Tides of Time (The Legacy Book 1)

by Luna Joya

  He staggered into the bedroom without breaking the searing kiss and pressed her against the door with the sole intent of getting her clothes off.

  “Wait,” she panted. He pulled back an inch. “Wait. I wanted to talk about…” Sam froze and hoped she wasn’t about to tell him to stop when every nerve in his body was screaming for release. “I told you before,” she whispered and then stammered. “I, uh, I hadn’t, you know, done that.”

  “What? Orgasmed on my desk?” He chuckled. “I should hope not. I would’ve hated to miss it.” He leaned back in until she stopped him with a fingertip to the lips.

  “I mean sex before has been okay, but nothing special.”

  He frowned. “I’m having trouble concentrating with you all over me.” All focus was gone when she reached for the buttons on his shirt. He worked on paying attention to her words and not her nimble fingers when all he wanted was to tug on the neckline of her dress to expose the silky skin beneath.

  “I’d planned a much, um, uh, less physical setting for this conversation.” Her words spilled faster and faster. “I wanted to ask what you enjoy, your turn-ons.” He tightened his hold on her bare ass, and she gasped a hot huff of air against his cheek. “To find out what you like.”

  He struggled to remember what she’d said, and they weren’t even naked yet. Her skin was so soft. “This,” he said against her mouth and kissed her again. “This. I like this.” His words were muffled against her lips.

  She gripped his face and returned the kiss. He pushed his leg between hers, pinning her to the door. He dragged her hem up with one hand. The fabric caught on her ribs. He stopped, seized by the dilemma of letting her go or getting her naked as fast as possible. Wanting both at the same time, he whispered a curse at the sudden confusion. Her sexiness had short-circuited his brain.

  With a shy grin, she tugged the dress off, tipping her head back as she did. He seized the moment to trail kisses down her neck, across her bare shoulder. The kisses stopped. He eased away from her to stare at her breasts. A pink bra with black lace matched the thong he had stolen. It was a mixture of sweet and bold, just as Cami was.

  “Like it?” she asked and trailed a finger along the edge.

  “I definitely like what’s in it. I want to look at you. I didn’t get the chance this afternoon.” He started to pull away, and she stopped him.

  “Later,” she whispered, echoing his earlier taunt, and pulled on his shirt.

  He braced her with his leg and jerked at his own sleeves, craving her bare skin against his. She made him crazy when she wrenched his undershirt away from his body. How was she so cool and calm on the surface yet this sensual when she touched him? He grabbed the bottom of the shirt and snatched it overhead in one quick motion to toss on the floor. She slid her legs down his and grabbed for his belt.

  “Condom,” he gasped as she unzipped his jeans and slipped her hand inside. They needed to slow down.

  “On birth control.” She reached for him again, shaking her head. “I’m clean.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Me too.” The words came out raw. He couldn’t think around the all-consuming undertow of Cami that was dragging him down to not caring about anything but getting inside her.

  She tightened her hand around his cock. “Now, Sam. Now.”

  He heard the sharp demand over the whoosh of blood in his head.

  “Hell, yeah,” he muttered, any hopes of restraint gone. He leaned in to devour her mouth again while he kicked off his jeans. He needed to have his hands on her. Those little flicks she made with her tongue against his lips had him staggering with the desire to possess all of her.

  In hurried motions between frantic kisses, they made it to the bed with her wearing only her bra and the golden pendant at the base of her throat. The heat of his body touched smooth skin everywhere as he stretched over her. He grabbed her and rolled so she was on top. He reached for her bra, and she batted his hands away. He stilled.

  In the blue cast of the city lights that stole through the open blinds, Sam watched this gorgeous goddess above him. She reached toward his tattoos, and he sucked in a breath. He didn’t move a single muscle as she studied him with her adorable head tilt, because if he gave in to the temptation, he wouldn’t be able to stop.

  The smell of the ocean and waves filled the bedroom. He braced for the staggering swell of the incoming tide that was Cami’s seduction. He’d never wanted anything in his life so much as he wanted this woman right now.

  Cami breathed in deeply and fought the raw power seeping through her pores and calling to the nearby shore. No reason to cause a freak storm just because she’d lost her mind over this man. Willing herself to gain control over at least her element, she studied his sculpted and golden upper body. A tan line rode low beneath his abs. She traced a finger there. He had another at his ankle, and the stark contrast tempted her to lick each line.

  She turned her attention to the black tattoo racing up his left shoulder and down to the elbow. The design inched toward his heart but stopped before his collarbone. A smaller mate to it shot down his right biceps like a flame. The marks were vivid and bold against his skin, depicting water, sea turtles, a sting ray, and sharks’ teeth. He’d mapped her source of power on his body. She followed her gaze with her fingertips.

  “This is your story, isn’t it?” Her voice was breathy. She swallowed again.

  He nodded. Like a chart, she simply needed to read it. Those marks that called to her, singing her elemental source’s hymn. There’d be time enough to decode his tattoos later. She unhooked the bra and slowly inched the lace away from her breasts.

  His hands tightened on her hips. She darted her tongue out to taste the skin underneath those inked maps of the sea. Salt and Sam. He hissed, and then she lost all thought as he cupped her breasts. She rubbed against his erection, writhing in the feel of him.

  Here was what she had missed. The intimacy and sensuality of connecting at such a base level that it was ingrained within her body how to instinctively move, how to tantalize while finding her own pleasure. The fingers digging into her hips, the swell of him against her most tender places as she leaned forward and rubbed her breasts against his chest. She reveled in the coarseness there that had her nipples swollen and aching within moments.

  Sam fisted his hand in her curls at the back of her neck and brought her down for another kiss. She lost herself to the tangle of tongues and lips before reaching down to angle against his length and guide it into her body. Not all the way. Only the tip of his massive erection. Her focus narrowed to their joining. The intimacy of the act fast becoming the one thing she hungered for.

  Her own body constricted and rebelled, unaccustomed to being used this way. She waited and allowed her body to stretch to take a little more. Fighting down the instinct to claim, she paused, lingered, let her body adjust before sliding further and taking him all the way in. She rocked again, finding a slow rhythm that built as he moved his hands to grip her ass. She wanted more. He raised up on his elbows, and she clenched around him as he thrust higher inside her.

  Cami needed the connection, the power that came as she rose higher and fell back to take him further inside. She could feel the weight of his stare when he watched her breasts bounce. The heat and slickness from her core spiraled and grew, spreading through her entire body. She tried to fight it, to hold it off. To savor the feeling. Then she chased it, needing to catch ecstasy before the exquisite moment was gone.

  That overwhelming climax was almost upon her and yet just beyond her grasp. She moved faster, needing the intensity. Sam matched her pace, urging her toward it as he sucked on her breast. The heaviness and need pulsed through her with ragged breaths. Sam nipped at her wickedly, encouraging her to let go with feverish whispers.

  “You’re so close. I can feel you tighten around me. I’ve got you.” He breathed the assurances against her neck.

  She clutched at his shoulders, rising further but not
fast enough. He seemed to sense the change in her rhythm, the uncertainty. He pulled her close for a deep kiss. That spicy ocean scent wrapped around her. Sam’s scent. Her body relaxed even while the desire continued to build.

  Taking control from her, Sam never let go as he rolled her to her back, his hands holding and roaming. He withdrew, leaving her empty and wanting, before reaching down to tease her with his fingers.

  The memory of her climax on his desk had her twisting in the sheets, needing that same glorious release. She could hear her own sighs and pleading moans as she lay pinned there waiting for him to slide back inside her.

  “I love hearing that. Open your eyes, Cami.” The gruffness of his voice warred with the tenderness of his touch. “I want to see you when I’m inside you.”

  She blinked heavy, languid lashes until she could watch him. Sam was over her, his face expectant, his eyes filled with lust. He touched his forehead to hers at the same moment he inched inside. She writhed against him, begging with her body for more. He drove in again and again.

  At first, she clung to the sounds he made, luxuriating in the power she had to push him to that. Then her center clenched around him, drawing him in as far and tightly as it could, pulsing against him. She reached for blissful release with a gasp.

  Her body rocked against his. She clutched his shoulders to ride out the climax and felt when he let go. His face relaxed into the hottest expressions as his body spasmed with his own orgasm.

  Her heart beat wildly in time with his as he rolled to his side, pulling her with him. She tried to catch her breath and then stopped caring how the quick shallow pants sounded because she lay there deliciously sated, wrapped in his body. Her hair stuck to her face and fingers when she pushed it back, having to first untangle herself from Sam. He turned to his back and took her with him in one motion. She draped over him, feeling his hands rub up and down her body.

  “I definitely like it just like that,” he said softly with a sweet kiss against her head. “More. Anytime.”

  Cami nuzzled into him. He moved his hand into her hair, lightly stroking her sensitive scalp.

  She stretched and sighed in pleasure. “So much more to the point than the discussion I had planned.”

  He exhaled in a huff. “I had plans too.” He shifted her so he could see her tipped up face. “I had planned dinner and trying to lead up to getting you in here sometime tonight. I didn’t think I could take another night of kissing you and watching you walk away. Or being right there about to taste you and having the door pounded down.”

  “This way was much hotter.”

  “Agreed.” He slid her damp body against his own. He held her like he wouldn’t let go.

  Cami breathed in the sea and salt, hoping he didn’t notice the essence of it against their skin, and reveled in the magic filling this room. She’d been warned all her life how power had a lure. And a price. For this, she might pay any price.

  Chapter Twelve

  Sam carried two plates to the table and admired the view of Cami sitting crossed-legged wearing only his button-up shirt. She had pushed the sleeves back from where they’d fallen to her fingertips.

  He had negotiated so she’d eat dinner in his shirt before they showered. Hopefully together. He’d made sure to bump into her often in the kitchen, and he’d had no problems when she told him he’d have to eat without a shirt if she ate without pants.

  “I can do that.” He’d pulled her against him for a quick kiss and a pat on the butt. He poured her a glass of wine before grabbing a beer.

  “Such a surfer with your wetsuit tan line on your neck and those board short lines.” She gestured toward his thighs with her fork before lowering it to his heel.

  He glanced down to the white ring around his ankle. “Surf board leash.” He dug into his food. “Don’t you have one?” Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen a single tan line on her skin.

  She jerked a shoulder. “I don’t guess you can surf naked.”

  He choked on his beer. “It’s a little cold here for that, and board rash isn’t so good in some places. But damn, I would love to watch you try.”

  She smiled, and his eyes locked on those dimples. Bogart lay across her feet. Apparently, his dog couldn’t stay away either.

  “The discussion with your sisters earlier seemed intense.”

  She chuckled. “You mean Mina grilling me for not already having sex with you?”

  He swallowed and ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Awkward.”

  She wagged her fork. “My sisters think you have a cute butt. They’re right.”

  He shook his head with a grin. “At least no one can say you guys hold back. You have a great ass too. Couldn’t help but notice it that first day you walked in.” He could tell by her expression that she didn’t believe him. “It’s true. Tiny thing with those hips and that wild hair. When you hit me with those giant golden eyes, I was done for. You started doing that thing with your mouth. You’re doing it now.” He touched her bottom lip. “You bite here when you’re concentrating.”

  She stared at him, angling her face so a curl fell across her cheek. He brushed it away.

  “Then there’s that inquisitive tilt you do with your head like you’re figuring out, organizing, and sorting the whole world. I watched you and your sisters. You all do it. It’s just so much sexier on you. I mean, I respect your brains, your goals, and how sweet you are in every single imaginable way.” He glanced down pointedly so she knew that sweet meant both kindness and how she tasted there. Everywhere. “Plus you’re bossy in the nicest way possible.”

  She avoided his eyes, reaching for her glass. “You cannot mean that bossiness turns you on. I’m not bossy,” she grumbled. “I simply like to get things sorted.”

  He laughed. “Hot little miss bossy making me crazy from day one.”

  “Obviously I’m going to need more alcohol for this conversation,” she muttered, and he topped off her glass. She thanked him before protesting further. “I am not the bossy sister. Delia is. She says I’m the darling. She said so tonight.”

  “You are the darling, and I’m sure Delia can be a real ball buster. But you would sweet-talk her into getting your way if you wanted. Your older sister adores you. It must be hard being the favorite.”

  She rolled her eyes and paused between bites to shake her fork at him. “I’m not the favorite.”

  “You are. I’m the worthless flunky kid who got kicked out. Who knows why my parents couldn’t stand me?” He let the cold beer chase the memory away. “Lucky for them, Lottie came along. She makes a good favorite.”

  She shook her head. “They were wrong. You were a kid, and whatever problem they had with you, it’s on them. You didn’t deserve to be abandoned by your crappy parents. No matter how you’ve convinced yourself it’s somehow your fault. It’s like you don’t even know your own family because they shut you out.”

  She didn’t miss a thing. Sam shifted uncomfortably. He wasn’t sure he wanted her seeing through him, so he put on a front, swigged his beer, and grinned. “You could kiss me and make everything all better.”

  She frowned. “That how you avoid talking about it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your family deserted you. That had to hurt. You don’t even speak with your mother or father from what I can tell.”

  “I don’t have anything to say to them.” He set the beer down forcefully. “They don’t have anything to say to me, so it works out well.

  “Doesn’t mean it can’t still hurt.”

  Well, damn, she cut right to the point. He swallowed and considered. She didn’t sound like she judged him. Maybe she was defending him in some ways. Being dumped by his own parents had sucked. It’d screwed him up more than he’d already been as an attention-seeking little prick. “You think you could’ve helped a stray like me?”

  “I could have at least tried. That’s what I do every day. Try to make a difference. Even a tiny one.”

  “I see
that.” He nodded. “I respect that.”

  “It doesn’t mean I always succeed. I’ve had my own share of colossal failures.”

  “At work?”

  She looked down at her plate. Maybe he wasn’t the only one with hurt to hide. Finally, she nodded.

  “At work. In life,” she told him.

  “How could you have ever failed at anything in your life? I mean, everybody makes mistakes. But you? Fail? Not hardly. You’re so together.” He waited and still she didn’t talk. Oh no, turnabout is fair play. “You called me out on my parents. Come on. Spill.”

  “I didn’t always have it together,” she said quietly.

  “You with the life plan? I don’t believe it.” This woman had a blueprint for every day for the next five years.

  She paused. “I didn’t plan much of anything until about a year ago. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do after vet school, but I took it day by day. I figured everything would just work out.”

  “What changed?”

  She sipped her wine and gestured toward her bare legs and then his chest. “We’re both half naked. This really the conversation you want to have right now?”

  He knew evasion. He was a master at it. Something had spooked her bad enough to change her entire way of life. And if his hunch was right, it might be the same reason she watched the world like the big bad wolf would come around any corner. He stared at her until she sighed.

  “It didn’t work out with the ex-boyfriend I mentioned.”

  He shook his head. “One boyfriend didn’t work out perfectly? That’s the reason to change your whole life? I don’t buy it. What else happened? You must’ve had a line of men around the block vying to be your rebound.”

  “No,” she whispered to the table and swallowed hard. “That was it. I ended it. He didn’t take it well.”