Page 43 of Something Real with the Sea Monster
“You’re not a mess. You’re perfect.”
The kiss feels so inevitable I don’t even know who starts it. All I know is that a moment later our lips connect, and a deep groan wrenches from me. I cup the back of her head, holding her there, unwilling to let her go. While I do, I plunder her mouth with my tongue, hungry for her taste, her sighs.
It doesn’t even matter that my cock is throbbing between us or that I’d love to pull her down over me. What matters is every second I have my mate in my arms and can give her exactly what she deserves, that she doesn’t get from anyone else. It’s good with me. Amazing. Those were her words. I have to trust that it’s true. I can’t imagine how this could ever feel any better, but I’ve only ever been with her. So I kiss her like my life depends on it, and as corny as that sounds, it does. Because if I mess this up and she leaves for good, then my life is over.
Without a shadow of a doubt.
TWENTY ONE
Tegan
It’s so good with Jack. It’s like he reads me in a way none of my other lovers have ever done. Or maybe it’s just because he actually listens. There’s no ego. No bullshit thinking that he knows what feels good for me. He asks, I tell him, and he gives me what I ask for. It’s that simple.
That simple and that perfect that it’s irresistible.
Can you blame me for giving in to it?
Jack’s hand cups my cheek possessively, and any resistance I had to the kiss is long forgotten in about a single heartbeat. And my heart is racing fast, thinking of all the delicious, perfect ways he’s made me come so far. Of the things he can do to my body.
His tentacles slide up my legs and one slips between us to toy with my clit over the bikini bottoms I have on.
I moan as he gets the pressure just right, rocking my hips and taking more from him than I should, selfishly giving in to sensation and pleasure.
“Tell me you feel it too,” he whispers as his lips skate over my neck.
I tip my head back, pulling him into me, threading my fingers through his hair. His cock is thick and rock hard between us, and I grind a little harder. “Oh, I feel it.”
He lifts his head, and I want to yank his hair and pull him back again, but what he says stops me. “No, I mean us. The chemistry. The connection.”
Of course I feel it. I’m surprised the whole of Kraken Cove can’t see it sizzling between us, but I’m not going to say it. Something in the intensity of his look tells me that would be a bad idea right now. “Jack—”
“You have to. How could you not?”
I want to float in his arms and let him do whatever he wants with my body. I want to stay here all evening and all night just letting him touch me. Touching him.
I want to give him everything he wants, but I can’t, can I?
My heart has already survived being trampled several times. I’ll survive this too. But his? He’s been waiting for his mate, and I’m not her. I can’t be her.
I’m so, so jealous of whoever it is. This guy is a keeper. He’s literally begging to be kept.
He’s strong and caring and intuitive and he actually listens.
I’m hot in the warm water, writhing on his lap, desperate for more, but also for air. For the space to breathe and catch up with my feelings. Or his.
I pull away panting, sliding up onto the edge of the tub and tucking my legs up into my chest. “What are we doing?”
“Whatever you want and nothing more,” says Jack quietly. “You know you only have to ask me. For anything. For everything.”
My throat feels raw. My eyes sting. My mascara is probably running. “I don’t know if I can do this.” Suddenly it all feels too real. I stand and stagger to the balustrade, bracing on the wooden railing and trying to catch my breath.
A gentle hand on my back makes me sigh.
“Do you want to stop?”
“No,” I say miserably. “That’s the problem. I never want to stop with you.”
“Then don’t.” He strokes up and down my back. Soothing, calming my ragged breath until the heat that returns is the heat between my thighs. “You don’t have to question it. You don’t have to worry about anything at all. I’ve got you.”
