Caught in the Surf Read online

  He pocketed the lighter and leaned forward, covering her hands with his. “I think you should stay on Seeker’s Island and give surfing lessons. Locals and tourists alike would pay good money to be taught how to surf by a world champion.” His thumb rubbed circles around her knuckles. “I’d be your first customer.”

  “I thought you were broke.”

  He smirked. “I am. But I’ve got a shipment of supplies to ferry tomorrow, and that’ll put me in a pretty good spot for a while. Plus, I’ve got some sky tours set up for the weekend.”

  “Sky tours?”

  “Yeah, nothing crazy, just some flyovers of the island, things like that. Gonna take one guy out and let him fish off the floats for a bit.”

  At that moment, a parcel delivery man, decked out in too-short shorts and a too-tight shirt, emerged from the main dining room, glancing around the outdoor patio with a stack of letters in his hand.

  “Kelly Connelly?” The delivery man’s voice was loud and brash. “Lookin’ for Kelly Connelly. She here?”

  Casey shifted in his seat and scratched his forehead with his index finger. If Lani didn’t know better, she’d think he was flushing either from embarrassment or from anger, perhaps a bit of both.

  “Goddamn Henry Sykes,” Casey muttered.

  “What?” Lani asked, not sure if she’d heard him right.

  Casey just shook his head and waved at the delivery man, who came over and handed the stack of letters to Lani. “Here you go, Miss Connelly. I just need a signature here—”

  Lani frowned in confusion. “I’m not Kelly Connelly. I don’t know her.”

  Casey growled. “I’m Kelly Connelly,” he rumbled, snatching the letters and the signature pad and scrawling his name. “Now fuck off, Jack.”

  The delivery guy, Jack, frowned at Casey. “Wait a sec, Casey. You’re Kelly Connelly? I’ve had these damn letters for a week, thinking Kelly was a girl and she’d come in for them. I been looking over the whole damn island for—well, for you, I guess.”

  Casey shot Jack a glare that had the short, overweight, older man stumbling backward. “Yeah, Kelly Connelly, K-C…Casey. Now fuck off. Please.”

  “No problem—”

  “If you call me Kelly, you’ll be shitting teeth for a week.”

  Lani stifled a snicker behind her hand, and then had to cover her laughter with a sip of ice water.

  Casey glared at her. “What the hell is so funny?”

  Lani let her laughter out. “You. You’re funny. You’re threatening that poor man for no reason.”

  Jack had taken the interruption to scurry away, so now Casey’s ire was directed at her. “I hate that name. It’s why I go by Casey.”

  Lani laughed again. “There’s nothing wrong with your name. I like it. I think I’ll call you Kelly from now on.”

  His nostrils flared. “You’d better not. I’m serious. I hate that name. I ain’t a bloody fuckin’ girl.”

  “Come on, Kelly. It’s just a name. I think it’s cute.”

  Casey let out a stream of curse words under his breath. “Fuckin’ Henry Goddamn Sykes.”

  Lani cocked an eyebrow at him. “Why do you keep saying that?”

  “Henry Sykes is my buddy in Ireland. He thinks, like you, apparently, that I should just own my name, so he makes a point of sending me letters addressed to my real, full name wherever I go. For this exact reason, I think, since people always seem to find out one way or another, usually because of fuckin’ Henry’s fuckin’ stupid-ass letters.” Casey slugged back his ice water as if wishing it was something stronger, crunching ice and glaring out at the ocean.

  Lani reached out and took one of his hands in both of hers. “I’m kidding, Casey. I won’t call you Kelly if you really don’t like it. Especially if you agree to stop referring to me as a pixie.”

  Casey relented, grinning at her. “I don’t know. I might be willing to let you call me Kelly if that’s the deal.”

  Lani just huffed in irritation. “You’re incorrigible.”

  He winked at her. “You have no idea.”

  Their food came then, and they enjoyed a relaxed dinner together, their conversation wandering from their histories to life on an island, to some of Casey’s milder and funnier stories of his time as a Ranger.

  Eventually, long after the sun had set, Casey paid the bill, and they strolled through the lowering twilight gloom. Somehow she found herself leaning into Casey’s side as they walked, his hand draped down her side to rest easily on her hip. She let her arm snake around his waist, let her hands slip up under the trailing hem of his shirt. Her fingers skated up and down the hot skin of his side, around the waist of his jeans.

  Then they were standing in the hallway between their rooms, an awkward silence descending between them.

  “Look, Lani. I’d invite you in to my room, but…” Casey shifted his weight from foot to foot, staring at Lani’s hand cradled in one of his. “I just don’t want you to think I’m pressuring you to move on before you’re ready, or…something like that.”

  Lani frowned up at him. “Did I act like I thought you were pressuring me earlier?”

  He shrugged. “No, I just want you to be…sure.”

  Lani stepped closer to him, close enough that her breasts brushed his chest. “Sure about what, Casey?”

  “This. You and me.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be sure about it?”

  Casey sighed. “You’re probably gonna take this the wrong way, but try not to. From what you’ve told me, you’ve only ever been with that Rafael guy. You just met me. I don’t want you to do this with me as a rebound and then regret it. I’m not saying you would, I’m just…I guess I’m trying to protect you from maybe making a decision you’re not sure about.”

  “Is this what you want?” Lani asked. “Is this usual for you?”

  Casey looked away, then back. “How about you come in and have a drink with me, and we’ll talk about this.” He opened his door, and Lani followed him in.

  He poured them each a tumbler of whiskey from a square bottle and added a few ice cubes, handing Lani her glass and leaning back against the refrigerator.

  Lani took a sip, then set it down, moving toward Casey. “I don’t think I need to talk about it. I know I just asked you some questions, but the answers don’t really matter, honestly. I know you want this, and I don’t care if this is a normal thing for you. I don’t know where this is going for us, but I’m willing to take this one day at a time. I know I want this with you. I really do. It’s not a rebound. If this had been a few months ago, maybe it would have been. Now? It’s me moving on.”

  Casey took a long drink from his glass, then set it down on top of the fridge and wrapped his arms around Lani. “Just to be clear, what is the ‘this’ we’re talking about, here?”

  She stared up at him, need coiling low in her belly. “Kiss me and find out.”

  Casey hesitated for a heartbeat, his pale eyes searching hers, then slid his hands down her back to cup her backside, lifted her up slowly, easily. His lips touched hers, gently at first. Just lips, initially, just his mouth on hers, tasting her lips, discovering. She wrapped her arms around his neck, exploring his nape and shoulders, holding him against her mouth, her legs tight around his waist.

  She’d never liked being held like this before, but now…she couldn’t imagine it any other way.

  It was a long, delving first kiss. His tongue slipped between her lips and touched her teeth, found her tongue and tasted it. His hands roamed her backside, spurring the trembling heat in her belly into waves of wracking desire.

  When the kiss broke, she leaned back and let him support her weight as she unbuttoned his shirt, pulled the sleeves off. She smiled greedily at the sight of his body, of the hard slabs and furrowed ridges of muscle. She smoothed her palms over his shoulders, down his chest to his stomach, turning her hands fingertips-down.

  They were moving, suddenly, as Casey strode toward the bed with Lani still wrapped around him. He
twisted in place, sat down on the edge of the bed with Lani now sitting on his knees. His fingers brushed up her knees to her thighs, tugging the hem of her dress up as he went. She lifted slightly so the hem slid from beneath her butt, and then he was lifting the fabric over her head and tossing it to the floor.

  He leaned back, propping his hands on the bed, and stared at her. His chest was rising and falling as he sucked in deep breaths, his eyes going heavy and hot as he gazed at her.

  Lani blushed under his scrutiny. “I didn’t have any sexy lingerie, so I went with a bikini. Best I could do under short notice.”

  Casey sat forward, running his hands from knees to hips to ribs, and then his hands paused there, hesitating. “Lani, you’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen. You don’t need lingerie to turn me on. You do that just by being, just by breathing and being who you are.”

  His hands slid around her back, down her spine, then back up her sides, pausing at her ribs again. Lani reached up to the middle of her back where the skimpy bikini top was tied. She tugged at the knot, felt the weight of her breasts do the work of untying the top the rest of the way. The triangular bits of fabric fell away, and Lani had to fight her nerves, her instinct to cover herself with her arms. She kept her hands on her thighs, waiting. Casey wasn’t breathing, and his hands tensed on her ribs. Lani reached up once more, this time to pull the bobby pins out of her hair, then arched her back and shook her hair out.

  This time, Casey reacted. He growled in his chest, and as Lani was running her fingers through her hair she felt a hot wet touch on the side of her breast. She moaned high in her throat, and her hand shot out to cup the back of Casey’s head as he laved kisses around the circumference of her breast, then finally, finally, ran his tongue over her nipple. His fingers found her other breast, and then she was the one barely breathing, gasping as he pinched and kissed, thumbed and licked.

  Lani scooted back on his knees, seeking access to his belt. She unbuckled it slowly, peeled it out of the loops, and set it aside. Her fingers found the snap of his jeans, then the zipper, and then she was rising in the air as he lifted up to slide the pants off, kicking them free, and he was naked beneath her.

  Her breath hitched in her throat as her fingers closed around his erection. Judging by the feel of him in her hands alone, the unbelievable size of the man was consistent, that was for damn sure. She forced her eyes open and looked down. The sight of him, pink and rigid and veined and huge, made her whimper with hunger for him. Her eyes were locked wide open, and her fingers were skimming over him, up and down his length, around his incredible thickness.

  Then she met his eyes, and her hand froze on him as she saw the worry in his eyes.

  “What is it, Casey?” she asked.

  “You’re just so tiny, Pixie. I don’t want to hurt you.” His voice was thick, rough.

  Lani smiled at him and resumed her stroking of his erection. “I know I’m short, Casey, but I’m all woman, and I’m not fragile.”

  “I know, and believe me, I’m well aware that you’re all woman. You just looked scared there for a second.”

  Lani laughed. “Should I be scared…Kelly?”

  She was playing coy and sultry, but if she admitted the truth to herself, she was a bit nervous. Not scared, just…nervous. It had been a long time, and he was enormous, not just down there, but in every way.

  He didn’t answer right away, tracing a finger up her thigh once again, this time stopping at her hip, tugging the end of the string keeping one side of her bikini bottom on. The side fell free, and his fingers slid into the crease where her bent leg met her hipbone. Lani unconsciously flexed her leg, wanting his fingers closer to her core.

  So long. It had been so long, and now she couldn’t think of anything but more, more, more.

  He left the bikini bottom tied on one side, now teasing her with his finger, dipping in between her thighs, close, close, close, but not there, not where she wanted it.

  His mouth touched her breastbone, and his middle finger teased nearer her core, touching the smooth skin just beside her labia. “You should be a little scared,” he whispered.

  “So should you,” Lani whispered back, “especially if you don’t touch me already.”

  He laughed, a hot huff between her breasts, and freed the other side of her bikini bottom. She lifted up, and he tossed the negligible bit of fabric aside. Lani felt her heart stutter into a pounding crescendo as Casey pulled her up his thighs. His thickness was nestled now between the damp folds of her core, and Lani shivered all over. Casey’s eyes were on her, intent, searching, piercing.

  “Not yet,” he murmured.

  And then she was moving up and forward, and he was lying back on the bed, pulling Lani toward his face. She wasn’t sure what he had in mind until he’d tugged her onto her hands and knees with her core positioned over his mouth.

  “Oh, god, Casey, I don’t know if—oh…shit.” Lani’s breath left her in a rush as his tongue lapped up her crease, tracing fire up her opening, dipping in, pressing against the sensitive, turgid nub that was her clit.

  His hands smoothed down her spine, nails scratching here and there, palms now cupping her backside, fingers trailing downward and inward. She found her breath, only to have it stolen once more when his long, thick middle finger slid inside her, curling to rub her just right, sending spasms of intensity pulsating through her body.

  Lani had always been a hair trigger. An orgasm had never been a problem for her. Reaching more than one was the problem. Always before, she’d come, and then that was it. No matter what else Rafe did, she was stuck, aroused but unable to cross over the edge again.

  So now it didn’t surprise her when Casey’s tongue and fingers brought her spiraling over the edge almost immediately. She exploded above him, rocking her hips slightly as he tongued and fingered her. What surprised her was when he kept going, despite her obvious orgasm.

  “Ride me, Lani. Ride my face, ride my fingers.”

  He added a finger inside her, carefully, gently, and began to withdraw them and slide them back in. Lani whimpered as the tingling prickling flickers of fire began to wash over her, and she did what he’d suggested, rocking back and down onto him, feeling herself swell and tense and moisten.

  She was also not a vocal person in bed. A few whimpers, some quiet moans, but that was about it. Now? Casey was drawing wanton groans from her, loud gasps, and even once something approaching an actual shriek as he teased her toward the edge for a second time. He brought her close, speeding up his tongue until she was on the burning edge of orgasm, only to slow down and shift his attention and bring her down. Then he’d bring her close like that, and then away. Again and again he did this, until she was crazed with need.

  Finally, she could take no more. “Damn it, Kelly. Let me come! Please!”

  He growled, and she remembered too late that he didn’t like his name, and she’d only meant it as a joke, but his fingers were gone and his tongue was gone and he seemed to be waiting.

  She whimpered and rocked on her hips back against him. “I’m sorry, Casey. I’m sorry. I was teasing.”

  “Say it again, but this time get it right.” His voice was low, threatening.

  She trembled at the heat in his voice. “Please, Casey, make me come.”

  Two fingers slid inside her and his tongue dipped in against her clit, and then she was there, falling, crying out louder than she’d ever done in her life, coming harder than she thought was possible. She collapsed forward and rolled to her side, limp, shaking, quivering with aftershocks.

  She felt Casey leave the bed, cracked an eye open to watch him cross the room in a single stride, crouch and dig through a battered Army rucksack with his last name stitched on a patch. He pulled out a string of condoms from the bottom and ripped one free, set the rest on the nightstand.

  Lani shivered again, this time in anticipation. Casey didn’t crawl over her, though. He lay on his side next to her, ran his palm over her belly and down her thi
ghs, back up across her pubis. She rolled to her side, grasped his erection, and stroked him in a slow and gentle rhythm.

  Casey flinched at her touch, then closed his eyes in pleasure. Just as his hips started to gyrate, he pulled her wrist away from him and reached for her, tugging her toward him. Lani didn’t hesitate. She slid one leg over his thighs and straddled him, palms flat against his chest. His tip probed her entrance, and Lani trembled. For the space of two heartbeats she paused, staring down into his eyes, asking herself if she had any reservations.

  She found none.

  He held her hips loosely, his breath coming in long gasps. He was absolutely still except for his breathing, waiting for her.

  She reached between them, took him in her hand, and guided him slowly into her tight wet folds. She felt the pinch and burn of stretching muscles, and she stilled. Casey was frozen, jaw clenched, fingers tight around her hips.

  “God, Lani. You’re fucking tight.”

  “It’s…oh, god…” She slid him deeper inch by tantalizing inch, “…it’s been a while. And you’re hung like a fucking elephant.”

  He laughed, hard and sudden, which twitched him deeper, drawing a sharp gasp from Lani as he drove in. “Sorry, sorry. You okay?”

  Lani held still once more, allowing herself to acclimate to his size. The burning of stretching muscle was exquisite, just enough pain to be blissful. And then she felt his hands slide up her ribs to cup her breasts and his fingers brushed her nipples, and a gush of dampness had him sliding deeper and she was unable to hold still any longer.

  God, he filled her. She couldn’t keep her eyes open, could barely force her body to move from the deliciously intense pleasure of his presence inside her, his huge hard body beneath her. She felt the edge approaching yet again, and he wasn’t even moving yet.

  “Move, Casey,” she gasped.

  “Oh, thank fuck,” he grunted.

  Suddenly she was moving, airborne. He was standing up with her, pinning her spine against the wall. She clenched her legs around his hips, squeezing with all her strength as he lifted her up by her buttocks and lowered her slowly.