What just happened? She wiped her forehead and recalled his sandalwood scent and soft lips. Her eyes wandered beneath his damp shirt to the arch in his lower back. His butt was tight. He strode through the jungle as if he owned the place. She could do without his macho mouth, but his self-confidence was appealing. He was even more sexy when things went awry. He had a sweet human side that was innocent and cute. She could see why girls were falling like flies for him. He was hot. His body was sculpted to perfection, through no accident. He had to have worked hard at the gym to have those muscles.
He turned around often to check on her. It was sweet of him, but she was fine. She bit her lip and met his gaze.
She yearned to be free of the hot, sticky jungle mesh. The constant stepping over and ducking under spiraling overgrowth tired her and dozens of twigs and branches had poked her too. Only a little further. Taking out the map again would only delay their arrival to camp.
Had he really held her hand? She wanted him to take her right then and there, but she was glad he had stopped. They both needed to be much more level-headed. She didn’t travel hundreds of miles to get down and dirty with some guy from back home. She came for the gold.
What sense did it make to screw here in the middle of the jungle? They needed to keep a watch out, especially since they could no longer see the surrounding ocean. They had seen no other boats around this morning, but that didn’t mean they were safe all afternoon. Suspicious thieves could easily ride up on old Bernardo and ask him questions. It was strange for a fishing boat to anchor so close to an island when he should be fishing in deeper waters. She vowed to keep a sharp eye open and not allow her bodily desires to triumph over her common sense.
They came to a clearing in the trees. Up ahead there was only flat ground, surrounded by a ton of large rocks. “Ah. I think this is it,” she proclaimed.
He drew in a long breath. The trip had worn them both. He shut his eyes, then reopened them, squinting. “Camp here?”
“I think so. Let’s have a quick look for the lava tubes, and then I promise, we’ll leave it for the morning.” If her navigation was correct, they were well on their way to having gold weighing their pockets.
He nodded. She was glad he was agreeable. She wasn’t ready to go exploring inside any creepy caves in the night, but she needed to make sure this was the right place.
The ground was flat and rocky, but it had an edge running sideways in the distance. She picked up her pace and walked out to meet it. The entrance to the tubes was like a cave entrance—circular and dark. She yelled back. “This is it!”
He gave her a thumbs up and continued unpacking items.
She sauntered back to camp, sat on a large rock, and went over her notes again. This is going good if I must say so myself. “We’re close. I’m pretty sure I know where the casks are buried.”
He nodded and piled together leaves. “Good. Tomorrow’s the day, huh?”
“Yep. Bright and early. We’ll be in and out in no time.” Should be a slam dunk.
His eyes gleamed. “Sounds great.”
He walked back to the jungle to get more roughage. He threw them on the ground and spread them evenly.
She bit her lip. He was still working hard after all that branch-snapping. He pulled his own weight and she needed to do the same. “Need any help with that?”
He stopped and eyed her. “Sit tight. Almost done.”
He hadn’t said much the whole walk. Was he anxious? Maybe he was just tired like she was.
“All done,” he announced, moments later.
“Great,” she beamed. “The perfect bedding.”
“Yep. Now keep in mind it’s going to be rougher than last night. It’s pretty rocky out here.”
“Yes, sir.” She raised her index finger. “Oh, wait a minute.” She rummaged through her pack until she landed on a blue and white checkered blanket she’d found at a thrift shop in town. “I have a blanket!”
He smiled and placed his knuckle on his chin. “What? Where was that last night?”
Her hands pressed on to her lap as she squeezed out a smile. “Oops.”
He chuckled and moved around on his feet. “You’re so funny,” he remarked, gazing at her.
She shook the blanket out in the air and wrapped it around herself.
He gave an approving grin. “That’ll work, put that over the leaves, you’ll sleep like a baby.”
Her arms fell limp. “There’s only one though.”
He smiled, his eyes flickering with warmth. “That’s okay. You take it. I’m used to roughing it.”
“James Ashton, you are not used to roughing it.”
He chuckled again. He had the most adorable laugh. His mouth reached up into a hot-as-hell lopsided smile. “True, but it’s just one night. I want you to be comfortable tonight, instead.”
He was beyond generous. Had he always been like this or was this a new thing? “I would have brought another, but I bought it before I even knew you were coming here,” she offered.
“Are you glad I came here, Lexi?”
He had asked that question a thousand times. Did it really matter what she thought? He was here and that was that. Soon they’d get the gold and go back to Florida, rich. “Yes. I honestly don’t think I could have done any of this without you.” There. Said it. Happy?
She spread out the blanket on her bed of leaves and stopped. “Hey. Why don’t we share?”
He held his breath and froze.
Heat spread through her body. God. He really doesn’t want me anymore. What did I do to scare him away this badly? Her shoulders sunk. “Well, I mean, if you don’t want to, it’s okay. I just thought maybe…”
He grabbed the hand that was holding the blanket and met her gaze. “Of course I want to.” He pushed some of his leaves over to hers and made one big pile.
She flung out the blanket and laid it on top. She chewed on the side of her cheek. “It’s still hot out, so we don’t need a cover.”
He shook his head slightly. “We don’t,” he murmured.
She kicked off her boots and collapsed on to the leaf mattress.
He did the same.
He felt for her hand. When he found it, he held it. He said nothing. Why was he so quiet? He went from being an smooth-talking flirt to a thoughtful gentleman. Whatever. He’s interesting but I need to keep my cool.
He leaned up on one elbow, his fingers propping his head. “Can I ask you a question?”
She nodded, curious.
“How would you feel about us… having sex?”
She tried to halt a nervous laugh. “This is a work trip, not a booty trip.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Well, it’s a booty trip if you count that pirate’s booty we’re after. Arrrr.”
“Ha. You got jokes, huh?”
“Yep. Spices and silk for all me men. Arrrr.” He stretched his mouth out and squinted an eye.
She fell back on the blanket, cracking up. She couldn’t hold it in. The trip was stressful and he was hilarious. She relaxed her arms and finished the last remaining bits of laughter. “Well, uh… I don’t know. We’ve known each other for a long time. We’re competitors.”
He tilted his head. “Are we?”
Her heartbeat pounded heavy under her shirt. “Aren’t we?”
“I say we’re allies. Think about it. We’re out here together, going after the same thing, helping each other out. How can we go back to being competitors when we get back?”
Her core warmed. His words swirled into her every thought and made her pulse quicken. He’s thinking about the future. Including me in his future. “You’d make a better ally than Carl.”
His nostrils flared. He pushed himself into a seated position on the blanket. “Who the fuck is Carl?”
She sifted through words, thinking of a way to describe the one man who had taught her the meaning of the word ‘deception’. “Nobody,” she said.
He rolled his neck and grimaced. “Why are you talking about him then?”
“Relax. He’s not here, is he?”
He clenched his teeth and pierced her eyes with a hard glare. “Are you seeing him?”
Who the heck is he to question who I’m seeing? “Does it concern you?”
He squeezed her hand. His jaw tightened as his eyebrows knitted. “Tell me.”
She swallowed. “He’s just a guy I used to date. I still work with him, though I’d rather not. He’s the one who’s supposed to help move the gold when we get back.”
His shoulders relaxed. “I see,” he said in a low voice.
He seriously shouldn’t be worried about Carl. She had absolutely no interest in the guy. “He’s a jackass. We worked side by side before we ever moved in together. Everything was great at first and he helped me secure deals for the things I had laying around the house. I was never good at that. I brought home gold and silver all day long. But moving them on the market was another story.”
“So you still work with him, but you’re not with him.”
She pointed at him. “Bingo.” She sunk her shoulders. “Although, I wish I could break free from working with him too. It’s like I’m chained to him. I hate needing him to do things for me.”
He shrugged. “So you didn’t work out well in bed. Doesn’t mean you can’t work well together professionally.”
She rubbed her temples. “You don’t know Carl. He’s an arrogant real piece of work. If he deceived me in a relationship, why wouldn’t he go behind my back in business too?”
He raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to the side. “True. I wouldn’t want to partner with a cheater either.”
She scoffed. His reputation said otherwise. “And you’ve never cheated on anyone? You have like dozens of women per week,” she reminded him.
He chuckled. “What is that, like 50 a week? That number seems a little inaccurate, doesn’t it?”
She laughed.
“I’ve dated my fair share of women, yeah. Not anywhere near what my reputation says though. And I’ve never cheated on a single one of them. What’s the point in going behind someone’s back? When you no longer want to be with someone, you be a man and let ‘em know. Anything less is cowardly.”
He summed it up so simply. Why the hell couldn’t her ex figure that out? “Exactly.”
He let go of her hand and brushed his hair back. He leaned on one arm. “You never answered my question though. How do you feel about us?” His fingers lingered on a curve of her thigh.
“Why are you being so inquisitive?”
He straightened his back and lifted his head. “That’s not an answer.”
Lie to him. Tell him anything, but not that you dream about him in the shower. She licked her lips. “You’re kind of cute, but I can’t. I don’t want to make the same mistake I made with Carl. I’m sorry. We need to be friends only.” The best way was to be upfront with him. He was undeniably sexy, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. Withholding an honest answer would make him think he has a chance. She was lonely, and sexually frustrated and desperate to fill the emptiness, but she wasn’t going to screw the guy just because he was hot.
She should fuck some random dude, not a co-worker, or the competition, or whatever he was. One-night stand it with someone you don’t know. That way you never have to wonder if he’s being faithful in the relationship, because there is no relationship. Plus, she had no desire to ever show her scars to another soul again.
She couldn’t think straight. It was so fucking sexy the way his shorts hung right beneath his hips. His eyes looked the dreamier than ever and he had an inner gleam.
He grinned. “Can you handle friends?”
“James,” she began, shaking her head. “I’m just not ready.”
“Don’t you feel the chemistry between us?”
Her lips tightened as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I feel the passion and I want you badly—more than I’ve ever wanted anybody ever. And it’s been going on for a long time, but it’s not a good idea for us to do it because it’s a conflict of interest.”
“How can you return to Florida denying everything you feel?” His breathing increased and his dilated pupils flared with longing. “We do it this once, we never have to do anything again. Don’t you think it will be healthy to let go of the frustration?”
Is this how he convinces all his girls? “I don’t want to make the same mistake as I did with Carl.”
“I’m not Carl and it won’t be like that. It’ll be like this.” He grabbed the back of her neck and drew her in closer. His savory, woodsy scent burned her nostrils and forced her to push out all analyzation. His lips brushed over her quivering lips once.
She craved the soft flesh again. He growled and pressed his burning lips onto hers. This time there was no mistaking the flames of their passion. Her trembling fingertips touched his smooth skin. There was no going back now. Heat pooled between her thighs.
His hungry mouth devoured hers as his grip on the back of her neck throbbed. His kiss was fervent, wrought with desire. James Ashton is finally kissing me. She'd dreamed about this moment for years and now it was actually happening. Several waves of arousal peaked through her body.
Her passion matched his as she ran her hand down the curvature of his back.
“I have this urgent need to slip my cock into you. I’ve had it for so long, Lexi. Please don’t refuse me.”
His dirty words made her belly ache with arousal.
He slipped his shirt over his head and moved closer. His bare, athletic chest was gorgeous. Her palms scaled his smooth, muscular shoulders for the first time.
They fell back on to the leaves and he plundered his hands on to her breasts, ravaging the tiny, clear buttons of her blouse. Her muscles tensed. “Don’t.” She had no desire to show him the trail of ugly dimples that covered her shoulder, yet she shivered to the thought of him sliding his manhood into her.
A line etched between his brows. “Why?”
She swallowed as a heat washed over her face. “We can have sex. But I need to keep my shirt on.”
His nostrils flared. “What? Why?”
She realized how absurd the whole thing sounded, but those were her rules and he would have to play by them. “I have scars.”
“Did he tell you to cover them?”
Carl hadn’t demanded, but it had been written all over his face. She had taken it for granted that Carl wouldn’t mind the hideous wounds, especially since he knew how active she was in the business. She had taken her shirt off for Carl and he hesitated as if the scars were some kind of disease or something. She vowed to never remove her shirt in front of him again. “No. I just felt it when I saw his eyes the first time we had sex. The look of disappointment.” She fought to control her trembling voice. “I never want to go through that again.”
“Fuck Carl. He was an idiot. Whatever is underneath your blouse tells your story and I can hardly believe it’s unattractive. You could have a zebra print on your back and still have me hard as a rock.”
“That’s because you haven’t seen these,” she warned, placing a hand over her shoulder in a protective way.
He pursed his lips. “Show me.”
Seeing Carl frown that day had been one of the worst moments of her life. She would never be that naïve with another man. Men liked perfectly smooth skin, not a scarred, dimpled mess.
James leaned closer and slipped his hand under the top of her shirt. He cradled a breast and whispered to her. “Show me.”
The touch and whisper sent chills wavering throughout her body. She closed her eyes and nodded. I can’t believe I’m going to show him. Would it be a mistake? Her heart pounded as she removed her blouse. The spaghetti strap of the tank top wasn’t thick enough to cover the heavy trail of scars. His eyes glanced at the marks, then met her nervous eyes.
“I love this part of you,” he proclaimed, just before plunging his soft lips onto one of the repaired, indented dimples.
She gasped. No one but she and her doctor had ever touched any of her wounds. And certainly no one had ever had their mouth there. Her eyes glazed over as she felt his light, gentle kisses along the marks.
“I only see beauty,” he crooned.
Her eyes teared as she glided the back of her hand across his bronzed abdomen. She could no longer wait to have him inside her. His stomach tightened with every stroke. She trailed her fingertips down a line of hair on his chest. Warmth heated her center core.
His breaths labored as he threw his head back. He watched her with dark, hungry eyes. He cradled her upper arm while he devoured her neck with open-mouthed kisses.
She ran her tongue along the salty skin of his neck, tracing a pulsing warm vein.
His mouth teased her ear lobe. The nibbling tantalized her chest, shooting a message of arousal straight to her nipples. They perked vicariously and begged for his touch.
It was as if he had read her mind, or body. Or both. He reached under her shirt and cupped the other breast.
She beckoned for the bare skin to be touched and caressed and he knew.
He braced her body while she wriggled free from her tank top and balanced herself back on the blanket.
She found his hands immediately at the back of the bra, rustling with the wiring. He broke the clasp, yanked the bra forward and threw it onto the ground.
An electric jolt spread through her core as he rolled the breasts under each of his hands. Then he palmed both breasts, pressing her back down to the blanket.
Her mind ached to know how his length would feel inside of her. Her fingers twisted around soft strands of hair on the small of his back. She slipped her fingers under the elastic banding of his underwear and pressed him to her. Her warm thighs trembled as his groin neared her.
They were both still half-clothed. The bulge in his pants impressed into her hip as he pinned her. His woody scent exploded inside her lungs as she drew hot breaths from his mouth. The chemistry of their bare upper bodies blended, his skin flushed against hers.
“I’ve wanted you for far too long,” he grumbled out. The rawness of his voice was thick with need. He reached over and grabbed a foil-packed condom from his bag.
His hand groped at the center of her body, tugging at the button of her shorts. Her belly tingled as his hands delved lower. Soon they would discover all the most intimate parts of each other… things they had both fantasized about for years.
She wanted the shorts off too as the fluid of her essence swirled at the cotton patch of her panties.
His anxious fingers clawed at the opening. He sat up on his heels and undid the button, then pulled the zipper down. He tugged the shorts down around her ankles and lifted to bury his head into her chest.
She ran her fingers through his hair, then brushed the side of his face with her hand. He tilted his head until his lips closed in on the hand and kissed it. She let her hand linger there longer.
He moved further until his nose faced her belly button. He traced his tongue alongside the curve.
A soft whimper escaped her lips. Sweet torture. Why did his mouth send hot tremors to her core? It was as if it was the first time anyone had ever touched there. He kissed the sides of her twitching inner thighs, then anchored his mouth onto the plump button in the center of her mound. He circled his tongue on the pink bud and laid his tongue out flat to lap up the rest of the hot nectar. He cradled his arms around her fleshy thighs and continued sopping up the wetness until her body twitched and writhed underneath him.
Her center vibrated to the motioning of the tongue. It was all too much. The pleasure overpowered and rippled through her.
Her own desperate moans surprised her. It had been far too long since anybody had treated her this way. She had grown frustrated, without realizing that her needs could be soothed by the mouth and fingers of one man. His fingers plucked into her hole, then glided upwards and to the side of the canal, measuring and analyzing the opening.
His hot breaths tingled the folds of her wet skin. Oh my god, please don’t ever stop. She yelled out.
He knelt in front of her. Small amounts of hair reflected the settling sun. He gazed hungrily into her eyes as he unzipped his pants. He didn’t bother removing them completely. He pulled his red knit boxers down to his thighs to reveal a hard, thick rod. The shaft stuck out from between his legs like a huge distended pole.
A feverish wave rippled across her belly. He stroked the cock in front of her with eyes that dared her to do the same.
She wrapped her fingers around the engorged shaft in an instant. Doing so sent her insides fluttering as blood rushed to her pelvis. Her skin broke out in a desperate chill.
He rubbed the goosebumps on her arm. “You really want this inside you, don’t you?” He rubbed her eyebrow and side of her face, ending with the heel of his hand close to her mouth.
She brushed the hand with her lips until her greedy appetite caused her to bite.
He threw his head back and growled. He took his swollen cock into his hand and rolled the condom on to it. He shoved the hot member into her.
She felt an immediate jolt of pleasure as every muscle in her body came alive.
The cock reached further and further in until it could travel no more. Her sensitive folds surrounded the throbbing length in its entirety.
His breathing quickened as they both paused to feel the warm energy that vibrated and rocked their heated bodies.
She lost control as he plundered into her. If only she had known his rigid shaft would touch every sensitive nerve in her body and send ripples of ecstasy through her center. I can’t believe I spent ten years without this.
The massive member moved in and out of her as if this would be its last venture.
He glided the stiffness through her as her inner walls gripped the cock with ease.
He quickened his pace as he pressed into her.
An echoing moan escaped her vexed lips. A cry that loud was so unlike her. Her mouth had simply lost control. “James,” she crooned into his ear. Her inner core imploded, releasing a stream of heightened sensitivity to her entire body.
He rolled his eyes to the back of his head and thundered a deep growl as he exploded. She felt the pipe pumping seed into the thin plastic shield and caught her breath.
He collapsed beside her, gasping for air. His powerful manhood had ravaged her with such completeness that her whole body relaxed into a state of unexpected ease.
He controlled his breathing and rubbed his head as he gazed at her. His eyebrows knitted as he cursed and suddenly broke away from their gaze.