He swallowed thickly, and then regained his ability to speak. He gestured her aside, jumped onto the deck and then offered her his hand. “I can’t make any promises, but I can guarantee you’ll stay out of the ocean.”
She smiled. Smiled! He’d just turned her statement into a potent innuendo and as a result, she’d smiled? This wasn’t Jessie.
Well, actually it was. The old Jessie. The one who’d matched his wit word for word and who’d never shied away from anything exploratory in a sexual sense as long as he eased her out of her comfort zone with assurances of love that, damn it, he’d totally meant. Had all this talk about weddings and forever-afters finally softened her heart?
He made short work of the last preparations for sailing, checking the satellite radio, his navigation system and his supplies. He grabbed a life jacket from the aft compartment and went looking for Jessie. He found her sitting on the bow, her bare legs dangling over the side.
“It’s a beautiful night for sailing,” she said.
He handed her the jacket, which she folded behind her. “Should be calm seas.”
“How long does it take to get to the Keys?”
“If we keep to about six knots, either by sail or by engine, we should be there by tomorrow night.”
She glanced up at him through hooded eyelids. “And if we go …” she paused while she took an obvious visual of his crotch “… slower?”
He stepped back. “What are you up to, Jessie?”
“Up to?” Her gaze flicked back to his groin. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?”
Again with the husky voice and bold attitude. He had half a mind to haul her to her feet and kiss the superior look off her face—so he did.
5
SHE MELDED to his chest like neoprene, hot and snug and tight. She opened her lips even before he’d pressed his mouth to hers so that their tongues instantly connected. She tasted like mint and rainwater. Her perfume, a warm scent that reminded him of the churning ocean during a sun-drenched squall, made him dizzy. When she slid her hands against his cheeks and raised herself higher to fully explore the depths of his mouth, he thought he might lose his mind.
But instead, sanity slammed into him. As lusty and raw as some of his fantasies about Jessie had been, none included her making the first move.
Even he had limits to his imagination.
He gently grabbed her waist and pushed her an inch away.
“What are you doing?” he asked, panting from the effort of fighting against what his body needed and his mind wanted to know.
“I’m kissing you,” Jessie replied, equally winded. “Has it been so long that you don’t remember how it’s done? Because you were doing fairly well—”
“Fairly?” he asked, shocked. “Wait, that’s not the point. Why are you kissing me?”
She sidled up closer, her pupils so round and black he could hardly spy the brown that normally surrounded them. “Don’t you want me to kiss you?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions.”
“Then you shouldn’t, either. You’ve got me where you want me. Why are you hesitating?”
“That’s a damned good question,” he conceded.
Leo charged to the back of the boat and continued his pre-launch routine until he had the engine purring, the lines released and the boat easing smoothly into the channel that would lead them through Tampa Bay and then into the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. He was kept busy with procedures, but with Jessie’s taste lingering in his mouth, he found it nearly impossible to not watch her on deck, her shoes discarded, her heels kicked up on the railing so that looking forward as he maneuvered the boat meant constant eye contact with her slender legs.
At sunset, they crossed beneath the behemoth Skyway Bridge. Glowing bright red in the dying sun, headlights sparkling like stars overhead, the structure marked the last portal into open water. In less than ten minutes, they’d be officially on their way.
But to where?
Key West was their destination, but after Jessie’s little display on deck, Leo wasn’t entirely certain where they were going to end up.
Her kiss had knocked his carefully constructed plan overboard. He’d meant to take things slowly and make every minute of their thirty-hour voyage count. He stocked the galley with sensual foods he knew she’d once loved—caviar and lobster and strawberries with chocolate. He’d filled the wine cooler with several tasty vintages and made sure there was lots of bottled water on hand so they didn’t become dehydrated in the sun. He’d slid the silkiest sheets he could find onto the bed and filled the drawers of the master stateroom with playful items such as scarves, feathers and even an assortment of flavored massage oils. He’d expected to have to coax her into making love with him again, but after her bold and demanding kiss, he wondered if they’d run out of condoms before they reached the island.
“Everything going okay?”
Jessie came around the deck and slid her hands up a line while leaning provocatively forward.
He smirked. She was pulling out all the stops and though he didn’t know why, he wasn’t entirely sure he cared about her motivation as long as the outcome was the same.
“Glorious. Sunsets like this are why we live here.”
“I’m kind of surprised you still do,” she replied, swinging underneath the taut cords and landing on a seat near the stairs that led below deck. She braced her foot on the wheel shaft, high enough for him to see a flash of something dark between her thighs.
He shook his head, trying to dispel the image before he lost control.
“Why? I was born and raised here like you.”
She shrugged. “I guess I figured you’d move to the Caribbean or Aruba or somewhere since you go there all the time to sail.”
“I didn’t know you kept up with my itineraries,” he remarked.
She frowned, but didn’t reply.
“They’re great places to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere but here.”
“And yet you bought the house in the Keys.”
He cleared his throat. “It’s still Florida.”
Nostalgia had gotten the best of him when the real-estate agent had called and offered him the impressive five-bedroom house after the owner passed away and his heirs had no use for a summer getaway. Leo had snapped it up. At first, he’d used the place for trials of his newest sailboat designs, but memories of his lost love affair with Jessie turned the place hollow and empty and cold. He’d moved his base of operations to St. Thomas, accepting that while he was still hopelessly in love with Jessie, he didn’t need to wallow in it.
When Coop had contacted him a week ago about his and Bianca’s imminent return to the States, Leo finally had the excuse he needed to lure Jessie back to where they’d first made love.
Now here he was, headed out to sea with her on his favorite boat, and he was sweating like a virgin about to make it with the hottest girl in school.
Jessie glanced down the shadowed stairs that led below deck. “What’s down there?”
“Galley. Stateroom. Head. A nice study I designed so I can work. Go explore.”
Her mouth twisted while she considered his offer, but then she settled more snugly on the seat across from him. “I’d rather watch you. Manipulating that wheel makes your biceps bulge.”
He couldn’t help but glance