“I didn’t promise you anything.”
“You did. You promised to tell me what you could before you left.”
“I—there was nothing to tell.”
“And you promised more than that. You know you did.”
One kiss, even long, hard, bruising her salty lips, wasn’t enough to quench his thirst for her. He thrust his fingers in her hair and held her for a second and then a third.
Then he tugged her down the stairwell to the lower quarters. When he had her below, he switched on a light to see her shivering. Rummaging through a cupboard, he threw out a shirt, the investment banker’s no doubt. “Here. Get out of that wet suit.”
He threw her a towel as well.
“What about you?” She was shaking as she clutched the towel to her chest.
In answer, he ripped his clothes off, without thought, without emotion as she watched, slowly slipping one strap off her shoulder, then the other. When the black cloth was bunched up around her waist, he came at her—she was too slow for him—yanking the wet material all the way down her body. As she stepped out of the suit, she said, “You should tie the boat down. This storm is bad.”
He stood, taking the towel from her and briskly rubbing her body before he snatched the investment banker’s shirt up and pulled it over her head, the long, wet tail of her hair coming out to trail down her back.
“Fuck the boat,” he said shortly. “It can sink for all I care.”
“With us on it?” she asked in a small voice.
“Your instinct for self-preservation kicks in at the oddest times.”
She cocked her head. “So does your libido.”
Glancing down, he realized it had definitely kicked in, and he didn’t know what the hell he was doing putting clothes on her, no matter that the shirt barely came to the top of her thighs. Maybe he just wanted her to be warmed up enough to have circulation while he fucked her brains out.
Which he was going to do any second now.
But first things first.
He moved so there was barely a breath of distance between their bodies and slid his hand underneath the hem of the shirt, against the bare skin of her stomach, which was still chilled but warming.
“I don’t want to just fuck you,” he muttered against her mouth, “I want to brand you. I want to own you so you never think to leave me again. Do you understand that?”
She closed the gap between a mutter and a kiss, pressing her lips to his, thrusting her tongue in. But whether she thought to placate him with her kisses or not, it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. Still not letting her go, he walked her back to the built-in bed against the bulkhead, yanking off the covers and pushing her down, coming right on top of her.
When he had her beneath him, he said, “What’s your name? Tell me.”
One shake of her head was enough to undo him. He kissed her fiercely, again and again. “Tell me,” he demanded, wedging his legs between her bare thighs, positioning his cock so he could bury it between her legs where she was wet and ready for him.
Hands on either side of her head, he kissed her. “What is your name, Andrea?”
“Athena,” she whispered.
He slid his cock in her tight, hot cunt, all the way in. Had it been only a mere day or two since he had been between her legs? It felt like an eternity. It felt like forever. She sighed, tilting her hips up to take him deeper.
“My name is Athena Bennett Stavros. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
“I wanted you to say it. I wanted you to tell me.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re not hiding from me anymore, Athena.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m not. It was never much of a disguise. Not with you anyway. But I don’t feel like Athena anymore.”
“Yeah?” He thrust slowly, resting his hot forehead against hers, and whispered, “Well, I don’t feel like Evan anymore either. So we’re even.”
“You feel like Evan to me.” Wrapping her arms around his neck, she crooned, “All hard and warm and sweet.”
He smiled down at her as the lights suddenly went out. Maybe the boat really was sinking. Neither of them paid it any mind.
“Sweet?”
“Mmm.”
The rhythm he set was slow and, well, hell, kind of sweet, he guessed. Not the fierce possessiveness he meant to show her.
“Why don’t you feel like Evan anymore?” she asked in a murmur.
“Because Evan was laid-back and solitary and—”
She wrapped her legs around him.
“And calm,” he finished.
“And you don’t feel like that now?”
“From the very minute I met you, I’ve felt tense and wound up and—”