Blooming in the Wild (19 page)

As she walked daintily into the water, he was surprised the water of the pool didn’t begin to boil. She was the prettiest, hottest wahine he’d ever seen.

He told her so, his voice hoarse. She waded into his arms, one eyebrow lifting in a feminine challenge. “Prove it, hotshot.”

His brain went up in smoke. Like a man in an erotic dream, Joel lifted her up in his arms, one arm around her back and the other under her sweet ass, warm and round in his hand. Her hot center landed against his cock, pressing her wet heat directly along the length of his shaft as she wrapped her slender arms around him and held on.

With a deep groan of the most intense desire he’d ever felt, Joel cocked his head and kissed her, pressing his mouth to hers, soft and damp. Her lips parted, and he slipped his tongue into her mouth, finding hers and tangling with it in a sweet battle. She tasted like barbecue and the sweetest of nectars. But he recognized the taste as if he’d been waiting for it all his life—her special taste.

She moved, tightening her legs around him, and he groaned into her mouth as she caressed his cock in sweet, wet torture. Damn, he loved foreplay, but right now all he could focus on was getting inside her.

He dragged his mouth from hers. “Condom,” he gasped, already heading for the bank.

“Hurry,” she pleaded, kissing him again as he carried her out of the pool. He had to stop walking for a moment or kill both of them on the wet rocks.

He managed to lift his head one more time. Holding her, he waded out onto the bank and knelt to lay her down in the soft greenery, reaching out to yank open the side pocket of his bag with one hand.

He found a condom packet, ripped it open with his teeth and then reared back on his haunches just long enough to roll it on. Hard to concentrate when his hands were shaking and she was displayed temptingly against a bed of green, with blossoms nodding all around her. She leaned back on her elbows, watching him sheathe himself.

Joel groaned. “You look at me like that, and I’m gonna come right now,” he warned.

She growled, her brows shooting together in a fierce command. “You come before you get inside me, and I’ll strangle you with a vine.”

He crouched over her, holding her thighs apart with his hands and inhaling her heady scent. “Then let’s get you ready, Princess. Cause I need you primed to blow when I slide inside you.”

Since he followed his words with a swift, ruthless lick, her only response was a cry, soft and high. He shivered with pleasure. Ah, he loved that sound. He’d do anything to hear her voicing it, again and again. He craned his neck, watching her. Oh, man, she was writhing in his grasp, and she’d pulled a big spray of those red blooms down, or they’d fallen. They lay across her chest like a sash. The stamens of the blooms must have felt good tickling her nipples, because she moved again, her pretty breasts quivering.

Then she grabbed his hair and yanked. “Joel. Come here. I need you inside me—
now
.”

He allowed her to pull him up over her, her hands tugging at his shoulders. He looked down at her, lying open beneath him, her eyes slumberous with passion, her hair flowing around her head in an ebony tumble that matched the curls on her mons. Her pretty breasts, nipples tight—ah, he hadn’t even had those in his mouth yet. The tracing of pollen made his mouth water.

And waiting just for him, the delicate, feminine place that opened to welcome him inside, straight to paradise, decorated with another blossom, fallen on her flat little belly.

He froze for a moment, staring down at her. He was already in paradise. Even with Camille’s thugs down below and God only knew who on the mountain around them, he’d never felt so alive. Because he was with Bella, and she was safe here in the flowers, not maimed or dead on that bitch’s boat.

The raw joy bursting in his chest was enough to scare the hell right out of him.

Until, with another one of those fierce little growls, his wahine grabbed his cock in a grip that meant business and pulled, the nails of her other hand digging into his bare ass. He was just glad she wasn’t using her nails on his cock.

“Joel Girand—
now
.”

“’Ae, wahine.”

He settled down into her arms, letting her guide him into her soft, hot opening, because she seemed determined to take the lead, and he was more than happy to let her bring him home.

He leaned on one elbow, reaching down to cup her ass with the other, and then thrust carefully, almost prayerfully into her. He shuddered as pleasure streaked from the tip of his cock through his entire body.

“Ah, Princess,” he murmured, tipping his forehead against hers. “You feel—I can’t believe—ah, Jesus.” Giving up his poor attempt at speech, he thrust again, shuddering with pleasure and need as her tight, hot little passage sucked and caressed his shaft.

She clutched at him, her hands holding him as if she was afraid he would get away, and began to move under him, arching up to meet his thrusts until he was deep inside her, so deep and tight he didn’t care if he ever got free. He must not be hurting her, he thought hazily.

And he didn’t know how the hell she was doing it—must be holding a blossom in her toes, he thought hazily, his eyes crossing—she was tickling his balls and the crevice of his ass with what felt like a handful of blossoms. The delicate sensation in contrast with her tight heat around his cock drove him wild.

He groaned, pressed another quick kiss on her soft mouth, put his head down and began to thrust, hard and fast.

To Do: The most sought-after tour directors will use all their skills to enhance their clients’ tour experience
.

Bella hung on to Joel as tightly as she could, clutching at his broad back and digging her heels into his flexing ass cheeks as she met him, thrust for hard, delicious thrust.

She couldn’t believe how good it felt to have him inside her. He filled her completely, her sensitive channel squeezing him tightly as he drove into her again and again.

His spicy, musky scent filled her nostrils, faintly overlaid with the perfume of the flowers hanging heavy around them. He kissed her and then lifted his head, his eyes slitted, face taut with passion as he moved.

“Ah, yeah,” he groaned. “That…do that, right—there.”

She didn’t know what he was talking about, but as he spread his knees, lifting her on the powerful muscles of his thighs, spreading her farther open to him so that he was taking her even deeper and harder than before, her pleasure coalesced into sheer ecstasy, and she cried out to him, a high paean of praise and entreaty, begging him not to stop.

He let out a deep, poignant groan that rumbled in his chest, and thrust even harder, sweat breaking out over his skin.

She rode with him through the storm of pleasure and sank down the other slope, little aftershocks pulsing through her as he moved slower and slower, finally collapsing on her, a hot, heavy, damp weight.

She was crushed under his heavy weight, could barely breathe, but she didn’t care. She’d never been so smugly satisfied in her life.

They lay entwined for several moments, until finally Joel lifted his head and propped himself up onto his elbows, looking down into her face. His cheeks were stained with color, his eyes soft, hair damp with sweat. Their joining was slick with sweat, as well, and he was still inside her, although he felt a bit smaller.

“You okay?” he asked, with a swift, sipping kiss.

“Mm-hmm. Are you?”

He smiled wickedly. “Are you kidding? I don’t think I’ve ever come so hard in my life.”

He nudged her nose with his and chuckled. “Where the hell did you learn to do that? With the flowers, I mean?”

She eyed him, uncertainty penetrating her sensual haze. “What thing?”

He nibbled her ear and nuzzled her neck, making her hunch her shoulder against the sweet tickle. “Tickling my ass and balls, you little tease. That was…amazing.”

“Oh, that.” She gazed up at the branches heavy with blossom, nodding over them. “Just sort of…came to me.” Oh, Pele, she hadn’t been imagining it. The forest was even participating in his seduction.

He lifted his head and smiled slowly down at her. “I would never have taken you for the inventive type. Thought it would take me months to get this far.”

Bella stiffened. He’d been planning how to seduce her?

Joel’s expression changed, his eyes softening. He cupped her cheek with his hand. “Hey, don’t look like that, baby. Of course I thought about this—with you. The first minute I saw you, bam!” He rocked back as if from a blow.

She glowered up at him, remembering. “You hid it well. You flirted with Tanah all the time.”

He shook his head. “That was just chitchat. You were the one I imagined being with.”

He kissed her and then cocked his head, taking it deeper, his tongue curling into her mouth to tease her own.

Still kissing her, he moved, rolling onto his back and carrying her with him so that she lay draped across him, her thighs open over his and his cock still inside her. The new position reinforced the intimacy of their embrace.

Bella kissed him back. She couldn’t seem to get enough of his mouth—those wide, soft lips, that clever tongue of his. She remembered it caressing her pussy and shivered. She rubbed her breasts against his chest, enjoying the damp pull of his skin on her nipples.

He groaned and pulled away, pulling her up off him with his hands on her waist.

“You’re getting me hot again,” he warned, reaching between her thighs to fumble with the condom.

She knelt over him on her hands and knees. Power sizzled through her in a sweet rush. “Good. I want…” She hesitated, blushing at the look in his eyes.

“What,” he demanded softly. “Tell me. In so many words.”

She moved up over him, her breasts close to his face. “I want your mouth on me—on my breasts. I want you to suck them and lick them.”

He reached up and cupped his hands over her breasts, squeezing them carefully, and then opening his hands to squeeze her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, watching what he was doing. “Hard or softly?” he rasped.

Bella swallowed, her nipples tightening needily. “Hard.”

He pulled her down a little farther and nuzzled at her breasts with his face, finally turning his attention to one. He flicked it with his tongue, then swirled the wet tip around her diamond-hard tip, and then, when she was about to whimper, licked the nipple into the wet heat of his mouth and suckled her, hard.

He enjoyed both her breasts at length and then fumbled between her legs again. Bella didn’t realize that he was donning another condom until he grasped her hips and pulled her down onto his rigid cock.

She planted her hands on his chest and arched her back, letting him take her, until she sat on his groin, filled with him. It hurt a little—he was big, and their first joining had been fast and rough.

She looked down at him, shy and yet triumphant. He stroked his hands up over her ribs, his thumbs supporting the pillow of her breasts, his fingers delving into the tender, damp hollow of her armpits.

“You’re so fucking pretty,” he approved, his gaze hot, face going taut in that look she recognized now as sheer lust. “Lift your arms and push back your hair. Yeah, like that. Leave your arms up, baby. Ah, yeah. Now ride me.”

She did, while he played with her nearly too-sensitive breasts. “Touch yourself,” he urged. “Let me see you pet your pretty pussy while you ride me.”

Bella turned her head, eyeing him from the cover of her tousled hair while she considered. He was so open, so comfortable doing exactly what he wanted and voicing what he wanted her to do. Did she dare to be as open? With him, she wanted to.

Daringly, she reached down to cup one hand over her mons, stroking her damp curls and into them to find her clitoris.

“Come for me,” he commanded, his voice full of certainty. “Ah, yeah, you like me watching you do that, don’t you. Yeah, ride me harder. Bring yourself off, and take me with you.”

Bella tried to answer, but all that emerged from her lips was his name as she drove both of them up and over the peak again.

Afterward, she collapsed on his chest, and he held her there, his heart thundering in his chest, his arms around her. He was too hot and sweaty, and she was going to be too sore to walk, but Bella had never been so happy.

After several moments, he lifted her off him and disposed of the condom, then pulled her back against his side, his arm around her so that she was draped against his side. They lay in the soft bed of leaves, the air musky with the scent of their sex mingled with flowers and damp earth.

“I think you should go for help,” Bella told him. “You could hike up the mountain and find a road, while I go back down and look for Frank.”

“No,” he said unequivocally. “I’m not leaving you. And if Frank is still down there, he’s well hidden. You said your family will show up soon, and when they do, we’ll leave no stone unturned to find him.”

Bella scowled against his shoulder. She wanted to find Frank, and she wanted Joel safe. If Camille came after her, Bella thought she could stay hidden in the forest, that she could use her strange affinity with the trees and plants to stay concealed.

And even if Camille found her, maybe, just maybe Bella could frighten her by making the trees shake and vines coil.

But Joel leaned up on one elbow, rolling her onto her back once more.

“Listen to me.” He gripped her jaw in the vise of his thumb and forefinger. His gaze bored into hers. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that in the wild, you have to be a team. Otherwise, there’s no one there to catch you if—
when
you fall.”

She snorted. “You mean like when I fell off your rope into the water?”

“That was not my rope,” he corrected. “I never use that kind. Won’t hold a knot worth spit.”

She smiled but then fell serious again, searching his gaze. “Will you?” she asked, the question dragged out of her. “Will you catch me, Joel?”

A golden flame ignited in his eyes. “Oh yeah,” he promised. “Believe it, Princess.”

“I’ll catch you too,” she promised. “I will.”
I will,
she repeated silently, fiercely as he kissed her again, a hard, tender kiss that warmed her very soul.

She would kill to protect him if necessary. The thought shocked her to her very core. But then, as he pulled back to look down at her once more, her wounded warrior, set on protecting her, she realized something.

Something more terrifying than Camille Helman and all her knife-and guntoting henchmen.

This feeling of fierce, tender protectiveness that she felt toward him, combined with the melting in her knees when he looked at her, and the constant urge to be near him? It was love. The Big One. She was in love with Joel Girand, and he was a celebrity hooked on his life of travel and adventure.

“Hey,” he said, cupping the side of her face with his big hand. “What is it? You’re giving me a freaky look there.”

“N-nothing,” she said. But then she hiccupped as her new realization, combined with the horrific events of the day, coalesced in a firestorm of emotion. In response, a hot, suffocating geyser welled up inside her and broke forth. She burst into tears—and not the quiet, delicate kind. The hot, noisy and consuming kind that shook her body and made her nose run.

Joel gathered her into his arms. “Ah, shh-shh, baby. It’s all right. I’ve got you.” He held her, rocking her a little and murmuring nonsense to her while he stroked her back. It felt wonderful to be held and petted.

Then he took her into the pond and helped her bathe and let her bathe him in return. Bella was deeply grateful to submerge her hot face in the cool water and busy herself with the sensory pleasures of washing away the sweat and salt and tears.

When she emerged from rinsing her hair, he smiled at her. Her heart flipped in her chest at the tender teasing in his eyes. “Damn, you even look good when you cry,” he said. “Haole girls get all red and splotchy.”

“Liar. I know my nose and eyes are all red. Sorry—”

He shook his head. “Don’t you apologize for crying, Nani. You’ve been through a hell of a lot today. You’ve held up better than most women would, and I’m proud of you.”

Her heart did that funny swelling thing again as she gazed up into his eyes. “Mahalo. I’m kinda proud of you too, hotshot.”

He grinned. “Shucks, it was nothin’, ma’am. Just part of the service in
The Zone
.”

The reminder of his career sobered her. Then she realized how ridiculous it was to worry about losing him to his job when they still had to live through the next hours here.

She waded with him from the pool and dried off while he took another look at the yacht and bay below. Then she unrolled the sleeping bag and sat on it to comb her hair. She should probably put some clothes on, but she was enjoying the sensation of the soft air on her skin too much.

Joel turned from his examination with the binoculars and looked down at her. She returned his gaze, enjoying the hard lines of his nude body, from the broad, tanned expanse of his chest and shoulders, to the pale leanness of his hips and thighs, and his sculpted arms and legs. Even his feet were sexy, high-arched, with tan lines from wearing sandals.

He dropped onto the bag beside her and took the wide-tooth comb from her, urging her to sit between his open thighs while he drew the comb gently through her wet hair. Bella smiled to herself, enjoying the intimacy of the moment, the tugging of the comb, the brush of his warm fingers on her back. No one except a hairdresser had combed her hair for years.

“What did you do? Before you started with your show, I mean?” she asked him, suddenly ravenous with curiosity about him.

“The usual stuff,” he said. “Went to college, got a degree in forestry, of all things. Graduated and wondered what the hell to do with myself. Went down to work at an outdoor adventure camp in California and found out I was good at doing stupid outdoor tricks.”

“They’re not stupid,” she protested, then smiled to herself. “Well, not all of them.”

“Thanks.” She heard the smile in his voice. He worked at a knot in her wet hair.

“Do you think you’ll want to keep doing the show?” she asked.

“Yeah, for a few years, anyway. You never know, with television. Ratings tank, networks get bought by bigger ones, some executive in an office somewhere decides the show doesn’t fit the company profile. But I have a contract for another year. At least, I think so.”

“What do you mean, you think so?”

He grunted. “I mean
The Zone’s
future is a little iffy right now. I’m hoping DelRay’s sponsorship will boost my status with the network. Or at least I was, before this whole trip went to hell.”

Bella bit her lip. He had a point. Would DelRay consider the trip worth a redo? “I’ll fix it, somehow,” she said as he drew the comb carefully through her hair. “It was working, I know it was. You looked great with the equipment.”

He leaned forward to kiss the point of her bare shoulder. “Mahalo.”

“What do you want to do with the rest of your life?” he asked, before she could reply. “When we get back, I mean, because we are getting back.”

She was startled by his question. “Well, continue on with DelRay, of course. If they’ll have me after the debacle this trip has turned into. If not, I’ll have to look for another job.” She wasn’t looking forward to that at all. In fact, the thought made her shudder.

But instead of kissing her shoulder comfortingly, her lover was silent for a moment. He stopped combing. “Are you
nuts
?” he demanded, his huff of laughter more derisive than humorous.