Page 79 of Falling Overboard

Then I had the presence of mind to put my hands against his shoulder and push slightly. He immediately broke off the kiss and looked down at me.

“I don’t understand what’s happening,” I said. My body was urging me to shut up. And my fingers, of their own volition, began stroking the skin of his pectoral muscles, marveling at how warm and strong he felt. The shirtless sight of him made me breathless and I didn’t know why. I had seen him this way a million times.

Maybe it was because I was finally allowed to touch him.

His right hand went over mine and he brought it up to his mouth for a butterfly kiss. I curled my fingers in against the sensation.

“I want to be close to you,” he said.

“We are close.”

I felt his smile against my hand. “Closer.” His velvety voice did something unspeakable to me.

Why had he suddenly decided to rewrite the rules?

Then he was slipping his arms around me, bringing me flush against him. He held me tightly and kissed the underside of my jaw, that sensitive spot just behind my ear. I shivered and he smiled at the effect he was having on me. His right hand began to travel down. Along my ribs, squeezing my waist, and then settling on my hip.

He dug his fingers in, gripping me toward him, and I sighed.

The heat from his fingers was scalding me and I found myself desperate to know what it would be like without any clothes between us. His lips explored every piece of my skin that he could reach—my throat, my jaw, my face, my eyelids. He had me aching and burning and nothing had even really happened yet.

My heart kept up a steady beat of his name,Hunter, Hunter. I wondered if he could hear it.

And then he finally returned his mouth to mine with a hunger that both surprised and thrilled me. I hadn’t known that it could be like this between us. My lungs felt like they were going to burst, my skin throbbing and heated, like I had a delicious sunburn.

His tongue slipped into my mouth, fitting and stroking against my own, and I moaned at his sensual caresses. Streaks of intensity shot through me and an undeniable pressure began to build.

Then his fingers were at the hem of my T-shirt. “May I?”

Him asking made the moment even hotter. I wasn’t sure I could have denied him anything. “Yes.”

He had it up and over my head in one swift motion. I only had about two seconds to worry about my ratty sports bra before he moved over me and pressed himself against me. My softness against his hardness, our burning skin moving and creating the most amazing friction as he kissed me over and over until I was dizzy and breathless and lost to everything but sensation.

His mouth went back to my throat. “You are so sexy. I have wanted you for so long.”

While his touch and kiss were incredible, his words did me in.

I melted. I wanted everything he had to give me, and he had so very much that he wanted to share. Sweet fire raced through my veins, making me burn so hard for him. His mouth was hot on mine and his hands were everywhere and I couldn’t even register what was happening because I could only feel.

Like I was about to drown in pleasure.

Everything was happening so fast and all I knew was that I wanted him and wanted this and I didn’t care about anything else.

He pulled himself away from me and I whimpered in protest, only to realize that he had his fingers on the waistband of my pajama pants. He looked at me and I nodded.

And as he began to tug them down, I became aware of the fact that someone was calling my name.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Lucky

“Lucky?”

I jerked awake. The cabin door was open, light spilling in from the hallway.

“Yeah?” I responded, not really knowing what was going on.

“I need you,” Georgia said. “In the galley.”

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