It was only as she tried to lift her hand and pull him closer that she realized how weak she had become.
He drew back then and said, “There’s no plantation owner tonight, Pepper, and no slave girl. There’s just you and me, and we’re on equal footing.”
It was what she wanted, what she’d planned. And it was just ridiculous that she was trembling. A little ribbon of fear moved through her—fear that she might come up short when he compared her to Elena. But she shoved it aside. Strengths—she had them, and this was Cole, a man who’d fascinated her much more than a plantation owner who had nothing better to do than to fool around with a slave girl.
The one thing she could give him was the truth. She managed to raise her hands and frame his face with them. “I want you, Cole, more than I’ve ever wanted any man.” She saw the dark flash of pleasure in his eyes, and her courage increased. “I’ve been thinking of making love with you ever since we left the lagoon.”
He took her wrist and drawing her hand to his mouth, he pressed a kiss to her palm. Once again the warmth and the weakness moved through her.
“All through dinner and dancing, even when we were hiding in that forest of palm trees, I was wondering how fast I could get you out of this dress.” When he began to undo the knot at her shoulder, his fingers fumbled.
Another small thrill moved through her. This was Cole and she was unnerving him. Once the knot was freed, the silk parted and pooled around her. She wore nothing beneath.
“And I was wondering if you were naked under that dress.”
The rough edge to his voice dried her throat, and she had to moisten her lips. “Perhaps I should have told you.”
“We’d never have made it through dinner.” Cole’s gaze locked on hers. “You’re beautiful,” he repeated.
A fresh thrill moved through her as she let herself believe him.
Cole began to taste her again, slowly. One moment his lips were pressed firmly against hers and the next he was tracing her lips with his tongue as if she were some delicacy he couldn’t get enough of. He was only touching her with his lips and his tongue and yet she felt as if he were touching her everywhere.
She was floating, and the pleasure was so sweet she began to ache. There was a part of her that wanted him to hurry. She wanted his hands on her. But there was another part of her that wanted this moment to go on and on.
When he finally drew back, she felt her heart flutter.
He framed her face with his hands and regarded her in that intent way he had. “I want you to know that it’s me touching you. And it’s going to be me inside you.”
When he brushed his mouth softly over hers again, she felt her heart take a slow tumble.
She was in love with Cole Buchanan. Before she could think about that, Cole increased the pressure of the kiss and began to feast—tasting, nipping, sucking—until the weakness in her body became an ache.
She murmured his name and he heard it above the surf. It was what he’d been waiting to hear. His name. As he felt the softening of her muscles that signaled surrender, ripples of delight moved through him. But he wanted more. He’d have more. Drawing away, he urged her back so that she was lying on the blanket. Then he simply looked at her, naked in the moonlight.
“Cole?”
“I want to look at you.” Reynaldo had been right. In the moonlight, she did look like a goddess. He wanted to store away the memory, he realized. He needed it.
Pepper’s lips curved slightly. “What if I tell you that every time you looked at me that way in the office, I wanted you to touch me?”
“What if I told you that I knew it?” He brushed one finger over the pulse that even now was beating rapidly at her throat. “This was a dead giveaway. You nearly drove me crazy.” Bending lower, he replaced his finger with his mouth and once more sampled the sweetness of that telltale pulse.
Then as his own desire quickened, he began to use his hands on her, tracing curves and angles, skimming over strong arms, firm thighs, and exploring the impossibly soft skin over each breast.
Time spun away. He knew that he couldn’t stop it, but he was determined not to hurry. Not this time. When they were away from the island, she would remember this and so would he. Leaning over her, he kissed her again and again. He wasn’t even aware when his hands stopped moving. He only knew that he could have gone on kissing her forever.
Finally, he drew back, and shifting his body downward, he took his mouth on the same journey his hands had taken earlier. He wanted to absorb her—her scent, the texture of her skin, the small sounds she made. He wanted her to absorb him. And he was learning about her too. Scraping his teeth along her collarbone made her sigh. Using his tongue on her nipple made her breath hitch. When he caught the peak of one breast between his teeth, she moaned his name and his blood began to pound in a primitive rhythm.
Pepper hadn’t known it was possible to float on a sea of such intense pleasure. Anticipation and arousal swirled inside her and tangled with the promise of satisfaction. She thought he’d already shown her all the ways that her body could experience pleasure, but there were more doors that he opened up for her as he nibbled long the bone at her hip and his fingers traced patterns on the back of her knee and her inner thigh.
Then his mouth moved lower still until he found her center. There, his tongue lingered—tracing, teasing and trapping her in a world where pleasure became almost too much to bear. Even then he showed her more. When the first orgasm shot through her, she could only call his name. But he didn’t stop, and he built her second climax more slowly. It was torture. It was paradise. She wasn’t sure there was a difference as she felt her whole body strain upward until the release erupted and shot through her, catapulting her to a new peak.
She was still falling when she heard her name.
“Pepper, open your eyes. I want you to let me see where I’m taking you.”
She did, and once Cole looked into her eyes, he knew nothing but Pepper. He’d made love before. He’d made love with this woman before, but this was new. This was different. At some point when he’d been so focused on giving her pleasure, he’d lost a part of himself. Now she was all he was aware of. There was nothing else. The sound of the sea had faded along with the candlelight and the moonlight.
He was only aware of her eyes, hot and dark and fastened on him. There was only Pepper, small and strong, soft and seductive. Passion and desire tangled with emotions he couldn’t understand as he slipped into her and gave himself to her.
13
Saturday, February 14—12 a.m.
COLE WASN’T SURE how much time had gone by—seconds, moments, an hour? They were still tangled together on the blanket. But he’d pulled her on top of him and her head was resting on his shoulder. The candles were still flickering nearby, and the sound of the surf had picked up. He was aware that his heart was no longer racing, but he was still holding on to her as if his life depended on it. When a wave dampened one of his feet, he said, “I think we’re going to have to move.”
“Mmm.” She made a negative motion with her head. “Don’t want to.”
“I think the tide’s coming in.”
“That old spoilsport.”
Cole couldn’t have agreed more. It suddenly occurred to him that he could have gone on holding her just like this for a very long time. And he might have risked it if there hadn’t been a sudden shout.
“Ahoy, there!”
Pepper shifted off him and they sat up together. In the shaft of moonlight that cut a clear wide path across the water, Cole made out the shape of a boat and watched as a wave shoved it closer to the outcrop of rocks that extended into sea.
“Anybody there?” The shout was a little louder this time.
Grabbing his trousers and slipping into them, Cole called, “Are you in trouble?”
“He is if this isn’t Escapade Island,” a female voice shouted. “Is it?”
Cole felt Pepper stiffen beside him.
“It’s Escapade Island.” She grabbed her sarong, tying it around her as she scrambled to her feet. “Aunt Irene, is that you?”
“Pepper?”
“Are you all right?” Pepper raced knee deep into the water as the boat surged toward her.
Cole reached her side just as a second wave brought the boat within ten yards. A small figure slipped over the side and Pepper and her aunt waded toward each other. Cole turned his attention to the man at the tiller.
“Need some help?” he asked.
“Appreciate it,” the man said.
Cole grabbed the side of the boat and began to urge it toward the sandy beach. This close, Cole saw that the vessel was nothing more than an inflatable raft equipped with a small sail and a motor.
He let out a low whistle as the short, portly man slipped over the side and joined them in the water. “My hat’s off to you if you sailed this all the way from Eden Island.”
“Irene wanted to get here tonight, and this was the only thing on that island that was seaworthy enough to make the trip. I’m Happy Johansson, by the way.”