Page 18 of Exposed

She glanced over at Eric. He was sprawled on the sofa, his long legs crossed at the ankles as he surfed the web for intel on hishalf of the reports. Even tousled and tired, he was still the sexiest man she’d ever seen. Fresh desire pooled in her core and despite her best intentions otherwise, Beth found herself wandering over to sit down next to him. “Find anything?”

“Nah.” He exhaled slowly. “You?”

“Nope.” She couldn’t resist tracing her finger over his cotton-covered chest, remembering how sleek and soft his skin had been beneath her touch the night before. Yes, she was here for her career. Yes, she’d planned to keep her hands to herself for the rest of the trip. But man, oh man. Temptation was a terrible thing to waste, and they were stuck here on this isolated island together. Plus, she didn’t think he’d been faking their kiss earlier. He’d been alert to the danger around them, but he’d wanted her. She could taste it.. And she wanted him. There was something about Eric that brought out her passionate side. With one finger, she closed his laptop and leaned in to nuzzle the side of his neck, the spot she’d learned the night before drove him crazy with need. “How about we take a break?”

“I thought we weren’t doing that.” His gaze was level on her, but she could see the heat in his eyes.

She shrugged. “I know it’s not wise, and I was trying to put some distance between us earlier, but…well. Why shouldn’t we enjoy each other?” She could think of several reasons, actually—but she was willing to ignore all of them if it meant having him again.

He let just enough silence pass that she thought he might reject her offer. With a growl, he set his computer aside and pulled her onto his lap. “You have on too many clothes.”

Her smile sly, she reached behind her back to free the knot securing her bikini top. One more tug to the string around herneck and her top fell away. The hunger in his stare as he looked at her breasts nearly made her orgasm on the spot. He made her feel beautiful and sexy and infinitely desirable, and for a girl who’d been on a dry spell the last few years, he was like balm to her weary soul.

The rest of their clothes seemed to vanish in a flurry of tugs and tosses. Soon they were both naked and she was flat on her back on the sofa, Eric hovering above her hot and ready and so, so hard. Bless LoveFix resorts, they seemed to have condoms available just about everywhere for just such occasions. She pulled one out of the glass bowl on the table beside them and smoothed it onto his erection, taking her time to stroke him until he groaned with need. Someday, she wanted to explore the length of him with her tongue too, but for now she wanted him too badly to wait.

Eric seemed to feel the same way because he leaned down and kissed her, teasing the sensitive folds between her legs with his fingers and stroking her clit, sliding one finger inside her, then two, preparing her before driving his cock inside her. Buried hilt- deep within her, he stopped, his forehead resting against hers as her body adjusted to his.

Beth wrapped her legs around his waist and dug her heels into his taut butt, urging him to move, urging him to take her higher, harder, faster, urging him to make her forget her story and her career and everything except this moment, with him.

He didn’t disappointment. He angled slightly to hit that just-right spot inside her, the one that made her tighten around him and made the pressure inside her build to the point of no return. She drew him down for another kiss, loving the scrape of the hair on his pecs against her stiff nipples. Before too long, she was arching, rubbing her clit against his pubic bone, straining,yearning for completion. Last night had been tender and gentle. Today was all about satisfaction.

“Oh, God! Yes, please.” She cried out, breath panting and hips bucking.

“Please what, baby?” he growled, nipping her earlobe with his teeth as he reached between them to stroke her clit again. “Say it. Tell me what you want.”

“I want you to make me come.”

His deep chuckle, along with the steady circling of his fingers against her most sensitive flesh sent her over the edge. “Yes. That’s it, Beth. Come for me. Come for me hard.”

She did, her world shattering into a million bright shards of iridescent light. Wave after wave of pleasure washed over her as she held him tight. He thrust into her again and again, driving toward his own completion. Soon, he went rigid against her and came hard inside her, his head back and his eyes closed, giving himself up to sensation.

Afterward, they lay in the living room, soaking in the warm ocean breezes blowing in off the veranda. Everything seemed peaceful and right and good with her in his arms. Eric had rolled so that he was spooning Beth from behind, and he couldn’t seem to stop stroking her soft skin or kissing the back of her shoulder.

He should get up and get dressed. He shouldn’t be this open, this vulnerable with her and yet, he was.

“Tell me why you’re still single,” he said against the skin of her shoulder. He’d been wondering about that. “You’re beautiful, smart, funny. Some lucky guy should’ve snapped you up a long time ago.”

She snorted. “Are you proposing?”

Her question hit him square in the chest, nearly knocking the wind from him. Of course he wasn’t. He’d never even considered marriage. But she hadn’t been serious, right?

“No,” he said and leaned up on one elbow to peer down at her. “Relationships aren’t my thing.”

“And why is that?” She arched a dark brow at him, giving him a glimpse of what she’d be like during an interview. “Let’s do tit for tat. I tell you my secrets, and you tell me yours. Deal?”

Eric sighed and laid back down. He didn’t talk about why he wasn’t looking for anything long-term. It was too wound up in his past, in his childhood that he kept hidden away in a little compartment in his brain. If she wanted to know, though, he’d tell her. He could open up at least a little with her. “Deal.”

“Fine.” She rolled over carefully to face him. The sofa wasn’t that wide, but it was enough room to keep things intimate and damn if this didn’t feel like the most intimate conversation of Eric’s life. “I was engaged once, in college. Devon was everything I thought I wanted in a guy. Handsome, smart, ambitious. We had a lot in common. But that’s where the problems started. I think we weretoomuch alike. We were together for two years, but just before graduation, he got a job offer in Boston. I’d just accepted a big internship with a newspaper in Washington.”

“So distance got in the way?” He’d watched that happen often enough with his buddies in the SEALs. They were apart fromtheir spouses and girlfriends too much, and it took a toll on their relationships.

“We might have found a way to work that out—other couples do. No, the problem was that he expected me to just give up my opportunity and move to the East Coast with him.”

“Yikes. That’s pretty selfish.” Eric had his faults, but he’d never ask someone to give up their dreams for him. He’d seen that go down with his parents, his mother giving up her own goals and aspirations, any sort of normal life to be with his con-man father. He sure as hell never planned to make those same mistakes. Love was about equality, about give and take, or at least it should be, in his mind. “So, you dumped the bastard then?”

“I did,” she spoke softly, but he didn’t miss the slight hurt edging her tone. She’d cared about that bastard, obviously, if she’d agreed to marry him. The thought of some selfish dude breaking Beth’s heart bothered him more than it should. She shrugged and gave a sad laugh. “He didn’t understand my reasoning. Said I would eventually give up my career anyway when we got married and had kids, so what difference did a few years make?”

“Wow. Yeah. That dude’s messed up. Welcome to the twenty-first century, home slice.”

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