“I just didn’t believe you really wanted me...I mean in more than a sexual way until now. Any other guy would have been after his own satisfaction, but not you.”
“Oh, I intend to have satisfaction and much more, butyou’re a mystery to me,ma chère, and I’m not going to rush one thing with you.”
REMY WASN’T USUALLYA patient lover. That was when it hit him that this was nothing like those vacation flings he’d had in the past. Yes, he was away from his normal life and he had the sun on his back. But Staci was the woman lying in front of him. He had never wanted a woman more. Her taste was on his lips, the imprint of her body was on his fingers and he longed to rip off that brief bikini bottom and bury himself hilt deep inside her.
She stared up at him with those clear gray eyes of hers and he knew that he didn’t want to disappoint her in any way. There was vulnerability in her gaze that he knew she’d hate if she knew it was there.
He put his hands on her waist and leaned down to kiss her because he didn’t want to face that clear gaze of hers for another second. He lingered over her mouth. Slowly, he pushed his tongue over her lips and teeth and tasted the hidden recesses of her mouth. Her taste was addictive. He couldn’t imagine a time when he wouldn’t want to be able to taste her. He needed her like a dying man needed to breathe.
Her hands came up to his shoulders and she clung to him while their tongues dueled and her body lifted toward his. He was ready for her, ready to take her but he’d meant what he’d said about wanting them to be in a bed the next time they made love, so he lifted his head and got to his feet.
“I think we’ve had enough sun for now,” he said, his voice was gruff, his mind full of images of the two of them entwined on that big bed down in the stateroom. He’d made sure everything was ready for them before they’d left the marina. When he made love to her he wanted everything to be perfect.
She nodded, nibbling on her lower lip. He wanted to groan and couldn’t help but steal another deep kiss. There was something about this woman that he couldn’t get enough of.
“Definitely enough sun.”
He lifted her into his arms; she was so slight that he carried her easily across the deck and down the few stairs to the stateroom. He closed the door behind them and placed her in the center of the queen-size bed. The light streamed through the sheer curtains on the porthole windows.
She stretched her arms and legs out, letting the richness of the satin duvet caress her skin. The bikini top shifted around her breasts, showing him more of the pale white globes that he wanted to touch. She noticed his eyes stayed on her breasts and she reached up to undo the top knot behind her neck.
“Like what you see?” she asked. Her thick black bangs, falling in a heavy wave toward her eyes.
“You know I do,” he said.
The fabric was still there just draped over her and he pushed his swim shorts to his ankles freeing his erection. He noticed that her gaze tracked down his body and paused on his masculinity. He took her ankles in his hands and drew her legs apart, before placing one knee between them. He reached for her bikini bottoms and pulled them down her legs, tossing them on the floor next to his swim trunks. Then he started kissing her legs again, starting at her feet this time.
He wanted to go as slowly as he had up on deck but his body had different ideas. He liked foreplay because the longer he drew out their coming together the more intense the feeling was when finally he was inside her body. But this was Staci and he felt as if it had been ages since he’d had her in his arms.
When he reached the top of her thighs he settled between her legs and parted her intimate flesh. With his tongue he flicked at the swollen bud there as her hips raised off the bed and into his touch. He kept flicking his tongue overand over that spot until she reached for him. The taste of her was spicy and he couldn’t get enough of her. He teased and tempted her center until he felt her hips moving more quickly and her heels dug into the bed as her orgasm washed over her.
He was so hard he felt as if he were going to explode and when she reached down and took him in hand he almost did. He pulled her hand from him and drew her arm up and over her head.
He pushed aside the bikini top that revealed her hard pink nipples. Her breasts were small but curvy. They fit her tiny frame. He rubbed his hips over hers, letting the tip of his manhood settle into her while he suckled one nipple. He swirled his tongue over her engorged flesh until she shifted her shoulders and dug her hands into his hair to hold his head to her breast.
She chanted his name under her breath, the words were music to his ears, inflaming his desire and pushing him over the edge. He could barely hold on when he shifted to kiss and suck her other breast.
Her fingers tightened around his hair, but he wouldn’t be hurried. Now that the end was so close he wanted her to enjoy every second of it. This time felt more real than their hurried coupling on the balcony had. This was what he’d been waiting for since he’d met her.
He stopped to look up at her. Her lips were parted, her eyes were half closed. Her hands flung above her head with abandon and her skin was covered in a dark pink flush. He memorized her in this instant before he thrust a final time into her.
She cried out as they climaxed together. She wrapped her legs around his waist and kept him buried inside her.
He wanted to give Staci everything he had. And he realized that she was more important to him than any other woman he’d ever been with.
He rolled to his side, keeping their bodies joined but held his weight from crushing her. A sense of peace and belonging overcame him, although he knew that it wouldn’t last because no matter what he’d been trying to tell himself this wasn’t real. He wasn’t even the man she thought he was.
Chapter Ten
STACISTRETCHED,ROLLED over and curled against Remy. There was no confusion about where she was or whom she was with. And for the first time since she’d left Paris all those years ago, she felt as if she hadn’t made a mistake in trusting a man. She snuggled closer to him, breathing in the woodsy scent of his aftershave, the lingering smell of sea breeze on his skin and the subtle fragrance of sex.
He squeezed her tight and rubbed his hand down her back in a long languid stroke. It occurred to her that if they stayed here at sea for the rest of their lives everything would be okay. It was only when they got around others that they’d encounter problems. But her grandmother had always warned her about hiding from the truth.
There was a reason she wanted to hide and that was...she didn’t know. Maybe she was scared or too attached to Remy. Maybe she didn’t want him to know that he could make her feel as good as he had. Because she still was afraid to really trust him. She might feel good now, but her mind was getting active and herdoubts floated to the fore.
Tension settled over her and stole her sunshine as sure as clouds could on a summer’s day.
“What are you thinking about?”
