“Tell me.”
An idea occurred to her. “I want it like you described in the bar. Take me from behind.”
He cursed and, for a moment, she thought he might do exactly that. But Alex gave a sharp shake of his head. “Fuck that. I want to see your face when you come again.” He shifted his grip to stroke his thumb over her clit. “You look so fucking beautiful right now. Free. Wicked. Like a goddamn fantasy come to life.”
Had anyone ever called her a fantasy?
She didn’t even have to think hard to know the answer. No. They hadn’t. She wasn’t wicked. She wasn’t a fantasy. And free? The thought might make her laugh if she wasn’t so close to coming. She picked up her pace, determined to take them both over the edge. “You make me feel like that.”
Something like regret flickered over his face, gone too fast for her to be sure. “It’s all you, sweetheart.”
She didn’t believe him, but she suddenly didn’t have the breath to argue. Kendall’s body took over, her need to come shorting out her ability to do anything but mindlessly ride him, pressing hard against his thumb and slamming down to take him deep inside her.
Her orgasm hit her between one breath and the next, bowing her back and making her cry out, careless of who might hear. Alex surged up beneath her, gathering her into his arms and burying his face in her neck as he fucked her from below, slamming into her again and again until he came with a curse. He slumped back on the lounge chair, taking her with him.
Kendall lay there, listening to the pounding of his heart against her ear, and couldn’t stop a stupid grin from spreading across her lips. She’d done this. She’d been wild and free and everything Alex seemed to think she was. Even if this only lasted for the rest of the cruise, surely that was enough? A little slice of the life she might have had if she wasn’t Kendall Barnes, the middle child, the responsible one, the woman who didn’t make waves.
When she could draw a full breath again, she lifted her head. “Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“You know how you said that I could have anything I wanted as long as I asked?”
Again, that flicker on his face. “Yes.”
She could do this. She could ask for what she wanted. She didn’t have to feel weird about this. Kendall swallowed hard. “I would really like for you to take me back to your cabin.”
She was pretty sure he stopped breathing. “For sex or…?”
Oh god, had she made a mistake. She started to sit up, to retreat, but his hold tightened on her. “I’m looking for clarification, sweetheart. That’s all.”
Right. Okay. No reason to freak out and think he was rejecting her. She closed her eyes and reached for courage. “For sex and for sleeping. If that’s okay?”
Silence for a beat. Two. Three. Just when she thought that surely she’d misread the situation and he was, in fact, rejecting her, Alex said, “That’s more than okay.”
Chapter 8
Alex woke up with Kendall in his arms. He turned his head enough to see the alarm on the nightstand and silently cursed. The ship had already docked in Orlando and the excursions started shortly. He snorted. Excursions. Most cruises went to exotic places—and this one would, too—but Orlando hardly seemed that.
Or maybe he was just bitter because he hadn’t planned on being on this cruise to begin with.
Kendall made a sound in her sleep and shifted closer. She rubbed her nose against his chest like she wanted to burrow, and he shouldn’t find it so fucking endearing, but he just wanted to gather her up and keep her safe. And, yeah, he wanted to bury his cock in her again and again until they were too exhausted to keep going. Despite her offer last night, she’d passed out the second she was horizontal in his bed, and he couldn’t bring himself to be annoyed about it. Not when he got to wake up like this.
What the fuck was he thinking?
He was supposed to leave today. That was to be the grand plan. Take off during the excursion and catch the first flight back to Dawson’s Creek. To reassure himself that the one constant in his life was still up and running and hadn’t been ruined in his absence.
He couldn’t quite dredge up the energy to get out of bed, though. Not with this woman here, not when last night she became this fledgling wild thing that he wanted to experience again. Kendall had obviously spent her entire life buttoned up. This cruise—with him—she finally let her hair down. She trusted him enough to do it. If he left, would he hurt her? Would it drive her back into her shell again?