by Ally Blake
He knew. The fact that she’d got there on her own opened up a space inside of him he hadn’t even known he was holding tight until that moment.
“You never fooled me, Juliana.” He reached out, slid a stray strand of wet hair behind her ear. The hand at her hair moved to her shoulder, his thumb rubbing over her exposed collarbone. His voice scraped in his throat at the overload of wet lush gorgeousness. “I know you’re pure marshmallow.”
“Takes one to know one,” she shot back.
“You calling me soft, Juliana?”
“As butter,” she said. Then grabbed him by the hand, kicked off the wall and pulled with all her might.
Chapter 18
“Seriously?” he said, waist deep in the water, his shirt clinging to the Michelangelo-level of sculpted muscle JJ hadn’t believed existed in real life. “That’s your comeback?”
JJ saw the glint in Kane’s eye a moment too late. He sprang towards her. With a squeal she tried turning to swim out of reach, but he had her by the waist before she had the chance and she squealed as he hauled her close.
“Shhh,” she said, looking around frantically, pressing a finger to her lips even while she was the one making all the noise.
“Who’s going to hear us? Everyone’s either tucked up in bed, or dancing to a band so loud their ears will be still ringing in the morning.”
Clouds had passed over the moon, turning the water the color of ink. In the silvery darkness his smile made her heart flinch as if it had been nicked by a flying arrow.
She began to tremble, even while the air around her was warm. The man smiling down at her warmer still. And for all her attempts to give him an out, suddenly nothing else mattered.
Arms around his neck she pulled herself against him. And when she kissed him it was wet and hot and lush. All slippery tongues and sliding skin and she wrapped her legs around his waist and held on tight.
He pulled her dress away from one shoulder, trailing open-mouthed kisses over her skin. Fretting, desire licking through her, she shimmied her arms free, leaving herself bare from the waist up.
He drank in the sight of her like a man crawling out of the dessert. His hand slid up her sides, as if he couldn’t bear not touching her, before they found their way to her breasts.
Eyes black as coal in the darkness, deepening breaths expanding his huge chest, he ran gentle thumbs over the aching swell before his thumb ran over one peak.
He brought it to a cold hard nub before, with a curse, his mouth found the other. Sucking, teasing, swirling his tongue around the bud while JJ’s legs gripped him hard, her hands clinging to his slippery arms.
With a growl he yanked her dress over her hips, diving under water as she wriggled her legs free, then, with the lung capacity of a top athlete, he gripped her hips, his lips tracing her belly, teeth sinking down on her hipbones, his tongue lapping at her navel before he came out of the water.
Water glistened from his eyelashes. From the flat panes of his lips. Caught on his stubble before trailing down his strong brown neck. Deep in thinking how crazy beautiful he was, she gasped when his finger found its way to her hot wet center. Caressing her with long slow strokes. She pressed into his touch, the night air on her shoulders nothing against the humming heat of Kane’s beautiful body, or the burn coiling inside.
With a flick of his thumb over her most sensitive flesh, she came, holding on tight as her cry rent the air. She slapped a hand over her mouth as she rode of the pleasure. Until Kane nudged it aside and covered her mouth with his. His hunger, his desire, making the pleasure go on and on and on.
When her vision cleared it was to find Kane’s eyes dark as night as his gaze roved over her face, as if memorizing every inch, every nuance.
“One of these days we’re going to get caught, you know,” she said.
“Maybe, maybe not. Worth the risk?” he asked, his thumb running down the side of her breast, tingles flickering all over her body in its wake.
“Of getting thrown in the brig for public indecency,” she managed. “Hell yeah.”
“Is that on the betting board?”
“I’d put money on it.”
Lightning lit the sky, creating craggy relief around Kane’s face as he looked up with a frown.
“Come on,” he said, swimming her to the edge.
“Hang on,” she said, pulling him back with what little energy she could still muster. “What about you?”
He smiled as he kissed her, even as the tension still coiled inside of him was enough to light her up all on its own.
Taking her dress with him, he pulled himself out like was part seal. And the sight of the suit clinging to his big thighs, his lean waist, the kinds of shoulders that looked big enough to carry the whole world, had her trembling.
Or maybe it was the fact that she was wet, cooling quickly, and bloodless with repletion.
Kane came back with a big warm towel, and after helping her out, wrapped her up tight. Taking lead he walked her all the way back to her room, making sure they weren’t seen.
And even while she couldn’t quite believe it, she felt in her very bones that his discretion had nothing to do with the safety of his job but for her. Whatever his life had been like once upon a time, she couldn’t believe this was a man who’d ever crushed a woman’s heart. And while it ought to have been a relief, trepidation flickered to life inside of her.
She opened her room with her wet key and slipped inside. Turning back, looking into blue eyes that didn’t look quite so cool to her as they once had, she found herself asking, “Do you want to—”
“As much as it kills me to say it, we’re done for the night. I fear if I take you up on your kind invitation I might never want to leave.”
He was making light of the fact that they were walking a tightrope here—after stripping her bare and taking her to heaven and back in a public pool not fifteen minutes before, mind you—but she also kind of agreed.
She kissed him once before shutting the door and leaning on it. Naked, bar a soggy G-string and a damp towel. Her dress dripping in her arms. Shaking. Laughing. Feeling both as wild and satisfied as she’d ever felt in her life.
Chapter 19
JJ awoke to the sound of rain. It was so dark and grey outside her porthole she had to check her clock twice.
Ten hours. She’d slept ten hours. Meaning either the couple in the room next door had also—miraculously—slept through or she’d been so blissed out from her most excellent endeavors with one Kane Phillips, Fitness Director, the night before nothing could have woken her.
Feeling achy in all sorts of delicious places, JJ wrapped a long cardigan over her shortie PJs, and popped her head out the cabin door, only to see Carol leaving her room. The room next door. The one with the adjoining wall.
JJ closed her eyes to the images colliding therein and—
Nope. It was too late. She vowed never to rely on first impressions ever again.
“Oh good morning, love,” Carol said, eyes bright, lime-green dress something Queen Elizabeth II would happily have worn. “Did you hear the island hop has been called off today?”
“Oh. Um . . . really?” JJ managed. At least she didn’t have to find another excuse not to get off the boat.
“Seas too choppy. Seems we’ll miss Vila tomorrow but will try for Lifou again, which I’m quite pleased about. The vanilla plantation tour.”
“Yay,” JJ said, giving the air a little punch.
“Now I’m off to find some pastries for Samuel. He’s still asleep. Worn out poor love.”
Not sticking around to find out why, JJ gave Carol a thumbs up before slinking quickly back into her room.
***
After her run, JJ headed off to . . . Okay, so she was looking for Kane. Instead she found Zara—his second-in-charge—hurrying through the lobby.
With a roll of her eyes, the woman said, “We’ve been forced to whip up a full day of activities to keep the guests from going troppo, as not only are we al
l stuck on the ship but the decks are out of action as well. Have you been outside? Seen the rain?”
JJ hadn’t.
“Horizontal. So we’ve stacked the tables in the restaurant on Deck Seven in preparation for . . . whatever Kane decides to do with them.”
And off Zara went, leaving JJ feeling . . . a little lost really. So Deck 7 it was.
When she reached the restaurant she stepped into the room to find the place transformed. Every inch full of passengers. Staff scurrying about like ants without a scent. And Kane, up front, marshalling it all.
That gorgeous creature has had his hands and mouth all over me, she thought, wondering how she was going to meet his eye without completely giving herself away. Because easygoing as he might be about it all, she wasn’t about to advertise what had happened. She’d already put a dent in one guy’s life in leaving him a day after his wedding, she wasn’t about to purposely make a mess of another.
“JJ! Up here, love,” Myrtle called out, giving the women either side of her a look to move over.
JJ took her place to discover she’d joined what turned out to be a massive Pilates class.
Still a mite frantic, Zara hopped up onto a makeshift stage and using a wireless mike instructed the room to relax their shoulders. Turn on their tummy muscles. Press their hips towards one another. Soften their knees. Not the most graceful person on the planet, or even in the room, JJ attempted to follow the seemingly converse instructions without toppling over, fearing she’d create some kind of human domino effect.
Not making it any easier was the fact that Kane was there, watching on from the edge of the stage; ankles casually crossed, sunglasses pulling his overlong hair from his eyes as he called out encouragement to the crowd.
His mere existence was enough to keep her off balance. But every time his eyes found hers they were so hot, so delicious, so intense, it reminded her of the way he’d taken control in the pool, and it wouldn’t have mattered how soft her knees were, they plum forgot how to work.
By the murmurs ripples through the crowd she wasn’t the only one feeling it. She stood taller and did her best to concentrate.
“Switch on your pelvic floor,” Zara called, nearly going hoarse from having to be heard all the way to the back.
“I haven’t had one of those in five decades,” a Merry Widow muttered to JJ’s right. “How about you love? Yours ship-shape?”
“I—I guess. I don’t know. I’ve never done Pilates so . . .”
“It’s the part that squeezes when you orgasm.”
At that, the two dozen people within hearing distance—as well as those further afield with their hearing aids turned up to high—stopped what they were doing and waited for JJ’s response.
“Right.” She glanced at Kane, she couldn’t help herself. The fact that he was looking at his shoes made her pretty sure he’d heard it all. Big lug, what good was he if he couldn’t bail her out here?
The muscles between her legs—ah, so that was her pelvic floor!—twitched in protest, reminding her just what good he was. It seemed, without realizing it, and despite her best efforts to put the brakes on, the fun part of holiday had eventuated after all.
“Everyone onto your backs,” the instructor called, saving JJ from having to answer as a room full of over-sixty-fives groaned as one.
Leaving JJ—with her new friend, pelvic floor—to grin at the ceiling.
Chapter 20
It was the kind of storm that made even a ship the size of the Royal Pacific tip and sway leaving the medical staff run off their feet and the entertainment and fitness staff who were still standing having to come up with last minute plans on the fly.
It was the kind of day Kane thrived on; fueled by adrenalin and flying by the seat of his pants.
At one time it had been his body that craved the rush, now it was more of a mind thing. Corralling two thousand frisky seniors—who had the mads from being cooped up all day—was the most challenging job he’d ever had. And a frickin’ rush when he pulled it off.
Like that Pilates class. It’d been a riot. All groans and moans and uproarious laughter as they tried to touch their toes. Exactly the kind of lightness and lack of self-consciousness that had been his eventual therapy.
Now his leg ached. His shoulders too. Back in his room he stripped down and ran himself a bath—a room requirement he’d added to his contract for continued rehab on his leg—needing to loosen up before heading up to dinner.
And JJ.
The ship might be a mini-city, but when he’d gone looking he’d never yet not found her.
When he turned off the tap he heard a knock at his door. He quickly checked his work phone to see if it might be Zara with a problem. Nothing there, so he wrapped a towel around his waist and opened up.
And there stood JJ in her running gear. Her eyes oddly bright, her chest rising and falling as though she’d run a mile, but not a mark of sweat branded her.
He leaned against the doorjamb. “How did you find my room, smart girl?”
Her cheeks pinked. He liked it a lot. “Raul. Seems he’s taking turns with Hazel at being my fairy godmother. He thinks we have some great romance going on and wanted to help it along.” Her teeth nibbled at her bottom lip. “It didn’t seem right to explain that we’re just . . . messing around.”
“Is that what we’re doing?”
“Well, we’re not doing anything right now.” She bounced from toe to toe as she glanced up and down the hall. “Aren’t you going to let me in?”
He moved aside.
“Wow, it is small. How do you get around in here?”
“I use it to bathe and sleep. Every other minute is spent up there. Something I can do for you this evening?”
She turned, her eyes already hot for him, her hands reaching for his chest. And then she was on him, kissing him. For a millionth of a second, he felt an urge to pull back—it had been hours since he’d seen her and he felt a greedy need to take his fill of the sight of her. His next and far more overwhelming instinct was to shut the hell up and kiss the woman.
Hands in her hair he tilted her face and deepened the kiss. Swallowing her moans, leaning into her sweet heat, resisting the urge to just eat her up with a spoon.
“Kane,” she said against his mouth.
“Yeah?”
“I’ve been wondering something.”
“What’s that?”
“Am I the most recent in a long line of girls you’ve seduced onboard?”
Right. Kane pulled back, held her by the upper arms, even while she seemed to want to have at him despite the bomb she’d just dropped. “Do you really believe that?”
She seemed to think about it. “No. But things have been said. And you seem so cool with the fact that your job might be on the line if you get caught. And my instincts about this kind of thing suck.”
Cool? Didn’t she know she made him feel anything but cool? “You’d believe me if I told you straight.”
Her big brown eyes held his. “I would.”
If that wasn’t a burden of trust, he didn’t know what was. He’d made mincemeat of such burdens in the past. This time he’d do his all not to betray it or die trying.
“I’ve never been here before, Juliana. Ever.”
“Really?”
“As I live and breathe.”
She sniffed out her next breath, obfuscation and desire mixed behind her eyes. Ready as he might be for the next step, she had to be too, and the ship seemed to tilt on a grain of sand as he waited to see which way it would fall.
Then leaning back a fraction she looked down. And stilled. Her gaze stuck where his towel had fallen away leaving his erection having its own mighty say in the matter of what came next.
Holy hell, she might have muttered, or that might have been wishful thinking.
“JJ.” She didn’t move. He snuck a finger under her chin and lifted ’til her eyes met his. Wide eyes, pupils dilated, flickering with desire. He laughed. God, he liked this
woman. Liked how she made him feel. Big and protective. Trustworthy. Turned on to the point of pain.
He just had to make sure he lived up to all she made him feel capable of being.
But first . . .
His hands were at the edge of her tank top, lifting it over her head. He knelt down and divested her of her shoes. When she wriggled out of her yoga tights it was all he could do not to drool. Her lean hips jiggling back and forth, her small breasts near spilling out of her tiny bra, the plain cotton G-string . . . gone. Revealing—
Hot damn.
“Is that—” he asked, his tongue too thick to even get the words out.
She kicked of her pants, hands behind her to unhook her bra as she glanced down. “Oh right. I’d totally forgotten about that.”
The woman had forgotten . . . that she’d been groomed . . . into the shape of a palm tree. “Is that for me?”
“Um, I had it done for the trip. So . . . for whoever got there first. You win.”
Hell yeah, he’d won. He lifted her up and threw her onto the bed where she landed with a squeal of laughter, the sound trickling inside of him like a waterfall.
When she tried scooting herself up his bed he stopped her, hands wrapping around both slim calves as he yanked her to the end of the bed, then placed her feet flat, and stretched her legs wide.
“Let me get a good look at this thing. To see if they did a good job.”
It took everything not to just dive right in, but the wait was worth it to hear her laugh.
And when he bent his head and swiped the center of the trunk of the palm tree with his tongue she fell back on the bed with a groan. Writhing like she was on the way to finishing before he’d even begun.
“Meant to be your turn,” she said, showing no signs of pushing him away.
He lifted to look along the length of her fine body, with its delicate curves and unearthly pale skin that was beginning to take on a light golden glow. “I’ll get there. Don’t you fret.”
