A man and his island.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Twenty-Three
EVIE
Research is what I’m doing... so why is my body lit on fire, my breaths so quick I can barely draw a proper lungful? I flip the page on the book I borrowed from the library. The way my face burst into flaming heat when the librarian scanned this one to check it out still sears over my skin like a surly ghost.
The pile of books sits to my left as I hunt through the pages for different ways to up the chemistry and deepen the main characters’ connection. I’ve been here, tucked away on this sofa, for hours. The book in my hand,The Joy of Sex, is packed with illustrations. Images I am sure will be burned into my brain for the rest of my days.
My panties are slick, nipples pert, and I all but pant as I turn the page.
The things an author has to do to get a scene right on the page...
I drift a hand over my chest, my fingers slipping past my lips as I take in a man bending a woman almost in half as he?—
A throat clears somewhere nearby.
With a start, I slam the book shut, eyes darting to the sound.
Cal stands in the door frame.
Of course he does.
The pile of sex books may as well burst into lurid red flames as I fumble the pile, trying to hide them under a cushion.
“What’ya reading?” he drawls. The smirk over his face tells me his question is redundant.
Oh, good lord.
“Um, just those research books I grabbed. Nothing interesting.” The words are far too breathy. And by the way his brow snaps up and he closes the distance, he notices.
He stands over me, head tilted.
“Research gets you all hot and bothered, does it, baby girl? That’s your thing?”
“Ah! I—” I sink back into the sofa.
Leaning down, he swipes the cushions away.
“Heavy stuff.” He picks up the pile of books.
I pray the sofa will do me a solid and suck me into its velvet maw, never to let me see the light of day again.
Sliding through the books, one after the other, he glances at me. “Your Pleasure Map.” He slides it from the top and drops it onto the cushions. “Fabulous Foreplay.” A half smile pops over his cheeky damn face as it lands on top of the last one. “Couples’ Kama Sutra...” The rest of the pile topples to the sofa as he moves between my legs. “This is what your book boyfriends do?”
“Well—they—I...” I close my eyes, his scent fencing me in, and I swallow. Hard. “In the scene I’m working on, the female main character is captured by the enemy. Tied to a chair and... but she gets herself free. I wanted an intimate scene for them, but everything feels so vanilla? Not really them.”
Cal’s face turns to stone, his eyes darkening. “So she is like a warrior of some sort?”
“She’s a fae pirate, actually. Admiral’s daughter, so she has rank. Fights, leads, all that heroine stuff, you know?”
“Mhmmm,” he rumbles.
Walking to the table, he plucks up a chair and brings it over. “She was tied to something like this?”
“Yes,” I breathe as he drops it in front of me and walks back to the kitchen. He rummages through a drawer before returning.
