Jonah showed his excellent navigational skills by backing her into the bathroom while kissing her. He angled past the edge of the bed, tempted to stop right there, then around a chair, and through the narrow door opening to the head. All with his eyes closed.
He’d always enjoyed kissing. The slick, sweet taste of a woman’s mouth, the heat and flash of arousal as the kiss got hotter. But kissing wasn’t his main focus prior to lovemaking. It was a delicious hors d’oeuvre before the main meal.
Kissing Callie changed the ball game. He couldn’t get enough of her, couldn’t tear himself away from the taste and texture of her mouth. Kissing her could be enough—it wasn’t, but damn, it was so good, it could be.
Kissing her felt like magic.
Breathing was highly overrated.
This mad, mindless lust was new to him. He’d always been able to compartmentalize. Not so when he made love to Callie. Brain and body engaged 110 percent.
Leaning his hip against the counter, Jonah pulled her flush against him. Pressed together from chest to knees, he felt the furnace heat of her silky skin, still warm from mortification. He loved that she’d run naked for him, despite her reluctance and embarrassment.
The woman melted his brain cells.
Rock-hard, aching to get inside her, he angled his hips to press his dick against her moist heat. Instantly responsive, she shifted her feet, canting her hips to meet him. The hard points of her nipples pressed into his chest, upped his heat. He liked the small, plump shape of her breasts, the soft, pale pink of the hard tips, loved how responsive she was to his slightest touch.
He inhaled deeply as she moved against him, filling his head with the scent of her. A faint hint of coconut underlay the intoxicating natural fragrance of her skin.
Without breaking their lip-lock—the room wasn’t that big—he reached over to twist on the shower. Her short nails dug into his back to hold him to her. “Not going anywhere,” he murmured against the corner of her mouth.
She stroked his back, then cupped his ass. “Good.” Her nails scored his skin, making him shudder against her. “I have long-range plans for you, Cutter.”
His heart tripped quadruple time. “Long range” should’ve scared the erection away. Somehow the words did just the opposite. “Dios, you smell delicious, and you feel even better. I can’t get enough of you. Te necesito, querido.”
“You have me.”
He shifted her slightly so he could open a drawer in the cabinet behind her. Lifting his lips from hers, he handed her a foil package.
She blinked, then took it from him. “Where did this come from?”
“Bedside table, and, being the long-range planner that I am, a few in here for emergencies.” They kept a giant-sized box of condoms in the infirmary for anyone who wanted them when they went on shore leave. He’d grabbed two handfuls, then a third for the hell of it. Her cabin. His cabin. A few in the cabinet near the hot tub, a few more in her lab … Yeah, he was a long-range planner all right.
“This certainly constitutes an emergency.” Impatiently she inspected the small square to figure out how to open it. “My bedside table? How’d it get there?”
“Not it, they. I put them there before dinner.”
“Sneaky,” she said admiringly as she ripped the corner off with her teeth. She took his dick in her palm, inspected it, then used both hands to fit the end over his pulsing hard-on, nice and snug. A shudder shot from Jonah’s balls to his brain.
She stuck her tongue out so he could remove the tiny bit of foil since her hands were busy. “You’re a man scout.”
She gripped his shaft, stroking the lubricated latex down the stone-hard length of him. His dick twitched eagerly in her hand.
“A man s-scout.” His fingers clamped around hers to guide her. “Jesus, that feels—Yeah. Just like that.”
“Then take your hand off mine so I can keep doing it.” Callie admonished tartly, nudging away his helping fingers with her free hand. “This isn’t boy-sized, but I do like a man who’s prepared. You do realize this is a little like putting the cart before the horse, don’t you? We’ve made love at least five hundred times with nothing between us but—us.”
Yeah. He’d given that a vague thought.
“All done.” She gave his dick a friendly pat, which made him grin as he pulled her back into alignment. “Are we done kissing?” she asked demurely, peridot eyes sultry as she shifted her gaze to look up at him.
He smiled against her lips. “Not by a long shot.” While the water drummed like tropical rain, he resumed kissing her slowly and thoroughly. Cupping the back of her head so her hair poured over his hand and arm, a dark, silky waterfall, he went back to the task at hand. Urging her tighter against him with his palm on the small of her back, he let his hand linger there when she shivered and her tongue faltered as it tangled with his. He’d never thought of the small of a woman’s back as an erogenous zone, but he already knew it was for Callie.
Sucking her tongue caused her fingers to curl into the hair on his chest as she angled her head and took the kiss to another plane.
Steam swirled around them as he trailed his fingers down the sweet globes of her ass, slid his fingers teasingly down the crack until she moaned.
Gliding his lips down her neck to the rapid, uneven pulse at the base of her throat, Jonah tasted coconut, salt, and Callie. He returned to nip her lower lip with his teeth, smiling against her as she gasped and tightened her arms.
He used his knee to spread her legs as he backed her against the sink cabinet. “You okay?”
“Better than.” A hazy green ring circled her dilated pupils. “I have a sweet ache, right here.” Taking his hand, Callie pressed it to her mound. “Just when I think you’ve brought out everything I have, I discover newly woken parts. Teach me more.”
He loved the way she let him move her where he wanted her.
He groaned, lifting her onto the sink. She was wet, slick folds opening like a dewy rose. Their eyes locked as Callie wrapped her long legs around his waist, and her arms around his neck. Her knees bracketing his hips, Jonah cupped his hands under the firm globes of her ass to pull her where he needed her, at the same time thrusting his hips forward. He filled her to the hilt, had to pause because the sensation of her tight wetness clamping around him was so good it almost hurt.
Her nails dug into his shoulders as she arched her back. Jonah felt the throbbing pulse of his heartbeat echoing deep inside her. Hers pulsed back, sending a clear message that made his heartbeat thunder in his ears.
He devoured her mouth, pistoned his hips against hers, his hands gripping her taut ass. She devoured him right back, fingers gripping his hair as they gave and took. Took and gave. Until Jonah didn’t know where he started and Callie began. Sweat ran into his eyes, and their skin noisily slapped together. Music.
Weightless in his arms, he felt her release cresting, and withdrew just enough for her to cry out and tighten her ankles in the small of his back, jerking him back deep inside her. “More,” she demanded, not losing any of the rhythm as she urged him faster with hips and hands. Her mouth swooped up to kiss him. Tongue, teeth, urgency.
She was poetry in motion, on fast-forward as she rose and fell on the spear of his dick. Her breasts rubbing against his chest, her mouth fed ferociously on his.
Synapses firing on all cylinders, Jonah felt like a god. Poseidon at the very least. Nothing in his life had felt as good as making love with Callie. Nothing. Ever. And each time was like the first.
* * *
They made love in the shower with hot water pulsing down on them, then staggered out, wet and tangled together, their breathing erratic, muscles limp. Made it as far as the foot of the bed, where Jonah tumbled her sideways across the mattress. Clasping her waist with his big hands, he flipped her so Callie lay on top of him.
Resting her chin on her folded arms, she looked her fill, his mouth conveniently situated a few inches from hers. His hair was wet, slicked back off his face by her fingers moments before. Her own hair lay sodden and cool down her back, and fell in swaths over her back and around his hips.
She pressed her own hips down lightly. “You know this is anatomically impossible, don’t you?” Her breathing had gone from raw and labored to merely breathless.
His eyes looked impossibly blue. “My erection?”
“Your ninety-ninth erection of the night. Honest to God, Cutter, I didn’t know a man could climax that many times. And I know for a fact that it’s impossible for a woman to have that many O’s without internally combusting.” If anyone told her she could climax that many times she’d call them not only a liar, but delusional.
He stacked one hand beneath his head. “It’s a gift,” he told her modestly, playing with the wet strands of her hair with his other hand, lifting and dropping the water-heavy skeins onto her back.
God, yes. It most certainly was. “I thought I worked it out of you.”
He grinned. “Almost.” He sounded highly amused.
She stared into his eyes. “Almost?”
His eyes darkened. “If you’re tired we can—ah, Callie?”
Callie discovered his body with hands and lips. Her mouth lingered on the drumming pulse at the base of his throat. She kissed her way down him, enjoying the way his belly contracted and his skin pebbled with goose bumps as she explored his navel with her tongue.
“I think I was kidding,” he said faintly when she nuzzled the crisp hair at the base of his stone-hard erection. His fingers tightened in her hair.
“Too late, Cutter, I’m calling your bluff.” This was another first for her. But she was a quick learner. His erection bobbed right in front of her lips. Thick. Long, Hard. The head flushed, the tangle of pulsing veins along his shaft darkly intriguing. She wanted to taste him. Feel that pulsing energy against her tongue.
He smelled so good. Soap and damp, musky, sexy man. Running her fingers lightly along its length, from root to gleaming tip, Callie was fascinated by how her lightest touch made his penis jerk as it hardened and thickened even more. If soft and slow did that to him—
She cupped him, loving the feel of him pulsing with life in her palm. The smooth length was like iron beneath silken skin. He gave a strangled moan as her fingers slid to the very tip, then moved down to the crisp hair at his groin. Closing her fingers around his shaft, she squeezed, giving the length firm strokes, up then down. Groan guttural, Jonah’s hips surged into her hand. The tug on her scalp from his fists was painful pleasure. She loved the unexpected softness of his skin, silken velvet over the over tensile hardness. He moaned as she squeezed, his fingers tight against her scalp.
“I love how you smell,” she whispered against his thigh. Hot, salty, musky male.
He shot her a slow, sexy smile.
“God. Yes. Just like that.” Callie played with him, running her fingers up and down, feeling him swell impossibly larger. Rubbing the pearl of moisture from the tip, she glided her hand in an ever-increasing grip and speed until he arched off the bed, lashing his hand out to circle her wrist with tight fingers.
“It’ll be over before it begins.” His breath was rapid, his chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath.
She lowered her head, closed her mouth over the blunt, heart-shaped tip. She sucked him deeper, reveled in his gasp and the taut arch of his hips. His heartbeat pulsed against her swirling tongue.
Her own heartbeat thudded erratically. His pleasure gave her pleasure. She loved the taste and texture of him, the novelty—the power of holding him in her mouth. Hell, it was the ultimate power a woman had over a man. Callie liked it. No. Loved it. A lot.
His body gathered, tightening like a too-tight bowstring. She’d done this.
One moment she had her face buried against his groin, the next he swung her up and over onto her back and plunged her onto his damp hardness. They came together so violently it left them both limp and incapable of moving. Even her eyelashes felt depleted.
“So much for all those condoms,” she muttered weakly against his heaving chest.
Other than his erratic and hard heartbeat syncopating with hers, Jonah was as limp and depleted as she was. “Highly overrated.”
She was too happy to give it its due consideration. She figured that ship had sailed the first, second, and eleventh times he’d been inside her.
Callie danced her fingers over the corded muscles in his neck, then skimmed the sweat-damped muscles of his back with the flat of her hand.
“Do you have any idea just how erotic and sensual you look when you do that?” Seductive and low, his voice sounded like hot chocolate on a cold night. Like every dream she’d never allowed herself to dream. Like a sweet that was going to be snatched away any second. Need incarnate made her brain skitter away from grim reality. She was nothing but heat, and light, and a need so powerful her body shook with it.
His lips traveled over her forehead, then down over her temple, where she felt the damp glide of his tongue tasting the still-hard-beating pulse he discovered there. “Is running naked down a corridor the most daring thing you’ve ever done?”
He’d challenged her to see if she’d chicken out. But running down a deserted corridor was the new Callie. “You’re joking, right?”
“I don’t mean diving, or hang gliding.” Jonah cupped her chin, his long fingers caressing her jaw and his lazy lips exploring the contours of her face as if fascinated by the taste and texture of her skin. “I mean something that exposes your vulnerability.”
Her thick hair was still wet, and she shivered in the air-conditioning. “You mean like having sex with you?” Her voice was dry, but her heart thudded uncomfortably where her breasts pressed against the hard wall of his chest. She was vulnerable. When he found out who her brother-in-law was, he’d see it as a complete betrayal of his trust. And he’d be right.
“This is daring?”
“It’s not easy for me to trust anyone. I can count on the fingers of one hand the people I trust unconditionally.”
And one of them isn’t myself, she thought, heart heavy. Rydell and Peri were everything to her. She’d known them almost her entire life. She’d known this man who touched and tasted her so intimately for mere minutes in comparison.
She automatically opened her mouth when his lips covered hers. His tongue swept inside to slide over hers, hot, seeking, hungry. Callie forgot to breathe, savoring the moment because it was soon going to be snatched from her greedy grasp, and she’d be left empty and alone.
Jonah pulled away an eighth of an inch, his breath hot on her face, his eyes painfully, startlingly intense, and so blue Callie felt as if she could fall into them and be enveloped in warmth. “I trust you.”
Oh, God—Callie wanted to yell, Don’t! “And your brothers.”
“Yeah. I haven’t known Zane, Nick, and Logan long, but I trust them with my life. They trust me with a multimillion-dollar ship, and give me carte blanche to do what I like with her. This salvage—this Atlantis find—is my gift to them, my show of appreciation for them putting their trust in me.
“We’re close. So close. With just a few more artifacts I’ll prove myself to them and to the archaeology community. Everyone will know the name Cutter Salvage after this. A win–win.”
And there she had it.
No win–win.
Her loyalty to Rydell was absolute.
Jonah’s loyalty to his brothers was just as unequivocal.
There was no room for negotiation. No compromise.
Rydell or Jonah?
Only one could win.
The other would lose.
And no matter which of the two men won, she’d lose.
* * *
“That woman’s behavior last night was really odd,” Leslie said the next morning. Everyone but Jonah had already eaten breakfast and gathered on the dive platform getting ready to dive.
Jonah had showered and gone by the time Callie woke up in her own bed. Showered and dressed, she went up to breakfast, but no one had seen him this morning. She presumed he was with the captain and would join them when he was done. She knew he liked to read his news alone over several cups of coffee, and he might be anywhere on board doing just that until it was time to go down.
“There was no doubt—to everyone here last night—that none of us had any interest in her.” Vaughn pulled his wet suit up his legs. “She seemed pretty focused on Jonah, I think. But, intelligent man that he is, he put out a giant NO sign, in neon, like the rest of us.”
“Hey, speak for yourself,” Brody muttered. “I would’ve done her in a heartbeat.”
“Charming,” Callie muttered with a shake of her head. It seemed that every salvage had someone like Brody on board. Brash, and not too bright. At least Jonah had nipped Brody’s drinking in the bud. He’d had all the booze removed, not counting on the younger man’s willpower to do the trick.
Callie reached up to shove the pins more securely into her coiled braid, squinting from the glare on the water. “Jonah found her in his bed last night.”
“Holy crap,” Vaughn said, pausing what he was doing to stare at her. “You’re shitting me. Is that where he is? In bed with that crazy woman?”
Leslie pulled a disgusted expression. “Ew! I thought I heard something running up and down the corridor late last night. Please don’t tell us he took that bitch up on her offer?”
“God, no.” Callie shook her head. “I went to ask him something, and she was sprawled naked on his bed in all her bouncy, glittery glory.”
“Oh, man, Callie, that’s just cruel!”
She ignored Brody’s expected response. He was over thirty and had the attitude and hormone levels of a teenager.
“I don’t get it.” Leslie looked at Callie. “Why was she so damn persistent?”
“Maybe I’m irresistible?” Jonah said as he came down the ladder to join them, dressed in nothing but black shorts and his killer smile. Callie’s heart went into overdrive, and the temptation to throw herself into his arms was overwhelming. She picked up her mask instead. He gave her a good-morning glance, brief and hot.
“I’m sure your legion of fans would agree,” she told him with just the right amount of humor. “Maybe she wanted not someone, but something on board?”
“To steal something, you think?” Brody demanded. “You were with her most of the night, weren’t you, Jonah? You would’ve seen if she swiped anything.”
“I was with her most of the time. Other than an hour or so when I thought she’d left. Then she was God only knows where, doing God only knows what.”
“My cabin’s always locked,” Leslie assured him as she sat beside Callie, their legs dangling over the water.
“Anndra had the master key,” Callie pointed out grimly, slipping her sunglasses on since they were chatting instead of diving, and the glare off the water was fierce. Not to mention she was sure the longer everyone sat around at such close quarters, the better they’d be able to see she was a well-satiated woman this morning, and not because she’d gone to bed early and had a good night’s rest.
She admired the play of muscles shifting under the bronze satin of Jonah’s back as he lifted his wet suit from the rack. “She had full access to every nook and cranny on board.” And tried to get into all Jonah’s nooks and crannies while she was at it. The skank.
“Yeah.” Jonah turned, his wet suit in his hands. “My thoughts exactly. I just talked to Maura about that. She’ll check to see if anything’s gone missing, and she and Gayle will go through all the security tapes to see if Anndra was up to no good.”
Security tapes? Callie narrowed her eyes and looked around. There are cameras? Oh, crap, of course there are. Most large ships had them, and especially salvage ships, where danger could come from 360 degrees given the valuable cargo on board. Was there a camera anywhere near where they’d made out on deck last night? What about in the hallway? Wouldn’t that be great having half the crew see her running bare-ass naked down the corridor? Maybe it would go viral.
Leslie gave him a glance filled with humor. “You mean even worse ‘no good’ than getting into your bed?”
“That alone should be a punishable offense,” Jonah told her drily, then cocked a brow at Callie.
“Was it a secret?”
“Nope.” He started suiting up and shot her a small, way-too-intimate smile, Callie was sure no one could miss. “No secrets on board Stormchaser.”
Callie’s heart squeezed. One truth revealed, but the sword of Damocles still hung directly over her head. She took off her sunglasses, she didn’t want anyone to think she was hiding anything else. “Um … one more.”
She held up her bare left hand. “I’m actually a widow. Sorry for the subterfuge, but the ring keeps most predators away. I like to wear it until I get to know everyone.”
Leslie made a noncommittal hum, but her eyes spoke volumes as she snagged Callie’s. “Sorry, Cal, was it recent?”
“Four years. Leukemia.”
The other woman gave her a sympathetic look. “Tough on both of you.”
“Yes, it was.” It was going to take some getting used to having a bare left hand. She’d worn her ring for six years; it would be a hard habit to break. “Adam would’ve gotten a kick out of me using his ring as a shield. He was one of the good guys. I was lucky, even if it was for such a short time.”
“Not that I have a problem fending off mashers, but I think I’ll make up a fictitious husband,” Leslie said drily, making her voice upbeat, for which Callie was grateful. “It’s the closest I’m going to get, since I’m never on dry land and my dating pool is extremely … nonexistent.” She laughed. Saul didn’t even crack a smile. “I think his name will be Brad, and he looks like a movie star. That’s my fantasy and I’m sticking to it.”
“The best you can do for a fantasy is a pretty guy with six kids who acts for a living?” Saul demanded.
“It’s my fantasy, what do you care if he has six kids, or twenty?”
“You should have kids of your own.”
Leslie gave him a startled glance. “I think that ship has sailed.”
Saul looked at her over his coffee mug. “That ship’s in dock.”
Good for you, Callie thought, shooting the poor guy an encouraging look before turning to Jonah. “Maura and Gayle are going to beef up security, I presume?”
“The captain and first mate won’t let anyone on board until we know what, if anything, has been stolen or compromised. Anndra had some pretty specific questions about things blowing up on board, and mentioned fire. I gave Maura an accurate account of what she asked; she’ll ensure that everything is where it should be, and no tampering was done. When we get back from the morning dive, I’d like everyone to check and double-check your personal possessions to make sure she didn’t have sticky fingers.”
“Well, she left rather unexpectedly, and in a big hurry,” Callie told them, not making eye contact with Jonah. “So maybe whatever it was she came to find wasn’t taken.”
“Maybe she got what she wanted and took off.” Brody’s eyes settled directly on Jonah.
“Maybe she’s just a misguided young woman with too much time on her hands.” Leslie played devil’s advocate.
“Whatever happened, she’s not welcome on board Stormchaser again, so she better find her entertainment elsewhere. One more thing before we go in. Callie and I are going to investigate the location where Saul was injured. I’d like the rest of you to work on Ji Li this morning.” Jonah instructed. “Then everyone on the city for the duration, unless anyone wants to keep at Ji Li, in which case go for it.”
“What duration?” Callie asked, swinging her feet over the tempting clear aqua water, dying to get in. Silence would be good right now. Just looking at Jonah made her want to jump his bones, and she needed to cool off.
“I put in calls for more divers,” Jonah told them as everyone finished getting ready. “Ten to start with, we’ll see how that goes. If we need more, we’ll make that call in a couple of weeks. The new divers will arrive next Thursday.”
Brody grunted as if displeased.
Jonah continued. “Two finds of this size can’t be handled by six people. It would take each of us seven lifetimes to uncover everything from the city. And while I know that’s the most interesting part, right now Ji Li’s cargo is what’s paying the bills.”
“I’m not that happy about my split being split.” Hooking on his tank, Brody looked like a sulky teenager.
Callie didn’t much like Brody, but she was pretty sure his sentiment must be in everyone’s heads. Her concern wasn’t how the spoils were going to be divided, but whether any of the new divers would know her, or make a connection between herself and Rydell? She’d gone on three major salvage operations with Ry over the last five years. That was a lot of people who knew of their close connection.
Her relationship with Jonah was so new, so budding, it wouldn’t take the knock of this information.
God. Now she had something else to worry about.