Cam had intended to stop once he was buried inside her, to pace himself. To savor the tight, wet feel of her gripping every inch of him. But the self-control he’d exerted thus far had taken a toll and the sweet way she tightened around him ripped the last shred of it away in one velvety squeeze.
“Yes!” she screamed as he pumped into her again, then again.
She’d locked her legs around him with surprising strength and kept him tight up against her as she rocked with him, thrust for thrust.
He was groaning now, done with grappling for control, blindly seeking the release her perfectly lithe little body promised him.
“Oh God,” he groaned as he felt the rush coming over him.
“Look at me,” she commanded, reaching him through the thick haze of lust and carnal need that had gripped him the moment he’d entered her.
His eyes flashed open at the command.
“I want to watch you scream,” she panted, then tightened her heels on his back and pushed hard up against him as he buried himself in her once more.
His climax roared through him like a rocket on takeoff. He shouted, groaned, and, yes, screamed as she continued to take his thrusts as he poured himself into her.
When the shuddering convulsions finally stopped, he was barely able to shift and collapse on the bed beside her. “Dear…God,” he managed, shaken by the power of what he’d just experienced.
“Amen,” she said, reverently.
He smiled then. She did that to him, too, made him smile when he least expected to.
He turned his head to look at her. Her eyes were closed and her expression could only be described as…blissful. He wondered if his looked the same. He certainly felt it.
She rolled her head toward him then and opened her eyes. Those pale, yet so intensely passionate eyes. “Hey, sailor,” she murmured.
“Hey,” he said quietly.
They said nothing else for long seconds, simply lying there, looking into one another’s eyes as their breathing gradually slowed and returned to normal.
The connection he felt to her went beyond the physical, he realized, as they continued their silent communication. He liked that she didn’t know him beyond what he had revealed to her here, and yet he couldn’t help but feel she knew him better than anyone ever had. Ridiculous really, yet he couldn’t shake the notion. Or chalk it up entirely to mind-blowing sex.
He wondered if she felt the same thing…or if she was merely thinking about wanting to go another round. He had to know, and he knew exactly what he had to do to find out. Make the one intimate connection with her they’d yet to share.
And suddenly he was nervous, which was even more ridiculous. After what they’d just done together…But somehow this was more important than anything that had happened thus far. Her eyes flared as he shifted toward her, leaned in closer…
“Cam—”
A little moan escaped him at the sound of his name, murmured so lazily, so contently. “I need to kiss you,” he said. “Like I need my next breath.” And the instant he said it, he realized he wasn’t exaggerating.
She trembled…and reached for him.
His heart rate tripled at her touch, then he cupped her face and leaned over her, lowering his mouth to hers…and touching her lips. They were warm, soft, and the most inviting thing he’d ever tasted. It was like coming home.
Then she parted her lips and tentatively tasted him with the tip of her tongue. His own lips parted as a groan sounded deep in his throat and he took her inside him. It was a perfect joining, one of tongues…and souls. He couldn’t explain it and didn’t dare try. But this wasn’t going to end here, tonight. Not if he had anything to say about it.
He rolled onto his back and pulled her across his chest, continuing their deep kiss without a break. He felt his body stir again and wondered at this power she had over him. She straddled him and moved over him, stirring him further. The brush of her breasts, her peaking nipples, over his chest caused a leap of response and as she continued to plunge her tongue into his mouth, her hips moving atop him, he gradually grew fully hard once again. Amazingly again. Mercifully again, as he badly wanted back inside her.
“Slide down over me,” he managed when she finally ended the kiss.
“Patience,” she said, flashing a dry smile down at him.
“Allie,” he warned, but smiling, too.
“You’ll get what you need,” she reassured him.
He grabbed her hips and tried to position her where he could do what he so badly wanted to do, but she wriggled free. “Please,” he said, surprised to hear himself beg, but not caring so much when she grinned.
“Please, what?”
He pushed his hips off the bed, discovering it was as much fun being the follower as it had been being the leader. Still that didn’t mean he had to play fair. Catching her gaze and holding it with his own, he said, huskily, “Please take me inside you and hold me more tightly than I’ve ever been held before.”
She gasped even as she continued to evade his maneuverings. But instead of doing as he’d pleaded, she bent back on her knees and dipped her head down to lap at his nipples, surprising a moan from him. She looked up at him and said, “Grab the sheets and hold on.” Then she licked him again before pulling one of his flat nipples between her lips and tugging ever so lightly. He groaned…and grabbed for the covers.
She continued her torture, her position on her knees causing her belly to brush lightly over his now throbbing erection. “Keep your hips still,” she commanded.
“I—can’t,” he ground out.
She lifted her body off his then, kneeling upright as she straddled his thighs. “Oh, yes you can.” She grasped him, wrapping her hand fully around the steely length of him, eliciting another groan as she stroked him.
“Lie still…and let me have you.”
It took every last scrap of control to keep his hips on the bed, but he couldn’t help the way he twitched and pulsed in her hands. Not that she seemed to mind.
Then she lifted herself over him. “Watch me, Cam,” she instructed. And he did, as she slowly pushed him inside her wet, hot body.
The instant she was fitted fully on him, he groaned and his hips pumped, his self-control shattered. It didn’t matter; she leaned back, bracing herself on her hands, and let him push and pump, the angle letting him deeper inside her than ever before. He didn’t know who moaned louder and didn’t care.
He tilted his head up and watched himself enter her, watched her writhe on him, until he couldn’t take it an instant longer. He reared up and pulled her legs around his hips, so she was in his lap, impaled on him, her breasts crushed to his. “I want to be tasting you, kissing you, when I come in you,” he all but growled.
She was already there, kissing him before he finished speaking, taking him, forcing him to take her. They dueled and fought, with both tongues and bodies, battling the sensations they each wrought in the other, until both their screams filled the night air.
This time when it was over, there were no words. Cam simply pulled them both up to the pillows, and sank gratefully into their cool softness, tugging her into his arms and stroking her hair as her breath steadied, then deepened as she fell asleep on him.
Mine, he thought, holding her tight as sleep claimed him, too. Hers.
He awoke to the sound of someone tapping softly on the bungalow door. It took him a second to recall where he was…and only another moment to realize he was alone. He sat up abruptly, forcing his sleep-drugged brain to clear. Another tapping sounded at the door had him crawling off the bed, almost tripping over one of the stools in his haste to get to the door. She’d gone out early, he thought, striving to keep from panicking, and the door was locked. She was back now.
But he knew, even as he opened the door a crack, that it wasn’t going to be Allie.
“I’m so sorry to interrupt, sir,” said one of the young P.D.’s. “We just need to know when you think you’ll be done so we can send in the maids to ready the room for later use by other guests.”
“Give me a few minutes,” he managed.
“No hurry.”
“A few minutes.”
The young man nodded, with a cheery smile that Cam barely resisted slamming the door on. He clicked the door shut, thinking it was unfair for anyone to look so happy when he felt so…lost.
Yes, that was how he felt. Where had she gone? And why?
He looked around and realized that only his clothes littered the floor. Actually, only his pants and briefs. His shirt was gone. A spark of hope filled him and he hurriedly dressed, deciding the shower could wait until he’d checked into his own bungalow. After he’d found Allie. They could shower together. Perfect way to begin the day, he thought, forcing himself to think positively. In fact, today he intended to find out everything about her, tell her anything she wanted to know about him. And if he was really lucky, maybe convince her to take showers with him every morning.
But when he checked in at the main lodge, there was his shirt, neatly folded, with a note in the front chest pocket. She’d checked out earlier that morning and taken a water taxi to a nearby island. He waited until he was alone in his room to read the note.
Dear Cam,
Words cannot express the way you made me feel last night. It was beyond my wildest fantasies. I thought I’d spare us both the risk of spoiling such perfection with an awkward morning after. But I wanted you to know that I’ll never forget what we shared, and what you taught me about myself. For that I’ll owe you forever. I hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation. I’m leaving this morning. After all, I found what I was looking for. More, in fact, than I ever dreamed. And I know you don’t want to hear this, but, Cameron, you are a nice guy. The best kind of nice. I hope that doesn’t ever change.
She’d signed it, simply “Allie.”
Cam sat on the side of his bed and read the note again. And again. “It wouldn’t have been awkward, dammit,” he said, torn between feeling angry…and desolate. “It would have been perfect.”
And she hadn’t even given him a chance. But then, maybe she wasn’t looking for more. I found what I was looking for. One hot night in a tropical paradise.
Well, dammit, he might have come here looking for a hot fling, too, but he’d found more. So much more. She said she’d never forget him. He didn’t want her to have to try. Nor did he want her to be merely a memory, even if it was the best damn memory of his life. She said she’d found what she’d come for. Well, ultimately he’d come here looking to find himself. And in making love to her, being made love to by her, maybe he’d discovered just who he was.
Not a man who selfishly put his own needs first. Allie had been right about that much. He wasn’t now and never would be a bad boy. But he had realized something else. He might not be a bad boy, but he was no longer the man who simply did what was expected of him and hoped that would be enough. Because it wasn’t enough. And it never would be. If he was going to be happy, fulfilled, then he was going to have to be a man who knew what he wanted…and went after it. And he knew exactly what he wanted.
Allie.