He swatted her gently on the hand. “Don’t be so contrary and give me the lotion.”
She slapped it into his palm. “Do you always have to have your own way?”
He flicked her nose. “Only when it comes to getting my hands on you.”
She laughed. “You’re perverted.”
He pushed on her back. “Lie down so I can rub my hands all over that hot, siren’s body of yours.”
Deanna moved to her side, then lay out flat on the colorful beach towel. She wore a white one-piece that came up high on her hips. Like any red-blooded male’s, his gaze went straight to her long, lean legs and the round globes of her ass. Jonas clamped his jaw tight against the need to lean down and bite the creamy flesh, swimsuit and all.
He liked that her body wasn’t darkly tanned, but more the color of honey with a slight redness at the tops of her shoulders from the little bit of sun exposure. Her hair, swept up into a messy pile of curls on top of her head, tempted him to reach out and play with a few of the dark strands that had escaped. They were scattered around her nape and sticking to her skin. But that wasn’t what had him as hard as a damn spike. It was the barely there suit she’d chosen to torment him with. It had those little ties around her neck, all but daring a man to pull the string and find the treasures beneath. Jonas stopped his survey, wishing like hell he could tamp down his raging boner, and cleared his throat.
Popping the top, he squirted some of the thick, white cream into his hands, then started on her back. It took only a few seconds before she relaxed and closed her eyes.
Leaning close to her ear, Jonas whispered, “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Deanna’s eyelids fluttered and her gaze caught his. “We’re in Miami, Jonas. There are tanned, blond beauties all over this beach. Every one of them sexier than me by far. And that’s not me putting myself down. It’s just a fact.”
“You don’t understand, Deanna,” he said as he squirted more lotion onto his hands before starting on her shoulders and arms. “There’s more to beauty than a pretty package.”
She closed her eyes once more. “What’s your idea of beauty, then?”
“My idea of beauty is the way your warm, brown eyes fill with mischief whenever you think you’ve managed to get a dig in.”
She laughed. “I don’t think. I know.”
With her arms coated, Jonas moved to her legs, working from her feet up. “Beauty is when your pretty, ruby lips curve upward whenever I’m lucky enough to get you to smile or laugh.” He drizzled lotion over her ca
lves and worked it into her skin. “Beauty is that big, mushy heart of yours that you too often wear on your sleeve.”
She lifted her head and squinted at him. “Are you saying I’m a pushover?”
He shrugged. “Maybe a little.”
As he massaged her thighs, Deanna moaned and dropped her head to the blanket. “I’ll be mad at you later. Right now I feel too good to be anything other than content.”
Jonas let his fingers drift between her legs, just barely grazing her pussy through the swimsuit. Deanna went rigid. He patted her bottom and stretched out next to her. “You want to know what else I find beautiful about you?”
“W-what?”
“The way your body responds to mine. A single touch and you’re ready for me, aren’t you, kitten?”
“Don’t be smug,” she admonished. “Smugness isn’t attractive.”
“True, but you have the same effect on me, you know. All you have to do is look at me and I’m putty in your hands,” Jonas admitted as he glared at a man walking by. He stared at Deanna as if he wanted to snack on her. When the jerk’s gaze traveled over Deanna’s body, Jonas had the urge to trip him. After the guy was gone, Jonas growled, “I’m not the only one on this beach who finds you attractive.”
Deanna’s eyes shot open and she looked around. Her gaze came back to his and she frowned. “Seems I’m not the only woman who finds you attractive either. Guess that makes us even.”
He kissed her sun-warmed cheek and murmured, “As long as I’m the only one spreading cream on your sexy curves, I’m fine with it.”
“Ditto,” she said as she sat up and took hold of the bottle. When she poured some of the lotion into her palm and smoothed it between her hands, Jonas groaned.
By the time Deanna finished, they’d both gotten a little too overheated. It’d taken all Jonas’s strength not to give in to his dick’s demands to take Deanna right there in the sand. In fact, if she hadn’t reminded him that part of the reason for the trip was to prove they could have more than good sex together, he would’ve.
Now, as they stood at the entrance to Christy’s Boutique, Deanna all but laughing at him, he knew he should’ve just gone with his first instinct—sex.
“You are the same man who defended his country from terrorists, right?”