Читать книгу Wild And Willing - Joanne Rock - Страница 9

FROM THE MOMENT Seth’s lips touched hers, Mia realized this was a man who knew how to mix business with pleasure.

Pleasure abounded in his kiss, washing over her in waves as surely as if she dived into the undulating waters of the Gulf. His tongue tangled with hers, calling her to take a few risks in her life, to come and play for a change.

Yet the kiss held the down-to-business quality of a man on a mission, too. This was no casual exploration of mutual interest. The steady pressure of Seth’s body against hers told Mia in no uncertain terms that he wanted more, much more, than this kiss would give them.

Her heart rate sped, stamped out a heavy beat against her chest. His hands shifted up her body, brushing the sides of her breasts. Desire shot through her in automatic, irrefutable answer. Her silk top posed little barrier to the sensation of his warm fingers teasing her skin.

Kissing wasn’t at all like she remembered it in her college days. Oh, she’d shared a brief peck with Frankie the marina guy in Twin Palms, but she hadn’t really locked lips with anyone since her days at the University of Miami.

And although she’d had her share of fun back then, those college boys obviously hadn’t known what the hell they were doing. Their kisses hadn’t been so thorough, so deep, so…sexual.

The salty air, the sultry breeze over her skin, the briny scents of the sea, it all seemed so sexual. Sensation coiled between her thighs, a vivid pulse of pleasure that had never surfaced from just a kiss before.

“Oh my.” She whipped her hand up between them, bracing it between Seth’s chest and her own while bracing her against a tide of unexpected sensation in her most secret places.

“That’s just what I was thinking,” he whispered over her lips before indulging in another heady, roll-right-through-her kiss.

His tongue tangled with hers in obvious mating. He suckled her lower lip, drawing on the soft flesh in a way that sent her imagination spinning into overdrive.

His leg brushed against hers, his chest grazed her breast despite the barrier of her hand. The heady friction of their bodies created a seductive swirl of heat. Never had kissing seemed like such a microcosm of the sex act, so rife with innuendo of heady pleasures waiting for them….

The warmth inside her built, mounted, threatened to bowl her over. She couldn’t be feeling what she thought she was feeling. Not now. Not from just a kiss.

But then waves rocked the boat, swayed her whole body in a provocative rhythm that mirrored the seductive thrust and recede of actual intercourse until…

“Oh!” She couldn’t help the squeal of surprise, astonishment and all-out delight as an orgasm squeezed her insides, penetrated her every nerve ending. Sensation rocked her, saturating her senses and raining pleasure over every last cell of her body.

Oh my.

If Seth harbored any shock over her suddenly falling apart in his arms, he didn’t let on. Instead, he merely groaned in time with her rapturous sigh, echoing her pleasure as if it were his own.

He kissed her another moment before sliding away from her, leaving her wilted and only semisated—and still in total shock—on the helm seat.

Silence reigned in the aftermath. She couldn’t help but feel a bit exposed to his frank, assessing gaze in those moments of intense quiet, yet she couldn’t summon the will to object or do anything about it.

After long moments of shared heated breaths, he finally nodded his satisfaction. “I think I did more than loosen your lips.”

She had to laugh, despite being flustered. “Understatement of the year.”

“I take it you like kissing?” He swiveled to face her, propping an arm along the back of the cream-colored vinyl seat, his fingers toying with her hair.

A residual shiver tripped over her at his touch.

“I’ve never liked it that much before.” She straightened her floral skirt to cover up a little more thigh, her fingers still trembling just a little. “That was a definite first for me.”

“Really?” He flashed her an all-male smile, at once possessive and full of pride. “Must have been a hell of a kiss.”

“It might have been partly the rocking of the boat, too.” Her cheeks heated a little at the open acknowledgement of what had just happened, but she couldn’t very well let him think she was the kind of woman who came apart at the brush of a man’s lips.

Far from it.

She’d had sex before that hadn’t been as…fulfilling…as Seth’s kiss.

His smile slipped. “The rocking of the boat?”

“Well, partly.” She tried to shrug off the awkwardness of the moment, looking out across the vast expanse of open water, no land in any direction. She gathered her courage, determined to be bold for a change. She tried to imagine what her mother might say to a man in this situation. “Is it just me, or is that rocking kind of an erotic movement?”

Granted, she had been a closet sensualist for most of her life. She had never been as good a sculptor as she was a painter, but she still sculpted because she loved the slide of wet clay over her palms, the twirl of a half-formed object coming to life in her hands.

She dreamed of one day planting a huge flower garden so she would have an excuse to play in the dirt, to absorb the rich scents of damp earth, blooming jasmine and honeysuckle.

So maybe she was unique in her enjoyment of a rocking boat. She stared at Seth as he grew quiet, perhaps concentrating on the gentle undulation of water beneath them.

For a moment, he stared into her eyes. As a small wave swayed the cruiser, lifting them up and back down in their seats, a current of pure electricity sizzled between them, connecting them in a mutual thought, a mutual feeling.

“Holy hell.” Seth shot to his feet, gripping the windshield of the helm to brace himself for the sudden move.

“You see what I mean?”

“Yeah, I see exactly what you mean and thanks for ruining my fishing trips for the next fifty years.” He swiped a hand through his spiky brown hair, leaving the strands standing up even straighter than before. “We’d better get out of here before we start going down a dangerous path.”

She rose, insinuating herself between him and the boat’s ignition. “Dangerous” sounded like exactly what she needed. Hadn’t she been hiding from taking chances for too long already? No way was she going back to Twin Palms without the assurance that she could take a few risks now and then.

“But that’s exactly where I want to go.” She’d signed on for adventure, damn it. She’d never find it if they stuck to Seth’s predetermined plan of tourist fun for the day.

Her mother wouldn’t settle for that if she was looking for adventure. This week, neither would Mia. She flashed him her best flirtatious smile and beckoned him closer.

“Why don’t you show me the rest of your boat?” SHE MIGHT as well have asked to see his etchings. Seth knew exactly where she was headed with this “show-me-your-boat” business, and he wasn’t so sure he should go there.

He barely knew Mia. And although he’d dated plenty of women, he’d never dated a woman he didn’t know well. Maybe some he’d only known a brief time chronologically, but he always understood their type—sophisticated, fast-track, know-the-score women who were as upwardly mobile and ambitious as him.

Mia didn’t fit into any type he recognized. A self-confessed sensualist artist who didn’t hesitate to kidnap a pirate and cause a big scene. Yet she balked at the idea of being on television, even if it might help her career.

And, God help him, she could come undone in his arms with just a kiss. He was still battling the surge of lust he’d felt at seeing her fly apart.

But no matter how overtly enticing she might be, or how much she might say she just wanted a little adventure in her life, Seth had the feeling sex with Mia wouldn’t be the kind of thing he could just walk away from. He’d known her for a couple of hours and already he felt mesmerized by those big green eyes of hers. The contradiction of her sensual nature and her forward way of speaking proved an appealing puzzle.

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea to see the rest of the boat.” He reached for the ignition but Mia shifted her hip in his path.

He drew his hand back, knowing if he touched her once more, he wouldn’t be able to stop touching her.

“Why not?” She peered around the deck until her gaze landed on the stairs leading to the berth.

“Because there’s a bed down there, Mia. A big bed in a tiny cabin.” Was he the dumbest guy on earth to forsake a chance at having this sexiest-of-all female in that bed? Or was he being smart to save himself messy complications with a woman he’d probably never understand?

He plowed ahead, hoping he fell into the latter category. “And I don’t think it’s such a good idea to go traipsing down there next to that big bed when we’re both already thinking about orgasms and sex and…undulation.”

A breeze tossed her dark hair over her shoulder, sending the silky strands to wave, flaglike, behind her. She smiled, a small upturn of her lips that called to mind illicit kisses and all the things a sensualist sort of woman might do with her mouth.

“You make it sound like a dirty word,” she chastened.

“No, you make it sound like a sexy-as-hell word when it shouldn’t be.” He’d probably get an erection for the rest of his life when he heard someone say “undulate.” Lucky for him, it wasn’t the kind of thing apt to surface in daily conversation, right?

She edged by him, her gaze focused on the stairs behind the helm.

“Wait a minute.” He scrambled after her, her floral skirt flapping in the breeze and teasing him with glimpses of thigh. “Where are you going?”

“I just want to look around. You don’t need to come with me.” Mia gripped the handrail at the head of the stairs and started down, puckering her lips at him to pantomime an exaggerated kiss before she totally disappeared. “Although you might have fun if you let yourself.”

No other man with even a flicker of a pulse would ignore such a blatant invitation. But damn it, he didn’t get involved in relationships lightly. Never had. Never would.

His father’s lack of commitment to his family had taught Seth from an early age to be responsible, to take care of everyone around him, and most of all, not to get involved with any woman on the spur of the moment to assuage some temporary hunger.

Seth had only just taken his boat out of storage last weekend, and he sure as hell didn’t have any condoms lying around for protection’s sake. No way was he getting into a situation he couldn’t control, even if the woman in question had him wound so tight he couldn’t see straight.

“Wow! You call this tiny?” Mia enthused from downstairs, her thin sandals padding around the hardwood floors below deck. “This is huge!”

Her compliment nudged him closer to the stairwell.

He’d always loved this dang boat. The cruiser had been his first totally selfish purchase once he’d had enough money to do as he pleased. Now he could afford a boat that would make this one look like an afterthought, but Seth would sooner part with his corner office with a Bay view or his fifty-yard line season tickets for Buccaneers games before he traded in his boat.

How could he not go downstairs to sing its praises when Mia was so obviously interested? He could take ten minutes to show her the boat and then they’d be on their way to a routine tourist trek to Egmont Key.

Besides, it wasn’t like Mia was going to jump him, right?

He took the stairs two at a time and realized by the time he got to the bottom that his body seemed to be in charge here and his rational mind was in danger of being utterly ignored. Knowing that didn’t stop his feet from finding their way to Mia.

She stood in the salon, turning her head every which way and running her palm across the surface of an interior wall.

When she noticed him, she pointed toward the porthole. “The light is great in here. See how that last little bit of sunset casts a pinkish glow on this wall? You need a strip of mural right here to soak up the colors.”

He envisioned a painting of a big fish on the wall. “How about a guy wrestling an oversize dolphin fish?”

She frowned. “I was seeing more of a quiet tropical island, but I guess that would work.”

“You want the tour?”

Nodding, she joined him, taking his arm so he could lead her through the cabin areas. He started with the master stateroom so he could get it over with first. The double bed seemed much bigger than that in the small space. A navy comforter and white pillows made the room inviting, and Seth braced himself to be enticed by Carmen the Temptress.

“Nice,” Mia commented, taking it all in before she backed into another room. “And this is the kitchen?”

“Galley,” he corrected automatically, surprised at the twinge of disappointment he experienced at not being wrestled onto the bed. He reached into the chest of drawers in his stateroom and found a T-shirt to wear, then joined her in the kitchen. “I’m not much of a chef, but then, it doesn’t take much talent to make fresh fish taste good.”

“So this boat belongs to you, not the bank?” Mia ran her fingers over the countertops, clicking out a quick rhythm with her nails on the laminated surface.

Of course, she thought he worked for Gulf Coast. Part-time pirate and full-time gopher. How the hell could he have ever afforded a toy like this on a pirate’s wages?

“Yeah. I bought it a few years ago with some money I’d been saving.” Not an outright lie. Still, he hustled to redirect her as he pulled his T-shirt over his head. “But I spend a lot of time on the water, so it seemed worth it. You probably don’t think twice about how much you spend on paints and canvas.”

She followed him toward the guest stateroom, a cabin rich with red woods and burgundy linens. “Painting is a lot cheaper than sculpting at least. Clay is reasonable, but if you want to work in stone, you can go into debt in no time. Especially if you mess up and need to start over again.”

Drifting toward the stairs, Mia seemed to be finished with the tour. And she hadn’t even tried to talk him into a torrid coupling on the double bed.

Well, damn.

Before he could consider the consequence of the action, he reached out to grip one arm, lightly holding her still. “Wait, Mia.”

She pivoted to face him, her straight brown hair blowing in the breeze wafting down from the deck. “Hmm?”

Now that he had her attention, he had to scavenge for his thoughts. His mind kept flashing back to that moment on the helm seat when she’d lost herself in a world of sensation. The moment her head had tipped back and…

“Seth?”

Her eyes were sharply focused now as she stared into his, waiting for him to speak.

“We never got a chance to talk more after what happened on deck….”

She closed her eyes, and for a moment, Seth thought perhaps he’d embarrassed her by bringing it up. But then, she opened her eyes again and blurted, “The orgasm incident?”

“That’s the one.” The woman didn’t mince words. “But I thought maybe you’d be willing to talk to me now, maybe tell me why you won’t go back for the press interview tonight.”

“Why? Are you going to try to coerce me into going anyway?”

She not only didn’t mince words, she obviously didn’t pull punches either.

He shrugged. “I hear the bank shells out a lot of money to sponsor Gasparilla. Part of my job is to create good P.R., and to make sure you have a good time today. But it seems like I can’t possibly do both. You’re not going to have a good time if you have to give the bank any more publicity, right?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to give back to the bank.” She sighed, leaned a shoulder against the doorframe around the stairs. “I just have a family with very old-fashioned values who will promptly go into cardiac arrest if they see me on TV with a half-dressed pirate talking about my day in captivity.”

A wave rocked the boat, reminding Seth of undulating and other things he shouldn’t be thinking about right now. He tugged her by the hand toward the salon, hoping if they took a seat they wouldn’t feel the rocking of the damn boat quite so much.

“That probably sounds like the hang-up of some college kid,” she continued as she followed him, dutifully sinking into the curved, green leather sofa. “But honestly, my grandparents are getting up there in years and I swear my granddad’s ulcers get worse with every guy I date.”

Seth nodded, understanding all too well the need to put family first. He flicked the lights on the lowest setting and slid into the seat next to her, careful to leave a few feet between them. No sense tempting fate. “You’re close to your grandparents?”

“They pretty much raised me. My mom is single and she’s never really gotten it through her head that having a child requires some stability. I adore my mom, but we’re more like sisters than mother and daughter.” She toyed with the fringe on her skirt for a moment, lost in thought. Then, as if remembering he was there, she crossed her legs and flipped her hair over one shoulder. “But I did not jump into your arms today so we could discuss my family. I thought maybe you called me back here because you were ready to try out the bed now.”

“You’re concerned about your grandfather’s ulcers, yet you would sacrifice yourself to a pirate’s lust for the sake of adventure?” Sounded damn good to him, even if he didn’t want to admit it. He had to give her credit for openness and honesty. The woman didn’t know the meaning of the word coy. “Have you considered that maybe your granddad worries himself sick for a good reason?”

“Not a chance. Face it, Chandler. You’d be sacrificing yourself to my lust, and no one but us has to know.” She kicked her sandaled foot in a slow, circular rhythm. “So what do you say? Are you game?”

Was he game? Hell, maybe he should tear a page from her book and take things a little less seriously. He knew he couldn’t afford to try out the bed for real. But if he viewed this more in terms of a three-strikes-and-you’re-out sort of game, he ought to be able to kiss her one more time without losing control completely.

And he deserved that kiss after the day he’d been having. He’d had to fend off a costumer who’d tried to talk him into wearing a hook on his hand, and ended up submitting to a tricorn hat he later tossed overboard. He suffered an eye patch for half a day and had paraded into town bare-chested and yo-ho-hoing.

No wonder pirates demanded a little booty for their trouble.

“I don’t trust either of us near that bed, Mia, and with good reason.” He settled his hand on her knee, allowing the heat of his palm to penetrate the cool silk of her skin. “But I know another game you might enjoy.”

MIA WONDERED if it was possible to melt at a man’s touch. If so, she stood a very good chance of pooling at Seth’s feet any moment because his hand on her knee made her whole body turn warm and liquid.

She’d been so hell-bent determined to attract his attention, to make him waver from his honorable, “hands-off” course, that she had no idea what to do once her plan started working.

And judging by the heated challenge in his eyes, it was working very well.

“Another game?” she managed to push past dry lips.

He walked his fingers up the outside of her thigh until his hand landed on her hip. Then he scooted her closer to him in the dimly lit salon. “It’s called ‘let’s see if we can make lightning strike twice.’”

She was still processing what exactly that meant when he angled his lips over hers. Realization hit at the same time he cupped her cheek in his palm and tilted her mouth for a deeper taste.

The man planned to drug her with his aphrodisiac kisses and then coax her right into orgasmic heaven.

All of which sounded delightful, except…

“That’s not fair to you.” Mia broke off their kiss, much to her lips’ regret. Heat simmered between them, fogging the porthole windowpane behind them.

Seth flexed his fingers on her hip, caressed the curve of her waist with the broad expanse of his palm. “It’s perfectly fair,” he whispered, leaning forward to reclaim her mouth.

She shook her head, refusing him in spite of the persuasive press of his chest against hers. “No, I think you’d better let me pay you back first.”

He stared at her through lazy brown eyes. “Honey, I can’t think of anything I’d like more than to watch those waves roll right over you again, to see your mouth fall open and your head tip back when you—”

“No.” Sensing the need to take action before he had her talked into becoming erotically dependent on him, Mia walked her fingers down his chest to the waistband of his khaki shorts. “I can think of something you would definitely like more.”

His abs flexed under her touch. He tensed, his whole body going still as she continued a relentless path down his shorts toward the ridge she spied very clearly.

She didn’t know where she found the nerve. Maybe too many nights of longing for adventure, of promising herself she’d take advantage of this trip away from home, had conspired to mold her into this wild woman.

Gathering her courage, she smoothed her hand over that ridge and looked him in the eye.

“I bet I send you into orbit without ever hitting the sheets.”