Chapter 12

“Oh my god...did you taste this?” Sid looked up from cutting his steak and watched Dakota licking her lips. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

“That’s why I told you to order it,” he smiled, slipping the dripping morsel of meat into his mouth and chewing it slowly.

“Yeah but...oh my god,” she closed her eyes and licked her lips again. Half of him wanted her to stop doing that but the other half of him sort of enjoyed the torture. “No, you have to try this,” she repeated, holding her fork out towards him. He shook his head.

“All that cream...no. I can’t,” he explained, staring at the prawn and pieces of crab on her fork slathered in a rich white wine and cream sauce. He’d had the seafood crepe once, during the summer and then followed it with bananas Foster. “Not during the season.”

“You’re not playing,” she reminded him, leaning forward and makings small tight circles with the fork in front of him. With a groan of defeat, he gave in and let her feed him. He let the rich creaminess fill his mouth and groaned again.

“I never eat stuff like that,” he sighed, staring at the thick crepe and the mess of white sauce on her plate.

“I thought you could eat, like, whatever you wanted to because you work out all the time,” she gave him that look, where her eyes travelled up his arms and over his chest and then slowly up to his mouth like she was imagining him naked. He felt heat creeping up his neck and into his face. He should have been used to it by now, to women looking at him like a side of beef. He wasn’t.

“I don’t take chances with stuff like that. There’s some guys I play with that drink and eat whatever and...I can’t,” he shrugged.

“Control freak much?” she grinned across the table at him.

“Maybe,” he replied and then turned to look at Becky who was stirring her food around on the plate in front of her. “Don’t like that as much as you thought you would?” he asked and she immediately dropped her spoon, crossed her arms and shook her head. “Do you want some of mine?” She eyed his plate speculatively and then nodded.

Picking up his plate, he started to spoon his mashed potatoes onto her plate when he got that feeling, that sort of prickling sensation at the back of his neck, that he was being watched. This was exactly what he’d been hoping wouldn’t happen, that he would be recognized, that someone would take his picture and put it on their facebook page or tweet it and then they’d know where they were, whoever they were. Cursing under his breath he tried to decide how much it would take to make them stop, to not take the picture. As he was turning he was hoping for a pair of older tourists, the kind without iPhones or Blackberries that automatically posted to a Twitter account.

“We’re very sorry for the intrusion....” Sidney plastered his best meet and greet smile on and offered his hand but the woman behind him put her hand on his shoulder instead. “We just wanted to say that you’re such a lovely little family and your daughter is so well behaved.” Sidney shot a look across the table, expecting Dakota to try and explain but she just smiled appreciatively at the older couple.

“Th...thank you,” Sid nodded at them and then reached over to cup his hand protectively behind Becka’s head. “She is a good kid.”

“I’m three,” Becka beamed and held three fingers up as the woman with the blue rinsed curls not unlike her own patted her cheek affectionately.

“Are you? And how do you like your vacation with your mom and dad?” Sid held his breath and sent a nervous glance towards Becky who just kept smiling up at the grandmotherly type pinching her cheek.

“We built a huuuuuuge sandcastle,” Becky stretched her arms above her head. “It was waaaay bigger than me,” she added for emphasis.

“Good for you. Well, keep enjoying yourself. Nice to meet you,” the woman added as her husband guided her away. Sid breathed a sigh of relief even as he continued to nod and smile as they walked away and he literally felt his shoulders sag as the weight of being the one recognized slid off of them

“You’re not as hot as you think you are Crosby,” Dakota grinned at him, reading his mind. It was kind of crazy how she could do that. 

“That was kind of close,” Sid sighed as they walked out of the restaurant, hand in hand in hand. Cody nodded but when he glanced over at her, across the gap that Becky created between them, Cody couldn’t help it. She was barely holding herself back from breaking into fit of giggles. “Hey, I thought they were going to say she doesn’t look like either one of us,” he added, looking very serious and seriously concerned.

“People don’t do that anymore,” she told him with a grin. “What did you think they were going to do? Say this guy doesn’t look like your daddy and take her?” She knew he’d thought he’d been recognized and she could tell just by the way he was holding himself that he was still thinking that he’d blown their cover. For herself, Cody couldn’t quite wipe the grin from her face and it wasn’t just because the great Canadian phenomenon hadn’t been recognized. It was because that couple had really thought they were a family. She’d started to remember what it felt like to be in a family today.

“Does she?” he asked with a somewhat sheepish glance in her direction.

“Look like her biological dad?” Sid nodded. “Yeah, she does. She definitely does.” As they stepped off of the sidewalk and down onto the beach, Cody let go of Becky’s hand and, tousling her hair, sent her scampering off ahead of them while she reached down to slip out of the new sandals that were pinching her feet. “I try not to but sometimes when I look at her, I can see him y’know?” she began and then realized that of course he didn’t know. How could he? She still hadn’t told him what had happened, let alone anything else about her, nothing real anyway.

“Does she look like your sister?” he asked, reaching for her hand as she dug her toes into the still warm, white sand. Cody shook her head.

“Maybe if her hair darkens up a bit, like ours did,” she glanced over at him. “You didn’t think this was my real colour did you?” He shrugged, like it didn’t matter to him either way. Cody filed that away for later. It had taken her a while to get used to her new reflection in the mirror but she was kind of used to it now. “Bri…my sister she always said our hair was the colour dirty dishwater. Not blonde and not brown, maybe in between but nothing that anyone was gonna wax poetic about. I didn’t care of course because mine was under a swim cap all the time,” she added with a smirk. “She definitely has his hair. Bryce, the golden boy,” she sighed, poking at a pebble on the sand with her toe. “She has his eyes too.”They walked in silence for a while, their arms swinging loosely together.

“Does he know? I mean...about your sister?” he asked, leaving the rest of the question unspoken though Cody knew what he was thinking.

“He never wanted her. Well...I shouldn’t say that. He never wanted to be a dad. Whatever there was between Bryce and my sister...it wasn’t something permanent and it was never intended to be. Actually,” Cody smiled at the memories as they came back to her, “Bri was kind of...carefree I guess would be the nice way to put it. She wasn’t into being in a heavy relationship or anything but when she found out she was pregnant, she wanted her. She was going to keep her, no matter what anyone said. Giving her up or having an abortion...she never considered it an option. Bri changed like that,” Cody added, snapping her fingers. “She suddenly took everything seriously, including getting Bryce to sign away his parental rights. She went to a lawyer, all by herself, got the forms and she paid for a notary herself.... I mean this was a girl who couldn’t get her homework done on time but that changed too. She wasn’t going to let them kick her out of school for getting knocked up either,”

“Sounds like you looked up to her,” Sid noted, glancing sideways at her. Cody shook her head with a rueful smile.

“Not really, no,” she admitted with a shrug. “At the time I was pretty pissed with her actually. We had these foster parents at the time that, for a change, weren’t just about collecting an extra cheque. I mean, they came to my swim meets, helped with my homework, bought me a new swimsuit...I was pretty happy there, especially compared to some of the nightmare places we’d been shipped to before but...they didn’t really want a pregnant teenager and social services didn’t want to break us up. Y’know, sisters and all.” She waited for him to react, expecting him to disapprove, but he kept his council, remaining silent as they headed towards the water’s edge. “I guess I didn’t really appreciate her,” Cody admitted.

“Sometimes we don’t appreciate the people closest to us.” Sid squeezed her hand and then pulled her around to face him. “You’re great with Becky. I think your sister would appreciate that.”

“Not as great as you. She never came out of her shell until we met you,” Cody told him honestly, feeling suddenly vulnerable as he reached up to trace her lips with his fingertips. “

“Like I keep telling you, she’s a good kid,” he told her quietly, his gaze focussed on her mouth. Cody slid her arm around his back, her sandals dangling behind him as his lips drew closer.

“And like I keep telling you,” she whispered as he body swayed against his, the surf twining around their ankles like a purring cat, “you don’t even have to be here.”

“Actually, I think you’re wrong about that,” he whispered, his lips almost touching hers’, “I think you’re both pretty stuck with me now.” His eyes looked like molten gold in the moonlight and his arms felt like a boa constrictor contracting around her. His breath tasted like good tequila and rich ripe fruit. Her heart felt like it was trying to escape the cage of her ribs.

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” she breathed. His only reply was a cocky sort of crooked smirk that she almost didn’t see before he covered her mouth with his. 

He stared at the ceiling, counting imaginary sheep, going over past games in his head, anything to stop obsessing about the body of the woman in the bed next to him. He’d completely understood when Dakota had insisted that she be able to keep an eye on Becky and after the scare in the morning, he felt just as protective over their tiny charge, but the fact that there was a little girl with little ears in the room but that didn’t make it any easier to ignore Cody’s warm, soft, smooth skin or the fruit scented smell of her hair.

“Are you awake?” he asked, his hands still folded flat on his stomach despite the fact that he only had to reach over, just a few inches, and he would be able to run his fingers down her arm, hold her hand.

“Mmmhmm,” she mumbled, not convincing him that she was actually on the verge of sleep and giving him hope that she was finding their current situation as frustrating as he was.

“Do you think she’s asleep?” he asked, rolling onto his side so he could fit himself against her. His knees fit into the back of her knees, his chest pressed against her back. Sliding his arm under the sheets, he slid it over her waist.

“We can’t,” she whispered but the curve of her ass pressed back against him and her hand reached for his. Their fingers laced. She sighed.

“We could have another shower,” he suggested, burying his nose in her hair. She smelled like warm golden sunshine and some kind of exotic flower he didn’t know the name of.

“That would wake her up too,” she scolded him but he could hear the smile in her voice.

“I thought you said she slept like a log,” he complained, doing his best not to give into the visions of all of the possible ways he could resolve his current frustrations.

“I said that when she was in another room, down the hall and I thought my head would explode if I didn’t see you naked,” she hissed back, a giggle quickly turning into a sigh as he pressed his lips to the nape of her neck.

“So what do you suggest because I’m pretty sure something of mine is going to explode if I don’t get inside of you soon,” he whispered into her ear, grinding the very obvious evidence of his desire into the small of her back.

“Shhhh,” she squirmed, letting loose a half whimper half giggle as she tried, unsuccessfully to scramble away from him. He held her against him with one arm.

“I can be quiet, I think you’re the one who has trouble with that,” he whispered against a spot between her shoulder blades, using his body to roll hers’ onto her knees. Using his powerful thighs to press hers’ apart, he positioned himself behind her, on his knees between her knees, his hands around her waist.

“Sidney.” His name came out a strangled cry, half muffled by a pillow she grasped in both of her fists. Slowly he slid her panties down until the flimsy lace was stretched between her knees. He felt her leg tremble as he slid the back of his hand up the inside of her thigh. His other hand loosely gripped her waist, reminding her to be still as he slid his fingers into her warm and surprisingly wet entrance. He bit back a groan as cock strained against his tight boxer briefs.

“I’ve wanted you all day,” he whispered as he bent down and pressed a kiss to the middle of her back and slid his other hand up to capture her breast, feeling her nipple hard and ripe against his palm. “I’ve wanted to feel your tight pussy squeezing my dick,” he moaned, rubbing his erection against her thigh.

“Sidney...we can’t,” she whimpered but her pussy pressed back against his hand, asking for more. He groaned as her thigh pressed against him. It almost hurt but felt so good at the same time.  

“If you tell me you don’t want me,” he began but she was already shaking her head. “We can be quiet,” he insisted, sliding his now sticky fingers up the slick valley of her pussy lips to her clit. She groaned and then bit down on the corner of the pillow. “Please Cody,” he begged, pushing his boxer briefs down to free his dick. It bounced up, eager to bury itself inside of her.

“Outside,” she hissed, crawling away from him and sliding off of the bed, kicking her panties off and heading for the sliding door that would lead out onto the sand.

“Are you sure?” he asked as he watched her reach to pull one of their beach towels off of the back of one of the chairs by the little table in the corner of the darkened room. He glanced back at the small, still form, her golden curls sticking up above the sheets.

“I can’t be quiet,” she snapped, unlocking the door and tip toeing out onto the concrete patio. With one more look back at Becky’s rising and falling chest, Sidney followed. 

Watching him walk towards her as she lay on a towel on the hard packed sand, it felt like she was dreaming. ‘How could anyone that perfect want me?’ she asked herself as he got to his knees beside her, his hand reaching to cradle her cheek affectionately as he looked down at her like he was touching something precious and fragile.

“This isn’t real,” she whispered as he lowered himself to lie beside her, all of his muscles flexing and rippling in the moonlight, looking more like some kind of trashy romance novel cover hero than a serious young athlete, she thought as leaned on his elbow so that he was still over her, looking down at her like she was a banana split and he wasn’t sure what part of the sundae he wanted to start eating first.

“You know I’ve completely fallen for you, don’t you?” he whispered as he brushed her cheek with the back of her hand. Cody shook her head because she knew that heroes don’t fall for white trash, foster kids. They fall for Hollywood Starlettes with fake boobs or country music divas with big hair. “I haven’t been as happy as I’ve been all day with you and Becky...in...maybe in never,” he told her before lowering his mouth to cover hers’ in a long, soft, toe curling kiss that made her entire body turn into liquid in his arms.

“Not real,” she repeated again as he moved his body over hers’ in one fluid movement so that he hovered over her, the tip of his long, thick hard cock positioned just at her entrance. They both looked down at it, watched it slide gradually into her folds, disappearing by inches until they’re hips met and he let out a long, feral growl.

“Does that feel real to you?” he asked, his voice hoarse as his forehead just touched hers and his gold flecked eyes stared down at her, daring her to say otherwise.

“Yesssss,” she hissed, her nails digging into the solid, ropey muscles of his biceps, lifting herself off of the still warm sand to meet his next thrust.

“Fuck you feel good,” he whispered in her ear, his arms suddenly closing around her shoulders like a vice, holding her body solidly against his as he slid himself entirely into her until their bodies were moulded together. Cody gasped and wrapped her legs around the back of his, reaching to grab a handful of his thick dark hair as her other hand dug into the meat of his back, holding on for dear life as their bodies rocked in unison, hers filled to the point of bursting, of being ripped asunder, but the sharp edge of pain only served to heighten the pure sweet sensation of being driven to the edge of pleasure and held there. “Cum for me Cody,” he whispered against her neck, his teeth digging into the skin where her jaw met her neck, “let go for me.” It would be easy to do, her entire body was already pulsating in time with the beating of her heart, with the rush of blood through her veins. She was already close, but she wasn’t ready to go down, not yet.

“Cum with me,” she hissed back, arching her neck, giving him more to bite and lick and kiss.

“I...I can’t,” he groaned, sliding one hand loose from around her back and slipping it between their bodies, his long thick fingers working their way in between the lips of her pussy to press against her clit. Cody cried out and her body bucked beneath his, pressing up against him. Her heartbeat sounded like a bass drum in ears. If he did that again she wouldn’t be able to hold back and the cool water licking at their feet had no chance of cooling her jets. “I didn’t bring any...umm, protection down,” he admitted through clenched teeth. He was fighting for control. She knew how close she was, knew that he’d been aroused longer than her and knew that it would take one mammoth act of will power for him to ride the wave of her orgasm and then pull out. The fact that he was willing to do that had her digging her fingernails deeper into his back and scalp.

“Do it,” she whispered, pressing her lips tenderly to his temple, “I want to feel you let go inside of me.” His entire body went still and hers cried out in protest, her legs tightening around his massive thighs, her heels digging into the backs of his knees as she tried to pull him deeper into her. Doing a very impressive one armed push up, Sidney was suddenly staring down at her, his serious gaze studying her face.

“Are you sure?” he asked for the second time in the last half hour. Cody nodded and slid her hand down to cradle his cheek.

“I trust you,” she whispered, meaning more than those words could convey but she knew he could likely read her true feelings in her eyes, in the same way that she was almost sure she could read his. He opened his mouth, as if he was going to argue and then closed his lips and pursed them in a determined sort of way and then he began to move.

Cody gasped and not just because his thick, strong fingers had begun to work on her clit again but because the view was so fucking extraordinary and the resolute and yet tender expression in his gaze had melted away every last icicle in her heart. She kept her hand on the smooth skin of his cheek, their gazes locked as they moved together, each daring the other to look away.

She felt it, the tightening in her abdominal muscles, the pressure in the small of her back, the sort of butterflies in her chest and knew she wasn’t going to last another minute, especially not with the way his hip bones were grinding against hers’ and the fact that his cock seemed to swell within her, stretching the thin muscular walls past any point they’d been taken to before. With hard, shallow thrusts he was driving her closer and closer to the edge and she could tell, just by the way he was breathing, the sort of controlled panting that almost drowned out the sound of the ocean licking up on the beach that he was close to.

“Ready?” he asked, his pupils having grown to the point where his eyes almost looked entirely dark except where the moonlight caught the gold and emerald flecks that made his eyes hazel and not brown. She nodded, knowing she wouldn’t be able to form actual, recognizable speech at this point, especially not with his fingers rolling her clit between them. With one, curt nod he slammed his body into hers’, once, twice and then she was screaming his name, her nails digging into his back, her back arched off the towel, her eyes screwed tight. She felt like she was riding a lightning bolt, like she’d licked a car battery with the engine running. Her body went rigid and shook like a dried fall leaf in the autumn wind at the same time. She barely heard him roar but she felt his one, last, hard thrust that had him buried inside of her, his cock throbbing as he emptied his balls into her. 

The tears came again and just as he had last time, Sidney held her tight in his arms as she dame down from the heights of the orgasm. He was still breathing hard himself, his head aching a little from lack of blood, little points of white light dancing at the corners of his vision. He was going to have a headache, he knew it. He hadn’t had one for days, but this was the kind of exertion that the doctors had been warning him out. Not that it mattered. Not that he would take it back now, undo it in any way.

“I love you,” he whispered into her hair, no more able to stop the words from escaping his lips than he was able to stop breathing. She hiccupped and then turned her still tear filled gaze up to search his. “I know we haven’t known each other very long and I know I don’t know a lot about you but...I know how I feel,” he told her earnestly. She nodded and sniffed, and then smiled as she reached up and just barely touched his face with her fingertips. It was an invitation to a kiss and he needed no more urging than that to cover her mouth with his and kiss her back into the towel, his body pressing hers down into the sand.

Her lips parted invitingly and he flicked his tongue out to greet hers. She whimpered into his mouth and then their tongues twined rolled over one another’s, even as his body awoke again with the aching need to be inside of her once more. Her thighs parted readily for him and he needed no guidance at all, his cock like a heat seeking missile finding her core and slipping slowly inside until their hips met. Then they began to move.

Slowly, achingly slowly, in perfect rhythm with the waves ebbing and flowing on the beach, their bodies met and parted and met again as they gazed at one another with absolute awe and wonder in their eyes.

“I’ve never felt like this. It’s never been like this,” she whispered against his mouth. He agreed whole heartedly, and wordlessly, kissing his emotions into her, against her. He’d heard that expression, ‘you’ll just know’, that there would be something that would just make it clear when the right one came around. He’d never believed it. The logical, calculating part of his brain had told him that love was something you worked at, that grew and changed and maybe it would but right now it felt like he’d been hit by a train and as he came with a shudder and an animalistic cry into the curve of her neck, he didn’t have a single doubt in his mind that it would never, ever feel better than this moment, right now.

“Wow,” he whispered as he kissed her cheek, her mouth. He’d never get tired of kissing her he decided as he rolled her body into his, holding her close as she trembled in his arms. So this was the difference that some of the guys talked about between fucking and making love. He understood now. “I love you,” he repeated again, kissing her forehead and then nuzzling her cheek until he could feel her muscles pulling her mouth up into a grin.

“I love you too,” she admitted, her lips warm against his cheek and he pulled her close, holding her hard enough that he was half sure he was hurting her, but he just couldn’t let go. He wanted to hold her like this forever and not let go, it felt so good, so right. “I’m cold Sidney,” she whispered, pressing her hand flat to the middle of his chest and giving him a nudge, “and we should check on Becky.” He nodded, giving her one last squeeze before reluctantly untangling himself from around her and getting up, holding his hand out to help her do the same. She picked the towel up with her free hand and gave it a shake before wrapping it modestly around herself and looking up at him and giving him a shy smile. “Thank you for bringing us here.” Sidney wrapped her in his arms and held her again, for one long moment, breathing in the smell of sunshine that still clung to her hair and then he let her go and offered his hand instead.

They walked back up the beach, into the softer sand and then up onto the concrete pad. The sliding glass door was slightly ajar. He was sure he’d closed it.

“No,” Dakota hissed, freezing as she stared at the door. It took a moment for him to look beyond it, to the fact that the light was on in the room. “Nooo,” Cody repeated dropping his hand and pushing the door wide.

Becky was gone, or at least her sheets and quilt had been tossed aside and she wasn’t in her bed. Sidney turned to look down the beach. If she’d woken up and got curious....

“Becky! Becks!” Dakota cried out, ripping the sheets entirely off the bed and then searching through them as if the little girl might have shrunk in the night and become lost in the sheets.

“Just take a breath,” Sid said, half to himself as he looked down the expanse of white sand towards what, a moment ago had seemed peaceful, glassy water that now looked murky, menacing and black. “Try the bathroom.” Dakota almost ripped the doors off of the hinges and managed to pull half of the shower curtain off of its rings as she frantically searched, finding nothing.

“No. No. No!” Dakota screamed, pounding her fists into the wall and then she turned, her eyes blazing and pointed at him. “This is your fault.”