by Lori Wilde
Finally, they were both naked in front of each other, the moonlight spilling through the open blinds, bathing them in moon glow. The smell of gardenias was everywhere.
He kissed her again. Her eyelids, her nose, her chin, her cheeks. He wanted this to be the opposite of their fevered joining in the aquarium and at her apartment. He wanted to make love all night long.
He bent at the waist, swept her off her feet and carried her into his bedroom. He draped her across his bed and then stepped back to look at her. To savor this moment. In his eyes, she’d never looked more beautiful. Vulnerable, but at last willing to take a chance on something more than casual sex.
“You are amazing,” he murmured.
“You’re not so bad yourself, Coast Guard. Now bring that jackhammer over here and nail me.”
He laughed. He had to admire her forthrightness. Jackie was not a woman who beat around the bush. He sank down on the bed beside her, peered into her eyes. “Remember the night I chased you?”
“How could I forget? It was the most scared I’d ever been.”
“I didn’t mean to alarm you.”
“You want to know what really scared me?” she whispered, not shying from the intensity of his gaze. Scott considered that a triumph. That she was able to be honest with him.
“I do.”
“I sort of liked it.”
“The chase?”
“The danger.”
“Hmm, have you ever thought about joining the Coast Guard? We could use someone with your diving skills.”
She laughed and traced a finger over his chest. “I’d settle for just joining with this Coast Guard.”
“Well, why didn’t you just say so.” He gathered her to him, amazed at how strong and secure he felt with her in his arms.
Her fingers tracked from his chest to the puckered scar on the inside of his right upper arm. “How’d you get this?”
“My first time at sea as an officer. We were engaged in a drug interdiction between California and Mexico. The smugglers tried to outrun us, but we had a brand-new state-of-the-art cutter. As a last gasp, they started shooting at us with harpoon guns.”
“Heavy duty.”
“Harpoon went halfway through my arm. Lucky for me, it missed bone.”
She kissed his wound. “I’m sorry you got hurt.”
“I’m Coast Guard. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s part of the job.”
“I see.”
“Does that scare you?”
“Why would it scare me? It’s who you are.”
“Jackie,” he murmured, “where have you been all my life?”
They kissed some more, slowly exploring each other from their lips on down. He paid a lot of attention to her breasts, learning what made her shake her head, what caused her to make soft keening noises and pull in air through clenched teeth.
“That’s it, mermaid. Let me know what you want.”
But Jackie wasn’t selfish. She gave as good as she got. Her mouth was as adventuresome as his, seeking, tasting, on a search-and-find mission that left Scott with his eyes rolling back in his head as her daring little tongue explored the hardest part of him.
The minute her lips were around his shaft, he felt his world shatter into pure, blue-ribbon pleasure. Some women didn’t enjoy doing this, but Jackie…well, Jackie took him with gusto. And when he quickly exploded, she swallowed him up, smiling wide and batting her lashes.
He collapsed into the mattress, his fingers fisted around the pillow he pulled over his face, drained, but not sated.
Oh, no, this was only the beginning. As soon as he recovered from the earth-moving blow job she’d given him, he turned the tables, anchoring her spread-eagle to the bed with his silk ties. He went down on her and she went wild. Calling him all kinds of names, both exalting and cursing him as he teased and tempted, dragged things out and made her beg.
“You’re wicked,” she gasped.
“No more so than you.”
She tasted gloriously good. She was soft and warm and wet and damn, he couldn’t get enough of her. His tongue plied her and she responded to each lick, caress, touch. The woman who lived in her mind and kept her heart locked up had an incredibly responsive body.
“I’m gonna take you down, babe.”
“Promises, promises.”
“Oh, don’t taunt me. You’re in for it.”
“Prove it.”
“Saucy. You wanna live on the edge?”
“Yes. Give me all you’ve got.”
He did. Sucking her sweet clit until she screamed his name over and over and over again.
Feeling very proud of himself, he untied her and held her gently as she shivered in his arms. He kissed her temple and smoothed her hair and wondered if he’d died and gone to heaven.
“Now,” she said, “my turn to be in charge.”
He had no problem with that. He rolled over onto his back, his prick miraculously hard again.
She straddled him and, giggling, stared down into his eyes; her blond hair fell over her cheeks, tumbled across his chest. His erection pulsed against her bottom. She leaned down to capture his mouth, her hair falling around them both like a silk curtain. He felt her warm, moist heat against his belly. When she had him writhing with need, she pulled back. “Condom?”
“Bedside drawer.”
She reached over, dug one out, ripped open the package with her teeth and rolled it onto his very horny Johnson. Then, just to be sassy, she cupped his balls in her hands and applied gentle pressure while she took one of his nipples into her mouth.
“Whoa! You keep that up and I’ll explode before you ever climb on board.”
“Can’t have that, can we?” She glanced up from his nipple and winked.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and guided her back into the straddle. She was on her knees, poised over him, his erection jumping and bobbing, waiting for her ultimate juiciness. “C’mon, put me out of my misery.”
“I remember you were a bit relentless when I begged the same thing.”
“I was so cruel.”
“You were.” She laughed.
“But you’re not as mean as me.”
“Don’t be so sure about that.” She started to ease down on him, but then at the last moment pulled up and out of reach.
Scott groaned. “Evil.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You like torturing me.”
“Only in the best possible way.”
“Cruel to be kind, eh?”
“You know it.”
Then she slid down on him, taking the length of his erection in her, pressing her bottom fully against his pelvis.
“Jac-kie,” he exclaimed as her muscles clamped around him.
“Scott-y,” she gloated gleefully and began rocking into him hard.
Scott couldn’t get enough of watching her. As his cock engorged fully and completely, his gaze traveled over her beautiful body. He was a lucky, lucky man. How had he gotten so lucky?
He reached up to capture her nipples between his thumbs and index fingers and soon her soft moans were in sync with his. Yeah, baby, rock my world.
She rode him hard. His hips bucking and thrusting, he tried to find some way of getting deeper inside her. She moved up and he felt bereft. Then she came down hard and he experienced rapture. Up and down. Despair, then joy. Frustration, then frenzy.
Then in one hot, fierce second, they came together. He exploded with a force he never believed possible, his climax shooting out hot and milky.
He felt her orgasm ripple over him in undulating waves, contracting and releasing up and down the length of his cock.
Glory. Pure glory.
He’d struck gold with her. He’d dated a lot of women, but none, not a single one, had ever made him feel as if he’d landed on the moon. He was an astronaut. Exploring an unknown landscape. There were no words for sex this good.
There was only the minnow of fear that something this red-hot was destined
to burn out as quickly as it had rocketed him to the stars.
JACKIE AWOKE FEELING changed in a fundamental way.
She’d opened herself up to Scott in a way she’d never opened herself up to anyone before him. Not just her body, but her mind and her—dare she say it—heart, as well.
Because after they made love, they’d talked for hours. He told her about his dad. She found herself opening up and telling him that when her mother had left her father, she’d left Jackie, as well.
They commiserated on what it was like to lose a parent. Like it or not, it affected you, carved you into the person you became.
Scott told her about Amber, his one serious relationship. Since Jackie had never had what she considered a serious relationship, she mentioned only Boone and her regret that she’d never bothered really getting to know her half brother.
Then, far into the wee hours of the morning, they talked about their work and how much they both loved what they did for a living. After that, they made love again and fell asleep in each other’s arms as the sunrise pushed up the shade of night.
She yawned, stretched, reached across the bed for Scott and her hand fell on an empty spot. Sitting up, she pushed a hank of hair from eyes and looked around the room.
The closet door hung open and his Coast Guard uniform dangled from a hanger. On the bedside table sat a book. The title made her smile. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.
She cocked her head, listening for him, wondering if he was in the bathroom, but then her nose caught the scent of coffee, bacon and eggs. She threw back the covers. Where was her dress? She couldn’t find it. Where had he taken if off her? Last night was such a delicious mishmash of memories, she couldn’t remember. She padded to the bathroom and took a shower. She found a blue terry cloth bathrobe hanging on the back of the door, put it on and wandered into the kitchen.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” Scott greeted her from his place at the stove. He was dressed in a pair of swim trunks and a Coast Guard T-shirt.
“You’re making me breakfast?” She felt pleased and a sly voice in the back of her head whispered, what if you could wake up to this every morning?
“Sit,” he said and served up a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and a cup of strong coffee. “Eat.”
“You, too.” She pointed at the chair beside her with the tines of her fork.
“Just dishing up my food now.” He turned back to the stove, and then came to the table with a plate of his own.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Ten o’clock.”
She groaned. “I haven’t slept this late since my undergrad days.”
“Me, either.” He grinned.
She giggled. “It feels decadent.”
“Hey, it’s important to break with routine now and again. Makes you feel free.”
They were halfway through their intimate breakfast, stopping between bites to lean across the table to steal kisses, when Scott’s cell phone rang.
He reached across to pluck it from the middle of the table, but not before Jackie saw a photo flash on the caller ID monitor. It was the redhead that she’d seen him with at the festival.
Jackie’s stomach churned. Apparently, he liked the redhead well enough to program her picture into his phone.
She struggled not to feel anything, but she couldn’t stop a wedge of jealousy from lodging in her throat, sharp as a cracker. She ducked her head, tried to fork another bite into her mouth, but she couldn’t make herself swallow. Nor could she just spit it out.
So she sat there, scrambled eggs that seconds before had tasted delicious, now congealing into a cold mass on her tongue.
Scott pushed back his chair. “Please excuse me. I’ve gotta take this.”
Jackie nodded. The egg seemed to expand, filling her entire mouth.
Scott got up, walked out on the porch. Clearly, he didn’t want her overhearing his conversation.
The minute the door closed behind him, Jackie got up and spit the egg into the trash can. Dread had her pulling a hand over her mouth. She closed her eyes. The kitchen window was open. It looked out over the porch. Scott’s conversation carried right into the kitchen along with the sea breeze.
“Sure, I can be there. Just tell me when and where,” he purred to the redhead.
Disappointment knocked against Jackie’s rib cage. Okay, she was lying to herself. It was more than just disappointment. She felt…devastated. Scott had just spent the night with her, bonded with her, and now he was making a date with another woman.
You were the one who told him you didn’t want to be exclusive. What are you upset about?
What was she upset about?
Jackie paced the kitchen. She thought…she thought…oh, what in the hell had she thought? That this could have a fairy-tale happy ending? How stupidly ridiculous was that? She’d never been a happily-ever-after gal before. Why now did she suddenly want it?
Scott stepped back inside whistling the song they’d danced to the night before—“Love Is an Ocean Wide.” “Hey.” He stopped, studied her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Jackie forced a smile.
“Don’t lie to me, Jackie Birchard. I see right through you.”
“Fine, okay, you want to know what’s bothering me?”
“I do.” He nodded.
“I know about her.”
“About who?”
“Don’t lie to me. I saw you with the redhead and now when she calls you take it out on the porch.”
“That bothers you?” He looked amused at her jealousy.
Amused! He was amused.
“Yes.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I know it shouldn’t bother me. It’s stupid, but it does.”
“You told me we couldn’t have anything more than a casual fling.”
“I know what I said.”
“It’s hypocritical of you to get jealous.”
She sank her top teeth into her bottom lip. “I know. But don’t go see her.”
“I have to, Jackie.”
“Why?”
“Things are complicated and for now I can’t tell you about it, but listen to me when I tell you that this other woman means nothing to me.”
“Then don’t go see her.”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“Then she must mean something to you.”
“She does, but not in the way you think.”
“So just tell me.”
“I can’t,” he reiterated. “It’s Coast Guard business. You just have to trust me on that.”
Trust.
It was not something that came easily to her. She wanted to trust him, but she could not ignore the deep hurting in her heart. Oh, dear God, this was exactly what she’d wanted to avoid, feeling like this. Raw. Split in two.
She spied her dress lying in the living room. She bent to snatch it up. “I’m going to make this easy for you. Go to her. Don’t worry about me. I’ve got my work…you’ve got yours. That’s all we need. Right?”
“Wrong.” His hand snaked out and snared her wrist.
Her temper flared. “Please let me go.”
“Not until you listen to me.”
Jackie glanced away.
Scott reached out, took her chin, forced her to meet his gaze. “We can sort this out, Jackie, just not right now. All I’m asking is that you trust me.”
She jerked away. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
Because she was scared out of her wits that he was lying. She was scared of what she was feeling. It was too much. Too powerful. It was better to cut her losses now and get out while the getting was good before she got her heart completely broken.
Too late, too late.
“Listen,” she said. “I’m not angry. This is completely for the best. We had a great time.” She waved a hand. “It was a lovely evening. Great. Beautiful. You’re a good guy. I wish for you a very happy life.”
“Seriously? You’re breaking up
with me again just because another woman called me?”
“Yes. No. It’s not just that.”
“What else is wrong?”
She shrugged. “Things are getting too complicated. I don’t do complicated.”
“Yes, yes, they are. But that’s because you’re feeling something for me.”
“Things that I don’t want to feel.”
“Why not?”
“Because feelings are messy. They can get you hurt. Better to make a clean break of it now while we still can.” Her chest heaved with the effort of breathing.
“Is that what you really want?” Sadness filled his eyes.
“It is.”
He hardened his chin, stepped away from her. “Okay, fine. I’ve done my best to convince you that things could be great between us if you didn’t keep putting up walls, but apparently you like life all by yourself under the sea, mermaid. You’re free to go, but first, I want you to promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?” she asked begrudgingly.
“Stay out of the mangrove channel for the next few days.”
“I will not. If I need to go—”
“Jackie!” he commanded, and stepped forward so suddenly that Jackie took an involuntary step back. “I’m not playing games here. This is the Coast Guard talking, not your midnight lover. Do not go into the mangrove channel until I call and tell you that’s it’s safe. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
IT TOOK EVERY BIT of Coast Guard fortitude that Scott possessed not to tell her the truth about Juliette Sterns.
He hated to hurt her feelings. Hated seeing her in pain. It tore him up inside. But this was the way it had to be if he hoped to bring DeCristo to justice.
When this was over, he’d find a hundred ways to make it up to her. In the meantime, he had a lot of work to do. Juliette had told him that a new shipment of drugs was arriving the following evening.
He called his boss in D.C., told him what was going on down here in the Keys. His boss green-lighted additional funds for interdiction to destroy DeCristo’s operation.
Then Scott called Carl and told him what Juliette had told him. She would be picking up a delivery the next day in the mangrove channel and if he wanted a slice of the pie, he needed to bring her some money today.