Depths of Salvation (Love on the Edge) (17 page)

And it was a damn fine place to be. Our strokes mirrored each other, our pace matched. We fit as much under the water as we did above.

“Hold up,” he said, dropping my hand and propelling downward, closer to the reef. His movements caused a slew of black and yellow striped fish to bolt from where they’d been relaxing in the long green strips of seaweed that sprouted near the reef.

I hovered above him, watching as he reached behind him, grabbing a knife he kept on his belt.

“Connell? Don’t kill anything!” I said, swimming toward him, ready to stop him if I had to. “You could throw off the balance of the entire—“

He cut off my words by holding up a large clam between his fingers.
“I’m quiet. Not a murderer.” He laughed as he eyed me. “Any objections to me opening him up?”

I shook my head, heat rushing to my cheeks. Once again I’d jumped to an assumption about Connell’s actions without waiting to see. I liked that he continued to surprise me, but the surprises only made it more evident that this man I slept with, and thought about on a second-to-second basis, was still unknown to me in so many ways.

He took the tip of his knife and gently slipped it between the clam’s closure, wrenching it open with little effort. Inside, sitting on its slimy pink flesh, was a black pearl the size of a pea. Connell slipped it out and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger before shutting the clam and replacing it on the reef. He looked down at the pearl in his hands, his eyes contemplative as we hovered there.

“Funny, isn’t it?” he asked.

“How so?”

He shrugged. “On the outside, they look like hardened, funny-shaped rocks. But pry the suckers open and you find something beautiful,” he said and handed me the pearl. “And delicious.”

I chuckled softly, holding the pearl closer to my mask. It was so dark but almost had an indigo tint to it when the sun’s rays hit it in the right way. I reached to hand it back to him.

“That’s yours, darlin’.” He replaced the knife on his belt. “Remind you of me, incase you wise up and bolt soon.”

I scrunched my eyebrows at him, placing the pearl in the small pocket-bag I kept on my belt. “I wouldn’t do that.”

“You might.” He swam again, and I followed quickly behind him.

“I won’t.” I tried to assure him. “And you know something else funny about that clam?”

“What?”

“You had to use a knife to get to its center.”

He stopped his momentum, spinning around to meet my eyes. “Yeah,” he said, looking over every inch of my face he could see underneath the mask. “But you might not like what you find once you cut into me.”

“What have you got here?” I asked as I walked along the beach that bordered my lab.

Connell’s and my dive had been pleasant the rest of the hour we’d spent down there, and I’d placed the pearl safely on my desk after we’d returned inland. He’d insisted on running an errand and had told me to meet him down at the beach in an hour. I was now dressed in a fresh pair of shorts and a plain gray T-shirt, my hair tied tightly in a ponytail.

Connell also donned dry clothes and had managed to wrangle dinner for two—a sweet spread of conch shell salads, grilled chicken with mango salsa, and what looked like a box of truffles for dessert.

“Figured you were as hungry as I was after that dive.” He motioned toward his beach picnic, and my stomach flipped.

“You did all this for me?” I slowly sank to my knees, taking a seat on the oversize black blanket he’d laid out. This was above and beyond what I’d expected, especially after he said he hadn’t done intimate in forever.

He shrugged, and I wondered if I’d ever rid him of that natural response when I asked him a question.
Don’t push. Just enjoy this.

“Well, thank you. This is absolute perfection,” I said, reaching for one of the salads.

We ate and sipped the beers he’d brought with the meal, allowing the waves crashing on the shore to be our soundtrack.

By the time I’d sank my teeth into one of the truffles the sun had set, and our picnic turned into a moonlit lounge.

Connell cleared away the mess and came back with two more beers from a cooler he had nearby. I took the icy bottle from his hand, clinking it against his as he sat down.

“Don’t know what I did to deserve all this, but I really appreciate it,” I said. “No one has ever done anything this nice for me before.”

He tilted his head. “Really?”

“I’m kind of addicted to my work.” I took a sip. “Not a ton of opportunity for extracurricular activities.”

“Especially not those that require explaining yourself constantly,” Connell said, a smirk on his lips. The look made a rush of heat surge in my core. The day had started with my mouth on his and I wanted to end it even more intimately.

“Exactly. You either understand the demands of the ocean, or you don’t,” I said.

“And half the time the people don’t,” Connell finished.

“Not you, though.” I tucked my feet beneath me, angling my body toward him.

“Nope.” He leaned back on his elbows, staring out at the rolling waves. “That’s something you’ll never have to explain to me.”

“Unless I put myself in danger,” I said, arching an eyebrow at him. His reaction to the shark incident was more than contradictory to his statement.

“I won’t ever be comfortable with you at risk like that.”

“And yet, our jobs make risks like that a daily threat.” I set my beer down, giving him my full focus.

He sighed, drawing his gaze away from the water and back to me. “I know.”

“So?”

He shrugged. “What?”

“So the next time I’m in danger, and yes, there will be a next time, are you going get all barbarian primal again?”

He sat up and pulled me closer to him, his mouth a breath away from mine. “Oh, you can absolutely count on that.” He teased my lips with his tongue and warm chills shot across my skin. “But I’ll try to keep it contained. I can’t promise anything, Sadie. There is something about you, something that drives my need to protect you. Keep you for myself. I’m not sure I can turn that off. Is that a deal breaker?”

My heart raced as his fingers gently wrapped around my neck. “Not as long as you don’t ever ask me to quit.”

He shifted his body, laying me back and supporting himself above me with one arm, the other still secured around my neck. He moved his hand to smooth the strands of hair that had escaped from my ponytail. “I’d never do that. I understand better than anyone the hole that keeping you out of the ocean would carve in your heart.”

I swallowed hard, gazing up at him. I slipped my fingers underneath his shirt, reveling in the feel of his hard muscles. “Then my earlier statement holds true. I’m not going anywhere, Connell.”

His lips crushed mine, nothing gentle about it, and it made my heart freaking soar. I arched against him, needing the contact with his body as well as his mouth. He kissed me hard enough to claim me, but touched me soft enough to make me beg for more. The contrast was mind-blowing, and completely suited him. I slid my hand from his abs downward, slipping it just past the band of his shorts.

“Sadie,” he growled against my lips.

“Yes?”

“We have to stop.”

“Why?” I dipped lower, wrapping my hands around his full length, gasping slightly at how hard he already was.

He glanced over my head, his eyes darting around the area. “I’m two seconds away from taking you right here in the open.”

I followed his gaze, arching my head backward, and he kissed up and down my neck. The beach was clear—the area near my lab not a popular choice among the locals. I brought my head back down, grinning at him.

“Then do it,” I said, reaching for one of the ends of the oversize black blanket and drawing it over us.

His eyes lit up before he reclaimed my mouth, working his hands down my body until he untied my shorts and slipped them down my legs.

My mind went fuzzy with heat. The only thing I understood was
want,
and Connell was it. I lost myself in his touch, the movements of his tongue against my skin, and the exploration of every hard angle of his body.

He kissed down my neck, over my breasts, and lower, moving with a slow burn that seared my insides.

“Mmmm,” he hummed as he slid my panties off, and used his fingers to tease me. “So wet.” He parted me before sinking his tongue inside, and I gasped from the contact. He stroked me with his tongue, moving expertly against every inch of my sensitive skin, alternating between light and heavy laps until all my muscles coiled tighter than a spring. “I can feel you’re there, Sadie. Fuck, you’re delicious.”

The way his mouth moved and his lips vibrated against me as he spoke only pushed me further over the edge, and when he sucked my clit into his mouth, I came apart beneath him.

“Connell,” I moaned as my orgasm rocked my body. I fisted his hair, yanking him upward, and pulling him to me.

A smirk shaped his lips as he settled himself between my thighs, and he cupped my cheek in his hand, looking down at me with something so much different than last time.

Hope
.

The soft look matched his movements as he entered me, and I sighed with relief. He kissed me with a light touch, in total contrast from yesterday when he’d claimed me with wild determination, and my heart reacted to the switch.

This was new. This was real. This meant something more than a lust-filled attack after another life-threatening incident.

Connell connected with me in a way no one else had, and I believed I did the same for him. His slow thrusts tortured me as much as it made me moan, and I never wanted it to end. I wanted all my nights filled with him—this wild man who could hold me this gently, make love to me this purely.

Love?

I pushed back the black hair that had fallen over his face, my fingers trembling as he tortured me with long, slow thrusts. His hazel eyes were open to me in a way they never had been before. The notion increased the shockwaves of electricity that tingled beneath my skin with each of his movements. I kissed him, hoping to drown out my moans between his lips. He drank me in, never missing a beat inside me.

My muscles quivered as he hardened to another degree inside me, his pace increasing until I could see the edge of release in his eyes. I dug my fingers into the bare skin of his strong back as I clenched around him.

“Come with me,” I said, my voice a shaken whisper as I arched my hips upward.

“Fuck, Sadie.” He growled, pressing his forehead against mine. Our bodies shuddered with pleasure at the same time. He brought me down, continuing with slow thrusts until my trembles had subsided and I’d loosened my grip on his shoulders.

He laid his head against my chest as we caught our breaths. And as I tangled my fingers in his hair, I
knew
.

There was only one way I could let go of my control enough to give myself to him so openly, with the ocean at our feet, and the beach at our heads. Only one reason I trusted the man with my life above and below the water.

I was completely in love with him.

Connell

I TUCKED SADIE
in between my legs, pulling her back against my chest, and tugged the blanket around us tighter. Though dressed, the heat the beach had soaked up all day had diminished after the sun had set, and now that I wasn’t actively worshiping her body there was a bite to the air.