Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
J ade knew going back with him was a mistake. A great, big, hairy one with knobs and bells on the end of those knobs, plus a few whistles.
So why had she turned away from the Brant Point Lighthouse, which had looked so cute on the beach guarding the entrance of the harbour, and instead found herself walking hurriedly towards Liam’s frigging boat, her belly doing somersaults, her lady parts fired up and ready to go?
‘This is a mistake.’ She muttered the words out loud to make them real, yet still kept putting one foot in front of the other, her hand clasped tightly to his, as if she was afraid of letting go. Afraid of being sensible.
‘Probably,’ he agreed in that husky drawl that did not help her decision making. ‘A hot, sweaty, mind blowing one we’ll both feel better for making.’
Oh God. ‘I need that to be true.’
‘With the things I’ve been lying awake at night thinking of doing to you?’ He gave her a look weighted with heat, his jaw set with determination. ‘It’s a certainty.’
Was lust fog a thing? Because her brain was struggling to work. ‘I don’t mean the sex part, I know I’ll enjoy that.’
‘Enjoy?’ He halted, eyes pinning hers, smoky swirls of grey and flashes of white-hot flames. ‘If you only enjoy it, I’ve not done my job.’
Her knees started to buckle. ‘I mean the after-sex part.’ She gulped. ‘The part when you’re sober and my brain isn’t addled with Haven-induced lust. Will we feel better? Or will we wish we’d stuck to ignoring our I want sex hormones?’
His lids closed briefly before he lifted them again and touched her face, tracing the curve of her cheek with a gentleness at odds with the fire in his eyes. ‘I don’t want you to regret this.’
‘Me, neither.’
Her words hung like a heavy shadow over the idyllic setting; a rustic wooden wharf, his yacht bobbing gently at the end of it. Sun slowly setting in the sky, casting a beautiful romantic pink light over them. It was too easy to fall under its spell, and under the magnetic pull of the man in front of her.
‘What would make you regret it?’
She worried at her lower lip, brain cogs trying to engage. ‘If I feel cheap afterwards, like you push me out of bed, ignore me, or people find out and think I only slept with you to persuade you to keep the bookstore.’ She swallowed. ‘Or if I lose all sense of self-preservation and want to do it again. Maybe even start to fall for you.’
He nodded, eyes scanning the horizon behind her before settling back on hers. ‘I didn’t push you out of bed before. You left.’ He counted the points down on his fingers. ‘I can and have happily ignored everyone on this planet except my grandma, yet for some reason I can’t ignore you. Believe me, I’ve tried.’
Her heart flipped over. She liked that admission.
‘You shouldn’t waste your time caring what others think,’ he continued, another tap of his fingers. ‘Especially those prepared to think the worst of you. As for falling for me, you won’t.’
‘How can you be so sure? I mean, I know you can be a grouch but beneath that is a good guy trying to come out.’
He gave a little shake of his head, lips twitching. Then he sighed, jaw muscles snapping together. ‘Look, trust me, it won’t happen.’
It was a reminder there was a reason he kept himself aloof. He’d been hurt, by women, by his mother, by his classmates. ‘So what would make you regret this?’
‘Nothing.’
The certainty in his voice made her core tighten. She glanced over his shoulder to the yacht, listening for the voice to tell her not to go. Maybe it was drowned out by the endorphins screaming through her blood, because she couldn’t hear it. ‘Last one to the boat is a hairy nincompoop.’
She let out a bark of laughter at his confusion, but didn’t have time to enjoy it because suddenly she was racing across the rickety wooden planks of the wharf as fast as her legs could carry her.
Something about this felt better than the last time. Like they were more evenly matched. No longer the rich, almost too perfect guy and the clumsy blonde goof. Instead a man and a woman who had both been underestimated and were out to prove a point to the world.
The closer she got to the boat, the giddier she felt. And when she heard a growl behind her, a delicious shiver ran down her spine. ‘I’m not a nincompoop,’ he rasped, his heavy footsteps sounding closer and closer. ‘Whatever the fuck that is.’
Laughing, she made the mistake of turning to look at him. What happened next was a blur, but as she lost her balance she watched with a kind of suspended dread as her fate was spelt out in the changing expressions flashing across his face. Worry, confusion, horror, panic.
She had a split second to scream. Then she was plunging into the cold water of Nantucket harbour.
Smack! The water hit her stomach, the most undignified belly flop ever imagined. As she spluttered to the surface, she groaned. ‘Shit, this is cold.’
She looked up to the wharf, only to find Liam pulling his shirt off over his head, then yanking off his shoes. As she gaped in shock, he executed a neat shallow dive into the sea, coming up to the surface just next to her. His hands slid firmly around her waist.
‘What are you doing?’
‘What do you think?’ Treading water, hands still on her hips, wet hair plastered across his forehead, his eyes flashed with irritation. ‘I’m saving you from drowning.’
She started to giggle. ‘Er, I can swim.’
‘How was I supposed to know that?’ he asked indignantly, hands still on her hips, though the death hold had loosened.
‘Maybe ask before flinging yourself in to save me?’
‘You didn’t like the idea of swimming with sharks,’ he countered, looking like a drowned, very pissed-off male.
‘Er, duh, that was the shark part.’ Unable to resist, she pressed a kiss to his face. ‘Thank you.’
He didn’t look mollified. ‘You screamed. Was I supposed to wait and see if you sunk?’
He’d not hesitated, she realised, just gone with his instinct, and that had been to save her. ‘Again, thank you.’ She kissed him again, this time a fleeting glance on lips that were warm despite the cold sea. ‘Cool dive, by the way.’
‘Better than your belly flop,’ he muttered. Letting go of her, he swam the few yards towards the yacht and hauled himself athletically up onto it. She took a moment to admire the ripple of his back muscles before letting out a sigh and swimming after him.
Looked like the evening had come to a soggy, anti-climactic end. And maybe it was for the best. Maybe she’d just had a lucky escape from what would have been a colossal error in judgement.
Yet as he held out his hand to haul her on board, and as she watched the drips of water slide across his perfect pecs, it didn’t feel like a lucky escape. It felt like a wasted opportunity.
* * *
Good God. She looked like a freaking mermaid, Liam thought as he reached to clasp her hand. Wet blonde hair dragged back from her face, bold blue eyes appraising him, clothes plastered against a body that would tempt any man with blood still flowing through his veins.
The lust that had receded during his unexpected evening swim smacked into him again with full force as her wet, slippery body collided against his.
A towel, that’s what she needed he reminded himself as he dragged his gaze away from her chest. Not him gawking at the hard nipples he could see poking against her soaked top.
‘Come with me.’ He took her hand, insides doing an unexpected jig as her fingers wrapped around his.
‘No, wait.’ She halted at the door to the cabin and he swore he could hear his hormones deflate in disappointment.
‘I was going to get you a towel.’
‘Oh.’
Did she sound disappointed? He peered at her more closely. ‘Or you can have a hot shower?’
‘Sounds good.’ She stared down at the highly polished teak. ‘But I don’t want to drip all over your snazzy floor.
‘It’s a boat. It’s designed to be dripped all over.’
‘Ah, obviously. Silly me. Not as silly as tripping over my feet and bellyflopping into the sea, but?—’
Okay, he was done. ‘Do you want to shower and call it a night?’ She blinked, and he instantly regretted his tone. Too harsh, too full of the sexual frustration he should not be showing a woman who’d just had a nasty shock. ‘Sorry, it’s just I’m shit at reading female signals. Tell me what you want to do.’
She dipped her head, eyes widening when she saw the obvious erection outlined by his wet linen trousers. ‘Is there another option? After the shower I mean, because that water was frigging freezing.’
His libido started to dance again. ‘We go back to plan A.’
Her eyes glinted. ‘Remind me what that involved again? I mean after the race to the yacht, which went spectacularly well, I think.’
Laughter rumbled through him. ‘If I’d known it involved an evening swim, I’d have settled for being a… whatever a nincompoop is.’
He followed her inside, gaze glued to her spectacular ass as it swayed ahead of him. ‘A ninny, a fool.’ She glanced over her shoulder at him. ‘Kind of like a guy who jumps into the sea after a woman without checking first if she can swim.’
With a grunt he lunged for her, hauling her up and over his shoulder. ‘I was heroic.’
‘You were,’ she laughed, wriggling in his hold.
‘You should thank me for rescuing you,’ he added as he marched down the stairs to the master bedroom.
‘Oh, yes? And how should I do that?’
‘Taking your clothes off would be a good start.’
He pushed open the door to the master cabin and slid her carefully back onto the floor, taking a moment to drink in her appearance. Dishevelled blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes, a grin that could light up a room from a hundred yards. Carefully he smoothed the wet strands behind her ears. ‘I never know what’s going to happen next when I’m with you.’
‘Is that a bad thing?’
He shook his head. ‘It’s just not something I’m used to. I’m usually in control, but with you it’s like I’m on a rollercoaster ride and I’m not sure what’s going to happen around the next corner.’
‘Life should hold some surprises. It’s what makes it interesting.’
He went to turn on the shower before slipping the soaked top over her head. ‘You’re definitely that.’ As his eyes caught sight of the red sting on her stomach, he winced. Instinctively he knelt in front of her and began dropping feather-light kisses across the soft skin of her belly. First it was to soothe, but when she let out a moan of pleasure, his body woke up again and the kisses turned sensual. With fast movements he dragged off her shorts and underwear, his breath catching at the sight of her fully naked. ‘Fuck. It’s no wonder I can’t keep away. Not when I know what you’re hiding beneath your clothes.’ His tongue began to trace lazy circles around her belly button and then lower, revelling in her sharp inhale, in her low moan of pleasure as he reached his target.
‘I thought we were showering…’ Another moan. ‘Forget it, doesn’t matter, keep doing that.’
Smiling to himself he continued to feast, getting harder and harder the wetter she became. When she unleashed a series of fast, hot pants before letting out a cry of pleasure, he was moments away from embarrassing himself.
‘Oh, my God, you are a bloody master with your tongue… no, a virtuoso. Is that more skilful than a master? Whatever is most skilful, that’s what you are.’
At the end of his arousal tether, he lurched to his feet and kissed her, diving straight in, hands sliding over her damp body as he pulled her more firmly against him. ‘What I am,’ he said roughly when he broke for breath. ‘Is horny, hard and desperate to be inside you.’
‘Then take your frigging trousers off and get in the shower with me.’
With a sultry wink over her right shoulder, she sashayed into the bathroom.
He almost fell over in his haste to rid himself of his wet pants, ending up hopping in a very undignified manner. Something the giggles from the shower told him she’d witnessed. ‘If your staff could see you now, they’d not be so terrified of you.’
Finally, he dragged the damn things off. ‘You’re technically staff and you don’t seem that scared.’
‘That’s because I know your don’t mess with me scowl is all for show.’
He whipped his boxers off and flung them on the floor on top of the soggy clothing pile. ‘It’s not.’
‘So how do you explain letting Ashley go without completing her notice? Sounds like something a caring, considerate, softie of a boss might do.’
‘There’s nothing soft about me,’ he protested, the part of him that was painfully hard bobbing in agreement as he marched towards to the bathroom. ‘And where did you hear about that, anyway?’ He could guess, having read the hand-delivered letter Ashley had sent him via Claire. His eyes caught sight of the water cascading over those glorious curves. ‘Forget it, doesn’t matter.’
She squealed as he ducked into the shower, her legs automatically wrapping round his hips as he lifted her. ‘Need to be inside you,’ he muttered, dipping his mouth to hers, nibbling on her plump lips before delving into the sweet depths of her mouth with his tongue.
Her hips shifted and he slotted himself home.
Then froze. No.
‘Hey.’ Her eyes searched his. ‘Everything okay?’
‘Condom.’ And damn, he’d forgotten that, too. Just like he seemed to have forgotten he was not supposed to be thinking of any part of this woman as home .
‘It’s okay. I’m on the pill.’
‘Thank fuck.’ Worries that his walls weren’t high enough to protect himself from her were shoved aside as he let his body do what it wanted. Push into the heat of her. She gasped when he was fully seated. ‘You good?’
‘Yes.’ Her eyes glittered down on him. ‘But I want to spend the rest of the night being very, very bad.’
He didn’t think it was possible for him to get any harder. ‘That control I said I had, but I always lose around you?’ He thrust into her again, and again, pushing her back against the wall with the force of his hip movements. ‘It’s just snapped.’
He turned into an animal, mindless with the need to bury himself inside her, to spill his seed. To claim her in the most primitive way.
‘Yes, yes.’ Her voice egged him on. ‘I’m close, so frigging close. Don’t stop.’ A few seconds later. ‘Holy moly.’
Feeling her release clamp around him, he let out a howl of pleasure, legs buckling under the force of his orgasm. Mine , his body seemed to say. Mine .
Please, God, let him be strong enough to stop his heart from thinking the same.