Knight and Day

Chapter Twenty-Four

When Dylan strolled out of the treeline five minutes later, it was all he could do not to drop all the wood he’d gathered.

Kara was naked. Stark naked, standing waiting for him with her hands on her hips, her hair falling in waves around her shoulders. The setting sun dappled her skin, turning her ethereal.

He walked closer, bending to lower the wood onto the sand.

“I always had a thing for mermaids,” he said, reaching for the hem of his T-shirt and dragging it off over his head. “So very lovely,” he murmured appreciatively, walking around her. “I used to wonder how they had sex.” He ran his hand around her waist and pulled her back against his body, nestling himself against the softness of her backside, enjoying her soft intake of breath.

“Everyone knows our tails turn into legs on shore,” she said, leaning her head back onto his shoulder.

Dylan moved one hand up to cover Kara’s breast, and slid his other hand down to run the tip of his finger slowly into the crevice between her legs.

“You’re definitely all woman right now,” he said. Her nipple strained hard in his fingers as she stepped her feet wider apart on the sand to let him touch her more intimately.

“Make a really thorough check,” she whispered, arching an arm up around his neck, her nails raking the skin at his nape.

Dylan squeezed her breast, kneading her flesh in his hand. “All in order here,” he whispered. “Beautiful. Warm. Soft.” He punctuated each observation with a rock of his hips.

“And here?” she said, covering his hand between her legs with her own.

Dylan groaned against her ear. “I think I need to investigate a little more.”

He cupped her in his hand, enjoying the warmth of her palm holding him against her. She closed her eyes, and he watched her face in the dwindling twilight. How could she look so fragile and yet so powerful at the same time?

She trusted him. She told him so with her body, and he found himself needing to swallow hard as his fingers moved inside her folds. She moved him in a way no woman ever had before. Everything about her was honest, and each day was better because she was in it.

He kissed the corner of her mouth when she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, waiting for him to touch her where she needed to be touched. She looked caught somewhere between pain and pleasure, surrendered, womanly.

He ran his free hand up her body and laid his forearm along the curve of her neck, his hand massaging the back of her skull. He kissed her because his mouth needed hers, deep, wide open kisses, as close as he could get. His tongue stroked inside her mouth as he spread her wide and exposed her clitoris, both of their hands on her.

Her fingers slid between his and he was suddenly hyper-aware of every sensation.

Her body was so ready for him. Slick.

Her head moved against his shoulder. Restless.

Her back was warm against his chest. Pressed.

Her hips undulated into his erection, massaging him. Hard.

She was right on the edge of her orgasm. Shimmering.

He built her up. Steady.

And then, at the very second he knew she couldn’t take any more preamble, he pulled her hard against him and fingered her clitoris fully, giving her everything he had in an erotic onslaught. His mouth. His hands. His thrusts. His tongue. His moans.

She reacted instantaneously, her body shaking and juddering as her orgasm hit her hard. Jesus, she was beautiful. Abandoned. Totally fucking breath-taking.

“Well?” Her voice shook when her eyes flickered open some seconds later, heavy-lidded with satisfaction. “Woman, or mermaid?”

He dropped his jeans on the sand and swung her up in his arms, walking out towards the sea.

“There’s only one way to know for certain.”

“You build a good fire for a boy who never took his Scouting oath.”

Kara sat on the sand with her arms wrapped around her knees as Dylan added a couple of logs to the fire he’d built after their swim. Skinny dipping with a drop dead sexy man by silver moonlight was a memory she’d filed away in the ‘keep forever’ file, and sitting beside him in the firelight was another tableau she never wanted to forget.

Bare-chested and tousle-haired, he looked as if he’d been cast from gold. Solid, gleaming gold.

She sipped brandy straight from the bottle, letting the warmth of the alcohol burn slowly inside her mouth. Every bone in her body felt heavy, totally relaxed. Heart-stopping sex, a lazy swim, and the perfect makeshift dinner can do that to a girl.

She smiled as she watched Dylan spear a marshmallow on a stick he’d whittled into a skewer.

“You really are the all American boy,” she smiled softly, watching him toast the candy over the flames.

He glanced up. “You think so?”

She nodded. “Hair, teeth and toasted marshmallows. Case closed.”

“I see.” He held out the stick, the golden-toasted marshmallow on the end of it.

“Is it going to burn me?”

“Not if you’re cautious.” He lifted his eyebrows. “Do you even know what the word means?”

Kara rolled her eyes. “I can be cautious. I just don’t feel like I need to be where you’re concerned.”

She took the stick and lifted the marshmallow to her nose, taking in the sweet, burnt sugar smell. It reminded her of candyfloss, bought and greedily consumed on chilly evenings at the bonfire night funfair back home as a kid. But she wasn’t cold tonight. She was warm inside and out from the fire Dylan had built on the sand, and in her heart.

Dylan heard Kara’s words, felt her trust, and wanted more than anything for them to be true. He wanted to be the man she made him feel like he was, rather than the guy who’d let his brother die and lost everything he owned trying to save the other one.

Thoughts of Justin ran like a thief through his head, stealing his happiness away, leaving him empty and imprisoned by the awareness that he needed to tell Kara the truth.

And he would. He didn’t know when, but he would. He’d honestly tried to a couple of times already, but each time the words got stuck behind his selfish need to stay on the pedestal where she’d put him. The view from up there was so good. Life with Kara was blue skies, mile wide smiles and smoking hot sex. The skies would no doubt still be blue after she knew, and he could survive without sex if he had to, but the idea of wiping that beautiful smile from her face nearly broke him.

Watching her now as she tried to exercise caution with the hot marshmallow, he knocked back a mouthful of brandy and tortured himself, wondering how she’d react. Would she hate him? Would she be furious? God, please let her be furious rather than cry, because he’d rather cut out his own tongue than make Kara cry.

He kidded himself that he wasn’t like the other liars in her life. He was a liar by circumstance rather than choice, he wasn’t hiding truths from her for his own benefit. Or was he? She didn’t even know his name, for God’s sake. She couldn’t Google him, because she didn’t know his name. She couldn’t read all of the salacious scandal about his family, because she didn’t know his name.

And the problem was that with every passing day, he wanted to stay Dylan Day more and more.

Kara held out the empty stick towards him.

“See? Cautious. And delicious.” She licked her lips. “Do me another?”

Dylan pushed the stick into a second soft, white marshmallow, trying to shake off the blues and enjoy the moment. The firelight warmed Kara’s skin tone to toffee and danced roses in her cheeks. She looked like the best cheerleader in the world.

He let himself imagine her for a couple of moments, all short skirt and pompoms, spelling out his name with that huge smile of hers on her face. ‘Gimme a D…D.Y.L.A.N. D.A.Y!’

And there it was again. The big lie that sat between them. And he wanted more than anything for her to know the truth.

“What’s on your mind, Sailor?”

He looked up from turning the stick close to the embers. She was way too in tune with his emotions. Could she see the mess inside his head? The darkness?

He sighed heavily. Was this the right moment?

“Here.” He held out the stick. “It’s ready.”