He studied her for a moment with those dark eyes, as if seeing her for the first time. “Adversely affected…What are you, a scientist?”
“Yes. Ornithologist, to be exact. That’s a branch of zoology specializing in birds, but it’s all connected.” He seemed to be listening, so she jumped at the chance to change his mind. “Sea birds feed on the fish, so if anything hurts the fish the effects ripple throughout the environment, and—”
He cut her off with a wave of his hand. “The tanker is empty. What are you all ranting about?”
She planted her hands on her fists. “Why do you call a coherent, reasonable argument ‘ranting’? That tanker is like the Pig Pen of ships. You don’t know what kind of toxic substances it’s giving off.”
“Pig Pen, huh? That’s your coherent argument?”
“That’s my attempt to create a picture that you might understand.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I appreciate your effort to speak on my level.”
“That’s not what I meant—” But of course it was what she meant, and her face flushed as she stumbled to repair the faux pas. “It’s my science background talking.”
“I have no problem with science.”
“Then what’s your problem?”
He leaned closer to her and she caught a whiff of soap and clean skin. “Right now my problem is that I’m trying to get to my truck because I left my dog inside the cab and he’s probably torn the seats apart by now.”
He turned and strode away down the hallway past trophy cases and homemade school banners.
That was the third time he’d gotten the last word.
But the first time she’d noticed what a killer ass he had.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
It was honestly very hard to believe she was now in bed with the very same man who had been such a thorn in her side. He’d turned onto his side, facing away from her. She glided her hand down the long muscles of his back. In a few places her fingertips slid across a raised patch. Looking more closely, she saw scars marring the smooth bronze of his skin. Maybe three in total—like slash marks. From a fight? A beating?
Had the man who’d thrown Lucas into the harbor taken a whip to him too?
“I snuck out one too many times to see my girlfriend,” came Lucas’ rumbling voice.
“So it was your father.”
“He was a hands-on kind of parent,” he said dryly, “who didn’t know his own strength when he was drunk. They would have healed better if I’d gone to the hospital, but Mom wasn’t having it. She put antibiotics on me and called it good.”
“Jeez.” She shivered. “I just can’t imagine doing anything like that with Ruby.”
“Ruby’s a good kid. I was a troublemaking asshole. Haven’t you figured that out about me yet?”
He rolled onto his back and gently tugged her on top of him. Fire swept through her at the contact of skin through silk.
“Actually, there’s something I’ve been thinking about that relates to that.”
“To me being an asshole?”
“Yes. That tanker last year. We were on opposite sides, remember?”
“Hard to forget, after you yelled at me in the hallway.”
“Please stop calling any opposition ‘yelling,’” she said with all the dignity she could manage while resting her folded forearms on his bare chest.
“You’re right. Point taken. You didn’t ‘yell’ at me, you enlightened me.”
She lifted her eyes to the ceiling and muttered, “lord give me patience.” Then addressed Lucas again. “I tried to make you see another perspective. I didn’t think it worked. I thought you totally blew me off. But then I noticed someone taking samples from the water near the tanker. I asked him what he was doing and he said that Lost Harbor had requested EPA monitoring while the tanker was in port.”
“Hm,” he grunted. He snuck one hand under her pajama top and skimmed it across her waist. “Imagine that. Who the hell would request monitoring?”
“Was it you?”
“Me? I’m nobody. I’m not on the city council, I’m not part of the Harbor Commission. Why would it be me?”
His innocent look didn’t fool her. “You intervened. They respect you. You won the argument for the tanker and so they deferred to you about the testing.”
“Do you have any evidence for this?”
“No, but it makes sense and I don’t hear you actually denying it. You did hear me that day.” She drilled him with a stare worthy of a prosecutor. “Did you or did you not actually listen to me?”
His teeth flashed in a grin. Above his thick layer of stubble, his skin looked fresh and clean. Was he more handsome with or without the scruff? She couldn’t decide. “I always listened to you. I don’t always completely agree, but I do listen. You’re so educated. Persuasive. Extremely adorable.”
“Are you mocking me now?”
Both of his hands were under her top now, and he spread them apart so his warm palms covered her back. “I am not mocking you. I’m lusting after you. There’s a big difference.”
The little fingers of both his hands pressed against the upper curve of her ass. She arched in pleasure. “I mean, that’s fine. I can live with that.” She sounded so breathless. “But I want you to respect my viewpoint as a scientist.”
“Everyone should.” He slid his thumbs alongside her spine. Her skin heated and pleasure sparkled between her legs. She wasn’t sure if his words or his touch was more arousing. “You have valuable knowledge. We should fucking listen to it.”
“Oh my God,” she groaned. “This is like porn. Are you saying all this just to turn me on?”
“Is it working? But no,” he added quickly. “I’m being real. It’s what I think. What I always thought.”
“Then why—” She cut herself off with a sharp inhale as he slid his hands upwards along her rib cage, to the sensitive sides of her breasts.
“Why do we fight?” He shrugged his big shoulders. “I still don’t always agree with your proposals. I know this place. I know the history, the personalities. I know how hard it is to make a living from the sea.”
“So you see things I don’t. Fair enough.”
A slow smile tugged at his lips. He skimmed his thumbs toward her nipples, which rose in anticipation of his touch. Maddeningly enough, he didn’t quite reach them. “But that’s not the only reason we fight.”
“It’s not?” Distracted, she wriggled in his arms. Her entire being was focused on the next move of those taunting, teasing thumbs. “Why then?”
“Well, it’s starting to seem like it’s been a year’s worth of foreplay, no?”
Finally, finally, he brushed against her nipples. Her entire body reacted to the jolt of pleasure.
“That’s a lot of foreplay,” she managed.
“Oh yeah. Worth every second.” At that point he took command of her nipples, playing with them until she wanted to scream from the wild sensations tumbling through her.
“But I didn’t…did you think…” She wasn’t even sure what she was trying to ask. Something about—had he known it was all leading up to this? Because she sure hadn’t. “I thought you didn’t like me.”
“Shhh. Hold that position, right there.”
She paused, her back arched like a bow. He unbuttoned her pajama top and gently slid it across her breasts. With the tips already sensitized, this new silky friction was almost too much for her. Her hips pulsed against his groin, where his arousal was swelling against the fabric of his boxer briefs.
There was entirely too much clothing involved here.
Except that the things he was doing with that silk top were sinful. Sliding it across her skin, tweaking her nipples into tighter and tighter peaks. Teasing her with it until even her scalp tingled. When she was practically bursting out of her skin, he finally tossed the top aside.
“Naked Megan. Nice to see you again,” he murmured. “I was afraid I wouldn’t get another chance to worship your body, with all that o
ne-time-only talk of yours.”
“I meant it at the time. Times change.”
“Then I guess you’re mine until moonrise.” He brushed his lips across hers.
“Moonrise? When’s that?”
“That’s the thing. This time of year we barely see the moon. Too much light. In other words, you’re not going anywhere yet, lady.”
She sighed happily. “Not arguing, especially when you do that thing with your mouth…” She thrust her breast closer to his lips. With a grin, he took the tip of her breast into his mouth. Ah, there it was, the incredible pleasure he’d generated on the boat with nothing but his lips on her nipples.
Good God, that feeling ought to be regulated like some kind of mind-altering substance. Heat shot straight to her lower belly and her entire body tingled.
“This thing?” he murmured against her breasts.
“Yes, that. Other things, too.”
With his mouth still working its magic, he slid his hands under her pajama pants. No underwear, because it had been soaked by the storm. He spread his hands across the globes of her ass and moved her against his penis.
Long and hard, it nestled into the notch between her legs, with the silk of her jammies and his boxers between them. Like a lethal weapon waiting to be unleashed. Her breath hitched at the memory of his erection swelling between her lips. She wanted that hard shaft to pierce her. She wanted him stoking the fire inside her, she wanted to feel every inch of him straining toward her core.
“What…um…what’s your condom situation here?” She gasped as he shifted her in just the right way to stimulate her clit.
“Abundant. But I’m not ready for that yet. First I want to make you come like this, dry humping like a couple of teenagers. Then I want to spread you open and fuck you senseless.”
His hot words made her squirm almost as much as the pressure of his hardness against her sex. She gave over all control to him and let him manipulate her body as if she were a toy. He slid her up and down, faster and faster, with more and more pressure. Finding those perfect angles and then working them until her body quivered under his firm grasp.
“Oh my God, oh my God,” she whimpered as light spangled her vision. “I’m going to come, ohmigod don’t-stop please don’t stop right there harder …” And then she stopped all words because a wave of pleasure curled over her head and capsized her senses. She pressed herself against him and let the pulsating orgasm go as long as it wanted. Like riding a rogue wave onto a perfect beach.
With a long sigh, she relaxed back into a sitting position with a sigh and pushed her hair behind her shoulders. It had fallen across his chest as she rode out her climax. “Wow,” she whispered, still catching her breath. “Wowee woweee.”
“You said it.” Lucas’ chest rose and fell with his ragged breaths. Between her thighs, she felt the hard press of his cock. Lifting the waistband of his underwear, she slid her fingertips across the bulging head she’d exposed. It felt hot to the touch, and so eager.
He groaned and lifted her off his body, then stripped off his underwear. She curled on her side and watched him with shameless admiration as he stretched toward the nightstand next to his bed.
“This whole supremely fit bod thing you’ve got going on just really works for me,” she said lightly. “Who knew I was so shallow?”
“I can relate. I know you’re wicked smart and have degrees and all, but you’re also sexy as hell.” He snagged a condom from the drawer and rolled back over.
From her lounging position, she shrugged one shoulder. “Glad you think so, but I don’t know why you would since you’ve only seen me in rubber boots and rain gear.”
“And that bikini.”
“My second best bikini,” she corrected.
“So when do I get to see you in the best one?” With a glint of a smile, he tore open the foil packet. She stuck out her hand to take charge of the condom. He let her take it and fell back on the bed, arms spread wide.
“Letting your bossy side out to play?”
“I don’t think of it as bossy. I think of it as right.” Still holding the condom, she allowed herself a moment to slide her tongue the length of his erection. Yesterday on the boat, the conditions had been a little cramped. Here, they had space and plenty of light and the bed wasn’t rocking back and forth on the waves.
But he tasted just as good as before—his hardness filled her with hot excitement. She swirled her tongue up and down and around, feasting on firm flesh and subtle ridges and soft veins. From the hazy corner of her eyes, she saw his thigh muscles flex as if he was working hard to keep himself in check.
“Ahhh, Megan,” he groaned, loud and long. “That feels so damn good.”
She smiled around the shaft filling her mouth. “Good. Ready for this?” She waved the condom at him and went back to her sensual licking. She lapped up a drop of salty moisture from the smooth head of his cock.
“Too ready.” The strain in his voice made it drop an entire octave. “Might not last long. Why I made you come first. Knew it would be like this.”
Smart man, just as she’d known. With her lips still tingling, she drew away and set the condom at the tip of his penis. She rolled it down, sheathing him safely behind an almost see-through layer of latex.
She wondered, in a quick flash, if he wanted children. Maybe he didn’t. Maybe that was why he possessed “abundant” condoms.
Just as quickly, she shoved the question away. This thing between them wasn’t about the future. It was about the present.
She was just about to lift herself back into the same position from earlier— stretched over his body—when he flipped her onto her back.
Heat rushed through her at the intensity written all over his face—jaw tense, eyes burning.
I’m going to fuck you senseless—those had been his words; they were scorched into her memory.
While she lay on the bed, still trying to catch her breath, he stood up. Completely nude now, his entire physique revealed, he swept her breath away faster than yesterday’s windstorm. Not only was every muscle powerfully defined, but he had that sexy pattern of hair arrowing down to his crotch. A nest of black hair curled at the base of his jutting erection. His cock was still slick from her saliva. That wetted flesh caught the morning light with an almost terrible beauty.
“Jesus, Lucas. You belong in a porn magazine or something.”
He gave a tense grin as he leaned over the bed and took hold of her ankles. “If the whole charter thing doesn’t work out…”
He dragged her to the edge of the bed, pulled off her pajama bottoms and pushed her legs apart. Her climax still lingered in the form of a pleasant buzz, but apparently that wasn’t enough for him. He knelt between her thighs and put his magic tongue to work. It didn’t take long for the smoldering embers of arousal to spark back to life. Within moments, she was twisting and moaning under the fierce strokes of his tongue.
“Please, Lucas. Please. I want you inside me. Please.”
“You know I always listen to you,” he murmured. Hot gravel roughened his voice. His muscles bunched as he braced himself over her. He found her entrance with his blunt tip and in a long, slow, sensuous move inched inside her. Her inner channel opened for him with slick ease. She must be so juicy inside, so aroused and ready for him.
When he’d fully seated himself inside her, balls deep, the feeling was one of deep satisfaction. As if something had clicked into place, key in lock, hand in glove, boat in slip.
That image—boat in slip—wouldn’t leave her as he rocked his hips against hers. They were together on this bed, her and Lucas, as if they were still out at sea. Tied together like a knot around a cleat. Alone on the waves as they rocked against each other.
Find that rhythm. Feel that newness. Hold each other. Whisper to each other. Raw words of want and need. Open begging, even.
How did they fit together? How didn’t they? What felt good? What felt awkward? They were like two explorers in a strange new land.
In this new place, they were equals. Both completely open and vulnerable, both laying themselves bare for the other.
“God, I want you, Megan,” he muttered. “Ever since you came after me like a pit bull at that meeting. I wanted you then. How’s that for nuts?”
She heard him, as if faintly in the distance, but his words didn’t really sink in. That was because he was flexing deep inside her and he’d found a spot that rang a bell of pleasure that resonated throughout her body.
“Lucasssss,” she moaned. “Oh sweet Jesus, that feels good.”
“Yeah? How about this?” Hands on her ankles, he pushed her legs up, knees bent, opening her even more deeply.
She cried out, neck arching, hands scrabbling against the bed covers.
“Too much?” he asked quickly, ready to withdraw.
“No! Not too much,” she panted. She tilted her hips to draw him in again, to locate that magic spot he’d discovered.
And there it was—another slow surge filled her to the brim with joy.
“Lucas,” she whispered, disoriented by how deep he was taking her. What kind of ride was this? It was transporting her somewhere she’d never gone. Every thrust sent her further into that new land, where everything was more intense. More colorful. More rich. More joyful. She lost herself…and found something else.
Each thrust blended into the next, like fireworks going off in a cascade of spectacle. Bursts of sensation racked her body. Explosions of light filled her vision. Sound too—shouts from Lucas, moans from her own lips, the banging of the bed, the sticky slap of flesh on flesh. Everything went high-definition, as if they’d stepped for one wild moment into another dimension.
The orgasm ripped through her before she even knew she was close. She opened her mouth to release a wordless cry of release. As if he’d been waiting for that signal, Lucas went tight and rigid, a low groan riding his hot breath. They pulsed together in a timeless, endless, throbbing climax.
It was…it was…the word finally came to her as the spasms slowed. It was almost otherworldly.
Mine Until Moonrise Page 16
