Thrilled: Reckless Desires (Dragon Mates Book 2)

by J. K Harper

  Gabi glanced to the side and slightly behind them. The research vessel was disappearing in the distance. She definitely felt the very sharp tug of regret that she would not be diving down to the wreck today. That she was indeed letting a guy come between her and the work she loved. Yet she was protecting both it and the research crew. Even so, she couldn't help but feel insanely turned on that she was about to get down and dirty with a super sexy guy on his sailboat in the middle of the Pacific. With Kai. Surprising, controlling, guarded, intense, yet also relaxed, laughter-filled, multi-layered, and just fascinating Kai.

  "I have to admit I've never done anything risqué on a sailboat in full daylight before," she added, hearing the breathless quality in her own voice. “But you present a compelling case.”

  There was a short pause, then Kai stepped so close to her that his body pressed against hers from behind. Gabi almost yanked the wheel sharply to the side as the contact with his body sent thrilling chills through hers.

  "Steady on there, sailor lass," he rumbled into her ear. She would have laughed at that cheesy nickname, but his hands gently moved onto her arms, lightly stroking her from shoulders down to elbows and back again. The sensation intensified the tingles zipping and singing throughout her body and sucked her laughter back up into a quiet little gasp. "Where you taking us, anyway?"

  At the moment, Gabi wasn't quite sure where the hell they were going. "Hadn't really thought that far ahead." She gasped more loudly as his hand left her arm and gently dropped down to her waist. His fingers, broad and strong, very gently stroked the bare skin there just above her hip.

  "Then I have just the place in mind." He murmured the directions into her ear, his fingers swirling small strokes on the skin above her hip bone and somewhat scrambling her brain as she adjusted course.

  "Yes. Dead ahead now. There's a small reef where we can drop anchor and just…” His voice dropped even more, into a sensual weave of desire. “Relax for a while."

  Legs shaking a bit, Gabi turned her head slightly so that his chin pressed into her cheek. "This wasn't how I envisioned my day. But I think I can definitely get into this."

  Chapter Ten

  Her entire body humming with delight, Gabi expertly steered Kai's fancy sailboat to the spot he directed her. His long, lean body worked with a graceful yet very powerful strength as he set the anchor for the boat. They lazily bobbed on the water, nothing in sight for miles but the endless expanse of blue-green ocean and the dark hillside rolls of Catalina Island to their east. The way the boat bobbed down between the slight swells of the water, they couldn't see the glittering Los Angeles shoreline behind the island. It was as if nothing in the world existed but ocean water, the distant hills of the island, the bobbing sailboat, and the two of them.

  Every inch of Gabi's skin felt more attuned, more alive than usual. The typical excitement of being just on the edge of hooking up with a new guy, especially one as alluring and attractive as Kai, swept through her. But aside from that, she felt an extra little flip of something fluttering deep inside her. An intensity, a certain knowledge that everything that was about to happen between them was choreographed yet primal. Familiar, yet unknown. Utterly amazing in its newness, yet also so strangely familiar it was as if she would know what his body would feel like beneath her fingers before she even touched him.

  But that was crazy. She'd never laid eyes on the man before the night before last.

  Feet slightly spread on the deck of the boat in the casual manner of someone long familiar with even the slight roll of watercraft anchored in ocean, Kai looked like some sort of ancient oceanic god. His muscles rippled and slightly gleamed in the morning sun, the muscles in his legs gently flexing as he almost unconsciously kept his balance on the subtle yet constant movement of the deck.

  She watched him, her pulse beating more rapidly in her throat, as he slowly strolled toward her, slipping his sunglasses off his face and casually dropping them onto the rail seat. Not ridiculously brawny like a body builder, rather he had more the physique of a lean, incredibly strong fighting machine. Gabi could practically feel the power rolling off of him as he came toward her. Cool, delicious waves of desire flowed deep inside her, sending tingling flashes of longing along her limbs. She was already damp between her legs, just from the expression on his face. He gazed at hers if she were something he wanted so badly he would do anything for her. As if she were his possession.

  As if she were already his.

  Kai stopped a few inches away from her, close enough that she could see those funny little bright green flecks swirling in the dark brown of his eyes. Trick of the light, she thought somewhere in the back of her mind. The desire washing through her was quickly tiding over her rational thoughts and gently drowning them in the expanding pool of desire that was spreading out from between her legs to every little spot on her body.

  "I can see your sexy nipples through the top of your suit, Gabi," he said, his voice dark and deep. "I want to see your eyes, too," he added. His voice dropped down to a baritone so low it almost vibrated through her head.

  The double whammy of this incredibly sexy man not only admiring her body but wanting the intimacy of looking into her eyes was like a laser bolt of ravenous delight straight to her clit. Gabi opened her mouth slightly, inhaling sharply against the roof of her mouth. She felt more than heard herself begin to breathe quickly. A satisfied smile of anticipation unfurled across the slash of Kai's mouth. He reached out to very gently pull her sunglasses off her face. They were already dried from her impromptu swim, though her hair was still wet and salty. He set them down on the rail seat as Gabi blinked against the bright sunlight. In the back of her head, she noted it was strange that he hadn't seemed affected by the full sunlight the way she was, but that thought almost immediately dissipated into the soft wash of desire pulsing through her limbs.

  Kai reached out his other hand and gently stroked the backs of his fingers over her cheek, along her chin, slowly down her throat, and onto the bare collarbones between her breasts.

  She definitely could tell that her nipples were tenting out. It wasn't just from her dip in the ocean. No, this was pure, naked desire racing through her body and engulfing every nerve ending in anticipation.

  "You're so incredibly beautiful." Kai's voice was a murmur that swirled into the breeze, mingling with it in a way that made it seem as if the ocean itself was sighing into her ear.

  She let a half smile tug up her lips as she replied. "Thank you, dangerous man." She let a teasing note color her words, half trying to mask her slight breathlessness as well as the sense she had of beginning to lose control.

  But she couldn't fool him. His own lips quirked up as he responded in a murmur, "It's only the truth. And you like hearing it."

  Gabi half choked on her own breath as it caught in her throat when he turned his hand around to let his palm and then his fingers caress downward over her breast. She couldn't stop the little moan that escaped her when he deliberately began playing with her hardened nipple. "Oh," was all she could say as the wild sensation of his touch robbed her of speech even as it brought roaring to life the very turned on state of her body. Her restless dreams and ceaseless thoughts of him exploded in a miasma of want that was so fierce, so sudden, that it took her even more by surprise. Gazing straight back at him, she caught the same look of naked, abrupt startlement on his face.

  For a long moment, as the sunlight poured over them and his hand clasped her entire breast, something wild, deep, and more true than anything Gabi had never before felt in her life held them both.

  Together.

  After another long, silent beat, during which Gabi felt some sort of confusing knowledge whipping through her, the moment broke when Kai gave a tiny shake of his head. He reached out his other hand, curving it up behind her neck and threading his fingers into the damp strands of her hair. He found the small band that held it in a ponytail, gently worked it loose, let it drop to the ground so that her hair wetly tumbled aga
inst her shoulders and back. Gently pulling her phone in its protective little case off her arm, he pulled apart the case's velcro strap with a small ripping sound, then carefully attached it to the rail above the seat.

  “In case your family needs to reach you,” he said, shrugging at her with what was almost diffidence.

  The knowledge that he remembered that, that he took the time to be sure her phone was secure on the sailboat and nearby in case it rang, did something funny to her heart.

  "Damn, Gabi." The lingering sense of that strange, wild something tumbled beneath his voice as he stared into her eyes. The jade flecks in the onyx depths of his irises held her mesmerized. "I need to taste you right now."

  His voice was so rough with pure need that she swayed where she stood. Gabi's answer was to reach her own hands up around his broad shoulders and strong neck, pulling his face toward hers.

  The second their lips met, Gabi knew she was done for. Sharp, aching thrills jetted out along all her nerve endings, coursing along her limbs and seeming to make her entire body buzz. Kai's mouth crashed down on hers as his hands pressed her close into him. His hard chest anchored her soft curves as she willingly molded herself to his every inch. Her tongue sought entrance into his mouth, which he allowed with an appreciative moan letting her know how much he liked her eagerness.

  She felt his hands busy on her back, trying to figure out how to take her bathing suit top off. Puffing out a light giggle into his mouth, Gabi stepped away for a moment, giving him a teasing glance as she simply lifted her arms over her head. "You have to pull it off of me," she whispered, enjoying how his impossibly dark eyes seemed to darken even more at her directive, while the jade lights in them sparkled in the sunlight. "And hurry," she added, her voice breathless despite her bossy order.

  Groaning, Kai reached forward and roughly yet carefully pulled off her swim tank, releasing her full breasts into the bright sunlight of the day. "Oh, damn," he whispered with such reverence that her nipples perked up even more. He reached forward to skim his thumbs along the taut little peaks, making her gasp. "That's right," he said, his eyes looking up to hers as he lazily circled his thumbs around her nipples. "It's been killing me, waiting to hear you make sounds like this."

  Feeling abruptly inarticulate, Gabi could only nod, still snared by the intensity of his gaze. She didn't even spare a thought for looking around to see if there were any boats remotely nearby. She couldn't care less if someone had been spying on them with high-power binoculars at the moment. In fact, the naughty kick of being somewhat exposed turned her on even more. The jolting deep within her rapid heartbeat was odd, though. She didn't usually feel this comfortably intimate around a man. Not real intimacy. Not the kind that counted in the deeper sense.

  But something about Kai Long, something aside from the sexy, hard planes of his body, the abruptly sensual tilt of his mouth, the promise of deeply fulfilled desire in his expression each time he looked at her, tugged at her. Something more intense than mere physical attraction thumped in her chest as well.

  Something that was both appealing and terrifying.

  Pushing it aside, she gave way to the moment and the sensations flooding her breasts from the small yet arousing pressure of his thumbs on each ultra-sensitive nipple.

  "Looks like you dried off from your little dip earlier," he murmured, the depth of his voice throbbing through her. "Let me fix that for you."

  As Gabi watched, her breath stuttering in her chest, Kai took his hands from her breasts, licked first one of his thumbs, then the other, and returned them to her aching nipples to swirl around them in long, wet strokes.

  She jerked her face up as she gasped, pressing her breasts forward into his hands with the greediness of all the pent-up, restless desire she'd had since she first laid eyes on him in the bar. A self-satisfied smile claimed his face as he spread the rest of his fingers over the fullness of each of her breasts, kneading and stroking and pressing while his thumbs still worked over the super sensitized buds. Shivers of delight raced along her entire body as Kai touched her in the streams of sunlight scattering off the lapping ripples of the Pacific Ocean spread about them in every direction.

  Still looking at her, Kai's voice dropped into the air in a deep, unyielding command. "Take those off, too," he said, dipping his chin at her swimsuit bottoms. "Because if I have to wait another second, Gabi, I'm going to rip them off you with my bare teeth."

  ~~~

  Kai's heart slammed in his chest just as his cock swelled at nearly full attention as he waited to see what Gabi would do. The cinnamon of her eyes darkening to rich mocha was his answer.

  She was definitely just as turned on as he was. Just as eager, just as impatient. He had the distinct impression that if he slipped his hand into those sweet swimsuit bottoms right now and dipped a finger inside her, it would come out covered in her sweet, creamy juices as testament to just how damned excited she was right now.

  It took every ounce of his strength to merely stand there, thumbs still turning lazy circles on her gorgeous nipples, and wait for her to take the bottoms off herself. Inside, his dragon roared and strained against his control. Urging Kai on. Urging him to take this woman with all his strength and desire, to show her how much he wanted to pleasure her. To see her eyes turn nearly black with need, to watch her mouth pant open just as her legs would part for him in wet, wild longing.

  Claim her, the thought swelled and boomed deep inside him. Claim her.

  Kai forced his breath to exhale and inhale out of him evenly despite his jolt at that crazy thought. No. There would be no claiming. That was far more than anything he had planned, ever. It had to stem from the fact that he'd been practically useless with desire for her since he'd seen her, but had yet to fulfill that need. Plenty of late night fantasies about her had played out when he was alone in his shower at home both the previous nights, but wickedly hot as they'd been, they hadn't been enough to sate his need.

  He was just horny, dammit. That was all. Swallowing hard and pushing back on his dragon's bizarre desire with all his might, Kai watched as Gabi gave him a seductive smile.

  She took one step back from him, then another. His hands ached with loss as her gorgeous breasts left them, but he hardened even more, if that were possible, as she gently slipped her hands down to her swimsuit bottoms, hooked her thumbs on the sides of them at her hips, and slowly, provocatively, began shimmying them down her stunningly luscious body.

  Kai was pretty sure he was about to swallow his own damn tongue as he watched her. Everything else in the world faded away at the sound of the lapping water, the far-off call of seagulls carrying through the air from where they circled near the island, and the blissful eroticism of watching this stunning, opulent woman so willingly and ardently strip for him on the deck of his sailboat.

  "Like this, sailor?" Gabi's voice was low and sultry, dragging like softened coral over his sensitized nerve endings. Crazy tingles raced their way across every inch of Kai's skin, making him feel abruptly lightheaded from sheer desire for her.

  As he watched, she did a slow little dance with her legs and her hands, moving the swimsuit bottoms down over the sweet curves of her thighs, past her knees, to land in a small scrap of red cloth by her feet. With a long, teasing smile, she stepped one foot out and kicked them away with her other foot. Then she spread her arms to her sides, cocked one leg up on the toes of her foot with her knee slightly bent in front of her, and with all of her gorgeous nakedness displayed before him, murmured, "So. What do you think?"

  Chapter Eleven

  What Kai thought was that all his thinking was completely paralyzed. His brain simply stalled out as he stared at her exquisiteness before him. All smooth golden skin, except for the paler parts from the swimsuit that she obviously wore often, Gabi was a breathtaking sight to behold. The stunning bounty of her breasts, the soft curve of her belly, the beautiful span of her hips, the strength of her thighs and calves. Her toned arms, waving around as she did a little shi
mmy for him, slightly rolling her eyes at her little exhibition even though she still gave him a seductive smile, urged him forward. He went right to her and ran his hands down the length of her arms, then back up to capture her hands and gently bring them behind her back, causing her chest to arch out toward him. "I think I like it a hell of a lot," he said, his voice so serious that her teasing smile was abruptly, literally swallowed as she stared back at him. He could see the pulse speeding in her neck, smell her natural scent of jasmine as it spread into his senses with its sweet allure.

  He wanted to bury himself inside the succulence of Gabi's body as soon as possible. "You are insanely beautiful." He leaned down to touch one of her still hardened nipples with his tongue. A babble of inarticulate, blissful sound rolled out of her. Chuckling against her sweet breast, he moved his head to her other one, stroking and swirling his tongue around the peaked nipple. Drawing back for a moment, looking up at her, he said, "This is what my tongue will be doing to another part of you in just a few moments." She gasped, arching her back even more to thrust her breast into his mouth again.

  Kneeling on the deck, ignoring the hardness of it against his knees, Kai placed his hands around the gorgeous swell of her hips as he gently bit at her nipple. Gabi hissed slightly, but then she thrust herself toward him even harder, moving her hands down to the back of his neck and his shoulders, which she seemed to be holding onto for dear life. He smiled against her skin, tasting the tang of saltwater mixed with her own sweetness and savoring it.

  Then slowly, carefully, he traced a line with his tongue down between her breasts, toward her belly button, over the sweet roundness of her belly.

  Gabi moaned above him, spreading her feet firmly on the deck. He glanced up at her. Her head was tossed back, her eyes shut, her face illuminated in the sunlight. She was utterly in the moment, and seemed thoroughly uninhibited.