My Double Life: Wild and Wicked (30 page)

“Home is where your heart is, cowboy.” She set her coffee mug on the table and stared up at him, eyes flashing a challenge. “Maybe you’re just not enticed enough to try living somewhere different.”

She didn’t understand. Couldn’t understand if she’d never been close to her family.

“It’s not that. You could entice me to do just about anything, woman. And you have.” After the experience near the airport runway, there’d been the time on his hotel balcony. Then the hotel elevator. “I just can’t walk away from what’s so much a part of who I am.”

The tiny frown that crossed her face was almost imperceptible, but Clint had studied every nuance of her expression for the past three days and he saw it. Knew the idea of being apart hurt her almost as much as it hurt him.

But she wasn’t ready, didn’t have the advantage of knowing with every fiber of her being that they were right together the way he did.

“I don’t know if I can do a relationship of half-measures, Clint. I wasted too much time and emotional energy on Jesse when that didn’t have a chance in hell of working out. I can’t commit myself to a man who won’t even live in the same state with me now.”

There was more to it than that. And Clint intended to figure out exactly what was holding her back.

“Give me at least next weekend. Let me think about how to change your mind this week, and if you want to, you can go ahead and think about how to change mine, too. But at least give it until next weekend before you make that decision.”

She stared into the bottom of her empty coffee cup for a long moment while Clint held his breath.

Finally, she met his gaze. “One more weekend. But I have to be honest with you, Clint. I can’t picture me ever wanting to spend any time with one horse, let alone a whole ranch full of them.” She blinked fast, as if to keep her emotions at bay. As if to make sure Clint didn’t realize she was scared of a whole lot more than the horses. “And you’ll have to show me a hell of a lot more than great state parks to get me to set foot in Alabama.”

* * *

“I’
M
NOT
SETTING
FOOT
on that yacht without you,” Kyra warned Jesse as she stared up at the boat where tonight’s date was to take place.

When she’d agreed to go out with him last weekend, she hadn’t realized he already had a very specific event in mind—his brother Seth’s engagement party.

Now, she leaned against Jesse’s Jeep beside pier eleven in the sleepy beach town of Twin Palms and tried not to panic. “Why don’t I go to the liquor store with you?”

“I’ll only be a minute. I just forgot to pick up the champagne for the party.” He slid his hands around her waist to ease her away from the Jeep. “I was too busy thinking about other aspects of tonight.”

A shivery sensation shot through her at his touch, his words. The sun winked on the waves as it dipped low over the horizon, illuminating a string of surfside shops and restaurants culminating in a cedar-sided gift store called the Beachcomber, and finally, a small marina where the yacht was docked.

Twin Palms should have been the perfect date destination. Their cruise on the water tonight was a romantic’s dream. But Kyra couldn’t help the nagging fear that she wouldn’t be able to live up to Jesse’s expectations.

She’d wanted this kind of night with him forever, but now that it had arrived she only wanted to run back to the Crooked Branch and return to their friendship—an association that seemed so much safer than the edgy, scary new feelings this relationship inspired.

Her mouth went dry in response to his touch, his suggestive words. But only one response came to her nervous brain. “You’d better go search for the champagne. Your family will be arriving any minute.”

Jesse’s hands lingered on her waist, his warm fingers brushing the bare skin at her back that her dress exposed. He smiled even as he shook his head. “Ever the practical one. When am I going to get you to take a few chances, Kyra Stafford?”

Taking chances gave her heart palpitations, thank you very much. Of course, Jesse’s touch might have contributed to that racing pulse a little bit, too. “The date is my risk for today.” A pretty big one.

“You’re wrong there. I’m watching over you better than Sam’s Pride. You couldn’t be any safer than when you’re with me.” Jesse picked up her hand and kissed the palm.

Slowly. Languidly.

He kissed his way up her wrist, up the inside of her arm the way Gomez had done to Morticia a thousand times. Only Jesse’s technique left her breathless and weak in the knees.

“You’d better get the champagne.” Before she did something crazy, like jump him in the middle of the marina parking lot. The scent of the sea had an aphrodisiac effect along with the warm breeze and lazy beachside town. Something about visiting a strange place made her feel adventurous.

Or maybe that was just because she was with Jesse.

“We have time.” His kisses trailed across her shoulder to her neck. He drew her closer, broad calloused palms catching on the silky thin fabric of her navy dress. “And we still have that little matter of getting you to take some risks to address.”

She might have protested, but he chose that moment to steer her hips to his. The feel of his hard length against her made her voice catch, sputter and die out in her throat.

“Are you ready to take a risk tonight, Kyra?” His words were rough, tinged with the same desire that churned through her. His hands smoothed their way up her waist to her ribs, his thumbs just barely grazing her aching breasts.

She didn’t have to ask what kind of risk he had in mind. He was proposing a clandestine encounter, something hot and fierce and totally out of control.

And she wanted to share that experience with him so badly she could hardly see straight.

“This is an awfully public place.” She glanced over her shoulder and noted the scant pedestrians peopling the sidewalks.

“I’ll find us someplace more private.” He skimmed his thumbs discreetly across the undersides of her breasts.

Her eyes fluttered closed for a long moment as the provocative ripple effect of one small touch vibrated through her. The man had probably forgotten more about seduction than she would ever learn in two lifetimes. “Are you trying to get even with me for abducting you and making you my sexual prisoner at Gasparilla?”

“Revenge is best when it’s sweet.” He kept his words a soft whisper in deference to an elderly couple walking by in matching running suits holding hands. After shooting conspiratorial winks in their direction, the couple passed and Jesse cupped her chin. Ran his finger over her lower lip. “And it
will
be sweet.”

Oh.

A melting sensation started at that combustible point where his finger touched her and then dripped all the way through her.

“Yes.” The word jumped out before she consciously decided it.

But if she was going to have this last date with Jesse, she didn’t have any intention of playing games about what she wanted. She wanted
him.

Tonight.

Now.

Even if that meant taking a few chances.

* * *

“Y
ES
WHAT
?” His eyes pinned her down, wouldn’t let her go until he’d wrested all the words from her. Or maybe until he made sure she knew exactly what he had in mind for them.

Their window of time before the party was narrow, but it existed. He knew Seth’s boat was back in the harbor because he’d driven it to Twin Palms again just yesterday. And it just so happened the keys were still in his pocket.

But no matter how eager he was to get Kyra alone in the intimacy of a boat’s cabin, he had all the time in the world to hear her say that she wanted this as much as him.

Then again, given how hot he was to have her beneath him right now, he’d probably settle for having her want this
half
as badly as he did. “Are you sure you know what you’re agreeing to?”

“Does it involve a sexual encounter in the next five minutes?” She tilted her head to one side and eyed him with a smoky stare.

Gulping for air, he sought a response.

And found his throat dried up to desert standards.

He settled for nodding.

Kyra leaned just close enough to brush her breasts against his chest. And practically brought him to his knees in the process. “Then consider me well informed of what I’m agreeing to. I still say yes.”

If he opened his mouth to tell her how great he thought that was, he’d only end up devouring her then and there in the middle of the Twin Palms marina parking lot. He had no choice but to let his actions do the talking.

Pulling her forward across the tarmac, he made double time to get them to the pier where Seth’s boat was docked. Jesse might have lingered to hear her say that she wanted to be with him, but now that he knew where they were headed, he wasn’t wasting a single second.

Never in his life had he felt this kind of urgency to have a woman. Hell, had there ever been any urgency about sex before? He’d developed a legendary reputation among women because he’d always been able to take his time. Play games. Enjoy the seduction.

But right now when he should be applying every skill he’d ever learned to wooing and winning Kyra, finesse eluded him.

He held her hand to try and help her onto the 32-foot cabin cruiser, but one look at her long leg stretched forward through a slit in her conservative navy dress had him hauling her into the boat and into his arms.

She stumbled against him, propelling them backward toward the stairs leading to the cabin door. He drew her down the steps with him, praying he could hold out another thirty seconds while he found them some privacy. He kissed her while he fished for the key in his pocket, devouring her now the way he’d wanted to onshore.

And she kissed him right back. No holds barred. Like she meant it.

He forgot about the key. Had to touch her.

But some hint of her practicality must have surfaced just enough to make her reach in his pocket. As she did so, her fingers grazed his thigh—and a hell of a lot more—an act which sent him beyond urgent and straight into desperate terrain.

Control was nowhere to be found.

He couldn’t wait. Ate up the silky fabric of her dress with his hands, sought for a way to get beneath it to touch more.

When he reached for her hem, she smiled triumphantly and dangled the key in front of his nose with one hand. In her other hand, she waved another prize—a condom.

With a growl, he yanked the key back, jammed it into the lock and pulled her down into the cabin with him.

Maybe Jesse closed the door behind them. Maybe he didn’t. It scared the hell out of him to think he wasn’t paying attention to the details, or that maybe he wasn’t taking care of Kyra the way she really deserved to be taken care of.

But her hands were all over him, her one palm still clutching the condom wrapper. And the need to have her consumed him. Drove him out of his freaking mind. Turned him into someone else completely, someone who...

Unable to finish a train of thought, Jesse focused on the only thing he could finish. This. Incredible. Freaking. Encounter.

The bedroom was too far away. But Jesse’s calf bumped into a cushion for the built-in couch. The living area.

Close enough.

Sultry heat melded them together. The scent of the sea breeze permeated the cabin area, mingled with the light floral note of Kyra’s skin. Her skin was hot and silky beneath his hands and somehow—thank you, God—a fraction of his bedroom prowess from another time, another life, must have helped him to unzip her dress and make the navy fabric vanish.

She stood before him in navy high heels and black lace panties.

Totally impractical.

And the thought that Kyra had indulged in something so frivolous and so decadent—possibly with him in mind—turned him on even more than the black lace.

He wanted to linger over every inch of her, taste the way her skin felt through black lace, but he couldn’t wait. Not this time.

His hands found her hips and tugged her to him as he drew them down to the couch cushions. Kyra’s weight on top of him a delicious restraint, he let her undo his shirt buttons, unfasten his belt.

Her hair slithered down across his shoulder and over his chest. He wound the length around his hand, allowed the silky strands to tease his palms.

Then he made the mistake of looking down. Caught a glimpse of her black lace panties up against his open fly.

And promptly lost his mind.

Releasing her hair, he rolled their bodies to swap positions. He shed his clothes faster than a virgin on his honeymoon. Two seconds later he had Kyra beneath him and her panties in his hand.

Kyra blinked up at him in the semidarkness, her eyes soft with desire and little amazement as she offered him the condom she’d been holding. “How did you do that?”

He slapped the condom on the coffee table and flung her panties away, concerned only with what they’d concealed. Reaching between their bodies, he trailed a hand over her hip to her belly, to the soft heat between her legs. “I had excellent motivation.”

Eyes fluttering closed she leaned into the pillows. A sensual acquiescence. Her back arched, and with the movement, her breasts seemed to command attention.

Bending to kiss a peaked nipple, Jesse nudged a finger deep inside her to the place she liked to be touched best of all.

The heat of her closed around him as her soft sighs turned to breathy moans. When her breath caught, held, told him she was on the verge of release, he let go.

Her eyes opened wide until he settled himself between her thighs and rolled the condom on. Her short fingernails dug into his shoulders as she urged him inside.

As if he needed urging.

The boat rocked beneath them, and Jesse wasn’t sure if it was from the waves in the marina or the waves they were making. But he knew for damn sure he’d never felt this good, this right, this complete in his life.

No wonder being with Kyra made him feel a sense of urgency today. There was something about
this
that was pretty damn important.