“I should warn you,” he whispered when his lips were nearly touching hers. His beard tickled her chin. His warm breath smelled deliciously of sugar and strawberries. “You open this can and I’m liable to eat it all the way to the tin bottom.”
She caught her lower lip between her teeth. “You promise?”
His answer was a low growl. “What about needin’ a first date? What about me winin’ and dinin’ you?”
She pointed to the discarded package of dried fruit. “That covers the dining part. As for the wining part? I much prefer a good cocktail. But we seem to be out of fancy umbrellas…” She shrugged.
“So…” He cocked a provocative brow. “What you’re saying is…”
“Kiss me, John,” she breathed against his lips.
He didn’t disappoint. Wrapping a hand around the back of her neck, he pulled her forward that last inch. And the instant his mouth was on hers, she knew…
John Anderson was going to be the greatest lover of her life.
It was there in his kiss. In the way his mouth moved over hers with such slow, satisfied confidence. In the way he easily transferred her to his lap when he slipped from the chair onto the bed. In the way his big hands framed her face, turning her head this way and that so he could access all the parts of her mouth with his incredibly talented tongue.
When he finally, many,manyminutes later pulled back from the kiss, her heart was beating a mile a minute. She was intensely aware of all her womanly bits. And her breath came in ragged gasps.
“That was…” He had to stop and clear his throat.
She hid a secretive smile. “Yes,” she wholeheartedly agreed. “It was.”
He chuckled and then sighed heavily, looking sort of boyish, like a kid who’d just had his lunch money stolen.
“What?” She framed his bearded cheeks with her hands. “What’s wrong?”
“Hear that?” He lifted a blunt-tipped finger.
Cocking her ear toward the closed door, she strained to hear what’d snagged his attention. But all she heard was a low, hollow-sounding silence.
She shook her head. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly.” He bobbed his chin and his whiskered cheeks raked against her palms. The friction made her shudder in delight and imagine all manner of naughty things. “Julia has left the building.”
“Oh, my gosh!” A relieved breath rushed out of her as reality set in. “You’re right! We made it!”
“’Course we did.” His mustache twitched. “Did you ever doubt it?”
She made a face of disbelief. “Uh, yeah. Between the storm surge and the relentless winds and the masked men and the gunplay, there were a few moments there when I thought I’d seen my last sunrise. You asked what gets me excited about life? How about justlife.”
He laughed and she loved the low, liquid sound of it. “It does have a certain ring to it, doesn’t it?”
“So now what? What’s next?”
“What’s next between me and you?” That devilish twinkle was back in his eye. “I got a few ideas.”
“Oh, yeah?” She hoped her arched eyebrow looked coquettish. That’s what she was aiming for. “Do tell.”
“Later.” He smacked a quick—an all too quick—kiss on her lips and shoved to a stand. Since she was sitting on his lap, it was either slide onto the floor or stand with him. She chose the latter. “Right now, I need to put in a radio call to the Coast Guard. See if they can send a chopper or a Cutter to take our guests to the hospital in Key West.”
Sighing heavily, she smoothed her hair away from her face and grimaced when she felt how huge it’d grown. Humidity was hell for curly-headed gals.
“Back to life,” she singsonged. “Back to reality.”
His next words had her stomach flipping in anticipation. “But reality just makes the times you get to indulge in fantasy that much more delicious, doncha think?”
Oh, yes. She wasn’t sure where this thing with John was headed. If it was headed anywhere other than the bedroom. But what shedidknow was, no matter what, she was going to have one hell of a good time.
