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He stood before her, slowly undoing the buttons of his linen shirt, his eyes not once moving from her. She bit her lip, aching at the sight of him. Intellectually she didn’t quite understand her reaction to him, but instinctively she knew that it was unique. That she had never, would never feel the same way again. Because it wasn’t just the breadth of his shoulders, the defined musculature, the dusting of dark hair that whispered the wordmanin her heart and soul, it was him.
She lost herself in the heady sense of power arcing between them, being passed back and forth and shared in a way she could hardly put into words. She raised her hands to release the tie of the sarong at her neck, wanting to be as naked as he, and just as he shrugged out of the shirt, the silky material fell from around her neck to her waist, leaving her top half completely bare to his perusal.
Something powerful and feminine soared at the heat slashing his cheeks and the sparks of ferocious need in his gaze. And she, who had spent years feeling shame and fearing embarrassment, felt almost invincible. He prowled towards her, forcing her back, even as she felt in control. He leaned over her as she lay against the large bed until he covered her body with his own.
‘Evie, if I’d known that you were naked beneath the ties of your sarong,’ he whispered against her neck as he placed upon it little kisses that showered her skin in goosebumps, ‘we wouldn’t have eaten a thing. You are so utterly beautiful,’ he said, and she wondered if he’d realised that he’d slipped into Spanish.
His hand smoothed across the skin of her side, skating perilously close to where she wanted him to cup her breast, the gentleness of his touch beginning to grate, offering only a taste of what she truly wanted. Him, unfettered, and as lost to passion as she. But when his hand curved her hip and slipped beneath the material that had rucked up beneath her, her heart leapt with want. Her pulse pounded so hard in her chest, she half imagined he could hear it.
His fingers dug in, not so gentle now, and she almost came off the bed, desperately pressing her chest against his, wanting relief, needing release. His hands swept around her thigh and gently parted her legs beneath him. He had barely touched her and she was sobbing with need.
Back and forth he soothed the sensitive skin of her thigh, before he slipped his fingers beneath the band of her panties and she gasped and shivered at the first of his touches. She turned away from him, seeking the safety of his shoulder as she bore the exquisite sensations that he gave her, heat turning her skin pink and pleasure shortening her breaths. Oh, God, it was the most exquisite thing.
His mouth found her breast and she arched from the bed, the sound of her own pleas almost as erotic as his fingers. She was panting in need and he pulled back to watch her, his own arousal clear for her to see. Her pleasure washis. She understood that now. She felt that as he held her with his gaze and, completely safe in his hands, she reached higher and higher until she could barely breathe past her pleasure and then she felt him inside her, his thumb against her, but a finger deep within her, filling her nearly to how she wanted to be filled, but it was close enough to push her into nothing but sheer bliss.
Mateo had never seen anything more perfect. His pulse thundered as if it had been his own climax he’d just experienced. Sweat had beaded his brow and tipped down his back as Evie began to slowly blink her eyes open, constellations of wonder and pleasure and satisfaction and just that little bit of giddy excitement he could always sense in the background for her.
He wanted to kiss her, he wanted to touch her, he wanted to find every single one of her expressions and gaze at them in his own wonder. He had always put his partner’s pleasure first, enjoying theirs as much as his own, but this was an addiction and he wanted more, he wanted to hunt her pleasure to whatever extremes it went to.
She looked for a moment as if she might try to make light of what had just happened, but as she read his intent, her gaze cleared and instead he fell deep into a connection that scared him more than he’d ever admit.
The blush on her cheeks deepened, her eyes flaring wide, and the swift inhale expanding her chest had him biting his lip to stop himself from taking her mouth with a passion that would have shocked them both. Her hands went to the clasp on his trousers, but he caught her hand.
‘We can stop here, Evie.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, lifting her hand to press against his chest. ‘But I don’t want to stop,’ she replied. ‘Do you?’ she asked in return. The dull alarm sounding in the back of his mind made him waver for barely the space of a heartbeat, but it was drowned out by a wave of desire that flooded his mind. The need to see her fall apart beneath another orgasm was like a living thing in his veins.
‘No,’ he replied as he nudged her hand out of the way and made quick work of removing the rest of his clothes, her eyes burning caresses into his skin he thought might scar him for life, and instinctively he knew he would walk away with the marks of their combined need imprinted on his soul.
He looked to her before returning to the bed, his chest locked in a vice as she lay back regally against the plush pillows, surrounded by a silken canopy, hundreds of little tiny lights flickering in the breeze like a meteor shower. She looked wanton and wanting and he nearly pinched himself to see if he was dreaming.
As he came back to the bed, she rose from the pillows and they met in a tangle of limbs and lips and tongues and teeth. Passion was an unstoppable force, but even then his first care was for Evie. He whispered his worship of her in kisses and touches as she made room for him between her legs. He honoured her with every moment he could, knowing that the seconds were slipping through his fingers. He hated the morning in that moment, resented the sun, and pleaded with the moon to stay in the night sky, just so he could have one more taste, one more touch.
He filled her slowly, but fully, and it hurt his heart to see home in her eyes and know that he could not be that for her. But he could give her everything in this night, so he slowly withdrew, before once again filling her, luxuriating in the feel of her wrapped tightly around him, thrilled by the cries of her pleasure-filled moans as they drew closer and closer to oblivion. Pleasure built hot step by hot step and sweat slicked their bodies. Time lost meaning as desire drenched touches, and kisses became as sensual as the glide of their hips. Their bodies danced together to a rhythm unique to that night and known only to them, until the final crescendo pushed them into a starlit moment that stretched beyond the capture of words. It was the most intensely erotic experience of Mateo’s life and he knew—in that moment—no one else would ever match it.
CHAPTER NINE
STANDINGATTHEbow of the yacht, Mateo watched Evie talking to Annie and the captain, explaining how long they might be gone. The captain didn’t seem happy about letting the two of them go to the island alone, and his genuine concern over their safety had Mateo double-and triple-checking they had what they needed. The small speedboat was a similar make to one he’d used before, and he’d promised that safety was his absolute priority. He had stowed the small rucksack containing a satellite phone, a flare gun and emergency first-aid kits. They had both listened to the warnings about seismic and volcanic activity in the area, along with the risk of tsunamis. He had recognised, very quickly, that the captain was not exaggerating his warnings and had asked Evie, again, if they shouldn’t wait.
‘For what?’ she’d asked.
Mateo hated that he didn’t actually have an answer for that, as Evie must have predicted, because of the knowing gleam in her eye. A gleam that had turned molten when held just a little too long.
If he’d thought spending the night with Evie would have got anything out of his system, if he’d thought that he’d have been able to indulge his addiction to her just once and walk away, then he had been utterly and irrevocably wrong. He didn’t know which of them had been worse, which of them had craved the other’s touch more, needed the other’s kiss more than their next breath, but he did know that it couldn’t continue.
If Annie had noticed the red mark on Evie’s neck from where his open-mouthed kiss had lingered too long and sucked too hard, she hadn’t mentioned it when she came to pick them up from the island that morning. When he’d reached out for Evie, still half-asleep, her side of the bed had been cool. Without opening his eyes, he’d fisted the empty sheet in his hands and remembered the words she’d given him the night before.
Just for tonight.
They were a curse and a promise in his head.
‘Are you ready?’ Evie asked.
‘At your service,’ he replied without missing a beat, despite the bent of his thoughts. He held out his hand to her, helping her into the small speedboat.
‘If you have any problems,’ said the captain, ‘just call in.’
Mateo nodded and pushed them away from the side of the yacht, before turning the key in the ignition and firing up the speedboat’s engine. He manoeuvred the boat to face towards the island up ahead, surrounded by a series of dangerous rocky outcrops creating currents that needed some careful handling. The captain had explained that the island’s layout, with its jagged and steep incline making it inhospitable for development, and the approach so tricky as to permit only one boat at a time in and out, made it unattractive for tourism. Nestled further away from the easier to access and much more pleasant islands closer to the main thoroughfares, it was rarely given a second look. The billionaires had spent their money on much easier islands, but as they approached, Mateo could still appreciate the attraction.
