each other. Just the gray illumination coming from between the slats of the blinds tracked across her body as my hands moved up under her tank top. That smooth skin, those curves. My mouth was on hers and there was nothing like the way I felt when her tongue slid along mine, picking up my rhythm. She had felt that sharp attraction between us, too. And she wasn’t shy about it. She’d had my shirt off in no time.
I remember sliding my arm around her waist after I hiked up her soft orange tank top. I’d hauled her against my chest, lifting her right off her feet. I’d heard her kick off her flip flops before her legs went around my waist. Her thighs were incredible, strong and hot. Her ass was a generous handful when I gripped it to hold her up. She had arched her back and my mouth had covered her nipple through the thin soft cotton of her top. The peak had pebbled instantly, wet from my mouth, and I was breathing so hard I wasn’t sure I could stand. I’d backed her up against the wall, braced her there. She ran her hands through my hair, tugging it wildly when I sucked a spot on her neck.
Her whole curvy body was so responsive, molding to mine and giving me every sizzling moan and whimper a man could want when he touched a woman. Not just a woman. The woman. The one he’d waited for. The one he wanted to touch all over as soon as they met and never stop pleasuring her, claiming her. Even with my brothers and some friends right outside the cabin the courtyard, I wanted her. I would’ve fucked her against that wall, rattling the windows and letting her screams rip through the crowd. I would never have stopped. Her last name didn’t matter. My military service and famed self-discipline didn’t matter. Every part of her made me crazy. The shock of recognition when we’d met—a stranger who felt familiar, who felt absolutely necessary to me.
I found her. I’ll make her mine.
This was the mission. And I never failed a mission. So I’d claim her and keep her, get drunk on the taste of her, lick her until she screamed and cried my name. I didn’t want her out of my sight or out of my reach. It was primal, wolfish even. I was rangy and wired because we’d been too long apart. I wanted to give her a perfect homecoming, a romantic evening just the two of us. The only problem was the fact that half of me howled to bend her over the nearest table and penetrate her, remind her whose she was and that she’d been gone too long. I wanted her clawing at the table and rocking her hips back into me. I wanted her begging me for more. I wanted to give it to her like no one else could. I felt slightly obsessed with the idea, with the woman herself as well.
Her arrival tonight couldn’t come soon enough. I’d been waiting for her with everything in me. It didn’t matter that there’d been a grain of truth to Tommy’s teasing. Not about me crocheting or something stupid, but about Karin being the One. I shamelessly believed that everyone had one great love. I also suspected that she was mine.
Chapter 2
Karin
Elise was meeting me at the little airport on the island. I couldn’t refuse her when she offered. She was my best friend. We were in business together. I hadn’t even seen her since her positive pregnancy test, much less had a chance to catch up with her. She’d been so busy getting our firm off the ground. We needed time to catch up, and I knew she wanted to tell me all the thousands of ways Brendan made her happy. She deserved all that and more.
There was still a part of me that wished Mickey had picked me up, but I’d never tell Elise that. I barely admitted it to myself.
“Babe!” I said when I saw her, dragging my wheeled suitcase behind me.
Elise was radiant, so happy and with a tiny baby bump. Anyone who didn’t know her wouldn’t have noticed, but I saw the curve of her belly and the way she touched it so lovingly. When I reached her, I let go of my suitcase and hugged her.
“Hi! I missed you so much!” she said.
“You look amazing. You’re tanned and rested and so