Page 88 of Property of Anchor

I sat up on one elbow to mirror her.“What are you thinking?”

“Shay.She doesn’t have anywhere to go, Anchor.She’s living out of her car.I don’t think she’s expecting a handout, but I don’t think she’s ever had anyone give her a chance either.”

“You really planning on sticking around if you’re already making plans for the cabins, huh?”I asked, watching the way her lips twitched.

She leaned in and kissed me, soft and slow.“Can Shay stay in the cabin?”

I slid my hand to the back of her neck and pulled her closer.“Are you planning on sticking around?”I asked instead of answering.I would give Pearl whatever she wanted as long as she was mine.

Her lips were right above mine, breath warm as her voice dipped to a whisper.“You’re gonna have to burn the island down to get rid of me.”

That was it.That was the last damn thread holding me together.

I crushed my mouth to hers and kissed her like it was the last breath I’d ever take.She made a noise deep in her throat, and her fingers curled in my hair as she shifted.She swung one leg over my hips to straddle me.Her body settled on mine, heat to heat, and I let out a low groan.She reached down, tugged my boxers down just enough, and positioned herself.

She sank down slow, inch by inch, both of us holding our breath until I was fully inside her.My hands gripped her thighs, but she rolled her hips, and I nearly lost it.

She ground against me with slow, deliberate pressure that had my blood surging.

I slid my hands up the sides of her thighs, gripped her hips, and let her move at her own pace.Her fingers tangled in my hair again as our mouths met, hot, hungry, desperate.

The kind of kiss that felt like a promise.

I laid back and let her take control.Her nightshirt was thin and soft and rode up her thighs as she moved.When I slipped a hand beneath it to cup her bare ass, she gasped and rocked harder against me.

“Jesus,” I hissed.“You feel like heaven.”

She leaned down and bit my shoulder.“You talk too much.”

I laughed, but the sound turned into a groan as she sat up and reached for the hem of her shirt, pulling it over her head and tossing it to the side.

The sight of her naked and lit by the faint silver of the moonlight nearly wrecked me.

“You sure you’re real?”I asked, my voice thick.

She moved faster, and her eyes connected with mine.“You tell me.”

“Fuck, Pearl…”

Her hands slid up my chest as she started to move more like she knew exactly what she was doing to me.My eyes locked with hers, and I saw everything there: heat, strength, love, fire.

She wasn’t just mine.

She waseverything.

She rode me with purpose.Every rise and fall of her hips made the air crackle.The rhythm built between us, fast and wild, until I was sitting up, mouth on her chest, and my arms wrapped tight around her.

We crashed into each other like a storm.

She came first.Her body clenched, and head thrown back.I followed a heartbeat later, groaning her name into the crook of her neck as we came undone together.

She collapsed against my chest.Breath ragged, her heart thudding against mine.

We stayed like that, wrapped in sweat and heat and the heavy kind of silence that only comes when there’s nothing more to prove.

Nothing more to say.

Just us.