by Heidi Rice
Her pulse sped up to thud against her neck, and the spot between her thighs melted. ‘I didn’t come back to Bermuda to hit on you again,’ she said, trying hard to sound as if she meant it. Sleeping with him would only distract her from the real reason she was here.
He clasped the rail on either side of her hips, boxing her in.
‘Then how about I hit on you?’
She gasped as he pressed warm, firm lips to her neck. Lust shot through her like a jolt of electricity—connecting the soft tissue under her chin to the bundle of nerves that lay dormant in her sex.
Except, it wasn’t dormant any more.
The sensations spread like molten lava, incinerating everything they touched as he explored her mouth in bold, determined strokes.
She sucked on his tongue, savouring the tangy flavour of him, the groan of desperation. Her fingers flexed against the lean muscles of his abdomen as roughened palms stroked under her blouse. His fingers wrapped around her waist to yank her closer. She shuddered, her sensitive, pregnancy-engorged breasts pressed against the hard wall of his chest.
Sure fingers cupped her breast, then tugged at one hard peak and hot need arrowed down to her sex, the desire erupting like a volcano.
‘Wait, Coop.’ She wrenched herself free. ‘Please, stop a moment. I need...’ She sucked in a breath, her lungs on fire, alongside the rest of her. ‘I didn’t come for this.’
Did she?
But as his heavy-lidded gaze met hers the heady rush that had been lapping at her senses ever since the car had pulled up to the house surged.
‘So what?’ He clasped her hand, and headed for the staircase.
He took the stairs two at a time. She could have resisted, could have told him no, but instead she found her feet racing to keep up with him.
He led her into a wide room on the first floor, with a huge four-poster bed draped with gauzy white curtains, and double doors that opened out onto a veranda.
He tugged her into his arms. ‘I want you,’ he murmured, his voice so low she almost couldn’t hear it above the distant sound of the ocean, and the pounding in her eardrums. ‘You want me.’ His gaze dropped to her midriff. ‘We’ve made a kid together. Why shouldn’t we do this?’
She couldn’t find a coherent response as the desperate desire to be touched, to be taken in that wild way only he seemed capable of, consumed her.
He jerked off his T-shirt, kicked off his jeans, and then wrestled off her clothes before lifting her, naked and yearning, onto the bed.
Her hands splayed across his wide chest, sank into the blond curls of hair across his nipples. She had to slow him down. Get her mind to engage.
Ruby had warned her not to get distracted, not to fall straight into bed with him. And here she was, less than an hour off the plane and already naked and willing.
‘Shouldn’t we think about this?’ She struggled to hold him back, but the question broke on a soft sob as he cupped her mound. Blunt fingers probed the slick flesh, gliding over the perfect spot.
She bucked, cried out, pleasure radiating across her skin.
The light in his eyes became feral in its intensity. ‘You’re soaking wet, Ella. What’s there to think about?’
Her breath rasped out as he stroked her into a frenzy, caressing the burning nub. Then rolled her over onto her stomach. Raising her hips, he positioned her on all fours, the thick erection nudging her entrance.
‘I’ll be gentle.’ He lifted her hair off her neck, cradled her body with his to nip her shoulder. ‘I promise.’ Her heavy breasts swayed and he captured them, holding her steady. ‘Now tell me you don’t want this as much as I do?’
‘You know I do.’ She moaned, stretched unbearably, as he plunged. Her pulse thundered like an express train in her ears.
Need and desperation pummelled her. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, the coil yanking tight inside her as he began to move. Pulling out, thrusting back, going impossibly deep, the rhythm torturously slow but steady, relentless, stealing her breath. Her hands fisted in the bedclothes, her body battered by the building waves of pleasure. Sure fingers squeezed her nipples, then he reached down, to open her folds and touch the too-sensitive nub of her clitoris.
Pain and pleasure combined as he shot her to peak. The titanic wave crashed over her as his rhythm built and accelerated. She heard him shout, getting even bigger inside her, before the hot seed pumped into her. He let her go at last and she collapsed onto the bed, her body shaky, her mind dazed, her heart pounding against her ribs with the force and fury of a wrecking ball.
She rolled away from him, feeling stupidly fragile. ‘You didn’t use any protection,’ she murmured.
‘Not much point now. That horse has already bolted.’ He whispered the words against her ear as his forearm wrapped around her waist and his body cradled her. ‘You okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I? I was trying to be gentle but I got kind of carried away towards the end.’
She shook her head, struggling to talk round what felt like a wad of cotton wool in her throat. ‘No. It felt good.’ And scarily intense.
One large hand cupped her breast, his thumb grazing the sensitive nipple. She flinched, the stiff peak too tender for attention.
‘I’m sorry.’ His thumbs drew back, to trace slow circles around the areola, avoiding the tip. ‘The plan wasn’t to jump you straight off. But I’ve missed you.’
‘The plan...’ She lurched onto her back, dislodging his hand. ‘You planned this?’
‘Yeah. I guess so.’ He propped himself up on an elbow to look down at her, his gaze roaming over her face. ‘Why? Is that a problem?’
‘I don’t know.’ She tried to gather her thoughts and make sense of them, while the rush of afterglow still pumped through her system. ‘I just thought...’
‘What? That this wouldn’t happen?’ He brushed his fingers across her forehead, tucked the tendrils of hair that had escaped her updo behind her ear. ‘Honey, I figure whenever we’re on the same continent it’s sort of inevitable. So why fight it?’
It wasn’t the answer she had been looking for, the one she thought she should have wanted. But as soon as he said it she knew it was the truth.
‘Yes, but...’ She stared at him. ‘That really isn’t the reason I came here.’
‘So why did you come?’
With her sex still aching from the intensity of their lovemaking, her breasts tender from the pinch of his fingers, and emotion coursing through her system, the answer didn’t come as easily as it had when she had been lying in that fold-down bed across the Atlantic.
‘To get to know you,’ she murmured. ‘To find out if you want to be a dad. How involved you want to be. I don’t want sex to complicate that.’
‘To complicate it?’ He chuckled. ‘The way I see it, sex is pretty much the only simple thing there is about all this. And we’re good at it.’ He shrugged, his gaze flicking to her midriff. ‘We’re going to have to work on the other stuff, because I don’t have any easy answers for you there.’
For a moment he looked lost, and the lump of emotion became impossible to swallow down. Was she pushing him too hard, expecting too much, by being here?
‘You don’t know how you feel about the baby?’ she asked, feeling foolish and a little ashamed of her naivety. Why had she been so quick to assume his decision to invite her here meant he must already have feelings for the baby? He’d been thrown into this situation against his will. Of course he’d be confused, maybe even a little resentful.
‘Not really.’ He flopped back on the bed, stared at the canopy above their heads. ‘All I know is I don’t want to mess up, like my old man did.’
She turned to him, ready to probe a little. ‘How did your father mess up?’
His gaze locked with hers and for a moment she thought she saw something, but then
it flicked away again. ‘By not being there, I guess. I never met him. It was just my mom and me.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Her heart sank at the defensive ‘don’t go there’ tone. And the news that he had been abandoned as a child by his own father. No wonder he’d reacted so violently to the news of her pregnancy. Had the horror she’d thought she’d seen been nothing more than blind panic?
She touched his forearm. ‘You’re not like that. If that’s what you’re worried about? Because you’re already trying to do the right thing.’
He looked at where her fingers touched his arm, then up at her face, his expression blank now and unreadable. ‘You always this much of an optimist?’
His tone was flat, but she refused to let it bother her.
‘I try to be,’ she said, smiling. ‘I don’t consider that a bad thing.’
She wanted this child; he was still coming to terms with the fact of it. She had to remember that. Give him time. And space. And not give up hope. His cynicism made complete sense, now she’d had that brief glimpse into his childhood.
‘So, what was your mother like?’ she asked.
He shook his head, smiling back at her. ‘Forget it, Little Miss Sunshine. How about you tell me something about your folks, first? I don’t see why I have to do all the talking.’
He’d hardly told her anything, she thought, but she didn’t call him on it. Surely telling him more about herself could only increase the intimacy between them, and make it easier for him to open up too?
‘Okay, well...’ She paused, his question triggering memories of a time in her life that she barely remembered now, but had been so painful once. ‘Funnily enough, I think it was watching my parents and seeing what they went through that made me an optimist.’
‘How come?’
‘Because they had an incredibly acrimonious divorce when I was eight.’
His eyebrows shot up. ‘And that made you an optimist?’
‘Well, yes. Because it taught me how important second chances are,’ she continued, choosing to ignore the sceptical expression. ‘They’d tried to stay together for me and my brother and it had been a disaster. Children always see more than you think.’ She sighed, remembering the whisper arguments, the bitter silences, the terror and confusion when she and her brother had been told Daddy would be moving out. ‘I missed my dad terribly and it was awful to see my mum so sad and angry all the time. But then, eventually, they both found the people they were meant to be with. And I ended up with a stepmum who makes to-die-for chocolate cake and a stepdad who drove me and Ruby to cookery fairs without complaint. It totally transformed them both, made them much better people and much better parents. Because they were finally happy.’
He rolled onto his side, and suddenly she became aware of his nakedness, and hers, and the low-level hum of arousal that always seemed to be there. He placed a warm palm on her hip, slid it up to cup her breast. ‘That’s sweet,’ he said, the comment only mildly condescending. Then he ducked his head, to lick a pouting nipple. ‘But not as sweet as you are. You know, your breasts look incredible. Have they got bigger?’
Right, it seemed their deep and meaningful conversation appeared to be over. She knew a distraction technique when she heard one—and felt it hardening against her hip.
‘Yes, they have...’
He leant down and sucked at the tip of her breast, gently, provocatively.
‘The obstetrician says it’s to do with the pregnancy hormones,’ she continued, trying to focus despite the glorious feel of her nipple swelling against his tongue. ‘They’re much more sensitive too.’
He grinned up at her. ‘Awesome.’
Wrapping his lips around the stiffened peak, he drew it against the roof of his mouth. Her fingers plunged into his hair as she held his head and gasped, the pleasure almost too intense to bear now. ‘Oh, God...’
His growing erection nudged her belly, and she reached to stroke the shaft instinctively. But as she brushed her thumb across the bead of liquid at the head, rejoicing at his growl of need, her stomach rumbled loudly.
‘Enough.’ He gave a strained laugh, carefully dislodging her hand. Then kissed her fingers, his smile mocking. ‘I guess I’m going to have to offer you food. I don’t want you passing out your first day.’
At the mention of food, her stomach growled again. Colour tainted her cheeks as he laughed. ‘How about you go grab a shower, and I’ll put out the food my housekeeper prepared for us? We can eat out on the deck.’
‘I’d like that,’ she said, suddenly grateful for the respite, and the chance to examine all the emotions careering through her system.
Although she’d discovered in the last twenty minutes that he had a few ‘issues’ about his role as a father to overcome, it felt good to have got her first proper glimpse of the man behind the confident façade he wore so well. And exciting to know that they’d already started to establish a new intimacy between them.
Despite all Ruby’s dire warnings not to confuse her joy about the pregnancy with anything else, she wasn’t the least bit worried about jumping back into bed with Coop.
The one good thing about her terrible experience with Randall was, she’d never be delusional enough to mistake hot sex for love again.
Just because Coop looked great, smelled amazing, knew how to hit all her happy buttons—endorphin-wise—had sperm supersonic enough to impregnate her virtually barren body, and made everything inside her gather and tighten when he looked at her a certain way, she knew she could remain totally objective about their relationship. Such as it was.
Her main priority was the baby. And that would never change.
She lay back in the bed, and took a moment to appreciate the delicious view of Coop’s naked backside as he tugged his jeans back on. And stifled the sigh as the pale strip of defined muscle disappeared behind battered denim.
Her stomach fluttered as if it were filled with hyperactive butterflies when he leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. ‘Supper will be served in twenty minutes, Little Miss Sunshine. Don’t be late.’
‘Aye aye, Captain.’
He strolled out, and her gaze dipped back down to that beautifully tight butt—while the swooping sensation in her stomach bottomed out.
Okay, maybe sleeping with Coop would be a tiny bit distracting, but surely they were going to need some light relief from all the heavy stuff they had to deal with? And the truth was, the intimacy of sex seemed to be a great way to get him to lower his guard.
She squinted as the setting sun dipped lower and the light peaked past the four-poster’s gauzy curtains onto the bed. In fact, now she thought about it, maybe she should consider it her duty to seduce him as often as possible.
* * *
Damn, you nearly blew it.
Coop put the last of the platters Inez had prepared on the outdoor table. The generous plate of lobster salad, Inez’s salted crab cakes and colourful sides of fruit salsa, fried plantain and cornbread had saliva gathering under his tongue.
Good, hopefully Inez’s mouth-watering spread would keep his mouth and hands busy when Ella came down for her supper. He uncorked a chilled bottle of Pouilly Fuissé and splashed a couple of slugs into a glass before planting the bottle in the ice bucket next to the table.
Time to cool the hell down.
What the hell had got into him? He’d seen her less than a week ago. Had made love to her less than ten days ago. And yet, he’d jumped her as soon as she’d arrived.
One gasp of breath, one look from those trusting eyes and he’d been all over her like a rash. His first night with her had already caused more problems than he knew how to solve. And now he was losing all his cool points too? What the hell?
He gulped the pricey wine without tasting a single drop—the thought of the baby going some way to dousing the heat in his pants.
She loved this kid already; he could see it in the dreamy look every time she mentioned it. And then there were all those questions about how he felt about the baby. Making him pretty sure she wasn’t going to be impressed with his initial thought that maybe his role in the child’s life could be limited to setting up a hefty college fund and giving her a monthly allowance to cover her expenses.
On the balcony above, the white cotton curtains billowed out of the open balcony doors caught by the early evening breeze off the ocean. The sound of running water drifted down from the guest room’s shower.
The image of Ella, naked and flushed, her rosy nipples begging to be sucked, swirled into his brain.
He drained the glass. Snagged one of the patties off the plate, wrapped it in some arugula and stuffed it in his mouth.
Enjoy it, Delaney, because crab cakes are the only cakes you’re going to be sucking on for the rest of the night.
He needed to keep his wits about him. And not fall into the trap of getting hot and heavy about anything other than the sex. Until he had some answers to Ella’s questions.
With that in mind...
Picking his smartphone off the table, he keyed in his housekeeper’s home number. When Inez picked up he told her to take a holiday for a couple of weeks, all expenses paid. He could hear the suspicion in the older woman’s voice—Inez had six grown kids and eight grandbabies and was nobody’s fool—but after checking he’d remember to water the plants and suggesting a local girl to come in and do the laundry and cleaning while she was away, she finally took the bait.
Then he rang Sonny, listened to a lengthy update on the wedding arrangements, and then told his friend that he wouldn’t be around for a while and if he needed anyone to help out with tours to contact his business manager. Then he carefully layered in a request to tell Josie he’d be mostly off island till the wedding.
He knew Josie was likely to be his biggest problem. Like any annoying little sister, that girl was more curious than the proverbial cat, had got into the bad habit of thinking she could drop in on him any time unannounced—and had an even bigger mouth than Inez.