“Which one is ours?” I follow him to the end of the dock, excited.
“This beauty.” Dex turns to me with a devilish grin. I look past him, and stop dead.
It’s a speedboat. A gorgeous, sleek model, all elegant lines and luxury power—and not a topsail in sight. There goes my shot at capable.
“C’mon.” Dex holds out his hand to me, looking like a kid in a candy store. “The guy says she can hit eighty out on the open seas.”
“Eighty miles an hour?” I echo with a tremor of nerves, but Dex is beckoning me, so I take his hand. He helps me into the open-air cabin, and I set my beach bag down, looking around at the luxurious cream leather seats and brass accents. Dex takes his place behind the dashboard of hi-tech looking controls and turns the ignition. A loud rumbling sound vibrates through the boat, shaking me from the inside out.
“Don’t worry,” Dex grins. “I’ll hold on tight.”
In one swift move, he pulls me against him, locking one arm around my waist as the other hand grips the wheel. I catch my breath, melting against his solid frame as he slowly backs the boat out of the dock, then steers a wide circle to take us out of the marina and into the bay.
My nerves settle. We’re chugging smoothly through the blue water; the sun shining bright above us in a cloudless sky. With Dex holding me steady against him, I begin to relax, savoring the cool sea breeze whipping around my face, and the gentle lap of waves against the boat.
“This isn’t so bad.” I smile in relief.
“Baby, just wait.” Dex chuckles. As the marina falls further behind us, and we’re alone on the water, he pushes the throttle up a level, and then higher again. The boat surges forward, cutting through the waves in a surge of power that leaves me breathless. I gasp, clutching onto Dex’s shirt as we speed faster across the bay, the speed needle climbing steadily past forty, fifty, sixty miles an hour.
“Dex,” I gulp back a tremor of fear, my heart racing in my chest.
“You steer a second,” he says casually, releasing his hold on me—and the steering wheel.
“What?” I grab the wheel in shock, looking back at him. “Dex! I can’t drive this thing!”
“Sure you can.” Dex grabs a beer from the cooler. “Just point and steer.”
I glance ahead of us in panic, but there’s nothing save the vast, empty ocean.
“Dex? I don’t know what I’m doing!” My voice trembles, and in an instant, he’s behind me again, wrapping his arms around my waist, leaning to rest him chin on my shoulder.
“Relax,” he soothes me. “It’s easy, there’s nobody here to hit. Stay parallel to the shore, see, like this. You’re doing great.”I catch my breath, reassured by the solid warmth enveloping me, and the feel of his tattooed arms holding me tight.
“Can you feel it?” Dex’s voice is a low rumble in my ear above the sound of the engine and the waves crashing around us. “That speed, the power. You’ll love it, I promise, you just have to relax.”
I shift my stance, planting myself more firmly on the deck, and relax my grip on the wheel. He’s right, once the panic fades, it is easy—nothing but the throttle and wheel to worry about. I carefully adjust the steering, following Dex’s instructions to keep a parallel line with the distant shore as we speed across the bay.
“See? You’re a natural,” Dex cheers me.
I find myself relaxing into a grin. Now that I know I’m not about to crash us, the speed pulses become a thrill, every new bump and surge through the waves sending a jolt of excitement through me.
“Can we go faster?” I twist my head to look at him. Dex laughs, dropping a kiss on my lips.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
He reaches past me, pushing the throttle even higher. Now, we’re really flying, speeding across the bay so fast the waves are a blur of blue and white. My heart pounds in my chest, the wind whipping my hair into a tangle, adrenaline racing in my veins. I feel on the edge of the world, safe in Dex’s arms, but somehow infused with danger.
Reckless.
“How do you feel?” Dex dips his mouth to my neck, slowly tracing a line of kisses along my throat as I shiver.
“Alive,” I whisper, sinking back against him. I feel Dex catch his breath, and then his hands are circling around to my stomach, lazily skimming across me as his lips continue teasing the delicate skin of my neck and collarbone.
I melt, shivering under his touch as the boat speeds faster across the bay. Dex slides one hand under my shirt, grazing my skin, higher, tracing across me with his fingertips, exploring every inch of my stomach in a shimmer of light sensation until my nipples are tight, aching, and my thighs shake with desire.
Oh…
I clutch the wheel, holding tight as Dex’s hands continue their slow, torturous exploration. Then, gently, he edges his fingers under the triangle of my bikini top to caress my breast.
I gasp.
Dex closes his hand around me, stroking, teasing, in a delirious pressure that makes me loll my head back against his shoulder and moan. The sound is swallowed by the engine, but Dex lets out a chuckle.
“Eyes on the ocean, sweetheart,” he murmurs, as he closes his thumb and forefinger over my aching nipple and gently tweaks it. Pleasure shudders through me, and I have to fight to keep control.
“Stop,” I gasp, even as he brings his other hand up under my shirt, pushing the other triangle aside. And now there’s twice the sensation flooding my body, twice the soft caress, and agonizingly sweet pressure, driving me crazy, making my body weak with wanting. “Dex…” I struggle to get the words out, already slipping into the delicious haze. Still, logic pulls at me, the voice of reason screaming for dear life. “We have to pull over,” I insist. “I can’t keep driving, not like this.”