* * *

Malcolm had never felt like this before. The only thing that mattered was Josie’s pleasure. Of course, he always wanted his partners to feel good, but the truth was, there had always been a selfish component to it. He had always wanted something for himself too. But tonight, it honestly didn’t matter to him if all he did was make her come over and over and over again. With no release for himself. Simply giving her pleasure was the greatest pleasure he’d ever known, he realized. Just that alone, just hearing her cries, feeling her body growing warm and damp and then breaking apart beneath his tongue and hands—hell, it was so damn good he’d never experienced anything like it. Never realized that sex could be more than it had previously been for him. Slowly, he kissed his way back up her body.

Every inch of her was sweet. Perfect. He lingered over her curves, and by the time he was standing, he was desperate to start all over again.

Her lips tilted up in a slightly shy smile as she looked into his eyes. “That was… amazing.”

He loved the complete honesty with which she told him her feelings. Whether she was nervous. Whether she was shy. Whether she was loving the way he’d made her feel.

“That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt.” Then her eyes clouded. “But you haven’t even—”

He kissed her before she could finish the sentence. Kissed her to say without words just how much she pleased him. Just how much he adored giving her pleasure. “I want to take you to my bed,” he said as he drew back. “I want to make you come apart again and again. That’s all I want.”

This time, she was the one pressing her lips to his, kissing him sweetly, but with a new confidence, it seemed. And even more desire than before. “That sounds incredible,” she said softly. “But I’d love more than that. I want all of you, Malcolm. For the next two weeks, or for however long we’re both having fun, I don’t want you to feel you have to hold anything back. Whatever you want to give me, I want it. All of it.”

He groaned, her words inflaming him further. He lifted her in his arms and strode back to the main bedroom, where she had been sleeping without him for the past two nights. He laid her on the bed, allowing himself to take his fill of staring. Just staring and loving every part of her.

“I could gaze at you for hours.” He saw her cheeks flush, watched other parts of her flush, too, but she didn’t cover herself up.

“I want to take your clothes off now. I want to stare at you too.” She sat up on the bed and opened her legs, pulling him into the V of her thighs. She put her hands flat on his chest. His heart was racing, and he knew she could feel it. Knew she could feel how she was affecting every part of him.

“My heart,” she said. “It’s racing that fast too.”

“Good,” he said. “I’d hate to be the only one who feels this way. Who wants this much.”

Slowly, she slid her hands beneath his T-shirt. His abdominal muscles flexed and pulsed beneath her exploring hands. “You have so many muscles. You’re so hard all over.”

“Hard is the right word for it,” he teased, loving it when she laughed softly. And then she was pulling his shirt up over his head. He liked the way her eyes widened when she saw his bare chest.

“Do you live in a gym? I thought you were working all the time.”

He shrugged, enjoying her frank enjoyment of his body. “I do work out some, run and do weights, and get out on the river when I can. But I admit I got good genes from my parents. We tend to build muscle pretty quickly, we Sullivans.”

Somewhere along the way, though, it seemed that she had stopped listening, because she was pressing her lips to his skin, first to his pecs, which instinctively flexed beneath her lips, and at the same time, running her hands over his abdomen again and then around his lower back, sliding her fingers beneath the denim of his jeans over his hips.

He never wanted her to stop kissing him. Touching him. In the same way that he worshiped every inch of her, he felt that she was doing the same with him. That she was enjoying the journey to pleasure as much as she would enjoy the eventual explosion when they came together. She was still kissing his chest, his neck, and then his lips. Then she moved her hands to the fastening of his jeans. Her fingertips trembled slightly as she undid it and then pulled down the zipper. And frankly, he wasn’t feeling much steadier than she was.

Every second with Josie was glorious. The sexiest, hottest evening he’d ever known.

She pushed the denim down off his hips, and his boxers went with them. His damn boots were still on, and he gave a growl as he kissed her and then turned to yank them off. As soon as he was completely free of his clothes and shoes, he leaned over her on the bed.

She laughed, and the breathy sound reverberated through the small shiplap room. He’d brought women here before, when he was younger and lived on board, but making love with a woman in his bed on River Star had never felt so joyful.

For a moment, he dreamed about just locking them in and making love to her over and over until they ran out of food.

But that wasn’t realistic, especially as Mari was counting on both of them. So tonight, he’d live out that fantasy as much as he could. Tonight, he’d love her in every way that she wanted, just in case she woke up in the morning and changed her mind. He had to get his fill of her. Even though a voice in the back of his head told him that would never happen, he had to at least try.

He rolled over so that she was straddling him, so beautiful, luminous as the setting sun poured in through the window. “My river goddess. That’s what you are.”

He didn’t know where those words came from. He just knew they were true. That she felt like the one thing that had been missing all these years. That having her here, on River Star, made the houseboat feel like a true home.

She laughed, another wonderfully warm sound. “I love that,” she said with a smile. “River goddess.”

She leaned down to kiss him, her breasts against his chest, all of her teasing him with a promise of even more pleasure. She began to run kisses down his chest again and then lower, low enough that he was soon groaning as she tasted him with her tongue, with sweet little kisses that drove him crazy. But when she took him into her mouth he knew he wouldn’t be able to handle another second.

A little rougher than he intended, he lifted her back up over him. “Condom.” The word was raw, barely intelligible. “In the top drawer.”

Please God, let there be at least one left. He hadn’t had sex on his boat in so long. But thankfully, his wish was granted, because there was a partial box there.