So she just surrendered. Let the tide come in. Allowed the waves of emotion, need, and longing slap her into swiftly moving currents.
He pulled her against his chest and his mouth claimed hers again, and sweet joyous relief surged through her.
She felt a click, a solid settling in. As if they fit like puzzle pieces. It felt so right in his arms, and wrong for her to be anywhere else but here.
Desperately, she reached up to cradle his cheek with her palm. He made a guttural noise low in his throat and deepened their kiss.
She thirsted for him, for his touch, for his taste, for his sound. She was the lock and he was the key and together the entire world was open to them.
The strangest, inexplicable sensation came over her, a feeling that without him she would forever surf adrift on the ocean. A rudderless boat lost at sea.
"Kaia," he whispered into her mouth. "My sweet, sweet Kaia."
She tugged his head down, encouraging him to take the kiss as far as it would go. Frantically, she helped him get naked, stripping off his jacket, pawing at the buttons on his shirt.
It felt both odd and comfortable to be standing before him, working at his clothes with hot, fumbling fingers. As if they were lovers.
Could she use the word lover for a onetime hookup? Probably not. Lovers suggested a long-term relationship, and that's all this was, a onetime thing. Soothe the ache. Scratch the itch. Douse the fire.
The front of his white cotton shirt parted, giving her a glimpse of his tanned skin, toned muscles, and a sprinkling of dark chest hair.
She twirled a finger in the soft springy tuft; his golden muscles tensed beneath her touch. She heard his harsh intake of breath, and the thrum of her pounding pulse.
His warm skin turned silky beneath her palms as she slid them up his chest, hooked her thumbs into the seams of his shirt at the armpits, and stripped the shirt from his broad shoulders. Let it drift to the floor.
And there she had it, an unobstructed view of his gloriously ripped torso. Heat radiated off him in waves, blistering into her, burning her up.
Hot desire hummed at the base of her brain. Swelled. Grew. Vibrated down her spine and throughout her entire body until she was nothing but a single quivering string of sexual energy.
"Unbelievable." She exhaled a puff of pent-up air.
"You're what's unbelievable," he said in a dusky voice full of hidden meaning and dark mystery.
She sighed. It was a shaky sound, uncertain and nervous.
He ducked his head, peered down at her. Smiled a devastating smile that sent her heart skip hopping. Checkerboard heart.
Jump. Jump. Jump. Jump. Queen me.
Ridge laughed as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, and his navy blue eyes churned, mystic and dark as the night sky.
"Your laugh sounds rusty," she said, wanting the emphasis off her. "Like you don't use it enough."
"I don't," he admitted. "I'm serious about my business, and I work eighty hours a week. Not much time for laughter."
She wanted to tell him how sad that was, but she hated to derail what was happening between them. Especially when he was looking at her as if he couldn't wait to eat her up.
Yum.
He cradled her jaw in his palm, tilted her face up, and feathered a line of blazing kisses from her earlobe to her chin.
Kaia moaned softly at the sweet tingles spreading throughout her body. She parted her lips, leaned into his hard, delicious chest.
More. She wanted more. Needed so much more from him.
Reaching up, she wrapped her arms around his neck, entwined her fingers, tugged his head lower, and planted her mouth against his. A groan of pleasure escaped him, and she could taste the sweet flavor of Baileys on both their tongues.
With each sip from her lips, he tantalized her with a sequence of leisurely kisses, escalating pressure and heat. This was different from the hot, urgent kiss they'd shared beside his plane. That had been frantic, spur-of-the-moment, fueled by the fire of secrecy and situation.
But these kisses? These here? They were an invitation-a tantalizing temptation, a slow seduction, an unhurried waltz. These kisses suggested dazzling possibilities of cool sheets on a sultry night and infinite, wide-open bliss.
At once, they pressed closer into each other, the material of her terry cloth robe rubbing against his bare chest. Her breast growing warm and heavy, her nipples hardening.
He eased the robe down, planting kisses from her neck to her shoulder as he went, first one side and then the other. A crop of kisses, planting seeds of lust she knew he would be harvesting soon.
She shivered.
"Cold?"
"Hot."
"Like a fever shiver?"