by Ashley Ladd
"I presume you prefer tall grey buildings jumbled together and people crushing one another in their effort to survive the nine-to-five world?” He scooped up a handful of sand and let it sift through his fingers. When his hand emptied, he repeated the process.
"No. This would be great if we had a way to leave when we want, and if we had a few amenities such as a bed and a pillow and ice.” And a bathroom, but she wasn't going to voice that aloud.
"And if we had our choice of companionship.” Not that she had anyone at this particular time she could've asked to join her on a romantic get away. Here, she couldn't even meet anyone. The only male in sight was engaged. Of all the luck.
"I'll concede you those. I wouldn't mind having a pillow or a long cool drink, either.” Without warning, he brought his hand over her midriff and drizzled sand on her bare belly.
It was cold and wet and totally unexpected and she vaulted to her feet, swishing it off with both hands. “Ooh! I'll get you for that, mister! This means war.” She advanced on him, shoving him backward into the water with what she presumed was a wicked smile curling her lips.
Laughter bubbled out of her lips as she stood over him, her feet spread, her hands on her hips. “That'll teach you to mess with me. I don't get mad, I get ev—"
A hand grabbed her ankle under the water and pulled her foot out from under her, much as she'd done to him one time. She swayed on the other foot for several moments before plopping into the water with a gargantuan splash that shot up and over both their heads.
Mischief danced in Scott's eyes that held flecks of brown around the irises. “It takes two to battle."
Not if she walked away it wouldn't. Deciding this game was over she rose to her feet with as much dignity as she could muster, without a second glance his way, presuming he wouldn't protest her quitting while he was ahead. Men liked to win. So be it. He could have this round.
"Not so fast, Katydids.” She tried to sprint at the warning in his voice, but she didn't get enough head start.
He threw his entire weight into tackling her, his body engulfing hers, his hands poised to tickle her unmercifully, under her arms and across her stomach.
Giggling uncontrollably, she tried to escape his merciless assault, writhing beneath his fingers. Every time she tried to launch a defensive tackle, he blocked her, thwarting her attempts to tickle him back. She laughed so hard she couldn't breathe. Holding one hand perpendicular to the other, she tried to say “Pax” several times but couldn't spit out the word.
Throwing her over his shoulder as if she weighed no more than a toddler, he carried her further out into the ocean, until he was waist deep. He ignored her fists pummelling his back. His mouth set in a grim line, while mirth danced in his eyes. “You throw me in the water and I'll throw you in the water.” His hands slid to her waist, spanned it so that his thumbs and fingertips met, and their gaze met and held.
She caught her breath as a fire ignited in her belly and licked up her spine. He was going to kiss her. She knew it. Worse, she wanted him to with all her being. Closing her eyes and puckering her lips, she waited for the first searing touch of his lips. Instead, with a mighty roar, he flung her into the waves.
Her eyes opened so wide, the sockets ached. Sputtering water out her mouth and nose, she vowed revenge. Diving under water after she caught her breath, she grabbed him around his knees, trying to pull his legs out from beneath him.
Although his knees buckled a fraction, they did not give way.
To her horror, his hands caught her around her waist again and hauled her up against his chest. “Good try.” He hoisted her out, tossing her into another oncoming wave, his laughter echoing in her ears.
She struck out in a strong, clean crawl, trying to escape him, but he was fast on her tail, grabbing her calf, pulling her backwards. Again, he caught her in his arms as lithely as if she put up no struggle, trapping her against his chest, his heartbeat pounding against her ear.
Despite the cool water, his warmth seeped into her, beguiling her, teasing her. Swirls of blond hair tickled her cheek, teasing and tempting her. Instead of flinging her away from him this time, he gazed deeply into her eyes, the passion igniting in his stealing her breath. He lowered his head, capturing her lips in a soul-shattering kiss that would have knocked her off her feet if she'd been standing.
Without her volition, her arms crept around his neck and her fingers tangled in the wet hair at the base of his neck, playing in its thickness. His beard scratched her tender face, grazing her lips, but she revelled in the all male feel of it, desire inflaming her.
His low growl poured into her mouth as his tongue duelled with hers. He drank deeply of her, his chest crushed to hers, his thick mat of chest hair teasing the swell of her breasts, making her long to rip off her top so that she could rub her nipples against him.
Waves crashed against them, making him sway, but not loosening his grip on her. Carrying her, he waded to shore. Once there, he laid her gently on the sand, never releasing her lips, caressing her face, her breasts, and the swell of her hip. When his hand splayed across her belly only fractions of an inch away from her pussy, she bucked beneath him, grounding her hips against his.
Unable to remember why she shouldn't be kissing or caressing him, she let her hands explore his rugged frame, running up and down his chest, his back, and kneading his firm buttocks. She rubbed her pussy against his growing cock. Their groans grew louder, more ragged.
Her breath coming in short bursts, she could hardly breathe. Sweet emotions engorged her and without thought, she lifted her arms for him to lift her top off.
With a growl, he flung it to the shore. Mere moments later, he tugged off her pants and they joined her top.
She didn't care if the water swallowed them whole and she was left naked for eternity with the man. The way she was feeling, it would take eternity to ravish him.
Salt, seaweed, and the musky scent of the man tickled her nostrils, making her heady. She pushed his shirt off his shoulders and moaning, rubbed her nipples against his chest. Sliding her hand between their wet bodies, she sought out his cock and curled her fingers around its thick girth.
Drinking deeply of his lips, she lost herself in his magic. Sam had never kissed her like this. Compared to Scott's earth-shattering kiss, Sam's had been that of a first-grader.
Scott set her soul on fire. Together they took a quantum leap into passion.
He tore his lips from hers and captured her nipple. Suckling and nipping it gently, he drove her insane with ecstasy.
Surprise struck her when he gently laid her on the sand for she'd been too wrapped up in him to notice he'd carried her back to shore. Or maybe the world had been spinning too dizzily for her to tell the difference.
Possessing and caressing her, waves of joy drifted through her. Sunlight blanketed their bare flesh, and then Scott took its place so that she could only feel the warm rays on her face and arms. His warmth was that of a million suns, heating her from the inside out.
He spread his palm over her pussy then massaged her clit until she writhed uncontrollably. He slipped first one, then two fingers inside her moist well, then began to stroke and circle them. Methodically at first, then in uneven, teasing rhythms.
Every nerve ending jumping, the earth quaking, she arched her hips against him. Their first time making love, she didn't want to experience partial rapture with just his fingers. She yearned to be wholly and completely united with him. She whispered against his lips, “I want you inside me."
He lifted his head and smiled down at her with a cocky yet endearing grin. At that instant, her heart flipped over and fire licked her veins. “Uhm. You read my mind."
Smoothly, he slid his fingers out, rose powerfully above her, then thrust deeply inside.
She gasped at the penetration. He was so thick, so long, so hot. He was a wild man, stroking long and hard into her as if he would explode any moment.
Her heart sang as she met him stroke for excruciatin
g stroke. Intoxicated by every taste of him, by his every touch, she swept her tongue long and slowly over his chest. She delighted in swirling her tongue around his nipples, and particularly took pleasure when he shuddered against her and drew her against his heart.
As he murmured endearments in her ear, as he feathered kisses across her closed eyes, her cheeks, and then captured her lips, waves of rapture overtook her. Clinging to him, she ground her hips against his until she floated down from Heaven.
Then the harsh truth started to niggle her mind. He wasn't free. She was a fool. But when she tried to wiggle out from under him, he tightened his hold and rested his cheek against hers.
* * * *
"Katydids, where'd you go?” Scott's voice echoed through the forest. “You're late for my karate lesson."
"Up here!” she yelled as she swung on a vine from one tree to another, past Friday and his friends who hooted at her obviously pathetic attempt to emulate Tarzan. “Hey! I'm doing pretty darned good for a lowly human. I've not been swinging from the time I was a baby like you. Give me a break."
Friday jumped up and down on the thick tree branch where she aimed herself. He howled with laughter when she missed and had to swing onto the next tree.
"I'd like to see you drive a car and see how well you do.” Grabbing the base of the huge tree to steady herself she stood tall and pummelled her chest as her little friends did.
"Come down from there and stop pretending you're Jane.” Scott stood below her, hands on his hips, his long legs positioned at parade rest. Sunlight glinted on the glorious hair that hung in silky waves past his shoulders.
She guffawed. “I was just getting into it. I'm really starting to get the hang of this."
Friday shrieked as if to call her a liar and pointed a furry finger at her. Swinging over to her, he climbed onto her shoulder and curled his tail around her arm. He chattered animatedly as if she could understand every word he said.
She pretended she knew what he was talking about just as she was pretending a lot of things these days, like hiding her growing tender feelings for the man. But he wasn't making it easy for her. “I am too! I bet I'll be swinging just as good as you before the next full moon.” An idea struck her and a deliciously wicked grin spread across her face. She looked down at Scott, and threw him a vine. “Swing with us."
The vine smacked him in the chin, and he jerked back as if startled. He scowled up at her, and tugged on it. It held firm under his weight. “Don't tell me you've got jungle fever?"
"I've never been better.” And she hadn't. She'd never felt so wonderful, so full of vitality. She'd never been so happy. “Come swing with me. I dare you!” Her eyebrows danced and she tossed him a come hither smile. “Don't you think you can do it?"
"I can do anything you can do.” He wrapped his legs around the vine, pulling himself up hand over hand.
"I forgot to tell you that it's easier if you climb the tree first and push off it for momentum.” His straining muscles mesmerized her and she couldn't help but stare at him. Living on the island had made both of them stronger, leaner, and more muscular.
He shot her an amused glance. “I think I can manage."
When he was high off the ground, he lunged for another vine, making her gasp. Cupping her hands over her mouth, she shouted, “Be careful!"
Catching the vine, momentum behind him, he swung from vine to vine, amazing her. The man was a regular acrobat. Finally, he landed on her branch next to her. Grinning down at her, challenge glinted in his eyes. “How was that?"
"You've been holding out on me, Tarzan. Where'd you learn to fly through the air like that? I'll have to make you a loin cloth if you keep this up.” The words just popped out of her mouth unbidden and heat flooded her cheeks.
"I used to swim down at the creek on summer vacations. We played around a bit on the vines.” He backed her up to the tree trunk, pinning her against it with an arm on either side of her, his warm breath fanned her cheeks shooting thrills through her. “Guess I didn't do half bad?"
"Not too bad for a rich guy.” Pressing against the tree as flat as she could, which was an impossible job with the size of her chest she tried to avoid bodily contact with him. But he seemed to have other ideas and leaned against her, igniting flames deep in her belly. She struggled to breathe normally so he wouldn't notice the change in her respiration or her reaction to him. Since that wildly erotic afternoon on the beach, it grew more and more difficult to ignore their volatile attraction.
"What? You don't think we ever swim in lakes or rivers?” Mischief danced in his eyes.
Without volition, she licked her dry lips with the tip of her tongue and cursed the motion when his gaze immediately followed her movement. “All the wealthy people I knew would've been horrified if their kids played in anything so unsanitary or dangerous as a river or a lake instead of their antiseptic, gold plated swimming pools, or did anything so mundane."
"I didn't say that I told my mother about it.” Without warning, he grabbed her around her waist, jerking her hard against him.
Lifting her lips, she waited for his kiss but gasped when he lunged off the branch and they started falling. A scream ripped from her throat and she clung to him and buried her face against his shoulder. “You're crazy. We're going to die."
Their fall stopped with a yank when he caught a vine and they swung to another tree where he landed with ease. “See?” Pride rang from his voice and she wondered if not more than a little insanity intermixed with it. “I'm an old pro."
Punching him in his shoulder, she glared at him. “You're certifiable!” Furious, she faced off against him, trembling. “Don't ever do that to me again.” Forgetting her precarious balance, she swayed and started to tip.
Grabbing her to him, Scott gazed down into her eyes. “Take it easy. Remember where you are.” His hands massaged her back, and he spoke soothingly as if she were a small child. “I don't know about you, but I'm hot. Let's cool off at the waterfall. You game?"
Nodding, she didn't trust herself to speak. She was hot, too, although perhaps not in the same way in which he was. Cool water should restore her equilibrium providing refreshing relief.
He handed his vine to her and grabbed another for himself. Chivalry lived, even in the jungle. “Thanks,” she muttered under her breath as she accepted his offering and swung to the forest floor before he touched her again. She didn't trust herself as his merest touch inflamed her, making her forget everything but him.
He laid a companionable arm around her shoulders and led her toward the waterfall. When his hip bumped against hers and his legs ground against her thighs, it took everything in her not to turn and wind her arms around him and never let go. Did he know how irresistibly sexy he was even if incorrigible? How intensely he affected her? She prayed the water would take the steam out of her blood.
"You don't swing half bad for a girl.” Laughter rang in his voice.
Unwilling to let him goad her, she smiled and inserted an ounce of sugar into her voice. “Oh, I'm the best you'll ever find, Tarzan."
"Tarzan?” Scott scoffed. He dove into the wading pool, swam almost the length of it and surfaced at the foot of the waterfall. Flinging back his head, he flipped the sodden silky mass of hair out of his eyes. “Water's great. Join me."
"You know,” she said as she waded into the pool and walked toward him, “nothing's more beautiful than all this.” Sweeping her hand in front of her, she gestured to the lush, vibrant panorama spread out before her. Parrots, hummingbirds, chimps and other friendly creatures paid them no heed.
"If we ever get rescued, I'll never be able to bathe or swim in anything even remotely so exotic.” Breathtaking better described it.
His gaze devoured her, fanning the flames to life again so she quickly submerged herself to her neck to hide her puckering nipples. “You're wrong. You're the most beautiful sight I'll ever see."
To hide her confused yet happy reaction to his words, she floated on her back and gazed
up at the brilliant tropical sky through lacy palm trees and mist compliments of the gentle cascade.
Cloud castles shifted into dragons that morphed into a kaleidoscope of shapes. The colourful birds soared on gusty sea breezes, their magnificent wings spread regally.
She floated until she drifted into the waterfall's spray. Swallowing a gulp of water by surprise, she tried to stand but was sucked under instead. Strong arms clamped around her and dragged her up.
Spluttering when she surfaced, she blinked, trying to gain her bearings. Her vision soggy, the sun seemed to replicate itself in multi-coloured polka dots.
Scott peered at her. “You okay? This isn't a kiddy pool at the park. Keep your eyes open."
"I'll keep that in mind.” She crawled to shallower water so she could touch the bottom.
He followed her, tripping every one of her sensory alarms. By rights the water should boil around her as she sizzled whenever he came within ten feet of her.
"What will you do when we get rescued?"
She shared into the distance, accessing her memories. Civilization hadn't been all bad. She smiled dreamily, and swayed to and fro, rippling the water with her fingertips. “I'd like to go roller-skating and skate backwards and do the hokey pokey . And I'd like to go bowling. I'd ride my motorcycle to the ends of the earth and blast my music as loud as I could crank it. I'd enter more karate tournaments and win the biggest trophy.” Getting into dream mode, she enthused, “I'd drink daiquiris and freezies and anything with ice. I'd surf the Internet until dawn.” Nostalgia gripped her and she stilled. “And I'd make peace with my dad and go to church.” Slanting him a sidelong glance, she asked, “What would you do? Spend time with your fiancée?” The word fiancée almost stuck in her throat but she forced herself to smile.
He squinted and looked away from the harsh afternoon sunlight. “That of course,” he said too fast. “I miss my family and I miss polo."