by Marie Force
He was just outside the marina gates, talking intently to his brother, when Jenny and Linc walked past on the other side of the street.
She glanced at him, and his gaze smacked into hers, nearly making her gasp with the yearning she felt coming from him. Like shards of metal drawn to a high-powered magnet, Jenny felt the pull from twenty feet away and had to fight her way through it when all she wanted was to run to him.
“Are you okay?” Linc asked, thankfully oblivious to the sizzling connection with Alex that she finally broke when she looked away.
“Yes, thank you.” No, she wasn’t okay. While on a date with one man, her mind was full of thoughts about another. That was certainly unprecedented. “Sorry to cut our evening short.”
“It’s okay. I have PT at zero-six-thirty anyway.”
After a silent ride through town, they arrived at the lighthouse. Jenny hadn’t locked the gate for the night yet, so Linc headed down the long, dark driveway. “It’s kind of creepy out here at night. Are you ever afraid?”
“Not really. I usually lock the gate before sunset, so I have the place to myself.” Except, she thought, when men on motorcycles drove around the gate.
“I had a really nice time tonight, Jenny. I’d like to see you again.”
How to say this diplomatically? “I had a nice time, too.” That much was true. “Things are a bit…unsettled in my life right now.”
“Is that a polite way of saying you don’t want to go out again?”
Jenny winced, thankful for the cover of darkness. “That’s a polite way of saying my life is unsettled, and this isn’t the best time.”
He pondered that for a minute. “All right, then. How about I call you in a week or two to see if things have settled down?”
“That’d be great,” she said with a sigh of relief that he wasn’t going to push her to commit to a second date.
Leaning toward her, he spared her further embarrassment and awkwardness by kissing her cheek.
“Thank you for dinner,” Jenny said.
“Thank you for the pleasure of your company.”
Jenny got out of the car and appreciated that he waited until she was inside before he drove off. She ran up the stairs to the kitchen as she tried to figure out what to do. Should she go to Alex? And do what, exactly? Push him to talk about something he didn’t want to talk about?
In the drawer under the microwave, she found the phone book the previous lighthouse keeper had left behind and thumbed through it, looking for the address of Martinez Lawn & Garden. She found the address and even knew where it was. But how did she know if he lived there?
Below the listing for the business, she found separate listings for George & Marion Martinez and Paul Martinez, all at the same address as the business. So they lived on the grounds.
Jenny still didn’t know what she was going to do with this information when she went up one more level to her bedroom and changed into shorts and a tank top, tossing the dress she’d worn on her date across the foot of her bed. She slid her feet into comfortable flip-flops and went back downstairs, grabbing her purse and keys in the kitchen and running for the stairs to the mudroom.
She threw open the door and screamed with fright at the sight of a large person standing in the dark outside her door.
“It’s me,” Alex said. “I knocked.”
“I…I was upstairs. I didn’t hear you.”
“I hear keys. Going somewhere?”
“I…um, I was going to find you.”
“Were you now?” He took a step forward and then another.
Out of self-preservation, Jenny backed away from him until her backside bumped against the far wall of the mudroom, right where one of their previous encounters had taken place. Her purse and keys dropped to the floor with a clatter.
“What happened to pretty boy?”
“Who?”
“The pink shirt you were with earlier.”
“He went home.”
“Did you send him home with a smile on his face?”
A bead of sweat slid between her breasts, and she wasn’t sure if it was the heat or his nearness that had caused it. Probably both. “How is that any of your business?”
His hands found her hips in the darkness. “I’m making it my business.”
He nuzzled her neck and made her melt. How did he do that so easily? She wanted to object to what he’d said, but her brain cells were as fried as her nerve endings.
“Did you send him away smiling?” he asked, more insistently this time.
“I sent him away confused about where exactly our great date went wrong.”
“Where exactly did it go wrong?” His lips and breath against her neck made her nipples tighten.
“You know exactly where it went wrong.”
“I want you to tell me.”
“It went wrong the minute you walked into the Tiki Bar.”
“Why’s that?”
As her frustration with the conversation mounted, so did the throbbing need between her legs. “You know why!”
“If I knew for sure, I wouldn’t be asking.”
“Yes, you would, because you enjoy tormenting me.”
His rough chuckle against her neck gave her goose bumps on her arms. “Is that what I’m doing?”
“How did you get here anyway? I didn’t hear the bike.”
“My brother dropped me off.”
“Did you tell him about me?”
“Nope. I told him I was going for a walk in one of my favorite places. I’ve always loved it out here.” His hands slid from her hips to cup her breasts. “Now I love it even more than I used to.”
Jenny arched into his hands, needing to get closer.
“So what happened when I walked into the Tiki Bar?”
She’d hoped he had forgotten that she’d never answered his question. “I thought about what happened last night.”
“I thought about it, too. All damned day.” He pushed his erection into her belly. “I walked around like this all day, which is your fault.”
“How is that my fault?”
“Because all I could think about is how damned sexy you are, and how badly I want another taste of you.”
His words made her lips burn for another taste of him.
“Alex?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you want to talk about what happened earlier with your mom?”
“Fuck no.”
His adamant reply made her sorry she’d asked.
“This is what I need.” His hands were big and rough against her face as he held her still for his almost violent possession of her mouth. Lips and tongue and teeth and needy moans combined in an explosive wave of desire. “Take me upstairs.”
Chapter 8
Jenny was moving toward the stairs before the words were fully out of his mouth. With her hand wrapped around his, she led him up two flights of stairs to her bedroom.
“This is awesome,” he said reverently as he went to the window to check out the glow of the moon over the water.
Jenny took advantage of the opportunity to stash the picture of Toby in her bedside drawer. Before the guilt could set in, Alex held out a hand.
She went to him.
“I’m sorry I was rude downstairs when you asked about my mom. It was nice of you to ask, but it’s the last thing I want to talk about.”
“I understand.” And she did. How could she not? She had her own list of things she’d rather not talk about.
He looked at her, seeming to see all the way inside her. “Somehow I think you do.” Glancing at the bed and then at her again, he said, “Is this what you want?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. For the first time since she lost Toby, she felt like she was exactly where she belonged, and even if nothing came of the intense attraction between them, she was determined to enjoy it while it lasted.
“I don’t share. If we’re doing this, and I hope we’ll be doing a lot of it, you’re not doing it with a
nyone else at the same time.”
“Neither are you.”
“Done. I haven’t been with anyone in the year since I moved back here. I’m healthy, and I can prove it. Do we need protection?”
After she’d made the decision to start dating again, she’d seen Victoria, the island’s midwife, about birth control. “No.”
“Jesus, I think I just died for a second there.”
“Please don’t do that.”
“Figuratively speaking.” He drew the tank top up and over her head.
Jenny’s heart beat so hard she could feel it in her temples and between her legs and the bottoms of her feet in a steady drumbeat of desire and adrenaline. She stood perfectly still while he unbuttoned and unzipped her shorts, inserting his hands into the back to push them down. The heat of his hands branded her bottom through the silk of her panties.
She fumbled with the button to his shorts and nearly wept with relief when it broke free. The zipper followed, and she imitated his move when she used her hands on his finely shaped ass to push his shorts down. Only he wore nothing underneath them. “Commando?”
“Is there any other way to go in this blistering heat?” He raised his hand and pulled the rumpled white cotton button-down she’d admired earlier over his head, leaving him naked before her. In the faint moonlight, she could see the fine contours of his muscles, his dark tan, the paler skin below his waist, dark chest hair and the trail of hair that led to a darker patch around the erection that hung long and thick between his legs. “See anything you like?”
Since all the saliva in Jenny’s mouth had dried up as she looked at him, she could only nod.
“Me, too. I see all kinds of things I like. Starting right here.” He twisted his fingers against her back and freed her breasts from the tight constraint of her bra.
She whimpered in relief as he peeled the lace from her body and rubbed his chest hair over her tight nipples. Something inside her snapped at the rush of desire that came with the friction. Fisting his hair, she dragged him into a deep, searching kiss. She couldn’t wait for the second taste he’d promised her downstairs.
When the backs of her legs bumped against the bed, she realized he’d been walking them backward. He came down on top of her, arms and legs entangled, his erection hard and hot against her belly as his tongue thrust into her mouth.
“As sweet as your kisses are, that’s not the taste I’ve been yearning for since last night.” He kissed a path from her throat to her chest, teasing her nipples on the way to her belly button.
Jenny was burning up from the inside. After not having a man do this to her in a dozen years, to have Alex do it twice in two days was overwhelming, to say the least.
He slid down on the bed, pushed her legs apart and opened her to his tongue. “Mmm, that’s what I was thinking about all day.” The flutter of his breath against her sensitive tissue and the scrape of his whiskers over her inner thighs drove her crazy as she arched her back, trying to get closer to the heat of his mouth. “Easy.” His arm across her abdomen kept her anchored to the bed as he kept up the sensual torture. He licked and sucked and teased, making her scream from the pleasure. And then he added his fingers, driving two of them into her as he rolled her clit between his lips. He kept it up until she was on the verge of climax, then backed off, slowing the strokes of his tongue and fingers.
Jenny sagged into the bed, breathing hard and sweating profusely from the heat and the desire that thrummed through her in a relentless rhythm. She was about to beg him when he started all over again, slower this time. Grasping a handful of his hair, she tried to hurry him, but he wouldn’t be hurried.
She groaned in frustration, which made him laugh.
“Patience.”
“I have none.”
“Get some.”
Her hands fell to her sides, gripping the sheet as he continued to torture her with his tongue and deep strokes of his fingers. Jenny’s hips surged against his mouth, and he took the hint, sucking her clit and running his tongue back and forth over it.
She detonated, screaming from the overpowering pleasure that ripped through her.
He stayed with her through the whole thing before moving up to cover her with his big, muscular body. “That was amazing,” he whispered as he took himself in hand and pushed into her. “God, that feels incredible.” He flexed his hips. “Oh, you’re so tight.”
Jenny dug her fingers into the muscles on his back as she struggled to accommodate him. Despite how primed she was after the powerful release, he was big, and she hadn’t done this in years. A slight whimper escaped from her clenched teeth.
“Does it hurt?”
“A little.”
“We’ll have to go slow, then.” He bent over her and drew her nipple into his mouth, sucking and tugging as he eased the pace of his entry. Little by little, he worked his way in, moving carefully and watching her closely with those dark-chocolate eyes. “Better?”
She nodded, sliding her hands from his shoulders down his back to his tight, muscular ass, which she gripped to keep him from moving until she was ready.
He released a tortured groan. “Gotta move.”
“Not yet.”
Throbbing and lengthening inside her, he dropped his head to her shoulder, his perspiration melding with hers to make their bodies slick. Between the heat outside and the heat they were generating together, Jenny was about to implode. She gradually lightened her hold on his ass and wriggled under him.
“Ready?” he muttered against her ear.
“Think so.”
“Hold on to me.”
She grasped his shoulders as he began to move, slowly at first, until he was sure she was with him.
“So fucking hot,” he whispered. “And I’m talking about you, not the weather.”
Jenny moaned as he picked up the pace, clutching her bottom in his big hands as he pounded into her. He took her on a wild ride, giving her no chance to think about anything or anyone other than him. Apparently, his patience extended to intercourse as well, because he kept up the ruthless pace for far longer than he should’ve been able to.
All at once, he slowed again, pushing hard into her and staying there as he gazed down at her. He brushed the hair back from her face and kissed her softly, lingering at her lips as he throbbed inside her. “Hold on tight.”
Before she could ask him why, he had turned them over and positioned her on top of him, all without losing their connection.
“Speaking of fucking hot,” he whispered as he reached up to cup her breasts, running his thumbs back and forth over her nipples.
Jenny flattened her hands on his chest, adjusting to the new position and the tight squeeze of his cock inside her.
“Ride me,” he said gruffly, his hands finding her hips to guide her movements.
She swiveled her hips, and he groaned, surging into her. His thumb pressed against her clit, making her stagger and lose her rhythm until he helped her find it again.
His eyes closed and his lips parted. “Yeah, like that. God… So good.”
Jenny had never been hotter in her life, and only part of that heat could be blamed on the weather.
He kept up the pressure on her clit as she moved over him, drawing a keening release from her that ripped through her body like a wildfire. She came back to reality to find him over her, hammering into her as he found his own release, surging into her again and again until he finally collapsed on top of her.
“Christ, I’m burning up.” He withdrew from her and took her hand. “Let’s go swim.”
“You expect me to move right now?”
“Come on. It’s so fucking hot I can’t breathe. We need to cool off.”
She’d never been with a guy who dropped the F bomb as often as he did, but somehow it suited him—a little rough, a little gruff, a whole lot sexy.
He coaxed her out of bed but stopped her when she reached for a T-shirt. “Just like this,” he said, cupping her breasts and teasing her s
ore nipples.
“I’m not going out there naked.”
“Yes, you are. Come on.” He tugged her along behind him, heading for the stairs.
“You’re crazy! I work here. People come out here all the time.”
“There’s no one here at this hour.” As he argued with her, he continued down the stairs, keeping a tight grip on her hand.
Jenny made one last futile attempt to stop him before he marched through the mudroom door in all his glory, bringing her along with him in all her glory. She’d never been naked outside before last night, and here she was doing it again.
As they took the stairs to the beach and hit the sand, Jenny decided to stop worrying about getting caught and enjoy the most insane thing she’d ever done. They splashed into the cool water together, and she had to admit it was the first time all day she hadn’t felt like she was roasting over an open fire.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” he said as he fell backward into the water, completely submerging himself.
Jenny had begun to wonder where he’d gone when she felt his hands cupping her ass and his lips on her back.
He drew her into his lap, settling his erection into the cleft of her bottom.
“How can you be ready to go again after what just happened up there?” She gestured to the lighthouse.
“It’s all you, baby. You turn me on like no one ever has.”
The revealing statement went straight to her heart, where it was firmly rejected. This relationship was not about hearts or flowers or even relating in any way other than physical. She’d do well to remember that before she got too involved. He didn’t even know her last name or anything about her other than where she lived and who some of her friends were.
Linc Mercier knew more about her than the man who was currently playing with her nipples as his hot, wet lips tortured her neck. Jenny couldn’t believe the way her sex tightened in anticipation of more. She wouldn’t be able to move tomorrow.
“Bend forward a little bit,” he whispered in that gruff voice that got to her every time.
“Why?”
“Just do it.” He kept a firm grasp of her hips as she hesitantly did as he directed. When he had her positioned the way he wanted her, he slid into her from behind, driving all the way to the hilt in one long stroke that made her cry out from the impact as well as the cool rush of water inside her. “Hurt?”
