Kat squeezed her eyes closed and felt, rather than heard, the vibration of his deep gasp, a gasp that was drowned out by her louder groan as she felt the touch of his mouth against the tip of one quivering soft breast and then the other. Her fingers speared into his dark hair, holding his head there against her to prolong this nerve-wrenching erotic sensation, giving herself over to the bliss.
By the time his head lifted, she was shaking everywhere and burning up. They faced one another, still kneeling as behind them the waves continued their relentless advance, retreat, hiss.
The pounding in Kat’s blood did not retreat. It kept pushing forward, harder and harder, driving her deeper into the sensual maelstrom.
Zach leaned in to trail kisses down her neck, one hand cupping her breast, before pressing a fierce kiss to her parted lips.
‘You feel like silk—so very soft,’ he husked against her mouth.
‘I want to feel...touch you...’
Their breath mingled, their tongues tangled as they continued to kiss with hungry, bruising intensity. Kat felt him quiver as she pushed aside the fabric of his shirt that hung open to allow her palms to slide down the smooth, slightly hair-roughened skin of his chest. She loved the feel of him, the hardness, the amazing definition of every individual ridge of muscle, every perfect contour. His skin felt fever hot under her exploring hands as he started to kiss down her body.
His tongue had found her nipple again when he felt the moment she encountered the scar, not from the knife but the surgical scar where they had opened his ribcage to save his life and massage his heart.
He lifted his head, the hot colour edging his cheekbones lending them a hard definition in the moonlight. Holding her eyes, he fought his way out of his shirt, allowing her to see the white line that ran midline along his breastbone and the more raised scar just under his ribs.
‘What hap—?’
Her words were lost inside the possessive heat of his mouth as he pressed her back down onto the sand, the weight of his body pressing her deeper. The first skin-to-skin contact sent all questions, all thoughts from her head. She moved her hands over his broad shoulders, excited by his strength. The heat flaring between them as they continued to kiss and touch.
‘Have you any idea how much I want you? Have wanted you from the first...the very first moment I saw you?’ The expression of fierce concentration on his face, the molten hunger in his eyes as he stroked a finger down her cheek as much as his erotic admission drew a throaty whimper from Kat’s throat.
‘I wanted you, too. Inside me. So much.’
The admission burned the remnants of his shredded control away; he gave a grin and levered himself off her.
He watched the protest die on her lips as she realised what he was doing; he was aware of her eyes following him as he unfastened his trousers and slid them down his thighs, kicking them away.
His boxers followed.
‘Oh...!’ She swallowed and felt the blood pool in the juncture between her legs. He really was magnificent, the level of his arousal was shocking, yet she wasn’t embarrassed; his primitive male beauty fed the urgency in her blood.
She lay there, aching for his touch, and perhaps her desperation communicated itself because his hands moved down over the feminine curve of her hips as he freed her from the folds of dress fabric that had bunched across her. Her panties—scraps of lace—followed suit and he knelt back down beside her.
Kat reached out and touched him. He gasped and she felt him quiver as she stroked down the hot, hard length of him, then, emboldened, curved her fingers around him, touching the velvet tip with the pad of her thumb.
Nostrils flared, teeth clenched, he watched her, unable to tear his eyes from the expression of carnal concentration on her beautiful face. He bore it as long as he could before he grabbed her hand and, ignoring her protest, pushed her back, lowering his body onto her.
Hands held at the wrists above her head, all she could do at that first nerve-searingly perfect moment of skin-to-skin was moan. Then moan a lot more and squirm against him as she felt his hand slide between their bodies and in between her legs, exposing the heat in her sensitised core to his clever touch.
She tried to breathe, moving against the heel of his hand at the intimate exploration until it got so intense that she couldn’t bear it. The pleasure moving close to the pleasure-pain line.
‘Please,’ she whispered, her teeth closing around the lobe of his ear. ‘I can’t...’ she begged. ‘It’s too... You’re too...’
‘Relax, it’s all right,’ he slurred against her neck as he gave into the primal roar in his blood and parted her legs. ‘Wrap your legs around me, hold me.’
She did, happy to take instruction. She was in uncharted territory, and he really seemed to know what he was doing. Zach was an intuitive, passionate and generous lover. She knew from conversations she had frequently felt excluded from that this was a rather rare combination.
She stopped thinking anything when he slid into her, his powerful thrust slowed by the tightness of her warm female body as it adjusted to him, relaxing and contracting as he began to touch deeper inside her, waking nerve endings that sent rush after rush of mindless bliss through her body.
‘You feel...oh, Zach...you feel—’ Her words were lost in the warm moisture of his mouth.
She felt as if she were on fire as she pushed towards an unseen goal and when she reached it the shock of release jerked her entire body as the pleasure spread from her scalp to her curling toes.
Her muscles had started to relax when she felt the hot rush of his climax; a moment later he rolled off her and they lay side by side, panting.
* * *