We stood like that for quite some time, our feet in the cool, soft sand, just watching the waves crash, the stars shining, the moon so far, so close, so constant. Every night it appeared, no matter where in the world we were, even hidden by clouds, it was still there.

“You’re my moon,” I said quietly.

“Then you’re my earth.”

He turned me around, ever so mindful of my leg, and kissed me deeply. It was a kiss that reached right into you, stirred you around until you were effervescent and sparkling and deliriously happy. It was soft, warm lips and silken, skilled tongue. It made you hungry and thirsty and longing for more, for it to go on forever, satisfying yet insatiable. It turned me on, flipped the switch, awakened the passion that wouldn’t stop until we could fully devour each other. It was a kiss of the earth and the moon, all gravity and pull, a prelude to many forevers.

I don’t know how long we made out like that, just feeding from the love and the lust that we could only consume from one another, me surrendering in his arms, his arms that kept me close and kept me safe. Finally he pulled away and rubbed his thumb over my lips.

“I’d suggest sex on the beach,” he said, his voice husky, my mouth feeling empty without his. “But I think the two of us deserve a bed for once.”

That, and sex on the beach was highly overrated.

He bent down and picked me up in his arms. I let out a small laugh, wrapping my arms around his neck and burying my face below his ear. I breathed in his smell, absolutely intoxicating, and let him carry me all the way to our hotel room where he lay me down on the white, shabby-chic bedspread.

This was the first time we’d really been alone, been intimate, since we left the compound. I had something to tell him, but I wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it. I loved him beyond all doubt and I knew the man loved me. I knew we were the moon and the earth and each other’s future, revolving and evolving. But I was still scared to tell him what I knew, tell him what I wanted.

He bent over me, hands at the drawstring on my pants, but I pushed him back, hand on his chest and said, “I’m always getting naked first. Drop your clothes.”

Camden grinned wickedly and I bit my lip in anticipation, leaning back on my elbows to watch.

He took off his wifebeater first, the tats on his stomach and chest now on full display, then slowly started to unbutton his shorts.

“Are you doing a striptease?” I asked playfully.

“I’m stripping and I’m teasing,” he answered as he very deliberately rolled the zipper down before looping his thumbs on the waistband and inching them off. Bit by bit, until the ink faded into the hard Vs of hip bones and I saw the hard, glistening tip of his erection appear, flush to his pelvis.

He let the shorts drop and he took my breath away.

“Derek never got me any briefs,” he explained, as if I cared that he was going commando. Fuck me, he was a man who would never stop giving me the chills. I’d never seen a cock so large and beautiful as the one on Camden McQueen. My man. My moon. My everything.

He slowly walked toward the bed, growing larger as he came closer, so tall, so strong, so ready for me. His eyes held assurance and lust, drive and desire. He knew what he looked like, he knew what he was offering me, his perfect body and his perfect soul.

“When I saw you, I fell in love,” he said to me as I lay back against the bed and he crawled on top of me on all fours. “And you smiled because you knew.”

I grinned lazily as he bent down and slowly kissed along my neck. “Quoting Shakespeare, now?”

“If only Juliet had been a scowly faced teenager,” he murmured against my neck. “Because while I’m pretty sure you knew I loved you, I don’t think it made you smile.”

I jerked my head away from him and held his face in my hands. “Camden. You always made me smile, even when I didn’t show it. You were my only friend and I was too young to know what your heart was worth.”

“And you know now.”

I ran my hands through his thick hair. “I knew then, now and always.” I pulled his face to mine and kissed him softly before looking deep and hard into his eyes, trying to figure out how to say this. “Camden … I was on the pill until, well, until we left Veracruz. I’ve only been with you since.”

He frowned, a look of wonderment and fear in his eyes. “Are you pregnant?”

I shook my head. “No. I don’t think so. I’m just …” I chewed on my lip. “I’m just thinking … I don’t want to go back on them.” There. I said it. The weight of it all hung in the room.

He blinked, his dark brow still furrowed, and suddenly I was unbearably frightened that I had scared him off. My heart felt like lead.

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “I—”

“You want a baby?” he asked gently. His face was softening, his eyes searching mine, pulling truth from me.

“I don’t mean right now,” I managed to say. “Or maybe I do. But yes. With you. I want a family of my own. To start new. To give us both what we never had.”

“Oh, Ellie,” he whispered. His face crumpled slightly and he brought it to my neck. He whispered into my ear, “Oh, Ellie. I will give you that. It’s all I’ve ever wanted for us. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

And suddenly I was all love.

“Really?” I asked.

He looked at me, glassy-eyed, and grinned so wide, so amazing. “Really. A brother or sister for Ben.” He swallowed loudly, taking a moment to contain himself. “My beautiful Ellie, I want this. I want this. We need this.”

He reached down and slowly unbuttoned my blouse until my breasts were bare and spread before him - he wasn’t the only one going commando. He trailed his fingers over my flesh, goosebumps rising in his wake, and tugged lightly at my nipple ring. I groaned and arched my back, offering myself to him, needing more.

But he wasn’t in a hurry, not tonight. He slowly made his way from my breasts to my abdomen, kissing and licking over my stomach, concentrating his mouth there as if willing his seed to be planted. He finished untying my pants and cautiously pulled them off, taking it slow around my leg.

“Does this hurt?” he whispered as he held my damaged leg in his hand, his eyes roaming all over my naked body.

I shook my head no. “Not right now.”

He peered at the bandages. “Once these come off, once it heals, I’ll make you beautiful again.”

“You already made me beautiful, Camden,” I whispered. “Now get your head between my legs.”

His dimples appeared. “As you wish.”

He parted my legs and started moving his mouth up my inner thigh until he was teasing my lips. Once his tongue found my clit, needy and full, he spent no time getting me off. I grabbed his hair, yanking on it with each wave of orgasm as he moaned into me, the vibrations bringing me to new heights.

When I was coming back down, he looked up at me with his glistening mouth and a devious glint in his eyes. “You know that’s not how we’re supposed to make a baby.”

“Then show me.”

He came back on top of me and poised his stiff cock into me, entering slowly, very slowly.

Torturously slow.

“Camden,” I whispered, my body bucking for him. “Faster.”

“I’m in no rush,” he purred. “I want to live in every inch of you.”

He pushed in and out, silky smooth with just enough friction. I watched him as his wide chest overpowered me, straining with each controlled movement. He looked up at the ceiling and groaned loudly as he pushed through, then looked down at me with heavy eyes, his mouth open in lust. His gaze undid me, so much passion and love, now more than ever.

He picked up the pace, wrapping one of his large hands around my waist while the other began stroking at my clit again. Each thrust became harder, deeper, until he was buried far inside of me. His breath hitched as he said, “I want to put a baby in you. I want this. Oh, I want this.” He moaned again and I joined in, my nerves white hot and begging for release. Blood was pooling deep in my core, the pressure building. This was love-making, baby-making, an act of creation and pure, raw, primal power.

We elapsed into a steady rhythm, the headboard slamming against the wall, the paintings rattling, sweat streaming off each other’s bodies in the hot, tropical night. I was wet, so wet, and blossoming for him, driven by his mass, stretched by his fullness. I was fulfilled and yearning all at once, and I watched as his slick cock slid in and out of me, watched his whole body as he drove in deeper and deeper until I thought I was being staked to the bed.

“Oh fuck!” I cried out, taken by surprise and coming fast and hard. I dug my nails into the back of his shoulders, my hips rocking in unison with his.

He came too, floored by his orgasm and I felt higher than the clouds as he poured his seed inside of me, my convulsions bringing it out of him and harboring it deep inside. He swore amidst his groans, his thrusts slowing down, until he lay down on top of me and kept himself inside me.

He brushed the hair off my face, gently running his fingers over my cheeks. He cleared his throat and smiled, sated, happy. “You know, if that didn’t take, I am game for trying every day. Several times a day. On the hour.”

I grinned and pressed him close to me. “Don’t think I won’t hold you to that. I’m addicted to you. I must have my fix.”

“Is fix another term for cock?”

“It is for yours. You should have a warning label on that thing.”

He let out a small laugh, his lips tickling my collarbone. “Eh, it’ll probably rub off anyway from all the use.”

I sighed contently and wrapped my arms around him. He made beautiful sense out of all the ugly things I had done.