Making Waves (22 page)

“Oh, God,” Juli whimpered as his fingers found their way between her legs again. She slid one leg up, anchoring her heel against the back of his thigh, pulling him to her. He felt dizzy again, marveling at her balance. She twined her fingers in his hair, using her nails against his scalp.

“Don’t stop,” she breathed into his ear.

“Don’t slip,” he whispered back.

“It’s a skid-resistant floor.”

“Handy.”

Alex slid his other hand over her hips, loving the slickness of her skin, the way she arched against him. He kissed the hollow of her throat, feeling the vibration of her moans against his lips. He slid his fingers into her softness, savoring her whimpers.

Her nails raked across his hips, moving between them, taking him in her hands. Alex groaned.

“That’s quite a cutlass,” she breathed in a terrible pirate accent. “What ye needs is a good scabbard.”

Alex groaned again, this time not in ecstasy. Not completely, anyway. “That’s bad, even for you. Don’t make me gag you with the washcloth.”

“Kinky,” she giggled, still stroking him with a slick palm.

Alex curled a finger inside her.

“Oh, God,” she gasped as he stroked her deeper. “Please, Alex!”

“Please what?” he murmured against her throat, genuinely not certain.

“You. Inside me. Now.”

“Condom,” he murmured, pulling back reluctantly.

“Right.”

“Dammit,” he groaned, grabbing the edge of the shower curtain, staggering a little as he moved away from her.
Not again. After all these times, not again with the condom thing—

“Soap dish,” she said, grasping him again with slippery fingers and pulling him to her. She smiled up at him with mock innocence. “I planned ahead.”

Alex stared down at her, mystified. “You anticipated having sex in the shower?”

Juli shrugged and began to lick her way across his chest, sliding her teeth over his nipples, then moving back up to his throat. Alex groaned and closed his eyes.

“And in the bed, and on the balcony, and under the table, and beside the TV—I’m prepared for any spontaneity that might arise. There’s even a condom in the closet.”

“You are a rare woman, Juli Flynn,” Alex murmured, reaching for her again.

Juli grinned and reached for the soap dish. Her fingers closed around a red foil packet he hadn’t noticed before. She drew her hand back, her fingers already tearing at the wrapper.

Alex caught her wrist. “Wait.”

She froze. “You’re kidding me. Alex, if this is about—”

“Shut up,” he said and kissed her to make sure it happened. He kept kissing her for a long time—minutes, hours, he wasn’t sure. He could have done it for days. He felt himself getting light-headed again from all the steam and heat and naked flesh pressed against him. He drew back and looked down at her upturned face, damp and breathless.

“I’m not saying stop,” he breathed. “I’m saying slow.”

“Yellow light, not red light?”

“’That’s not another game, is it?”

“No,” she whispered and moved her lips to his throat. “No games.”

He moved his palms over her body, trying to memorize that perfect curve between her hip and her waist. Already intimately acquainted with her breasts, he moved his hands up and lingered there anyway. He savored the slippery feel of her, the sharp intake of breath as he stroked her nipples to hard peaks.

Juli slid her hand between their bodies again, stroking him with fingers slick and hot and so very eager. He closed his eyes and concentrated on making this last, on savoring every second of it. Her mouth was still moving over his throat, driving him crazy with lust and a fervent desire to press her back against the shower wall and slide inside her.

“
Slow
,” he reminded himself.

“Hmm?”

“Talking to myself.”

She laughed, her breath tickling his wet skin as she kissed her way across his shoulder. “You do that a lot.”

“And here you thought you were the abnormal one.”

He kissed her again, sipped at the water that trickled over her shoulders. The pulse of the shower hit him in the face and his eyes blurred, but he couldn’t tell if it was from water or plain old desire.

Juli squirmed against him, her wet skin sliding against his as she moved her mouth over his chest, nipping lightly before trailing down, then back up again. The showerhead pulsed behind her, filling the room with thick steam and the flowery scent of bar soap he’d just knocked to the floor.

He wanted to touch every inch of her at once but settled for the square inch between her thighs, warm and slippery and—

“Oh, God,” she whimpered. “Please.”

He smiled, his fingers still moving inside her. “I love how polite you are when you want something.”

“I love how you think lust and good manners are the same thing.”

He continued to tease, his fingers making gentle, slick circles. He took his time, not wanting to rush her. Not wanting to rush himself. He slid another finger into her and felt her clench around him. Her breath quickened, her eyes closed, her head tilted back as she gave a sharp little cry—

“
Oh!
”

There was no pillow this time to muffle her screams. Alex was glad. She shrieked with pleasure once, twice, three times, her cries echoing off the shower walls as he stroked inside her over and over until he felt her go limp in his arms.

She was still for a moment. Then she opened her eyes and grinned up at him. “Wow.”

“Exactly.”

She raised a hand and fanned at the cloud of steam hovering between them. “Very wet.”

“No kidding.”

She laughed, and he bent to kiss her, thinking he could never get enough of this. She kissed him back, softer this time, her fingers gliding wetly through his hair. He stroked his palms down her arms, feeling her shiver despite the heat pulsing from the showerhead. They kissed like that for a long time, lips and bellies pressed together in the steamy space. Alex felt the urgency start to build again, felt her nails rake the nape of his neck. He broke the kiss and took a small step back as Juli fumbled for the soap dish.

She grinned up at him as she tore open the condom wrapper and reached for him. She used both hands, easing the condom over him as Alex gritted his teeth and hoped to God he didn’t embarrass himself.

Her eyes were teasing as she smiled up at him again. “Just in case. No rush.”

He looked at her, the wet curls plastered around her cheeks, her breasts full and round and wet. He’d never wanted her more.

“Right,” he said and cupped her ass with both hands.

She gave a small squeak of surprise as he boosted her up. She was lighter than he expected—practically weightless in his arms. Alex said a silent thank you to whoever installed the slip-proof shower floors as Juli wrapped her legs around his waist, her thighs slick and strong. Her arms twined around his neck and she kissed him then, hard and wet. A perfect fit. He looked down at where their bodies were almost joined.

“Last chance for something to go wrong here,” she breathed. “Fire alarm, maybe?”

“Could be nuclear war,” Alex murmured. “Doesn’t matter.”

Then he slid inside her.

Juli cried out and Alex hesitated a moment, part of him still expecting the ceiling to cave in or a band of trumpet-playing monkeys to come crashing through the door.

But the only sounds were Juli’s soft gasps of pleasure and the spatter of water on the shower walls. The flowery soap had dissolved to a green lump at his feet, but Alex didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything but the way it felt to have Juli wrapped around him like this.

He pushed her back against the shower wall, bracing himself as Juli began to move against him—slowly at first, then with new urgency. It seemed like every inch of her surrounded every inch of him, their bodies tangled in a slick arrangement of legs and hips and arms and fingers. He thrust his hips and slid deeper, hoping he wasn’t hurting her.

“Oh, God,” she cried. “When you move like that I lose my mind.”

“Good,” he murmured and drove into her again.

He could feel her breasts pressed hard against his chest, watched her eyes widen as he pushed deeper into her, her back glued to the slick tile wall. His forehead bumped the showerhead and he saw stars for a second but kept moving inside her anyway. He didn’t care if he bled to death. He didn’t care if the maid found his wet, wilted carcass on the floor in the morning. He only cared about this moment right now with Juli moving against him, her whole body twining around his.

“Don’t stop! Please, don’t—”

She gasped and gave another cry of pleasure. He felt her legs tighten around him—felt
everything
tighten around him. He thought he could hold on, maybe keep going for another hour.

But he was already past the point of no return. He groaned and gave in to the pulse of pleasure that seized him like an electric shock. Juli’s movements became more fluid, somehow slower and faster all at the same time. Alex felt everything inside him explode as he drove into her again and again and again until he was certain he’d die from pleasure.

They remained like that for a few more pulse-beats, Juli’s thighs locked around his hips and the warm water sluicing over them. At last, Juli gave a little gasp and let go of him. Her arms and legs made a slick smacking sound as she peeled her flesh from his. She stepped back, her cheeks flushed and wet.

“Well, Pirate Alex,” she said, grinning up at him. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”

“The pleasure’s all mine, Pirate Juli,” he said and bent to kiss her.

The next morning, Juli woke to find Alex gone. She patted the bed beside her, flipping back the covers just to make sure. No Alex. No breakfast, either. She wasn’t sure which was more annoying.

She laid there for a few more minutes, replaying her favorite scenes from their night together. There was a lot of slick, hot flesh. A lot of nibbling and kissing and moaning. She could say with absolute certainty now that Alex’s bedroom performance rated far better than a four. On a scale of one to ten, he was probably closer to a thirty-six. His hands alone deserved some sort of medal. And the things he could do with his mouth—

Juli smiled, lost in pleasant thoughts. There were a whole lot of pleasant thoughts.

Well, okay, Cody’s kidnapping wasn’t so pleasant. Having a pistol pointed at her by a man she’d known since childhood wasn’t so pleasant. But really, most of the rest had been good.

Juli opened her eyes and sighed, accepting the fact that bacon would not be appearing on her pillow. She flung her legs over the side of the bed and sat up, tugging the sheet off to wrap around her torso like a toga.

Somehow, the effect wasn’t as sexy as she’d hoped. She took two steps and tripped, yanking the toga down over her breasts and causing her to stub her toe on the wall.

“Dammit!” she yelped, dropping the sheet entirely. She grabbed her foot, hopping on one leg as she peered at the injured toe.

“That’s a good look,” Alex said from the balcony, folding his arms over his chest as he watched her through the open glass doors. “Hopping on one foot naked—it’s exactly how I pictured you when we first met.”

Juli dropped her foot and fumbled for the sheet. Modesty wasn’t her strong suit, but with the patio door wide open, she thought it best not to treat passersby to a show like she and Alex had witnessed the night before.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked, retrieving the sheet and her dignity from the floor.

Alex glanced at his watch. “Yes, the sixty-seven minutes we weren’t ravaging each other were quite restful.”

“You can sleep later, sailor boy. We’ve got an hour until Malcolm’s coming back for us.”

Alex stepped through the door of the balcony and into the plush coolness of the room. “You mean coming back for the rest of his books. I think we’re an afterthought.”

Juli tugged at the sheet, noticing the way Alex seemed fixated on the spot where it kept slipping down her left breast. She felt the heat rise up through her body, and she wanted him all over again.

“Should we try calling Phyllis and Jake?” she asked. It seemed like a safer thing to ask than
will you bend me over the dresser again
?

“Already did,” Alex said, and Juli was confused until she remembered which question she’d actually asked aloud. “I called the hotel room when you were in the bathroom earlier. No answer.”

“That’s odd.”

He shrugged. “It’s early. They’re probably having breakfast.”

“I’m sure Cody’s serving up eggs Benedict as we speak.”

They both fell silent for a moment, staring at each other. Outside, the ocean crashed against the seawall. Alex didn’t move. Juli looked away first, feigning a sudden interest in straightening a gold-framed painting on the wall.

Alex cleared his throat. “Look, Juli—about last night—”

“Oh, good,” Juli said, looking away from the picture and back at Alex. She sat down on the edge of the bed and smiled. “I was hoping we’d have a chance to talk about our wedding now. I was thinking if we sent out our save-the-date cards in June, we could buy some time before we send out the actual invitations at the end of the summer. So then we’ll have a fall wedding?”

Alex just stared. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. Juli rolled her eyes.

“Relax, sailor boy. I’m kidding. Anytime a man starts a conversation with ‘about last night,’ it’s a pretty good bet he’s not going to suggest getting matching tattoos. It’s okay—really.”

He shook his head. “Juli—no. That’s not it.”

“No?” She quirked an eyebrow at him, hoping she looked more nonchalant than she felt. Her pulse was beating fast in her throat, but she tried to keep her expression serene and detached. She’d been here before, hadn’t she? On the outside, looking in. She could do this again.

“Look, I’m crazy about you,” Alex insisted, taking a few steps closer. “It’s just—things are complicated right now. My career is in shambles, my pension’s gone, and I have no idea where my life is headed. I think—well, now isn’t really the best time to start something serious but—”

“And you still don’t trust me.”

He blinked. “What?”

“That’s the main thing, isn’t it? You’ve got doubts about who I am, what I’m after, what I might do to damage your poor little pirate heart.”

The last part came out snarkier than she intended, but she let the words hang there anyway. She waited for him to argue, but he said nothing.

She took a shaky breath. “Who was she?”

“What do you mean?”

“The woman who saddled you with such a whopping pile of trust issues.”

Alex looked away. He lifted his hand, and for a moment, Juli thought he might rest it on her shoulder. Then he dropped it to his side. “Fiancée,” he said. “
Ex-fiancée
.”

“I see.”

He turned and looked at her, and his eyes were so sad, her heart nearly broke in two. She wanted to stand up and say something comforting, but she couldn’t find any words at all. What the hell could she say?
Now that we’ve exchanged bodily fluids, you really ought to love and trust me forever.

Not the way life worked. Not her life, anyway.

She stood up and clutched the sheet tighter around her. “I’m going to take a shower.”

Alex reached out and caught her by the arm. “Wait.”

“Alex, it’s okay, really. You don’t have to—”

“I want to try.”

His voice was so soft she wasn’t sure she heard him right. “What?”

“I want to try to get over it. That’s what I’ve been thinking this morning while you were asleep. It’s what I was trying to say before we got all tangled up talking about weddings and fiancées and, and—”

“Wait. You’re saying you want to—what,
date
?”

He flinched a little at the word but nodded. “Yes. Look, I know I’ve been paranoid and you don’t deserve that.”

“I guess I haven’t helped. I wasn’t exactly forthcoming with the IQ thing or the details about Uncle Frank.”

Alex sighed, his hand still warm and solid on her arm. “Let’s just agree we both had secrets.”

“Okay.” Juli bit her lip.

“Look, I’m crazy about you. Totally, completely, ridiculously crazy about you. And last night was amazing.”

She managed a small smile. “It was.”

He returned the smile, his eyes never leaving hers. “So maybe we move forward from here?”

She waited, not sure what he was getting at. “Together?”

“Yes. Slowly. I mean—if you want to?”

“Okay,” she said, her heart fluttering with some combination of joy and trepidation. “Right. Together.”

“I’d like that.”

“Me too.” She smiled again. “I’m going to take a shower now, okay?”

“Together?”

She laughed. “No. Not together. Not if we’re going to get out of here in less than an hour.”

She stood on tiptoe and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. He started to reach for her again, but she dodged his hand, laughing as she started to lose her grip on the sheet. She moved toward the bathroom, feeling Alex’s eyes on her back.

It was a good feeling.

***

As soon as Alex heard the shower come on, he leaned forward against the wall and whacked his head a couple times against the doorframe.

Well that was almost a disaster
, he told himself.
The most beautiful, passionate, pleasantly insane woman you’ve ever met has mind-blowing sex with you all night long, and in the morning, you act like a mistrustful jerk and nearly blow everything.

Idiot.

Alex whacked his head once more for good measure.

From the other side of the wall, he heard Juli’s muffled voice over the rush of the shower.

“Did you need something?” she shouted.

“A lobotomy,” Alex muttered, trying not to remember what had happened the last time that shower had been running.

“What?” she yelled again.

“Biscuits and gravy,” Alex shouted back. “I’m going to run down and grab breakfast, okay?”

“Bring me some too! And a side of fruit, okay?”

“Sure,” Alex called.

He loved her. He was pretty sure of it. Even better, he trusted her. Or he was starting to, anyway. That’s more than he’d been able to do with any woman he’d dated in twenty years. It felt pretty damn good.

He moved away from the wall and began hunting for his wallet. He spotted it on the dresser next to Uncle Frank and made a grab for it. He turned and started to tuck it in his back pocket.

Clang!

His elbow hit something hard and metal and he knew without looking it was the urn. He whipped around in time to see it go toppling off the dresser.

“No!”

Over the rush of the shower, he heard her voice. “What?”

The urn fell in slow motion and Alex made a grab for it, his mind whirling with visions of ash and bone fragments. His fingers closed over thin air, and Alex shut his eyes as the urn hit the floor.

Crash.

He opened his eyes slowly. He blinked.

Gold coins. Krugerrand, to be precise, and they were covering the carpet.

“Alex?” Juli called again from the other side of the bathroom door.

He stared at the floor in disbelief. The top of the urn was still sealed, but the bottom had broken open, revealing a hidden compartment. He stared at the coins, dumbstruck. There were at least twenty of them, one-ounce pieces from the look of it. Maybe thirty thousand dollars in gold right there at his feet.

He looked toward the closed bathroom door, heard the splash of the shower on the other side of it. He looked back at the coins.

Jesus
. What the hell was Juli playing at here?

“Everything okay?” she called from behind the door.

He blinked at the coins. He swallowed.

“It’s nothing,” he yelled. “Take your time.”

Then he bent to put everything back the way he’d found it.

***

Alex couldn’t stop his mind from reeling. What the hell was she doing with thirty grand in gold coins? Krugerrand, the same sort of coins Tom Portelli had been running as part of his diamond smuggling operation. Was that really a coincidence? Knowing his crooked ex-boss was Juli’s close family friend, could he really believe that?

He wanted to talk to her, but he didn’t have a clue what to say.
I dropped your dead uncle and couldn’t help noticing you’re transporting a rather large sum of gold
.

As it turned out, there was no time for chitchat. Malcolm showed up early as Juli was still drying her hair, and he hustled them both down to the pier before they had a chance to eat.

“We’re in a bit of a hurry,” Malcolm said as he heaved a giant box of books into one of the cigarette boats. “There was a problem back on Barbados, and I need to return as quickly as possible.”

“Problem?” Alex asked, wondering what else could possibly go wrong.

“Yes, apparently the U.S. Government has an interest in the ship that came to be in our possession recently—something about a criminal investigation—which is rather unfortunate, you see, since we obtained this ship for use in our important future business transactions.”

Alex felt a nerve start to twitch beside his left eye. “So where is the cargo ship now?”

Malcolm shook his head sadly. “It was still there when we left but positively crawling with federal agents. They’ll probably have taken it by the time we return. Such a shame, too. We had already selected a new color to paint it—really, the loveliest shade of blue—so this is quite frustrating.”

Frustrating
. Alex sat down hard on a box of books, trying not to lose his cool. Perhaps sensing just how close Alex was to leaping off the end of the pier, Juli touched Malcolm’s sleeve.

“So, Malcolm—the cargo that was on the ship when you, um,
obtained
it—where is that now?”

Malcolm heaved another box of books into the cigarette boat and dusted his hands off. “Gone.”

“Gone?” Alex croaked.

“Gone,” Malcolm repeated. “All of it. Everything from every cargo hold.”

“But—”

“Really, the government is welcome to it. Certainly we had no use for that sort of cargo. The boat, on the other hand—”

Alex put his head in his hands.
Jesus
. He’d been holding out hope that maybe, somehow, they’d missed something. They’d been in such a rush after Cody got kidnapped that they hadn’t really searched. He’d been hoping they’d get back on that boat and find some secret nook where the diamonds were hidden. Or maybe he and Jake had just imagined what they’d seen in the cargo hold—

“So, Malcolm,” Juli said, her voice much calmer than the ones screaming in Alex’s brain. “Are you going to be penalized for, well, for stealing the cargo boat?”

Malcolm looked up at her, surprised. “Why, certainly not. We have an agreement with the governments of several nations—the United States included—permitting us to seize any ship we like. Naturally, we must also seize the ones they ask us to, but clearly we have proper authorization.”

Juli and Alex stared at him. Seemingly unconcerned, Malcolm began shifting book boxes around in the boat.

Juli was first to speak. “The U.S. Government?”

“Well of course, my dear,” he said, not looking up from his books. “Occasionally, they have a need to remove certain vessels or cargo from the high seas, and certainly we’re equipped to do that. And of course, we’re allowed to seize other boats as needed for our own personal use.”

“But why—”

“They don’t usually tell us
why
, my dear,” he said, speaking as though it was the most natural thing in the world. “We’re just pleased to have such a wide variety of vessels at our disposal. It’s a lovely arrangement, really.”