Quinn couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this amped for a date.

And it was definitely a date. Their second one, by his counting.

Lunch had been glorious. Fun and easy to start, and then heated and dirty at the end. Just a tease. Leah knew how to play all the good games and wasn’t interested in any of the awful ones.

He put a couple of strips of condoms in a backpack, along with a bottle of wine, a corkscrew, two plastic cups, and a spare t-shirt. Just in case his got wet…or something else.

After he left his room, he swung past the dining room. His brother Will was in the bar, hitting on Mick’s fiancée’s friend who was trying to pour drinks. Quinn cut him a wide berth and aimed for Brayden, the third member of their posse.

Unlike his brother, Quinn had no interest in leaving the SEAL teams for private industry. Not even a security training firm headquartered in a Caribbean paradise, although it sure looked good on the other guys.

Well, Mick and Brayden.

Will was looking a little rough.

“He’s not gonna quit with her, is he?” Quinn asked Brayden.

The other man just shrugged. “Keeps him occupied.”

“Speaking of which, I’ve got a date.”

“Fast work.”

“That’s how I roll. So I’m not going to be around for dinner.” Or much of anything else this week, he silently hoped.

“Gotcha. I’ll pass on the intel.”

“Thanks, man. Might see you tomorrow.”

“Makes no difference to me. And Will’s got a one-track, Daphne-track, mind right now. Mick and Cara only have eyes for each other. You’re all good, bud. I’ll see you around. Just make sure you’re here for the wedding on Saturday.”

They bumped fists, then Quinn took off down the beach without a second glance.

Leah was waiting at the small marina they’d passed the day before. He’d liked her in the pink bikini yesterday, and the black one-piece covered in a purple sarong earlier today. But tonight, in a white crepe dress that just hinted at her gorgeous body beneath, she was breathtaking. Her hair was long and loose, her waves shiny and carefree in the late day sun, and those sunglasses were still firmly in place.

The lady liked her armor.

And Quinn was going to enjoy the challenge of easing her out of it.

He stopped in front of her. She didn’t hide her up and down glance, and he didn’t miss the little smile that turned up the corners of her lush mouth at his snug white tank top and black board shorts.

“You look good,” he murmured.

“That’s my line.” She pushed to a stand and handed him a basket that had been hiding behind her. “A dinner packed for us by the resort.”

He took it with his right hand, then pointed to his backpack. “I brought us wine.” And condoms, he added silently. Maybe she read his mind, or maybe she just had a dirty imagination—he hoped maybe it was both—because her eyes sparkled.

“All the essentials.”

“Exactly.”

She brushed her fingertips against his upper arm, just above his elbow, and guided him down the dock to a modern sailboat in the end slip. “This is us.”

He gave a low whistle as he took in the details of the watercraft. “This is pretty sweet.”

“I took a refresher lesson the day I arrived. Impressed my instructor enough he agreed to let me rent it as much as I wanted this week, provided he didn’t have any other lessons.”

A stab of unfamiliar jealousy hit him square in the gut. He swallowed his questions about this instructor and nodded instead. Safer that way.

“Do you know your way around the lines?” she asked as she stepped on board with ease.

“I know enough to be of service.”

She glanced back at him over her shoulder, a bright smile spilling across her face. “Oh, those are my favorite words.”

He followed her onto the deck. He wanted to haul her into his arms, but he settled for taking both the basket and his backpack down below. But she would be in his arms tonight, there was no doubt about that. Her not-so-casual touches increased after she started the motor and instructed him to untie the dock lines. When he stepped back onto the boat with the last dock line, she slid her hand down the length of his forearm before steering them deftly into the open water. As they raised the sails together, she brushed against him here and there, until he was a breath away from tugging her onto the deck with him and demanding to know what he needed to do to get even more.

Maybe with his mouth. Or his teeth. His cock. She could have every last inch of his eager, hungry body.

* * *

Leah had totally given in to her desire to touch Quinn. Only their shared task of getting the sailboat out to sea kept her from doing more. From the second he’d stopped in front of her and said she looked good, something had started smoldering inside her.

And she was pretty sure it would burst into flames as soon as they were well and truly alone, surrounded by nothing but the ocean and the warm rays of the sun.

Following the maps she’d carefully perused that afternoon, they curled around the coral reef, heading for an uninhabited island a short sail away. Once they were in a good position to anchor, she turned them head-to-wind, and Quinn pushed the mainsail out, slowing them down, and once they were stopped, they brought the mainsail down and dropped anchor.

Quinn knew more than the basics. His rope work was deft, his moves sure as they tested the anchor’s hold.

“Are you hungry?” she asked when he climbed around the side of the boat, the sails secured.

He nodded slowly. “Whatcha got?”

“I really don’t know.” She licked her lips. Damn, that was true on more than one level. “The hotel packed the basket and I was in a rush to meet you, so…”

He moved closer, joining her behind the wheel. Warmth radiated off his body, and she breathed in the scent of him, masculine and fresh. “I was wondering if my eagerness was one-sided.”

She tipped her head up toward his. “It’s not. Although I’m not sure exactly what we’re doing here.”

“Having fun, I hope.”

“Definitely that.”

“No strings or expectations, if that’s your worry.”

“I wouldn’t say worry. But I usually have more rules about…well, everything.”

“I’m not a big rule guy.”

She laughed. “I got that loud and clear. And that’s okay.”

“How many rules do you have about kissing?”

At least a dozen. “None that matter,” she breathed, turning to face him. They were squeezed into the small cockpit, the wheel on one side and the captain’s chair on the other. Thank goodness she’d moved it back and out of the way. She kept one hand on the wheel, and pressed the other against his chest. Hard muscle flexed against her palm.

“I’m not sure I believe you,” he said, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

She swayed against him. “I’m starting to think you re-write a lot of my rules.”

“In a good way?” He curved over her, his hand still on her neck. His thumb rubbed back and forth along the line of her jaw.

“I think so.” Her pulse was fluttering out of control—and perfectly, improbably, blissfully cool with that fact. At least for tonight, her body wanted this man in a fierce, uncontrolled way.

“You let me know if that changes,” he breathed as he lowered his mouth to hers.

“Okay.” And that was the last word she said for a long, sweet stretch of time, because Quinn’s lips were on hers and talking paled in comparison to that.

Quinn’s kisses were like everything else about him. Slow, dirty, and really, really fun.

When was the last time she’d had a first kiss like this? Maybe never. Her heart pounded in her chest as he stroked her face with his fingertips and slower-than-slowly found his way under her skin.

His lips caressed hers, back and forth, then a little harder, easing hers apart just enough for his tongue to slide against her skin. A taste. A tease. When she sighed, he did it again, and this time her tongue darted out to meet his. As soon as she did that, he fisted his hand in her hair, holding her into his kiss as he slide his tongue against hers. More than a taste now, more than a tease. Still slow, and definitely dirty, but serious. A kiss that meant business. A kiss that promised a hard, dirty fuck, and didn’t that just make her head spin, because she was one that was supposed to fuck his brains out.

She was supposed to kiss him silly.

Blood pounded in her ears as she warred inside her head, because this felt good. This felt right. And all the things she was supposed to do—have a career in the army, be a hard-as-nails top, take charge and enforce boundaries because behind them she was safe—all of that went out the window as soon as Quinn kissed her.

Well, the career shit had gone out the window before the kiss, but there was something about the way that Quinn consumed her that made her think about it now in a different way.

He tugged on her hair. Gently, just a wee bit of communication. Hey, lady, pay attention to me fucking your mouth. Right. She sighed and smiled against his lips as he pulled back.

Instead of reprimanding her, because that wouldn’t go over well and he clearly knew that, he just nuzzled his lips against her cheek, murmuring a nothing string of sounds that made her wet between the legs. Then he traced the corner of her mouth with the tip of his tongue before whispering, “you gonna let go of the wheel?”

She laughed against his mouth and threw both arms around his neck. “There. Better?”

“Much.”

This time, she kissed him as much as he kissed her, and they slowly spun around in a circle. Even though he was significantly bigger than her, Quinn was pretty easy to move around, and when she pressed his back against the wheel, he spread his legs wide and let her have at him. Running her hands over his torso, she kissed his jaw, his neck, enjoying the way his throat worked under her lips. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck again and climbed him like a tree.

Laughing, he palmed her ass and nipped at her lips, his teeth scraping her in a way she usually liked to deliver but from Quinn, very much liked to receive.

“Again,” she breathed.

He dragged his open mouth down her neck.

“Quinn…”

“Yes,” he growled. “Say my name.”

She did, over and over again until she was quite certain someone else had taken over her body. Responding to teeth and growls and fingerprints so tight on her ass she’d probably have bruises in the morning? Who was this pliant hussy and what had she done with Leah Saunders?

She couldn’t quite bring herself to care as Quinn’s questing fingers moved up her rib cage.

He, however, seemed to remember that this wasn’t exactly the plan. He stopped, although his heavy breathing assured her he was similarly affected. With a gruff crack to his voice, he fixed his gaze on her. “Dinner?”

She blinked at him. It took a few beats to remember that she’d offered him food. She exhaled roughly. “Yes.” Twisting around to look in all directions, she gestured toward the aft deck beyond the cockpit. “There?”

“I’ll get the basket.”

She dug out a soft blanket from under the bench cushion and stretched it out, then turned on two LED lanterns. They had a gorgeous view of the sun, now dipping low on the horizon.

“Great view,” he said gruffly as he settled next to her. She leaned against his arm and nodded, her gaze still hanging on the brilliant orange and pink rays smeared across the sky. He kissed her temple. “And the sunset’s nice, too.”

She blushed. “That’s a sweet line.”

“Not a line.”

She glanced sideways and did a double-take when she realized he was blushing, too.

He gave her a rueful grin. “If I’m gonna serve you up a line, it’ll be dirty. Like, great view. Be even better if those rays were painting your naked flesh.”

“That could be arranged.”

“Now?”

“What about dinner?”

“Ah.” He paused a beat. “Although I’m only hungry for you.”

She tipped her head back and laughed. “Now that’s a solidly dirty line.”

“Did it work?”

She took a deep breath and stroked her hands over the floaty fabric of her sundress, then nodded.