The Devil and the Deep - By Amy Andrews Page 0,47

pressure building deep and low.

Was it possible to orgasm from a kiss alone?

God knew she’d fantasised about his kiss often enough both as a teenager and as a writer crafting all those highly sensual, gloriously descriptive love scenes. Maybe it was?

His thumb stroked along her temple and her head spun from the rhythmic caress. Her hips rotated restlessly against the deck as she felt herself edge closer.

Maybe, after all this time, a kiss was going to be enough?

Rick had spent a good portion of his life not wondering what kissing Stella would be like and now he knew he never wanted to stop.

Suddenly it was the only thing that made sense. Not the stars or the ocean or Inigo’s treasure.

None of it.

Just that little whimpering noise at the back of her throat that reverberated inside his head like a benediction—like his own private cheer squad.

And the sweet aroma of coconuts.

Lying by himself on deck before, Stella hadn’t made sense.

Looming over her, pressing her into the deck, feeling the flesh and blood of her, the restless sexuality bubbling in her kiss, the harsh, desperate suck of her breath and the answering rhythm of his own body, she’d never made more sense.

He wanted more. He wanted all. He wanted everything.

His hand fell to her arm, to gather her closer, pull her nearer, imprint her along the length of him.

And then she stiffened against him, cried out, broke away...

CHAPTER EIGHT

RICK froze as he stared down at her, her right hand supporting her injured left arm, her teeth sunken into her bottom lip, plump and moist from his ravaging. He was dazed for a moment, trying to compute what had brought an abrupt end to the passion.

Trying to compute what the hell had happened in the first place.

‘I’m fine,’ Stella said, breathing hard through clenched teeth as the jarring settled. She could see his bewilderment and something else, a slow dawning that seemed to closely resemble horror.

No, no, no.

‘Just give me a moment,’ she scrambled to assure him as she watched his blue gaze lose its drugged lustre and slowly recoil from her. ‘Now.’ She smiled up at him, the pain in her left arm easing as she slipped her good hand onto his shoulder. ‘Where were we?’

Rick shook his head to clear the remnants of a very powerful buzz. What the hell? He groaned as he collapsed back against the deck.

‘Oh, my God,’ he said to the sky, blind to the beauty of the celestial display.

‘Rick,’ she assured him again, brushing a finger against his hand, ‘it’s fine.’

‘Oh, my God,’ he repeated, moving his hand to his face, covering his eyes and shaking his head from side to side. ‘What have I done?’

‘Rick—’

‘No.’ He vaulted upright, then sprang to his feet. ‘No, Stella,’ he said, looking down at her. ‘This is...crazy.’

Stella blinked at his vehemence. It had been shocking and surprising and unexpected. Not to mention unbelievably good.

But crazy?

She sat up gingerly. Obviously this wasn’t going any further and she couldn’t have this conversation with him towering over her reclined body.

‘Why?’

Rick stared at her as her calm response filled him with complicated angst. ‘Because,’ he spluttered, ‘you’re Stella and I’m Rick and we—’ he pointed back and forth between the two of them ‘—don’t do this.’

‘We made a kiss a stake in your flirting dare,’ she pointed out.

And as far as Stella was concerned it was the best first kiss ever. A kiss that had obliterated Dale’s best for eternity. A kiss that would surely ruin her for all other kisses.

Rick shook his head vehemently. ‘Not this kind of kiss.’ He’d thought about how it might go down and it hadn’t been anything like this. It had been slow, sweet, controlled.

And they’d both been vertical.

‘Why not?’ She wasn’t sixteen any more. Did he think she’d be satisfied with something chaste?

He blanched at her simple query. ‘How about twenty-plus years of friendship? Or a legal document with both our signatures on that states we own a company together? Your father, for crying out loud.’

Stella frowned. ‘My father?’

‘Yes,’ Rick fumed.

‘My father?’

Rick nodded. ‘He warned me off.’

‘My father warned you off?’

Rick hadn’t been forthcoming about what Nathan had said to him that day and, with the slight impression that she too had somehow let her father down, she hadn’t pursued it.

He glared at her incredulous expression. ‘Well, not in so many words, no. But every crew member he employed knew you were off-limits, Stel. Nathan didn’t want anyone messing with his little girl.’

It took her a