in.
I was a rebel teenager, too full of myself to appreciate what my parents built. Now, this house is all I have left of them. It’s nothing like me, but I cherish every square inch of their dream house.
“I can only imagine what a place like this costs. The view must be spectacular.”
“It is.” I suddenly feel self-conscious, realizing how much I take this place for granted. For some weird reason, I want her to like it. “Want to see it?”
“I do.” Moira waits for me to open the door. Whatever anger she had toward me earlier appears to have disappeared. “Funny, this is not what I imagined when you said you were taking me home.”
“What did you imagine?” I usher her inside.
“Something small. A bachelor pad. You know, one room, trashy apartment…”
“I’d never take you someplace trashy.”
“Sorry.” She lifts her shoulders and kind of ducks. “I shouldn’t have…”
“This was my parent’s home.”
“Was?”
“Yes, they passed several years ago. Motorcycle accident.”
It was just up the winding turns of PCH-1 and why I no longer ride, but I don’t share this with Moira. My parent’s afternoon drive turned lethal, taking them from me far too soon.
I don’t dwell on the past, but I do have regrets. I never got the chance to tell them how sorry I was for being a little shit and walking away from the life they built for me.
Now I have that life, but I no longer have them.
“I’m sorry.” When she places her hand on my arm, a jolt of electricity shoots up my arm and travels down my spine.
When she’s close, the very air crackles with the energy surging between us. It’s enough to put a hitch in my breath and send blood rushing through my body, specifically to one part of my body in particular, which grows more engorged by the second.
“Thank you, but like I said, it was several years ago. They left me the house.” As well as a bank account and other assets which still astound me. I knew my parents had money but never understood the scope of what they built.
Moira enters the foyer and gapes. “Oh my God, this is amazing.” She rushes to the back of the house with its floor-to-ceiling windows. “Can I go out on the deck?”
“Of course. Just let me get the latch.”
Unlike many of the homes built on the rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean, my father chose a plot of land that’s more granite than soil. Whereas soil erosion threatens many stately homes that overlook the ocean, the foundation of this house is firmly rooted in granite. Not even the infamous California earthquakes can threaten this home.
And the house is beautiful. Both rustic and sharply elegant at the same time, it’s full of clean lines shored up by rough-hewn timber and steel beams. It evokes a sense of being grounded in nature.
I make quick work of the locks and open the sliding door to the outside. Immediately, the refreshing scent of the ocean floods my senses. A light breeze tickles my skin and I lift my face to the sun overhead. I love the feeling of that sun-kissed glow heating my skin.
Moira runs right up to the edge of the deck. Cantilevered over the hundred-foot drop to the rocky shoreline below, I always felt like I was living in the sky when I came out here as a kid. My imagination has always been vivid and over the top, but it doesn’t hold a candle to what I see now.
Moira leans over the railing, looking down at the beach below. One heel kicks up as the calf of her other leg tightens. I follow the sweep of her leg all the way to the hem of her shorts, where the skin creases at the base of her ass.
She stands before me, long blond hair blowing in the wind, the perfect mix of temptation and sin. More than the stereotypical blonde bombshell, there’s something about her that draws a man’s eye. I feel the pull, a carnal craving to claim her as mine.
It’s a powerful force, one I fight, because she’s been a victim to men’s lust her entire life. When I left home at seventeen to enlist in the military, I remember feeling far too young to head out into the world. Moira’s been on her own since she was twelve. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like or how terrifying it must’ve been to a child so young. And she’s dealt with