“Aha! I knew it.”
“We had zero chemistry, Janica.”
“How could someone have zero chemistry with you?”
He had to kiss her. “I'm flattered.”
“Flattery has nothing to do with it, Luke.” She ran the pad of her thumb across his lips. “You're the best kisser I've ever known.”
He leaned in to capture her sugary lips and it was the sweetest kiss they'd ever shared.
“I love you,” she whispered against his lips.
The three words ricocheted through him just as they always did. And each time something inside of him shifted a little bit more.
Allowing himself one more sensuous sweep of his tongue against hers, he pulled back. “Janica, I—”
Her eyes were dilated, her cheeks so flushed with arousal that he could see the heightened color on her face even in the dim firelight.
“Shut up and kiss me some more, Luke.”
Every time she gave him an out.
And every time he deserved it less.
But the worst part of it was that he knew he was going to take it anyway.
His mouth never leaving hers, he laid her back on the blanket. He wanted to look at her, this beautiful miracle in his arms. Shifting so that he could run his hands over her shoulders, slowly down her arms, he drank in the sight of her.
Firelight made her skin glow, but she didn't need it, didn't need anything other than the fire that was already inside of her.
“I'm so damn lucky you're here.” His statement was out there before he could think better of saying it.
She blinked up at him, her big brown eyes warm with arousal—and love. “You are?”
Her response took him by surprise, the fact that she didn't know it already.
And it made him want her even more. It made him want to show her how lucky he was, rather than just tell her with words.
The surf crashed around them as he slowly stripped off her clothes. The moon shined down over them as he ran kisses over her skin. The fire flickered as she cried out with pleasure in his arms.
As he made love to Janica Ellis, the warning bells and lights clanged and chimed and shined as loudly as they could, trying to remind him that the higher the heights, the bigger the fall. But with Janica moving beneath him and the stars up above in a cloudless sky, he couldn't stop himself from feeling greater pleasure—and deeper peace—than he ever had before.
Chapter Seventeen
“Go back to sleep,” Janica murmured as she felt Luke shift against her the following morning.
In the past few days she'd learned that her lover was an early bird. No matter how late they went to bed, no matter how little sleep they got, he was up with the sun.
The only thing that made it slightly palatable was the fact that other parts of him were up too.
“I'll let you sleep again soon,” he said, but she was already shifting her hips against his.
Her pussy was deliciously sensitive as he moved into her. She gasped at the wonderful feeling of fullness and he stilled behind her.
She knew he was worried that he was hurting her. His concern was so sweet.
And so misplaced.