Chapter 20

To hammer home his point, Kyle repeated, “Best friends.”

He ran the tip of his finger up her arm as he stared into her eyes. He wondered just what she was thinking. He knew she wanted him, yet something held her back, and he had the distinct feeling more than Chad Roberts was bothering her.

“Don’t get any ideas,” she said without looking at him.

“Ideas? Ideas?” he said. “Hey, you catch on quickly. Don’t you?”

He slipped his arm around her and drew her close. The rain had soaked her hair, turning it a burnished gold in the warm glow of the flashlight. The heat of her body caused the scent of some intoxicating fragrance to rise from her soft skin. A fluid warmth seeped through him, pooling in his groin.

A sense of urgency, both physical and mental, spurred him on. As weird as it seemed, this was the time—and stranger yet—the place—to make love to Jennifer. They’d come close earlier in the evening. If he allowed her to talk him out of it, he might never have another chance with her.

He lowered his head to capture her lips in a fierce, hot kiss. His tongue invaded her mouth commanding her to respond. Flattening the mound of her breasts, his chest pressed against hers.

She didn’t protest when his hand stole under her T-shirt. Beneath the damp fabric, her skin was moist, but smooth. He inched his way upward, taking his sweet time.

A flare of desire smoldering in her eyes told him that she wanted this as much as he did. She gasped as his hand covered the lacy cup of her bra. With the pad of his thumb, he caressed the taut nipple.

“Like this?” he asked, the need to hear her voice suddenly hitting him.

A beat of silence. “Oh, yes.”

The hard heat building in his groin kicked up a notch. His cock pushed against the scratchy burlap bag covering him. He tossed it aside, then angled his body across hers.

His lips explored the gentle curve of her neck while his hand stroked the warm fullness of her breasts. He sucked her skin against his teeth, tasting, feeling the fine texture. Then he nuzzled her neck hard with the stiff bristles of whiskers emerging along his jaw as he flicked his tongue across her earlobe.

“You’re so damn sexy,” he whispered into her ear.

In response, she arched up a little and turned her head toward him. Her lips were parted and moist and begging for another soul kiss. Her eager response matched his, startling him. His mouth covered hers with a hunger that bordered on desperation.

Take it easy, he told himself. Don’t rush her.

He plowed his fingers through her damp hair and arched her head back as he pressed his open lips against hers. His tongue delved deep into her mouth. His free hand slid behind the cup of her bra and found her taut nipple.

Her wet clothing got in the way, and he pulled her upright, then peeled her T-shirt over her head. He flung it in the direction of the Harley. A peach-colored demi-bra supported breasts that weren’t centerfold material, but they were the sexiest set he’d ever seen.

Above the rain pummeling the cellar and the howl of the wind, their ragged breath filled the dark room. He gently lowered her onto her back again. Through the moist lace, he suckled first one tight nipple, then the other, flicking it roughly with the tip of his tongue.

She moved beneath him, obviously responding to his erection pressing against her damp shorts. His bare leg nudged her thighs apart, and he settled himself between her legs. She sucked in a gulp of air, then raked her nails across his shoulders.

“Oh, Kyle!”

The raspy sound of her voice kicked his pulse into high gear. His blood seemed thick and heavy as it pounded in his temples. Hot, demanding need raced through his body and throbbed in his groin.

He unhooked her bra, then pulled it off and tossed it over his shoulder. Nuzzling her breasts, he cupped them with his hands and inhaled deeply. The warm, moist scent of woman mingled with a trace of perfume, overloading his senses. He’d never slowed down to enjoy a woman this way before now. The thought had never occurred to him, but Jennifer was different. He wanted to enjoy her fully, completely.

She arched her hips upward, shoving herself against his pelvis. He rocked back and forth, then up and down. His fingers scaled downward, playing across her baby-fine skin and stopping just above her warm mound.

His hand inched downward, possessively covering the downy rise. With a single finger, he parted the delicate folds and found the tight nub at the heart of her sex. The air left her lungs in an audible rush.

“Let’s get you out of these damn shorts,” he said to her.

She lifted her hips and helped him unbutton and shove her wet clothes down over her hips. He threw them in the same general direction of her bra. The poor excuse for panties—nothing more than a triangle of fabric—went next.

Taking her hand, he guided it to his turgid erection.

“See what you do to me?”

Her throaty sigh echoed through the dark cellar. She pulled back her hand and he rose to his knees.

Jennifer gazed up at Kyle who was wearing nothing but a captivating smile. Everything about him seemed strong, hard. Irresistibly masculine. A whisk of dark hair unfurled into a coarse dense thicket below his navel. Aimed right at her, his shaft surged out from between powerful thighs.

“Jenny,” he said, his tone as seductive as his eyes, which were exploring her body a scant inch at a time.

Her name on his lips, an echo from years past, sent a stab of raw pain to the depths of her soul.

She stared up at the shadowy ceiling, its beams casting dark bars of light above her. What was she doing? she asked herself. In an instant, the answer came.

She had wanted this man. No matter what the consequences. She intended to lose herself in him, in this moment—to forget the past.

And what troubles tomorrow might bring.

Kyle bent down and brushed her tummy with his lips. Trailing moist kisses, he roved lower and lower until his mouth found the forbidden heat between her thighs. The rasp of his beard against her sensitive skin was unbelievably arousing. Her heart beating in erratic, uneven lurches, she couldn’t resist arching her buttocks asking for more.

Suddenly, she sensed herself fracturing in a thousand tiny, explosive pieces, then Kyle pulled back.

“Keep going!”

He smiled, a cocksure grin that said he had her number. Balanced on his knees, he guided the velvet-smooth tip of his penis between her thighs. Slipping slowly up, then down, he stroked her ultra-sensitive skin with expert precision. Each caress threatened to trigger a core meltdown.

She gasped, “Oh, my. I—I—”

“Sweetheart, now’s not the time for an intellectual discussion,” he said in a raspy undertone. “Trust me on this.”

She tried to giggle, but a choked sound came out instead. He kept fondling her with the tip of his penis and smiling down at her.

“A-aren’t you going to … you know.”

“No, what?”

“Don’t joke. Get on with it.”

He eased the bulbous head of his shaft into her body. She stiffened, already realizing how large he was and bracing herself.

“Is this what you want … Jenny? Tell me.”

Her pulse, already tripping over itself, skyrocketed. “Yes, oh, yes.”

“Say it.”

“I … I want … you.”

“Who do you want? Tell me.”

“I—I want you … Kyle.” The words came out in a breathless rush.

“And I want you, Jenny. I always have. I always will.”

He repositioned himself, his upper body settling heavily against hers, the mat of hair on his chest flattening her flushed nipples. His hips cocked and the iron heat of his sex penetrated her, stretching her thighs apart with a forceful thrust.

He delved deeper, hunkering down and burrowing further into her body until he could go no more. The mindless, shuddering satisfaction of having him inside her knocked her breath from her lungs. True, she didn’t have much experience making love, but she thought she knew what pleasure sex could give.

Wrong.

This was altogether different and totally unexpected. Her throat constricted as he began to move inside her with a moan so tortured it sounded as if he was in physical pain. His groan came from deep in his chest, but it reverberated through her entire body in a way that was uniquely erotic.

With both hands, he lifted her hips to deepen the angle of his thrusts. Her heart thrummed noisily, painfully. She shuddered as he cradled her face in his hands, and sighed as his lips smothered hers in a mind-searing kiss.

Jennifer forced her eyes to open and found she was gazing directly into his. The white-hot green of his irises bored into her with mind-startling intensity. There had always been something so compelling about Kyle.

He pumped up and down, entering her body, then withdrawing in seconds only to reenter again. She gasped, attempting to draw vital air into her lungs as the tempo of her body matched his. The sweet feel of imminent release spiraled through her in a heady rush.

Heaven help her! This was it!

A rainbow of stars blinded her for a moment, then she floated, serene on an imaginary carpet of sweet-smelling rose petals. She closed her eyes and tried to catch her breath.

Kyle had to admit this was the best sex he’d ever had, and yet it had been so much … more. Jennifer touched a part of him, a place he would have sworn had been snuffed out long ago on an airstrip in Greneda. His father’s friends had described in detail his father’s heroic death. Losing his only parent, a father he loved, had taken something out of Kyle.

In the two years that followed, living in foster homes too brutal to think about, he’d developed an emotional shield. Only once since his father’s death had he allowed his guard to slip and to care about what happened to another person. That chink in his emotional armor had damn nearly gotten him killed.

What in hell was he doing with Jennifer?

Jennifer hadn’t made him feel sorry for her—the way the woman in Libya had. No, Jennifer had reached him on another emotional plane entirely. She’d brought back the past, the wonder and passion of their brief time together.

Making love to Jennifer had been an unexpectedly moving experience. But as he looked at her now, he knew something was troubling her. No doubt she was giving herself hell for having sex with him while engaged to another man.

Chad Roberts was history. No way could Jennifer make love to him and still want to marry Chad. She wasn’t the kind of woman to be disloyal.

Her lips were still moist from his kisses. The lower one appeared fuller than usual, making him tempted to kiss her again—and start all over. As if reading his mind, she looked away, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

She’s withdrawing, he thought, but he didn’t know what to do or say. Putting his feeling in words wasn’t something he’d ever been comfortable doing.

“Jen?” He put his hand on her smooth shoulder.

She turned her head to face him. His instinctive response to her was so powerful that it stunned him. How had it happened so quickly?

A searing bolt of lightning so intense its light speared through the gaps in the cellar’s door lit up the room. Almost immediately a bolt of thunder rocked the earth, the jolt so ferocious the stone floor beneath them rumbled.

“Jeez-us!” Kyle pulled Jennifer into his arm.

Cree-aaak! The strange sound was followed by a reverberating crash, then a series of splintering sounds.

“Oh, my God! What is it?” Jennifer cried.

“I think lightning struck the big gumbo limbo tree in the garden. Sounds like it fell against the house.”

“That’s too bad. I couldn’t see much, but it looked like a grand old mansion like Thunder Island.”

“This is one of the oldest historic homes in Key West,” Kyle said, his arm still around Jennifer. “I’d better check the radio and see what’s going on out there.”

Jennifer almost looked away when Kyle stood up and walked across the cellar without bothering to cover himself. Wait. She’d just made love to this man. Why was she feeling so self-conscious?

She watched him, not quite believing she’d actually made love to him again. How many years had she waited to feel his arms around her again, to feel his powerful body filling hers with a surge of raw energy too awesome to describe?

He was even more exciting than she’d remembered. He’d been a boy the first time they’d made love, a little too eager, a little too hurried. Now he was a man, an experienced, inventive lover.

He had an edge to him now that hadn’t been there years ago. It suddenly struck her that Kyle was so much like his father. Kyle was the image of Vincent Parker, something she hadn’t noticed as much when he’d been younger. He had the same way of holding back his emotions that had prevented his father from committing to her mother until it was too late.

She told herself it didn’t matter. She’d been down this road before, and she knew where it led. Straight to heartbreak.

How could she have been so utterly stupid?

Why on earth had she allowed herself to make love to Kyle while she was engaged to another man? It went against everything she believed. Love and loyalty were synonymous.

She owed it to Chad to discuss … Discuss what? She pondered what to tell him while she gathered up her clothes and put them on. Didn’t she love Chad? She would have sworn she did, but tonight made her question her feelings.

Was it unfinished business with Kyle, or was it something more?

Kyle shoved the radio back into its case, saying, “The storm’s changed course again. It’s veered north toward Key Largo. The brunt of it missed us. The worst is over.”

He stepped into his shorts without bothering to put on his underwear. Fascinated, she watched him shrug into his shirt.

He said, “Let’s get out of here and see how bad the damage is. We may be able to help.”

“Right. They’ll need S&R units.”

“He’s coming home. Thank You, God. Thank You.” Thelma Mae said the words out loud as she hauled another deck chair onto the beach behind Thunder Island.

The hurricane had spared Key West, this time. Electricity was out as well as the telephones, and a water main was broken, according to the radio, but this was nothing compared with Georges’ devastation.

How lucky could she get? Her prayers had been answered. Thunder Island and been spared.

And he was coming home.

“Let me do that.”

Chuck came up on Thelma Mae, taking her by surprise. Beside him walked Raven and Lisa. Thelma Mae allowed them to line up the beach chairs and Italian café style umbrellas in the sand.

“We have the beach to ourselves,” Plotzy proclaimed as he sauntered toward Thelma Mae, wearing his usual outfit of Speedos and leopard-print suspenders. “The tourists hightailed it the minute the sun came up.”

“I’m not worried. People have short memories. By the weekend, Hurricane Frances will be ancient history, and tourists will pour back into Key West.”

“Right-o,” Plotzy responded in his absentminded way, his gaze tracking the trio on the beach. “Golly, looks like Chuck has the hots for Raven and Lisa doesn’t like it one bit. She’s sticking to her brother like white on rice.”

“Maybe she’s afraid Raven will hurt Chuck. You can’t blame Lisa for being protective of her brother. After all, when she had leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant, Chuck came through for her.”

“Lisa had leukemia? You don’t say. You could never tell by looking at her.”

Thelma Mae silently sighed to herself. They’d broken the mold when they’d created Plotzy. They’d discussed Lisa’s leukemia and bone marrow transplant several other times. Plotzy retained only what was important to him.

“If you ask me,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper, “Chuck and Lisa are a whole lot closer than twins should be.”

Thelma Mae shrugged off the comment even though she agreed. There was something unusual about the twins. “A life threatening illness and the bone transplant brought them closer.”

“Right-o. Inheriting billions from their parents’ pharmaceutical company probably helped, too.”

What Plotzy chose to remember was amazing. She’d mentioned their inheritance only once. She’d marveled at Lisa’s remarkable recovery many times, but Plotzy hadn’t retained that part of the story.

“Like you, Plotzy, Chuck and Lisa made their money the old fashioned way. They inherited it.”

“Right-o,” Plotzy agreed with his goofy smile. It never occurred to him to be apologetic for never having worked a day in his life. “Like me, Chuck’s a hunk. A rich hunk.”

Thelma Mae stifled a laugh. Plotzy was gay, but he was a misfit even here in Key West where just about anything could pass for normal.

Lisa left her brother with Raven and bounced across the sand to them. “Kyle didn’t make it home last night. Have you heard from him?”

“No. I assume he stayed out at the base.” Thelma Mae considered Lisa’s interest in Kyle healthy. She didn’t need to spend every waking moment being her brother’s keeper.

Plotzy released a noisy sigh as Lisa rushed back to where her brother was helping Raven set up an oversize umbrella. “Kyle Parker. Now there is a hunk to end all hunks.”

Kyle was the essence of masculinity, she thought, but another hunk who was even more gorgeous would be arriving soon. She wandered off to tend her orchids, wondering what he would add to the sexual highjinks going on at Thunder Island.