Chapter 41
41
Theo
I ’ve been to the marina at this yacht club a handful of times, but never because I’m renting a boat.
“I’ve never been on a yacht before,” Cat says. She’s traipsing down the dock ahead of me in a long white dress I had her buy, tipping her face up to the sun.
“It’s pretty fun. They’re usually decorated like a cocaine dealer from 1980s is the owner, but I enjoy them.”
She laughs. “You’re such a snob.”
I shrug. “Yeah. I am. Now that I can afford it.” After years of having very little, I take pleasure in making my own choices and living large.
“What’s the first thing you bought when you made money?” Cat asks.
“I gave most of my money to my mom, actually. She deserved it. She cried when I gave it to her. And then I made her quit the next day.” The memory slices through me, bittersweet. One of the best days, and one of the worst.
“Good.” Cat smiles viciously. “I’m glad you got her out. ”
I’m saved from a conversation I don’t particularly want to have by our arrival at the slip.
“Here we are.” I point to the eighty-foot boat.
“So modest,” Cat says dryly.
“It’s a small one,” I say cheerfully. “I’ve been naked on much larger boats.”
“You’re an idiot,” she says without heat.
We’re greeted by staff and led through onto the deck, through the cabin and to the upper deck, where there’s a full bar, a hot tub, and a cushioned tanning area perched right over the bow.
“Wow,” Cat whispers.
“Mr. Archer. We’re going to set off in fifteen minutes. You asked for minimal staff today, so there will be the captain, and a few others on board, but we’ll mostly be below deck. Lunch is prepared for you and waiting at the bar. There’s champagne on ice behind the counter.” The steward points out the different areas of the boat—the day beds for lounging, the jet skis and the water toys if we want them.
When he steps away, Cat turns to me. “You asked for minimal staff.”
My face heats. “I thought you might be embarrassed.”
“Why?” She gives me a suspicious look. “What have I agreed to?”
“Shenanigans?” I say.
She laughs. “Okay. Shenanigans.”
“Get the list out,” I tell her.
She digs it out of her purse.
“All right. Let’s add a few—tan naked on a yacht. Go jet-skiing.”
“Naked. Really?”
“Yes.” I wink and push down my pants. “Live a little, princess. The list just got a whole lot more interesting.”
Cat hesitates, then pulls off her dress, displaying a tiny black bikini. My thoughts short out. She’s so hot. Irresistible to me. Always has been. I turn so she won’t see me ogling her.
“Aren’t you worried about tabloids?” she asks.
I strip off my T-shirt and push off my boxer briefs. “We won’t dock. And it’s the low season. I told the captain to avoid them. Plus, you’re here. Lorenzo can’t fault me for being naked with my wife.”
I turn. Cat’s eyes widen. I’m already half-hard, and I’m naked as sin.
I raise my brows at her in challenge. She holds my gaze as she undoes the ties at the sides of her bathing suit, and I freeze. The fabric spills onto the floor. I’m riveted. Perfect breasts, dusky nipples, the patch of hair hiding where I know she’s soft and wet.
I want her.
I want.
She gives me a wink and saunters over to the tanning deck.
The boat’s engines start up. I join her at the bow. For the first time with her, I feel awkward, like the boy I was at nineteen and twenty instead of the man I am today.
She gives me a brilliant smile as she lies back on the cushions at the bow. The boat moves into the harbor.
“Best place to sit,” I say.
“Yeah?”
“Definitely. If you position yourself just right, you can see nothing but sea and sky.”
“Show me.”
I lie down next to her, keeping a careful distance between us. Is her skin warm from the sun yet? Does she smell good? Is she turned on like I am? I hope so. Fuck, I hope so. I don’t want to be alone in this—this wild need that claws at me and makes me want to claim her.
“Turn your head like this,” I say, tilting my chin up. “Now look.”
“Oh,” she breathes.
“Yeah.”
The sky is a brilliant, searing blue. It extends forever, meeting the horizon and the sea in every direction. Monaco might be right behind us, but here, it’s just ocean and sky and Cat.
“Sunscreen?” she asks after a few minutes of silence.
“They stock it.” I lever myself up and grab a few bottles from the bar. When I come back, I get an eyeful of Cat. Those dusky nipples make my mouth water. She gestures for the bottle .
“I’ll do it,” I say. My voice is gravel. “Turn over.”
She complies, and fuck . Her ass is perfect. I start at her shoulders, sweeping her hair to the side. “SPF fifty for you, princess. No getting burned.”
She hums a satisfied sound as I knead her shoulders and spread the sunscreen over her back, onto her arms, and then down, down, until I finally get to do what I’ve always wanted—grab Cat’s ass. She makes a little noise when I dig my fingers in, but she doesn’t tell me to stop. So I do it again on the other side. My imagination is running wild. I could pin her here like this, with just a hand on her hip as I drive into her. Fuck.
I stop.
“Theo?” She turns her head.
“Don’t—” I say. She looks. “Look,” I finish. I’m fully hard, like a teenager again. Halfway there just from touching her back.
“Ignore me,” I say. “I just—I want you, okay?”
“Do the front.” She flips and twines her arms over my head. The motion thrusts her breasts up. She looks like a cover model to the magazine my personal fantasies created.
I settle between her legs, my erection already pressing against my stomach. I start at her thighs and continue up to the full edge of her breast. Round and smooth and so perfectly made for my hand that I have to cup it in my palm. Cat’s breath hitches. Her eyes are half-lidded.
“I don’t want to sunscreen here.” I brush my thumb over her nipple.
“Why?” Her voice is high and reedy.
“Because then I can’t do this.” I lower my mouth to her nipple and pull it between my lips. She gasps and arches under me. Her skin is salty and sweet. She smells like sunscreen and amber perfume and sea air. I switch to her other nipple just to hear her make that sound again, and fuck does it sound so good on her lips.
I blaze a trail of lips and teeth and tongue down her stomach, and she grasps at my shoulders and tugs on my hair. My breath feels raw in my chest, and full of Cat. I pause, taking her in, her messy hair and her full pink lips and that delicious freckle. I lean down to kiss it, and she makes a frustrated noise.
“Theo, please.” Her voice is desperate. She threads her fingers through my hair and tilts her hips.
“We said we wouldn’t, princess.” I hold myself still above her, even though it’s torture.
I wait for her to bring up the list, to demand that we fit into the box she’s created for us.
She swallows hard. Her eyes are pleading. “I know we said we wouldn’t sleep together, but I want you. I’ve wanted you for a long time.”
Fuck, I shouldn’t.
But I’m halfway to what I want as the words race through my brain.
I mutter a curse, and then my mouth is between her legs and her thighs are gripping my head. It’s dirty and wet and so fucking hot that I’m going to come right here from nothing but friction from the lounge chair beneath me and the sound of her panting breaths.
When I push a finger into her, she trembles.
Another one, and she moans.
“Please,” she says again. “Please, Theo. No teasing me.” She arches her hips and sinks onto my fingers.
“That’s it. Ride my hand. Use me, princess. I’m big, and I don’t want to hurt you.”
“More,” she sobs. She glares at me, her lips parted, her face flushed. “I need you inside me.”
The words are like gas on an open flame. In a heartbeat, I’m there, at her entrance, slicking my cock through the wetness of her pussy, loving the way her lids close instinctively and then open again, like she can’t look away. Each slide of my cock sends spikes of pleasure through me. I let her grind against me, working herself up, until she moans and her hips start to move helplessly. She’s chasing her orgasm already, and I love it. I could come like this, from just the friction of her pussy and how slick she is for me.
“Slow down, princess.” I grab her thigh and her lids slowly open .
I grip my cock and push into her, just a bit. I groan at the feel of her. Better than I ever imagined, and I’ve imagined it hundreds of times. She gasps. “Theo,” she whispers.
“I know,” I say. I pause, my shoulders trembling, fisting my hands to keep from sinking into her and hurting her.
She wriggles a little. “More. I can take it.” I meet her gaze. Her chocolate eyes are hazy. They widen as I push farther in. I’m watching her carefully in case she’s in pain, and it’s all I can do not to let my own eyes shut. She clenches around me, hot and wet and perfect . My stomach jumps. Just a bit more.
She works herself onto my cock, inch by inch, until I’m all the way in. We sigh in unison. I can’t help the buck of my hips, can’t stop my fingers from gripping her thigh. I like it rough and I hope like hell she does too because I don’t want to hurt her.
She moans as I pull out and snap back. “Oh god, Theo.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. “Told you I was big.”
She arches under me. “I love it.”
I can finally look away from her face and down to where I’m inside her. “Look at you taking me, princess.” I roll my hips and watch her lids flutter. “You look so hot like this. Stretched around my cock. Do you feel good?”
“So good.” Her words are a mere whisper.
“Louder,” I grit out as I roll my hips again.
“So good,” she sobs. I pull back and slide home, still gentle. As gentle as I can be with the way my insides are hot and tangled and wanting.
“You want more?”
She nods.
“Tell me,” I command as I thrust again. Not enough. Still not enough. I want to consume her.
“Harder, Theo.”
“As you wish, princess.” I grip her hip and use the leverage to fuck her, deep and slow but unrelenting. She’s gasping and clenching, and each little sound she makes drags me to the edge.
“I’m so—” Her words are lost as she throws her head back and I drag her over my cock. Harder than before. Punishing and brutal and just fucking right .
“I can’t last,” I say. “I need to come inside you.”
“I’ve never done that,” she says on a breath. “Please.”
“You want it?”
“Yes.” The word pings through me, pulling me to the edge.
“Good,” I grit out. “Because I want to fill you up. I want to mark you. I’ve never done this either, and I can’t—” I groan as I feel her clench around me. “I can’t stop.” I fuck her through her orgasm, until she’s shaking and I can finally give in to the pleasure searing up my spine, tightening my groin, making me lost to her. My instinct is to shut my eyes, but with her, I want them open. Open to watch as my cock jerks inside her. Open to watch the way her mouth goes slack and she gasps as she feels me coming. Open to see how good I can make her feel with my body.
And open to see me dripping down her thighs when I pull out.
“Holy shit,” she pants. “Holy shit, Theo.”
I flop onto the lounger next to her, my heart thumping, my breath sawing in and out.
“I know.” I pull her into my side. “I know.”