so?”
He moved closer, then slipped an arm beneath her so her head rested on his shoulder. Lifting both hands, he shaped his fingers into a box. “Let me give you a perfect picture.”
Her body stilled.
“Now close one eye,” he advised, and adjusted his hands so they matched up with her line of sight. “What do you see?”
“The half-moon, a star.”
“Blink once.” When she did, he smiled. “You just took a photo of them.”
Her gaze slid to him, skeptical.
“Really. Close your eyes.” He let his hands drop. “What do you see?”
“Half a moon,” she whispered slowly. “A star.”
“There. Captured forever.”
Her small sigh still sounded a bit forlorn.
He didn’t let it deter him. To the marrow of his bones, he knew they were supposed to be together—tonight, and for the remaining nights he had at the cove. Sliding his arm from beneath her, he sat up. Once more he made a frame with his hands, and looked at her through them. “There,” he said. “Your pretty face, always mine.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, and he pretended to take a photo of that, too, before swooping down to steal a kiss. Her taste lingered on his mouth, and he knew he’d possess that forever, too.
Then he straightened again, and used the edge of his thumb to dry the moisture from her lips. “Take it from an experienced photo editor. There’s an easy way to eliminate those conflicts and doubts that are bothering you.”
“I’m listening.”
He once more boxed his fingers, then moved them this way and that, capturing her eyes, her ear, her mouth, her chin. “Crop out what’s too loud, pare away anything that clashes with the image you see in your head, strip off the extraneous. Then what you have is pure. The truth.”
“And what’s the truth?” Skye asked.
His hands cupped her cherished, now so-familiar face. “That we’re here, right now, together. That this moment, these moments at the cove are ours to enjoy. They belong to us.”
The next kiss was longer. She tasted like sweet surrender, and Gage felt a surge of heated satisfaction. He came down over her, a primitive part of him insisting he prevent her escape. Her legs parted, a willing cradle for his sex.
Caution urged him to go slow and gentle. There was tension in her, not from her body but from her busy brain. So he took a deep breath and tried slowing the primal beat of his heart. Take a picture, he reminded himself.
Her drowsy eyes.
Her swollen mouth.
The contrast of his big, tanned hands on the delicate buttons of her white blouse. Her bra was stretchy lace, and he drew the cups beneath her breasts, letting the material plump the soft flesh, glowing in the moonlight. The tips hardened under his gaze and he thumbed them, hearing her soft pants in response, feeling her shift beneath his hips.
Still unhurried, he drew away her shirt, letting it drift to the deck. Then he dipped his head to her nipples, drawing them into his mouth, sucking on them with thirsty, yet slow intent. She whimpered, and her legs drew up to clasp his hips. He pressed into the juncture of her thighs, the ridge of his cock aching to join with her there.
“Gage,” she whispered, her fingers sifting through his hair as he continued to lick and gently bite at her breasts. “Take me inside.”
“No,” he said, drawing his mouth up her neck. “Let’s make our forever right here, under the moon I framed for you.”
She shuddered as he reached her ear. “Someone will see.”
“Only me. And I want to look at you bathed in starlight.”
Her mouth opened, but he stole the argument from her, kissing her until she was helpless to speak, her hands sliding from his shoulders to land on the cushions beside her hips, boneless.
His to do with as he pleased.
Yet her acquiescence suddenly wasn’t soothing. It honed a desperate edge on his need for her as his pulse ratcheted higher and his heart pounded like tribal drums in his chest. Afraid she’d glimpse the hotheaded animal that was his lust, he reared back, turning her body beneath him so her belly lay against the cushions.
His hands fumbled with her bra fastening and he had to wrench it free. He flung it away, breathing hard as he stared down at the smooth valley of her spine. With shaking fingers, he drew her hair off her neck, baring her to him from her vulnerable nape to the precious dip at the small of