“You’re pretty brave.” He mirrored her expression. “Thinking you can unilaterally lay down the law like that.”
When she smirked, he knew she was going to come back with something appropriately witty. She didn’t disappoint.
“You shouldn’t be surprised. Just because I have a vagina doesn’t mean my balls aren’t still bigger than yours.”
“And there’s that mouth your momma warned you about,” he countered, becoming distracted when talk of her vagina had his eyes unintentionally traveling south, past her smooth neck, past her delicate clavicle bones, until…
If his eyes were tires, they would’ve left rubber on the pavement. That’s how quickly they came to a screeching stop once they hit her chest.
Jesus hopscotching Christ. She’s not wearing a bra.
Of course he’dknownshe wasn’t. He’d seen it draped over the top of his lamp. But now, with her doing her sassy pants stance, and with the candlelight flickering over the front of his threadbare—thanks to the one million times he’d washed it—white T-shirt, he couldseeshe wasn’t wearing a bra.
Her breasts were large and teardrop shaped. The outline of her dark areolas cast half-dollar-sized shadows against the thin fabric. And her pencil-eraser nipples made little tents of the cotton.
His mouth went dry. His dick went rock hard. And all the reasons why he’d been calling himself a damned fool, all the reasons why it was a bad idea to take her up on her offer and take her to bed, fell right out of his head.
“Speaking of your mouth…” He snagged her wrist and pulled her forward until her knees bumped his. Encircling her waist with his hands—and taking a moment to enjoy how dramatically her hips flared—he pulled on her until she was forced to straddle his lap.
The instant her plump, warm ass hit his thighs, he finished with, “Let’s put it to a better use than talking.”
Twining her arms around his neck, she asked seductively, “And just what did you have in mind for my mouth, sailor?”
He leaned forward until his lips were a hair’s breadth from hers. She gasped in expectation. And the sound—the same sound a woman made when a man entered her warm and ready body—had his cock lurching impatiently behind his fly.
“It’s best if I show you,” he whispered before gently sucking first her top then her bottom lip into his mouth.
She tasted sweet, like something sinful and sugary. Tart, like something decadent and delicious.
“Dalton.” Her warm breath bathed his hungry lips. His name sounded musical in her mouth. “I want you.”
“You’ll have me,” he swore. And then he rethought his response. “You’vehadme since the first moment you walked around that bar and cocked that eyebrow at me.”
On cue, one sleek black brow arced high across her forehead until…yup. Witchy woman. There she is.
“I’ve been under your spell since that first night,” he admitted roughly. “You look at me and I forget my name.”
“It’s Dalton,” she said with a coy tilt of her head. “Dalton Davis Simmons to be precise. Now, shut up and kiss me.”
He did.
And damn the consequences.
He’d deal with themtomorrow.
Chapter 9
4:41 PM...
Will had been afraid on the water plenty of times.
The sea was a capricious creature, after all, always out to maim and kill those who didn’t give her the proper respect. But never had he experienced the kind of terror he felt as Julia’s eyewall passed overhead.
For four hours, he’d kept the bow of the trawler pointed toward the prevailing winds. For four hours he’d listened to the main engine roar as the boat rode the waves to their crests before surfing down their backsides. And for four hours he’d never lost faith in the ship or his crew.
But when the most treacherous part of the storm hit, things that’d simply been sliding back and forth across the deck began to fly around and break up. Fin, Jace, and Brady had stopped playing whack-a-mole with the various systems that needed tending and were now hanging onto anything that would keep them steady. And the sound of the bow hitting the bottom troughs of the waves was like a gunshot.
Waves that’d been hills before rose like mountains now, even on the protected side of the island. And the air outside was so full of flying foam, it was impossible to see the ocean around them.
