“Absolutely. I’m thinking we should try to get as far away from them as possible.” Grant’s grin didn’t match his slightly horrified tone. Ava was fairly certain she should trust the smile rather than the pretended shock.
She hoped so, anyway.
Until this moment, she hadn’t admitted, even to herself, how very much she wanted this to happen.
I didn’t know how much I want to have an adventure. I want to go home with some memory of a time I was wild, unconventional. A time I followed my heart instead of my head.
She took deep breath, surreptitiously checked to make sure the condom she had pulled out of her beach bag and secreted in the lining of her bikini top was secure, and stood up.
“Follow me,” Ava said, wading out into the water and striking out toward the farthest cove she could see—one that she had noticed earlier had no entrance except from the water.
She glanced back only once to make sure Grant was following her.
Seven
I would feel a lot better about this if I had any idea at all how to conduct a seduction.
Finding this particular secluded spot was a good start. Now all she had to do was … the actual seducing.
The shallow cave was perfect for her plan.
If only I actually had a plan.
She considered simply turning to him and saying, “Okay. Do me now.” The thought nearly made her laugh out loud.
I’m no good at this. Maybe I should just give up.
How had they ended up together last time?
Oh. Right. New Year’s Eve.
The clock had struck midnight, and what started as a chaste peck on the lips had spun out of control, turning into a passionate embrace. They had slipped away from the party without a word.
And then had the best sex of my life.
Maybe if she reminded him of that night, she could prompt him to kiss her again. Glancing up from under her lashes, she found Grant staring out at the ocean, his lips flat and hard.
Was he upset? “Are you okay?”
He jumped a little at the sound of her voice. “Yeah. Just trying to figure something out.”
What if he was trying to decide how to let her down easy? “Want to talk about it?”
“No.” He turned and pulled her into his arms. “Talking isn’t what I have in mind.”
“Oh,” Ava sighed, and sank into the embrace, tilting her mouth up to meet his. The heat of his lips slanting across hers sent chills racing down her spine, and her shiver seemed to move through her and into Grant.
He teased her lips open with his tongue, deepening their kiss, even as he reached up to remove the clip holding up her hair in a loose twist.
I’m not so sure I’m the one doing the seducing here, after all.
The soft trade winds blew her curls around them, and Grant pulled away long enough to brush strands of hair from her face and stare into her eyes. “This okay?” he asked softly.
“Oh, yes,” she murmured, standing up on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him back down into another kiss.
Sliding his palm down her bare back and settling it in the small indentation just above the top of her skirt, he pulled her closer to him, molding her body to his until Ava couldn’t tell where she ended and Grant began.
The realization that he wanted this every bit as much as she did broke through the last of her reserves, and she met his heat with a fire of her own, pressing hard against him and smoothing one hand across his shoulder.
With a groan, Grant skimmed his mouth down the side of her neck, dropping tiny kisses along the way until he reached the hollow just below her collarbone. When he licked that spot, Ava whimpered, and she could feel him smile against her skin.
Then he was pulling aside her bikini top with one hand, pulling her tight against him with the other hand against her back, and drawing her breast into his mouth, running his tongue over her pebbled nipple.
Streaks of heat sparked from her nipple straight down, to pool in her abdomen, where it seemed to throb in time to her heart, every beat a pulse of sheer desire.
If she’d had any concerns about this before, they were lost in the sheer need she felt for him.
“Please,” she whispered, not even sure why she said it—but the single word seemed to act as a spur for Grant, who swept her up with both hands under her ass and lifted her from the ground, moving his mouth back to hers for another deep, tongue-tangling kiss.
Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his waist, crossing them at the ankle behind him, and tightened her arms around his neck.
Ava could feel him hard against her, their bathing suits between them an irritant. With tiny, inarticulate noises, she wiggled a little, as if by sheer motion, she could dislodge the fabric between them.
With a laugh, Grant shifted enough to free one hand, using it to pull something out of the waistband of his shorts, then shoving the suit down until it dropped around his ankles, and Ava tightened her thighs around him, as if he might, at this point, suddenly change his mind.
When he put his free hand up to his mouth, she realized he was ripping open a condom package with his teeth.