She hoped like hell no one else decided to go for a late-night naked swim, but then he slid a hand down her spine, stopping to squeeze her butt before stroking further, down the back of her leg, urging it around his waist, which opened her up for him, and oh God, he arched his hips into hers so that she could feel exactly what she did to him.

He was hard, gloriously so, and boldly nudging at her opening, and she forgot all about the others.

He was a stranger, and yet she’d never felt closer to anyone in her life. Pressed even closer, she made a sound of intense need, and he met her more than halfway, his mouth welcoming hers, harder and deeper this time, as if he’d pulled the plug on any hesitancy, on the leash of his control. His hands roamed wildly over her, and hers did the same, and when she wrapped her fingers around his glorious erection, he swore and staggered unsteadily, and they both fell.

Water closed over their heads, and laughing breathlessly, they crawled to the shore. Lily lay back on the sand, her head and torso out of the water, looking up at Jared as he towered over her, his eyes glittering.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he whispered, lowering his body to hers as the water lapped at their calves. “So damned beautiful you take my breath.” He buried his face in her hair, then her neck, breathing her in as if he meant to inhale her, his hands skimming up and down her body, spreading the heat within her.

When she opened her legs for him, he groaned, low and raw, and made himself at home between them, cupping her face for another soul-wrenching kiss. Then he took that kiss on a cruise down her throat to her breasts, and she couldn’t help it, she cried out.

“Shh,” he murmured, and sucked her hard into his mouth.

It turned out it was hard to “shh.” She tried, she really did, she just couldn’t, so he put his fingers over her lips and slid further down her body, kissing each rib, her belly button.

Lower.

Oh. God.

Slipping his hands beneath her, he lifted her high enough that he could kiss her.

There.

And with the water lapping at her legs and Jared lapping at her center, he took her right out of herself and back again, leaving her gripping wet sand in her fists, staring blindly up at the stars, shuddering, stunned.

“Again,” he commanded, and though she’d just exploded so hard she thought she couldn’t come again, he proved her wrong.

Twice.

Good lord. He might have been a classic workaholic, a self-described ordinary working stiff, but there was nothing ordinary about what he did to her there on the shore. Whatever his experience had or hadn’t been, he was earthy, giving, a masterful lover, and even when she had him in her hands, making him tremble and swear as she slowly stroked, he took care of her, almost intuitively knowing what she needed and when, which was him, inside her.

When he sank into her, their twin groans mingled in the night air, and when he began to move, she couldn’t have come up with her own name.

“Lily.”

Right. Her name was Lily. Good. Great. But she promptly forgot it again because he’d opened his eyes and locked them on hers, letting her see what she did to him, letting her watch the pleasure, the hunger, the sheer need for her roll over him, through him, and back into her.

No one had ever been this deep within her before, inside her body, her mind, her soul.

No one.

And she gave herself up to it. Really, she had no choice. It was the first true joy she’d experienced in a very long time. Given the look in his eyes, he felt the same. Marveling, she touched his jaw, his mouth, her heart quickening as he kissed her fingers and thrust deep within her.

Unbelievably, she felt her body tightening again, but then he did the one thing she wanted him to never do-he stopped.

“Lily-”

“No. Please don’t stop.” Was that her, all breathless and panty, sounding like Marilyn Monroe? Yeah, and she didn’t care, all pride had deserted her, because damn it, she needed him to keep moving, she needed that more than she needed anything else in the entire world. Her toes were curling, her body on the very edge. “Please, please…”

“God.” Dropping his forehead to hers, he panted for breath. “Lily, don’t move.”

“I have to.” Arching up, she wrapped her legs around his waist, which brought him even deeper within her, and they both gasped in pure, unadulterated pleasure. “Jared, you have to-”

“No condom.” He grated this out, his fingers gripping her hips as if she was his lifeline.

Condom.

How she’d nearly put that little thought right out of her head was beyond her, but he’d fried her brain cells. “Front pocket of my jeans.”

He blinked. “You have a condom in your pocket?”

She stared up at him. “I think the correct reaction here is gratitude.”

“Oh, trust me.” He reached up for the clothes they’d tossed on the shore, and fumbled through her pocket. “It is sheer gratitude. I’m also flattered.” He was back, kneeling between her thighs, his hands sliding slowly up her legs, his gaze following his own movements, his breathing going ragged again.

“Hurry,” she panted.

“On it.” But he leaned in and kissed her inner thigh, then turning his head, nuzzled her very center.

Her gasp filled the quiet night. Lifting his head, his eyes were dark as he tore open the packet and rolled the condom down his length. Then he was poised at her opening, going still as he looked at her. “So beautiful,” he murmured.

She touched his mouth, his jaw, then sank her fingers into his hair to tug him closer. “Kiss me,” she whispered, rocking up to meet him, and when he sank into her again, she let out a sound of sheer relief. Between the dark night, the heat between their bodies, and the power of his thrusts, she was lost. Lost.

And apparently he felt the same way, because he tore his mouth from hers and arched his back to thrust even deeper, gripping her hips as he did, his gaze locked on hers, driving her higher and higher, watching her with eyes gone glossy with passion. He was beautiful, too, so beautiful, and then, with a surprised cry, she shattered again, and this time, took him with her.

It took a good long moment to come back to herself, and when she did, the night air was cooling her damp skin, blowing her hair in her flushed face as she lay bare-ass naked on a rock with an equally bare-ass naked man she’d known all of a few days holding her tight to him.

Oh, boy.

Sitting up, she reached for her top.

Beside her, Jared sighed. “Fun time over?”

She’d told him she didn’t want any strings, just this. She’d made sure he knew that, and yet she’d forgotten one tiny little thing-to believe it herself. Now she was fighting the urge to cling, and that was just disconcerting enough to have her needing to run for cover. “I should get back.” Yeah, that was it.

He watched as she slipped into her jeans and shoved her panties in her pocket. She pushed her hair out of her face and looked for her ponytail holder, but it’d vanished. Willing to write it off, she jammed her feet into her shoes.

“What was it,” he asked quietly as he rose. “The intimacy? Or the fact that you engaged your heart?”

Her entire body went from limp-as-a-noodle satisfied to drawn tight as a bow. “Not that I have to explain myself here, but I prefer not to lie around naked for anyone else to find us.”

“No one is even going to look for us.” He smiled grimly. “It was both. We got too close too soon, and you regret it.”

“I don’t do regret.”

“Right. You just shut yourself off.”

She turned to face him as he pulled up his jeans. “Shut myself off?”

“Sure.” He jammed an arm into his shirt. “That’s easier than facing the truth, right?”

“And what is the truth?” she asked, knowing she wasn’t going to like this one little bit.

He buttoned his shirt atop the abs she’d just had her hands all over. “That what we did got a little too close for comfort. And now you need to back off. You need to be alone, where you can tell yourself that no, you didn’t just nearly come right outside yourself because it was that amazing.”

She put her hands on her hips and absorbed that unexpected punch of truth. “A little sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

“No.” He laughed harshly. “Hell, no. It’s just that I was there, Lily, and I know damn well that’s not how it usually is. At least for me.” He shoved his fingers through his hair and just looked at her.

She knew what he wanted to hear. That no, hell no, it wasn’t usually like that for her either, but she was still reeling from what he’d pulled out of her. She was nearly staggering with it.

This was so not what she’d expected tonight.

She’d wanted a little escape, a little fun, a little oblivion, that’s all. Only what she’d found was so much more than that.

So much more.

Hating that he was right, about everything, she turned away and started back toward camp. “Actually, my usual MO is just to walk away,” she called back. Like she was doing right now, as a matter of fact. “’Night, Jared.”

“Lily.”

She turned back and lifted her chin. “I warned you.”

“That this would be just sex.” He stood there watching her, hair standing straight up, eyes sleepy and sexy, clothes rumpled. Rumpled. “Yes, yes you did warn me, thank you. Your conscience can be clear.”

“I hope this won’t affect our working relationship.”

He just looked at her in disbelief, and yeah, she felt stupid. Working relationship? God. “Good night,” she managed around a thick throat, knowing she was being impossibly rude, but was utterly unable to stop herself.

She’d been looking for herself, and here she was. Pathetic. Weak. Needy.

And she’d let him see.

“If we don’t talk about it,” he warned as she turned away again. “You’re going to dream about it. About me.”