His Last Defense

by Karen Rock

  With her first opilio run a total bust, she had to hit a proverbial jackpot on this next string.

  Where were those crab?

  She opened the porthole beside her built-in bed and breathed the chilly, fresh air. Her stiff body relaxed. The ship dipped and rose gently in the sea. Engines drummed steadily underneath her berth, vibrating through her, chugging and groaning with effort.

  At a knock on her door, she froze. The ship seemed to be running smoothly. She’d already dealt with her crew crisis. So now what?

  She scrambled to her feet. “Who is it?” she called through the door.

  “Dylan.”

  Her heart hammered as if clamoring to be heard. “Oh. I’m—uh—sleeping.”

  A pause. Then a low chuckle drifted through the panel. It moved through her body, melting her insides. “So that makes me a dream?”

  The corners of her mouth lifted. Oh, yes. A very naughty one if it were true... She’d had quite a few lately that’d begun exactly like this, starring PO1 Dylan Holt.

  “What’s up?” she squeaked, then cleared her throat. Tried again. “What can I do for you?” There. Less pirate wench. More captain of the Bering Sea.

  “We need to talk.”

  She looked around her small stateroom. The V-shaped bed dominated the space that held only crammed shelves and a narrow bureau. A small door led to her private bathroom and shower. Much, much too intimate.

  “Isn’t that something only women say?” she tried to joke, her voice catching, running out of air.

  “I’m in touch with my feminine side,” he protested in a very deep, very manly growl.

  She laughed. “Yeah. Right. Listen. How about in the morning? We can—”

  “I want to say I’m sorry, Nolee.”

  Whoa. Not what she expected at all. Faintness stole over her, and suddenly she couldn’t feel her feet.

  She yanked open the door before she could weigh the action. Dylan leaned against the jamb, filling the doorframe. His evergreen eyes burned dark in the dim light.

  Her throat swelled. Desire pulsed between her thighs as his gaze dropped to her feet then slid upward. The slow, sexy perusal made her acutely aware that she wore only a wash-shrunken tank top and boy shorts. Her toes curled. The front of her shirt peaked over her beading nipples.

  And the sight of him.

  He was magnificent.

  His bronze shoulders and defined abs, the ridges visible through the tight, thin material of his white tank, could have leaped off an action film screen. Or a televised MMA fight. No wonder he had won medals, saved countless lives. With a physique like that, he looked invincible. Powerful. A force unto himself.

  Her body buzzed with hunger.

  She needed to shut the door on him.

  Fast.

  He leaned close and shook her determination to smithereens.

  “What did you say?” she found herself asking, her fuzzy head struggling to make sense of his words with her senses overwhelmed and bombarded.

  Where were his recriminations? His I-told-you-so’s?

  And what was he apologizing for?

  Dylan angled his head. “I’d rather speak in private.”

  She followed his over-the-shoulder glance and spotted the back of Stu’s head above the captain’s chair twenty feet away. He wore large headphones and nodded along to whatever music was streaming through them, his glance fixed on the wheelhouse’s controls. Since the stairs from the galley opened behind him, he probably hadn’t spied Dylan.

  Yet.

  But that could change in an instant. Nerves strung tight with anticipation, Nolee dragged Dylan inside and he followed, too close. Too large. Heat radiated off his powerful body. She needed to establish who was in charge here. This was her ship. Her space. Her body and heart. Not his.

  She reached around him to pull the latch shut and came into contact with hard male chest.

  “Where should I sit?” That husky rumble in her ear made her think about kissing him...in a thousand places besides his lips.

  The angled walls seemed to close around them. She cleared her throat and breathed in a steadying gulp of air. Too bad his scent filtered through, seducing her senses.

  Clean. Like soap rather than cologne. And sea-salty. His warm skin had tasted like the ocean. The Alaskan outdoors. A wild thrill skipped through her.

  She was trapped in the smallest space imaginable with the sexiest man alive. Being with Dylan Holt in this berth was a fantasy come true, she had to admit. Despite every last one of her reservations, her body responded to his proximity.

  “Take a seat.” She nodded to her bed.

  Dylan sank to the edge and leaned back to rest his weight on his elbows, endless legs sprawled in front of him, looking dangerous and sexy as hell. His white muscle tank rode up over a mouthwatering slab of abs that made her fingers itch to trace every dip and ridge of his stomach, follow that soft trail of hair that disappeared below the waistband of his pants.

  She stood very still, as if somehow she could turn herself to stone and not feel every sizzling cell in her overheated body.

  Dylan beckoned. “Join me?”

  To mask her inner struggle, she backed away and created a breath of distance between them. “I’m fine.”

  After a brief moment of silence, he said, “I’m sorry about what happened with the whole Craig misunderstanding.”

  Confusion pulled her eyebrows together. She stared down at him. Puzzled. “You didn’t cause it.”

  “Didn’t I?”

  She opened her mouth but gulped back her words as he shook his head.

  “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions,” he continued, his guarded expression giving way to heartbreaking vulnerability. “Blamed you. You were my best friend. My first love. I let my hang-ups get in the way.”

  She melted at his words. He’d been her first love, too.

  Turning, she sank down to the edge of the mattress beside him. Goose bumps rose across her skin at the feel of his firm arms brushing against hers.

  “Which hang-ups?” She tried joking to ease the building tension. “Making hasty judgments? Always assuming the worst? Vanishing when someone hurts you?” She peered at him from beneath a raised brow and shrugged. “You have a bunch.”

  He rolled his eyes at her. “I’ll take that.” A growing arctic wind tossed the sea, spraying the porthole window and making Nolee shiver. She reached over Dylan to close it, then tipped sideways when the ship jogged. Desire kicked through her as his hands settled briefly on her waist, steadying her.

  When she repositioned herself, he twisted around to face her. “I lumped you in with my family. Thought I wasn’t good enough for you, either. I could never understand what you saw in me.” She watched, mesmerized, as he slid his fingers into her hair and sank his eyes into hers. Immobility weighed her limbs, holding her in place.

  “Everything. I saw everything in you, Dylan,” she breathed, then melted against his chest.

  His deliciously near-naked chest.

  She knew she shouldn’t be responding to those sexy pecs, or other appealing parts of Dylan. But as her heart jumped in her chest with their nearness, Nolee relished the adrenaline rush of their encounter. His muscular arms closed carefully around her. His heart thudded beneath her ear.

  “I left without saying goodbye and put distance between me and the person I thought had hurt me. I made a snap judgment. It was wrong.”

  Sexual tension hummed between their bodies. Vibrated.

  “So was I.”

  He tipped her head up so that their eyes met. He stared at her for several seconds before placing his bristled cheek next to her smooth one, so close that his lips caressed her ear as he spoke. His breath, warm and moist, rushed over her sensitive skin. “Why didn’t you tell
me the truth?”

  “I didn’t want you to miss the chance to get what you’d always wanted.”

  If he’d stayed, he would have been miserable and left her just the same, eventually. She hadn’t wanted to be like her mother, abandoned and heartbroken. Yet, looking back, she’d ended up that way, regardless.

  He pulled back, averted his head and briefly closed his eyes. He looked like he might be sick. “What I wanted most was you,” he rasped, his voice full of gravel, painful sharp stones.

  They stared at each other wordlessly for a charged, tortured minute. Her heart leaked—no, hemorrhaged—in her chest. She blinked away the stinging rush in her eyes. He didn’t mean that. Couldn’t...

  “Not the Coast Guard?”

  He blew out a long breath, closed his eyes and shook his head. “No. I don’t know. I guess we never will. Can’t turn back time.”

  With a feeling in her stomach as if someone had tied a rock to it and thrown it overboard, she raced ahead, giving voice to her tumbling thoughts. “We each got the future we wanted. I’m captain of my own ship. You’re traveling the world saving lives. Not stuck in Kodiak.”

  His thumb traced a slow trail over her cheek. Those glittering emerald eyes searched hers. They made her feel warm and liquid-filled, as though all her tension had been a solid thing and now was not.

  “We’re older now,” she whispered.

  “Wiser,” he agreed. One eyebrow rose. His hands settled on the outside of her knees and skimmed their way up her thighs, pausing on her hips.

  Her chest expanded on a deep inhalation of breath. She held it for a second before finally letting it all go in a slow, smooth stream of air. “We won’t make the same mistakes we made before.”

  His fingers tightened on her hips. “No. We won’t.”

  “We can do things differently.” Her senses swam.

  “So you’re saying...”

  The force of her need for him shook the fingers she slid up his biceps. What would it feel like to have this officer obey her every wicked whim? If she was in charge, surely she wouldn’t be as vulnerable, in danger of giving him everything, including her heart.

  “I can’t fight this, Dylan.” The fire he’d ignited inside her three weeks ago, the one that continued to smolder, could no longer be contained. The sensual flames licking over her flesh confirmed her assessment. “If we keep things physical-only, we can indulge a little while you’re here.” Her eyes dipped to his hard, handsome mouth. “We shouldn’t waste the time we have left together.”

  “I like the sound of that.” In one effortless move, he scooped her up and settled her in his lap. As she tilted her gaze up to his, she found him already staring down at her, his eyes searing into hers in the low light the full moon cast inside the room.

  A small sound, something like a whimpering gasp, escaped her. He cupped a hand around the back of her head and drew her mouth to his before she could catch her breath. His tongue stroked over hers with slow, possessive thoroughness. What little air she had left in her lungs, he stole with his kiss, as if absorbing her into him.

  She threaded her fingers through his short curls, wanting to feel him, needing to hang on for dear life as the boat churned on into the dark night.

  Her dreams of him had never been this good.

  She slid her palms lower to the corded muscle in his neck, the sexy ripple of his shoulders. His hands skimmed down her sides, sealing her to him with deft pressure. Her breast to his rock-hard chest, her belly to taut abs, her hips to the steely length of what she needed most.

  “I want you, Nolee,” he murmured against her neck between kisses. A shiver tore through her.

  If she’d managed to keep Dylan at arm’s length while on the trip, she might have been able to fight her own hunger. Could even have escaped this encounter if he hadn’t opened himself up so completely to her. He’d laid himself bare and, in the process, laid her bare, too.

  How could she not give in to each and every craving for him then and there? Indulge in her red-hot hunger for the rescue swimmer who could be on the next stateside flight and out of her life if she didn’t grab her chance with him now?

  Another time, she would figure out how to deal with a strictly physical relationship while they were on the boat. Later, after she’d had one more taste of Dylan’s kisses, one more encounter with those expert fingers of his. As long as she kept her heart out of the equation, she could have this time with him and get him out of her system.

  She’d worked so hard and played so little the last few months. Surely she deserved this small window of time to simply have fun.

  Now or never.

  She hadn’t gotten to be captain of her own ship by questioning herself, by not taking chances.

  She swung her leg over his and straddled his thighs. “I might have a few more tasks for you to complete, sailor,” she murmured against his mouth. She felt the swell of his groin press hard against her buttocks.

  His eyes gleamed and he raised his mouth so that his lips brushed hers. “I’m at your command.”

  * * *

  DYLAN WRAPPED HIS fingers around the delicate curve of Nolee’s neck and cradled the back of her head while her dark, fragrant hair spilled over his arm.

  Sinking into the kiss, his eyes slid closed, too, his senses bombarded on every level. He needed to take his time. Concentrate. Appreciate every moment she allowed him to hold her this way.

  And damn, was he appreciative.

  He smoothed his hands down her tank top, then pulled it over her head and off. Coaxed by the thought of finally seeing Nolee’s bare skin, he pried his eyes back open.

  She stared down at him, naked except for black panties that shielded her sex. Her breasts swayed free, her curves supple and pale in the dim light of the stateroom. She looked like a damn fantasy.

  Only he could reach out and touch. Taste. Explore even more.

  His head was on fire with all the ways he wanted her. Banding his arms around her, he dragged her closer to kiss her harder, feel her. The lush press of her breasts against his chest, the warmth of her sex rubbing over his straining erection robbed him of air.

  He broke the kiss to meet her gaze and she forced her eyes open with an effort, her long lashes fanning her cheeks. Air heaved in and out of his lungs, his chest rising and falling with the powerful effect of kissing her. Her mouth was swollen from his attention, her soft lips damp.

  “Nolee,” he breathed her name over her mouth, at a total loss for how to go slow with her. “You’re driving me crazy.”

  “You’re making me insane, too.” She pressed her breasts to his chest, and the warm silk of her skin fried his brain cells, robbing him of any thought save having her.

  All of her.

  Sensation sent him careening headlong into a kind of sexual semiconsciousness, a realm where it was easy to forget everything else. At least until tomorrow.

  He’d figure out a way to keep things simple later. For right now, he planned to give this woman everything in the world she wanted. Everything she deserved.

  He lifted his face toward her breasts, gliding his lips across each curve with his tongue. She halted him with a hand on each cheek before he could reach the nipple and he straightened. Confused.

  “Don’t move.” She used her fingernails to scrape down the front of his chest. It felt as if sparks flew from her touch, painting a trail of fire toward his—

  She stopped too soon, teasing him with her exploring fingers a few inches above his waist.

  He propped an eye open he hadn’t realized he’d closed again, gulped for a breath of air and tried not to touch her. She needed, wanted to be in control this time and he could respect that.

  He just didn’t know if he’d survive it, or be able to scavenge any last bit of restraint. Sweat beaded his forehead and ba
ck.

  She ground against his hardness before walking her fingers up his chest again.

  Tension locked up every last inch of him. Maybe even a couple of extra inches, judging by the way his erection strained against her. “Honey, I don’t know how much torment I can take. I’ve been thinking about you all week.”

  A wicked gleam lit her eyes. “Consider this an atonement for past sins. And some new ones I just might have in mind...”

  He groaned at the thought of erotic anguish at Captain Nolee Arnauyq’s hands. Not exactly a prison sentence, but another kind of torture. He promised himself he would let her have her way. He just needed one more touch of her first.

  He clamped his hands on her hips and began to rock her, needing to feel the soft friction of her against his aching hardness. He slid her hips back and forth in a slow ride over his thighs. A torch lit up his insides, fanning a flame to billowing proportions.

  Immediately he knew the movement had been as much a mistake as a relief, because he only wanted her more, sooner.

  Now.

  “You’ve seen plenty of me,” she said, gasping as he slid his finger inside the waistband of her panties and traced her anchor tattoo. “It’s time you revealed a thing or two, officer. And I want the narrated version. Show and tell.”

  “You’re turning into a force to be reckoned with, Captain,” he growled.

  A wicked smile played on her flushed face. “Let’s start with the shirt, please.”

  He deposited her gently on the bunk then bolted to his feet. His balance tipped slightly with the heaving boat.

  “Slowly,” she purred once she’d stretched herself out along the berth, crossing her legs and resting her head in her hands, her brow knitting in mock concentration. “Did you ever see Magic Mike? Well. I loved that movie, and you’re hotter than any of those guys. I want my own private show.”

  He nearly groaned out loud. The memory of every erotic combustible thing she’d ever let him do to her returned in a scorching rush.

  “Are you sure? I’m going to make you want me pretty badly,” he warned.

  “Let’s see what you’ve got.” She shot him a knowing look.