Free Forgive & Forget (Love in the Fleet) by Heather Ashby Page B

chance. She removed his sunglasses, locked eyes with him, and said, “I want to make love with you. Right now. Right here.”
    Heat slammed into him, along with stunned silence. Had he heard her right? His mouth didn’t work, except to fall open.
    “I’m serious.” She flashed him a do-me smile while lifting his shirttail and running her finger from his navel down the line of hair to his shorts. “I’m dying to know what’s at the end of this happy trail.”
    He grabbed her hand to stop her, his mouth frozen, his brain on fire. Mixed messages. The hell with mixed messages. Sails? Anchor? Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead.
    Shit. No condom.
    “You bring in the sails and I’ll make the bed,” Hallie cooed.
    “But—”
    She put her finger to his lips. “Shhh. Love now. Talk later.”
    He was dying here. “No. We need to talk now. I wasn’t prepared for this. I mean, I’m not prepared for this. I don’t have a condom on board.”
    He told Sky’s voice in his head to shut up before it even got started. No way was he expecting this in his wildest dreams. Not even if they’d already been intimate would he have thought of making love on the sailboat. Like where? There was just enough room in the well between the bench seats.
    The cockpit.
    Whole new meaning.
    “It’s okay. I’m on birth control,” Hallie said.
    “No, it’s not okay. I’m sorry, but that’s just how I do things.”
    Damn it anyway.
    “Did a paper on STDs once and got an A on it?” She challenged him with a smile.
    “Something like that.” He grinned slyly and cleared his throat. “That’s not to say there aren’t other ways to pass the afternoon, if you’re still interested.”
    Hallie pulled her T-shirt over her head, threw it on the deck, reached into her bikini top, and extracted a condom package. “What’s the matter? Flunk boy scouts?”
    Philip was dumbstruck. She put her finger to his lips and repeated her command. “Love now. Talk later.” She pulled his shirt over his head. Then continued her exploration of his happy trail.
    Her finger burned him. He grabbed her hand. “Don’t. Please.”
    “Don’t or please?”
    Philip couldn’t breathe. He knew if she did that again, there was no way he’d be able to bring in the sails or make it to the cockpit.
    “I thought you said you had control over your destiny when you were out on the water.” She teased him with a sexy half smile.
    And he gave one right back to her. “Not if you touch my happy trail again, I won’t.”
    Her bikini top hit the deck. Philip filled his hands and mouth with her. He somehow managed to bring in the sails, when his hands weren’t on her breasts. He blindly found the anchor and threw it overboard. They somehow managed to slide the cushions down into the cockpit, along with a couple of life jackets for a mattress.
    Their kiss was uninterrupted. A wicked gleam lit Hallie’s eyes as she again trailed her finger down his abdomen, but this time he let her reach for him through his shorts. Philip’s eyes glazed over as if in pain and he was certain his knees were going to give out. She unlaced his shorts and drew him out as she pulled him down onto the cushions.
    He had no choice but to lie on top of her. That was all the room they had. His mouth returned to hers. Still slow, but deep. His tongue filling her mouth. Then to her breasts. Licking them, making her arch her back toward him. He taunted her with each of his slow, deliberate actions. And then went back to her mouth, while trying to shield her face from the sun as best as he could.
    Philip slid his left hand into her bikini bottoms, finding her hot and wet and more than ready for him. He rolled right and braced himself with a hand and a foot, so he could peel down the bikini.
    Hallie’s hungry eyes invited him in, as she raised her hips. This was really going to happen. He deftly used a big toe to hook her bikini bottoms and slide them off. How he removed his shorts he had no idea.