Wild And Willing

A wave rocked the boat, reminding Seth of undulating and other things he shouldn’t be thinking about right now. He tugged her by the hand toward the salon, hoping if they took a seat they wouldn’t feel the rocking of the damn boat quite so much.

“That probably sounds like the hang-up of some college kid,” she continued as she followed him, dutifully sinking into the curved, green leather sofa. “But honestly, my grandparents are getting up there in years and I swear my granddad’s ulcers get worse with every guy I date.”

Seth nodded, understanding all too well the need to put family first. He flicked the lights on the lowest setting and slid into the seat next to her, careful to leave a few feet between them. No sense tempting fate. “You’re close to your grandparents?”

“They pretty much raised me. My mom is single and she’s never really gotten it through her head that having a child requires some stability. I adore my mom, but we’re more like sisters than mother and daughter.” She toyed with the fringe on her skirt for a moment, lost in thought. Then, as if remembering he was there, she crossed her legs and flipped her hair over one shoulder. “But I did not jump into your arms today so we could discuss my family. I thought maybe you called me back here because you were ready to try out the bed now.”

“You’re concerned about your grandfather’s ulcers, yet you would sacrifice yourself to a pirate’s lust for the sake of adventure?” Sounded damn good to him, even if he didn’t want to admit it. He had to give her credit for openness and honesty. The woman didn’t know the meaning of the word coy. “Have you considered that maybe your granddad worries himself sick for a good reason?”

“Not a chance. Face it, Chandler. You’d be sacrificing yourself to my lust, and no one but us has to know.” She kicked her sandaled foot in a slow, circular rhythm. “So what do you say? Are you game?”

Was he game? Hell, maybe he should tear a page from her book and take things a little less seriously. He knew he couldn’t afford to try out the bed for real. But if he viewed this more in terms of a three-strikes-and-you’re-out sort of game, he ought to be able to kiss her one more time without losing control completely.

And he deserved that kiss after the day he’d been having. He’d had to fend off a costumer who’d tried to talk him into wearing a hook on his hand, and ended up submitting to a tricorn hat he later tossed overboard. He suffered an eye patch for half a day and had paraded into town bare-chested and yo-ho-hoing.

No wonder pirates demanded a little booty for their trouble.

“I don’t trust either of us near that bed, Mia, and with good reason.” He settled his hand on her knee, allowing the heat of his palm to penetrate the cool silk of her skin. “But I know another game you might enjoy.”

MIA WONDERED if it was possible to melt at a man’s touch. If so, she stood a very good chance of pooling at Seth’s feet any moment because his hand on her knee made her whole body turn warm and liquid.

She’d been so hell-bent determined to attract his attention, to make him waver from his honorable, “hands-off” course, that she had no idea what to do once her plan started working.

And judging by the heated challenge in his eyes, it was working very well.

“Another game?” she managed to push past dry lips.

He walked his fingers up the outside of her thigh until his hand landed on her hip. Then he scooted her closer to him in the dimly lit salon. “It’s called ‘let’s see if we can make lightning strike twice.’”

She was still processing what exactly that meant when he angled his lips over hers. Realization hit at the same time he cupped her cheek in his palm and tilted her mouth for a deeper taste.

The man planned to drug her with his aphrodisiac kisses and then coax her right into orgasmic heaven.

All of which sounded delightful, except…

“That’s not fair to you.” Mia broke off their kiss, much to her lips’ regret. Heat simmered between them, fogging the porthole windowpane behind them.

Seth flexed his fingers on her hip, caressed the curve of her waist with the broad expanse of his palm. “It’s perfectly fair,” he whispered, leaning forward to reclaim her mouth.

She shook her head, refusing him in spite of the persuasive press of his chest against hers. “No, I think you’d better let me pay you back first.”

He stared at her through lazy brown eyes. “Honey, I can’t think of anything I’d like more than to watch those waves roll right over you again, to see your mouth fall open and your head tip back when you—”

“No.” Sensing the need to take action before he had her talked into becoming erotically dependent on him, Mia walked her fingers down his chest to the waistband of his khaki shorts. “I can think of something you would definitely like more.”

His abs flexed under her touch. He tensed, his whole body going still as she continued a relentless path down his shorts toward the ridge she spied very clearly.

She didn’t know where she found the nerve. Maybe too many nights of longing for adventure, of promising herself she’d take advantage of this trip away from home, had conspired to mold her into this wild woman.

Gathering her courage, she smoothed her hand over that ridge and looked him in the eye.

“I bet I send you into orbit without ever hitting the sheets.”

4

A MAN COULD PASS OUT over that kind of invitation.

Seth knew this firsthand, because Mia’s erotic proposal sent every drop of his blood on a heated southbound tidal wave, leaving him damn near light-headed and too turned-on to think straight.

All he had to do was nod.

Instead, some dying part of his conscience rasped out a gravelly, “What?”

Mia’s hand curled around him, assuring him he’d understood the message. “Payback can be very satisfying.”

There could be no mistaking how much he wanted to. She couldn’t help but realize the full extent of his hunger for her.

Unfortunately, something about the word “payback” on her lips niggled his numbed brain cells, reminding him that he expected more from his relationships than just an even exchange of pleasure.

Cursed principles.

He edged away from her, prying himself up off the couch. Was it his imagination, or was there a hint of disappointment in her eyes that went beyond sexual frustration? “I’d give my eyeteeth to take you up on that offer, Mia, but I made a promise to myself a long time ago not to indulge in this kind of thing lightly.”

She bit her lip, broadcasting an uncertainty he hadn’t expected from her. “I guess I misinterpreted your kiss. I thought you wanted this, too.”

The flash of self-doubt in her eyes lashed at his stupid conscience, making him feel like a total heel.

“I do want this, Mia. I want it so much it’s damned well about to kill me.” Still, he backed up a step as he said it, knowing if he let himself get too close to her again, any promises from his past would be incinerated to ashes. “I just didn’t plan for this and I don’t have any way to protect you….” He’d be lying if he let her think that was the only reason why. She didn’t even know his true identity. “But mostly I just don’t let myself get involved with any woman I’m not fully committed to.”

Assuming a live-in relationship constituted a full commitment, anyway. He wasn’t his father, damn it. At least he offered something beyond sex to the women he slept with.

Her mouth curved into a perfectly round O though no sound came forth. Her cheeks tinged pink for a few seconds, confirming his fear that he’d embarrassed her.

“You’ve got to know it’s not you,” he rushed to assure her, guilt nipping at his heels. “Hell, look at me. I’m a walking advertisement for how much I’d like to take you up on that offer.”

Her green eyes slid downward to linger just below his waist.

His temperature spiked a few more degrees, making him wonder why he found it necessary to reassure a woman who was leading him around by the…nose.

A slow smile curled her lips, her feminine pride apparently soothed by his obvious arousal. “Then I suppose the polite thing for me to do would be to leave you alone so I don’t tempt you any further.”

His wayward libido already protested the move. “That would be helpful, yes.”

“Okay.” Her green cat eyes met his again, alight with mischief. “I’ll let you go about your business and I’ll go about mine as if you weren’t even here.”

He nodded, half-hating that plan, but knowing his promise not to get involved with any woman on a casual basis wouldn’t survive the rest of the trip without her cooperation.

“Okay, then.” He backed himself right into the staircase, his heel colliding with the first step. “I’d better start up the boat and get us underway again. It’s too dark to see much of anything on the island now, but we can at least circle the key before we head back to Gasparilla.”