Chapter 30

Asurge of triumph surged through Stefan's blood, quick and hot, thickening his shaft further and causing the muscles in his back to knot up, if only to keep his position steady over Nicki's sweat and oil-slicked body. She surrounded him with heat and need, and he pulsed inside her, glorying in the wonder of her strength, her intensity, her passion.

Her lids drifted shut again, but he knew she was struggling to focus, to store up every touch, every twitch, every pressure of his body against hers. She was no stranger to sex—no stranger to him anymore—but with her headlong race through life, he suspected she didn't often take the time to truly indulge herself. He would give her that time, though he could almost hear the crash and clank of her thoughts banging around in her head. She couldn't rest for thirty seconds before her mind started up all the fervor usually reserved for her body.

He wasn't unfamiliar with the condition.

Now he rocked into her with gradually increasing speed. He could afford to let the pressure build within him, secure that Nicki was beneath him, surrounding him, willing to ride this tide of pleasure for as long as it might last. He watched as her body relaxed further, the reaction allowing him to bury himself further with each thrust. At some point the tide of his urgency woke an echoing response within her, and her lids fluttered open again, her sex-glazed stare meeting his, flickering with renewed desire. Her mouth curved into a grin as her hands came up, curling around his forearms.

"You're the one who's perfect," she said, her words a purely feminine purr. "You're built exactly—right. You are."

The words seemed oddly truncated to him, like half of what she'd meant to say, but at that moment Nicki tightened around him, and Stefan's brain short-circuited briefly before coming back online. She continued to roll her muscles along the straining length of his cock, and she smiled up with him with clear knowledge of what she was doing.

"Showing off?" he murmured, dipping down to kiss her.

"It's important to exercise your muscles whenever you can," she said. "Especially your core."

"My compliments to your physical trainer. On second thought, he's a dead man. I'll happily cart him to Hades myself."

As Nicki laughed, Stefan lifted himself to his knees, bracing her hips on his thighs as her legs stretched to accommodate the movement. He went further still, though, bringing her ankles up until her legs formed a vee in front of his face, her ankles bracketing his jaw.

"What are you doing—" Nicki gasped as he bent into her, and her thighs tensed even as they accepted the gentle pressure he was applying.

"Every complete workout demands stretching as well," he said, sinking into her as her body accepted the different pose.

"You're so good to me," Nicki said wryly, but her head tilted back and she sighed, her legs lengthening into the stretch. "That feels…unreasonably awesome."

It was the expression on her face that did him in. She watched him with pure, unfiltered pleasure lighting her features, her eyes half-lidded, her face creased with a slight smile, and that was all it took. The need built up within him, quick and hot, and his grip firmed on her ankles, urging her knees to bend and allow her legs to relax as he rocked into her.

"Ohhh—" Nicki's gaze was fixed on his face, her eyes alert, searching, and once again he sensed she was tracking his movements, his reactions, cataloging his every shift to play it back later. He didn't plan on letting the experience fade into memory, and the thought of that ratcheted him up further, until he hissed her name through his teeth. She grabbed his forearms, moving with him, rocking with him, experiencing the explosion that jolted through him as he felt it shatter him completely, everything he wanted, yearned for, needed suddenly releasing in a swift and fiery rush.

A blast of awareness punched through him, another flash of understanding of that light, that too-bright light, bursting into a supernova and then winking out into nothing. All the breath rushed out of him, and he felt suddenly—strangely—impossibly bereft. As if the long, cold fingers of the Underworld had reached out to drift along his skin.

Then it was gone again, so quickly he couldn't quite recall what he'd seen. His mind a jumble, Stefan collapsed to the side, rolling away from Nicki briefly as she moved as well—then froze. "I'm covered in oil," she announced, staring down at herself. "I think if I move I'm going to destroy these sheets."

"You worry too much."

She snorted. "You're the absolute first person to ever accuse me of that." But she remained on the bed as he fetched towels, and the cleanup of her body required another shower, and then an extensive drying-off period that filled the room with laughter and teasing and the kind of kisses that alternated between long and slow and fast and hard. And Stefan watched the hours slip by too quickly, until suddenly it was three p.m.—which he knew only by Nicki's reaction.

"Is that right?" she squeaked. "That can't be right—is that really right?"

"What?" He glanced up from where he was pulling on his boxers—and Nicki pointed to the clock.

"I have to be at the beach in an hour—an hour! Ready to give a demonstration. That means I need to be there in a half hour, which means we should already be on our way!"

She flew to the dresser, pulling out clothes and throwing things on the floor until she found what she needed. Then, as if suddenly realizing what she'd done, she picked up the discards and shoved them back in the drawer—all more quickly than Stefan could draw breath to protest.

She was wriggling into a sport suit when he finally got words out. "We're only a few minutes away from the beach by speedboat. We'll go that way."

"Great!" she said, diving for another drawer. He had a feeling he'd see a second avalanche of clothing. "Go get ready—and hurry! I don't want to give Omir a reason to cancel the tour again tomorrow. Go!"

Stefan went, not even trying to stay his laughter. Nicki had transformed from languorous to hyper alert in the blink of an eye, all over a demo that she was doing not for love, not for money—but simply because it was the newest thing required of her to get the mission to the next step. As ridiculous as that sounded, it was enough motivation for her.

He was still laughing as he emerged from his own room a few minutes later to find Nicki already at his door, wearing a sundress over her bathing suit. "The concierge said you're right, said you'd called for a boat. We're only a few minutes away," she blurted. "But we've got to go!"

They made it to the marina in less than ten minutes, Nicki chattering the whole way, mapping out her planned moves for the demonstration.

"It'll be quick, I'm thinking, maybe only twenty minutes, though could be up to an hour," she said, shouting over at him as they streaked across the bay toward the open beach. "I have no idea if I'll like their equipment, but I'm sure they've got top of the line stuff. It depends on how its rigged."

The wind whipped around them, forcing her to stand close to him in order to be heard. He didn't mind. While he refrained from wrapping an arm around her, he leaned in close ostensibly to hear her chatter about the demo. In truth, however, he simply wanted to be nearer to her, as near as he could manage in the public eye. She was a live wire once more, all the fogginess of her mood directly after the short fall at the cliff gone, and her breathless excitement was intoxicating.

She pounded his arm. "Are you listening to me?"

"Every word," he shouted back, transferring his gaze to the beach as they neared it. "Who'll be out there with you?"

She turned and squinted, then nodded briskly, up on her toes, as if she was going to hop overboard and swim if that would get her there to shore quicker. The boat banked and cut speed, heading through the no wake zone.

"Josef—that's half his staff right there, on the beach talking to the crowd. Oh good, they have kids. They're the best with wind surfing, it's so much like play they pick it up quickly, not as intimidating as surfboarding or as boring as bodyboarding. That'll be—" she flashed a glance at him, coloring visibly despite the glare. "Sorry," she said. "I chatter when I get nervous."

He lifted his brows. "This demonstration makes you nervous?"

"Any performance does. It's part of what makes it good, I guess, but I'm always keyed up, even for something simple, at least until I get rolling on it." She blew out a breath. "Once I get rolling I'm fine, usually. I simply have to get started."

The boat swung in close to shore, and the gathering of men and women on the beach turned, one of the men raising a hand. Josef.

"Go ahead," Stefan said. "It's quicker from here if you swim. I'll be along before you get started."

"Good. Right." Without further word Nicki stepped up on the ridge of the boat and jumped into the water, dry-tech dress and all. Her beach shoes were meant for exactly that, and she stroked briefly through the water before hitting a section of the beach where she could stand, then she moved swiftly out of the water, her arms pumping, her skin shining bright in the full sun.

Stefan couldn't stop watching her as the boat whirled around, putting distance between them once again. Nicki had everything she needed—but he didn't. He wanted to capture her demonstration on video.

He wanted to hold all that sunshine in his grasp, before it slipped away again for good.