Tropical Lion's Legacy (Shifting Sands Resort 9)

Ours, her bear was growling.

Alice couldn’t say either of those things out loud, so she simply leaned forward and kissed him.

After a split second of surprise, Graham opened his mouth and kissed her back desperately, taking her face in his hands.

She’d been right not to kiss him before, Alice decided. It was like baring her soul to him; it undid her. She was helpless in his hands, utterly lost to his taste and his tongue and his hungry mouth.

Every inch of him was irresistible. Both of them rose to their feet, still kissing, as Graham lifted her shirt from her. She tried to get his shirt off while he was trying to unclip her bra, and they quickly realized they were working to cross-purposes and stripped off their own clothing.

For a moment, the

y simply stood close, not touching, just gazing at each other. But not for long; Alice couldn’t keep her eyes, or her fingers, from his beautiful shoulders, or his broad chest, or his amazing jaw, and she gave a little gasp as Graham stepped forward, his cock pressing just where it should as he kissed her again.

Alice didn’t think that he could unravel her more, but the second kiss was deeper, and there was no clothing to keep his intoxicating skin from her starving fingers.

She gave a gasp of surprise as he suddenly wrapped his arms around her and lifted her to lay her back, directly into one of the beds of strawberries.

Then his weight was over her like a shield, and he was pressing into her as Alice spread her legs in invitation. She was impossibly wet, he was impossibly hard, and when he slid into her there was a moment of pleasure so intense and intimate that Alice had to cry out in surrender.

For a heartbeat, he held there, buried inside her, then he bent to kiss her, and began to thrust, slowly, gently, deeper every stroke, and Alice felt like he was drawing her up on an unbreakable thread.

She kissed him back, arching up, wrapping her legs around him because there was no such thing as close enough, no place inside of her that didn’t want him.

When she found shuddering release, crying out in pleasure she didn’t want to deny, she opened her eyes and found him gazing at her in wonder and need.

Impulsively, she wrapped one leg around his and turned him onto his back, barely staying coupled as they rolled. She lifted his arms above his head and leaned on his forearms, pinning him, riding him, taking him deeper than she’d ever thought was possible. He let her hold him down, hips rising to meet her strokes, until she was falling into a second whirlpool of pleasure.

He broke free of her hands then, and wrapped his arms tight around her, holding her closer and closer, until he was spilling his ecstasy into her, groaning and growling near her ear.

Neither one of them let go this time, continuing to embrace as their heartbeats finally slowed and they could catch their breath again.

She was never going to be able to eat the berries again without evoking the memories of Graham. The scent of bruised leaves and squashed berries and disturbed earth was heady and strong; Alice felt like she’d just made love in a dessert.

“Poor, crushed strawberries,” Alice finally said.

She giggled. “The gardener is going to be so pissed...”

Below her, Graham made a rumbling noise. For a moment, Alice wondered if she was too heavy to keep lying on him, then realized he was laughing. It was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard, vibrating through her entire body and she chortled with him helplessly.

“Alice,” he said, sitting up with his arms still around her. His laughter stilled. “Alice...”

If his voice in confession was disturbing, his voice saying her name struck some raw nerve inside of her and Alice suddenly felt like her world was dropping away. “I don’t know,” she said to the question he wasn’t asking. “I don’t know what this means. I don’t know what it changes.” She plucked a flattened strawberry from her shoulder blade and shook it off her fingers.

“Scarlet...” he started to say.

“Don’t tell me what she is,” Alice stopped him. “I can’t ask you to do that. You were right that it’s not your secret to give, and I shouldn’t have asked you.”

Graham gave a little shudder. “You were right that I know what she is, though. She’s been a friend of my family for decades. She was my grandfather’s... partner.”

“Don’t tell me what she is,” Alice repeated. “Not like this.” Then, as if she was compelled to ask, “Partner, like... lovers?”

“No, though I think that she may have loved him. She was technically his secretary, but she was much more to our family than that. The resort was supposed to be hers, when he built it.”

“Where did she get the rest of the money?” Alice asked, when he was quiet for a moment.

“She didn’t,” Graham explained. “This is only half of what the resort was meant to be. She scrapped the plans for a little community that was meant to be located over on this corner of the island, hoping that if the resort took off, she’d be able to add it on later.”

“And now?”