A Very Daring Christmas (The Tavonesi Series Book 8)

by Pamela Aares

  “Nope, complete novice. And in your hands.”

  “The trick is to get your head and shoulders down below your hips and legs.” She pantomimed the move. “That will help you channel the power of the wave with your body.” She was stammering and suddenly feeling ridiculous.

  She was coaching a world-class athlete about how to move? But it wasn’t just that. He’d swiveled to copy her, and she couldn’t take her eyes off the way his muscles rippled with the power and grace of a wild creature. Everything about Jake called to a wild place in her. The wild place that she’d worked most of her life to ignore. She’d seen what following those impulses led to, but she had underestimated the force of desire that he called up in her.

  “Lead on.” He gestured toward the rolling surf.

  Right.

  “Once gravity pulls you into the wave, your head and shoulders will come up,” she shouted as they plunged into the calm between a set of rolling waves. Because of El Niño, the water was warmer than usual for December, but still bracing. “And don’t back down,” she added. “Once the wave has you, you have to be one hundred percent committed.”

  “My strategy for life,” he said, grinning.

  “The wave will suck you back at first. Stay with it, and then you’ll feel the forward thrust.”

  She took the first wave, caught the curl and cut through the back just before it broke onto the sand. With a triumphant whoop, she dove through the next wave and swam out to where he was treading water, observing.

  “Is it too late for me to admit that the biggest wave I’ve ever been in was at the water park when I was seven?”

  “Way too late. You have to play your hunches to catch the good ones. You’ll get the feel of it. But if at any point you want to pull out, just use your shoulder facing the wave and give a few strong kicks. You’ll pop out the back of the wave. If not—”

  “I’m on it.”

  After he’d made a few swift kicks, the wave caught him up. But he didn’t pull out in time, and the wave had him locked in its watery embrace with no intention of letting go. She knew the impact of the body slam he was about to experience and winced.

  He came up near the tideline, sputtering and shaking sand out of his hair. He rubbed at his shoulder where the sand had scraped it raw.

  “Maybe a swim out past these breakers is in order,” he said as he paddled back out to her.

  If a grin hadn’t spread across his tanned face, she might’ve felt bad for not giving him more instructions. Any normal guy wouldn’t have had the power to even have caught such a wave, let alone come up smiling after going over the falls for a full-force body slam.

  They swam until they were safely past the breakers. With a few strong strokes, he reached her side.

  “I’ve been wanting to do this all day.”

  His hands circled her rib cage, and he drew her close, crushing her mouth with his. His lips were cool and salty, but as she opened to the slide of his tongue, heat shot straight to her belly and everywhere else. She’d never wanted, not like this. Her pulse raced when he broke off the kiss and ran his lips along her neck, licking and nibbling. He slid his hands under her bottom, lifted her to float higher in the water and took her lips again with his.

  “I think I’ve been waiting more than a day to do this,” he murmured against her lips. “And this.”

  Her pulse stuttered as he slipped his hand under the edge of her bikini and cupped her. She gasped when he stroked a finger along her most sensitive spot, circling and teasing.

  “Easy there, my CPR is rusty,” he said, cupping the back of her head with his other hand. “Just float, Cameron. Let me take you.”

  Could she?

  As if he heard her hesitation, he said, “You can do it. Trust me. Float. Feel. I’ve got you.”

  His tongue toyed with hers—delicious—but it was the teasing rhythm of his fingers that quickly released the knot she hadn’t known was gripping her belly and sent her over the edge into bliss.

  A loud splash near them had them both stiffening to alert.

  He broke off the kiss and gripped her waist. “Are there sharks here?”

  “I’ve never seen one.” Alarm, combined with the aftermath of her orgasm, had her pulse pounding.

  “I saw a fin.” He pointed. “There’s another.”

  She twisted to look.

  “Dolphins.”

  She felt his arm stiffen against her.

  “It’s okay, they won’t hurt you.” These were her waters. Familiar waters.

  In just a few seconds, about a dozen dolphins circled them, splashing and leaping. One came close and nudged Jake.

  He recoiled. “You sure?”

  “It’s said they feel people’s energies,” she said, trying to reassure him. “Maybe they thought we needed to be rescued.” Or maybe they felt the extreme energy she’d felt when he’d kissed her, when he’d taken her to a bliss she’d never before felt so deeply. And maybe she did need to be rescued. Rescued from drowning in the love she felt creeping up on her in spite of her attempts to prevent it.

  Most of the pod swam on toward the next cove, but a group of juveniles hung back and leaped and dove within a few feet of where she and Jake were treading water.

  The wonder in Jake’s eyes as he watched the dolphins was worth every moment of uncertainty she’d battled since she’d met him.

  “You’ve been in the water with these dolphins before?” The nervousness that had edged his voice earlier had dissolved.

  “Only once when I was about six or seven, and then there were only three at a distance. Every time I saw the pods from the cliff, I’d rush into the water, but they would be gone before I reached them.” Her heart pounded with unfettered joy. “You’re a good-luck charm.”

  “That’d be a first,” he said.

  “There’s always a first time.”

  “Isn’t there.” The rumble in his voice had her nerves kicking into gear all over again. As the last of the dolphins swam away, he gathered her in his arms again and kissed her.

  “That would be my first post-dolphin kiss,” he said as he broke it off. He ran his hands up her arms. “You have goose bumps. I didn’t know a person could have goose bumps underwater.”

  Neither had she. But they weren’t from the chill of the water. Still, she was cold. And hungry. And a thousand other sensations she didn’t have the words for.

  “Race you in,” he said as if he’d read her thoughts.

  He beat her to the breakers but stopped when he reached them.

  “Any good advice, Miss Kelley? For not ending up wearing the sand at the base of these waves on my teeth?” He gestured to his chest. “Under all this I’m just a guy from Appalachia. No waves there. Not on the surface, anyway.”

  His admission explained his lack of familiarity with the ocean. She wouldn’t have guessed it from the way he’d charged in after that boy at the beach, heedless of the rocks and waves. But his tone told her there was more about his upbringing that colored his life than just a lack of acquaintance with the sea.

  She glanced over her shoulder at an approaching roller. “Wait.”

  “I’ve never been good at waiting.”

  “Waves come in threes,” she said, tucking away his confession. “So we’ll wait until in between sets to swim in. One more.”

  They made it to the shore and raced up the beach. She handed him the towel and grabbed her pareo.

  “I’ll never forget that,” he said as he shook the water out of his hair and wrapped the towel around his waist. “Any of that.”

  His quick embrace took Cameron by surprise, as did his sweet kiss. But he broke off the kiss and darted a look around the beach. “Too exposed,” he said. “Let’s head up. I was promised a dinner.”

  “That you were.”

  But as soon as they reached the cottage and she shut the door, he wrapped his arms around her, drawing her in against his hard chest and taking her mouth in a plundering kiss. She arched against him, and th
e ridge of his erection pressed against her belly. When his hand cupped her bottom, she couldn’t stifle a moan.

  He backed away, his eyes narrowing. “You sure you want this?”

  He had to ask? But then, was she sure? Not in the least.

  “No,” she said in a barely audible whisper as she put her hand to his waist and closed the distance between them. As her breasts met his chest, she tipped her head up. “Just kiss me, Jake. I don’t want to think right now.”

  Any thought she might have held on to was obliterated by the sensation of him sliding a hand between her legs and stroking her. His other hand roved her hips, and the ties at the sides of her bikini tickled as her suit dropped to the floor.

  Like a blind woman’s might, her hands read the muscles of his chest, and she felt the clutch of his breath as she drew her fingers across his skin and traced the curve of his back. He had her top off in a single motion and tugged it from between them. His lips were gentle against hers, coaxing, but his breaths were as ragged as hers. When he curved his hand under her breast, taking the weight of her in his palm, she cried out.

  “Ummm,” he murmured against her lips. “I was beginning to think I’d lost you.”

  She was lost. And she never wanted to find her way back. At least not for a while. She ran her hand along the ridge of his erection, palming him through the wet material. It took every bit of energy she could muster to pull her lips from his. “Take these off.”

  “In time.”

  He lifted her before she could protest and laid her across the double bed in the sleeping alcove.

  “I have something to show you,” he said with a hint of mystery in his voice. “Something I have a strong feeling you’ll like.”

  She tightened her abdominal muscles to sit up, but he pressed her back against the chenille bedspread.

  “It’s nothing to see. At least not with your eyes. Close your eyes, Cameron.”

  She stared at him.

  He put his fingertips to her forehead. “Close. Your. Eyes.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut. Her pulse hammered in her ears. She heard the sounds of joggers in the street in front of the cottage, the sounds of the waves crashing on the beach in the cove, the sound of her breathing and Jake’s. But as his mouth brushed the insides of her thighs and she realized what was coming, she inhaled a long, slow breath and tried not to feel self-conscious. But a few moments later, she realized she hadn’t known what was coming. Not really. Fear rose with the pleasure he was coaxing from her. Her eyes flew open, and she put her hands to his shoulders to press him away from the space between her legs.

  “Keep those eyes closed, Cameron. And relax. Remember the floating? Float. Go back to that moment. Let go. I have you. I won’t let anything happen that you don’t want.”

  His words were like a mantra. She wanted to follow them, but she couldn’t. She wriggled away and sat up.

  “I’m sorry. I just—”

  He stood. And dropped his shorts to the floor. His erection sprang free at her eye level—pulsing, smooth and tipped by a hood of silky taut flesh. Oh God, she wanted him. She reached out and wrapped her fingers around his shaft, looked up into his eyes. He was smiling.

  “If it makes you feel better to go first”—he motioned to her fingers on him—“go right ahead.”

  He groaned as her lips closed around the tip of his shaft. She tasted the saltiness of the ocean still on him, inhaled the scent of sea and male. Tentatively she traced a finger around his balls, and he jerked away from her lips so fast and with such force that he slammed into the wall behind him.

  And then he laughed. A rolling, hearty laugh that had her laughing along with him. He sat down on the bed. Raising a hand, he brushed his thumb across her budded nipple.

  “I’d like to try that again, but I’m afraid you’ll have to let me please you, Cameron, at least at first. There’s no other way this will work.”

  He pinched her nipple, and she let out a cry of surprise as heat pinged in her core.

  She was in over her head. Before Elliott, she’d had exactly two lovers. One, a very dudly affair in college, and then a stuntman from her first film. The stuntman was a weak-moment mistake. But it turned out that he and Elliott had the same moves. They cared more about impressing her than pleasing her. But that was all she knew about lovemaking. Until now.

  Jake rose from the bed. He touched her breast with his erection and then drew it along the curve of her arm. The shiver waving through her and the lancing spikes of adrenaline following the shiver left a trail of ache in their wake. And she knew Jake wasn’t trying to impress her. He was trying to please her.

  “Okay.” She let out a puff of breath. Then inhaled and shivered again.

  “Okay try again or okay try later?”

  If she had to wait, she might explode. “Okay again.”

  This time when he pressed her back against the bed and his mouth against her began to rearrange the cells of her body with sensations so exquisite that it hurt, she let him show her the pleasure she hadn’t even imagined possible. And when he took her to the brink and she clawed at the bedspread, he put her hands to his shoulders and backed off.

  “Keep your hands here. I’ll feel what you want.”

  “I—” Her words were lost as he ran his teeth over her bud and then laved a devastating circle with his tongue. Then words were completely erased when his finger entered her and shocked her body into spasms of mind-blowing pleasure.

  “Go, Cameron. I’ll be here.”

  She heard his voice and rode out the climax, losing all awareness of where she was.

  And with her scream of release, she let the caged creature she’d kept at bay—maybe for all of her life—go free.

  She shuddered for a long time. And then her body went limp.

  Jake eased up to lie beside her on the bed. The heave of his chest against her ribs told her his breaths were as jagged as hers. He curved his body and slid an arm over her, tugging her closer to him. His light stroking along her cheek mixed with the tug of sleep.

  She woke to the aroma of frying onions. She grabbed her pareo from the living room floor and tied it on.

  “I’m a terrible hostess.”

  “And I’m a terrible cook.”

  She peered into the frying pan. Onions, perfectly sliced, were turning a golden brown. “Not from the evidence.”

  “Every Southern boy learns how to fry onions. It’s usually a punishment for some infraction of the rules.”

  “Rule breaker, eh?”

  “Depends on the rule.” He stepped aside and brushed a kiss to her cheek. “You were gone.”

  No kidding. And she sure hadn’t taken him with her. She could do something about that. But her stomach growled, making them both laugh.

  “Your inner growl is almost as good as your outer one.”

  She should’ve felt embarrassed, but she didn’t. She took the spatula from him. “Prepare to be amazed.”

  He tucked a loose curl behind her ear. “I already am.”

  “By my cooking skills, I mean.”

  He reached over and flipped the burner off, lifted her and carried her back to the bed.

  “What about dinner?” The truth was, she didn’t give a hoot about dinner.

  “I prefer to have dessert first.”

  His words might’ve seemed flirtatious or flippant if she hadn’t heard the rumble under them and seen the smoldering look in his eyes. He had her pareo off her and a condom on himself before she could blink. He pressed her wordlessly back across the bed.

  “You want this, right?”

  Did she ever. She nodded.

  He balanced on his forearms and entered her with a smooth stroke that had her crying out his name. He smiled and stroked deeper, harder, and then slower, shallower. She tightened her legs around his hips, arching up with a cry when he stroked across that sensitive spot inside her. He growled his pleasure and pulled out of her, flipping her with one arm as though she weighed no more than a
down pillow. He knelt behind her, pulled her hips up against him and plunged inside.

  “This is what bodies are designed to do, Cameron,” he whispered against her ear before biting it gently. Her body spasmed around his shaft, and he drove deeper. The combination of his slow thrusts and the deft magic of his fingers against her cleft shot sensation through her that was nearly unbearable.

  “I can’t do this anymore.” Had she said the words or only thought them? She was stretched like a line of fine filament, and his every stroke plucked her until she was sure she would break with the wanting building inside her.

  “Just a bit more, darlin’. I can tell you need just that little bit more.”

  He slowed his thrusts and then reached around to take her hand, sliding it down to replace his fingers. “I want your help here, Cameron. I want to show you what you can do.”

  She stroked as he instructed, and he gripped her hips with both hands and plunged exquisitely inside her, alternating deep plunges with shallow ones that took her breath away. Unable to hold her balance, she dropped her head and shoulders down to the bed. The change in position freed her other hand, and she reached back, almost by instinct, and cupped his balls as they slapped close to her leg.

  He stilled. And then groaned so deeply she thought the room would explode. He pulled her up and wrapped an arm around her from behind, pinning her to him. His fingers slipped between the folds of her sex, and though part of her wanted to writhe away with the intensity of the bursting sensations he aroused, she leaned into him and let him take her.

  “Come with me, Miss Kelley.” He growled as his hips drove him deeper into her. “Come with me.”

  And without hesitation, she did.

  Chapter Nine

  The sun slanted into the cottage, promising a pleasant day ahead. Cameron glanced at the clock. Seven thirty. She slipped from the bed, donned her robe and grabbed her cellphone.

  Down at the point, she squared up a shot and waited. In a moment the sun would cut through the clouds and—

  The phone in her hand vibrated. She looked at the number. Linda, the executive director of the UNICAN Batey Project.