by Low, Gennita
Lace sighed and rolled into him, snuggling against his chest.
His body reacted predictably to her warm, sweaty skin rubbing against his—his heart kicking up its pace, his breaths deepening. His cock regained a little stiffness with a gentle nudge from her knee.
And then her hand skimmed his chest and roamed downward. She wasn’t just looking to snuggle. Smiling inwardly, he caught her hand before she reached his cock. “We’ll be cutting it close.”
“We only have a couple more days…” A shadow entered her eyes, but she gave him a quick smile, likely to deflect any thoughts of their parting.
He was having the same difficulty, not wanting to think about their goodbyes, because he’d miss her. Already, he feared his memories of her would be tinged with regrets. He cupped her hand and held it over his heart. “Let’s make this quick.”
“Make me,” she whispered.
Those two words, from her alone, packed a charge like dynamite, exploding through him. Quick as lightning, he came over her, his thighs straddling her hips and his hands stretching hers above her head.
Heat burned away the shadows in her green eyes and sent a flush across her cheeks. She bucked beneath him, but he twisted, gliding one leg down to trap hers, not allowing her leverage to lift her hips again.
Holding her wrists easily with one hand while she wriggled and tugged against him, he skimmed a palm over a breast, pausing to give the nipple a decidedly ungentle pinch. “Should have thought to pack some things. I’d love to put a clamp around this tip and tighten it up until you whimper,” he whispered, giving her another twist.
Her breath caught, her mouth dropping open. “I’d like to see you try,” she gasped.
The sound sent blood pumping through his body. “Oh, that’s only where I’d start. I’d bind your arms, your legs, and attach them to the furniture—keep you spread-eagle and helpless.”
She licked her lips, her eyelids dipping as once more he pinched her, and then scratched down her quivering abdomen.
“Then what?”
He slapped the side of her breast, a tap really, but the deep breath she sucked in released in a ragged gasp. “I’d use a flogger and stroke it right over these pretty, puffy cones.” He bent over to suck her nipple into his mouth.
He drew hard, waiting until he felt her shudder, listening as she mewed like a kitten. Releasing her, he deepened his voice to a rough growl. “I’d lay stripes on your ass and thighs.”
“Not very SEAL-like, forgetting to prepare for every contingency.”
“I have a hand, don’t I?” he said, giving her swats on her breasts, her belly. He eased off the pressure of his thigh locking hers closed.
Her legs widened. “Shouldn’t leave a mark where anyone might see…”
Gliding his hand down to cup her mound, he suppressed a grin. “You have a point.” Dex lifted his hand and slapped her pussy, his palm coming away wet. “Like that, sweetheart?”
She groaned and widened her thighs, sliding her heels up the bed to curl her hips and give him more of a target, her silent plea made all the more apparent when she bit her lip and held her breath.
This time, he gave her a harder smack. Her pussy was red, her lips engorged, still raw from their earlier play, but moistening fast. “Like that? Want more?”
Her head thrashed. “Yes, please. Again.”
He spanked her folds, harsh pats that warmed her sex and his hand while she arched and bowed, her body twisting. He made a note to himself to hit a sex shop on the island to buy fetters and floggers, a paddle—hell, he’d empty the store buying things he wanted to use to torture her.
With his cock digging hard into the side of her hip, Dex tucked two fingers inside her slick cunt and held them still, waiting until she opened her eyes and met his gaze. “I don’t want to move to get another condom.”
“We’ve already established that I’m safe and you’re safe. I’m okay with this.”
He shook his head. “When I let you up, I want you to turn around. I want your pussy on my mouth.” He gave her a nudge with his cock. “This will keep those sweet lips of yours busy.”
Her smile stretched wide. “I like your dirty talk, sailor.”
He narrowed his eyes in a mock glare. “Don’t make me wait.” Then he pulled back and lay on the bed, reaching up to toss the pillows away as she angled around, slid a thigh over his head, and then with his hands on her ass, centered her cunt above his head.
Dex drew in their mixed scents, rubbed his raspy cheek into her moist folds as she lowered her torso and came to rest on her elbows, her face hovering over his cock. Her warm, excited breaths gusted over his shaft.
He brought his hands between her thighs, bracing them, his thumbs spreading her folds and dove in, sucking her lips into his mouth, lavishing them with strokes of his tongue, nips of his teeth. He burrowed his nose between them, scraping the shadow sprouting on his cheeks against her tender pink flesh. He felt her body tremble and gave her clit a nip. “Go down on me, Lace,” he growled. Again, he nipped her little bud.
Her body stiffened, and a moment later, moist heat surrounded the crown of his dick.
Growling again, but with pleasure this time, he lapped at her inner folds, drinking in her sea-salt flavor. Pointing his tongue, he sank into her entrance, wriggling and swirling as deeply as he could stretch.
Lace murmured around him and took him deeper into her mouth, her hot tongue giving his shaft wild caresses while her lips tightened. She sucked so hard his toes curled, nearly making him forget his end of their pleasurable activity.
Withdrawing, he licked downward, forked his fingers to tug down and expose her clit, and then latched his lips around it while he thrust two fingers into her clasping channel. His fingers fucked her, plunging deeply while he lolled his tongue on her nubbin, then tapped it, increasing the strength of his own suctioning, pulling on her clit until it was hard and round and escaped its hood, which freed his fingers for other pleasures.
Looping an arm around her hips, he slid his slick fingers between her buttocks and inserted one into her tiny, furled hole.
Teeth scraped his shaft, and he grunted then gave her inner thigh a gentle bite to remind her to be careful before returning his attention to the hard little knot.
Lace sank again and again, wetting his shaft, her fingers gripping his balls and rolling them gently, adding a tug now and then, perhaps to keep him alert, but he didn’t need the reminder. He was fascinated with the changes in her body. Her tension melted away, her hips flowing up and down. Liquid spilled from inside her, and he paused to lap it up, groaning because now he wished he hadn’t been adamant about that condom.
Her mouth was a delicious prick-tease—bobbing slowly, gliding down, then sucking off, again and again, but not nearly fast enough. He planted his heels in the mattress, raised his knees and lifted his hips, waiting for her to adjust to accept his plunges deep into her throat.
With his balls tightening inside her grasp, he pumped upward, keeping with the quickening rhythm of the fingers stroking into her channel and ass. He pulled his hand free of her cunt, added a third and then fucked faster.
Their bodies ground together, her hips coming down, thighs shivering around him as he sucked hard enough his lips gripped the base of her tiny bud. His tongue rasped and swirled, tapped and curled.
At last, he felt her thighs tense, her hips halt. Dex closed his eyes, trying to split his concentration between bringing her to orgasm and his own building pleasure, but she sank so deeply, every inch of him was encased in heat, her tongue floating along his shaft. The suctioning grew stronger, and he surrendered, his tight balls exploding, shooting a load of come down her throat.
His hips jerked, again and again, the pleasure so exquisite he gave a tight groan and held still, his mind consumed as wave after wave of orgasm had him rocking both their bodies. When at last the pleasure ebbed, he renewed his efforts, loving the way she curled atop him, her face resting beside his spent cock, her hands roving over his
thighs and sex, fingernails digging into his skin when he sucked harder, plunged deeper, at last feeling those gentle convulsions clench around his fingers.
Long moments passed. Slowly, Lace lifted and moved around to his side.
He drew her against his body, until they rested chest to chest on their sides.
Her face was pink, her mouth a swollen mess. Knowing that he too must look like he’d just had the best sex of his life, he grinned. “Wow,” he whispered.
Her chuckles shook them. “I have to say, even without floggers and fetters—you’re the best I’ve ever had.” Her laughter quieted, and her gaze clung to his.
Dex drew a deep breath and cupped her cheek. Then he leaned in to kiss her mouth, afraid to give her back her words in case he blurted ones of his own. Hell yeah, she’d blown him away.
The captain’s whistle blew over the intercom, followed by, “Passengers, please make your way to the lounge. The safety briefing begins in twenty minutes.”
Relieved at the interruption, and ashamed he felt that way, Dex made a rueful face. “We could ignore that.”
“And fuck away the afternoon?” She wrinkled her nose. “I would, except this was a once-in-a-lifetime invitation. I really do have to make this dive. I have clients I need to assure about this being a safe and fun kind of vacation.”
The “clients” part confused him, but Dex gave her a quick kiss and unwound his arms.
She gave him another quick buss against his cheek. “I’ll shower first.”
But she didn’t turn away quick enough for him to miss the disappointment in her eyes. Lying back as she padded away from the bed, he sighed. Too bad Chicago was a world away from any port he ever visited. The thought of never seeing her again left his chest feeling hollow.
*
Sitting in the lounge in her swimsuit, Lace listened to Troy’s briefing with one ear tuned to the doorway, wondering if Dex would grace them with his presence. She’d left before he’d finished showering. She’d needed to escape. Things were getting sticky with the handsome ex-SEAL, and no amount of self-directed warnings could convince her heart to stop falling any deeper into whatever it was she was beginning to feel for him.
She didn’t want to even think the word love. Doing so made her chest hurt and her tummy roil. There was no future for them. Their lives were as far-removed from each other’s as any two lives could be.
Damn, did he have to be so handsome? Such a wonderful lover? Everything he did, every sound and touch and expression, pulled her closer, deeper into whatever this was. Not love. Couldn’t be love. Not in the short time they’d been together.
Lust. That was all. Dirty, steamy, vacation sex. She’d indulged before, and this was no different, she told herself. So why did she feel as though she was shattering? Yearning so strong it tugged at her heart and swept through her.
Maybe she should break it off now, before she sank in any deeper.
And then she caught a movement beside the door.
Dex strode inside, his hair wet, wearing a pair of boxer-style swim shorts and a tee that hugged his physique, drawing more than just her gaze. Every woman in the room checked him out. Even without his dark security uniform, no one glancing at his frame would mistake him for anything other than what he was—a man built to protect, his honed muscles a formidable weapon. Delicious, masculine chum to the women seated near their pudgy, pasty-faced husbands and boyfriends.
Her back stiffened until he caught her gaze and gave her a small smile, one that anyone else seeing it would know was charged with the knowledge of everything they’d just shared.
Her body warmed. So did her face. Her chest swelled with happiness, and she returned his smile, waving him toward the empty seat beside her. Inwardly, Lace shrugged at her capitulation. There was no fighting this. She might as well squeeze as many memories out of their liaison as she possibly could.
He leaned toward her to whisper. “Did I miss anything?”
“Just his walk-through of what happens when the cage is dropped. And he wanted to know if we all felt comfortable snorkeling, to make sure we could apply the same concept to the breathing tube we’ll be using.” Her gaze swung his way. “You snorkel, right?” she asked, her tone wry.
He gave a snort. “I won’t need a tube. I’ll use diving gear.”
“Big bad SEAL afraid of trusting anyone else with his air?”
“Hell yeah.”
When Troy cleared his throat to draw their attention back to the briefing, they both turned, Lace giving the other man an apologetic smile for her lapse.
Dex’s hand landed on top of hers where it rested on the arm of the chair, and for the remainder of the briefing, they kept quiet, Lace enjoying the casual way he’d staked his claim. Somehow, just that simple touch calmed her, kept her connected.
On reflection, Lace realized she’d only been fooling herself, and that her angst was wrapped up in her denial. She was in love. Hopelessly, deeply, and forever. Oddly, that unexpected little tidbit of self-knowledge didn’t come with any pangs of regret. All she felt was gratitude toward the universe for giving her this gift—regardless of the fact it came with an expiration date.
Chapter Six
‡
After the briefing and the announcement of the order of the dives, the passengers drifted away, seeking lounge chairs on the upper deck or a meal in the galley while they awaited their assigned turn in the cage.
Since Lace was third on the list, Dex decided to check with the dive crew about borrowing scuba gear. No way was he going underwater without carrying his own air. As he approached the crew, he noted the way they checked him out, posture stiffening. Something about their attitudes didn’t sit right.
“Going to take a turn in the cage?” Troy asked, coming up beside him.
Dex gave the older man a glance. Troy wore a long-sleeved tee over dive suit shorts and flip-flops. His smile was open, but didn’t quite reflect in his eyes. “I’ll be going in the water with Ms. McElhannon.”
Troy nodded. “Good idea. She freaked out yesterday. Not that she should have worried. The sharks were a good thirty feet below her, and I’ve never had one bite a client.”
“Your equipment’s good,” Dex murmured, eyeing the large heavy aluminum and steel framed cage sitting on the deck beside the small crane the crew would use to lower it. “Why a submersible?” he asked, noting the enclosed top of the cage.
“Some folks prefer dropping deeper to get swarmed. We have scuba gear for those who are experienced divers; for the rest, we’ll dangle the cage right below the surface. They’ll be using hookah tubes to breathe through.”
Dex nodded. “I’ll want a tank even though you won’t be dropping the cage deep.”
“You got it.” Troy waved a hand at the line of buoyancy compensating jackets stacked against a wall. “Choose a BCD and grab a tank and regulator. I know you’ll want to check out your gear before you go in.”
“Thanks, I will.” Dex turned at the sound of laughter as an older couple strode down the deck. “I’ll let you get back to work.”
Troy gave him a two-fingered salute and laughed, then approached the couple who were first on the dive list.
Dex strode aft and glanced over the side of the boat to the escort skiff bobbing on a gentle sea.
Justin raised a hand to wave.
Dex touched his earpiece. “How’s everything going?”
“No worries. Except Johnny thinks something’s up with the engine. It’s been hiccuping a bit.”
Damn. Dex blew out a breath. “If he’s worried, radio back to shore to muster another boat. Halloran has a cruiser we can put to use.”
“Will do. Is your lady friend nervous about the dive?”
“Not too much.” Dex grinned. “She’ll have me in the cage.”
“No worries then. No Great White’s a match for a SEAL.”
Dex gave the men another wave then pushed away from the side. There wasn’t a cloud in the clear blue sky. The sea was calm. Shru
gging off his momentary frisson of unease, he went in search of Lace. She’d be his focus throughout this adventure. Still, he ran up the metal steps and entered the bridge, eyeing the captain who gave him a little wave and the other white-suited crewman who was one of Halloran’s guards.
Dex nodded toward the screen, free of any blips. “No other boats in the area?”
“Screen’s been clear since we left the island. We’ve got it covered. Enjoy the dive.”
The other man’s grin was friendly enough. Unworried, Dex nodded then headed out the door. The other white-suited guard was probably serving drinks while keeping watch. All the activity of the staff and the dive team seemed to be business as usual. Dex didn’t know why his gut was telling him something wasn’t right, but he trusted his instincts. Always.
After taking more steps to the highest platform where a couple of guests were sunning themselves, Dex gazed out over the ocean. The water was calm and a deep, dark blue. Still, nothing on the horizon. Looking down, he spotted Lace, holding onto the rail while she made her way toward the back of the yacht. Likely, she was beginning to get jittery about the dive.
Shrugging off the bad vibes, he took the stairs to the lower deck. The cage holding the first pair of divers was being winched up. They dropped their breathing apparatus and grinned at Troy and his crew, the female bubbling an excited, “It was awesome!”
Dex glanced at Lace. She stood in the raised, caged platform, the spotter’s cage, gazing downward, likely counting fins. While her attention was drawn there, he went to the diving gear, chose a BCD, and then grabbed a tank, regulator and weight belt. He checked filters, attached the regulator, then checked the tank’s pressure, assuring himself he had plenty of air for the short dive. He inspected the regulator and the alternate, checked inflation and deflation of his BCD. Everything was in order, all the equipment well-maintained. He stripped off his tee, toed off his shoes and placed his earpiece atop the folded bundle. Gearing up, he noted Lace heading down the ladder from the spotter’s cage and walking over to Troy.
Dex joined her, giving her a quick grin. “Still time to change your mind.”