Chapter 7
“Why are we stopping here?” Audra asked as Kane pulled into a parking lot attached to a small seaside restaurant that appeared to have a great view.
He recalled that Amber had once recommended it. “It’s time for lunch.”
“I thought we were going back to the resort.”
“Change of plans,” he said, because he’d decided returning immediately to Dragonfly Beach would only allow Audra to hole up in her bungalow again and return to brooding.
“I’m not hungry,” she said as he ushered her through the front door.
Yes, she was definitely on the verge of brooding because his Audra was usually a happy eater. With a little shove at the small of her back, he pushed her toward the hostess station. “Get a table for one.”
She glanced over her shoulder at him, clearly puzzled. “Why?”
“We’re knocking an item off your list. You wanted to eat at a restaurant by yourself.”
He’d mentioned skinny dipping and nude beach walking earlier, but after finding that other list, he’d decided against tackling anything that required the removal of clothes.
That other list. Good God.
Audra nodded now, albeit reluctantly, and approached the hostess. He watched her being shown to a small table against the glass that looked out over the ocean-view deck.
Blowing out a long breath, he told himself they’d made it over the hump. That other list had knocked him on his ass, hard enough that when she walked in on him reading it, he’d been unable to hide the fact. At his confession, her face had colored an embarrassed scarlet and the only thing he could do was hustle them out of the scene of his accidental crime as quickly as possible.
He’d stuffed both lists back in her purse, thrust the purse into her arms, and practically sprinted for the car. The message he’d hoped to send by that move was they’d be dropping the subject of List 2. No way would he tease her about it, make jokes referring to it, or suggest additions to it. His aim was not to mention it ever again.
Because…Jesus. He ran his hand through his hair and detected a slight tremble. Who could blame him? Photographs, phone sex, bondage, toys.
An unfake orgasm.
Oh, if only he could unsee that damn list.
Unsee it, and stop thinking about it.
The hostess was back now and Kane was led to the table beside Audra’s. He chose the chair that placed them back-to-back. It wouldn’t help matters to lunch while looking into her lovely face. Better this way.
Yeah, better to keep some distance when he was suffering from the need to plow his fist into the jaw of every loser she’d ever been to bed with.
Drinks were delivered to both tables. Food ordered. Kane managed to give the astounding view out the window his attention, kicking back in his chair.
“I don’t know about this,” Audra said, her voice low. “When people eat out by themselves, what occupies them? My phone doesn’t have any bars.”
His lips twitched. Of course, the pleaser would find sitting at a restaurant without her usual social or business component grating. “Does it feel like you’re wasting time, baby?”
The conversation was interrupted by the server arriving with Audra’s food and then with his and he used the pause to remind himself for the tenth time to eliminate baby from his vocabulary.
Over the scrape of her utensils and the clink of ice in her glass he made out the sound of her sigh. “Really,” she murmured. “This is maddening.”
He grinned. “You could think about work. Make yourself—” he almost said “a list” and then hastened away from it “—an agenda for your next meeting. Something like that.”
“I don’t want to think about being back at the office,” she said. “And I can’t just turn off my brain. This is why I haven’t signed up for those meditation sessions at the resort.”
He chuckled. “I confess I’m not much of a meditator either.”
“It seemed important, like something a grown woman should be comfortable with, eating out by herself. Now it only seems annoying.”
“There’s always eavesdropping,” he suggested. “You could see if that entertains you while you have your meal.”
He heard her shift in her chair, as if she was perking up. “When you’re out by yourself you listen to other people’s conversations?”
Well, no, he supposed he didn’t actively listen. But as a hotelier it was part of his job to be attuned to the moods of the people around him. If he happened to overhear a guest voicing a complaint or expressing a wish, then it was only good business practice to see what he could do to fix or fulfill. “I keep my ears open.”
“Okay.” He thought she might have nodded. “The only problem is, there’s no one nearby for me to eavesdrop on.”
True. There were patrons out on the deck beyond the glass, but only a few sat at far away tables in their same room.
“So I guess it’s up to you,” Audra said, her voice warming. “Talk about something, please.”
He smiled. “I don’t normally hold a conversation with myself out loud, honey.”
“Hold up your phone to your ear. Pretend you’re on a call. Get personal.”
She was silly. This was ridiculous, and he’d feel so, but she was sounding amused by the idea of it, so he went along. Anything to cheer her up. With his cell to his ear, he opened his mouth.
And couldn’t think of one damned thing to say, except for the subject that had been plaguing him more and more, the closer it came to his thirty-first birthday. A personal thing. “I’m thinking about leaving my job,” he said, his low voice for his and her ears only. “Leaving the company, actually.”
He wasn’t expecting a response, so he went on. “I’ve been given the opportunity to take over all the West Coast operations, but I’m not sure it’s what I want.”
Pausing when the server stopped by to top off his iced tea, he continued as she moved away again. “I’m leaning toward moving to Central America. There’s a chain of eco-resorts that have expressed interest in me coming on board.”
He stared out at the horizon line, where the gray ocean met the pure blue of the sky. “My sisters won’t like it.” On a sigh, he scrubbed his scalp with his free hand. “But, the truth is, I don’t think they’re enough to get me to stay.”
A seagull flew by to join others of its flock poking at the crust of a roll that had fallen to the deck.
“I just don’t feel…connected to the life I have now,” he said, frustrated by what was true. “I’m not engaged with all my senses.”
He could tell Audra had stilled behind him, but he didn’t stop. “I’m an aloof bastard, I see that, though I’m affable enough to co-workers and guests. I’m good to my family. I do find my work interesting and each day goes by quickly.”
There was still a missing piece, though, a void inside him that dug deeper and yawned wider the older he became. A malaise that he sometimes wondered was triggered by that damn curse. “But I just can’t seem to do what the rest of the world finds so easy—care all that much about anything.”
In the ensuing quiet, the clink of ice cubes against glass made him think that Audra was sipping at the soda she’d ordered. He heard the delicate clearing of a female throat. “He—my former fiancé—said I was hard to warm up.”
Kane’s hand instantly tightened. He put aside his phone before he strangled it to death. “Audra—”
“He may be the first to say it out loud, but he’s not the first man I’ve ever been with. And each time…I just couldn’t get there. I was never truly engaged with all my senses. I didn’t feel connected to my partner in bed.”
It didn’t get past him that she was repeating some of his same phrases. Sweet, so sweet, Audra was, in expressing her concern and empathy in this way.
She cleared her throat again. “I just can’t seem to do what the rest of the world finds so easy.”
Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. Was that tears he heard in her voice? No way could he let her despair over some stupid shit her weasel ex spewed at her. If Kane ever got his hands on the guy, the other man would find out what hurt really felt like.
“Damn it. We should have gone skinny dipping,” he declared. “Walked nude on the beach.”
“What?”
He didn’t turn because looking at her would only grow his rage. “But it’s too late now.”
“Too late…?”
“We’re abandoning that first list, baby.”
“What?”
“Going straight to the second.”
She let out a little squeak. “That’s not why I—”
“I know why you shared, baby. And that was…that was…nice.” A stupid adjective for it, but Christ, her kindness, her caring bowled him over. She deserved a reward for that. “And I’m going to show you how nice I can be, as soon as we get back to the resort.”
Photographs, phone sex, bondage, toys.
An unfake orgasm.
Not all at once, but the last for sure.
Her silence was fraught with tension. “You don’t mean…”
“I mean, and I intend.” He put all his confidence into the words. “As soon as we get back to Santa Barbara.”
“Um, n-no, I couldn’t, w-well, I wouldn’t, if you know what I’m saying.” Though she was stammering, her voice halting, he knew exactly what she was saying.
She thought he couldn’t make her come.
He wondered if he could make her climax with kisses only. Because she’d been close to it on the beach, he’d swear.
Throwing up his arm, he caught the server’s attention and paid for his and Audra’s lunch. She stayed glued to her chair until he grabbed her hand and pulled her to a stand. Her fingers were cold and her body trembled in his hold.
The ride back to Dragonfly Beach was going to be a long one for her, and he swallowed his smile at the thought.
Because a few nerves never killed anybody.
As a matter of fact, getting Audra keyed up with all her clothes on might make taking them off all the easier for her.
Photographs, phone sex, bondage, toys.
An unfake orgasm.
God, he loved that list.
Lust flooded his system as he towed her to the car, every one of her reluctant steps turning his crank. He opened her door for her, pushed gently on her shoulder as she folded onto the leather cushion. Leaning inside the opening, he latched her seat belt himself, his fingertips brushing against the bare skin of her thigh as he moved to straighten.
Her breath made an audible hitch and he caressed her cheek before shutting the door and moving around to his side. As he slid in, she cleared her throat.
“Yes?” he said, looking over at her.
“This seems a little…bloodless.”
“Are you feeling cool, baby?” He doubted it, because despite her little shivers her face was a delicious pink. It would be his pleasure to see her entire body turn that sweet, aroused and arousing, shade.
She’d look beautiful in an orgasm flush and nothing else.
Except maybe a couple of his ties in strategic places.
“Kane,” she said, her voice tight. “I don’t know what I feel about this.”
Yeah, right. She was looking at him with those big eyes of her, her tongue coming out to lick her soft lips. The woman felt like she wanted to give him a chance to take her there.
“Let’s explore that then,” he said smoothly, starting the car. “Your feelings about…things. It will give us something to talk about on the way.”
Audra clutched her hands together in her lap. Kane wanted to talk about sex? That’s what he meant, wasn’t it?
Specifically, about the two of them having sex.
“I’m terrified.” Oh, God, she’d said it out loud.
“Do you want me to forget I heard that?” Kane asked, sounding amused.
“Yes, please,” she replied, darting a glance at him. He looked perfectly composed in a pair of dark jeans and a collarless, short-sleeved cotton knit shirt. A hint of a smile quirked his perfectly molded lips that she’d had no problem kissing, no problem wanting to kiss. As a matter of fact, stopping kissing him had been the problem.
“But I don’t want you to forget you made a list. You have goals, baby, and I’m here to make sure you achieve them.”
“Why?” She bit her lip. “I mean, I’m sure you don’t have trouble finding women to share your bed, so why would you want to take on someone who can’t…can’t…”
One of his big hands came over hers, squeezed. “You can and you will.”
She slumped into her seat, flummoxed by his confidence. And unable to bring herself to reject his offer.
Because, of course, she wanted to give him a chance.
“Now tell me, Audra, what do you like about men?”
Her head whipped toward him. “How do you mean?”
His gaze slid to her, then back out the windshield. “What do you like about men’s bodies?”
A flush of heat rolled over her. “Um…”
“Close your eyes, let your mind wander, and then share with me the specifics when you’re ready.”
Breathing unsteadily, she told herself she could do this. If she was going to do this, then she needed to follow his lead, show a little of that savoir faire she’d promised herself earlier in the day, and answer his question like a composed adult. Closing her eyes, and ignoring the slight foolishness she felt doing it, she allowed his voice to echo in her head.
What do you like about men’s bodies?
An image bloomed to life. A strong male hand, wide palms, long fingers.
“I like your hands,” she said. “That first day in the bungalow, I watched you work. You seemed…skilled. Capable.”
He made a quiet noise of approval.
Audra remembered staring at his butt that first day too. “And I like you in the jumpsuit,” she said, a little tease, knowing he’d get she was kidding.
He showed her he did by delivering a gentle pinch to her cheek. “What else?”
Her own behind squirmed in the seat as she thought of his muscled chest beneath her palms. The way that it looked, naked and sweaty, when he’d played volleyball on the beach. “You have a very nice torso,” she said primly.
“Is that so?”
“And of course you’re handsome, but you’ve heard that a thousand times.”
“Not from you,” he answered, sounding smug.
Then another image flashed in her brain, Kane’s mouth descending, moments before he kissed her. Following that was a memory of the kiss itself, the heat of his lips, the powerful thrust of his tongue, the way he took the weight she leaned into him and ate at her mouth as if her taste was something he couldn’t get enough of.
Her breath backed up in her lungs and she felt a heavy warmth pool between her thighs. Her nipples tightened into aching buds against the cups of her bra.
“What are you thinking about now?” he asked, his voice low, a sexy burr. “Because I know it’s getting you hot.”
She twitched. “Kane—”
“What’s getting you hot, baby?” His palm landed on her bare thigh, and he pushed up the hem of her dress, caressing her and comforting her at the same time. “What am I doing inside that head of yours?”
“Kissing me,” she admitted, whispering. “Just kissing me.”
“Good. You keep thinking of me kissing you until we stop. I want you soft and wet and swollen when we get back to the resort.”
“Kane—”
“You do that for me, baby. Be good.”
And so Audra did, because being good was her nature, and because who could say no to such a gorgeous man?
Such a gorgeous, arrogant man.
The man who was going to take her to bed as soon as they got back to the resort. She shivered, but it was in anticipation now, not out of nervousness. Her nerves seemed to have melted along with any idea of resisting him.
Smart man, to pose that question and—wait a minute.
He’d asked her what she liked about men and she’d spilled what she liked about him. God, he knew what he was doing, didn’t he? He knew what he was doing with her.
If she couldn’t have an orgasm under the hands of Kane Hathaway, she was doomed, forever…broken.
“Baby,” Kane whispered, and his hand was on her thigh again, heavy and warm and impossible not to think about. And think about it in other places as well. “In your head, my mouth is on you. Imagine it…”
Audra did as he suggested, only to float on heated fantasy until she felt the car come to a final halt. “You stay put,” Kane said. “I’m coming around to get you.”
The memory of his touch lingered on her leg even as he opened her door and helped her out. Then he had his hand on her again—nothing overt, a guiding touch on her elbow, fingertips to the small of her back—as they walked into the resort’s reception area then immediately turned right to a bank of elevators.
Her breath whooshed in and she glanced over as he pressed the button for the top floor. “We’re not going to my place—” she began.
“I’ve got a suite,” he said. “I don’t always stay there—” He broke off, his gaze narrowing. “What?”
“Nothing,” she said hastily. What did she care if it was his sex lair? That’s what she wanted wasn’t it?
The elevator pinged open and he hustled her inside, then bent over her, his hand on her chin to bring her face to his. “I’ve actually never brought a woman here.”
She tried to toss her hair, but his fingers tightened on her face. “It’s none of my business.”
“Now, you are my business. Just you.”
The doors glided open on another chime and too soon she found herself in a sizeable suite, a spacious living area with wet bar and a bedroom she could see through another doorway. Presumably a bath beyond.
The magnificent view from the windows showed Dragonfly Beach and the ocean to the horizon line.
Audra’s nerves came alive, and she considered making a run for it.
“Hey,” Kane said gently.
Her head swiveled toward him. His was tilted, his eyes studying her. “Relax. Take a few deep breaths.”
“I’m too much work,” she said, her voice high with apprehension. What had she been thinking, coming up with him to his rooms, planning to have an encounter with a man of his experience? On the heels of him learning all her own experiences had led only to fake orgasms and frustration?
“No,” he said, moving toward her. “You need to get out of your head and we need to get onto something more interesting.”
Before she knew what he was about, he had pulled her into his arms and he was kissing her, the thrust of his tongue immediate and sure. Audra clutched at his biceps, nails digging in, to keep herself upright. When Kane lifted his mouth from hers, she had no air at all and she only stared up at him, dazed. Somehow, they were in the bedroom.
“Yeah, I like this look on you,” he said, rubbing a knuckle down the slope of her nose. “You keep your mind on kissing, baby. Nothing else.”
He swooped in again, and this time her knees sagged. With a laugh, he pulled her to the bed and they fell upon it, kissing and rolling so that she was ultimately under him. Then he broke the kiss to prop his body on his elbows, his eyes on her face. She stared back, unblinking, and some emotion moved between them, big and weighty. It settled in her chest.
“Kane…” she said, uncertain again. Her toes curled as if gripping the edge of a cliff.
His mouth quirked, and then he pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped a few times on the screen. Music came pouring from unseen speakers, a sexy, soulful pulse.
She blinked at the so-obvious song, then laughed, suddenly tickled by the choice. “Marvin Gaye?” she said. “Is this your secret weapon? You pull out Marvin Gaye?”
“Nothing beats Marvin,” Kane said, grinning. “‘Let’s Get it On,’ is simple and straightforward, just how I like it.”
She had to grin back, because she figured he’d made the selection to ease some tension out of the moment. “Simple and straightforward like you?”
“Exactly.” He cupped her face in his hands. “That’s why the first time you come it’s going to be just that way. My mouth, working you, taking you there.”
Heat rushed over her, through her, making her burn. Her smile died. “I…Kane…”
“You like my kisses,” he said, and bent his head to the side of her neck. She shivered, the whole-body kind as his tongue traced designs on her sensitive skin.
Her hands went to his shoulders but he pulled them off, holding them in his. “I meant to tell you what I like about a woman’s body, Audra,” he murmured. “Breasts and ass and that sweet, sweet place in between.”
Oh, God.
Then he went back to kissing her neck, his mouth hot and wet. He pushed her hands under the pillow beneath her head. “Leave them,” he ordered, then crawled down her body, his lips cruising over her clothes until he had reached her mons. He kissed there too, his eyes up to catch her gaze. “It’s pulsing, isn’t it?” His strong tongue managed to work into her groove, over the light cotton of her dress and the silky material of her panties. He flattened it against the stiff swell of her clit.
Audra stilled as pleasure shot through her.
Kane did it again, then lifted his head, smiled. “Time to get naked, baby.”
Before she could blink, he’d hauled her to a sitting position and yanked her dress over her head. Then he sat back, as if thunderstruck.
“Jesus Christ. You’ve been wearing that under there all day?”
Audra sucked in a breath and glanced down, taking in the matching bra and panty set, the palest shade of lemon sherbet, the straps of the bra and the cups a sheer, gauzy fabric. The tiny panties were kept up at the hips by matching ties. Both were a far cry from her usual practical cotton underwear. Her face heated. “Husband-pleasing stuff.”
Kane’s brows lowered and he looked…angry?
“Never worn before,” she said, not sure why she was making the point. It wasn’t possible for him to be possessive of her, was it? “Never seen on me by anyone, um, else.”
The words seemed to calm him, though, and his expression cleared. “Pretty.” His fingertips traveled the line of the low-cut demi-bra. “Now show me what’s underneath it.”
Her eyes widened.
“Undress for me, baby.” He leaned back, his gaze on her body.
Wow. He really knew what he was doing. Just that heated look in his eyes had her panting and her belly was tight with desire. The panties were drenched and he was going to know in a minute if he kept watching like that.
“Please,” he said, soft as butter as she hesitated.
But it was the want that he communicated without a word that had her trembling hands moving behind her back to the hooks. When it dangled in her hand, Kane reached for the bra and rubbed one cup over his cheek before setting it aside. “Mm,” he murmured. “Smells like you.”
Swallowing hard, Audra thought the bed might combust from her body heat.
“Next,” Kane demanded, hand out. “Panties.”
Gathering her courage, she wiggled out of them, then placed the scrap of fabric in his outstretched palm, while her pulse thrummed at her throat, wrists, and between her legs. Her eyes went wide as he brought the underwear to his mouth. He licked the gusset.
“Tastes like you,” he said, with obvious appreciation.
Audra trembled. “Task accomplished,” she called out.
“What, baby?” He placed her panties on the bedside table.
“I think I just had an orgasm.”
His smile grew, slow and white. Gleaming like a shark’s. Her body shivered and she felt every centimeter of her bare skin prick with anticipation…and a little trepidation too. Her toes curled tight again, trying to hang on to that cliff of sanity.
“If you only think,” Kane said, “then there’s still pleasure left for me to provide.”
With that, he pounced, fully dressed, on her naked body.
His mouth dragged over her, branding her with scorching kisses from her throat to her hips. She squirmed and wiggled and moaned, but his big hands kept her still for him, then turned her, then turned her back again so she was touched everywhere by his fire.
Then he focused on her breasts.
They were on the smallish side and had never seemed that sensitive to her, but Kane obviously was a breast man as he’d said, because he kissed and laved endlessly, soft touches and lazy circles that left her feeling liquid inside, her body languid. Then his mouth grew greedy and he sucked biting kisses on the soft globes until she whimpered, needing more, needing attention to the aching points of her nipples.
His tongue nudged one, then the other, and she whimpered again. “Sweet,” he murmured against her flesh. “Sweet berries.” Then he cupped a breast with his hand, lifting it higher to latch on. To suck. Ravenously.
Audra’s hips shot high. He threw his leg over her thighs, the denim deliciously rough against her skin. He moved to her other breast, whispering to her in soothing tones. Stay still, baby. Let me take you there.
But when he took her other nipple between his lips, his tongue pressing it hard to the roof of her mouth, her fingers clutched at his head. Without letting up the pressure on her throbbing flesh, he moved her hands again, shoving them beneath the pillow once more. Her body squirmed, the additional restraint stoking her excitement. “Oh, God.”
Kane let her nipple go with a wet pop that sounded so filthy she shivered. “Bondage,” he murmured as he drew his chin down the center of her body to her belly. His stubble scratched and tickled and sent her squirming some more. “We’re definitely going to play with that.”
Then he climbed between her legs, pushing them wider and sliding her knees high. Audra’s ragged breaths couldn’t seem to provide enough air and her head spun, taking the room around them away. There was nothing beyond the two of them, connected by that hot, greedy look on Kane’s face. The two of them, linked.
It was amazing, arousing and she felt flushed all over, swollen and yearning. “Please,” she said. “Please, Kane.”
He glanced up at her face, then redirected his gaze to stare at her wet flesh, his breathing quick and deep. That he remained fully dressed only added to her sense of vulnerability and heated need.
The man could do anything to her…and she wanted it. She wanted everything that Kane would allow.
His hands moved, thumbing her apart to reveal more. “So damn pretty,” he said, his breath was hot on her intimate flesh. “So fuckin’ pretty.”
Her belly jumped and now embarrassment mixed with desire as Good Girl Audra tried asserting herself. She was in bed with a man she hardly knew. Letting him touch her, taste her, and hoping he’d take her where no man had taken her before.
And right now he was looking at her.
There.
Her next whimper sounded worried instead of aroused.
Kane’s head shot up, his eyes narrowing. “Baby.”
Rising to her elbows, words tumbled from her mouth. “This is probably a bad idea. What was I thinking?” She was nude and he was dressed, this powerful man who’d had dozens and dozens of women in his bed who could come at will. “You’ll fail and we’ll both feel bad. Maybe it will cause you bedroom problems, you know, in the future. I can’t be the cause of that. I’d never sleep at night.”
Instead of answering, with his gaze still on her face, he slid one finger over her drenched flesh, rubbing with a tender touch.
Every muscle strung tight. “Oh, my.” Delicious. Fantastic. Good Girl Audra, go away.
He stroked over her delicate skin again, and needy and wanting, Audra fell back. “Okay,” she said, sliding her hands beneath the pillow once more, surrendering to the renewed desire his simple touch could bring. “Do your best.”
He chuckled, the sound dark and sexy and she closed her eyes, tensing in anticipation for the next light brush of his fingers.
But this time it was firm and wet and velvety. His tongue flicking over her, a tease, a temptation. She swallowed a moan as he did it again, the light touches making her belly tighten and her toes cramp. Opening her eyes, her gaze fixated on his dark head between her pale thighs. Oh. My. God. She didn’t blink, mesmerized by the sight. Then his dark lashes lifted and he stared into her eyes as he reached out again with his tongue and licked, long and soft. Once. Twice. Tender around her opening.
She made noise then, needy sounds, and he hushed her, his hands going to her hips. They tried to arch, but he held them in place as he licked her clit, a leisurely orbit before making his own noise, deep in his throat.
His head lifted, his mouth shining with her juices. “God, you taste good,” he said, then lowered his head again. Sucked.
Pleasure spasmed, agonizing in its sweetness. Audra moaned as waves of it began to roll over her, ripples of bliss that grew in intensity. Her heels dug into the mattress and she squeezed shut her eyes, moaning louder as he slid one long finger inside her. The pleasure peaked, nearly nudging into pain, and then she was coming down the other side, her sated body twitching with a dozen aftershocks.
Muscles and mind blown away, she lay flat on the bed, at the mercy of the massive sensory event she’d just experienced. Limp noodles had more autonomy.
“Baby,” Kane whispered.
She opened her eyes. Somehow, when she was out of it, he’d moved and now sat on the side of the mattress at her hip, still fully clothed, still fully confident in his masculine power. It oozed out of him and made her heart skip, her breath catch. He put a hand on her upper thigh and she trembled at the implied masculine power of it, another ghostly reminder of what he’d wrung from her.
“Better?” he asked, smiling.
Better. Not broken. Not a failure. A woman.
All because of this gorgeous, arrogant man.