“Thank you,” she said softly. They stood there for a moment, looking at one another, not quite touching, and yet…
“I played a pirate about to be hanged today,” she told him. “I really need a shower.”
“Okay.”
“You’re not moving.”
“You haven’t invited me up.”
“Come on up.”
Maybe showers were destined to be something special between them. And maybe there was something that was just right, amazing, or the intangible bit of animal magnetism, chemistry, or whatever it was that made one person choose another over others. There was nothing awkward in her room, and there was no pretense between either of them. When she walked into the shower, she knew he was behind her. She turned into his arms, euphoric with the feeling that he was there, hard-bodied, rock-solid, vibrant, hot and real. Thoughts and fears left her mind for excruciating moments as she simply lost herself in the beauty and urgency of touch, running her hands down the wet sleekness of his flesh, his sex, along his spine and buttocks, and feeling the deep thrust and hot persistence of his kiss, his tongue and his hands upon her.
They made love with the rush of the water and then, still enwrapped and absorbed in one another, they found towels and made their way to the bed. Once there, he started with a kiss again, hovering over her, golden eyes burning into hers, and then that kiss, his mouth on hers, and then moving to her throat, where he paused, feeling the thunder of her pulse, and moved on, sending a streak of lightning through her as he teased a breast and trailed his kisses onward again. His caresses were slow, a touch of agony in the midst of exhilaration and wonder. He touched and teased, drawing to a point of complete intimacy, and she twisted and writhed until her frantic energy and demand brought him back to her, and they locked together in a storm of frenetic energy that brought her to a point of climax after climax, shuddering in his arms.
He held her close then, murmuring, his kisses tender.
Eventually, their bodies cooled. Their hearts beat at normal rates, and the ragged sound of their breath was no longer a cacophony in the room.
He held her against him and then groaned softly. “Strange. I don’t want to get up. I’m starving, and there are things to do, and I don’t ever want to leave this bed.”
She laughed. “Of course you do. Eventually, you’d get bored here.”
“When the sun froze over,” he told her.
She stroked his face. “That was good. That makes up for your rather stilted apology.”
“Excuse me, that was real and heartfelt.”
“We could order food to be brought here,” she said.
He nodded and turned from her for a moment, staring at the ceiling. “We’re supposed to go over to Ted and Jaden’s workshop—the doctor of forensic anthropology arrived, and she’s been studying the trunk as we found it. She’ll give us what she can before she does all the tests on the body. Anything in the sea that long—even mummified, as the body appears—is very fragile.”
“Of course,” Vanessa said. She hesitated, wondering why she was so uneasy about the trunk.
Pandora’s box? If so, it was already open.
And yet, it hadn’t been something actually evil that she felt, just as if the chest was going to be a catalyst, and she wasn’t sure if she liked what it might cause to come about.
“Do you not want to come over there with me?” Sean asked.
“No, no, of course I want to come,” she said.
“Then I guess we have to get moving.” He stood, his back to her. “You know, I think you should get the tail end of your things out of here for good.”
She rose as well, coming around to look at him. “You want me to come over because I’ll be safer? Or because you want me there?”
“I’d say both, and that’s pretty obvious,” he said. She smiled.
She was glad to be invited.
Ecstatic, actually!
And it was true that she didn’t want to be here alone. She had horrendous nightmares, she saw figureheads in the water, and on top of that, she kept thinking that she saw Carlos Roca and an unknown pirate who looked at her—and then faded into the air.
Really. They were going to have to lock her up soon.
“It’s late,” he said huskily. “Let’s grab pizza downstairs and then get over to Ted and Jaden’s.”