Page 71 of Against The Tide

“Good.”

When I glance back up, my eyes catch on the peek of golden skin between buttons as his shirt pulls taut over his abdomen. The faint trail of hair has my eyes following down to the top of his shorts, focusing on the worn, supple brown leather of his belt and the bulge below it.

Jesus, I’m so hot, and my belly is knotting so tight at the sight that I fluster my attempt at swallowing down the spit pooling in my mouth.

There’s so much yearning to reach forward and touch. I can’t help but wonder if he thinks about it like I do. All the time lately. It’s the only thing I can think about. His kiss and how his body feels pressed to mine. I wish I were braver and took more chances. With him.

“Avery.” Rhett’s low growl draws my sight back up to him as he tips my chin up and then clenches his hands into fists over his raised knees. “Fuck, sunshine…” He bites down his lip hard enough that it blanches, and not only am I thinking of his kiss now, but I’m imagining what it would look like if I bit down on that lip.

All of a sudden, the wide-open ocean isn’t so big. The open air is thick, or thicker than it has ever been. Kneeling between his legs, I’m cocooned by him, and the soft breeze burns with his scent.

Hands grasping at his knees, he leans forward. Not much, but enough that my entire body flutters and hums with anticipation.

“Do you think about me?” The words burst from my mouth, my hand twisting in my skirt, while the other splays over the hollow of my throat. “I think about you all the time, Doc. I can’t stop thinking about you, even when I’m scared or overwhelmed. You’re always there. I can’t stop, Rhett.”

“You’re all I can think about since the moment I first saw you. All the fucking time. Every second. You are everything, sweetheart.”

My hand trails up my neck, pressing to my flaming cheek. There’s so much happening right now, inside me. I’m giddy and drunk on the look he’s giving me. Hunger roars deep in my core for him, and it’s there, reflecting back at me in his eyes. And I believe it. I believe that I am everything, and that he’ll never let me go.

“I can’t get enough of you,” he murmurs, low and gravelly. The gritty timbre of his voice makes my skin prickle again, in a most electrifying way. “I can’t get enough of all that you make me feel.”

An arm wraps around my waist, bringing me to him. With a deep sigh, his head falls back, and in the last dredges of the sunset, his skin glows warmly. The scruff on his jaw looks a deep golden color.

Rhett’s so fucking beautiful…hypnotizing, actually. And without a second thought, I tuck my face in the crook of his neck.

My heart forgets itself for a moment, skipping a few beats while I breathe him in, deep and greedily, until my lungs threaten to burst because they are so full of him and my blood pounds hot, driving him through my veins.

I nuzzle deeper until I can feel his thrumming heartbeat on my cheek. His scent lingers on my sense of smell, tinging my taste.

A trembling suspire pushes from him as he envelops me in his arms and just holds me. I know he wants more. I can feel it, his need and mine culminating into something that I’m certain could destroy me.

CHAPTER 20

RHETT

“Food, Avery.” My rasp is lost to a swallow as her head falls to the side and her hazel eyes meet mine.

“I’m not hungry,” she croaks, hands grasping the open collar of my shirt. “Not for food, Doc.”

Her chest rises and falls with shallow, rapid breaths that make my stomach knot and my hands burn with the need to pull her onto my lap and maul her like a pubescent boy.

Turns out my dick likes that idea even more than my brain, straining painfully against my pants. And when her gaze fixates on it, tongue licking over her lips, I can’t ignore it.

“You said you wanted me all to yourself…” Avery breathes.

Again, her words are punctuated by a nervous swallow as she gnaws on that plump lip that’s starred in so many of my dirty thoughts and daydreams.

“So fucking much.”

The apples of her cheeks flush a deep rose as I rearrange us so that she’s straddling my thighs.

“Don’t get shy on me now. Tell me what you want.”

My pants become tighter and tighter the longer she stares at me, biting, licking and sucking at her lip. That innocently sexy look in her eyes makes it impossible to get my dick under control as her entire body shudders over me.

“I want to fuck you, sunshine. I want to hear you moan my name while I’m buried deep inside you. I want you to come so hard on my cock that you can’t think of or feel anything other than me and what I do to you.”

Cheeks flushing brighter, she levels me with an intrepid stare. I don’t know what she’s thinking, but it can’t be anything innocent with how her skin erupts in goose bumps and her tits look like they’re about to burst from her dress.