Riptide (A Renegades Novel)

by Skye Jordan

  Tessa moaned and arched her back. Adrenaline surged. She was so much more than he’d expected—sweeter, sexier, hotter, hungrier. She rocked her hips, moving her heat along his cock. A sensual moan floated from her throat, and Zach’s need lunged higher.

  He closed his mouth around her nipple, adding a little bite. Tessa’s head fell back, her hand squeezed the back of his neck, and her mouth opened on a low cry of pleasure.

  Every sound, every move, nudged Zach toward the edge of control. Other women were all about the fuck—harder, faster, deeper. All about the show—mewling kitten sounds and high-pitched, breathy screams, as if they were imitating porn. Other women wanted everything on the edge, in the extreme. Other women slept with Zach for what or who he was—be it a pro surfer or a guy who worked with movie stars. Real or not, Zach felt like Tessa was with him in spite of who he was, not because of it.

  Tessa was so real, so authentically lost in the pleasure, she made his head spin. All she seemed to want was sheer pleasure. A deep, mind-bending escape from reality. And even though she’d clearly had a different agenda tonight, even though she had something precious pulling her home, she’d taken a chance on him. Said yes to him. And Zach was determined not to disappoint.

  He scraped his teeth over her tight nipple, drawing a delicious shudder from her little body. He licked the abrasion and repeated the rhythm from the beginning, slowly driving them both crazy.

  When she was writhing against his cock, he moved to the other breast, whispering, “Come for me, Tess.”

  And he closed his mouth over her nipple.

  She whimpered, slid an arm around his neck, pressed her cheek to his head, and rode him like she couldn’t get enough. Her body tightened like wire. Her hips picked up speed. Her hot, rasping breaths quickened.

  “That’s it.” Zach murmured against her skin, relishing the feel of her losing all that control she wore like armor. “Give it to me, baby.”

  A little choke ebbed from her throat and all her muscles contracted on a cry. Zach tilted his head back and watched her pretty face tighten with ecstasy. Waited while bliss filtered in. And smiled when her light eyes opened with the haze of awe.

  She dropped her forehead to his shoulder, panting. “I understand.”

  Zach ran a hand over her hair while she caught her breath and he found a measure of control. “Understand what?”

  “Why all those women chase you.”

  Laughter ebbed from his throat. “Whoa, hold on.” He leaned away. “What about my charming wit? My boyish good looks?” He pointed at his head. “Or this razor-sharp mind?”

  Now she was laughing, her whole body shaking, and joy filtered through Zach. A smooth, warm joy he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

  “Oh, honey.” He pushed the hair off her face with both hands. “I can’t wait to get inside you. Get you under my mouth.” He pulled her into a kiss designed to show her exactly what to expect. Then lifted her to her feet by the waist and slipped her pretty white lace panties down her thighs. Her sex was decorated with a thin strip of dark hair, and he was beyond ready to glide his cock along that runway to heaven for a perfect landing.

  He pressed a hand between her breasts and slid down her abdomen, her belly, and between her legs. So much warm, smooth skin to explore. And, oh, she was wet. Dripping on his fingers. While he touched and teased, sliding his fingers deeply, slowly into her body, he found the condom in his wallet with his other hand. Clamped a corner between his teeth and ripped the package open.

  Then it disappeared from his hand.

  “Let me.” Tessa knelt on the leather again and pushed him to his back.

  She fiddled with the condom until Zach was ready to take it away from her, but she finally got it right and eased the latex over the head of his cock. Her touch shot wickedly erotic sensations through his cock and deep into his pelvis, and Zach clenched his teeth to endure the sweet torture.

  When her fingers touched the base of his shaft, Zach gripped her waist and positioned her over his cock. She put a balancing hand on his chest and used the other to place him perfectly against her slick entrance. Zach curved a hand around the back of her neck, and when she met his gaze, he said, “Take me, Tess. All of me.”

  Tessa’s lids dipped, and she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she lowered her hips, pushing him past her entrance. “Mmmm.”

  She closed her eyes, tipped her head to the side, and fucked the head of his cock.

  The wild sensations driving into his shaft, the sight of him penetrating her over and over was too much—yet not nearly enough. He gritted his teeth, lifted his hips, and growled, “Take me.”

  He plunged a little deeper, and her pussy closed around him like a fist. A hot, wet, supple fist. His eyes closed, his head dropped back, and a guttural “Holy fuck” rolled from his throat. She was tight. For-the-love-of-God-don’t-ever-stop tight. And his body moved out of need, his hips pulling back and lifting again, driving himself into the fire. Tessa made a sound, forcing Zach’s eyes open to the exquisite sight of her pretty face tightened with pleasure.

  “Jesus…” she breathed, a furrow between her brows. Then she shifted her weight, and he sank home. “Oh God…”

  She took the words right out of his mouth. He couldn’t think well enough to form a sentence. Only ground out, “Fuck, yes. Ride me, Tess.”

  Zach gripped her hips and guided her into the movement he was looking for, full, deep thrusts until he was balls deep inside her luscious body, over and over and over again. Fucking perfection. Zach wasn’t going to last long. Not with her body bathed in moonlight, her pretty face drenched in pleasure. Her hips undulating in a sexy-as-hell fuck. Zach continued to lift and drive, pull and rock, searching for that spot inside her that would make her break again. Make her break and squeeze and spill all over his cock. He was so hungry for it, he could taste heaven on the back of his tongue.

  Within minutes, they were both slicked with sweat. Zach put all his remaining strength into three hard thrusts in quick succession and was repaid handsomely when Tessa’s fingers dug into his chest and she climaxed. Her pussy gripped his cock in convulsive waves of pressure that sang through Zach’s body and pushed him over a cliff. Fireworks lit off behind his eyelids; his mind shattered into a thousand stars. His pleasure vibrated in his chest, up his throat, and past his lips tangling with Tessa’s.

  When she finally collapsed against his chest, they lay there in silence for a long time, catching their breath, letting their heartbeats regulate, getting comfortable. As she unwound, she grew heavier. As she grew heavier, her hands caressed his sides, his arms, his hips. And Zach couldn’t wipe the smile from his face.

  She was everything he’d fantasized. And while ninety percent of the time reality didn’t measure up to fantasy, in Tessa’s case, she’d surpassed every expectation.

  He let his mind drift and his fingers skim over her back. Her skin was soft. Her hair had a light, fruity scent. And, God, she felt wickedly delicious draped over him.

  “Damn, you are exactly what I’ve been needing.” He sighed and kissed her head. “Sure you can’t stay a few more days?”

  She laughed softly, turned her head, and kissed his chest. “Unfortunately, I don’t have the money or the time.”

  He hummed in disappointment, pressed his face to her hair, and breathed her in. His mind drifted toward the feel of her, still tight and wet and warm around his cock. And that was all it took for an influx of excitement to tingle through his balls. Zach tried to ignore the way his half-hard cock started to swell and ache again, but Tessa stirred.

  She lifted her head and kissed his jaw. “You feel so good.”

  Her hunger-laden whisper took his hardening cock to steel, and Zach moaned a laugh. “Girl, you’re going to be trouble.”

  “I’m very rarely trouble.” With her hands against his chest, she slowly pushed up, swung her hair to the side, licked her lips, and smiled. “But I like the way you bring out my other side.”

&
nbsp; That right there was a sex-kitten move. What made it even more seductive was the fact that Zach was damn sure it was authentic. That she had no idea how sexy she looked right now. Or how her transformation from prim to goddess electrified him.

  He brushed the stray strands away from her face. “How many sides do you have?”

  She smiled. “I thought I had one.”

  He chuckled and lifted to kiss her. Then kiss her again. And again. And almost before he knew it was happening, he rolled her to her back. She was giggling, her dark hair spilling over the cream leather. Everything from the feel of her skin to the sound of her laughter triggered his sexual impulses. He pulled slowly from her body, then pushed back in equally slow.

  Tessa’s laughter caught on an inhale, and fire flashed in her eyes. “Oh…”

  The drawn-out moan signaled a long, amazing night ahead. One that had the potential to catch Zach up on his dragging sexual quota and fuel him through the end of the film. If no offer for the part came in by then, he’d return to his training routine for the next competition. Money was money, and he had to keep the lights on. But right now, all he was interested in was a whole different kind of money. The kind writhing beneath him. Sweet, sultry, sex-drenched money.

  Tessa’s hands stroked his chest, her fingers grazed his nipples, her palms drifted over his abdomen. Then they rounded his hips, and her fingers bit into his ass as she pulled him home.

  Zach followed her lead, thrusting in tandem. Her back arched and her head fell back, her mouth open on a moan. “Oh yeah.”

  Like the strike of a match, Zach’s passion flared to life. Bracing one foot on the floor, he used his other knee to spread her wide. Gripped the opposite thigh and raised it, then leaned in slowly, letting her hamstring stretch until they were eye to eye. Until the head of his cock hit a barrier. Until his balls squeezed between their bodies.

  “Oh God…” she breathed.

  “Is that good?”

  “So good.”

  With his hand braced against her thigh, Zach pulled back, then drove forward, impaling her hard. She did that erotic arching, screaming thing that shot adrenaline straight to Zach’s veins. And like a drug, as soon as he got a couple of hits, he was addicted. He found a rhythm, set a moderate pace for each stroke to savor every repeated inch of penetration, and finished hard. On his third stroke, Tessa came with a sharp cry, cut off by the intense pleasure. But that wasn’t enough for Zach. Not now that he’d gotten a taste of the fist-like way she milked him when she came.

  He lost himself in the pleasure much the way he lost himself at the height of a perfect pipeline run. His body hummed with adrenaline. His muscles sang with exertion. He felt the connection, the flow, the Zen of being perfectly matched, perfectly bonded. The same thrill he felt surfing in the ocean, he felt now in this woman.

  This was living. Real living. And when he was in the zone, he could go until he dropped from exhaustion.

  “Oh my God…” Tessa repeated the same words over and over. “Yes… Perfect… Don’t stop…. So good…”

  He covered one breast with his mouth and banged out another orgasm from her. She hadn’t even recovered when he moved his mouth to the other breast and rode her for another. She was a fucking orgasmic machine that drove Zach into a frenzy of needing more and more. And more. He harnessed Tessa’s sexual energy the way he harnessed the energy of a wave and pushed the limits. Losing himself in the buck of her hips, the squeeze of her pussy, the sound of her pleasure, Zach worked her and worked her, every orgasm squeezing and pumping him toward his own.

  “Can’t…” she panted as she slid down the slope of the last orgasm. “Can’t…take any more…”

  Zach thrust balls deep and paused. Sweat slid across his forehead, down his cheek, and dripped off his chin and onto Tessa’s chest. When he found the strength to focus, he saw her body glistening in the moonlight. Sweat dripped onto her pale skin, and Zach watched the drops pool at the base of her breastbone, then overflow and slide down her ribs.

  Her hand lowered from his hair—where she’d been fisting it, judging by the sting in his scalp—and cupped his jaw. Her other arm remained stretched overhead, blocking the back of the settee from the top of her head.

  Zach blinked a few times and looked around. They’d moved a good three fucking feet from the end of the lounge. And Zach had been so gone, he hadn’t even noticed he’d nearly pounded her into the furniture.

  He dropped the hand holding her thigh up and stroked a hand down her chest. Her leg fell to his shoulder, heavy and limp.

  A zing of fear pulsed through him, and Zach pulled back.

  “No.” She dropped one hand to his ass, holding him in place. “No, no, no. Don’t go. I want you… I just can’t…” Her thoughts were choppy, her words breathless. “I want to feel you come.”

  He fought to catch his breath and control his body. “Are you okay?”

  The corners of her mouth flickered into a momentary smile, and she gave a nod. “I just can’t… My body can’t…take more right now.”

  It took him a few long seconds to string her tangled communication together and figure out what she couldn’t quite bring herself to say: You’ve fried my body, and I can’t take another fucking orgasm.

  Tessa tightened her grip on his ass and lifted her upper body, catching his mouth with hers in a loose, wet kiss that flipped that switch inside him. He tried to move slower, thrust easier, but the way she licked into his mouth and lifted her hips to meet his turned him into a fucking animal.

  As the mother of all orgasms peaked, Zach buried his face against her neck and relished Tessa’s breathy “Yes, yes, yes…” in his ear while he shattered.

  6

  Tessa leaned a shoulder against the doorframe leading to the lanai off her condo’s living room and curved her hands around a warm mug of coffee. The sun rose over the lush Hawaiian hillsides in promising hues of dusky violet and coral.

  At just after 6:00 a.m., Abby and Sophia were still sleeping. Tessa had pried herself from Ian’s bed—and his arms—just an hour ago to get home before they woke. She’d taken a long shower—the second in the last five hours—and wrapped up in a hotel robe. But despite the exhausted state of her body, she didn’t want to sleep. Not until she straightened a few things out in her head—like their schedule. And Sophia’s adoption. And going back to work. And—oh yeah—finding Zach Ellis.

  Tessa groaned and took a long sip of her coffee. The rich brew filled her mouth with heat and flavor. She closed her eyes and sighed. Leaning her head against the jamb, she tried to force her mind to her next step—changing their plane reservations. It would cost a fortune, but still less than staying through the end of their reservation. And she’d need to save money, because it looked like she was going to have to hire the private investigator. Again.

  “Damn.” Her whisper floated away on the sweet, moist morning breeze.

  “Mommy?” Sophia’s sleepy voice tugged on a thousand heartstrings.

  “Hey, precious.” She met her daughter at the sofa, put her coffee on the side table, and gathered the warm little bundle of love in her arms. “Mmmm. Did you have fun with Abby?”

  “We saw lots of turtles. Where’d you go?”

  “I was looking for a friend.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we needed to talk.”

  “Why?”

  Tessa laughed at Sophia’s endless string of whys.

  “Did you find her?” she asked when Tessa didn’t answer, automatically assuming Tessa’s friend was a girl. Not all that unusual since she rarely saw Tessa with men.

  “No,” she said, taming Sophia’s feather-fine sandy curls with her fingers. “But I missed you.”

  “Coffee.” Abby groaned, stumbling through the living room on her way to the kitchen, her long dark hair a wild tangle of waves, hanging in her face. “Thank the Lord God in heaven above—you made coffee.”

  “I want coffee,” Sophia said.

  “How do you ask?�
�� Abby called.

  “Pleeeeeeeease?”

  Sophia’s coffee was orange juice, and Abby brought her a sippy cup.

  Tessa picked up her mug and tickled Sophia’s belly where it peeked out beneath her pajama top. “Tell me about the museum.”

  Her daughter threw her arms straight up, flinging herself backward onto the cushions. “Turtles! Lots and lots of turtles. Green turtles and brown turtles and black turtles.”

  “Black turtles?”

  “Uh-huh. Artists can make turtles any color they want. I want to be a artist when I grow up.”

  “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

  She grinned at Tessa. “So I can do anything I want.”

  Tessa broke out laughing.

  “Show Mum what we picked up in the gift shop,” Abby told her, wandering into the living room again and easing to a seat on the coffee table facing Tessa. She wore an oversized T-shirt and sleeping shorts. Her pale skin had tanned over the last few days in the Hawaiian sun.

  “Frankie,” Sophia yelled, making Tessa wince. “Frankie, Frankie, Frankie…”

  She rolled off the sofa, popped to her feet, and disappeared into Abby’s bedroom.

  Tessa sighed and smiled at Abby. “It’s really too bad she’s such an unhappy kid.”

  “Right?”

  She sipped her coffee. Life felt fan-freaking-tastic this morning.

  If only time could stop.

  “So?” Abby said, her warm brown eyes lighting with excitement. “Tell me before she finds the bloody turtle.”

  In the other room, Sophia was comically calling Frankie in a variety of different voices.

  “Oh yeah,” Tessa said with a shake of her head. “Wow.”