Page 73 of Rival Hearts

Her gaze slid to my lips, and she shifted up a little, the swell of her breasts pushing against my chest.

“We shouldn’t do this,” she whispered.

“I know.”

She touched her fingers to my lips before she replaced them with her mouth and pressed her lips against mine.

21

CHARLOTTE

Icouldn’t help myself. The whole time I was with Alex, I waited for that little voice of reason to scream at me, to tell me this was wrong and I should snap out of it, get myself together.

It didn’t come.

Maybe the storm drowned it out. Maybe being so far removed from the world changed things.

Maybe what I was learning about Alex as we got to know each other better made me wonder if this really was so wrong. Maybe, just maybe, this was okay and I was allowed to love him.

Because that was what was happening here. I was falling for Alexander Blackwood.

Hard.

Not the man in the suits who dominated boardrooms and ran billion-dollar companies. Not the charming guy with the debonair way about him and all the right words at the right time.

The guy under it all, when the suits were stripped away and money didn’t matter and all that was left was the sum of who he was as a man.

When I kissed him, he didn’t hesitate to kiss me back. He cupped my neck, hands in my hair, and he slid his tongue between my lips. I sighed against him and melted into him a little more, relishing in the feel of how close he was. We shifted down on the tarp so that we were both lying down, and Alex rolled onto me with half his weight—just enough to pin me down but not enough to hurt me.

He was always so gentle with me, like he knew how delicate I was, and he wouldn’t ever hurt me. He was so big and so strong, muscles stacked on muscles and he could have such a hard way about him.

But when we were together, he was all mush, and despite his strength, he knew just how much to hold back. That was hotter than his chiseled body, his perfectly square jaw, his piercing blue eyes… and all those things were already hot as hell.

Alex’s tongue roamed my mouth, probing, tasting, and he gyrated his hips against me. I could feel his erection through my blanket.

He slowly slid his hand down my neck and onto my chest, pushing the blanket out of the way.

I gasped when his hand found my breast, and he teased my nipple. It hardened under his touch, and he pinched it lightly. I was wet already, aching, and wanting him inside me, but I didn’t want to rush this. We had all the time in the world and no reason not to take the whole night.

The flame on the table danced, and the wind howled outside the glass walls of the lantern room above us, the waves crashing below us. We were safe and warm and there was nothing to worry about.

He trailed kisses down my neck and sucked and nibbled my earlobe. I shivered and moaned softly, running my fingers through his thick, dark hair. He continued moving his mouth downward, kissing his way to my breasts.

He paused when he got to my nipple and looked up at me, a wicked smile on his face. “This one’s mine.”

He lowered his mouth and gently sucked.

“Oh!” I moaned, my breath catching in my throat.

He took his time, teasing, licking, sucking, until I was practically begging him to keep going, to give me more, to never stop.

I had never had a lover quite like him before. He was skilled and experienced and knew exactly what he was doing. But it wasn’t just that. With Alex, nothing was just about what was on the outside.

I ran my hands over his back as he worshipped my breasts, moving from one to the other. His back muscles rippled under the skin, bulging as he held himself up with one arm so he didn’t crush me.

I moaned and gasped, his attention on my nipples sending pulses of pleasure through my body, and it settled between my legs. I wanted more, but he seemed content to pay homage to my breasts, and I was content to let him.

“I’ve wanted this for a long time,” he whispered against my nipple. He moved to the other one and licked, sucked, then flicked his tongue against it.