Page 8 of One Vow

Who was I kidding? I didn’t have the right words. I wasn’t poetic or romantic. Most of my deepest thoughts came immediately after the organ directly below my belt blasted off from its happy place.

I kissed her instead. Slow and deep. So sensual it wasn’t going to be long until we were ass high in my deepest thoughts. Her hands tangled in my hair and held me as if there was a chance in hell I’d try to pull away.

Her lips were like silk, and her soft whimper when I deepened the kiss urged me on. Made me want more and I already wanted so much.

What I didn’t want to do was push and make her do something because she thought I wanted it. But I also didn’t have the kind of willpower to stop kissing her. To plan something special for us. Instead, I pulled her toward the frat house and Keaton’s car.

Taking her back to the frat house wasn’t an option since it was a Friday night and there would be a party raging. Her place was out, since her dad was the school’s chancellor, and I needed my scholarship. And no way could I manage to show her how I felt about her in the backseat of a Mustang. But along with his fancy car, Keaton also had an extremely fancy boat, a party boat. It was the ultimate party boat, with a fully stocked fridge, a big screen TV, and mirrors on the bedroom ceiling. And since I was on the injured list and not required to travel with the team, all of whom were in Oregon tonight for tomorrow’s game, it would be empty.

She didn’t ask me where I was taking her, or who the car belonged to. She just climbed into the car and held my hand as I drove. No nerves. Which was okay because I had enough for both of us. I had a huge case of the insecurities, of the please, don’t let me blow this kind. And yeah, I knew there was a joke in there. One too crass to make about a girl like Felicity. Probably about any girl, but definitely about the one smiling at me as I led her down the dock to the boat before I helped her aboard.

She didn’t wait for me but walked to the far end of the deck, where we partied when we took the boat out. Where the canvas chairs were lined along the side. Where I’d spent many a summer “fishing trip” getting lucky without a fishing pole in sight.

As she leaned over the rail, I walked behind her and waited. I had a hand on the rail on each side of her and it would’ve been so easy to slide closer, rub against her, but I held back. This night had to be perfect.

She pulled my arms around her so that my hands rested on her stomach, and then she breathed in deep and blew it out slow. “This is so pretty.”

“You’re so pretty.” And I was so lame, but it was the first thing I’d thought, and it was true. When she turned to face me with a look on her face, that look, being lame didn’t matter so much.

She slid her hands up my chest and rested them on my shoulders where her thumbs could stroke my throat, then she lifted on her tip toes and pressed a line of kisses along my jaw as I wrapped my arms around her waist and tugged, so our bodies lined up, chest to chest, belly to belly and hip to hip. And my body buzzed everywhere we touched.

“Show me the rest?”

Anything she wanted. Anytime. Anyplace. Somehow, I’d managed to fall for her. That made everything else so simple and so complicated. But for tonight…

We walked into the kitchen and bar area.

“Galley.” I pointed to the seating across from the bar. “More party area.”

I pointed to the steps on the right that curved around to the bedroom under this room. “That’s how you get to the guest room. Bunk beds.”

I had no idea about boat terminology. “And this way…” I pointed to the other set of steps. “Goes to the master bedroom.”

I looked at the refrigerator. “Thirsty?”

When she shook her head no, my mouth simply refused to comply and let my body take the lead. It wanted to go straight to the bedroom, so I hauled back on the reins my body wanted to run away with. Take it slow, I reminded myself and ran through a menu of food. “Hungry? There’s sandwich stuff, and meat I could throw on the grill.”

What?

She smiled. Crooked her finger. Looked up at me from under her lashes with her chin tilted down. “Come here.”

And now I didn’t care if we had an entire team from Top Chef and all the fancy dishes they made sitting in the kitchen behind me. I didn’t have enough blood left in my brain to care about more than the woman standing right in front of me, inviting me to take her to bed. She didn’t speak, didn’t do more than smile and lead me down the steps and through the hallway to the bedroom.

I followed her. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

She slid the door open and walked inside. “Holy shit.”

Oh yeah. I’d had the same reaction the first time I saw it too. The bed on its pedestal, three steps above the floor. The soft lighting. The windows that looked out at the ocean. The deep blue satin sheets and silver comforter that rustled when she sat on the bed. The water lapping against the side of the boat and the soft hum of the fan that forced air through the vents were the only sounds other than her soft breathing and the pounding of my heart in my ears.

“Music?” I motioned to the sound system on the wall, and she nodded. Chances were one of the presets would be some kind of sexy jazz that could play in the background, but I couldn’t find it. I found rap with a heavy bass line, then some country. I groaned when the next station was a rock station with screaming guitars and anthem beats. She pulled out her phone, swiped a couple of screens then set it on the table. With the softest, sexiest smile any human being could ever produce, she stood and took the remote control to set beside her phone. Then she pulled me close again.

“I want you, Finn. I’ve been thinking about it and dreaming about it,” she shoved my shirt up and over my head then tossed it behind her. “I even named my vibrator after you, so I’d be calling out your name.”

She flicked the button at my waistband open while I closed my eyes and enjoyed the brush of her hands against my skin coupled with the vision of her alone in her room, a room I’d never seen but imagined now, on her bed, pleasuring herself while she called out for me. “You still with me, Finn?”

I opened my eyes and smiled down at her. With her? “Oh yeah. Right here.”

I lifted the hem of her shirt, slid my hands along her ribs as I inched it over her skin, and sucked in a hard breath when I realized there was no bra and my palm brushed along the side of her breast. Oh fuck. I’d never been so turned on, so into a moment, so ready to…