Born Ready (17 page)

“Scott.”

“You’re incredible.”

“And I’m naked and you’re not. That’s not fair.”

She didn’t have to ask twice.

Scott fumbled for his belt, whipped it off, unzipped his pants.

She laughed, danced away from him like a saucy sea horse. Making him work for it.

“Where are you going?” he wheedled.

“Can’t make this too easy for you. Come and get me if you think you can handle it.”

She dodged around a bin where they stored fish food, her blond hair streaming out behind her. She looked exactly like a mermaid. He swallowed a gulp of emotion, stripped off his shirt, while at the same time kicking off his shoes.

“C’mere,” he intoned.

She stuck out her tongue, ducked behind an aqua tank, out of his sight.

He pulled a condom from his back pocket before he took off his pants along with his BVDs. His heart pounded extraordinarily hard and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this aroused.

Where was she? He could hear her moving down the tunnel.

“Here fishy, fishy,” he cajoled, opening the condom and rolling it on as he searched. He moved into another room that held more aquariums.

It was incredibly arousing to realize that on the other side of those thick tanks that people were mingling at the party. The fish and the water vegetation, the darkness in the back, contrasting with the lighting in the main room, would prevent anyone from seeing them back here, but still the possibility they were semipublic spurred his adrenaline.

He heard a giggle, spun around.

She was behind him.

How had she gotten behind him?

He pivoted, dived for her.

She ran.

He missed. “Naughty mermaid. Get back here and take what’s coming to you.”

He returned to the room he’d just left. She was nowhere in sight. He touched his cock. It was beyond granite. “Where are you?”

Another glorious giggle erupted.

It lifted his heart to hear her having a good time. She didn’t often have a good time and to think that he was an instrument of her pleasure puffed his chest with pride. “Oh, Jackie, where are you?”

He peered behind the aqua tank, and then felt a light tickling on his bare ass. He snaked his hand around, grabbed her wrist. “Gotcha.”

She squealed.

He turned to face her.

“You’re pretty quick for a shark-bit man.”

His leg was hurting from the activity but he didn’t care. No pain, no gain, right? His leg was still in the Ace bandage. It would keep him secure.

She wriggled in his grip. Her eyes were wide, her lips glistening. Her breasts rose and fell in a perky rhythm as she sucked in air.

“You’re mine now, you little mammal.”

“Not if I swim away.”

“You’re not going anywhere.” He pulled her to him.

She trembled with excitement and her excitement fired his. He couldn’t say what came over him, but it was powerful as the ocean waves. Timeless and ferocious. He pushed her backward until her spine flattened against the tank. Instantly, she raised her legs, wrapped them around his waist.

And then he was in her. He didn’t know how it happened. One minute they were peering into each other’s eyes and the next minute his red-hot rod slipped into her juicy wetness and he just sank into her. They both expelled air-hungry groans.

His mouth captured hers.
Blow my mind.
Man, she was the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted. He moved in her and the world spun out of control.

Her fingernails dug into his back. His calf cried out, cursing him, but pain was nothing compared to the exquisite feeling surging through his body. He ground his hips, pushing her against the wall.

“Harder,” she cried.

He gave her what she wanted. Her head bounced against the glass.

“Yes, yes!” she cried. “Harder, faster. Give me all you’ve got, Scott.”

He sank into her as deeply as he could go, pumping his hips, thrusting fast and hard. He went blind. He couldn’t see anything. All he could do was smell the musky scent of their joining. Feel the tangle of her hair flowing over his face. Taste the salt of her skin. Hear her high sweet keening.

“Yes, oh, yes. I’m close. Don’t stop, don’t stop.”

He couldn’t have stopped if he wanted to. He drove into her in a way he’d never driven into any woman. With full, complete abandon. He blew through her like a hurricane, came in a white-hot gush and immediately regretted his hair-trigger response.

Their first joining was over far too soon.

9

You have to go out, no one says you have to come back.

—Common saying among the Coast Guard rank and file

THEY RESTED ON THE CEMENT floor, still on the backside of the aquarium. Jackie threaded her hand through Scott’s lush dark hair. Sweat glistened over his back. She traced her fingers over his spine, his head lying facedown in her lap. She tracked down his sculpted butt—his incredible, amazing butt—to his firm, muscular legs.

Then she saw blood staining the Ace bandage around his right calf. “You’re bleeding.”

“I know.”

“Why didn’t you stop?”

“What’s a little blood when you’re flying high on sex endorphins.”

“It’s going to hurt when the endorphins wear off.”

“Don’t care.” He kissed her inner thigh.

She laughed, wriggled. “That tickles.”

“How about this?” His tongue traveled down.

“You’re incorrigible.”

“Hmm.” He planted more kisses over her skin. “I could get real used to this taste.”

She made a small, unintended noise, and she was uncertain what it meant.

He raised his head. Looking at him was like staring at the sun. Too bright to be endured for long. Hot. Intense. The source of stark, blistering energy. He cracked her heart as wide-open as the Atlantic Ocean and that worried her.

“Are you ready to go again?” he asked, thankfully bringing things back to sex.

“Better question, are you?”

“I haven’t had sex in six months. So, yeah. I’m ready to go again.”

“You have a rapid recovery time,” she said.

“Why thank you for noticing.”

“Do you have another condom?” she dared.

He sat up. “Just let me find my pants.”

He got to his feet. She noticed he was careful not to put too much weight on his right leg. A pinprick of guilt passed through her. This wasn’t fair to him. He was in pain.

“Scott…”

“Yes?” He retrieved his pants, dug in the pocket.

“Forget it…you’re hurt.”

“You don’t get it, do you? I’m Coast Guard. Pain is part of life.”

“But I don’t want to be the cause of your pain.”

“You didn’t bite my leg.” He came back to her, his erection bouncing proudly. He was ready again. Jackie grinned.

“I love to see you smile.” He reached a hand down to her.

She placed her palm in his and he pulled her to her feet.

“So forget about my leg. Tell me what you want.”

“My turn to look at the fishes while we do it,” she said.

And to keep from looking into your eyes when you make love to me.

Looking into his face when they were entangled was too intimate. It bordered on something more than sex, and she didn’t want to go there. She was not going to lead this man on. Even though she’d made it clear their relationship could be nothing more than sex, she knew things would get complicated if emotions got involved, and staring each other in the eyes punched emotional buttons that shouldn’t be pushed.

“If that’s what you want.” He kissed her.

He was the best kisser. Firm and warm. Not too wet. Not too dry. Just the right amount of moisture. She swallowed him up.
Yes.

In an instant, she felt her body respond. Speaking of moisture. She was immediately ready for him all over again.

She broke off the kiss, turned and planted both palms against the tank. “There are people on the other side of this tank.”

“I know.”

“They’re out there talking and drinking and laughing and we’re in here—”

He said a dirty word that made her ears burn and her cheeks heat.

“Yeah,” she purred lustily. “We’re doing that.”

His hands went around her waist. He pressed his body against hers. His erection was hot steel against her buttocks.

“Spread your legs,” he said.

She did as he asked, spreading her legs wide while she watched the sea horses. They were mating, too. Entangled with each other, but anchored to nothing else. Snout-to-snout they drifted upward out of the sea grass, spiraling upward as they rose. In spite of her scientific training and knowledge, Jackie saw it now as a beautiful, romantic dance of love.

Scott’s fingers trailed down her back to her buttocks. He tickled her lightly, then moved on down. His hand slipped between her legs and her body shivered involuntarily as he lightly touched the sweet hood that offered so much pleasure.

“Mmm,” he murmured then leaned forward to plant kisses along her spine.

Jackie moved against him, reveling in the sensations sweeping her away. She watched the fish, felt his tongue, smelled the scent of their bodies, heard the sound of his rough masculine breathing, tasted her own desire floating hot and heady in her mouth.

His fingers stayed busy, strumming, rubbing, caressing. Touching her in ways that unfurled her. She bloomed. In his hands, she was a rosebud in the sun. Opening, softening, exploding with rich fragrance.

She closed her eyes, pressed her face against the cool glass. It was the next-best thing to being underwater.

The tip of him pushed lightly at her entrance. He stopped. Just stayed there for a moment. His throbbing erection bobbing against her.

Come in, come in so we can come together.

She pushed back against him, causing him to enter her.

“Minx,” he whispered against her ear.

“Stop teasing.”

He gently gathered a handful of her hair in his hand. “Let’s mate like the sea horses, mermaid.”

She pushed harder and he was in her to the hilt. He tugged on her hair. Not too hard. Just the right amount of tension to let her know he was fully in control. She liked it. Giving up control. Letting him take over in this context.

With one hand on her hair and the other clamped to her waist, he started gyrating his hips, pushing her forward. She opened her eyes, staring into the tank. He was long and hard and it felt so good having him buried deep within her. She couldn’t have escaped if she wanted to. She didn’t want to. She liked this. Liked what he was doing to her. Liked him.

Hell, she liked him.

He’s inside of you. It’s probably a good thing that you like him.

But she couldn’t like him too much. She had to draw a line.

Before she could fully develop that thought, he quickened the tempo. Tugging her hair, riding her hard, pushing her over the edge again. She hadn’t even realized she was ready to tumble, but suddenly, her knees were weak and her body filled with an ocean full of sensation. Rippling, undulating, waving.

He was dragging her overboard. Taking her down to depths she’d never before dived, darkly mysterious and sweetly scary.

The orgasm hit so hard she almost choked on the scream she tried to bite back. People might not able to see them on the other side of the tank, but if she screamed, they would surely hear her.