Melinda’s blood bubbled and boiled in her veins. She knew it because she could actually feel it. Her heartbeat jumped into overdrive as she watched him climb down the steps then disappear below decks.
Skinny-dipping with Sean King? That would be a major error. She was already too tempted by him. Seeing him na**d and wet and…her mind conjured up an image that made her knees go suddenly weak. Nope. She couldn’t do it. He was her husband—but not. This was a marriage—but not. So sex was out of the question—or not?
Oh, God.
“Got a surprise for you,” he called out as he stepped onto the deck.
She had already done a darn good job of imagining what his surprise was. She didn’t think she could take too much more.
“What is it?”
He tipped his head back, looked up at her and challenged, “Come on down and see for yourself.”
“Oh, that’s okay. Think I’ll stay up here for awhile.” Yep. Safer that way. Keep some distance between them. Although, she was pretty much trapped on this boat with him and though she used to think of the yacht as huge, right now it felt like the size of a rowboat.
He looked up at her and grinned as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. And he probably did. So, if she stayed up top like a big chicken, then he would know exactly how much he was getting to her.
“Okay,” he said, his tone teasing as he opened a picnic hamper obviously prepared by the hotel chef. Reaching in, he pulled out a flat white box and lifted the lid. “But if you’re up there, you can’t have any of what my sister-in-law Katie sent us.?…”
Katie. The one he’d called the cookie queen. Curious, she edged closer to the rail and watched him as he reached in to pull out a single cookie. It was the size of his fist. White, drizzled with chocolate and even as she watched, powdered sugar drifted in tiny clouds to the deck at his feet.
“That’s cheating,” she said.
“I know,” he countered and took a bite. His eyes closed, and he sighed as he chewed, an expression of pure bliss crossing his features. “She sent my favorites, God bless Katie King.”
Her mouth watered and she was pretty sure the cookies had nothing to do with it. Just watching him was making Melinda want to drizzle him in chocolate and take a bite. Oh, God…
“They’re melt-in-your-mouth good,” he coaxed, taking another bite. “Katie says they’re called Mexican Wedding Cakes. But she tweaked the recipe a little, made them bigger and then she drips some melted dark chocolate on them when they’re finished.”
“Sounds fabulous,” she said, easing toward the ladder.
“Taste even better,” he assured her and opened his eyes to look directly into hers. “Katie’s a goddess when it comes to cookies.?…”
She couldn’t stop. She took one step, then another and before she knew it, she was standing directly in front of the man who was driving her absolutely out of her mind. “Are you going to share?”
“Everything,” he assured her, but offered her the box of cookies as if he could take the sexual heat out of that one, single word.
Keeping her gaze fixed on his, Melinda picked up a cookie, took a bite and instantly felt the buttery, chocolate-swirled confection melt in her mouth. A sigh slipped from her throat before she could stop it, and Sean smiled and nodded in understanding.
“See? Did I tell you that Katie’s a queen?”
“Maybe you should have married her.” Melinda was getting a little tired of hearing how wondrously fabulous the great Katie King was. Even though, she had to admit, the woman’s cookies were completely amazing.
“Rafe wouldn’t have liked that much,” Sean said, setting the box of cookies down on one of the blue leather bench seats. “Besides,” he said as he turned to her, “I’ve got a wife.”
Her breath hitched in her chest as Sean stepped closer to her. Heat poured off his body and reached for hers. But she was already feeling as though she was standing in the caldera of a raging volcano.
The tension that had been building between them for weeks now suddenly boiled up and spilled over. She’d tried so hard to stay true to Steven’s memories, but Sean had chipped away at her distance, at her resolve, until nothing was left.
And maybe, she thought, she didn’t want to resist anymore. Maybe she simply wanted to be. To feel. To release all of the pent-up pressure inside her. The look in his eyes told her that he was feeling everything she was and Melinda knew, without a doubt, that she was about to give in to what her body had been clamoring for the last several days.
Her mouth went dry and the cookie might as well have been made of sawdust. He plucked it from her fingers, and tossed it overboard. “Hey!”
“Give the fish a treat,” he said, then bent his head to hers. “And speaking of treats…”
“Sean—” Call it one last-ditch effort to remember that pesky celibacy vow.
He stopped, stared into her eyes and whispered, “No thinking.”
She nodded slowly and mentally let go of the threads holding her self-control together. “Good plan.”
Every inch of her was quivering. He set his hands at her waist and pulled her in close, and she fought for air. Melinda was strung so tight, even her heartbeat felt thready. She’d been fighting her own instincts, her own urges, for so long now it should have been second nature.
But the truth was, she didn’t want to fight against what she was feeling. What she felt for Sean. She wanted him more than she wanted air. She needed him to touch her, kiss her—and more. She wanted it all.
She needed it now.
The instant his mouth came down on hers, her brain shut down completely. There were too many sensations rocketing around her insides to allow a single, coherent thought. He parted her lips with his tongue and the quick, hard strokes he used to take her mouth only fed the fires engulfing her.
Her arms went around him, hands splayed on his back as she held him to her, closer. Closer. She met his kiss eagerly, their tongues tangled and twined together. Their breath met and collided, sliding from one to the other.
His hands swept up and down her back, sliding beneath her tank top. He unhooked her bra with practiced ease, his nimble fingers making short work of the two tiny hook-and-eye closures. And then he eased away, sweeping her shirt up and over her head, her bra along with it.
The cool wind caressed her skin and she felt…deliciously wicked, standing in front of his admiring gaze. He lifted his hands to cup her br**sts and his thumbs and fingers tweaked and pulled gently at her erect ni**les until she moaned and swayed unsteadily on her feet. Tingles of awareness, anticipation, rippled through her. Melinda arched into him, her hands on his shoulders to steady herself as she let wave after wave of pleasure slide through her relentlessly.