She was lost. Her orgasm hit fast and intense from the beginning. Barely keeping herself under control, she fingered the shaft of Derek’s cock, keeping the rhythm going with her mouth at his tip, then reached under and past his balls to the hidden root of his penis.
He inhaled sharply, moaned and seconds later erupted, his muscles contracting, making the sexiest sounds of ecstasy she’d ever heard.
Oh, my.
She lay, blissful, panting, heart swollen and aching with all she felt. What they’d done was nothing she’d ever consider a loving or sweet act, and yet...that’s exactly how it had felt with him, each giving to the other. Derek turned around shakily and collapsed next to her, pulling her to him, cradling her head on his chest, nearly bringing tears to her eyes with his tenderness. The breeze had picked up, blowing cooler sweet air over them. The tide was coming in, waves rolling lazily toward them over the warm sand.
This was paradise.
“Addie.” He took her face in his hands. “You are incredible.”
Then he kissed her, differently from the way he’d kissed her before. Gently, reverently, over and over. Her heart swelled larger, dangerously so, that intense sweet ache in her chest told her she was in serious trouble over this man.
Could she fall for him?
Yes. That worry had been there since the night they watched the sunset together, Addie just hadn’t been able to admit it to herself.
After today, however, she had a brand-new worry. Not whether she’d fall for Derek Bates, but how far she already had.
10
“ARE YOU HUNGRY? For food this time?” Derek drew his hand down Addie’s firm stomach, over her pelvis, fingers brushing lightly through her curls. He could touch this woman all day long. In fact, he intended to.
“Actually, yes.” She turned to him, face rosy and bright. “I’ve been in denial, though, because I’m enjoying this so much I don’t want to go back up to the house.”
“What would you say if you found out I have a cooler up in the woods packed with lunch?”
“Hmm.” She bunched her mouth, thinking it over. “I guess I’d have to say you’re the world’s most perfect man.”
Derek laughed and got to his feet. “That’ll do.”
He climbed the small rise into the woods, heading toward the spot where he’d left the cooler. Around Addie he felt more natural and relaxed than any woman he could remember being with. Something about her made him feel he didn’t have to hide any part of himself. He’d been playing a role so often on board Joie de Vivre that he’d apparently made it a habit to turn his real self off, turn on the charm and say only safe and appropriate things, acting with professional decorum at all times—even onshore to a certain extent—so that his clean and sober reputation stayed intact.
Something else was surfacing now, too, from deep in his subconscious, rising slowly, about to break through. He’d noticed it first around Paul and Ellen, who were constantly connecting with a look, a touch, a murmured word or two. They had a future of that special linkage ahead of them, years and years, for the rest of their lives. Watching them had made Derek aware of how much time he spent alone, even among people.
He couldn’t say he’d bonded deeply with anyone in his family, though of course he loved them all. At his first jobs at sea, he’d contented himself with “buddy” relationships with crew members, and there was always distance from his superiors—the same distance he kept now as captain. Paul had probably been his first substantive friendship. He’d had relationships now and then with women, but they’d always been secondary to his career, and never very consuming. With Addie, he felt truly connected.
He grabbed the cooler and jumped back down onto the warm sand, brought it over to her, feeling like a commoner proffering gifts to a queen.
No, that wasn’t right. She never made him feel common. She made him feel like a man worth loving.
It would be easy to qualify his feelings for Addie, saying they must only be superficial, that he and she had only known each other such a short time, yadda yadda, all the common sense stuff. But deep in his soul, where there existed only truth, he was getting the beginnings of a message so huge he was afraid of hearing it, afraid of dwelling on it, not sure if he was afraid it was true or afraid that it wasn’t.