Perfect for the Beach (35 page)

Sam’s cock pulsed with the agony of waiting, but he knew the moment he sank into her body, he was done for. And he wasn’t ready for that yet. He’d been too hungry for her and he wasn’t going to rush their first time together.

He still had a few personal demons to conquer, but he couldn’t be happier that he finally had Kat where he wanted her, her eyes pleading with him to take her, her body so responsive and eager. And before this night was finished, she’d be pleading with that
mouth
that constantly drove him to distraction with her saucy remarks and sexy grins. But Lord, did she know how to kiss! He’d had to pull away from her earlier. Her tongue had tangled with his and he’d felt it straight to his groin. Damn, how he wanted to be buried inside her! But it could wait. His insatiable urge to taste her couldn’t.

He settled his shoulders between her lush, tanned thighs, and he wanted nothing more than to plunge his tongue into her warm, delicious depths, but the whimpers and anxious mewling sounds were driving him insane. He wanted to take his time, hear more of them.

His hand petted her, softly fluttering over her damp curls, then went lower, his fingertip brushing her slick, wet lips. He blew on the silky skin and inserted one long finger into her, sliding deep. She shuddered, a ragged, animal-like cry tore from her lips, and she gripped his finger tight. Knowing how his cock was going to feel there made Sam shudder as well.

He stroked in and out of her passage. “You are so wet, Kat,” he murmured, and her hips rolled, her body arched, communicating without words what she wanted.

He pulled his finger free and slid both hands under her warm buttocks. He tilted her hips up and lowered his head to the sweetness that awaited him.

She wailed, thrashed, and bucked against his mouth, but he wouldn’t surcease. He feasted on her, his tongue lapping at her honeyed richness as he took his fill of her.

“Ah, yes! Oh, Sam! Yes,” she cried out, one hand reaching down and tangling in his hair. Holding him to her, she writhed under him.

He had to fight his own climax! He felt seduced by her passion.

He shifted, and plunged a finger in again. The combination of sensations inside and out were turning her into a wildcat. His lips closed over the swollen bud of her clitoris and gently suckled. She screamed so loud, Sam loved it, but he shifted again and brought his other hand to her mouth, stifling her cries of pleasure as his own mouth and fingers brought her from one pinnacle to the next, pushing her past each one.

He registered the strain in her muffled pleas, the tight grip on his hair, and with one final, delicious lick, he lifted his mouth away, his hand lowering from hers. Her body went from bowed and rigid to liquid and limp as she dropped back onto the mattress, her breathing shallow and her eyes closed, and Sam worried he’d gone too far. Except for the spasms that still shook her body, she didn’t move.

He crawled up the bed, lying next to her and tucking the curls that had fallen over her face behind her ear. He wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “Kat? Are you okay?” he asked worriedly.

Her eyes opened slowly, sleepily, but they shined, sated. Regardless of his painful condition, he smiled down at her, relief filling him.

She curled her body into him, and reached down to close her soft hand around his aching erection. “Have you reached your breaking point yet, Sam?” she murmured lazily.

He sighed and groaned, stilling her hand. “I got greedy, baby. I wore you out. Sleep now.”

He held her hand immobile from moving up and down, but she squeezed him so blissfully that he feared he’d come in her hand. She kissed his collarbone, her tongue licking along the bone, and slid her slick body down to their joined hands. “Sleep? Now? No way!” she breathed into his skin, sounding renewed as her mouth moved to its goal.

He hissed, and his eyes rolled back as her tongue flicked the swollen tip of his sex. “Oh Christ, Kat!” He jerked and groaned in ecstasy when her mouth sucked the bead of fluid that pearled there, and both their hands tightened around the thick shaft. Just one taste and Sam was already so close to coming.

He let go of her hand, but she kept stroking him, tasting him, moaning and enjoying the turnabout. His hand shook as he reached for the condom.

He gently pushed her off him, sheathing himself quickly, and she lay back, licking his essence from her lips, watching his hurried movements. He rolled and settled himself between her thighs once again.

Staring into her beautiful green eyes, so full of passion and excitement, he said, “I’m at the breaking point now.”

Her hands gripped his biceps. “So I gathered.” She grinned, but when he pushed her legs high and wide and surged into her, embedding himself to the hilt, her mouth opened on a gasp. They both stilled, holding their breath, savoring the mutual possession.

She broke the spell, but wrapped them in another. “Ah, yes. This is where I need you, Sam.”

Sam’s eyes closed. “Yeah,” he growled. He was exactly where he needed to be, too—deep, surrounded by her warmth, his cock full and pulsing inside her.

And then he began to move.

He concentrated hard on keeping his strokes slow and steady, even when Kat wrapped her legs around his hips, tilting her own, trying to rush them along. She wanted it fast and hard, but he couldn’t give in to her. He’d make sure neither of them would ever forget a single moment of the experience.

His rough hands cupped her face as he rocked into her, and she sighed into his mouth when he lowered his head and kissed her tenderly, his lips taking possession of her as surely as his body was. God, he loved her!

Ripples of sensation assailed him as her hands slid along his rib cage and around to his buttocks. He reared up and sucked in his breath as her nails bit into his skin. It was more than even he could stand.

“Here we go, babe,” Sam rasped. Reaching up and gripping the slats, he started them on the breathtaking climb, together this time. He thrust deep, but even that was too slow now. Harder and faster he drove into her, the friction of their tight fit sending licks of flame along his already raw nerves.

He was covered in sweat as he pumped into her, dropping his hands to the bed and leaning low, needing the full body contact as his downstrokes ground against her swollen, sensitive clitoris. “Come for me, Kat,” he urged, his voice rough as sandpaper in her ear.

She careened over with edge with a scream of completion, her warm passage seizing around him. Her teeth sank into his shoulder and he roared her name, letting his own climax take him as the blinding pleasure slammed into him.

He pulsed inside her, and they both groaned, shuddering with the long ride. She stayed with him every step of the way and welcomed him into her arms when the last of the tide ebbed and he collapsed onto her, exhausted and replete.

When he could gather the strength, Sam slipped free of her and disposed of the condom in the trash under the nightstand, then rolled back over to pull Kat’s relaxed, slack form into his arms.

With her tucked to his side, her swollen, well-kissed breasts pressed to his ribs, he stroked her head, his fingers tangling in her soft, wild curls. She still trembled, feeling the echoing swells of her freefall.

Finally settling in, she draped her arm possessively across his chest, whispering groggily, “Perfect.” Her voice drifted off as she sighed, “Night, Sam.”

He dipped his head, watched her eyes drift close in exhaustion. He smiled; he
had
worn her out. He stared for a long time, then brushed his lips softly over her brow.

“Good night, Katrissa. I love you,” he said quietly. But she didn’t hear, Sam knew. She’d already drifted off to sleep in his arms.

Chapter Four

Kat awoke to the sound through the open window of the surf crashing upon the beach. And it only took a moment for her to remember that she’d fallen asleep to a warm body and a heart beating a steady cadence under her ear. She was cold, despite the blanket Sam had tucked her in. But she wasn’t lying next to him anymore. His body heat was gone. She was alone. And it was nearly three A.M.

That rolling and pitching feeling in her belly was back, but she beat it down, hoping, praying she was being silly and Sam just got up for a glass of water or to use the bathroom.

She slipped out of bed, and the cool breeze sweeping in from the window chilled her naked skin. Sam’s suitcase was open in the middle of the floor and she took a T-shirt from the pile that looked liked he’d thrown all his clothes in haphazardly. Pulling it on over her head, she went in search of him.

He wasn’t anywhere in the house. She peered through the sliding glass door in the living room that let out to a sprawling deck, but she didn’t see him there either. Then something caught her eye down by the shore.

A man was standing at the water’s edge. Kat’s heart drummed in her chest; even if she didn’t recognize the broad shoulders in the white shirt that stood out in the dark of night, her hormones did. That was Sam down there on the beach. Only this time, he wasn’t looking for her. He’d left her side and sought solitude in the waves.

Kat thought she might be ill.

“Don’t cry, dammit. You brought this on yourself,” she berated herself, turning and going back to the bedroom. She curled up on the bed in Sam’s T-shirt, the scent of him surrounding her, the memory of their lovemaking all around her. She’d never been so sad to learn the truth about anything in her life.

The sight of him down at the water’s edge was the answer to the question she’d been too afraid to ask: he wasn’t over Patti. She’d suspected as much anyway. That was why she’d quit her job. For months, she’d thought Sam was recovering from the loss, that his heart was healing. She’d even nearly gotten up the nerve to tell him that she wasn’t what he thought she was, but then she saw the invoice from the florist. An arrangement was to be delivered annually to the cemetery and the plot number where Patti was laid to rest. That confirmed for her that Sam wasn’t past the grief, that he might never get past it. She’d done the only thing she could; she’d decided to make a fresh start, and that meant quitting her job. She needed a place where her heart wouldn’t hurt every time she turned around.

But he’d come after her, dammit!
He shouldn’t have done that. And when he did, she should have been firm and made him sleep on the sofa. At least then she wouldn’t know what she was missing. Now she forever would. And the memory of his lovemaking had ruined her for any other man. Damn it all!

She heard the door slide shut, and she knew he was back. He didn’t come into the bedroom right away, and by the time he did, the bitterness had left her and she was physically and emotionally drained. The bed dipped as he slid in beside her.
When he’s back asleep,
she resolved,
I’ll leave first thing.

Sam spooned up behind her, his arm going around her, pulling her against him. Kat choked back the sob that rose in her throat. She was hurt that he couldn’t love her, but even more disappointed that she’d allowed herself to be vulnerable. It wasn’t Sam’s fault, but this feeling of regret was exactly what she’d tried to avoid by coming down here.

The rhythm of his breathing as he settled into sleep calmed her, but she started to like it a little too much. She had to get out or she might not leave at all. What little dignity she had left gave her the impetus to slide out from under his arm, and tuck a pillow there in her place.

Sam rolled and clutched the fluffy pillow to him; the muscles in his broad back rippled and flexed, and Kat fought the almost overpowering urge to crawl back in that bed. But her pride stopped her cold. She’d already compromised it so much. This
had
to be the end of the line. She wanted every part of Sam, and not just his body, sexy as all get out that it was. But if he couldn’t give her his heart along with it, then she had no choice but to sever their association for good.

She turned her back on the temptation before she could talk herself into yanking that pillow out from under him and making room for herself against his warm, powerful, sleeping body.

Quiet as a mouse, she quickly dressed and packed her small suitcase. She tiptoed through the house and sat down at the table in the dining room to leave Sam a note, telling him
not
to follow her this time. This was good-bye.