Page 27 of On the Line

Waving her toward me, I grinned. “Come here.”

Her hungry gaze took me in before she sat up, scooting closer.

I lifted her tank top over her head, pausing to soak up the sight of her naked form. Perfect breasts peeked from beneath her golden tresses. I pushed her hair back over her shoulders, biting my lip. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

Her chin dipped shyly. I hooked my finger under her jaw, turning her eyes up to mine. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.” I lowered my head to plant a kiss on her waiting lips.

As the kiss deepened, I eased her back onto the floor of the mangrove treehouse. Her arms wrapped around my neck, knees opening for me once more. My body pulsed with longing as I positioned myself at her entrance. Breaking from the kiss to watch her face, I eased into her slowly.

Ellie gasped as I filled her, her blue eyes so wide I could see into their depths as she clenched around me. When she winced, I pulled back and took my time, waiting for her body to open for me.I pressed gently to her limit and stayed, throbbing inside her until her hips shifted to try and take more of me. Our bodies moved in sync while the sounds of our heavy breath drifted into the mangroves.

I slid in and out with slow strokes, until the insistent swivel of her hips urged me to speed up my measured rhythm. Her hands trailed down my back to my butt and pulled me deeper.My body desperately worked to give her what she craved. I didn’t care that splinters from the weathered plywood bored into my knees. No pain could trump the pleasure that pulsed between us.

Ellie’s moans sounded more like pleas with every thrust. I pressed harder, abandoning self-control. Her nails dug into my flesh, drawing me deeper. “Yes, Spencer, yes.”

My heart pounding, I struggled to hold back. I’d never wanted anything more than I wanted this to last. Not just being inside her. Being with her.

The throbbing intensified when her moans strung together, her eyes glazed over in pure bliss. I grunted, unable to stifle all that had built up inside me any longer. It was almost too late as I finally pulled back, gushing onto her. My arms trembling as I met her gaze, I smiled into eyes as full of love as my heart was.

Ellie panted under me, her breath hot on my lips. “Forever won’t be long enough with you, Spencer Rodman.”

As if drawn by the magical current between us, dolphins flanked us as we paddled the kayak back to shore. I recounted something Waylan had told me once when we saw a pair playing on the surface. “They say dolphins are the only other mammals that have sex for pleasure.”

Ellie looked back over her shoulder with a smile. “They’re very intelligent, you know?”

We pulled the kayak onto the shore and walked alongside the house, the smell of bacon drifting down from the open window of the kitchen. We giggled when we heard her aunt Val singing along with Billy Joel as he croonedJust the Way You Are.

“You hungry?” Ellie asked, running her hand up my back. “Smells like breakfast is cooking.”

My stomach grumbled. “I’m starving. But wait. I’ll be right back.”

I went back to the truck, returning with the ring that’d been in the glove box ever since Ellie had tossed it into the rocks. I’d searched on hands and knees in the pea gravel for a good hour to find it. Holding the ring behind my back, I slipped the other arm around her waist and pulled her close. “I found this for you,” I said, praying to myself that she would take it back. The pink pearl glistened in the morning light.

Her hand on her heart, Ellie’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry I threw it away, Spencer. I was hurt.”

I took her hand and slid it onto her left ring finger. “Don’t apologize. I deserved it. I’m just glad it wasn’t lost forever.” More, I was glad thatshewasn’t lost forever.

“Me too.” Ellie stared at the ring, tears trickling down her cheek. “I love it, Spencer. So much.”

“I love you, Ellie. So much it hurts.”

She fell into my arms, turning her face up to whisper into my jaw. “I love you, too.” Her shoulders shook as she cried.

I held her tight, kissing the top of her head.

I still didn’t believe I deserved her, but I would spend my life trying to be the kind of man who did.

CHAPTER 13

The next few weeks, I was on pins and needles waiting for word to come. The Feds seized George’s boats and his houses, excavated the entire property on Smugglers Row and found millions buried alongside the septic tank in his yard. Sleep eluded me most nights, expecting DEA agents at my door any day, but they never came.

The mangrove shack became our refuge. Ellie and I spent hours dreaming and loving and planning our future in-between her classes and my bumbling attempts at starting the business.

Like dark and light, we blended our skills and our lives. Ellie finished spring semester, then focused her efforts and everything she had learned at FKCC to help fix my problem.

With his millions seized, George was going to definitely want this money when he got out, so we had to get busy cleaning it.

While Ellie managed the administrative side—filing to incorporate Rodman Reels, LLC, opening banking and investment accounts, and setting up the books to track the money—I haunted Rusty’s, keeping my ears peeled for every boat that came up for sale from Miami to Key West. I crawled in bilges, sounded hulls, checked oil and steering. Some boats were too expensive. Some were in disrepair. Some were too small. Others were way more boat than I needed.

---