Right. Because this wasn’t about her. “I don’t need you to take care of me. Today is manta rays. We still have the bat caves at Spencer Cay and kayaking in Bright Bay lined up. If we don’t do manta rays today, the next excursion isn’t until a week from Thursday.”
“Oh well.” He shrugged and pushed the elevator button, nodding to the elderly couple that drew up next to them to wait.
The lady smiled at Audra and winked. “Let your young man take care of you. Mine’s been taking care of me for fifty years, and it never gets old.”
Obviously she’d interpreted “taking care” in her own way. Audra smiled back. “Thanks. That’s sweet.”
The sentiment stuck with her. Somewhere between the elevator and his suite, her attitude shifted. He wanted to take care of her? Fine. She needed three orgasms in a row, pronto.
That was the only thing she could depend on a man to provide, and she wasn’t going to apologize for demanding it, not when Charlie had been the one to cancel their plans.
The second she cleared the door, she shut it with her butt and yanked on their joined hands. Charlie spun. He got a good look at her face and, thankfully, read her mind.
His mouth landed on hers, already urgent and needy. She let him suck her under the thick wave of arousal that roared over them both. Her back hit the door under the force of his body, pressing her against the hard wood as he made love to her mouth with his tongue, exploring, tasting, teasing. The thick tide rose, swirling into a storm of epic proportions.
Hands shoved into her hair, he tilted her head and took the kiss deeper still. She clawed at his shirt, got her hands on the hem, and yanked it over his head, catching on the place where their mouths joined. Finally, it was free. She ran her hands over his hard, defined back, touching every hill and valley. Gorgeous. Like silky stone under her fingertips. She could never get enough of that.
He snaked a hand under her dress, fingers questing, until he found the soaking stretch of fabric between her legs, slipping easily past the barrier. She gasped into his mouth as he slid one talented finger inside her, then two, scissoring them.
Pure lust shafted through her core. This man woke up her most carnal needs and then satisfied them, and she wanted more of him. A roll of her hips shoved his fingers deeper. She repeated it, drawing out the pleasure, head thrown back against the door. When his thumb hit her hard nub, the angle was so sweet it only took a couple of circles to light her up.
The first release came fast and furious. She moaned through it, sucking on his tongue, because that got noises out of him and she wanted to hear him express his pleasure. So hot. It wrung a couple more ripples from her center.
Normally she’d need a minute. This wasn’t normal. She was still desperate for him, desperate to erase the outside world.
Since his fingers were occupied, she fished around in his back pocket until she found the condoms. God, she loved a man who learned from his mistakes.
“Now, now, now.” Her words slurred as he withdrew from her still-dripping core. In seconds, he had all their clothes on the floor and a condom rolled on.
Boosting her up, his gorgeous arms bunched with muscles as he held her steady, then he pinned her to the door with one swift stroke.
A cry ripped from her throat as he drove all the way in, grinding against her still-sensitized nub, and she came again instantly before she could even get her legs fully wrapped around his waist.
He growled his approval and thrust, ripping another one from her.
“God, yes, again.”
He jackhammered his hips, and she lost what little hold she had on her mind as it slid away, leaving her in a cyclone of pleasure, release, and pure sensation. An eternity on that raging ocean would not have been long enough, but far too soon he pulsed inside her, groaning through his own climax.
Immediately, his arms tightened around her and he twisted to sink to the floor, back to the door, holding her in his lap. Cradling her. Her head thunked onto his chest and lay against him like a rag doll with no stuffing.
“That was better than manta rays,” he murmured into her hair, and she couldn’t stop the tilt of her lips as a smile bloomed.
Better, definitely.
But then Charlie made sex against the door seem like a warmed-over appetizer as he drew a bath in the enormous tub overlooking the ocean, settled into it with her spoon-style, and rubbed her head with gentle fingers. She relaxed against his hard chest and nearly fell asleep as he ministered to her in ways she’d never have dreamed she’d want.
But he’d known. Her thoughts splintered as she imagined having Charlie St. Croix around for fifty years. He was solid. A good man. She could feel it emanating from him like his very bones had been fashioned from the bedrock of the earth.