

The morning sunwarms my face, and I take a deep inhale of salt air. Goddamn, my body hasn’t felt this good in years. Since I only got a few hours of sleep last night, I should be exhausted. Instead, I’m buzzing with a focused, calm energy.

“Hey.” Natalia’s voice is soft. I open my eyes to see her standing next to my chair with a mug of coffee in her hands. We’re on her balcony, which overlooks the Gulf. Since it’s eight in the morning, the sky is awash in golden sunshine.

“I can’t cook, but I can make amazing coffee. Here you go. Black, no sugar, sugar pie.”

I take the coffee and grin. I love that we’re already calling each other pet names. “Thanks, babe.”

She sinks into the chair next to me, extending her long legs so that she’s resting her bare feet on the balcony rail. Her toenails are painted a sexy nude color. This morning, she’s wearing a pair of tiny, black jogging shorts and a thin, white tank top, which means I can see the faint outlines of her dusky nipples. I’ve noticed that Natalia doesn’t ever dress too feminine, but she still ends up looking graceful and gorgeous. I’d call her style grown up, minimalist tomboy, and something about it is irresistibly hot.

“Isn’t this the best, morning on the beach? I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s why I bought the place.”

She tilts her head in the direction of the sun’s rays, shutting her eyes. I take in the angles and curves of her face. She’s wearing no makeup and has silver studs in her ears. Her skin is flawless, a fawn-colored, golden brown. Her nose is a touch wide and turned up at the end. When I woke this morning, I had an insane urge to rub the tip with my finger, it was so adorably sexy.

“Are you looking at me, Matthew?” The way her cheeks plump when she smiles is stunning.

“Yep. Can’t help it.” I sip my coffee and turn my attention to the Gulf, which isn’t as gorgeous as her.

“Silly.”

“You do make good coffee. Damn, woman.” She reaches for my hand and I bring her fingers to my lips. “Yeah, you made the right decision choosing this place.”

“I looked at condos both with views to the east or to the west. Sunrise or sunset. I decided that I’d rather have beautiful sunrises. I’m more of a morning person.”

“I gathered that when you woke me up at six.” For another round of incredible sex.

Somehow, it feels good to talk about absolutely nothing this morning with her. It’s easy and casual. Sometimes after a night of sex with a woman, conversation the next day is awkward. Stilted. This morning with Natalia feels like we’ve been doing this for years, only with the gilded, exciting sheen of a new relationship. All that sexual tension and anticipation. The best of both worlds. I’m probably jumping the gun here, but I think this could turn into something serious…

“My family thought I should’ve gotten a house somewhere on the middle of the island, something bigger, with a garage. But when I saw this view and this balcony, I was like, nope.” She opens her eyes and squeezes my hand.

“It’s really cool that you’re so close to your family.”

She nods thoughtfully. “Yeah. There was a time when I was a teenager that I was kind of a rebel. I deeply disliked them. Okay, I was a pain in the ass. But now, family’s everything to me. And since my brothers have all paired off, there are new people in the mix. It’s awesome. It’s like I have four instant sisters. Everything finally feels right. Is it at all like that with your family, too?”

I take a deep breath. “Well, with Chloe, sure. The sun rises and the moon sets with her. The rest of my family, that’s a whole other story…” My voice trails off and I wince.

Natalia glances at me. “What? Difficult childhood? You don’t strike me as someone who was rebellious. You seem well-adjusted and normal.”

I huff a little laugh. So much for easy conversation. “Not a rebel. Difficult childhood, though? You could say that. I’m closest to my sister. She’s two years younger and still in Boston. That’s where we grew up.”

“I don’t know why I had the impression that you grew up in Florida. I guess cause you said you visited here when you were younger?”

“I did visit, a couple of times. My mom…” I wave my hand. “You probably don’t want to hear this.”

Or maybe I don’t want to talk about it. Or do I? If I’m going to take this to the next level with her, she’ll have to know, eventually.

“I do,” she says, wide-eyed. “I mean, if you feel like talking.”

“Well. When I was six, my mom got pregnant by another man. She left us for him. It was abrupt and devastating, to say the least.”

“Ohh,” she whispers.

“My sister and I didn’t see her, or her new family, for years. We sided with my dad. When I was a teen, relations thawed, and I came here to visit her a couple of times because she had a place on the beach. It was awful. Her and the visits, not the island. I always loved the island. My only decent memory of those visits is of going out on a fishing boat with my half-brother.”

I thread my hands together and look down. It dawns on me that Nat is right around the same age as Chad, but she probably wouldn’t know him since he was such a little shit back then and bounced around from school to school. I don’t even know if he went to high school here. If he did, it probably wasn’t for long. I’ll have to ask him.

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