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  Now he was looking at her. Really looking at her. And for the first time, she felt shy. He hadn’t seen her naked in a long time. She didn’t have the youthful, waif-thin body of a twenty-year-old any longer. She resisted the urge to cover her breasts. This was her body now.

  “I’ve always loved your body, Lisa,” he said as he shrugged out of his shirt, his gaze never leaving her chest.

  She couldn’t help but smile. “You liked my boobs.”

  He grinned and met her gaze again. “Well, yeah. I’m a man. We’re obsessed.”

  She laughed, grateful he wasn’t taking this so seriously. She needed a little levity so she could breathe.

  And he was damn beautiful, too. His shoulders had broadened, his chest had filled out, and he definitely spent a lot of his free time working out. He might be over thirty-five, but Rick was all chiseled muscle and very little body fat. She knew he ran every morning, went to the gym after work, and he ate well. It showed. She wanted to feel that body next to hers. She reached behind her for the zipper on her dress.

  “No. Let me.” Rick stepped forward, their noses practically touching as he located her zipper through the tangled mess of her dress. He drew it down, all the while staring into her eyes. So intense, intimate.

  So utterly adult.

  So new.

  “We’re not kids anymore, Rick,” she said as he moved in, grasped her dress, and pushed it down over her hips. It draped in a puddle at her feet.

  “I’m well aware of that.” He held her hand while she stepped out of the dress. She kicked it away. His grin was so damn sexy. “What’s your point?”

  Her lips curled. “I have no idea.” She reached for his pants, flipping open the button and brushing his erection with the backs of her fingers as she drew the zipper down. She shuddered a breath, dizzy from nervousness, from excitement. This was all happening so fast. She wanted to slow it down and speed it up at the same time.

  “Are you nervous? Should I slow down?”

  He was teasing her. She cocked a brow. “I’m hardly a virgin.”

  His brows waggled. “Don’t I know it, since I’m the one who took your cherry.”

  She snorted. “As I recall, you were rather adept at convincing me you were the one for me.”

  Once he was naked, he pushed her onto the bed and climbed on after her. “As I recall, you didn’t put up too much of a fight.”

  She worked her way up onto the pillows. “So you’re saying I was easy?”

  They lay side by side now. Rick palmed her stomach. It rippled under the warmth of his hand. “Nothing about you has ever been easy, Lisa.”

  That might be the biggest compliment he’d ever paid her. Or was it a compliment? Did he mean she was difficult? She opened her mouth to ask the question, but Rick placed his finger against her lips.

  “Shut up.”

  She thought about objecting, but he was right. She always thought too much, and now wasn’t the time to think. Instead, she threaded her fingers through his hair. Dark as a moonless night, and so thick her fingers got lost in its depths. It felt good to touch him again, to lie side by side together in bed like this, not to feel the rush of having to fuck like they did when they were kids. There was so much more to lovemaking than just getting naked and penetration. There was touching, looking, kissing, and just being with someone you cared about.

  Rick seemed to understand that, even if his erection lay prominent between them, a constant reminder of what was going to happen.

  He leaned over her, brushed his lips over hers. Soft, oh so soft, it was like a feather across her mouth. And yet it was electrifying, making her nipples pucker. And when he touched her, his fingers lazily mapping her skin from her shoulders to her collarbone to the valley between her breasts, her heart rate kicked up again.

  Rick deepened the kiss, pressed over her more firmly, grasped her hip to draw her closer against him. Her breasts flattened against him, her nipples rasping against the crisp hairs of his chest. He lifted her leg and draped it over his hip, putting her pussy in direct contact with the hard ridge of his cock.

  She gasped as he began to surge against her, rocking his erection against her pussy. A wildfire of sensation rolled along her nerve endings, every single one connected to her pulsing clit. She dug her nails into his shoulder, tilted her head back to look at him, needing to see his face.

  Lines of concentration formed along the outer corners of his eyes and across his forehead. She traced them with her fingertip, memorizing every single one. Rick grasped her hand and kissed her fingertips, then licked them, placing them one by one in his mouth and sucking them gently until she whimpered. She’d been way too long without a man to hold out much longer. Just the sliding motion of his cock against her pussy made her crazy.

  “Rick, please.”

  “I’m nowhere near ready to fuck you yet, Lisa. I haven’t even tasted you.”

  Oh, God. He pushed her onto her back, took her mouth in a long, deep kiss that made her feel drugged, then dragged his lips over her jaw, her neck, and down to her breasts, moving his body over hers and spreading her legs apart with his knees so he could settle between them. He palmed her breasts—oh, to have them touched by someone other than herself was heaven. He caressed her nipples with his thumbs and the sensation shot straight between her legs, making her throb and squirm underneath him. He held her still with his body, continuing to torment her by rolling his fingers around her nipples, then bending down to take one into his mouth.

  His lips closed over one peak and she wanted to die from the pleasure. She stilled, watching as he flicked her nipple with his tongue. An arcing shot of pure liquid heat pooled between her legs, throbbing incessantly. She rolled her hips, grinding her pussy against him.

  Rick looked up at her and smiled, then licked the other nipple, grasping her breasts between both hands and torturing both with laps of his tongue until she writhed in uncontrollable delight. This was exactly what she needed, what she’d craved when she said yes to Rick. His touch, his mouth on her body, making her feel like a desirable woman for the first time in . . . she couldn’t recall how long.

  She needed more. So much more than this. The waiting was unbearable. She wanted his cock inside her, stroking her until she screamed in orgasm.

  But when he slid down her body, pressing a kiss to her ribs, the dip in her stomach, her belly button, she wanted something else entirely, now anticipating the hot, sweet pleasure of his mouth taking her right where she needed to go.

  He shouldered her legs apart and she felt his breath against her thigh. It was so unbearably intimate, so familiar and yet so new. And when he kissed that spot on her inner thigh that made her laugh, she remembered how many times he’d done that in the past, how well he really did know her body—like no other man ever could. They’d shared the intimacy of first-time lovers, because they’d been each other’s first. They’d learned about sex with each other, had explored the basics, the how-to’s, had fumbled around and figured out this whole sex thing together.

  But now, as Rick laid his hand over her lower belly and let it slide lower, using the practiced moves of an adult, it wasn’t at all fumbling. It was smooth, caressing, moves meant to relax her and ratchet up the sexual tension at the same time. He knew exactly what he was doing to her. And when he pressed his mouth over her sex, laying his tongue flat over her clit so she could simply feel the hot wetness pressed against her throbbing sex, she knew it was nothing like the old days. Nothing at all.

  She lifted up, her body swelling with heat and need, arching toward that pleasure. He gave it to her, licking the length of her pussy, driving his tongue into her and using his hand to stroke her clit. Embarrassingly, she was already there, rocketing into orgasm like drought-stricken tinder, engulfed in a fire of the sweetest pleasure. Rick was right there with her, licking her, his hand pressing down on her as she rode out her surprising climax until she shuddered into some semblance of reality.

  But he gave her no time to rela
x, instead climbed up her body and planted his mouth over hers. She tasted the tart sweetness of her own completion on his lips and it drove her into fresh arousal. His erection slid along her wet pussy lips, making her aware of how close they were to consummating, and how much she wanted to feel him inside her.

  Tension coiled low in her belly, a desperate need that had her raking her nails along his back, to lift her hips in silent invitation. Rick rolled over and grabbed a condom from his pants pocket, tore open the wrapper, and applied it in a hurry before turning back to her and capturing her again in his arms.

  “Don’t want to make the same mistake twice,” he said with the hint of a smile.

  She traced his mouth with her fingertips, then palmed the back of his neck and drew him forward, needing his lips on hers. He kissed her, his mouth pressed hard against hers, his tongue sliding inside at the same time his cock pressed between her pussy lips and penetrated her.

  Feeling him inside her, joined with her, made tears spring to her eyes. It was so incredibly monumental that for a moment she felt silly at getting so choked up like this. It was just sex, after all. She shouldn’t make such a big deal out of it. Yet it seemed like so much more—felt like so much more.

  She really was a basket case, wasn’t she? Pushing the emotionalism aside, she concentrated on simply feeling Rick, on the way he moved inside her. Slow at first, pulling out, then sliding back in, dragging his cock over her sensitized nerve endings. Lisa dug her heels into the mattress, losing herself in the sensations, on the way her pussy tightened around his cock each time he withdrew. It was as if her own body objected to him pulling out, wanting to grip him harder to prevent him from leaving her.

  Symbolism much? She really had to learn to shut her brain down. Sex was supposed to be mindless, about just feeling and not thinking. But how could she not mix the two together? Her brain was as involved in this as her body. She had to think about everything she felt—what it meant as much as the sensations zipping through every nerve ending.

  She opened her eyes to find Rick staring down at her, his face hard and tight. She inhaled, the heady, exciting aroma of sex surrounding them. Their bodies were slick with sweat as they slid together, Rick’s pelvis grinding against hers in a way that stroked her clit into indescribable sensations, ever flaming the fire inside her.

  Rick grasped her hands, moved them out to her sides and entwined his fingers with hers, then began to move in earnest, his chest scraping her nipples as he drove inside her, his shaft rubbing her clit as he rocked against her with hard, deliberate thrusts.

  “Rick,” she whispered.

  “Yeah,” he said back, seeming to know she was close to coming again. He was relentless, not even giving her a second to catch her breath as she caught the wave and rode it over the crest, crying out with the force of her climax. He stilled, letting them both feel the way her pussy convulsed around him as she came in violent bursts that left her whimpering. And then he started up again, moving slowly this time, refusing to let her even come down from the high before he brought her right back up again, rolling his hips over the sensitive spots until she was cresting again and again, mastering her body in a way that only he could until she was begging for mercy.

  But he wouldn’t give it to her, not until she was limp as a rag doll and couldn’t possibly come again. And when he tensed, claiming her mouth in a heated kiss that left her wet and helpless and climbing again, that was when he went with her, groaning into her mouth as he shuddered with his own orgasm. She held tight to his sweat-slickened back and wondered that it had never, ever been like this before.

  This was magic. It was amazing and frightening because she wasn’t certain she could ever give it up.

  Six

  Rick stared down at the sleeping beauty next to him. Her hair had fallen over her face, shielding her eyes, though he knew they were still closed, because she was snoring.

  He’d forgotten that she snored. Cute, girly-type snores, but she did snore, especially when she was exhausted. He supposed the flight, the shock of finding him there, plus the sex last night would have been exhausting.

  He rolled out of bed and into the sizable bathroom to turn on the shower, unable to keep the grin off his face. So far everything had been perfect. More than perfect, actually. But he knew Lisa well. She wasn’t the type to accept at face value. She might have enjoyed the sex, but she was going to be a hard sell.

  He was good at sales.

  After his shower, he dried off and slipped out of the bedroom to head into the other room to grab his clothes. He’d be moving into the master bedroom today. The thought of what they’d shared last night made him harden easily. Lisa was so responsive, like melting butter in his arms. He wanted that every night, not just on this vacation. The key would be to convince Lisa that it could work between them.

  By the time he got dressed, Lisa was awake and in the shower. He made a couple of phone calls, planning their day, then went into the bathroom just as she turned the water off. He was waiting, towel in hand, as she stepped out. Her eyes widened before she smiled.

  “Not used to finding a man in my bathroom,” she said with a tentative smile as she accepted the towel from him.

  He leaned against the counter and admired the pink tinge to her skin as she dried off and combed her hair. She turned away from the mirror to throw him a look. “Are you intending to stare at me?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Stop it. It’s unnerving.”

  He laughed. “Hurry up. I’m starving.”

  She shook her head. “Men. You only think with your stomachs and your cocks.”

  “That shouldn’t surprise you,” he said, then left her alone and walked out on the balcony to wait.

  Perfect day. Sun was up and he could already feel the heat. He couldn’t wait to get outside. This was as much a vacation for him as it was for Lisa. They both needed to unwind after the intensity of Kayla’s graduation and all the prep that had gone into that. Of course, Lisa had done all the planning for the party. And she stressed about every little detail, as always. The key to this week was for both of them to relax. To put everything out of their minds, including their daughter, and focus on just the two of them. That would be a first. They hadn’t done that in . . . too many years to remember.

  “Hey.”

  He turned at the sound of Lisa’s voice.

  She stood in the living room, wrapped only in the white fluffy hotel towel.

  “What should I wear today?” she asked.

  It took him a minute to engage his brain, since all the blood had rushed to his dick at the first sight of her. “Uh, shorts, tank top. Whatever’s comfortable. And pack a swimsuit.”

  “Okay.” She turned and padded barefoot back into the bedroom.

  Rick swallowed and faced the ocean, trying to calm his raging cock. You’d think a woman in a towel would be nothing to write home about. Not sexual at all. Yeah, right. One look at Lisa in the towel and his imagination went haywire. He wanted to drag her onto the balcony and do a hundred different things to her with his hands and mouth, all while she was wearing that towel. He filed those thoughts away for later. His goal was to show her that being together wasn’t going to be all about sex. That would be hard to do if everything he thought and did was all about sex. But dammit, he’d spent a lot of years without her. So sue him if he had a one-track mind. It had been a long drought.

  She came out in khaki shorts and a body-hugging tank top, carrying a straw bag overflowing with beach things—swimsuit, towels, sunscreen—everything they’d need for the day, or so she told him. It was typically Lisa to be prepared.

  He’d arrived the day before so he’d have a chance to scout out the area, figure out what he wanted to do. He grabbed her hand and took her out the back door and toward the beach.

  “Aren’t you hungry? I’d love some coffee and breakfast,” she said as their sandaled feet hit the sand.

  “You’ll get both shortly.” He didn’t give her any other
clues, just led her down the beach to the dock. There was a floating restaurant at the end of a long pier. It was still early enough that they managed to snag a decent table near the windows overlooking the water.

  The bay was smooth as glass this morning. Boats docked alongside the pier, undulating against their moorings, as Rick and Lisa settled into their seats and placed their food orders.

  “This is wonderful.” Lisa sipped coffee and stared out the wide windows at the activity on the dock below the restaurant. Shops were beginning to open and people bustled with activity, both tourists and the locals getting ready to start their day. Lisa looked over at him and smiled. “Thanks for finding this place.”

  He knew she’d like it better than an air-conditioned restaurant in the hotel. “You’re welcome.”

  “So what’s on tap for today?”

  “We’re going out on a boat. Do a little snorkeling.”

  Her eyes lit up with an unmistakable sparkle. “I love the water.”

  “I know.” He hadn’t taken any vacations with her—ever. They’d been too young, broke, and then Kay had come along so there’d been no time, no money. But over the years, Lisa and Kayla had taken a few vacations, and Kay had filled him in on Lisa’s love of the water. How sad was it that his own daughter knew more about Lisa than he did? Oh sure, they’d gone to the lake a few times, and he knew Lisa loved going out on their friends’ boat. But apparently she had a huge love for boating, for water, and for beaches. Kayla also told him that Lisa had really enjoyed the snorkeling they’d done off the Keys one summer.

  He was going to indulge her love of all those things they had never done together but should have. He felt like they’d missed out on so much.

  They ate a huge breakfast, then Rick led her out the sliding glass door at the back of the restaurant and down the dock where the rows of touring boats were moored. Seagulls soared around them, diving down near the water, hoping for a chance at their own breakfast.

  Rick inhaled, loving the smells here at the dock. He used to go fishing with his dad every weekend when he was a kid. Until his dad got too sick to go.