“And I know my idea sounds reckless, but pretending I just want something casual may be the only way I survive.”
He let out a long, shaky breath. After the softest tremble of his eyelashes, his restraint shattered like glass.
Maxime brought his mouth to the curve of my jaw, laying a kiss before biting into my skin—gently, but just enough to give me an idea of his intentions.
Heart hammering, I slid my hand between us, tracing the line of his stomach, moving a touch lower until his hardness nudged my palm. His skin was hot and so impossibly firm. His muscles tensed beneath my fingertips. When I reached for him again, he tipped his head back and groaned.
I leaned in and chased the curve of his neck with my mouth, grazing with my teeth before biting down, slow and deliberate. If Maxime could do it, so could I.
At the cut of my teeth, he hissed a breath. Then, with a low, guttural sound, he gripped my hips and pulled me against him, our bodies colliding with heat and urgency.
I straddled him, rocking against his hardness, trying to sate the delicious ache building between my thighs. He watched me through hooded eyes, as if mesmerised—barely breathing. And when I took his hand and pressed it to my breast, he didn’t need any further coaxing.
Maxime dragged his thumb over my nipple through the thin fabric of my bikini top—a slow, deliberate touch sending a bolt of heat through me. Each pass sparked a shot of pure blisslow in my belly. I moaned, tangling my fingers in the back of his hair.
When he pushed my bikini to the side, exposing my breast, I stopped caring about being lost at sea or sinking to the depths below.
With a look of pure need, he pulled me harder against him. The second his mouth met my skin, I was lost. He traced a slow circle around my nipple with his tongue, making me arch into him. The soft scrape of his teeth drew a sharp breath from my lips—my every nerve suddenly awake. I had no choice but to give in and, under his touch, break like a wave against the rocks.
Luxuriating in the need coursing through my body—the delicious ache in my core—I quickened my movements, grinding harder into him. He met my body full-on, his fingers digging into the skin of my buttocks. With a growl he trailed heat down the line of my jaw with this tongue before dragging out my name, his voice hoarse and wrecked.
Then he slid his hand over my hip.
My breath hitched tight in my throat. His fingers, rough from rope and sea, moved to my inner thigh with a kind of reverence that stole the air from my lungs. He didn’t rush. He didn’t tease.
Instead, he held my gaze—steady, questioning, waiting.
“Touch me,” I whispered.
Something sparked in his eyes as he brought his lips back to mine—our kiss deepening even further. Heat surged through me, low and sudden, and I gripped his biceps like the world might disappear if I let go.
When his hand finally slipped beneath my bikini bottoms, I gasped his name.
He found my heat like he’d always known me, and as I rocked into his palm, he drew lazy circles over my clit with the pad of his thumb. Every time he made a pass, he ran his tongueover my nipple before taking it into his mouth and gently biting down.
And then he opened me up, plunging a finger deep inside. I cried out. Who cared? There was nobody to hear us, save the fish. In that moment, my entire existence—my whole reason for living—centred on his skin and mine. On his being inside me. On the delicious chaos he brought to my body.
As the boat rocked and rain fell on the tarp above our heads, Maxime pushed into me, again and again, deeper and deeper. His breath came in ragged bursts, the wildness of his face setting my skin on fire.
Where had he been all my life?
Beneath my fingertips, his body burned. When I leaned in to kiss him, I swear I saw stars.
This man was guiding me beyond the point of reason—driving me beyond the bounds of sanity. His touch … his body … his mouth.
Taking control of my pleasure, I gripped Maxime’s wrist, pushing him deeper inside. He obliged, giving me all I asked for, fast and rough.
Everything about Maxime was perfect, and when I arched against him, my breath turning wild, he growled my name.
The sound of his voice filled my senses, my blood surging. And when he plunged another finger inside me, I came undone with soft, broken moans against his mouth.
He groaned, bringing his lips to my skin, holding me close until I had nothing left to give.
The warmth of his breath anchored me until finally I opened my eyes.
Maxime wore the darkest, sexiest smile known to man. At the heat in his expression, a sudden desperation seized me—an absolute need to touch him. An urgent yearning to feel him, hard and fast, in my hand. As we breathed the air between us, the urgency in my chest overrode everything else.
I’d already guessed at Maxime’s size, having moved against his hardness. I slowly undid the cord resting below his belly button, fighting to contain my heartbeat.
