Slippery When Wet

by Kristin Hardy

  5

  “WE’RE IN HEAVEN, YOU KNOW.” Taylor sat on a cylindrical concrete stool at the swim-up pool bar. Her gaze held a glorious vista of palm trees and golden sand. Warm water lapped about her thighs.

  Dev raised his eyebrows. “I’m not sure heaven has a bar.” He stood beside her in water up to his waist, resting one arm on the brightly patterned blue tiles of the counter.“How do you know it doesn’t? My idea of heaven is someplace warm and beautiful with no worries and no responsibilities. Maybe this is it.” She spun the bright turquoise umbrella from her strawberry daiquiri between her fingers, and leaned over to give him a kiss. “Pinch me.”

  “Do I get to pick the location?” His eyes were amused as he ran a speculative finger along her collarbone.

  “Someplace G-rated,” she said. “There are kids playing water polo over there.”

  He traced a finger down the string that held up the top of her bikini. “They’re busy watching the ball,” he murmured and drew her away from the bar to lean against the wall of the shoulder-high planter that bowed out from the seating area into the pool. Crimson blossoms of bougainvillea arced out of the planter and hung down over his shoulder as he pulled her against him, his hands warm and sure on her hips.

  More and more, he looked like an islander, she thought, with his skin baked dark, his hair caramelized and tousled. She smiled.

  “What are you grinning at?”

  “You, with your thong necklace and your five o’clock shadow. You look like you could be a beach bum, living in a thatched hut, catching fish and gathering driftwood.”

  “There’s an idea. And you could sell shells on the beach, help make us a living.”

  She shook her head. “Nope, I’d do something else, maybe learn how to teach scuba.”

  The commanding chirp of a whistle had her turning her head. At the water polo net, a brunette wearing the Nova Friends uniform sat in a tall chair and brought order to the game.

  Dev gave a low laugh. “Oh, you say you want to teach scuba, but I know what you really dream about doing down here.”

  “So you’ve demonstrated,” she said, running her hands over his chest.

  “Besides that.”

  She pressed a small kiss on the corner of his mouth. “What else is there?”

  “Come on. Admit it.”

  “What?” The whistle tweeted again and Taylor glanced over to see the brunette laughingly shake her finger at one of the teams.

  “You know you want to be a Nova Friend,” he laughed, pointing to the referee.

  “Oh, please.”

  “Admit it. I see you stare at them when they’re on stage in the nightclub act. You want to wear silver lame and lip synch to Madonna, too.”

  “You know me so well,” she said dryly.

  He tipped his head to the side modestly. “So it’s settled. We’ll stay here. You can sell shells during the day and Raoul will help you become a Nova Friend by night. I’ll be your groupie and beach bum.”

  Taylor shot him a suspicious look. “Wait a minute. How come I have to work and you get to lie around on the beach?”

  “Well, I’m going to be your boy toy. That takes work, you know. I’ll need to conserve my strength.”

  “Don’t start conserving it yet,” she murmured, stepping in against him. “We’ve got days.” Time stopped at the touch of mouth against mouth, slippery skin against skin. How could he call her insatiable? Touching him wasn’t a choice, it was a biological need, like air, or water.

  A scream shivered the air and they jerked apart. Taylor’s head snapped around as she searched for the source. The beach? The dive pool? The lunch palapa? The scream came again.

  “What the…?” she heard Dev say and realized that he wasn’t looking across the pool or toward the restaurant or toward any of the places she was.

  He was looking straight up.

  Above them, her legs dangling from the harness that suspended her bright yellow chute, was a parasailer. Perhaps the tow boat had come in too close to shore, perhaps it had merely been a sudden gust of wind that had carried her up over the beach, but now she hung above their heads, over the pool and thatch-roofed bar, over the buildings of the resort. She shrieked again, even as the boat towing her headed out to sea, raising her up higher, pulling her out to safety.

  “People are out of their minds.”

  “For what, parasailing?”

  She nodded.

  He slipped his hands back around her waist. “A lot of people think it’s fun.”

  “Sure, as long as you’re not getting spitted on a beach umbrella.”

  “They got her away safely,” he pointed out.

  Taylor turned to watch the sail again, as he’d seen her watch it over the past days when they were on the beach.

  “Have you ever tried it?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “No. I think I’d feel kind of silly, paying to just hang there and hope I don’t fall.”

  “You should try it,” he suggested. “It’s a rush. Anyway, I thought you were a woman who lived life on the edge, dropping top in public and all that.”

  “Dropping top doesn’t cost me $50.”

  His teeth gleamed. “Depends on where you do it.”

  “Are you going to make a citizen’s arrest?” she asked, looking at him from under her lashes.

  “I left my cuffs at home.”

  She leaned in for a kiss. “Too bad,” she murmured, her lips against his.

  “Seriously, though,” he said between kisses, “if you don’t think it looks like fun, that’s a reason not to do it. But not because you think it looks silly or because it costs too much. When are you going to have a chance to do this again?”

  “Next time I’m down here on vacation.”

  “And you said this was your first vacation in what, five years?”

  “And I don’t want it to be my last,” she said firmly. “Let’s go back to the beach.”

  “All right.” He set their empty cups on the bar and led her toward the steps on the far side of the pool, skirting the water polo game. In the center, the fountain sent a spray of droplets dancing on the water.

  Climbing out of the water must feel like leaving the moon to come back to Earth gravity, he thought. The concrete of the poolside was hot under his bare feet.

  “And even if parasailing is silly,” he said, linking his fingers with hers. “What do you have that’s more meaningful to do?”

  “I can think of a thing or two.” She gave him a bawdy leer that had him laughing.

  “Are you propositioning me?”

  Taylor adjusted her sun hat and gave him a side-long glance. “Me?” she said demurely. “Surely you must be mistaken.”

  “Looks like I’ll have to take you in after all, ma’am,” he said firmly, turning down one of the side footpaths that led back to the huts. “Come on.”

  “What’s the charge, officer?” she asked, trotting along behind him.

  “I’ll think of something.”

  “I can hardly wait.”

  “I CAN’T DECIDE IF I LIKE playing with you better in your room or in my room,” Taylor said lazily as she lay on the bed watching Dev pull on his swim trunks.

  “Just remember, if you want to keep me as your boy toy, you’ll have to go to work to support me,” he said, picking her bikini bottoms off the television where they had landed when she’d thrown them off.“Oh right, as a Nova Friend,” she said slipping on the scrap of turquoise lycra and standing up to stretch. “You just want to see me doing a shimmy onstage.”

  “I’d rather have a private show.”

  “It’ll cost you,” she warned. “I’ll expect service in return.”

  He pulled her to him.

  “Maybe a trade,” she murmured, sighing at the feel of his lips. How could it be that she never tired of it, of him? He could heat her up with a word, a look. He could have her laughing until her sides hurt. He could soothe her, reading to her while she lay with her head in his lap, w
ith his hand playing over her hair. They’d been inseparable for the past five days, yet all she wanted was more. If it hadn’t been a vacation fling, with a clear time frame and a clear end, she’d have been nervous.

  Taking a breath, Taylor made herself let him go. Definitely time to get out on the beach before she began taking it all seriously.

  She was bending over to pick up her bikini top when she heard a string of beeps as Dev unlocked the electronic safe in the closet. “What are you doing?” she asked, fighting to hook her clasp behind her as he extracted a sheaf of pesos.

  “I need to spend these.” He reached back into the closet to lock the safe.

  “What on earth are you going to spend it on? It’s an all-inclusive resort, remember?”

  “Not everything is included.”

  “What, souvenirs?” She straightened her shoulder straps.

  “Nope.”

  “Magazines?”

  He tucked the cash into the pocket of his swim trunks. “Nope.”

  “A snorkeling trip?” she asked, putting on her sunglasses.

  “Nope.”

  “What, then?”

  “I’m going to take you parasailing,” he said, and kissed the tip of her nose.

  THE CLASP OF THE PARASAILING harness snicked into place. Taylor stood on the back deck of the parasail boat, equal parts excitement and alarm shivering through her. “This was all your idea, you know,” she said to Dev. “If I get killed or maimed, it’ll be all your fault. My family will blame you when I’m in the hospital.”

  “Well, you do have travel insurance, don’t you?”“Don’t even start with me,” she said with a laugh.

  In front of her stood the pedestal that reeled out the cable that would—she fervently hoped—tie her to the boat. Taylor gripped the line as the boat started to move. The boat assistant, barefoot and wearing a Señor Frog’s baseball cap, picked up the chute off the deck so the breeze from the boat’s passage could get inside. It drifted through her mind that this really wasn’t a good idea, not a good idea at all.

  Then she felt it, the first jolt of wind, like a giant hand tugging her backward. Her feet rose off the deck of the boat for a moment and she gave a sudden whoop of surprised laughter. The sound of the engine rose as they gathered speed. The wind caught and held this time and suddenly it was pulling her up and up, the line unspooling from the boat as she went.

  Her cry of jubilation was the same one that roller coasters had drawn from her as an adolescent. Speed, motion, the rush of wind past her ears, it all blended together to put her senses in a whirl. Flying must feel this way, she thought, this sense of being buoyed up by the air, skimming through it effortlessly.

  As she rose up, she stared at the beauty below her, the glowing blue of the water, the lush green of the jungle, the thatched roofs of the resort buildings looking like a club of witches had tossed down their hats and gone for a swim. The waves glittered below; ahead, in the distance, she saw the majestic white of a cruise ship.

  Taylor laughed aloud, seized by exhilaration. She didn’t ever want to come down. What a gift, to soar, to fly. What a gift to feel this way. And who had given it to her? She looked down to the boat below and saw Dev looking back at her, and she waved. His hand moved to his mouth and he blew her a kiss.

  “THAT WAS ONE OF THE MOST amazing experiences I’ve ever had,” Taylor said as they swam in the ocean in the afternoon sun.

  “See? Snorkeling, parasailing, you ought to listen to me when I suggest things. Aren’t you glad I pushed you into it?” Two years spent with his ex-fiancée and her moods had nearly made him forget that uncomplicated pleasure existed. Being with Taylor was simply a delight.She splashed water at him. “It’s not nice to be smug.”

  He dropped down to duck under the water and came back up, shaking his wet hair out of his eyes. “I like watching you have fun,” he said, scooping her against him.

  “I haven’t had this good a time in too long to remember.”

  “You know what they say, all work and no play,” he said, putting his hands on her rib cage and lifting her so she could wrap her legs around his waist. Her breasts bobbled on the surface of the water.

  “I don’t know. I lost the trick of it somehow.” She shrugged and he saw the flash of shadows in her eyes. “This whole week has been like finding a part of me I’d lost.”

  Dev frowned, then he made himself release it. Not his problem, he reminded himself. “This is what you were made for,” he said, sliding his hands over her hips. “Trying out adventures, feeling good.”

  “I could just do this for months, lie around the beach all day, play in the water.”

  “I’m telling you, all you have to do is join the Nova Friends. I’ll build the beach shack and we’ll be all set.”

  Taylor linked her arms around his neck. “There are terms to that deal, don’t forget.”

  He eyed her. “Your point?”

  She leaned in toward him, brushing her tongue tip over his lips, featherlight. “You’re supposed to be my boy toy, aren’t you?”

  “It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.” He reached out a hand and cupped her breast.

  “Mmm. Careful.”

  “There’s no one else near us and we’re too far from the beach for anyone to see.” Out here by the string of floating corks, away from the dive dock, the water was peaceful, deserted. He felt the firm swell of her breast under his fingers. Taylor caught her breath and shifted against him and he felt himself harden at her heat, her softness.

  The slow pressure of the swells pressed against them.

  The touch of his palm on the sensitive flesh felt outrageously provocative as he traced the outside of her breast. It teased, it aroused, it made her want.

  Taylor moistened her lips. “Maybe we should go in and see if we can do anything about that.”

  “Or maybe we should do it right here,” he said softly.

  “But…” she sputtered, trying not to move against his fingers as they stroked her breasts. “There’s a beach full of people out there.”

  “They can’t see what we’re doing.”

  “What if someone comes in the water?”

  “Besides us?” he said with a wicked smile. “We could see them long before they get here. Come on, you’ve seen all the honeymooners out here wrapped together before. What did you think they were doing?”

  His mouth was warm on her neck, his fingers pressed at her nipple. Desire burst through her. What would it be like to make love, to have an orgasm under the brilliance of the tropical sky, while a beach full of people lay a hundred yards away? It was an outrageous thing to try to get away with, she thought, as her breath came quicker.

  Abruptly there was nothing she wanted more.

  “I’ll just say two words,” Dev murmured. “Snorkeling. Parasailing.”

  “I’m sold.”

  The scent of him blended with that of the ocean. The stubble of his chin contrasted with the softness of his lips as they traveled over her cheek and down her neck, journeying back to claim her mouth with a speed and force that left her breathless.

  He groaned at the combination of sensations, her breasts filling his hands, the soft heat of her against his growing erection. He pulled her back to him. “Have you ever made love before in the out-of-doors, in public?” he murmured, running a hand down the flat of her belly to slide under the edge of her suit bottom as his mouth came back to claim hers. Then his fingers slid lower, passing curls of hair to plunge abruptly into a hot slickness that nearly made him explode.

  Taylor jolted in shock, then strained against him with a stifled moan as he started to stroke that firm, slippery nubbin hidden in its private folds. And all sensation coalesced into that one point. The contrast between friction and slickness had her strung tight with tension. She swayed her hips unconsciously, moving with the water, moving against his touch. Then he plunged his fingers inside her and suddenly she was being carried along by a surge of pleasure that swept her up, up
, up and over to float down, as she’d floated in the sky from the parasail.

  She caught her breath, gasping a little in the aftermath, conscious once again of the warm water, the beach, the people.

  The people.

  The tension had abated. The arousal hadn’t. If anything, it was stronger. “So you want to make love under the open sky?” she whispered. “You want to come in me when a hundred people are watching?” Her fingers slipped lower, teasing loose the string that bound his trunks. She could feel the heat and hardness of him, feel him jerking against her touch. Impatiently she pushed the suit down his hips and then she had him in her hand, silky soft and rock hard, the velvety tip just a bit slippery. It was intoxicating, the touch, the texture, the shudder and jerk.

  Dev groaned and stilled her hand, holding himself in check by the barest thread as he put his hands on her ribs and raised her in the water so that she could position him. Then he plunged into her in a single fierce thrust.

  Tight, hot heat gripped him, dizzying in its intensity. Her legs wrapped around him like silken bonds, and for an instant he didn’t dare move, sure if he did, it would end there and then. Seconds passed, punctuated only by shuddering breaths. Then he felt her tighten around him and he began to shift her body up and down in the buoyant water, sliding himself in and out of her. “Look at the beach, darlin’,” he murmured. “Look up at the sky.”

  It was intoxicating, the contrast of openness and the intimacy of having his cock hard and deep inside her. The texture, the pressure, the slippery friction all blended into a single physical rush as she clutched helplessly at his shoulders, moaning with the pleasure. She lay back onto the water, arms floating free now, linked to him only by her legs around his waist, his hardness embedded deep inside her. The cool of the water contrasted with the heat from his body. A creature of pure sensation, she felt his hands on her hips, sliding her body up and down, thrusting himself into her hard and deep.