Ride the Tide (Deep Six #3) - Julie Ann Walker Page 0,78
they’d choose not to fall at all.
Falling was scary. And in her experience, it hurt.
“To make sure that can’t happen, we gotta limit ourselves to one day. This day.” He glanced down at her hands, and she realized they were fidgeting in her lap.
She tried stilling them by curling them into fists. But that just made her knee jump. “Tomorrow, we wake up and go back to being friends and colleagues.” His elusive smile held a hint of bedevilment. “Difference being you won’t be a virgin, and we will have scratched this fucking itch we got. What d’you say?”
She couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes. Her own might reveal too much. So she directed her answer to his chin. “Okay.”
The word came out hesitant, making her frown.
If she appeared even the slightest bit unsure, he’d call off the whole thing. Then where would she be?
She’d have lost her one chance to make love to the man who held her heart in his hands. And even if he didn’t want it, even if he was determined that no one would ever hold his, didn’t she want that chance? Wasn’t something better than nothing?
Squaring her shoulders, she lifted her chin. “Okay,” she repeated, sounding far more certain.
That seemed to satisfy him. Because he pulled her into his lap and claimed her lips.
His first kiss made her lose her mind. His second convinced her she’d never need it back.
Chapter 21
12:31 p.m.
The nice thing about living on an island was that few clothes were required. It was possible to get naked in about two seconds flat.
Which Alex seemed dead set on doing.
Straddling Mason’s lap, she kissed him with a desire that was equal measures sweet and fierce. Between licks and sucks and nips and nibbles, she managed to whip his tank top over his head as well as her own T-shirt. Through it all, she rocked her hips against his hardness in a rhythm guaran-fucking-teed to drive him wild.
One of her hands speared into his hair. The other reached between their bodies, past his waistband, and wrapped tightly around him.
He hissed at the cool, firm feel of her fingers. Every fiber of his being wanted to flip her onto her back, rip off her shorts, and plunge into her.
But he couldn’t. He couldn’t!
The only time he’d been with a virgin, he’d been one himself. If memory served, it’d been quick and sweaty and awkward. Neither of them had known what they were doing, and both of them had come out the other side of the experience feeling they’d missed something important.
It would be different for Alex.
He was her first lover. Her only lover, a savagely possessive voice whispered through his head. It was incumbent upon him to do this right. To use everything he’d ever learned from every woman who’d come before to ensure this was everything Alex ever dreamed it would be.
First things first, though, he thought a little desperately. We gotta slow this way fucking down.
Her movements in his lap, not to mention her hand around his dick, were becoming frantic. She was making those tiny gasps of pleasure he remembered from the episode against the hotel door.
He knew what came next. Namely, her.
If she did, he wouldn’t be able to hold back. Seeing her find her release? Watching her rub herself to completion atop him? That would be too much.
He was too excited. Too worked up. He’d wanted her for too fucking long.
“Alex.” He ripped his mouth away. “Babe, slow down.”
She either didn’t hear him or didn’t care to heed his instructions. Her little teeth latched onto his earlobe and her pistoning hips didn’t miss a beat.
“Alex,” he managed even as he felt his balls draw up. Much more and he was done for.
She might not have any experience, but her instincts were spot-fucking-on.
Growling, he jerked her hand from his shorts and flipped her onto her back. Immediately, she reached for him, trying to pull him on top of her. But he caught her wrists in one hand and manacled them above her head.
“Alex!” This time she registered her own name. She blinked, her eyes glazed with desire. “Slow down, babe. No need to rush this. Let’s take our time.”
“What if I don’t want to?” Her chest rose and fell with harsh breaths.
He decided there was nothing in the world more captivating than her face when it was flushed with passion. “You do,” he assured her. “You just don’t know it yet.”