Page 32 of Desert Island Duke

Chapter 17

Caro could barely breathe. She knew what he was asking, what she desired. If she was a good girl, a dutiful girl, a girl who followed the rules, she would tell him yes, she wanted to sleep.

But the wildness of the storm had stirred up an answering wildness inside her. Something deep and yearning and primitive. She wanted his strong arms around her, his big body on hers. She wanted the same passion and intensity as the lightning, the thunder, the rain.

She might not have this man forever. But she had him here, now. Life was precarious at best. She could have drowned the night of the storm. And what if she’d stepped on a deadly lionfish today, instead of a relatively innocuous jellyfish? She would have been dead by now. She’d be a fool not to seize her chance.

Decision made, she lifted her hand and traced her fingers across his lips, then trailed them along his prickly jaw. His eyes flared and he opened his mouth to say something, but she didn’t let him speak.

“No, Max. I don’t want to sleep.”

Caro held her breath. The incessant pounding of the rain matched the roar of her own pulse in her ears.

For a heartbeat Max sat frozen, and she wondered if he’d turn her down, but then his hand shot out to cup her nape and he tugged her forward for a kiss as intense as the storm outside.

His lips played over hers again and again, increasing her desire to a fever pitch, and a wicked, throbbing ache pulsed between her thighs. She pressed herself against him, stroking his hair, his shoulders.

“Please, make love to me.”

He pulled back, just a fraction. “Caro. Are you sure?”

She nodded, then realized he probably couldn’t see her; the fire was almost completely out, vanquished by the relentless deluge.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m sure.”

“I can make certain you don’t get with child,” he said gruffly. His voice was a low rasp, as if speaking was an effort. “I can pull out, before I finish.”

She cupped his jaw. “I trust you. Yes. Please.”

Max groaned, and then his lips claimed hers, melding them together into one being. Caro leaned into him, but when he tried to take her in his arms his shoulder hit the wooden frame and the whole shelter shook alarmingly.

“Damn it, I wish we were in a bed,” he growled.

Caro smiled into the darkness. “Should we lie down?”

“That’s an excellent idea.”

He pulled away from her and she stretched out, stifling a laugh at the sound of his frantic movements as he tried to shed his shirt and wriggle out of his breeches in the enclosed space. Several muffled expletives echoed from his side as she pulled her own dress up over her head, but her amusement fled as he rolled back toward her and found her mouth again.

He half-covered her with his body and the incredible heat of him seeped through the cotton of her shift. His palm slid up the outside of her thigh, rough and urgent against her skin, and she writhed against him, desperate for more.

He obliged. Her senses swam as his hair-roughened leg slid between hers and she groaned into his mouth. And when his hand moved to her breast, squeezing and fondling, she cried out her pleasure.

Lightning crackled overhead, briefly illuminating his chest and arms as he held himself over her, then they were plunged into darkness once more. His breath was hot as he kissed his way down the side of her throat, interspersing his kisses with mumbled terms of encouragement.

“God, Caro, yes. That’s right. Touch me.”

She ran her fingers through his hair, then did some exploring of her own; tracing the curves of his shoulders, the muscles that bracketed his spine. Beyond shame, she dug her nails into his curved buttocks and received a groan of encouragement against her breast as he teethed the stiff nipple through the fabric.

Waves crashed on the shore, but Caro could barely hear them over the pounding of her own heartbeat. Max was everywhere, all around her, his taste, his scent.

He moved fully over her, supporting himself with bent elbows on either side of her head. His flat stomach pressed hers and the hard shaft of his manhood notched in the lee of her spread legs.

Caro tensed as he slid his hand between them and touched her, as he’d done at the waterfall. Her breath was coming in excited pants, but she arched up wordlessly into him, silently begging for more of that glorious pleasure he’d shown her before.

He didn’t disappoint. His wicked fingers swirled and teased, driving her higher before leaving her cruelly unsatisfied. But her groan of complaint died on her lips as he reached down and positioned the head of his cock to her slippery entrance.

They both stilled.

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