it through security, flashed in his mind. The world had blurred around them, binding them together as if their fate had already been sealed, their destinies merging right there a few steps away from the TSA screening line where their lives had intersected for a second time.
His breaths grew ragged. Of course, he wanted her, but he didn’t want this moment to end with a quick and dirty screw against a stone pillar. Carefully, he set her down, then kneeled in front of her.
“What are you doing?” she asked as he slid his hands down her torso.
“How much do you like this skirt?” he asked, twisting a string of fabric.
“Even less than my panties,” she answered, playfully twisting a lock of his hair.
“Good answer,” he replied.
Natalie gasped as he slowly removed the luau costume, then slid her panties down her slim legs. Gripping her ass in both hands, he kissed a line from her hip down to the apex of her thighs, then hooked her left leg over his shoulder and tasted her sweet center.
“You’ve risen to the challenge,” she moaned as he worked her into a frenzy.
Her body trembled with the promise of release. Her gasps and tight breaths sent a heated charge through his veins. And then she was there, balancing on the edge of sweet release. Twisting her fingers in his hair, she succumbed to her desire.
“Jake, oh, yes!” she panted, winding down.
But they weren’t done yet—not even close. If this was their chance to break the Kiss Keeper Curse, he was not about to half-ass it.
Prowling the length of her body, he kissed his way up, pausing to give special attention to the delicate skin below her earlobe. Natalie hummed her gratification, and the sound went straight to his hard length. With her taste on his tongue, their mouths met in a fury of feverish passion. He needed to have her right there. Curse or no curse, she was his.
With her chest heaving, Natalie broke their kiss then turned in his arms. Her ass brushed against his hard length, and he was done holding back. Unclasping his pants, he shrugged out of them. When he reached for her, his hands met her hips. She’d hinged forward, presenting her perfect ass.
He caressed the soft flesh. “You’re beautiful.”
Positioning himself at her entrance, he drove into her wet heat. One hand on her hip and the other reaching around to caress her tight bundle of nerves, he took her from behind in slow, deliberate strokes, savoring each delicious thrust. But the urge to let loose and allow his lust to take over prevailed. Their bodies met in a punishing rhythm that quickly had them gasping, balancing on the tightrope between two worlds—one where they were two bodies and the other where their souls became one.
She cried out, tightening around him. He tore off his blindfold and then hers. He had to see her, had to look into her eyes when they met their release. She arched her back and turned her head. His fingertips pressed into the soft flesh of her hips as their eyes met in the darkness. He let go, spilling into her, shedding the past and promising himself he’d be the kind of man who deserved a future with her. Pistoning his hips and working her sensitive bud, they journeyed into oblivion together, their bodies writhing as they rode out wave after wave of pleasure.
He pulled out and gathered Natalie into his arms. She rested her head in the crook of his neck. She was warm, so warm in his arms as she melted into his embrace.
“Do you think it worked?” she asked, her breath tickling his neck.
Did they break the curse or was what he’d held back—the truth of his connection to her and this place—still a threat?
He tightened his hold on her. He’d make it work. He had to. He’d figure out a way to get Charlie off the scent and keep Camp Woolwich intact.
He tilted her face up and pressed his lips to hers as a chill ran through him. “One more kiss, just to be sure,” he said, praying that somewhere out there, the spirit of Otis Wiscasset would relinquish his hold and lift the Kiss Keeper Curse.
10
Natalie
Natalie picked out a cowgirl hat and placed it on her head, then checked her reflection in the mirror and could hardly recognize the woman who couldn’t seem to wipe the smile from her face.
Over the past three days, she and Jake had decided not