The light is golden on his shoulders. He’s just walking next to me, wet-haired and sun-tired, looking so beautiful it makes my chest ache. As of today, I know the exact place on his ribs where he’s ticklish. I know the rough sound he makes when he comes, and I know what his hands look like when they’re open and empty and not holding on to anything.
I know this man. Not all of him. Not yet. But enough to know I’m not bracing for the worst right now. Not with him. I feel safe, despite the fact that this might be a temporary happiness.
Alec makes me feel safe.
God, he makes me feeleverything.
That should terrify me. Trusting someone this much, this fast, with no safety net and nothing but a gut feeling that says he’s worth it.
To be honest, I am terrified.
But I reach for his hand anyway.
CHAPTER 19
ALEC
We head back just before sunset. Ella walks a couple steps ahead of me on the path back to the resort, and the view from here is making it difficult to focus on anything except the beautiful woman who’s somehow gotten past all my defenses.
Her hair is a wreck. Salt-stiffened, tangled from the mask strap, drying in pieces that stick to her neck and her shoulders in dark, unruly tendrils. She hasn’t touched it since we came out of the water. She doesn’t seem to care. Most women I’ve known would have rushed to fix it by now, fingers combing, elastic produced from nowhere. Ella just left it loose and natural, the same way she left the sand on her calves and the salt drying white on the strip of golden skin between her bikini top and her sarong.
She’s a mess, but she’s the most stunning thing I’ve seen on this island—and I’ve been underwater most of the day, staring at coral that’s been growing for a thousand years.
My dick has been awake since the second dive. Since her fingers trailed down my forearm. Holding her while we played and floated in the water hadn’t helped, either. I can still feel her legs tangled between mine as we kissed and touched each otherunder the surface of the turquoise sea. Every time her smooth skin brushed against me it was fuel to the fire. I watch her bounce ahead of me and it’s all I can do to clamp a lid on my urge to get inside her again.
She glances back at me over her shoulder with those amazing blue eyes, and the late afternoon sun catches the lovely angles of her face. “You’re quiet back there. Are you checking out my ass?”
I smirk, unrepentant. “Absolutely.”
She laughs, facing forward again and giving her hips a bigger sway as she walks. Her sexy taunting would be funny if it wasn’t creating an even more obvious tent in my swim trunks. An older couple passes us going the opposite direction and I shift the snorkel gear in front of me and give them a guilty smile.
As soon as they’re gone, I close the distance between Ella and me and grab her around the waist with my free arm.
“You want to tease me?” I nuzzle the tender spot in the crook of her neck and shoulder. “You better be ready to back it up.”
Her laughter fades into a shivery sigh. “Yeah? Well, you better be ready to make good on that threat.”
I pull back and meet her eyes. “Baby, I’ve been ready all day.”
“Mm, I can feel that you are.” She gives me a slow smile. “So what are we doing wasting time out here?”
“My thoughts exactly.” I smack my palm lightly on her round butt cheek. “Let’s go.”
Taking my free hand in hers, she leads me at a faster pace toward the resort.
We make it into our suite on autopilot. The door closes behind us and her sarong hits the floor in seconds. I drop the swim gear without a thought for putting it in its proper place. The only coherent thought in my head is how fast I can get Ella out of her bikini.
I’ve been thinking about these ties for days. Two thin strings hold together a small triangle of fabric that has been testing myself-control since the first morning she walked out in this thing. I reach behind her neck and pull. The knot gives. The top falls away from her breasts and I catch it in my hand and toss it aside. The sight of her bare skin and soft breasts tipped with taut, rosy nipples makes my throat go dry.
I bend my head down and suck one of them into my mouth.
Her soft gasp turns into a moan. “I’m all salty and sandy.”
“I don’t care.” My palm closes over her other breast while I kiss and lick her nipple into an even harder peak. She tastes like seawater and sunscreen, but right now it’s my favorite flavor in the world.
Her hand finds my erection over my damp swim shorts. “Guess you never have to worry about shrinkage, huh?”
She pushes my trunks off my hips. They drop to the floor and her hand wraps around my cock. I groan against her breast, the sound muffled by her skin. She gives me a long, slow stroke and my hips jerk forward.
