Chapter Thirty-Nine Lucky
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Lucky
I felt his surprise, the way his body tensed up. He was the one who put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me back. I saw his throat tighten, the tense line of his jaw.
“Not that I’m complaining,” he said in a rough voice laced with want, “but what was that? I’m confused.”
“So am I.”
“I thought that was supposed to be a one-and-a-half-time thing.”
“Two times. Twice seems okay. Two times isn’t so bad for breaking a rule.”
“I’m pretty sure if you murdered someone two times, it would be bad.” I couldn’t even laugh at his joke because I was so intent on kissing him again.
His hands moved from my shoulders down to my waist. “You know how much I want to kiss you, Lucky. I’m not sure I’m stroganoff to resist you if this is what you really want. I’m ready to go over to the dock side if you are.”
How could he keep making jokes at a time like this? All the blood had left my head and was pooling in other parts of my body, making it impossible for me to think.
“My mom used to say in for a penny, in for a pound,” I said. We’d already kissed. What was a little bit more?
I knew I was rationalizing it but I didn’t care.
“And we don’t have to tell the captain,” I added as he pulled me flush against him. “I know the rules still apply even if we aren’t on the ship, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Yep, definitely trying to justify what we were about to do.
What I needed to do.
Because if I didn’t kiss him again soon, I was going to explode. And I already knew that Hunter had the patience of a Christmas ornament still hanging in September. He would wait. I just couldn’t do it anymore.
“Have I told you how beautiful you are?” he asked and it startled me.
“You’ve never said that before.”
“I didn’t want to scare you off. I was supposed to only be your friend. I thought it all the time, though. I should have told you every day, every minute, every second. Because you are so beautiful that I sometimes forget to breathe.”
Which I got because his words were strangling the breath out of me right now.
“Tell me where the boundary is,” he said lowly, digging his fingers into my back.
His respect, him saying I was beautiful, along with the way he was looking at me—like I was a bowl of cookie dough—was a lot for my loins to take. I listened to him breathe, and each quick, sharp inhale and exhale only made me more excited.
“Where is the boundary for you?” I asked, realizing that I hadn’t asked him and feeling bad about it. I played with the hair at the nape of his neck, letting the short, silky hair there bristle against my fingers.
“I’ve never had a boundary where you’re concerned.”
The still-functioning part of my brain realized how bad that was. How easily and quickly things could spin out of control if we let our bodies and emotions take over.
“Just kissing,” I said, before I could convince myself to change my mind. This was the only way to make things okay. If we didn’t actually take it too far, then it wasn’t quite so bad.
Deep down I knew it was untrue, but it made my conscience feel slightly better. “And we shouldn’t even be doing that. Your parents are the ones who made this rule. I don’t want you to get in trouble or to be the reason why you lose out on getting that residential treatment center to honor your sister.”
He leaned forward to nuzzle his nose against the side of my face. “Like I said, I only think my dad made that rule for liability reasons.”
“And to keep you on track,” I reminded him. One of us needed to be thinking somewhat clearly and very soon it was not going to be me. Especially with him leaving butterfly kisses on my temple.
He stilled. “I’m doing my job. I’m doing it well. And I can multitask.”
“You cannot.”
“Not usually, no,” he agreed. “But I’m pretty sure I can kiss you at night and still tie a good bowline the next day.”
He somehow managed to draw me even closer so that his body was a hot, hard line against me. I felt the violent beating of his heart against my chest. It made my body heavy with want, tense with need.
We were alone. We wouldn’t be interrupted. No one would walk in on us. Nobody would know what we were about to do.
“Kiss me, Hunter.”
He did not have to be invited twice. With a rough groan his mouth descended on mine. Bright, hot sparks exploded along my veins as he kissed me fiercely, fervently, searing both my lips and my heart.
We crashed into each other like two giant waves, and I was plunged into the undertow, being dragged down toward the bottom of the ocean, unable to breathe, but not resisting. I wanted to be fully immersed. To drown in him and never surface again.
There was nothing gentle about this kiss—it was raw with his need. Rougher, edged with frustration and desire. It felt like my lips were connected to every nerve ending in my body, and all my senses seemed to blow up at once.
He ignited me. His mouth was wild on mine, relentless, scorching, and it felt like I was standing over a blazing campfire, bolts of heat being shot through me. The sweet fire continued to race as he threaded his fingers into my hair, tilting my head back to give him better access to my jaw, my throat.
I was panting as he dragged his mouth along my skin, leaving blazing trails in his wake. I had forgotten what an expert he was in this. Like his law school had offered it as a special course and he’d gotten an A.
There was no way I could give this up again. Captain Carl could take a long walk off a short pier.
“Do you like that?” Hunter said the words against my neck.
“Can’t you tell?” My eyes were literally rolling back into my head.
He grinned. “You know what they say about making assumptions.”
“Is it ‘come here and kiss me again’?”
“Yes, that’s exactly it,” he said before he returned his mouth to mine, hot and urgent, demanding and hungry.
Everything was burning. I was dizzy, breathless, floating, and totally on fire. I was lost to everything except his lips scorching me, his body hard against mine. It was like I had lost all sensation in my legs—as if he’d melted them away.
My stomach swirled and tightened with that same heat and I was suddenly completely out of breath, falling backward. He had backed me up to the bed and I hadn’t even realized.
“Is this okay?” he asked as he came down to join me.
I scooted back as he advanced, making room for him. “Yes.”
He stalked forward like some kind of predator and it thrilled me. I was more than willing to be caught and consumed. My desire for him made me lightheaded and apparently clumsy—I stumbled a bit moving backward with my elbows.
He didn’t seem to notice.
Then I was beneath him and nothing had ever felt so absolutely perfect or right before. Like this was where I belonged. And judging from the soft groans and growls of pleasure he made, he felt the same.
His kisses grew insistent, desperate. And whether that was because of all the time we’d spent denying ourselves or because we knew that this might be our last chance to be alone like this for a very long time, I wasn’t sure. But we were frantic for each other.
It was like a fever, this need I had for him. I was shivering, burning, sweaty, slightly delirious, and breaking out in goose bumps everywhere he touched me. I wanted to get closer to him, to see if he was having the same kind of reaction. Would his flesh be slick beneath my hands?
Without thinking I reached under his shirt and brushed my fingers against those hard abs of his and he let out a sharp moan from the back of his throat that had me wanting to explore even more of him. To navigate and discover this new land of Hunter Cartwright and claim it as my own.
As if he could read my mind, he removed his shirt with one fluid motion, barely breaking contact with my mouth while he did so. I would have been impressed if he hadn’t made me so mindless for him. He wrapped one of his hands around my throat and kissed the exposed side, forcing me to stay put.
It didn’t stop me from kissing what I could reach—his strong shoulder. I wanted to taste his skin and flicked my tongue out and felt him shudder against me in response.
He started murmuring whispered promises against my skin, his warm breath heating me even more. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, mostly because I was far too busy running my fingers along every muscle and ridge in his back. There were so many. I could have happily spent all day doing this, noticing the way he would contract beneath my touch, tense up, and then relax.
“Lucky.” He breathed my name out, and there was a hint of wonder in it, along with an overwhelming desire that made me feel like I was drowning all over again.
“Do you know how badly I want you?” he asked in a low voice that made me tremble all over. I was past speaking. I wanted him, too—I just couldn’t manage to form actual words.
His mouth was on mine again, possessive, as hungry for me as I was for him. This time I was the one letting out soft breaths and moans as he began exploring me the same way I had him. His fingers brushed against the bare skin of my stomach and I quivered in response. My heartbeat seemed to be keeping time to the rhythmic pulse of his kiss.
As his fingers began to climb my rib cage like a ladder, I put my hand on his wrist. “Hunter, wait.”
He immediately stilled.
I understood where this was leading. More clothing would come off. It would be so easy and so enjoyable to take the next step. And the next. And the next.
But we couldn’t. If I broke the rule so flagrantly, I wouldn’t be able to look the captain in the face.
Or Hunter’s parents.
Or myself.
And the last one was what mattered most. Captain Carl had asked me to be in a position of leadership, to follow the rules. I wanted to be worthy of that trust. Rules were important.
No matter how very badly I wanted to break them.
I couldn’t let things go further with Hunter. Not like this. “We can’t.”
“You did say only kissing,” he said with a wry look. “Sorry for getting a little carried away.”
“I did, too.” I wanted him to know he wasn’t alone in this. That I had happily participated and would be excited to do so at some point in the future when we were no longer on the ship.
He rolled away from me and we both lay on our backs, looking up at the ceiling, trying to catch our breath. My heart still thundered in my chest, my skin was so sensitive that my clothing was almost painful, my lips throbbed, and I felt the aftershocks of the way he’d kissed me throughout my entire body.
“You’re really good at that,” I finally said.
“I know.”
He laughed when I reached over to smack him on his perfect chest and he grabbed my hand, pressing it to his warm skin. “And you’re phenomenal at it. You made me forget my own name.”
“It’s not Hunter Smith, in case you were wondering.”
Another laugh and then he pulled me into his arms and I snuggled against him. I wasn’t sure this was the best idea, as I hadn’t quite cooled down entirely, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to cuddle with him.
“You’re the best, Lucky Salerno.” He gently brushed his lips against my forehead.
I realized that I’d never had anything like this before. This kind of passion, this intensity, coupled with this sort of tenderness and caring.
It was an explosive combination and I didn’t know how long I’d be able to hold out. To keep following those rules.
I loved my job but I knew I loved Hunter more.