It was the perfect situation for a no-strings fling. Except Brontë wasn’t good at the no-strings thing. That was for strangers, for people she would run into and never see after that night. Logan was different. She already knew a lot more about him than she did a lot of people. She liked him. Not that she normally didn’t like guys, but most of her relationships seemed to end on an ugly note, and she didn’t want that to happen with Logan. But if she turned him down, she’d never get the chance to experience just how wonderful making love to Logan might be.
“I want this,” she admitted in a soft voice, “but I don’t know how good I am at casual relationships.”
“We can worry about that once we’re rescued,” he told her, and leaned in to close the distance between them.
***
She was going to do this. They were going to do this. She was going to have a ridiculous, exciting, passionate fling with a man. Not just any man. Gorgeous, serious, totally alpha Logan Hawkings, who made her toes curl every time she looked at him. Who kissed like he’d invented it.
And here she was, in an ugly tourist T-shirt, with wild beach hair and not a touch of makeup. Maybe it wasn’t Brontë as much as it was that she was the only woman on the island? That was a sobering thought.
He touched his fingertips to her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Should I not have asked?”
“No, asking is good,” she said, and gave him a shy smile. “I’m just not exactly at my hottest at the moment.”
“Quote me something.”
She gave him an odd look and then laughed, blurting out the first thing that came to mind. “‘Happiness depends upon ourselves.’ Aristotle.”
“See?” He whispered, leaning in to kiss at her neck. “Hearing you say that is so incredibly hot.”
She laughed again. “You’re a strange man.”
“And you’re beautiful,” he said bluntly. “I haven’t been able to take my eyes off of you all day.”
And that was enough to bolster her deflated ego. She leaned close to him, her gaze moving to his mouth. “Then kiss me?”
“You have to ask?” He leaned in closer.
“Asking’s good,” she murmured again, just as his lips met hers.
For the second time that day, she was swept away by his kiss. He had such an amazing mouth. She’d kissed plenty of men, but none of them had ever kissed her with such . . . blatant ownership. Logan’s mouth slanted over her own, his lips taking control first, followed by his tongue. She was helpless to resist, and parted her lips when his tongue brushed against her mouth. Then she was lost as his tongue thrust and rubbed against her own, the kiss moving from one of simple pleasure to something deeper. His fingertips played along her jawline as he kissed her, as if ready to hold her steady if they needed to.
His mouth continued to slant over hers, his tongue stroking deep until the world narrowed to Logan’s mouth on hers and Brontë was lost in the sensation. She’d barely noticed that she was now leaning heavily against him, his body supporting her weight. When he shifted, she nearly toppled and began to giggle.
“Careful,” he warned her. His voice was stern, but there was a crinkling around his eyes that told her he was amused. “It seems my kiss is rather dangerous.”
“Extremely,” she said breathlessly, resisting the urge to reach up and touch her lips. They felt swollen and soft and wet from his kiss. With her eyes on him, Brontë leaned back on their beach blanket. “In fact, I might need to lie down to get my bearings.”
Logan’s big body loomed over hers for a long moment, and then he lay down beside her, turning and propping up on one elbow to face her. “Better?”
She glanced over at him. His face was cast in shadow at this angle, but he was still delicious. From the big shoulders to the large hand that lay on the blanket, she loved the look of him. The beach itself made her feel a bit exposed, though. She stared up at the night sky and then turned her head, listening to the gentle sound of the waves as they hit the beach. “Should we go inside?”
“Do you want to?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. Part of her wanted to stay out here in the open, by the beach. And part of her was totally panicked at the thought of making love out in the open. “I want to stay out here but it feels . . .”
“Wrong?”
“I was going to say naughty.”
One corner of his mouth curved up into a half smile. “And naughty is bad?”
She reached over to him and trailed a hand down his chest, feeling the light sprinkling of chest hair across his pectorals. “Actually, no. Now that I think about it, I rather like naughty. What about you?”
“I don’t have condoms out here. Unless you brought them.”
She was an idiot. A total, freaking idiot. She should have grabbed them when she was inside. She had her birth control pills . . . somewhere. But she was pretty sure she’d missed a few days and didn’t want to chance it. Condoms it was. “No, I didn’t bring any.”
“Then I can pull out.” He lifted her hand from his chest and began to nibble on her fingertips. “If you’re okay with that.”
His lips danced along her thumb and sent shivers up and down her spine. “I’m good with that. I’m clean, by the way.”
“So am I,” he said. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go inside?”
“No, I like it out here.”
“Where it’s naughty?”
She grinned. “Precisely.”
Well, they’d gotten everything out of the way except the actual act itself. He was simply watching her, lightly kissing her fingertips. What had she expected? For him to maul her as soon as she gave the okay? She suspected he was holding back, making sure she was just as interested in this as he was. She had to show him that she wanted him, too, and that she wasn’t just saying yes for the hell of it.
So she wiggled a bit closer to him on the blanket and leaned in, pressing her lips to his. His tongue flicked against hers encouragingly, and so she grew a bit bolder, taking more liberties with the kiss and twirling her tongue around his. Her hand slid down his chest, and she twined her fingers into his chest hair, tugging at it.
“Touch me,” Brontë told him softly. “Please.”
Logan’s hand went to her side, and he gently pushed until she rolled onto her back. He immediately followed, flipping over to cover her, his weight braced on his elbows. She could feel his long body settle between her slightly parted legs, and then she was suddenly wide-open to him in a move that felt both shocking and right. She was wearing just her panties under the long t-shirt, and Logan’s boxers felt scorching—and far too thin—against her thighs.
Logan leaned in a little closer. “Maybe I want to keep kissing you for a bit longer.”
“That’s okay, too,” she said breathlessly, acutely aware of him.
He lightly ran his fingers over her face, as if memorizing her features by touch. Then he leaned in and kissed her mouth, his lips featherlight against her own. He then kissed her cheek, his lips skimming her skin until he reached her jaw, where he pressed another kiss. Her chin was next, then her nose, and Brontë closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of his mouth on her skin, his weight over her. She could feel the heavy heat of him cradled against her p**sy, and was half tempted to wrap her legs around him. Would that be too much too fast? She wanted to keep enjoying him and his touch. If he wanted to go slow, that was fine with her.
Logan’s mouth moved along her jaw, and then she felt him take her earlobe in his teeth and gently tongue it. A gasp escaped her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Like that?” he asked softly, and repeated the motion.
She bit back the moan rising in her throat and gave a small, jerky nod.
He nibbled on it for a moment longer and then slid his tongue down into the hollow underneath her ear and down her neck, causing shivers to move over her skin. His weight shifted, and she felt his c*ck press hard against her p**sy, then rub up and down against it through her boy shorts. A whimper escaped her throat and she automatically lifted her hips, slipping her panties down and locking her legs around him.
“Like that?” he asked again.
“Just like that,” she breathed, rocking her h*ps against him. He felt so good, and she hadn’t had sex in so long. Dear God, if casual sex felt this nice, why wasn’t she having it more often?
His hand slid between their bodies, and she felt him tug at her Bahamas T-shirt. “Let’s take this off.”
She nodded, and he pulled it up to her neck. Then she began some creative wiggling to tug it over her head while still lying on the ground. All the while, she felt him slide farther down her body, and then his mouth latched on to her nipple, tonguing it.
Brontë moaned, a jolt of pleasure moving through her at the touch. Her hands went to his shoulders, rubbing, then digging her nails in as he flicked at her nipple with his tongue before moving over to her other breast and beginning to nuzzle it. A hot ache bloomed between her legs, and she moaned again, unable to bite back her pleasure. His mouth was so skilled. She raked her nails across his shoulders, encouraging him.
He sucked hard on her other nipple and then released it with an audible pop. Dazed, she stared down at him in time to see him lightly flick his tongue over the wet tip, then look up at her. “Your br**sts are beautiful. I’ve been wanting to play with them all afternoon.” His hand gripped her breast, thumb grazing her nipple even as he leaned over the other one again. “Watching them nak*d and glistening with water was driving me mad.”
She drove him crazy? He was driving her mad. At his words, she arched underneath him, thrusting her br**sts in the air so he could have full access to them, and was not disappointed when he pinched the tip of one at the same time that he licked the other. A bolt of pleasure shot straight to her sex, and her legs tightened around his torso. Her voice was breathy. “Logan.”
“Love it when you say my name,” he murmured, his lips moving against her nipple.
“Oh, Logan,” she moaned when he nibbled at the tip again. “God, you feel so incredibly good.”
“Let’s see,” he murmured, pressing a kiss between her br**sts. His hand left her breast and skated down her belly, then lower, to her mound. A hot, thick finger slid between her folds. “Definitely wet.”
She was. She was wetter than she ever remembered being with a man. And she was so turned on that she ached inside, her sex clenching as if she needed something—or someone—buried deep within her. “Oh, God.”
“Logan,” he murmured, and nipped her breast even as he slid that finger in and out of her p**sy. “I want you to say my name again while I’m touching you.”
“Logan,” she breathed, the word turning into a whimper when his slick finger moved to her cl*t and began to rub it. Her h*ps rocked involuntarily, and she clung to his shoulders, her nails digging into the tattoo on his biceps. His touch felt so amazing that her entire body seemed one big bundle of nerve endings, and they were all connected to the clitoris that he was rubbing and rolling under his fingers. Hot tension began to climb through her body, and she moaned low in her throat, her legs tightening around him. “I—I’m going to—”