Burn (Page 98)

"You should’ve stayed in Hawaii," he said, a tickle of warning crawling up his spine.

"No way. The return trip has got to be better than the first leg. I don’t want to miss all the fun." Her smile dimmed. They’d made their own fun, that was the truth, but she wasn’t going to forget last night’s adventure anytime soon.

"This isn’t exactly a pleasure cruise."

"From here on out, it could be," she promised, and everything in him tightened.

He narrowed his eyes and glared at her. "What are you up to?"

"About five-four, barefoot. Why?"

"God, you’re a smart-ass."

She smiled. "I know. Lucky for you, because otherwise you’d be bored stiff. Oh, speaking of stiff. Would you be interested if I told you I wasn’t wearing any underwear, and I brought this, just in case I got lucky?" She reached into a pocket of the sundress and withdrew a condom between two slender fingers.

Cael drew in a harsh breath, pulling her close and pushing up her skirt. He slid his hand slowly up her thigh, and verified her lack of underwear for himself. Bad idea or not, he was in so deep he might never see daylight, and he didn’t want out.

IT WAS AS IF Cael had literally flipped a switch, bringing to life needs she’d buried for so long they’d been almost entirely forgotten. There was no trust to compare with putting her body in his hands, to opening herself up, letting herself go.

It would be very easy to confuse the intensity of her feelings for love, as she straddled Cael and leaned down to kiss his throat while he caressed her. She didn’t want to let him go, but that was strictly a physical response. She could so easily imagine how they’d spend their days when they got off the ship, when in reality she suspected there would be no real first date, no ordinary days. She’d take what she could get while the getting was good. Reality be damned.

"You’re so easy," she said, as she laid her hand on his erection, beneath khaki pants.

"I’m easy?" he slipped a hand between her legs, caressed the wetness there. One look from Cael, and she was half ready. One touch, and the other half joined in. "Guys are supposed to be easy. It’s in our DNA."

She unfastened and zipped down his pants.

"Easy and impatient," he said.

"You talk entirely too much." She kissed him on the mouth, to shut him up and because, damn, she loved kissing him. As the kiss deepened she stroked his penis, driven by the need to feel him in her hand before she unwrapped the damn condom. She was beginning to hate them. If there was a date on dry land, if they stayed together after the cruise and the job was done, she was going to get a prescription for birth control pills. She didn’t want anything between them. The thought of him slipping inside her, hard and hot and bare, made her moan deep in her throat.

When he was inside her she forgot everything but the way they felt coming together. She didn’t think about anything but pleasure and warmth. Everything else went away, for a while. What they’d found was sex – really good sex – but it was also more than that. It was Cael, the way he made her feel with a look, with a word. He was maddening, bossy, unrelenting … and hers, for now.

With the sea breeze wrapping around them and the afternoon sun slanting onto the balcony, she rode him. She swayed, rose, and fell, while he held her hips and guided her.

If they never had to leave this room for the rest of the trip, she’d be content.

*  *  *

TIFFANY GLADLY PASSED Larkin over to Faith and Ryan. The man they were surveilling was always looking around as if he expected someone to be watching. He was very aware of where he was and who was close by which made their job much more difficult than it should’ve been. Instead of returning to her room when her shift was over, she continued to sit by the pool with Penny and Buttons. It was true that it never hurt to take care that it didn’t look as if they were literally passing the baton, but it was also true that she had no reason to rush to her suite.

Even though they had nothing in common except for the fact that they were on the Silver Mist, she liked Penny and Buttons, and the other ladies, too. Linda and Nyna were taking a Pilates class this afternoon, leaving their new friends to sun by the pool.

Buttons looked to be maybe ten years younger than the women she’d been spending time with on the cruise, but she fit right in. Rich widows, out for a good time. Penny was always on the prowl for a man, but Buttons seemed content with her life.

It hadn’t taken Tiffany long to realize that Buttons was a natural-born peacemaker. She wanted everyone to get along. If she could get all the passengers to hold hands and sing camp tunes – "Kumbaya" – she would’ve been happy as a clam. Tiffany hadn’t thought she’d actually like a woman with Buttons’s unrealistic traits, but she did. She hadn’t made fun of the woman’s name once, and was quite proud of herself.

Sitting on the other side of Buttons, Penny was asleep in her deck chair. It struck Tiffany that shortly she’d have to wake the fair-skinned woman to get her out of the sun. Sunscreen or no sunscreen, a nasty burn on that superpale skin would be painful in the morning. And why was another woman’s sunburn her concern? She was turning into a freakin’ caretaker!

"I’m glad you and Jenner are getting along so well," Buttons said, "in spite of the unfortunate circumstances that brought you together."

She stole my man was hardly an ordinary starting point for a solid friendship.

"Yeah, me too. What can I say? When I’m sober I like her." And that was the truth. One tough woman recognized another, and it had not escaped Tiffany’s attention that she knew a lot of women who, in the same circumstances, would’ve thrown the Hazlett broad under the bus without a second thought. Jenner hadn’t.