by Katee Robert
“I’m beginning to get the idea.” She settled against him, her breath catching in her throat at the feeling of his cock pressed against her. They’d been a similar position before. She knew she could get herself off like this. It wasn’t enough, though. As amazing as the orgasms he’d dealt her to date were, she wanted more. She wanted it all.
She wanted Alex crazed enough to give it to her without holding back.
Kendall looked over her shoulder. They weren’t quite alone on deck, but the other pair on the opposite side of the pool, almost out of sight, was occupied with each other. From the faint moans she could tell no one was watching. No one saw when she slipped the straps of her dress off her shoulders and let it fall to her waist, baring her breasts to Alex.
“Fuck,” he breathed.
“That’s the idea.”
Another of those strained laughs she was learning to love. “You sure you don’t live on the edge? Because you’re killing me, sweetheart. I’m trying to do right by you.”
He might claim he didn’t have a noble streak, but every time he said something like this, he proved himself a liar. Kendall took his hands and guided them to her breasts. “You are doing right by me. All I have to do is ask, remember? I’m asking, Alex. Let me ride you.” Every time she spoke her desires, it became easier. Hotter. She leaned forward, pressing into his rough palms. “I need your cock inside me, filling me up.”
“Dirty girl.” He shifted his grip and surged up, capturing her nipple with his mouth. He sucked hard and laid his teeth against her, making her grind down hard on him. It was so good and yet nowhere near enough.
“Alex, please.”
“Next time,” he muttered. “Next time we get a bed.” He pulled the condom out and ripped the foil open.
“Yes, yes, yes. Next time. Bed. I promise.” She undid his pants and withdrew his cock and, god, it was even better than she’d dreamed. Perfect. He was simply perfect. “I don’t want to wait anymore.”
“Yeah, I got that.” He rolled the condom onto his cock and fisted it. “You want to ride my cock, sweetheart? It’s here, ready for you.”
She shifted up, paused, and dragged her dress up enough so she could watch him notch himself at her entrance. Could watch as she sank down inch by torturous inch, her body fighting to accommodate his size. More, more, more.
“Whoa, Kendall, slow down.” He caught her hips. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I don’t want to slow down.” She grabbed his shoulders and slammed herself down the rest of the way, sheathing him to the hilt. Kendall shook as the fullness nearly overwhelmed her. It had been… a very long time since she had sex. And last time hadn’t been anything like this. Even knowing she should wait, should let herself get used to this, she rocked her hips. “More.”
“Jesus.” He gave a choked laugh. “You’re going to kill me.”
“I might kill me, too.” She couldn’t get enough air in her lungs. “Alex…”
Somehow, he understood. He relaxed back by inches and slid his hands up her thighs, bunching her dress around her hips and allowing her to free her hands. “You’re in charge, sweetheart. Take what you need from me.”
She braced her hands on his chest and began to move slowly, simply enjoying this moment. This control. Alex was one big line of tension beneath her, and she had the sudden thought that he was fighting himself in order to give her this. She straightened a bit and arched her back, giving him a show. “How long can you hold out?”
“As long as you need,” he gritted out.
If she wasn’t careful, she might fall in love with this man. It didn’t seem to matter that she didn’t know him. That they hadn’t talked about anything in depth. That he was little more than a stranger. He showed her the truth of himself in a thousand different ways every time he touched her. Every time he put his needs on hold so she could come first, could feel safe, could have a sliver of control.
Kendall ground down hard on his cock, unable to stop her moan. “You feel so good. Better than I imagined.”
He grunted in response, his fingers digging into her hips. Not guiding her. Just hanging on for dear life. It made the whole experience exponentially hotter, which should have been impossible.
Teasing him made her a special kind of evil, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted that control to snap the same way it had in the bar. She wanted him to let go the same way he allowed her to let go. “Do you feel me, Alex?”
“I feel you, sweetheart.” He spoke through clenched teeth.
Not enough. She cupped her breasts, plucking at her nipples as his gaze narrowed on her. Pleasure spiked through her, but it wasn’t enough. Not like this. Not with him holding back. She bit her bottom lip. “I want…”
“Tell me.”
An idea occurred to her. “I want it like you described in the bar. Take me from behind.”
He cursed and, for a moment, she thought he might do exactly that. But Alex gave a sharp shake of his head. “Fuck that. I want to see your face when you come again.” He shifted his grip to stroke his thumb over her clit. “You look so fucking beautiful right now. Free. Wicked. Like a goddamn fantasy come to life.”
Had anyone ever called her a fantasy?
She didn’t even have to think hard to know the answer. No. They hadn’t. She wasn’t wicked. She wasn’t a fantasy. And free? The thought might make her laugh if she wasn’t so close to coming. She picked up her pace, determined to take them both over the edge. “You make me feel like that.”
Something like regret flickered over his face, gone too fast for her to be sure. “It’s all you, sweetheart.”
She didn’t believe him, but she suddenly didn’t have the breath to argue. Kendall’s body took over, her need to come shorting out her ability to do anything but mindlessly ride him, pressing hard against his thumb and slamming down to take him deep inside her.
Her orgasm hit her between one breath and the next, bowing her back and making her cry out, careless of who might hear. Alex surged up beneath her, gathering her into his arms and burying his face in her neck as he fucked her from below, slamming into her again and again until he came with a curse. He slumped back on the lounge chair, taking her with him.
Kendall lay there, listening to the pounding of his heart against her ear, and couldn’t stop a stupid grin from spreading across her lips. She’d done this. She’d been wild and free and everything Alex seemed to think she was. Even if this only lasted for the rest of the cruise, surely that was enough? A little slice of the life she might have had if she wasn’t Kendall Barnes, the middle child, the responsible one, the woman who didn’t make waves.
When she could draw a full breath again, she lifted her head. “Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“You know how you said that I could have anything I wanted as long as I asked?”
Again, that flicker on his face. “Yes.”
She could do this. She could ask for what she wanted. She didn’t have to feel weird about this. Kendall swallowed hard. “I would really like for you to take me back to your cabin.”
She was pretty sure he stopped breathing. “For sex or…?”
Oh god, had she made a mistake. She started to sit up, to retreat, but his hold tightened on her. “I’m looking for clarification, sweetheart. That’s all.”
Right. Okay. No reason to freak out and think he was rejecting her. She closed her eyes and reached for courage. “For sex and for sleeping. If that’s okay?”
Silence for a beat. Two. Three. Just when she thought that surely she’d misread the situation and he was, in fact, rejecting her, Alex said, “That’s more than okay.”
Chapter 8
Alex woke up with Kendall in his arms. He turned his head enough to see the alarm on the nightstand and silently cursed. The ship had already docked in Orlando and the excursions started shortly. He snorted. Excursions. Most cruises went to exotic places—and this one would, too—but Orlando hardly seemed that.
Or maybe he
was just bitter because he hadn’t planned on being on this cruise to begin with.
Kendall made a sound in her sleep and shifted closer. She rubbed her nose against his chest like she wanted to burrow, and he shouldn’t find it so fucking endearing, but he just wanted to gather her up and keep her safe. And, yeah, he wanted to bury his cock in her again and again until they were too exhausted to keep going. Despite her offer last night, she’d passed out the second she was horizontal in his bed, and he couldn’t bring himself to be annoyed about it. Not when he got to wake up like this.
What the fuck was he thinking?
He was supposed to leave today. That was to be the grand plan. Take off during the excursion and catch the first flight back to Dawson’s Creek. To reassure himself that the one constant in his life was still up and running and hadn’t been ruined in his absence.
He couldn’t quite dredge up the energy to get out of bed, though. Not with this woman here, not when last night she became this fledgling wild thing that he wanted to experience again. Kendall had obviously spent her entire life buttoned up. This cruise—with him—she finally let her hair down. She trusted him enough to do it. If he left, would he hurt her? Would it drive her back into her shell again?
It wasn’t his responsibility, but guilt still wrapped around his throat and squeezed. He didn’t want to be the reason she never let out her wild side again.
Kendall tensed, a sure sign that she was no longer asleep. She slowly lifted her head, her green eyes wide. “Hi,” she whispered.
“Hey,” he whispered back. This, as much as everything else, felt intimate. Like they were the only two people left in the world. He had no business liking it, but damn it, he did. “You sleep okay?”
“Uh… Yes?” She inched back from him, and he released her. “Did I… Did I drool on you?”
He couldn’t help grinning. “Only a little.”
“Oh god.” She flopped onto her back and threw an arm over her eyes. “Every time I think I can’t be more mortified in front of you, I go and prove myself wrong. At least I didn’t snore?”
Really, it was too easy. “Just tiny little snores. They were cute.”
She lifted her arm and shot him a look. “You’re messing with me.”
“Yeah.”
“Thank goodness.” She let her arm flop back down. “Do I want to know what time it is?”
Time. The one thing he both needed to and desperately didn’t want to focus on. Alex glanced at the clock again. If she left now, he could get packed and make it to the excursion departure with plenty of time. He considered the woman in his bed, considered what waited for him back home…
And made a decision.
“You mind if I make a call real quick?”
“Go for it. I’m going to…” She waved her other hand in the vague direction of the door.
It should be exactly what he wanted, but he shook his head. “Stay. Unless you have plans already.” He hesitated. “Or don’t want to.”
Kendall sat up, seeming unaware of the way the sheet slid half down her breasts, teasing him with the very edges of her pink nipples. “I can’t tell if you’re being polite or if you really want me to stay.”
Fuck, she was killing him.
Alex climbed out of bed and reached for the phone. “I wouldn’t ask you to stay if I didn’t want you here.”
“Okay.” She considered him. “I’m going to borrow your toothpaste, though.”
“By all means.” He waited for her to go into the bathroom and close the door to dial the bar. Despite the early hour, it only rang twice before Cherry answered. Alex barely let her get the greeting out. “I need an update. A real one.”
Cherry huffed out a breath. “Good morning, Alex. It’s so nice to hear from you again despite the fact you’re supposed to be on vacation.”
“Cherry.” He sank enough warning into his tone to have her growling at him.
“Yes, things are fine. Just like they were fine last night. Just like they’ll be fine for the remainder of your vacation. For god’s sake, Alex, it’s summer. People are too busy suffering from heat exhaustion to cause trouble, and even if they could work up the energy, I have a full staff that you trained who are capable of handling it.” She paused and her tone went a little soft. “You need this, okay? So stop being a pain in my ass and go actually enjoy yourself.”
She made it sound like it was the easiest thing in the world. “It’s not that simple.”
“It’s exactly that simple.” He could almost picture her stern frown and the way her perfectly penciled eyebrows had to be drawing together right about now. “Alex, go find yourself someone to have fun with for a few days. You never know what could happen in the time you aren’t chained to this business. Live a little.”
He didn’t tell her that he’d done more than enough living in his teens and early twenties. That his bullshit antics had put Pop in the hospital with a fucking heart attack. Cherry wouldn’t understand. No one ever did.
But she had a point on this note. “If anything changes, you will call me.”
“Alex—”
“You will call me.”
She sighed. “Yes, fine, if anything suddenly goes sideways, I’ll find a way to get a hold of you.”
He shouldn’t take her word for it. In fact, he should be packing right now. But Alex found himself saying, “Okay.”
“Goodbye, Alex.”
“Bye.” He hung up just as Kendall opened the bathroom door. She hesitated, as if the few feet between the door and the bed were too much when they’d both been wrapped up in each other all night. But she seemed to steel herself and padded naked to the bed. “Give me two,” he said.
“Sure.”
His misgivings didn’t disappear as he brushed his teeth. Alex half hoped that Kendall would be gone when he finished and make the choice for him, but he couldn’t ignore the relief at seeing her sitting so primly on his bed. He grinned. “Morning.”
“Morning.” She gave him a smile of her own. “You had to call out for work?”
“Yeah, I own a bar in Dawson’s Creek.”
Her eyes went wide. “Dawson’s…Creek.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s ridiculous and the locals get a kick out of it, but we precede that TV show.”
Kendall grinned. “Cool.”
“I sort of unofficially inherited it when my grandfather retired and moved to Mexico a few years back.” Though, truth be told, he’d run the business for longer than that. As Pop used to be so fond of reminding him, he wasn’t a young man anymore. He’d taught Alex everything he knew about running the place, and the business degree had filled in the gaps.
Kendall tucked the sheet around her and gave him her full attention. “Tell me about it.”
This wasn’t part of the plan. Sex, yes, but making small talk? Alex still found himself climbing into bed next to her and reclining against the pillows. “When I was a kid, it was pure dive bar. The kind of place where people drink themselves stupid and brawl when the night goes on too long.” He grinned. “But most of my good memories from childhood are wrapped up in that building. The cigarette smoke that seemed to permeate everything. The sticky bar. The rolling laughter of good-natured ribbing between men who had been friends longer than I’d been alive. And, through it all, Pop held the center, as steady as gravity.”
“Sounds like an interesting place.”
He laughed at her dubious expression. “When I took over managing it, I started shifting things around. We still get the regulars during the day, but it’s more of a hipster kind of place in the evening with fancy drinks and tiny food.” The regulars had a special menu that wasn’t available to anyone else, because he’d be damned before he drove them out while he worked at elevating the place. They might bitch about the laws against smoking inside now, but they still showed up like clockwork.
“Fancy drinks and tiny food.” Kendall tilted her head to the side. “I can’t see it. You’re not really the fancy drinks and tiny food k
ind of guy.”
“You think so?” He tugged gently on a strand of her hair. “How would you know?”
She opened her mouth, but seemed to reconsider what she’d been about to say. “That’s fair. I’m afraid I’ve made some assumptions about you from the beginning that weren’t very flattering—or true.”
Her words stung a little, but they had no reason to. She wasn’t the first person who’d looked at him and thought that he was trouble. Good for one thing or another, but not the kind of guy a woman kept around for longer than a few nights. Not the kind they saw themselves walking down the aisle to or raising a family with. He forced a laugh. “You aren’t the first.”
“Doesn’t make it right.” She worried her bottom lip. “You’ve been nothing but amazing to me, and honestly I don’t deserve it.”
That wasn’t the truth. “Sweetheart, why wouldn’t you deserve it?”
“Because I was so rude to you. Seriously rude. And then…” She shook her head. “I suppose it doesn’t matter now. But for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
Alex laced his fingers through hers and brought their linked hands up to kiss her knuckles. “What do you do?”
“I’m the assistant sales manager for a trio of hotels in New York.” She made a face. “It’s the same job I’ve had pretty much since I got out of college. I should have seen more upward movement at this point, but I keep getting passed over for promotions.”
They’d gotten unexpectedly heavy for so early in the morning. He should turn the conversation to lighter things, but he didn’t like the way her expression fell when she talked about work. “Do you like the job?”
“Yes. I mean, most days aren’t totally terrible. I like dealing with the long-term contracts and the satisfaction of knowing that my work is helping the bottom line.” She shrugged. “I just feel… stagnant. Like somewhere along the line, I got into a rut without realizing it and now I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it.”
He couldn’t fix her life. It wasn’t his job to even try. That wasn’t the role he was meant to play in her life. But they had the next six days, and he could leave her better than he’d found her. “I have just the distraction.”