Baby Bonanza (7 page)

“What’s that?” she whispered, amazed that she’d been able to squeeze out a few words.

He stepped out onto the balcony, and with slow, measured steps, walked toward her. “The night we met,” he said, taking a place beside her at the railing. “Remember?”

How could she forget? She’d been standing on the Pavilion Deck of
Falcon’s Treasure,
the ship she’d been working on at the time. That corner of the ship had been dark and deserted, since most of the passengers preferred spending time in the crowded dance club at the other end of the deck.

So Jenna had claimed that shadowy spot as her own and had gone there nearly every night to stand and watch the sea while the music from the club drifted around her. She’d never run into anyone else there, until the night Nick had stumbled across her.

“I remember,” she said, risking a sidelong glance at him. She shouldn’t have. He was too close. His eyes too sharp, his mouth too lickable. His scent too rich and too tempting. Her insides twisted and she dropped both hands to the cold, iron railing, holding tight.

“You were dancing, alone in the dark,” he said, as if she hadn’t spoken at all. As if he were prompting her memory. “You didn’t notice me, so I watched you as you swayed to the music, tipping your head back, your hair sliding across your shoulders.”

“Nick…”

“You had a smile on your face,” he said, his voice lower now, deeper, and she wouldn’t have thought that was possible. “As if you were looking up into the eyes of your lover.”

Jenna swallowed hard and shifted uneasily as her body blossomed with heat. With need. “Don’t do this, Nick….”

“And I wanted to be the lover you smiled at. The lover you danced with in the dark.” He ran the tip of one finger down the length of her arm, and Jenna shivered at the sizzle of something deliciously hot and wicked sliding through her system.

She sucked in a gulp of air, but it didn’t help. Her mind was still spinning, her heart racing and her body lighting up like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. “Why are you doing this?” she whispered, and heard the desperate plea in her own voice.

“Because I still want you,” he said, moving even closer, dropping his hands onto her shoulders and turning her until she was facing him, until their bodies were so close only a single lick of flame separated them. “Because I watched you standing in the moonlight and knew that if I didn’t touch you, I’d explode. I want you. Just as I did then. Maybe more.”

Oh, she felt the same way. Everything in Jenna clamored at her to move into him. To lean her body against his. To feel the strength and warmth of him surrounding her. But she held back. Determined to fight. To hold on to the reins of the desire that had once steered her down a road that became more rocky the further along she went.

“It would be a mistake,” she said, shaking her head, trying to ignore the swell of music, the slide of the trombone, the wail of the saxophone, that seemed to call to something raw and wild inside her. “You know it would.”

“No,” he said, sliding his hands up, along her shoulders, up the length of her throat, to cup her face between his palms. “This time would be different. This time, we know who we are. This time we know what we’re getting into. It’s just need, Jenna.” His gaze moved over her features, and her breath caught and held in a strangled knot in her chest. “We both feel it. We both want this. Why deny ourselves?”

Why indeed?

Her mind fought with her traitorous body, and Jenna knew that rational thought was going to lose. The need was too great. The desire too hot. The temptation too strong. She did want him. She’d wanted him from the moment she first saw him more than a year ago. She’d missed him, dreamed of him, and now that he was here, touching her, was she really going to turn him down? Walk away? Go to her solitary bed and pray she dreamed of him again?

No.

Was she going to regret this?

Maybe. Eventually.

Was she going to do it?

Oh, yeah.

“There are probably plenty of reasons to deny ourselves,” she finally whispered. “But I don’t care about any of them.” Then she went up on her toes as Nick smiled and flashes of hunger shone in his eyes.

“Atta girl,” he murmured and took her mouth in a kiss that stole her breath and set her soul on fire.

His tongue slipped between her lips, stealing into her warmth, awakening feelings that had lain dormant for more than a year. His arms slid around her waist, pulling her in tight. Jenna lifted her own arms and linked them around his neck, holding him to her, silently demanding he deepen the kiss, take more from her.

He did.

His arms tightened until she could hardly draw breath. But who needed air? Jenna groaned, moved into him, pressing her body along his, and she felt the hard length of him jutting against her. That was enough to send even more spirals of heat dancing through her bloodstream.

Again and again, his tongue dipped into her mouth, tasting, exploring, divining her secrets. She gave as well as took, tangling her tongue with his, feeling the molten desire quickening within. He loosened his grip on her and she nearly moaned, but then his hands were moving, up and down her spine, defining every line, every curve. When his palms cupped her bottom and held her to him, she sighed into his mouth and gave herself up to the wonder of his touch.

“I need you,” he whispered, dropping his mouth to the line of her jaw, nibbling at her throat.

She turned her head, allowing him easier access, and closed her eyes at the magic of the moment.

Around them, music swelled and the ocean breeze held the two of them in a cool embrace. Moonlight poured down on them from a black, starlit sky, and when Nick lifted his head and looked down at her, Jenna was trapped in his gaze. She read the fire in his eyes, sensed the tautly controlled tension vibrating through his body and felt his need as surely as she did her own.

“Now. Here.” He lifted his hands high enough to take hold of the zipper, then slid it down, baring her back to the night wind. Then he pushed the thin straps of her dress down over her shoulders, and Jenna was suddenly glad she hadn’t worn a bra beneath that thin, summer fabric.

Now there was nothing separating her from his touch. From the warmth of his hands. He cupped her breasts in his palms and rubbed her tender, aching nipples until she felt the tug and pull right down to the soles of her feet. She swayed into him, letting her head fall back and her eyes close as she concentrated solely on what he was doing to her.

It was everything. His touch, his scent filled her, overwhelming her with a desire that was so much more than she’d once felt for him. In the year since she’d seen him, she’d grown, changed, and now that she was with him again,
she
was more, so she was able to
feel
more.

“Beautiful,” he said, his voice no more than a raw scrape of sound. His gaze locked on her breasts, he said, “Even more beautiful than I remembered.”

“Nick,” she whispered brokenly, “I want—”

“I know,” he said, dipping his head, taking first one hardened nipple, then the other into his mouth. His lips and tongue worked that tender flesh, nibbling, licking, suckling, until Jenna’s head was spinning and she knew that without his grip on her, she would have fallen into a heap of sensation at his feet.

He pushed her dress the rest of the way down, letting it fall onto the floor, and Jenna was standing in the moonlight, wearing only her high-heeled sandals and her white silk bikini panties. And she felt too covered. Felt as if the fragile lace of her underwear were chafing her skin. All she wanted on her now was Nick. She wanted to lie beneath him, feel his body cover hers, feel him push himself deeply inside her.

She loved him. Heaven help her, she still loved him. Why was it that only Nick could do this to her? Why was he the man her heart yearned for? And what was she going to do about it?

Then he touched her more deeply and those thoughts fled along with any others. All she could do was feel.

“Please,” she said on a groan, “please, I need…”

“I need it, too,” he told her, lifting her head, looking down into her eyes as he slid one hand down the length of her body, fingertips lightly dusting across her skin. He reached the elastic band of her panties and dipped his hand beneath it to cup her heat.

Jenna rocked into him, leaning hard against him, but Nick didn’t let her rest. Instead, he turned her around until her back was pressed to his front and she was facing the wide emptiness of the moonlit sea.

He used one hand to tease and tweak her nipples while the other explored her damp heat. His fingers dipped lower, smoothing across her most tender, sensitive flesh with a feathery caress that only fed the flames threatening to devour her.

Jenna groaned again, lost for words. Her mind had splintered, no thoughts were gathering. She was empty but for the sensations he created. He dipped his head and whispered into her ear, “Watch the sea. See the moonlight. Lose yourself in them while I lose myself in you….”

She did what he asked, fighting to keep her eyes open, and focused on the shimmering sea as he dipped first one finger and then another into her heat. Jenna’s breath hitched and she wanted to close her eyes, the better to focus on what he was doing, but she didn’t. Instead, she stared unseeing at the broad expanse of sea and sky stretching out into infinity in front of her and fought to breathe as his magic fingers pushed her along a road of sensual pleasure.

He stroked, he delved, he rubbed. His fingers moved over her skin as a concert pianist would touch a grand piano. Her body was his instrument, and she felt his expert’s touch with a grateful heart. Again and again, he pushed her, his fingers stroking her from the inside while his thumb tortured one particularly sensitive spot. And while Jenna moaned and twisted in his grasp, her eyes locked on the shimmering sea, she let herself go. She dropped any sense of embarrassment or worry. She pushed aside every stray thought of censure that leaped into her mind, and she devoted herself to the sensory overload she was experiencing.

“Come for me,” Nick whispered, his voice no more than a hush in her ear. His breath dusted her face, her neck, while his fingers continued the gentle, determined invasion. “Let me see you. Let me feel you go over.”

His voice was a temptation. Because she was so close to a climax. Her knees trembled. Her body weakened even as it strove to reach the peak Nick was pushing her toward. Her breath came in ragged gasps, her heartbeat thundered in her ears and the tension coiling within was almost more than she could bear. And when she thought she wouldn’t survive another moment, she cried out his name and splintered in his arms. Her body shattered, she rode the exquisite wave of completion until she fell at the end only to be caught and held in his strong arms.

Jenna dropped her head onto his shoulder, swallowed hard and fought to speak. “That was—”

“Only the beginning,” Nick finished for her and picked her up, swinging her into his arms and stalking back into the suite. He was teetering on the edge of reason. Touching her, feeling her climax roar through her, sensing her surrender, had all come together to build a fire inside him like nothing he’d ever known before.

Seduction had been the plan.

But whose?

He’d thought to use her, feed the need that she’d caused, then be able to let her go. Get her out of his head, out of his blood. But those moments with her on the balcony only made him want more. He had to have her under him, writhing beneath him as he took her.

She lay curled against his chest, in a trusting manner that tore at him even as it touched something inside him he hadn’t been aware of. She was trouble. He knew it. Felt it. And couldn’t stop himself from wanting.

From having.

In his bedroom Nick strode to the bed, reached down with one hand and grabbed the heavy, black duvet in one fist. Then he tossed it to the foot of the mattress and forgot about it. He laid Jenna down on the white sheets and looked at her for a long moment. The moonlight caressed her here, as well, sliding in through the wide bank of glass that lined his bedroom suite. A silvery glow coated her skin as she stretched like a satisfied cat before smiling up at him.

“Come to me, Nick,” she urged, lifting both arms in welcome.

He didn’t need a second invitation. Tearing off his clothes, he joined her on the bed, covered her body with his and surrendered to the inevitable. More than a year ago, their first encounter had ended in his bed. Now, it seemed, they’d come full circle.

Nick ran his hands up and down her body and knew he’d never be able to touch her enough. He drew a breath and savored her scent. Dipped his head and tasted her skin at the base of her throat. Her pulse jolted beneath his mouth and he knew she was as eager as he, as needy as he.

He touched her core, delving his fingers into her heat again, and she lifted her hips from the bed, rocking into his hand, moaning and whispering to him.

His body ached and clamored for release. Every inch of him was humming, just touching her. Lying beside her. Jenna. Always Jenna who did this to him. Who turned him into a man possessed, a man who could think of nothing beyond claiming what he knew to be his.

With that thought, Nick tore away from her arms, ignoring the soft sound of disappointment that slipped from her throat. Tugging the drawer on the bedside table open, he reached in, grabbed a condom and, in a few quick seconds, sheathed himself. Then he turned back to her, levering himself over her, positioning himself between her thighs.