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She stood in the hall, backlit by the glow of the nightlight in the galley. Towel around her like a toga, she used a smaller cloth to blot the wet hair clinging to her shoulders.
“Sorry to get you out of the shower.” Her dark eyes did a slow trek south, lingering at the knot in the terrycloth at his hips before she lifted her gaze. Tongue darting out to wet her lips, she shivered. “I just wanted to see if you had a robe. Or if you thought Keith would have one somewhere. I’m freezing.”
Okay, A- she would wear something of his brother’s over his cold, dead body. And B- he had about a thousand other ideas for how to warm her up.
Neither of which he mentioned.
“Let me see.” He stalked past her into the main berth where she’d slept the night before. The sheets were still rumpled from where she’d lain – and where he’d lain with her all too briefly.
Making a quick show of checking the wardrobe, Jack’s eyes barely registered what was in there since he didn’t want to see her in another man’s threads.
“I’m surprised the hot tub didn’t take the chill off.” He found a wool blanket in a chest at the end of the bed and shook it out. It smelled like cedar, but it was clean. Warm.
“At first, it did. But then when I got out and walked through the rain to get my towel, I turned cold all over again.” She blinked up at him as he leaned closer to wrap the dark wool around her shoulders.
Only then did he notice the spaghetti straps were gone from her shoulders. No straps meant no tank top.
Just as he’d suggested, she must have gotten naked after he left. And didn’t that realization cease all brain function in a heartbeat? One minute, he was thinking semi-rationally. The next – bam. No gray matter activity. He froze in the middle of wrapping her up like a deer in the headlights.
“What’s the matter?” She looked down at herself, probably trying to follow his gaze. “Is my towel still on?”
Her half smile was his first cue that she was messing with him. Teasing him when he was set to implode.
“Not for long if you don’t back away.” He told his hands to release the blanket, but they kept a tight grip on the hem where he held it just above her breasts.
“It’s not me who keeps running from this.” She remained utterly still, not moving toward him. Not sprinting for the stairs.
“You had the bright idea of no kissing on this trip,” he reminded her, knowing damn well he hadn’t dreamed that up that rule on his own.
“So don’t kiss me.”
He studied her for the space of two heartbeats, waiting to make sure his sex-crazy brain hadn’t misunderstood. But when she was still standing there, her damp body mere inches from his, he comprehended what she wanted all too clearly.
“Not a chance, Ally.” He lowered his mouth to hers and tasted her lips. “Some rules were meant to be broken.”
Her neck arched back, her face tipped up to his as she let out a ragged little sigh. The taste of her went to his head like a straight shot, drugging him with sweetly addictive pleasure. Tightening his hold on the blanket that was around her, he tugged her nearer until she stumbled against him, never breaking the kiss.
The feel of her against him – warm and willing – stoked a fire at the base of his spine, sending flames licking up his back. The need to be inside her flared hot and fast, a primal hunger he didn’t understand. Already, this didn’t feel like a one-time thing, not with his blood pounding in his ears and his fingers hooking inside her towel to loosen the knot. But he couldn’t slow himself down. Not now.
“Did you really get naked out there?” he asked, fumbling with the fabric as he walked her backward toward the unmade bed.
“See for yourself,” she urged, her hands running down his chest to the twitching muscles of his abs.
Then the terrycloth fell away, leaving them both naked except for the blanket he’d wrapped around her. She felt so good all at once that he could hardly take in all the places that teased along his senses- her thigh against his, her breast flattened to his chest, her hips cradling a throbbing erection.
“Please say you thought about me when you took your clothes off.” He hooked an arm beneath her legs and lifted her in his arms before he deposited her on the bed.
From the hallway, the nightlight spilled a green glow on her perfect skin while a few moonbeams filtered in through a porthole. She looked so good he was afraid he dreamed her, so he made quick work of joining her there. Feeling her warm and damp against him helped make the moment more real.
“I wished it was your hands peeling off my top,” she assured him, miming the act of rolling a strap down one arm.
He smoothed one palm up her spine, arching her back so that her breast met his lips. He licked the tight peak and drew her into his mouth, suckling her until her fingernails dug into his shoulder. The scent of salt water and flowery soap teased his nostrils.
“I would have tasted every inch of you.” The memory of her had followed him halfway around the world. He’d awoken some nights, sweating and aching, dreaming about his mouth on her.
Just thinking about it sent his lips down the valley of her cleavage to her flat stomach. The gentle curve of her hip.
“I would have flown apart long before you covered every inch,” her husky words were breathless as she skimmed her fingers down his forearms. “The simple act of getting naked had me twitchy and ready to come out of my skin.”
