Page 21

Chapter Twenty

EDEN

The harbour is dead quiet at six-thirty in the morning. I’m huddled by the bow doors, looking out for any sign of a barge approaching from the town side.

But I hear a speedboat approaching from Sunrise Island. Looks like Murph isn’t entering my strait from the front… so to speak. Never thought I’d learn to recognize the sound of an engine, but the Pavlovian reflex is real. My mouth is suddenly watering, and it’s definitely not at just the prospect of breakfast.

The engine sound suddenly dies down, like Murph is throttling back his speed.

“Shit. He’s almost here!”

I sprint back to the sleeping berth, only stopping for long enough to step into my shortest shorts—more for show than function. I’ve been coping with a semi for the past hour, and I can barely tuck myself in sideways.

I glance in the mirror, and then I grin. The bulge stretches my shorts in a clear line from my crotch to my thigh, almost poking right out of the leg of my shorts.

Perfect. With any luck, they won’t be staying on for long.

I pluck the fabric once or twice more, trying to keep myself from actually unintentionally sliding free from the fabric. Then I shove the door open with my shoulder and scamper to the railing. Murph’s just looped the rope around it and pulled it taut, bringing the boat closer.

“Hi,” I tell him breathlessly, a grin spreading over my face as he glances at me—and then does a double-take. The rope goes slack in his hand as his boat gently nudges the side of mine, but he’s just staring at me with his lips parted. His eyes are dark and hungry, skimming up and down from my bare torso to my bulge like he can’t decide where to look first.

Murph’s boat deck is lower than mine. From there, he can probably see straight up the leg of my shorts. And his reaction makes me feel about twenty feet tall, and sexier than a Greek god.

“Compliment accepted,” I tease him, leaning on the railing next to the opening.

“Huh?” Murph grunts. I giggle, waiting until he sheepishly clears his throat and drags his gaze up to look me in the eye. “Oh. Right. Uh… hi. And yes. Compliment… delivered.”

“Was it?” I tease him, rubbing my chin. “I’m not sure I heard it out loud.”

He looks me up and down again, and his grunt of impatient frustration turns into a long, low groan—a guttural noise that makes a shiver of sparks run straight down to my toes.

It might not be words, but…

“Yeah. Much better,” I breathe out, my voice hoarse. “More of that, please.”

The way he’s staring at me, it makes the blood rush from my brain, straight down south. My cock thickens in my shorts, lifting the leg even further away. I’m pretty sure that if I even try to move, I’m going to pop right out of my shorts and commit some serious public indecency.

There’s a look on his face like he has a plan. I don’t know what it is, but I bet I’ll like it. He finally tears his gaze from me and hastily loops the rope a couple more times around the railing.

“Don’t stop on my account,” I murmur, shivering in the relative cool of the morning. It’s still warm even overnight, but with the sea breeze… I could use a warm body next to me, heating me up.

“I don’t plan to. I’m here to pick up a delivery.” Murph’s hand tightens on the rope again, and then he grabs the railing right next to me.

I blink at him. “Don’t you mean make a delivery?” I hope he remembered to bring coffee and breakfast. But even if he’s just here to be my dessert, I’ll lick the whole plate clean.

“No. We’re going to my place.”

Before I can say a word of protest, Murph’s strong hands are on me. My bare toes curl into the deck. Everywhere he touches, my body just lights up like this joyful little chime is resonating through every inch of me. The heat of his rough palms slides down my sides, from my ribs right down to my hips. It’s suddenly hard to breathe.

I can’t look away from his face, or the desire written all over it. The world beyond him and me… it just vanishes.

So does the deck under my feet.

“Whoa!” I yelp as Murph lifts me into the air. “I-I’m not even dressed…!”

“Too bad,” Murph says. The smaller boat rocks with every little lap of the waves—and with Murph’s steps as he turns around. He sets me right down on the cool leather passenger seat of the boat.

Fucking fuck. My heart is pounding at a hundred miles an hour. I’ve never had anyone manhandle me like this before. And, as it turns out, you could say it floats my boat. It’s all I can do not to tip my head back and moan and beg him to take me right here and now.

“But my bed is right here?—”

Murph closes the scant space between us in a single move. He pushes a knee between my legs, shoving my thighs open to step right up to me. I could almost bury my face in that sexy button-down shirt of his… and my mouth’s watering.

It would be so fucking easy to get us into real trouble right here.

“I already dropped off our breakfast and coffee there to keep warm.” Murph cups my cheeks between his palms and leans down. “Let me have you the way I want to, just this once.”

I catch my breath, almost trembling with the electric intensity in the air between us. He’s watching me like he’s waiting for the answer to the questions he hasn’t asked. But I’m pretty damn sure I know the answers anyway.

“Okay,” I breathe out softly.

Murph gives me one of those rare, precious smiles in the dawn light. “Thattaboy,” he praises me softly. Then, he leans down and presses his lips against mine.

He’s kissing me hard. The sudden warmth of his mouth sliding against mine, his teeth catching my lower lip, his tongue shoving its way into my mouth… I can’t resist it. Not for a second. He kisses me so fucking passionately that every thought flees my brain at once.

I want more.

But that isn’t all he’s up to. One of his hands slides between my shoulder blades… and the other is suddenly resting on my cock. The heat of his palm presses firmly against my hard-on. He rocks his hand slightly into me, back and forth, up and down.

“Mmmnh…” I whimper, throwing my head back. Just like that, I melt under and into him. I push upward, greedily trying my hardest to grind into the heel of his palm… but he responds by pulling it away, making it clear that he controls the rhythm.

All I can do is collapse into the seat, spread my legs for him to push himself up close to me, and give in.

The little smirk dancing around Murph’s lips between kisses, the rough breathing, the tent in his pants… it’s clear as day that he’s enjoying having me under his hands, even when he isn’t getting off on it. At least, not right away.

God. I can’t believe I’ve finally found a man who knows how to make me feel like my body, my pleasure, is a gift I’m giving him. And more than that—Murph knows exactly what to do with that gift. It just makes me want to give myself over to him, completely and entirely.

Murph’s hands slide from my cheeks slowly to the back of my head as he kisses me over and over again, open-mouthed and fierce. One hand tangles in the hair at the back of my head. With the other, he brushes his fingertip down my bare chest until he reaches my nipple, and then he slowly draws a circle around it.

I whimper against his mouth, arching away from the seat and into him. But instead of ravishing me right here, he slowly pulls away from me—and the kiss. He even takes his hand away, grinning as I whimper with a sharp protest.

It takes me all I have not to immediately start touching myself instead.

“Fuuuck,” I moan. “I thought you were gonna show me what Sunrise Island pirates do to their captives.”

His breathing is rough, his eyes glassy and dark with desire. “Don’t tempt me,” he warns in a rough, low voice.

“What if I can’t seem to help myself?” I breathe out, spreading my legs further apart.

Murph licks his lips, swallows hard as he stares down at the hard line of my cock against the shorts that are struggling so heroically to preserve my modesty. He leans down, brushing his lips against my jaw until I melt into his hands.

“Believe me, I want to take you right here,” he murmurs.

Holy fuck. Is he going to do it? I hope so. I’d give anything to feel him inside me right the fuck now…

I whimper softly, and he presses a kiss behind my ear. “But… it’s you. So I can’t do half the things I want to do to you without making you wear a lifejacket.”

That sure as hell punctures the mood. “Ewww,” I groan, wrinkling my nose. Murph’s right, of course. I’m way too accident-prone to scoff at the purpose of a lifejacket. But if he makes me put on one of those smelly, damp foam things…

It’ll make my shorts a lot less tight, let’s just put it that way.

“Agreed,” Murph chuckles in a deep rumble that makes me prickle all over again, almost forgetting what we’re talking about. “But safety comes first.”

“But—”

Murph doesn’t let me protest. His teeth close around my lower lip for a delicate nip, while his tongue skims across it and wakes up a hundred fucking nerves I had no fucking idea were there. He kisses me until I forget my sassy response, and then he pulls away and says something else.

My ears aren’t working anymore. Not enough blood flow. All I can think about is getting him to kiss me like that again, so I just nod and whimper softly, turning my face up toward him.

Murph’s chuckle is slow and deep enough to break through the fog. He gazes down at me with such amusement, his palm still cupped around my cheek. “Oh, Eden,” he finally says. “You didn’t get a word of that, did you?”

“Mm-mmm,” I shake my head, trying to sit up as much as I can so I can reach his lips instead.

Murph straightens up instead, his eyes twinkling as he grabs a lifejacket. “Put this on. Keep your ass in that seat until I tell you otherwise. No ifs, ands, or buts.”

Oh, fuck. I hope he keeps up ordering me around like this. “Yes, skipper,” I breathe out, shoving my head and arms through it and looking up to him for confirmation that I’ve done it the right way.

“Good.” Murph buckles it up and kisses me once more for the road—slow and deep, but without that incredible trick with his teeth. Then he peels himself away, and I grin and roll my head back, trying desperately to catch my breath in the early dawn air. “Hold on tight,” he warns.

“Yes, skip—ooh!” I squeak. Just like that, we’re off.

It’s only now that I realize how much Murph usually tries to keep the speedboat quiet. The outboard engine roars to life behind me, and the nose of the boat rises in the air with how suddenly we pick up speed, effortlessly cutting through the water.

The adrenaline goes straight to my head. I’m laughing out loud, clutching the seat with all my might as we skim across the waves and around the corner of Sunrise Island.

I’ve never been wanted like this before—so bad, so urgent, that Murph can’t resist stealing me away to his bed. And holy shit, I’ve never felt sexier in my life. I’m glad to turn my face into the wind, letting it whip around my face as I blink back the tears forming in the corners of my eyes.

Murph expertly steers us around the rocky outcroppings. The engine noise is quieting again. I blink as the nose of the boat dips, and then I can see it—we’re approaching a long dock, and Murph’s barge is moored on the other side. Just beyond the end of the dock, a house peeks through the trees.

That must be his place.

“Ready for dry land?” Murph asks me, his voice a low rumble—promising all the things he’s going to give me when we set foot upon it.

“I’ve never been more ready,” I breathe out. Then I lick my lips and wince. “Shit… uh, wait. I don’t have shoes on. Tell me you don’t have a gravel path.”

Murph snorts, which almost makes me tense up. I’m half-expecting him to make fun of me for suggesting such a dumb thing. But the noise is soft and affectionate. “You think I was planning to let you walk? All you have to do is sit back and enjoy the ride.”

I shiver, grinning up at him as he moors, and I stay obediently in my seat. “Yes, skipper.”

Murph grins and flicks me another glance as he coasts toward the dock. “And keep telling me that, too.”

“ Yes , skipper,” I say again in a soft moaning voice. We’re too close for me to resist the temptation to distract him, so I let my thighs peek open again, spreading them even wider when Murph looks over at me with that dark, hungry gaze.

It’s working. He’s looking at me, not where we’re going. My heart is in my throat, but we’re coasting slowly and gently now—and even though he’s not looking, he’s pulling back on the throttle, gathering up the rope coil near his hand… and he even throws it without a second glance.

“Did you just—” I break off as I look over hastily. The rope is looped around the cleat on his dock. With a single yank, he pulls the speed boat into the dock, twists the rope around the cleat, and moors us in the blink of an eye.

“I did,” Murph says with a slow grin, lifting his chin.

I swallow a moan as I shake my head. I’ve never seen him show off like this before. It’s so obviously for my benefit, but it makes him ten times hotter. “Fuck. How the fuck did you…?” I trail off, my voice slightly strangled.

Murph winks. “You can get up now,” he finally tells me. I rise to my feet, wobbling as I try to figure out the lifejacket. But he’s already right there, helping unfasten it, then pulling the whole thing over my head in one swift move.

I’m mostly naked again… and he’s scooping me straight into his arms this time.

I yelp and hold on tight around his shoulders, closing my eyes. The world lurches around me, but I’ve never felt so safe as I am right now with him climbing up to the dock for both of us.

“You think we’ll even make it into the house?” I murmur into his neck. “When we’ve got a whole barge deck right there?”

Murph huffs and shakes his head at me, setting into a rolling stride of a gait. “You’re full of bad ideas.”

“It’s my main personality trait. Don’t you know that by now? I drunk-bought a houseboat.”

He laughs softly, and it rumbles through my shoulder, pressed up tight against his chest. “I meant bad as in naughty,” he murmurs. “But I’m glad you finally agree with me about Dawn’s Embrace.”

As I giggle, his footsteps change from hollow thuds to crunches. I can’t help myself, now that I know we’re on dry land. I turn my face toward him just enough that I can bury my face in his neck. I’m kissing the salt-spray off his skin, running my hands down his back as far as I can reach…

“Fuck,” Murph grunts. And it’s not from the strain of carrying me, either. His breathing is rough and heavy all of a sudden.

“That spot, hm?” I murmur, wriggling around in Murph’s arms to press my lips against the same place on the other side of his neck. His breathing is suddenly rougher and heavier—especially when I brush the tip of my tongue in soft circles around it, then up to his jawline.

Murph grunts down at me, his hold growing ever-tighter. “You’re not even worried about making me drop you.”

“Nah.” I let my fingertip trail across his shoulder to his ear, tracing the curve of it gently as he loses the rhythm of his gait and almost stumbles on flat ground. “You wouldn’t let me down like that.”

Murph growls softly as he climbs up the porch steps. “I won’t. But you sure do like to push your luck.”

“Again… you should know me by now,” I chirp up at him. “You’ve seen enough of me.”

“Have I? I don’t think so. You’ll have to remind me and show me again.” Murph shoulders his way through the front door, carrying me into the house. It smells of coffee and breakfast, but we’re heading straight upstairs.

The anticipation is making every muscle in my body go taut. A shiver of delight runs down my spine. I moan softly, pressing my face into his neck. The lights are all off, and I can barely see a thing in here, but Murph doesn’t break his stride as he reaches the landing and carries me through the closest doorway.

“At last,” Murph rumbles, tossing me onto the bed.

I squeak softly at the adrenaline rush, but I’m too needy, too hungry for him after a whole minute of being nestled up tight against his warm body. I spread out all my limbs, arms and legs, making like a starfish on the huge, soft, warm bed.

God, I missed a real bed.

“Come here,” I moan, patting my stomach.

Murph’s eyes glitter down at me as he tumbles down on top of me. I hiss softly as the heat of his hard body presses against me once more. He’s crawling over me, his gaze intently fixed on my face.

“Right there? Or here?” He strokes his hand down my face, swiping his thumb over my cheek. I gasp, arching into his touch, throw my head back… but he’s not done. “Or should I come here?” He traces his fingertips along my collarbone, lingering at the indent in the middle.

My pulse flutters in my suddenly-tight throat as I smile up at him, brighter and brighter. It’s unbearably hot… but it’s more than that, too. It feels like there’s nothing Murph’s ever wanted quite so much as me.

That’s a feeling I could get used to.

“Where’s that sassy mouth of yours now?” Murph teases me.

I gasp with delighted surprise, swallowing my giggle. “I’m just thinking about it,” I defend myself. “And I’m opting for… all of the above.”

“All?” Murph grins, leaning in to lap at my neck, kissing behind my ear. “It might take us a few rounds.”

“Fine by me. As long as you don’t lick my ears,” I warn him, wrapping my arms around his broad shoulders.

Murph snorts and grazes his teeth along my neck, making me gasp and tilt my head to the side. “One condition? That’s a low bar.”

You’d be surprised ? —

No. No, I’m not going to think about that right now. I’m going to do what I’ve always wanted to do, what Murph says he wants to do… and let him have me.

“Oh, there are more.” I swallow thickly, my voice hoarse. I’m trembling again with sheer need, pressing my face into his shoulder. “The full… terms and conditions… will take too long to read right now. You could just click accept and continue…”

“Where is that?” Murph murmurs. “Wait. Don’t answer that.” He runs one hand slowly down my side to pick up where we left off in the boat. “Right here?”

“Y-Yes…!” I whimper, throwing my head back into the pillows. “Oh, fuck.”

“Good, hm?” Murph squeezes me through my shorts and grins as I lose my breath, my train of thought, all capacity for speech. Heat burns through me—need, raw and pure desire—until he finally loosens his grip enough for me to think.

“Fuck. Have I died and gone to heaven?”

A slow smile appears on Murph’s lips. “Just you wait, Eden,” he murmurs. “I’ll show you what heaven really looks like.”

Murph dips his head and kisses me like he’s taking apart every piece of my broken heart, polishing it, and putting it back together again. I just hope he isn’t going to try to hand me back my heart better than he found it… because it’s his now. Finders, keepers.

“Please,” I breathe out, and I close my eyes to lose myself in his wanting.