White Ginger

chapter 20



The afternoon sun was dipping close to the horizon. Amelie finished tidying away her brushes and went to wash up. Water gushed over her hands as she considered the pattern she was creating. A pair of warm arms slid around her waist and a mouth nuzzled her ear. She jumped, droplets flying from her hands.

“No need to throw cold water over me.” She turned to see Arne wiping splashes from his face.

“You deserve everything you get, sneaking up on me like that.”

His right eyebrow shot upward. He grabbed her and kissed her upturned mouth. Her lips parted automatically and she pressed against him, wriggling closer when his hands molded her bottom. Gently, he nipped her lower lip.

“You know…you’re right.” He rubbed his full lower lip over hers. “I do deserve everything I get.”

He’d been right to suggest this fresh start. His playful mood promised a fun evening…and didn’t they deserve some fun together? What had he planned? Dinner? Amorous pursuits? He reached under her painting shirt, massaging her hips as he pulled her closer still. Oh yeah. She liked his thinking. Her nipples hardened. She yanked the hair tie out of her hair and dropped it on the floor.

Let the fun begin.

He pulled back–again, and she tensed. This couldn’t be happening. Please don’t let it be happening. She’d go crazy trying to keep up with his mood swings. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. Come on. We’ll be late if we don’t go now.” He tugged off her paint-spattered smock.

“Go where? Late for what? I need a shower before I go anywhere.”

“No you don’t. Just bring your swimming gear.” Suiting action to words, he grabbed her beach bag on the way out, propelling her ahead of him across the grass to his jeep.

She yelped, stubbing her toe on a rock. “I don’t even have a pair of shoes on.”

“Don’t need them, not where we’re going.” He helped her into the jeep and reversed. What was he doing? The palm trees whizzed past as he raced down the narrow dirt track.

“Where are we going? Town’s back thataway.”

“You’ll see.”

He refused to be drawn and pulled up beneath a stand of close growing palms and hibiscus bushes. “Turn around. You can’t look yet.” He slipped a blindfold over her eyes and she stiffened. “Can you see anything?”

“No. Arne, what are you doing?”

Why, tonight of all nights, did he want to play games? What had he planned? Couldn’t they just sit on her veranda and talk over a bottle of wine? This was like stepping into the unknown.

Suddenly, he stopped and turned her toward him. Disadvantaged by not being able to see him, she lifted a hand to remove the blindfold.

“Not yet. Amelie, do you trust me?” He sounded unsure, vulnerable. Didn’t he know how much she trusted him? Maybe not. And suddenly her answer seemed to be about more than this game, more than not seeing the path ahead of her.

It was about them.

“I trust you, Arne. Absolutely.”

She heard the smile in his voice. “Thank you.”

Her foot slipped in loose sand as they resumed their walk. He picked her up by her waist and carried her for the space of a few heartbeats then set her down, standing behind to steady her, hands resting on her hips. She felt around with her foot. The sand was still warm, and she could hear the nearby sound of lapping waves. Further away, breakers crashed over the reef.

“Now…what do you think?” He removed the blindfold and stood, warm hands on her shoulders.

Blazing red and gold clouds spread out before them as the Hawaiian sun set, framed by palms whose fronds almost met from either side of a narrow rush of sea water. They were on the far side of a small lagoon. White sand and lush greenery tumbled down to the water’s edge in fabulous profusion.

“Oh.” She sighed. This was like a scene in a movie, but real. “How beautiful.” He caressed the sensitive skin on her shoulders, bare but for the thin straps of her cami. One hand splayed across her stomach, holding her against his hard body while he ran his fingertips along her neck, around her jaw and played with her ear lobes. Featherlight, his touch roused the fire within her. She leaned back into him.

Warm breath tickled as he whispered in her ear and he turned her to face the way they had come. Candles were set on branches and on the sand, surrounding a feast set on a large, colorful blanket. If he had seduction in mind, he’d outdone himself. This fulfilled every romantic fantasy she’d ever had, and then some. How had he known this secret yearning?

“Hungry? I am.” He nibbled on her neck.

“I haven’t eaten since breakfast.” Her stomach rumbled and he grinned.

“Allow me to offer you an appetizer.”

Having eaten their fill, Arne suggested a moonlight swim. He passed across her beach bag. “You can get changed just in there.”

Several small bushes that didn’t quite meet on one side created a natural changing room. Uh oh. What wildlife was hiding within?

As if reading her thoughts, Arne stepped into it, stomping his feet. “There you are. Safe.”

Amelie giggled. “How do know what I’m thinking?”

“Your face is quite expressive. Besides, I’ve seen you with the spiders back at your cabin.” He chuckled.

She tipped her head at an imperious angle. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh yes you do, my beauty. Do you want me to come in and keep guard while you get changed?” A wicked glint lit his eyes. She backed into the space and gave him a little push.

“You just go and find your own space or I’ll beat you into the water.”

Quickly, she pulled on her blue and white bikini, reveling in the soft fabric and the way it clung to her slimness. She trailed her fingers across the swell of her breasts and shivered in anticipation.

Would she see desire in Arne’s eyes when he saw her?

Stepping out of her green changing room, she looked for Arne in the flickering shadows of candlelight but he was nowhere to be seen. A little deflated, she wandered to the water’s edge and stood, making patterns with her big toe in the white sand. Wavelets lapped the shore, running over her feet. The water was still warm, enticing her in hip-deep. Splaying her fingers on the surface, she sent out ripples across the lagoon. Arne would come soon. Lazily, she began to breaststroke.

How far she had come in her recovery from Victor. Aside from his unannounced visit, she hadn’t thought about him at all. In fact, she found it difficult to recall his face. Try as she might, it was replaced immediately by a tanned, somewhat imperiously tilted face lit by a pair of deep brown eyes she wanted to look into hers forever. Hawaii had given her so much.

Peace, love, Arne…

With a start, she realized she’d floated a distance from shore, their picnic spot only small pinpricks of candlelight. The blackness of the water unnerved her.

Where was Arne? What was lurking below the surface? Surely this wasn’t a deep lagoon? Could fish swim through the narrow opening from the sea? Darting glances all around, she swam back, guided by the candlelit stretch of beach.

A shadow glided below her, blocking her retreat.

No, not now. Just when her life had turned around, she was going to be fish bait.

As the shape surfaced, she cried and hit out at it. Warm hands closed over her fists and Arne pulled her into his arms.

“It’s me. It’s okay.” He stroked her hair, and she calmed.

“I thought you were… Oh, you wretched man. Where were you?”

He rested his forehead against hers. “You were so quick changing. And for some reason, I didn’t expect you to be in the water without me. I didn’t mean to frighten you like that. What were you imagining I was? A shark?” He stroked her back. “Though I do want to eat you up.”

He grabbed her waist and pulled her in close again so he could nibble on her ear and neck and shoulders.

She couldn’t suppress a giggle. “I could shoot you!”

“Wouldn’t you rather kiss me?” In the moonlight, his eyebrows rose suggestively before he lowered his mouth to hers.

Lazily treading water, they turned full circle, lips clinging together. She tangled her legs with his, winding her legs around his hips. Floating against him, his arousal pressed into her and she rocked over him. Wavelets lapped against her breasts, pebbling her nipples as his tongue probed her mouth. Mmm…making love in the water offered a different appeal.

He rolled her around onto his back and breaststroked toward the candlelit beach. Water lapped his broad shoulders. She squirmed in anticipation with each ripple of his muscles against her breasts as he pulled through the water. Surrounded by water, she burned for him. Deep within her, an ache throbbed at the juncture of her thighs.

Wrapping her legs around his hips, she rode him like a sea nymph, running her hands over his beautiful satiny skin.

In hip-deep water, he eased her off his back then swept her into his arms. Twining her arms round his neck, she buried her face against his chest, licking salt off his skin.

He lowered her to the cleared picnic rug and stopped.

There it was. The bright flame of desire in his eyes. How could she have doubted he wanted her?

The tips of his fingers trailed down her body and across her thighs. Nerve endings leaped under his touch. When he reached her bikini bottom, she licked her lips and held her breath.

Please keep going.

Following her instincts, she raised her mouth, flicked her tongue along the whorl of his ear and blew gently.

“That’s how you want to play, is it?” He leaned over her stomach. Following the line of her bikini, he traced a pattern on her skin, his tongue dipping into her navel on the return journey. Muscles she’d not used in too long clenched in anticipation. He stretched alongside her, matching their bodies to one another. Thigh against thigh, breast to breast, she felt the hard thrust of his arousal against her belly, raised in man’s age-old homage to woman. The longing to take him inside grew.

His lips brushed her closed eyes. Kissing his way down her cheek to her mouth, he feathered more kisses down her neck and back up the other side. His breath tickled her ear, delicately erotic in its invitation. She tightened her hold around his neck while his tongue traced the shape of her lips, probed her mouth, running along the sensitive inside of her lips, teasing, tasting.

Fingers played along the soft skin of her collarbone, the inside of her elbow, and she reacted to erotic spots she hadn’t guessed she possessed. Like an instrument sweetly played in tune, her body thrummed under his touch.

Wanting to gift him the same pleasure he’d given her, she began a slow trail of soft kisses along his jaw, over his face and eyelids. While she moved over him, his hands roved up and down the length of her body. Everywhere he touched, her body sang. Finally, one hand cupped her breast. His thumb circled the erect tip and she arched back, a breathy moan wrenched from deep within.

A sense of urgency filled her and she bent to meet his lips. They rolled, changing places, and he leaned in to kiss her breast. His teeth closed over the edge of her bikini top and pulled it down, exposing her breast. First his mouth trailed across her sensitive skin, followed by his tongue, flicking, licking. A spasm of lust shafted through her. Nothing existed beyond his arms, his mouth. She lifted her hips in invitation.

He stilled, stroking her cheek until she met his gaze. She opened her eyes wide.

“Amelie, my darling, are you sure this is what you want?” His voice was husky with passion and the effort of holding back. Finally he was saying the words she longed to hear.

“I love you. I can’t live without you. But am I the man you want?”

She looked deep into his soul. What she saw took her breath away. This beautiful man who had saved her, loved her. He was offering her all that he was. She could do no less.

“I love you, Arne, now and forever. Only you.” She pulled his head down to lock their lips together again.

One long male leg slid between hers. She ran her foot ran up its outside length until her knee met his hip. His hand slid down her back, her bottom, along the silky skin of her thigh to her knee, pulling it round his hips. Pressing against his body, she was intensely aware of just how much she loved him and wanted him.

Her hand played over his well-muscled chest, teased his dark nipples, then wandered over his flat stomach to the band of his swimming trunks. Sliding a finger under the band, she touched the tip of his manhood, then eased her hand inside. His hot, hard erection sprang toward her touch.

At some point, the snaps of her bikini top came undone. As the scrap of blue and white material vanished, his mouth and hands replaced it. Her name sounded on his lips like a man at prayer.

Returning kiss for kiss, she gave free rein to all that she’d kept under tight control these past weeks. Her body sought closer communion with his, hungry for his touch everywhere. Lips, tongue, mouth teased their way down over the curve of her stomach toward her wet, warm secret core. Kneeling beside her, he slipped his hand between her legs, kissing the silken skin above her bikini. She arched up hard against his hand, seeking that fierce, frantic release. She matched the rhythm of his hand on her, knowing instinctively and absolutely what she wanted.

Him.

Somewhere in their frenzied pleasuring of each other’s bodies, they lost the last scraps of material until they wore nothing but each other. Resting on his elbows, he looked into her eyes as he slipped a finger inside her, his thumb massaging her mound until she trembled on the brink of total abandon. Tossing her head from side to side she soared, higher and higher.

She wanted to watch him as he entered her.

She whispered, “I love you,” and guided him into her body. He thrust slowly at first. Wrapping her legs more tightly around his hips she matched him, stroke for stroke. Together, they soared to the heavens, their cries mingling as their bodies promised a love to last forever.



Somewhere out in the sea beyond the bar, a pair of dolphins gamboled together. Overhead, stars and planets and suns and moons looked on at the age-old dance of love so beloved by the gods, the union of one man and his woman.