There was power in this feeling. A power only Ali could supply. She was his life force now, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
He stepped down into the cabin and moved through the saloon to the stateroom, pulse quickening with each step that took him nearer. His eyes adjusted quickly to the low light, revealing the very object of his dreams and fantasies. And his heartbeat tripled.
Ali waited for him, stretched across the bare mattress on her stomach, propped up by her elbows. Between leaving him in the cockpit and his arrival in the room, she’d removed her clothes and was now lying on the mattress in nothing but her skin, the sheets thrown into a tumbled mess on the floor.
He sucked in a breath as his eyes traveled the glorious lines of her body. So much for regaining control, he thought wryly. His own body was harder than ever, straining against the restricting material of his shorts, sending pulses of urgent desire through him.
Slowly unbuttoning his shirt, he walked toward her, his stare locked on hers. Her eyes were a brilliant blue, shining with a light he’d never seen before. Everything about her seemed to glow with an alluring intensity, and he drank it in.
Reaching the side of the bed, he paused. “You are beautiful.”
She looked up at him, the slight tilt of her head causing her silken hair to fan over one bare shoulder in a gentle caress his fingers craved to copy. A small, almost shy smile curled the sides of her mouth. “Don’t make me wait any longer, Jack.”
He needed no other prompting. Removing his glasses, he tossed them aside before sinking onto the bed. His hands found her bare skin, his palm smoothing over her warm flesh in a slow, lazy discovery. She rolled gently, making room for him to stretch out beside her, her hips thrusting slightly towards him.
Giddy, he skimmed her rib cage and her flat belly with his hands, following the edge of her hipbone and then traveling the delicious line where her thigh met her lower belly. His fingers brushed over the downy dark mound there, making his head swim. Ali gasped softly at the contact and Jack moaned.
Hold on, Jack, he told himself. You’ve waited too many years to rush this.
But it seemed Ali was impatient. Reaching up, she curled her fingers around his wrist, guiding his hand deeper towards her very centre, her eyes holding his.
“Ali…” he breathed her name. “I want you so badly that I don’t know how long I can last.”
“We’ve got forever to take it slow, Jack.” Ali’s voice was husky. Strained.
Her creamy heat wrapped around his delving, seeking fingers, driving him to the very edge of madness. She pulled in a deep breath, her chest swelling and her breasts rising upwards as she received his fingers’ gentle attention. Her hand left his wrist and she skimmed her own fingers along his arms, splaying across his chest before trailing down to the waistline of his shorts.
He knew what she was seeking.
Shifting slightly, he let her remove the remainder of his clothes, watching her eyes as she studied what she’d exposed.
He moved his hand, twisting and probing, brushing the pad of his thumb over the tiny button of flesh hidden in the fold of her sex. She gasped again, arching her back and pushing her hips harder into his hand.
“Don’t stop,” she ordered in a whisper. He curled his fingers, aiming for the sweetest spot deep in her tight, slick channel. “Oh, Jack.” she cried, her eyes closing. She raised her hips again, the musky scent of her passion filling each breath he pulled. Scalding heat licked through him, charging his body into life beyond the physical.
Nothing but Ali existed.
His gaze fell to the tiny dip at the base of her throat. He lowered his head, placing his lips lightly against the shallow hollow, touching the tip of his tongue to it.
She tasted so good. And it was his undoing.
Control deserted him.
His mouth crushed hers, plundering and demanding. She tangled her fingers in his hair, balling them into painful fists that made his blood sing with need. With each stab of his tongue into her mouth, he thrust his fingers deeper into her wet folds, her creamy passion slicking his skin. Driving him wild. She moved against him, hips writhing under his hand, rotating against his palm.
Christ almighty.
Her heat and smell and taste invaded his mind. He was going to explode and she hadn’t even touched him yet.
The realization burned through him. Flattening her to her back, he slid over her and rested on his palms to hang above her for a dragging microsecond as he parted her thighs with his knee.
“There’s no going back now, Ali” he whispered.
“I know.” Her eyes were a blazing violet.
“If you want me to stop, you need to say so. Now.”
She skimmed her fingers down his back, around his hips. Across his throbbing length. “I don’t.”
Liquid heat shot straight into his groin.
Lowering himself to her body, his hipbones brushed hers, their heat mingling as his stomach slid over hers. She shifted and raised her right leg to wrap around his hip as she curled her fingers around his neck. There was a mutual thrust and he felt her sweet heat wrap around him, folding around his rigid length with tight, wet pressure.
“Jesus, Ali,” he ground out.
“Oh, Jack.” The gasp left Ali’s lips in a sharp breath and, before she could draw another, he thrust inside her again, his head filling with colors so intense he felt blinded.
She was everywhere. She surrounded him.
Their bodies moved together, a rhythm that was natural and elemental, driving Jack towards a precipice that was both terrifying and sheer ecstasy. He would never recover from this. Ever.
Explosive heat erupted in his body, its epicenter the very point Ali’s heat engulfed him. Tight and wet. Just as her name burst from his lips, he heard her call his, in a voice that shook with released power. He felt his seed pump into her and a distant part of his mind realized they’d not used protection. But what did it matter? He was never leaving her again.
Kissing her shoulder, her neck and her jaw, he returned his eyes to her face. He’d wanted for it to last so much longer. He’d wanted to show her just how much he loved her, to fill her with the same powerful, passionate rapture that engulfed him, but when he’d felt her sliding around him so completely…
He opened his mouth, not sure what he was going to say but she placed a soft kiss on his lips, stopping him. “Jackson McKenzie,” Ali whispered, knotting her fingers in his hair once more. A lazy smile curled her lips, swollen from his kisses. “If you apologize for that I think I will hit you.”
He chuckled. “I won’t apologize,” he replied, not withdrawing from her body’s intimate hold. “But I promise it’ll be slower next time. No matter how much you beg.”
Ali raised an eyebrow. “Do you want me to beg again?”
Jack moved his hips and dragged his hands down her back to cup her backside. “I want you to come again.” He moved against her, his desire flooding strength back into his rapidly growing length. “And again, and again, and again.”
Ali lifted her hips, taking him deeper into her folds. “Okay.”
She gripped his shoulders and pulled his head to hers, capturing his lips in a kiss that sent liquid fire through his body. He caressed the firm curve of her bottom, the smooth muscles flexing under his palms. Without words, he and Ali rolled, moving as one until he lay on his back and she straddled him. He looked up at her, finding her face flushed in heady passion and her eyes burning blue fire. Marveling at the satiny softness of her golden skin, the finely toned strength of her body, he danced his hands over the firm flatness of her stomach.
He’d never known anyone like her, had never wanted to know anyone the way he knew her. He traced the delicate line of her stomach muscles with a slow fingertip. “You’re gorgeous,” he murmured. It was the absolute truth.
“So are you,” Ali replied, her fingers making their own wicked way over his torso. When she found her way to his nipples, she circled each with tantalizing pressure. Jack’s breath caught in his throat. He thought he’d remembered how incredible Ali’s touch was, but he’d been wrong. Nothing in his dreams had been close to the reality. It was like being branded by an angel.
He was her property, her possession, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Ever so softly, she drew her fingertips across his chest, a small smile pulling at her lips as she watched and felt his response. Her eyes flicked to his, that iridescent blue fire still blazing in their depths and, with deliberate slowness, she lowered her head and captured one of his rock-hard nipples with her teeth as she slowly rolled her hips against his. Jack gasped, a spasm of concentrated pleasure ripping through him. He curled his fingers around her hips, holding her against him as he rose to meet her body’s demands. “Oh, hell,” he groaned, his throat tight and raw. “That feels so good.”
She lifted her head slightly and a thin stream of cool breath played over his hot skin as she gently blew against the nipple her tongue had only just tasted. The effect was instantaneous and all consuming, and Jack could control himself no more. He flipped her over and drove her onto her back as he thrust deeper into her. Deeper. Deeper.
“Jack,” she moaned, her hips undulating in perfect rhythm with his, taking him completely and utterly.
His mouth found the perfect, tight peak of her breast and he flicked his tongue against it, her throaty cries of pleasure filling the room exciting him even more. She arched her back, pressing her nipple harder against his lips. “Don’t stop,” she begged, her voice husky. “Oh God, please don’t stop.”
So he didn’t.
Pulling the puckered tip of her breast farther into his mouth, he nipped at it with his teeth. The sound of Ali’s resulting gasp and the taste of her sweet flesh almost drove him insane.
He dragged his lips across her chest and replaced his mouth on her abandoned breast with his hand. The heavy swell of flesh under his fingers was soft, pliable to the touch. He squeezed it, in rhythm with his suckling mouth, enjoying the way Ali writhed and moaned under his touch.
“Oh, Jack.”
She shoved her hips up harder, meeting his penetration, sinking her fingernails into his flesh as she locked her legs around his body. Holding him close.
The silent demand was too much. Exquisite heat began to tear through his veins. His groin tightened. Lifting his head, he stared down into her face, seeing her pleasure in her eyes, on her lips. “I can’t hold on much longer, babe.” His breath was short. Shallow. “Christ, I don’t know what you’ve done to me, but I can’t hold on much longer.”
Blue eyes flashed. “Then don’t.” She dragged her nails up his back, digging into his shoulders, her breath hot and moist against his neck. When her teeth found his flesh, nipping with superb pressure, a hot tidal wave crashed through him, scorching him like a river of molten lava.
He thrust into her, and she took it all.
She bowed her back and drove her hips toward him hard. When he thought he could survive no more, that he was going to be totally consumed by the searing heat rolling through him, she gasped, her body gripping him in pulsating spasms as her climax claimed her.
His own release surged from him like an eruption of molten fire. Draining him. Filling him.
They lay in silence for a long moment, Jack pulling in deep breaths in an attempt to rein in his pounding heart. Letting his head drop to the side, he ran his eyes over Ali’s face, smiling at the completely sated expression softening her features. Her eyes were closed, but a small smile played on her lips, and Jack felt his own smile stretching his mouth.
“Jack?” Her voice was soft, almost a whisper.
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
His smile widened. “For what?”
She gently rolled onto her side and tucked her hands under her head as she studied him. “Y’know.” A delicate blush began to color her cheeks and she closed her eyes again.
Jack chuckled quietly. “Any time.”
“Hmmm,” Ali murmured. “I’ll keep you to that.”
“Okay.”
She smiled at him, and Jack could not miss the utter contentment that softened her features.
A sharp stab of guilt suddenly hit him. It was on this very bed four years ago that he’d made love to her for the first time; wild untamed sex that’d rocked him to the core. That had, in fact, completely changed the course of his life.
Yet for Ali, her life had already been changed. In a cruel, painful way.
“Ali?” He met her eyes, a small frown pulling his eyebrows together before he could stop it.
“Yes?” There was a sexy huskiness to her voice that could easily drive him to distraction.
“I’ve never apologized for accusing you of Andrew’s death.”
The smile curling her lips faded away. “Don’t—”
“Please,” he pressed on, running his palm along her arm, needing to keep contact with her. “Let me explain.”
“It’s—”
He placed his fingers lightly against her lips. “When I learnt you were aboard
Wind Seeker
the night your father died I went numb. That was one of the worst storms to hit Port Stephens in recorded history and you were out in it, fighting it. It scared the shit out of me.” He paused, brushing his fingertips lightly along her temple. “Before I’d even realized I wanted you to be mine, before I had the chance to know just how much you meant to me, fate had almost ripped you away.” With a steadying breath he shook his head. “It scared the shit out of me,” he repeated.