CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Is there—” My God, had anyone ever looked at her like this? Like he wanted to devour her in one big gulp and was only barely restraining himself from doing just that? “Is there something else you wanted to tell me?” But he didn’t answer, simply continued their path behind the nearly finished sloop. Her heart was racing as she followed him. “Something you need to show—”
When he backed her up against the wall, then lifted her hands and arms above her head so that her back arched slightly and her breasts pressed into the hard wall of his chest, she swallowed the last word.
“This.” He nipped at her lower lip, hard enough that it sent a blast of heat—and need—searing through her, head to toe. “I need to show you this.” He nipped at her again, her chin this time, sending even more bright bolts of desire through her. “I need to show you how much I want you.” He found her earlobe next with his teeth, and a low moan slipped from her lips. “How I haven’t been able to stop thinking of you since Saturday night.” He breathed her in once. Then once again. “Your scent…it drives me crazy.” He scraped his stubble across her neck. “Your skin…it’s so soft, so kissable.”
That was when he finally brought his mouth back to hers and licked across the seam of her lips, making her half-gasp, half-moan at how good it felt.
“Again,” he urged her as he lifted his mouth from hers only far enough to speak. “I need to hear it again.”
The truth was that she was just as desperate for him, had barely been holding desire at bay long enough to get through her interview. Unable to take any more teasing, she took the next kiss he gave her deeper. So deep, so fast, that she was surprised a spark didn’t actually light between them to set his boathouse on fire.
She knew better than to do this, to let him reach for the hem of the sundress she was wearing and pull it up over her head in the middle of the day, at his place of business, where someone could walk in at any moment. But once again, her need for him was bigger than her fears. So big that she found herself relishing this chance for a few wicked moments, for one more break from the straight and narrow line she’d been walking for the past year and a half.
The truth was that knowing someone might walk into his boathouse, might come looking for him and find them wrapped all around each other, only made it more exciting. And as she embraced the wildness of the moment, she realized it didn’t just feel okay to stop being so careful all the time—it felt like exactly what she needed.
Especially when he ran his big hands over her curves and told her how perfect, how pretty she was, that he couldn’t get enough of her, that she was all he could think about. Every word, every touch, made her lose her breath a little more as he rained kisses on her skin between each sweet murmur. His lips feathered across her cheek, her neck, her collarbone, and then the swell of her breasts before he clicked open the latch on her bra and cupped her breasts together so that he could lave both needy peaks at once.
One kiss, one taste had quickly spiraled into a desperate need for more. So much more. Which meant that when he slowly lowered himself to his knees before her, his hands gripping her hips hard as he held her right where he wanted her against the wall, his lips running a devastating path over her ribs and stomach, she didn’t stop him. Couldn’t, frankly, have imagined a world in which the word stop could possibly have come out of her mouth. Especially when he leaned in and pressed his lips to the vee between her legs, lace and all.
“Oh…oh…oh…”
It didn’t matter how many times he loved her like that. Every time would feel like the first. Explosive and shockingly sinful from the first touch of his tongue to her overheated flesh. And when he moved away just enough to slide the damp lace down her thighs, the anticipation of knowing his tongue was going to slick across her bare skin soon nearly did her in.
He found her with his fingers at the exact moment he used his lips and tongue to take her higher, and then higher still. She’d never done anything this exciting, this thrilling. Only in her secret sexy fantasies had she believed anything like this could happen. And yet here she was, on the verge of climaxing with Dylan kneeling between her legs while she stood in front of him wearing only heels, the sunlight from his skylights beaming down on the top of his head as he took her places she hadn’t even realized she could go.
“Now,” he urged as he continued to play over her so perfectly with his fingers. “Come for me now, Grace.”
As if her body had only been waiting for his sensual command, she held on to his shoulders for dear life as he made her shake and gasp and come apart at the very seams. Wave after wave of pleasure rocked over her, through her, until her legs couldn’t support her anymore and it was only Dylan’s hold on her that kept her up against the wall.
She was only vaguely aware that he was kissing his way back up her body, his hands steady on her hips the whole time so that she didn’t have to count on her shaky legs to hold her up. His kisses were soft and lingering as he let her catch her breath, but she wasn’t so far gone that she could miss the need throbbing through him. Yet again, he was restraining himself from taking what he needed.
“You must have been so frustrated on Saturday night, after the way you left without me returning the favor.”
“Touching you, feeling you, watching you come apart is the most fulfilled I’ve ever been in my life. Anything more is just a bonus.”
“In that case,” she said in a husky voice, “it looks like it’s time for a bonus. Not just for you, but for me. Because you weren’t the only one who was frustrated. I wanted to take your clothes off. I wanted to touch you.” She paused, held his gaze. “I wanted to make you come.”
She could feel his heartbeat kick up even faster against her hand as he said, “I want you, Grace. You know how much I want you, how much I want all of those things, too. But I don’t want to make the mistake of pushing you too far, too fast. You weren’t ready for more Saturday night.”
“You’re right, I wasn’t ready then. But now, I am.”
She didn’t want to be the only one seduced. She wanted to seduce, too. So that they were equals. So that she would stop feeling so off-balance. And so she would finally know whether he tasted as good as she’d fantasized he would.
“I need more. I need you the way you’ve had me.”
Her eyes on his, she lifted his hands from her hips so that she could lower herself to her knees on the wood-planked floor.
* * *
Dylan lived only a couple of blocks from his boathouse. But he hadn’t been able to wait long enough to travel those two blocks with Grace, to take those five minutes before stripping off her clothes. Instead, he’d given in—yet again—to his inner caveman and dragged her to the back of his workshop to strip her clothes away.
She’d said she needed to take things slow, but every time fierce desire drove them into another heated kiss, he felt her revel in the thrill of being with him. He loved watching her embrace her innate sensuality, the very same sensual woman she’d believed was forever dead because some a*shole she used to date had a heart and soul made out of coal.
But even after she’d let herself go in the most beautiful way he’d ever seen, with her dress and lingerie lying on the wood-planked floor where he’d dropped them, he hadn’t expected this. Hadn’t thought she’d slide down the wall, naked but for her heels and flushed from her climax, to go on her knees in front of him.
Her hands were totally steady, and determined, as she worked on his belt buckle. He’d been on the edge for so long, since the moment he’d first set eyes on her outside his boathouse, that he wouldn’t need much more to go off than this brush of her fingers over his denim-covered erection while he looked down at her beautiful naked body.
Her eyes were glittering with excitement and arousal as she smiled up at him. Just the thought of her pulling him free and wrapping her lips around him...
He had to close his eyes for a few seconds to try to get a grip, but even then he couldn’t stop his hands from threading through her soft hair as she worked his zipper open. The sound she made as she wrapped her fingers around him, a hum of deep pleasure that resonated all the way through his entire body, nearly sent him over.
He couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but stare down at Grace in awe. But she read his mind, thank God, understood that he wasn’t going to last long this time. And when she leaned forward another couple of inches and took him into her mouth?
Jesus.
Nothing had ever felt this good. Not one damned thing in thirty-one years could compete with her soft lips, her wet tongue, the heat and pull of her mouth as she loved him the same way he’d just loved her.
His hands tightened in her hair as hers tightened on his hips. Time ceased to move forward. He wasn’t even sure he was breathing anymore, as everything came down to this moment. This pleasure. This woman.
Grace. Grace. Grace.
Everything inside of him exploded, blindingly bright and colorful. He’d never experienced a storm so wild, or one so precious.
Moments later he was on his knees with her, their kisses even more passionate for all they’d just given—and taken—from each other. Only when the sound of footsteps came and he heard someone say his name was he able to drag his mouth from hers.
He looked into her eyes, still beautifully hazy with pleasure. “Someone’s here.” He knew they needed to get their clothes back on, but he couldn’t stop himself from giving her another kiss before, and after, each word.
The second time the visitor called his name, her eyes went wide as what he’d just said finally registered. “Someone’s here,” she echoed.
Grace scrambled for her dress, but Dylan was already drawing it over her head. They were both on their feet again, her lingerie shoved into the pocket of his jeans, when his visitor poked his head around the hull of the boat and saw them in the back corner.
“Ah, there you are, Dylan. Grace, it’s good to see you again.”
His brother Adam looked far too pleased by what he saw. Dylan had walked in on his brother once when they were teens, and he had no doubt his brother saw this as payback.
Grace’s skin was flushed, both from their kisses and from obvious embarrassment at nearly being caught without their clothes on, but Dylan was impressed by the lift of her chin. Her strength had drawn him from the start, and he loved the way she calmly met his brother’s eyes.
“It’s good to see you, too, Adam,” she said smoothly, despite the fact that her underwear was stuffed into Dylan’s jeans pocket.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” his brother said, even though he knew damn well that he was.
Grace raised an eyebrow in Adam’s direction, the same look he’d seen her give Mason once when he was misbehaving at the aquarium. A warning not to mess with her. “Actually,” she said with a small smile, “your timing was perfect.” Turning back to Dylan, she said, “I need to get back to my babysitter now.”
He wanted to reach for her, wanted his brother—and the rest of the world—to know for sure that she wasn’t just a journalist doing a story on him or just a sexy fling. She was his. And yet, he knew he couldn’t force anything, knew that no matter the physical barriers they’d begun to knock down between them, she’d only resent him if he tried to push her faster than she was ready to go.
Thankfully, though, instead of simply walking away, she reached up to put her hand on his face and then went on her tippy-toes in her heels to press her mouth to his in a soft kiss. She was smiling when she pulled back. “‘Bye.”
* * *
“I knew when you called us together last night that things were serious,” Adam said, “but seeing you two together today? Love at first sight has clearly struck again. It’s like an epidemic in this family.”
Dylan only grinned. “You know what they say—the longer you hold out, the harder you fall. Which means you’re going to be dust when it happens to you.”
“Nope,” Adam insisted. “At least one of us has to keep having fun. Do you know what you’re doing, gunning for a ready-made family with Grace and Mason?”
Adam might think he was happy with his parade of one-night stands who had nothing of substance to say outside of the bedroom, but his brother didn’t have a damn clue what he was missing. No-strings fun got real old, real fast.
Grace’s beauty, her innate sensuality, had been what had drawn Dylan in at first. And every time they touched, he knew how perfectly matched they were as man and woman. But it was her resilience and strength that had solidified his knowledge that she was the right woman to go the distance with. He’d grown up with a strong woman leading their family, and he couldn’t imagine settling for anything less than the example their mother had provided. Grace was everything he could ever have wanted. Everything he could ever have wished for.
“If there was a chance that she’d agree to marry me today, I’d jump at it.”
Adam studied him for a moment before nodding. “She makes you happy. A different kind of happy than you’ve always been.”
“Trust me, you’ll understand once it happens to you.”
Deliberately ignoring that last statement, Adam said, “While nearly walking in on the two of you going at it was fun, I’m here because I’ve got a favor to ask. Turns out the city is planning to tear down the old Maritime Museum to rebuild something flashy and modern.”
Dylan frowned. “I thought that had been tabled for the time being so that more people could weigh in.”
“Not according to what I just heard this morning from a friend on the board.”
“The place needs a hell of a lot of work, but there’s major history in that building.”
“I know. That’s why I’m going to convince them to let me restore it instead. Which is where you come in. You not only speak their language, but you’ve built boats for half the people on the board. They’re having a cocktail event in a couple of days. It would be great if you and Grace could come.”
“I’m in, and I’ll check with Grace,” Dylan said. “In return, I could use an extra pair of hands putting the final coat of urethane on the boat.”
“Man, this sloop is a beauty,” Adam said, already rolling up his sleeves to help. “You’ve built some great boats, but I think this one might be your finest yet. Your client is one lucky S.O.B.”
Dylan grinned, said, “I agree,” and for the next few hours enjoyed working side by side with his brother on a boat that he had no idea was already his.