by Karen Rock
She nodded slowly, her full lips pursed. The remembered feel of them, soft around his hardness, sent a bolt of heat through him as they stepped lightly to the salsa beat. She responded to the slightest pressure of his hand, followed him effortlessly, let him lead her the way he wanted to, although if he went that far they’d be somewhere alone, and with far fewer clothes on.
“I’m flying tomorrow, Mark.”
He looked down at her. The moonlight turned her hair a smooth, shining silver and in the dimness, her eyes reminded him of a midnight sky. Dark and mysterious. She was sexy, so temptingly sexy. She made him want to protect her from harm, and at the same time he wanted to push her up against a wall and make her scream with pleasure.
“Conditions are deteriorating,” he said gruffly, fighting his rising desire. “We’ll be flying into worse weather than ever.” He had to make her understand how much he needed her to stay on the ground, where he wouldn’t spend every minute worrying about her.
“So it’s okay for you and not for me?”
“I signed up for this.”
“And so have I,” she fired back.
Her eyes blazed up at him and the music slowed, each sultry note an audible caress. The thin fabric of her T-shirt slid beneath his hands as he gave into temptation and stroked her back. Her combination of strength and femininity quickened his pulse.
“I’m not changing my mind,” she insisted and the husky catch in her voice was sexy as hell. Despite her rebuff, she seemed to melt against him and her head drifted down to rest on his shoulder. Her soft fingers wrapped around his, and their legs were practically entangled.
Mark fought to dredge up the arguments he’d formulated on the walk over here, but Cassie’s proximity muddled his once-noble intentions. Undulating to the sultry beat, he could feel the heat of her body and her breath feathering over his jaw. Her vanilla-honey scent wove a spell around him and, yearning for a taste, his lips grazed her ear.
“I’m anticipating a lot of rescues. Injured,” he forced out, striving to stay focused.
She pulled back to look up at him, her jaw set. “Sounds like I’m needed.”
“Why is it so important to put yourself in danger?” he growled, his grasp tightening involuntarily as he steered her past another couple so they wouldn’t be overheard. For the second time that night, he cupped her hip. Then, unable to help himself, he traced a finger across the top of her skirt, just above the elastic band of her panties.
“Because I don’t want to be Cassie the Meek anymore.”
He blinked and his hands stilled. Meek was not a word that applied to fiery Cassie.
Her eyes slid out from under his and he tipped her chin, compelling her to look at him. “You’re anything but that.”
Her shoulders moved restlessly and, at last, her lids lifted and her large eyes met his. “That’s what everyone thinks of me back home. All my life people said Jeff was the brave one. They thought I was the quiet one, the one who needed protecting. Since I work at my family’s medical office and live above their garage, I haven’t done much to disprove it. No adventure and not much of a social life.”
That explained her adorable, awkward flirting at Mayday’s that’d turned into so much more. Releasing her hand, he skated his fingers up the satiny flesh of her inner arm, feeling the goose bumps break on her skin. They were more alike than he’d thought. She’d struggled to be more than her childhood, too.
Distracted by lingering prickles of awareness, he rocked her slowly to the beat. If his shorts grew any tighter, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep dancing, let alone reason with her to pull out of tomorrow’s mission.
“What about school friends?”
“I was homeschooled,” she said, looking at their joined hands, voice softer by the syllable. “When I got bullied, my mother pulled me out.”
“College?” he asked, setting his hand on the back of her neck and brushing her cheek with his thumb. She must have been besieged with would-be boyfriends. Hell. He would have been at the front of the line.
“I commuted from home.”
They danced even slower now, the barest of shuffles. The kind of dancing that was more like touching to music. “Didn’t you want to get away?” It bugged him that she’d been so isolated. Shut away from the world...but wasn’t that, in a sense, what he wanted to do to her, too?
He shoved down the thought. Real danger loomed ahead tomorrow and Cassie wouldn’t be a part of it.
“Yes. But it made my mother less anxious having me near and I’d never tried going it alone. I wasn’t sure if I could handle it.” As they passed a Tiki torch, it cast a warm glow on her heart-shaped face and his pulse accelerated as his focus shifted to her mouth.
“Your mother...she has...” Jeff had mentioned a condition, one that’d required him visiting his mother in the hospital. Another couple jostled them from behind and Mark clamped his arm around Cassie to steady her. Feeling her briefly pressed against him made him stifle a groan, his resistance slipping away.
“An anxiety disorder,” Cassie confirmed and dropped her gaze. “She was so worried about Jeff. It was easier for me to stay and not risk her ending up in the hospital again.”
“Jeff didn’t agree,” Mark guessed and a circuit flipped in his chest. He recalled how often his boisterous friend had cajoled and wheedled their crew into one misadventure after another. The time they’d held their own Indy 500 with commandeered mopeds, an amazing race mock-up that’d involved their base commander’s office as the finish line.
Cassie nodded and her silky hair whispered across his chin. How he wanted to touch it. His hands shook, ravenous for her.
“He always nagged me to stop dithering and get out and explore.” Her voice was tamped down to a whisper.
Understanding dawned. “And now you have.”
“I’d never been curious to see the world until he told me about the way he saw it. The way his eyes traveled somewhere faraway when he talked about being in the air made me want to see what he did. To find out what the big draw was for him.” The bruise faded out of her voice and it lifted over the sounds of the drums as they swished. “I wanted him to share that world with me.”
He pulled her close, as close as he could. Like there were two of them and only one parachute. He wished he could give her back Jeff. Erase the tragedy that’d caused her so much hurt. “Now it’s too late.”
“No. No, it’s not.” Cassie’s face grew animated, her eyes alight. “Riding in his helicopter will let me feel like I’m with him. Don’t you understand?”
For the first time, he did. That didn’t make a dent in all the rock-solid reasons why he didn’t want her there.
“I can’t let you on my aircraft,” he said instead and he made himself look at her face, at her wide open eyes and earnest forehead. At her unbearably tender mouth as it turned down. A sweet perfume lingered as Cassie stepped back.
“Stop trying to control me. I thought being with you was different. I was different. Daring. Free. I won’t be meek Cassie again.”
He wanted her to be bold, too. How could he argue against that? “This isn’t working,” he thought out loud. His arguments weren’t making any headway with her.
“No, it’s not.” She brushed back a strand of hair and the light gleamed on a charm dangling from her silver bracelet. An anchor. Recognition exploded in his gut. He’d been with Jeff when his friend bought a birthday gift for his beloved sister back home. Of course Cassie had worn it here. She carried her brother’s memory as Mark did, had followed it into the worst storm of the century.
As if he wasn’t feeling enough for her, tenderness swamped him at her dogged, gutsy determination. What was more, he desired her with a wild rush that shoved him to the edge of his control then drop-kicked him over it. The last shred of his resistance shattered.
He wanted her. Wanted the peace, the mindlessness that night in Clearwater had offered. Reason wasn’t working. Not even with himself.
“I still don’t want you on board tomorrow, but just dancing with you is killing me.” Bending his head down, he found the beat of her pulse and he brushed his lips against it. “What if we forget everything else for tonight and just...”
Her lips curled into a sexy, sassy smile and then she veered through an opening in the shrubs beside them. What the...?
At her shouted challenge, he leaped onto the beach. Her long hair flew behind her as she raced down to the water and excitement surged. The masculine need to capture, conquer, dominate galloped through him and he sprinted after her.
Just before she reached the water, he grabbed her waist and swung her around. Their laughter rang out then slowed when he turned her in his arms and lowered her slowly along the length of his body, feeling every luscious inch of her.
Above them gulls rode the winds, screeching and calling to each other above the noise of the surf, but his mind was too filled with Cassie to notice.
He placed his hands around her face and pulled it gently to him. “You’re not meek,” he whispered against her mouth.
He ached. Throbbed when her lips curved and her eyes danced up at him.
“What am I, then?”
“Mine,” he groaned and his mouth captured hers, feasting. He wanted to banish her hurts. Erase the pain that shadowed her eyes. He didn’t know if he could protect her from the storm tomorrow, but he could shelter her tonight, comfort her the only way he knew how.
* * *
CASSIE INHALED THE sea-salt smell of Mark, the humid late-summer air silky against her skin. Despite her lingering reservations, heat rolled through her. Having such an incredibly tough, sexy man lose control over her made her feel powerful and feminine. Boldly sensual. Not meek; strong. A woman who knew her mind and got what she wanted.
Mark wasn’t just someone to get her past her fears for the night, but a man who’d make her scream with pleasure.
She buried her fingers in his hair and moonlight fell around them in thick stripes. As the sea whisked across the sand, it swept up and over their feet, a warm, wet caress. Their kiss deepened and her body pulsed in awareness. Mark kissed the same way he did everything, with bold confidence and incredible skill. He slid his tongue into her mouth, his possessiveness making her moan, then pulled back, teasing, nipping at her lower lip.
Her earlier anger at him evaporated completely, replaced with a fiery hunger that made her knees weaker the longer he kissed her. It’d touched her when he’d asked questions about her past and listened carefully to her answers. His flat-out denial that she was meek filled her with the same daring she’d felt their first night together and she’d suddenly, desperately wanted to be with him again.
Mark’s hands dropped to her hips, and he pulled her tightly against him, the hard length of his erection unmistakable. An answering desire pooled between her thighs. As much as she was enjoying their kiss, suddenly, it wasn’t enough. The passion blossoming inside her had turned ferocious.
He must have felt the same way. Lifting his head, he said, “Let’s get out of here.” His breathing was rapid, his voice strained. “Find a private spot.” His eyes blazed down at her, mesmerizing and intense.
She nodded. If she were any readier, they’d both be naked right now...and probably court-martialed for public indecency. Erotic fantasies spun in her mind, but they all required being alone with Mark.
Holding hands, he pulled her farther up the beach, the drumming band growing fainter, the swish hiss of the ocean the only sound besides her flailing pulse. Out of the corner of her eye, Cassie watched Mark as he moved beside her unselfconsciously, marveling at the beauty of him, of the way his muscles shifted under his skin.
After they splashed in shallow water around a rocky outcropping, Mark spun her into his arms, taking her mouth in another kiss that made every nerve ending in her body sing with pleasure. But the pleasure was edged with rising desperation. Her skin ached to be free and exposed, bared to his touch.
She moaned into the kiss, dimly aware that she was rubbing her body against his. “I want you.” She tugged his lip between her teeth.
Tingles raced across her skin. Slowly, the most amazing smile stretched his mouth. Wide, knowing and enigmatic. “Come with me.”
Her feet sunk into the sand, the grains colder on her toes when they reached a thickly shadowed part of this deserted strip of beach. They stopped in a small grove and the bark of a palm tree scratched against her spine when he backed her against its trunk, his hips grinding against hers. Heat crawled up her skin like a fever and her breasts flattened against the unyielding muscular wall of his chest.
She threaded her fingers in his hair and he lowered his face to hers. At the last minute, however, he shifted direction and kissed her jaw. His lips trailed down the excruciatingly sensitive line of her neck. He bit gently, then less gently, and she trembled. When his hands palmed her butt, kneading, she swallowed hard, her mouth dry with anticipation.
His kiss was deep and wet and wildly abandoned. When his hands fisted at the hem of her T-shirt, she eagerly raised her arms, ending the kiss long enough for him to lift the material over her head. They’d moved deeper still into the beach’s forested ridge, away from the moon’s glow. Her skin cooled from the breeze and she shivered as he outlined the swell of one breast, and her nipples contracted to even tighter points.
She shifted her weight restlessly, slick with need. It was inexplicable, how the delicate brush of his finger could trigger such an intense response. He circled one rigid tip, and she arched her back, offering herself up for further delicious exploration. But when he slid his fingers beneath the cotton of her bra, pinching lightly, it was almost too much.
She sank to the powdery sand, unable to support her weight anymore when his touch turned her to liquid. Dropping to his knees, he nuzzled the hollow of her throat, his teeth lightly scraping as he worked his way downward.
Electricity shimmied across her skin at the light rasp of thin cotton as he wrestled with the front clasp of her bra. Eyes never leaving hers, he gently unhooked her bra and drew it off. His gaze drifted lower, and his chest rose sharply as he sucked in a fast breath.
“You are beautiful,” he whispered and something about his awed tone, more than the words themselves, made her melt.
She gazed up into his glittering eyes and her fingers trembled in his hair. “So are you.”
And then, with a moan of something like anguish, he slid on top of her, as hot and ready as she wanted him. His weight, wedged between her thighs as he pinned her to the soft sand, was sensual bliss.
By the time his lips reached the tip of her breast, she was breathing hard. He flicked his tongue over her, then drew her into the heat of his mouth. It was as if a current ran from his lips straight to her pulsating core.
He eased her skirt up around her waist. Her body was electric with want when his fingers skimmed up her sensitive inner thighs, then grazed over the thin fabric of her panties.
She was both frantic for him to reach beneath the flimsy barrier, to stroke her until she screamed, and more than willing to return the favor. Yet he stopped her hand when she reached for him.
“Not me. You,” he murmured, his voice hoarse. He closed his eyes momentarily, his grip on her tightening. Why was he holding back?
“But—” she began but her protest evaporated when he lowered her panties, a quiver of expectation rippling through her.
His fingers parted the dewy folds, expertly finding her clit. She whimpered, moving against him urgently, reaching out blindly for him. Pleasure zinged through her body until she shuddered with it. His talented fingers worked their magic and heightened the frenzied need inside her until she almost screamed into the night.
If he’d continued, it might have been enough to push her over the edge. But he moved lower, stopping to kiss her naval then her inner thighs. And then finally, finally... “Oh!” The soft exclamation was all she could manage. Hands beneath her knees, he nudged gently, and she bent her legs, resting her feet against his shoulders. Coherent thought evaporated at the sudden, overwhelming sensation of his tongue stroking into her entrance before flicking over her clit again and again.
He continued, driving her ever higher. Her head thrashed and her heels dug into his flesh. Thankfully, only the sea and moon witnessed the cry Mark wrung from her...and if any of the partygoers overheard, she was beyond caring. Then it was as if all motion and sound stopped. Her body stiffened, a silent gasp frozen on her lips, and spasms began deep within, undulating through her, toppling into a release that exploded in frantic, exquisite sensation. Mark nuzzled her as she gripped his biceps, needing his solid presence as she shattered into a million pieces.
Unbelievable.
Mind-blowing.
Bliss.
She felt weightless, the atoms of her body floating on the breeze. When her breathing slowed, she became aware of Mark stroking her stomach and tracing the indent of her waist, the curve of her hips.
Wicked pressure slowly built again, spreading through her body, making her want him again. All of him. She lifted her head, planning to kiss him, but their gazes locked instead. Looking into his face, she knew this was the closest she’d ever felt to another person. And even though the realization was a little scary, she was almost certain he felt the same way.
When he dropped to her side, she stretched to touch his bare thigh. The heat of that firm muscle singed her hand while the light hair of his leg rasped against her palm.
The guttural growl he made encouraged her. Called her curious hand to unclasp his shorts and touch his hard length. If his thigh had been hot, his erection was molten. And swollen. And incredibly thick.
Closing her fingers around him, she stroked up and down. Watched in rapt fascination as his eyes drifted closed at the brush of her fingertips along his shaft. A long breath hissed between his teeth when she traced the thick vein running the length of him.