In Too Deep (32 page)

“
It’s good to hear you laugh,
Pipe, to see you happy.” He moved closer as they walked, his arm
brushing against hers.

Prickles of awareness skated along
her nerve endings from the brief contact.

“
I’m not happy.” Turned on a
little, but definitely not happy. “I’m in a pissy girl mood, so for
your own safety you should u-turn now.”

Before she jumped his bones right
on the sand and shocked any stray kiwi still in the
vicinity.

“
Ah.” He made no move to turn
away.

They kept walking and when he
tried to link their hands, he laughed as she slapped his fingers
away with a, “hmmph,” and a muttered, “Pissy, remember?”

“
You can’t scare me off with your
moods, you know. I’ve survived them all,” he said. “Besides, you’re
a lot more fun now than at eighteen.”

“
Fun? How am I more fun
now?”

She thought of her life as it had
been up until a few weeks ago. Days blurring, filled with work or
squad call outs, brief outings with friends who weren’t cops, more
work, raiding the shelves of the massive public library for
something to do on those long nights alone, and then back to work.
Sparse time in her schedule for fun.

“
Well, you’re more fun to play
with.”

Heat shimmered along her
cheekbones and detoured south to parts that didn’t need to get any
hotter. “Oh, shut up.”

He chuckled. “There’s the added
challenge now of knowing you can kick my ass if I
cheat.”

“
So you’ll cheat to win,
huh?”

“
I’ll use any means necessary to
win.”

Her breasts ached at the smoky
tone in his voice, like he’d reached out and rolled her nipples
between his fingertips.

“
We’re not playing a
game.”

“
Then what do you call this series
of steps we’ve been dancing to since you got back?” He tugged a
short strand of her hair, but let go before she could flick his
hand off. “I step toward you, you back off. You blindside me and I
knock you off kilter. Isn’t this all a game, Pipe?”

Not to her. Not
anymore.

But would she tell West her
emotions had been roped into this game, where nobody could win and
the best she could hope for was a painful draw?

No. Damn. Way.

“
Sure.” She forced a casual laugh,
but it sounded ragged and a little desperate in her
ears.

West stopped on a dime and she
snapped to a halt beside him, the tension between them a bungee
cord. The light atmosphere, the undertone of flirtatious humor,
vanished. She stepped back and a wave swirled around her ankles,
her toes digging for purchase in the shifting sand.

Eyes glittering dangerously in the
starlight, West closed the gap and caught her wrist, dragging her
flush against him. “So, let’s play.”

Skin to skin, her brain short
circuited. The only reply she uttered when his lips crushed hers
was a soft moan. Nothing in the demanding pressure indicated
playfulness. No teasing nibbles or caresses, no introductory
this is just the appetizer
kind of kiss. He kissed with
full-throttled focus—a furious order for surrender. Her
surrender.

Piper’s body flamed to life, from
her parted lips, to her toes curled in the sand, to the dampness of
her center, each vying for dominance. West’s tongue slipped into
her mouth, deepening the kiss and stoking the fire higher and
higher. She drowned in the taste of him—warmth, sea salt, pure
heaven. Heaven mixed with the yeasty bitterness of beer.

Her last date, so many weeks ago
she’d almost lost count, tasted of peppermint mouthwash when she’d
kissed him goodnight. Like other men she’d gone out with he favored
suits, the city nightlife, and sixty-buck bottles of wine. Yet none
of those guys revved her engines as much as a shorts-wearing island
man who drank beer. They didn’t challenge her in the sack, didn’t
care if she only gave as much intimacy as she was comfortable
with.

Bottom line—those men weren’t
West.

Because West, while easy-going on
the outside, would never let her get away with holding back. He
wasn’t satisfied with half measures and she wanted a man to fight
with her, fight for her. She wanted a man who would sometimes let
her lead and at other times say, “the hell with this” and take what
he wanted.

Like West took what he wanted
now.

One hand threaded through her
hair, his other gripped her hip, pulling her against his arousal.
Piper swayed under the power of the kiss, shifting onto her toes so
she could grind against the delicious length of him. The hand in
her hair left to cup one butt cheek and she looped her arms around
his neck. West broke the kiss long enough to growl, “Jump,” as he
shifted her lower body higher. Piper jumped, her legs wrapping
around his hips.

The play of muscles bunching
across his shoulders tempted her. She inhaled the scent of sea and
the faintest whisper of spicy cologne as she traced her lips over
silky skin. West carried her a few strides away from the waves,
dipping his fingers under the leg-line of her swimsuit. His touch
whiplashed fire through her, forcing out another moan that she
muffled by sinking her teeth into the column of his
neck.

“
Down, baby.” He breathed
delicious warmth into her ear while clutching her butt with those
strong, sure hands.

“
Sorry, I don’t usually bite, I,
ahhh—” She lost her train of thought when he nipped her earlobe,
lapping the tiny hurt with his tongue.

“
No, I literally mean, hop down.”
His stubbled chin rubbed along her jaw, his lips curving against
her cheek. “I’ve got both hands full of you and while that feels
amazing, I need my hands free for other things.”

Other things.

Piper’s girly-bits liked that
idea. A lot.

Unhooking her ankles, she slid
down his legs, loving the rough brush of his hairs on her thighs.
He claimed her mouth again as she touched the ground and her hands
snaked around to grab his butt. How long had she wanted to get her
hands on it? Forever. Piper dug her fingers into firm muscles and
made like a limpet.

“
God, I love your ass.” She tasted
salt when she nipped his neck again, then trailed hot kisses up his
throat.

“
You’ve ogled it enough over the
last few weeks.”

“
Guilty.”

He caught her chin, took her lips
in another knee-jellifying kiss. West lowered her onto her back,
wedging himself into the juncture of her thighs. The sand, damp and
cool, was forgotten. His weight covered her, the furnace heat of
him warmed her, and the hard lines of his body—and, ohmigod,
especially one part of his body—all conspired to momentarily
distract her from the grittiness beneath her skin.

“
I’ve never had sex on a beach
before,” she gasped, when his hands, now free, peeled the swimsuit
off her shoulders, exposing her breasts to the night
air.

He paused, and even though
starlight dulled the color of his eyes to a pewter grey, she
couldn’t miss the desire in them.

“
Tell me to stop right now, or
you’re about to.” The ragged edge to his voice confirmed he meant
it.

He dropped his head and sucked her
nipple into his mouth. His tongue teased and tormented the
sensitive bud until her nails dug into his shoulder, her hips
thrusting up to meet his.

Jeez, the man really was a
cheat.

Panting, Piper slid her fingers
into his hair and jerked his head back, her breast slipping from
his mouth with a soft pop.

She groaned, wanting nothing more
than to let him continue his sweet torture. “West, we haven’t—you
know,
got anything
.”

Starlight or not, his white teeth
flashed in an unmistakable grin as his hand fumbled at his hip. His
shorts rustled and with a flourish he produced an oblong strip of
foil, which gleamed in said starlight.

A belly laugh escaped and she
slapped his shoulder—hard. “You’ve got condoms in your pocket? Were
you hoping to get lucky?”

“
I’m a guy—lucky’s my middle
name.” He angled his body so his erection pressed against her core.
“I won’t believe it if you say you’re not grateful for my
foresight.”

Piper snaked a hand between their
damp flesh and tilted her hips, sliding her fingers beneath the
waistband of his shorts to wrap around him. Rewarded with a
startled groan that vibrated through his body into hers, she
continued to stroke him. West rose up and supported his weight on
his forearms, allowing her hand to trace further down his length
and cup his balls, pulled close to his body with arousal. Hard,
hot, and satiny smooth—nothing had ever felt so wonderful against
her skin.

His brow creased with
concentration, his breathing choppy. West’s hand wrapped around her
wrist, stilling it.

“
Baby, I can’t take much more of
that.”

“
Sure you can.” Piper fondled the
head of his cock, ensuring her thumb rubbed over the ridges
slooowly.

He moaned again and jerked his
hips so her hand slipped out of his shorts. “No, you witch, I
can’t.”

West reared back and stripped off
the rest of her swimsuit. He stood, tossing it aside and removing
his shorts. What a sight he made in the glimmer of the crescent
moon. He stole her breath, captured it in his calloused hands. She
wanted to run her lips over every inch of him.

A crinkle as he ripped open the
foil square for a condom. She would’ve offered to help, except at
some point in the last minute her muscle control deserted her. So
hot for his touch it was a minor miracle the sand beneath her
hadn’t melted into glass.

He dropped his shorts to the sand
and lay on top of them, pulling her astride his hips. Piper pinned
his biceps down and bent to lick his nipple, causing him to gasp
most satisfactorily.

“
Feels good, huh?” Wondered if he
remembered saying the same thing to her in the shower—after he’d
driven her half out of her mind.

“
Feels okay.” His chuckle came out
strangled when she rocked her slickness along his hard length and
sucked his nipple between her lips.

“
Okay, okay—it feels
amazing.”

She tortured his other nipple with
her tongue, lapping up the taste of him, salty and sweet, as
addictive as the decadent combination of peanut butter and dark
chocolate. But yummier,
much
yummier.

His fingers kneaded her bottom,
his hips grinding his cock into the moist seam of her until her
thighs squeezed together with the unbearable sensations. She forced
herself to straighten.

“
You’ve no idea how much I want to
touch you.” West’s voice was rough, edgy. “But I hadn’t thought
through the logistics of this being our first time. Bloody
sand.”

Piper huffed out a laugh. Leaning
forward again, she angled her body so the tip of his cock nudged at
her swollen entrance. Sinking down an inch, the thickness of him
inside her was so good she blissed out for a couple of seconds.
Piper raised her hips until he started to slip out.

“
Shall we stop, then?” she
whispered.

And, sincerely, she’d have to kill
him if he agreed.

A hand clasped her hip, fingers
spread wide, preventing her from moving further. “Only if you want
me to flip you over and hammer you until sand ends up where sand
shouldn’t go.”

His voice sent another volley of
shivers skimming down her vertebrae. Oh, how she wanted this man to
hammer her. Hammer her over and over, to the moon and back, until
she couldn’t remember her own name.

Piper sucked in a breath, fixed
her gaze on West’s face and sank down. Delicious friction dragged a
moan from her, a moan lost inside West’s mouth as he kissed her
again, the fullness of him inside her body completing the circle.
She rotated her hips, her core rubbing over the base of his cock.
Not as satisfying as those long, piano-playing fingers of West’s,
but still…

She braced herself against West’s
chest, his heartbeat a jackhammer under her palms. She rode him,
every rolling thrust of her hips taking him in deeper. He filled
her, completed her, and owned her in that moment. West loosened his
grip on her hips and she linked their fingers together, using his
strength to move herself faster, harder, driving them both closer
into the flames. She arched her pelvis back, biting her lip as the
connection threatened to leave her in a begging puddle of
lust.

West thrust his hips again and
again, driving her up and over the edge. And then she wasn’t
thinking, just surfing the pleasure cascading though her, sensuous
ripples becoming rolling breakers as the orgasm slammed ashore. She
dug her nails into his shoulders and held on as the spasms
contracted so powerfully she expected to be turned inside out.
West’s cock throbbed inside her as he climaxed and growled her
name.

Collapsing forward onto him,
Piper’s breasts mushed against his pecs. West wrapped an arm over
her, pinning her to him. After a moment the pressure eased and his
hand drifted to her waist, tracing soft circles on her rapidly
cooling skin. Cheek pressed to his collarbone, nose against his
throat, Piper fought to catch her breath instead of sucking in more
of his delectable scent, an impossible task because he surrounded
and overwhelmed her. Still as intimately joined together as two
human beings could be, every damn inch of him, inside her and
beneath her, touched her right down to her soul.