“Not long,” he said in his rich, dark voice. She liked how he talked. Short and to the point. There wasn’t a lot of messing around with him. “Only a few days.”
Her body was still humming from the brief moment of contact and from the hand that was around her arm so it took her a moment for her synapses to connect again.
Under normal circumstances she might have been disappointed by his response. Actually, even under these extraordinary circumstances, she felt a twinge of it, knowing that he would be leaving soon and she wouldn’t be able to get to know him better.
But then, she realized that “a few days” might just be the answer—or excuse—that she needed. If Scott wasn’t around, Mick wouldn’t be able to find out about him, and she wouldn’t have a reason to put the brakes on where this was heading. And she didn’t need to be a mind reader to figure out exactly where this was heading.
His eyes were dropping just as often to her mouth as hers were to his, he was getting into the close talking just as much as she was, and his hand didn’t seem to be tooeager to release her arm. Actually it was sliding down and doing a little caressing.
But she had to make sure. He’d said he was on leave, right? “Then it’s back on the ship?” she asked.
His mouth curved in a wry smile that revealed a dimple in his left cheek, which made her heart skip a few beats.
God, this guy was almost too much to take. “Dreamy” was putting it mildly. Despite his interest in her, he’d been a little reserved at first. But as they’d talked he’d relaxed considerably.
“Something like that,” he said.
“You guys are at sea for months at a time, right?”
“Can be.” He stopped the movement of his hand over the bare skin of her arm that was turning her knees to mush and frowned. “Do you have a boyfriend or something?”
“No,” she said, surprised. “Why?”
“You seem kind of eager to get rid of me.”
Her cheeks heated, which she hoped he took as embarrassment, not guilt. “No. Just trying to get the lay of the land.”
He held her gaze for a moment. She wished she knew what he was thinking, but she got the sense that this guy would be very hard to read if he didn’t want you to.
“Fair enough.” He took a final sip of his beer and set it down on the bar. “You want to get out of here?”
Her heart slammed against her chest. It was the moment of truth. Now she understood what that look was about. He’d been trying to see whether they were on the same page. The same one-night-stand, casual-hookup page.
Were they?
Natalie’s heart pounded. She didn’t know. Could chemistry really be this good? Could she really do this?
There was one way to find out. She closed the narrowgap between them with more of a sway than a step so that their bodies were touching.
The reaction was instantaneous. It was like walking into an oven. She was drenched with heat. Her skin tightened and tingled.
All over.
It was amazing. Literally amazing. This was a whole new world of desire for her—before and after what had happened with Mick. But what she’d experienced with Todd had been... nice. This wasn’t nice. It was raw and fierce and intense. It was mind-blowing terrain.
Scott guessed her intention and took the lead. His arm looped easily around her waist and drew her in even tighter as their lips touched for the first time.
Good God. It was like a shock of sensation going off inside her. She dissolved into the heat of his mouth, consumed by the raw energy of the passion firing between them.
His lips were soft and firm at the same time as they moved over hers skillfully and possessively. This man knew how to kiss and how to take charge.
And he did so fantastically. Perfectly. Incredibly. Nothing had ever felt more natural. It was almost too easy. It was hard to think. Hard to be rational when something felt this good. This right.
He was also a man used to getting what he wanted, and she’d just jumped to number one on the list.
She opened her mouth, wanting to taste him deeper, and he was already there. The sensation of his tongue stroking and sliding against hers sent her stomach right to the floor. The strokes grew deeper and deeper. Hotter. Wetter. More frantic. It was too much to take. She rode up against him, needing to feel the hard press of his desire. She wasn’t disappointed. The thick slab made her stomach drop again. Her moan mixed with his groan as a pool of heat flooded between her legs.
She had her answer. Yes, chemistry could be this good, and yes, she coulddefinitelydo this.
