He reluctantly extricated himself from her then added leaves, sticks and more of the logs they’d gathered from the forest to the giant sign. When he relit the fire, he glanced over at Diana, hoping he hadn’t woken her.
Her lashes fluttered as the flames grew brighter. She patted the vacant spot where he’d been and something inside him squeezed.
She opened her eyes and searched for him a few seconds before her gaze landed on him. A big, lazy smile lit up her face as she stretched out, nude and lovely. “Everything okay?”
Instead of answering, he returned to her side, pulled her to him and kissed the top of her head. “Last night was…I don’t even have words.”
“Yeah, for me too.”
He shifted beside her so he could look into her eyes. “You remember when we went out in New York? How come we didn’t take it further than a kiss?”
She crinkled her brow and started to say something but she stopped herself.
“What?”
“There were so many reasons not to go on with that.”
When she didn’t elaborate, he prodded her. “Come on, you can tell me now.”
The tension in her expression remained. “I’m no good at dating, never have been. And we pitched against each other too often. I didn’t think it would be wise.”
He searched those brown eyes for answers. “We had incredible chemistry. It was obvious in that one kiss. You must have noticed too.”
She nodded but wouldn’t bring her eyes up to his. “I don’t do relationships. My dad was abusive to my mother. My sisters and I witnessed him hitting her. I don’t ever want to be a part of anything like that.”
Well, at least it explained her hesitance. “I’m sorry, Diana. That must have been awful.”
She shrugged. “Pretty much. What about you? You never called after that night. I assumed you weren’t interested.”
Needles prickled his gut. “Yeah, sorry about that. I guess I had my own issues.” He thought about Adrienne, all the bullshit games they’d played after the divorce.
“Like?”
“I think I was still recovering from a bad marriage.” He tried for a smile. “Would you think less of me if I admitted I was scared? I must have picked up on something that told me you were way more than a casual date.”
She rubbed his arm.
“My ex-wife didn’t get that the job usually took precedence over everything else. She got mad when I worked nights and weekends.”
She nodded. “That’s just the way the ad game works. I let my job take over my life. My friends finally gave up on me and even my family started to wonder what I looked like. Pathetic, but true.” She sighed. “I wish now I’d have done things differently, but I wonder if I’ll really change when I get home.”
Diana understood as no one had before because she was exactly the same as he when it came to work. But work was the last thing on his mind now. He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “I want to make love to you again.”
She backed away, only a little, but enough that he was sure. “No, I can’t.”
He sat up. “What is it?”
“Whatever this is between us, it feels like it’s more than physical but it’s not, Chase. It’s only our circumstances making it feel like more than…scratching an itch.”
“Ouch.” He could see her withdrawing but he wouldn’t let her pull back again. It was only her fear talking. Something tickled the skin on his neck so he brushed his hand over the spot. He understood her fragility and her fear but he desperately wanted her to get past it. “It’s just us here. There’s no job, no boss, no accounts.”
Instead of his words reassuring her, they seemed to incite panic. Her eyes grew big as coasters. “S-scorpion!” She jabbed a finger toward his shoulder.
Heart beating double-time, he held perfectly still and tried to see where she was pointing. When he found the tiny creature, he flicked it off him then grabbed a coconut from the remnants of their dinner. He smashed the nasty thing as it crawled toward him.
Diana shuddered. “God, it could have killed you.”
He waved away her concern. “Most of them aren’t that dangerous.” But he wondered. No sense in frightening her more than she already was. “Would you feel better if we spent the rest of the night in the shelter?” He tipped his chin toward the flimsy three-sided structure that realistically wouldn’t protect them from anything except the sun.
When she nodded, he plucked her clothes off the beach then offered her a hand up. “Come on.”
Standing, she took her things and held them against her body, covering herself. She beat him to the shelter and started pulling on her skirt.
He touched her arm. “I’m not asking for anything but a chance.”
Lit only by the dim light of the fire, her expression softened. The corners of her lips lifted in a half smile and the lines etched around her eyes smoothed out. She stopped dressing.
When he opened his arms to her, thankfully, she stepped into his embrace. “Sleepy?” he asked, praying her answer would be no.
She met his stare and shook her head. Need stormed through him. They knelt together, kissing all the way. The sex had taken on an almost frantic pace hours earlier and although he was just as aroused, he wanted to take the time to really make love to her the way she deserved.
She held his face in her hands and kissed him as if he was a soldier leaving for war.
He took her wrists and broke the lip-lock. “Slow down, baby. We have all the time in the world.” He eased her back onto the denim-covered pillow he’d pilfered from the tree house. Leaning on one elbow, he stretched out alongside her and skimmed the smooth skin on her neck then followed the path with his tongue.
She plowed her fingers into his hair, attempting to direct his movements but he wouldn’t let her. He backed away and looked deep into her eyes. Although the fire had died down some and it had grown darker inside the shelter, the confusion was plain in her narrowed gaze.
“Let me make you feel good, okay?” When she started to protest, he pressed a finger to her lips. “Sh. Just enjoy.”
All the fight left her eyes and she gave him an uncharacteristically shy nod. Getting her to give up control was akin to winning a battle and he planned to make sure she had a good time. Good enough so she’d start to trust him.
“How about a backrub, to relax you.” He made a circle with his index finger to tell her to roll onto her stomach.
“Really?” She turned over and stretched her arms over her head.
He climbed onto the backs of her thighs and started massaging. Didn’t take but a few seconds before she started moaning. “Tell me what you like,” he prompted.
“I like this.”
He kneaded the lean contours of her upper back, her shoulders and neck. “What else? I’m sure you have some fantasies.”
When she didn’t answer, he bent down to kiss her nape. “Come on, Diana. There must be something.”
She remained mute so he nibbled on the soft skin of her shoulder. “If you don’t tell me I’m going to assume the worst.”
She whipped her head around to look at him. “Like what?”
He shrugged. “Maybe you’re too embarrassed to say that you have a thing for midgets. Oh, I guess the PC term is little people, right?”
She rolled her eyes then lay her head back down. “Yeah, sure.”
He blazed a trail of kisses down the middle of her back, stopping just above the swell of her gorgeous ass. “Tell me what you’ve always wanted to do but never had the nerve.”
She grumbled something unintelligible.
“What was that?”
“I have no fantasies,” she said against the pillow.
“Playing hardball, hmm?” He gave her ass a quick slap.
“Hey!” She tried to wriggle out from under him but he had her pinned. “Why’d you do that?”
He grinned. “If you refuse to share your fantasy, you force me to try out all the more common ones until we hit on
one you like. I’ve met women who enjoy a little spanking every now and then.”
She squirmed some more. “Well I’m not one of them.”
“Okay. How about this?” He placed his cock atop the crack of her backside then pivoted back and forth. “Are you a secret fan of anal sex?”
“God no. Don’t you dare.”
He rubbed the small of her back, trying to come up with more ideas. Spotting his belt in the corner of the shelter, he reached over to grab it.
Diana gasped. “I don’t want to be whipped either.”
“I hadn’t thought of that, thanks.” He climbed off her and crawled toward her head.
“Then what are you—”
But by the time she’d realized his intention, he already had her hands in his grasp. He fastened the belt around her wrists then rolled her onto her back. When she didn’t make much of a fuss, he knew he’d found her out. The woman so bent on controlling everything wanted to surrender her power in the sack.
Using her discarded bra, he made her a blindfold and tied it over her eyes. He grinned down at her, wondering where to begin to make her secret fantasy come true.
Diana could barely suck in a breath for erotic energy coursing through her. Her heart raced and the frenetic pounding seemed to pulse at her very core. The controlled side of her had screamed for her to deny her fantasy when Chase had hit on it, but her curious, adventurous side won out.
He crushed his mouth to hers, kissing her deeply, thoroughly, and she knew this was going to be an experience to remember. She couldn’t help sighing as he cupped her breast then tugged on the needy peak.
She struggled against her bindings but knew if she really wanted to, she could get loose. But that was the last thing she planned to do.
He nibbled at her neck and her earlobe. “How do you like being completely at my mercy?”
She pulled her lower lip between her teeth to keep from moaning out loud, but she couldn’t stop those pesky quivers.
“That much, huh?” His naughty laugh vibrated through her, heightening her anticipation. He smoothed a hand over her midriff, moved it lower, a fraction of an inch at a time. Before he reached her mound, he stopped and held perfectly still. “Tell me what you want.”
Words stuck in her throat. She’d never voiced her most intimate requests, but then, she’d never had a lover ask her, or seem to care what she wanted.
“Tell me, Diana, before I have to spank it out of you.” He grazed his teeth over her nipple for a too-brief moment. “Say it.”
Need quickened her blood. “I-I want you to touch me.”
“Where?” His breath fanned over her chest, raising goose bumps.
“Everywhere. I want your tongue and your fingers and your cock inside me.” She could practically feel him smiling.
“Good girl.” He rewarded her by giving her peaked point a long, hard suckle. Pleasure shot through her and only grew more intense as he slid a finger over her sex, back and forth.
Just as her delight rose toward its climax, he withdrew his touch.
“No.” She wriggled, lifted her hips to woo him back but he refused to comply. “Chase, damn it, quit it.”
“Quit it?”
Irritation prickled her skin. “No, you know what I mean. Don’t stop what you were—”
He stilled her with a kiss her before she could finish. “You’re not in control anymore, baby. That’s all part of the whole bondage thing.”
She started to argue but he began rubbing between her thighs, so she kept mum.
He rolled her nub between his fingers, circling her engorged clit as if he were privy to every nuance in her pleasure center. Her need crested higher and higher until she was right at the precipice of joy.
“Oh God, don’t stop.”
He didn’t. He let her orgasm like a pyrotechnics factory on fire. Explosions of bliss shot off one after another and another. She twisted and writhed and moaned, letting loose everything she had. The joyful waves seem to go on and on, but finally, they subsided, leaving her spent and satisfied, wearing nothing but her biggest grin.
“Oh my God, Chase. That was…I don’t even have the words.”
“Speechless? You?” He kissed her belly, tickling her skin with his tongue.
“Are you going to untie me and take off this blindfold now?”
He laughed. “Not on your life.”
She pretended to struggle until something soft and light whispered over her skin. Holding perfectly still, she concentrated on the sensation. Chase drew whatever the thing was over her erect nipples, down her belly and between her legs.
Her sex twitched at the barely there tease. “What is that?”
He didn’t respond but moments later, he skimmed it up her body and drew it underneath her nostrils. She smelled something floral mixed with the scent of her arousal. “A flower.”
“Mm hmm. Very good.” He continued teasing her with it, circling her nipples with a touch so light it shifted between pleasure and torturous teasing. Then he spread her legs wide and drew it back and forth over her slit, barely grazing her.
She wondered why he was doing it, but after a few minutes, a heavy, demanding pulse settled at the juncture of her thighs. Lifting her hips toward him, she silently beseeched him for more.
“Am I making you crazy?”
She nodded.
“Good.” He resumed his tantalizing play.
She whimpered with helpless need, begging him for more. He toyed with her awhile longer, dragging the flower—and a few times his fingers—over her drenched furls, making her crazy with need.
Finally, she felt his moist breath warm her entrance. She offered up a silent thank you as he touched the tip of his tongue to her clit. God, she was so close, so beyond turned-on that she nearly detonated right then.
Rocking her hips to dissipate the heat, she clenched her fists, hoping he’d hurry before she spontaneously combusted.
Chase spread her intimate lips, blew on her exposed folds. Then he licked her, long, devouring strokes that dipped inside her for brief seconds at a time. He rubbed her cleft and he used his mouth to do unspeakably erotic things to her, things she’d never dared imagine.
Tormented by delight, she teetered on the brink for a long, heavenly minute before falling into the depths of hot oblivion. Ecstasy dragged her under and took her for the ride of her life.
She was still reeling from the power of her orgasm when Chase pushed her legs apart and eased himself inside her. Her intimate muscles stretched to their limit to accommodate him, inch by delicious inch.
A plaintive moan broke from her lips. “Oh Chase.”
His restraint was plain in his strangled gasps, his broken breaths. He moved above her, sliding his sweat-slick body along hers, slow and sure.
She lifted her hips, meeting him stroke for stroke, matching his rhythm in a primitive dance. He shifted positions and grasped her ankles, holding her legs together at his shoulder. The change drove her closer to the edge. She slipped her wrists out of the belt then tore the blindfold from her eyes. The sun was coming up and it took her a moment to adjust to the light.
Chase’s expression was a study in concentration and sheer bliss.
“I want to see you when you come,” she told him.
He smiled then pulled out of her, but not for long. He kneeled on the ground, sat back on his haunches and helped her climb onto his lap facing him. She took him inside her, rocking up and down.
Another orgasm stormed through her, not as earth-shattering as the last, but powerful all the same in a different, more intimate way.
Chase helped her climb off him and he started stroking himself as he stared deep into her eyes. She covered his fist with hers and joined in his quest. He shut his eyes, gasped then detonated in their mutual grip.
She’d never acted so forward, so completely wantonly and it felt great.
Chase grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her possessively to him for a scorching kiss. When they finally dre
w apart, his eyes were wide and his grin infectious. “Wow!”
“Same here.” They curled up together on the ground. She closed her eyes and let herself drift to a peaceful rest.
She woke to bright shards of sunlight streaming through the holes in the roof of the shelter. Her heart drummed so hard it sounded like an engine. Only it grew louder. She sat up and prodded Chase, afraid she was dreaming.
He opened his eyes and bolted up at the engine noise. “Oh God, we’ve been rescued!”
But what if that wasn’t the case? “Unless that’s the kidnappers, back to finish us off.”
Chapter Seven
Chase yanked on his shorts at lightning speed then moved the open side of the shelter to glimpse the shore. Three men were inside the motorboat as it stopped twenty or so yards from shore. A yacht sat anchored in the harbor.
“It’s not the kidnappers. Thank God.” But his relief at being rescued was tempered by unexpected regret. He and Diana were just getting to know each other in so many ways. He hated the intrusion of real life and wondered how it would change things between them.
“First thing I’m going to do is call my family.” Diana was dressing and straightening her tousled hair.
He was being ridiculous. They could hardly live on a deserted island for any length of time. He waved at the men as two of them climbed into the shallow water and started toward the beach. “Hello.”
“Greetings from Sheik el-Tayid.” The curly haired man waved back. “We rescue you.” Then he said something to the other man in their language.
Diana raced past Chase and ran toward the rescue party. “Thank you so much.” Her voice broke on the last word. She let the men help her into the skiff.
Chase followed and minutes later they boarded the sheik’s yacht bound for his private island.
“How did you find us?” Diana asked the only crew member who spoke any English.
“Your sign of fire,” he replied. “We search with airplane.” He gestured toward the sky.
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