Page 135 of For Better or Hearse

“There,” he murmurs. “That should do it.”

She clears her throat. Checks out her sensor. “Looks good, Doctor Whitford.”

When she goes to move away, he snags her arm.

“Ash.”

Heart thundering, she looks up into his face.

All day, he’s looked as on edge as she’s felt. Utterly and completely undone.

“I’m going to die if I don’t touch you,” he rasps.

The raw edge to his voice has her breath whooshing out of her.

“So dramatic,” she teases, laying a hand on his muscled chest. Beneath her palm, the echo of his heart.

Eyes blazing, he draws her into him. He palms her sacrum, that smooth expanse of skin above the lush curve of her ass.

Then his mouth meets hers, and the world stops.

His lips melt against hers, like a sugar dissolving, a sugar she can’t get enough of, a sugar that’s good for her, never bad.

Nathaniel.

Ash twines her arms around his neck, twists herself ever closer. Like trees that grow, that fuse together.

Breaking their kiss, they move. Wordlessly, Nathaniel spreads a towel on the beach of the lagoon. Lays Ash down. He drags his calloused fingers over her breasts, her hips, between her thighs. Good. She’s never felt so damn good.

“Fuck,” she whispers.

He kisses the base of her throat. “I love this bikini,” he husks almost reverently. “Yellow’s my new favorite color.”

She rakes her nails through his hair, down his back. Enjoys the growl of approval he makes. Slowly, her top is peeled off her. Her nipples pucker in the clammy air.

Nathaniel takes her breast in his mouth. Warm. Heated. Hungry. She moans. Next, he removes her bikini bottoms. Licks up her thigh, the arousal that’s built there.

As he comes back to her, he hovers over her. The hard weight of his body a grounding calm. His kiss delicate against her cheek, his whisper in her ear. “I love your hair.”

His trembling fingers run over her scalp, firing every nerve ending. Unraveling her.

He draws back, drinking her in. “I love—” A hard breath rattles out of him. “I love everything about you, Ash.”

She’s smiling so big and dumb, but she can’t help herself. The scent, the closeness of him, travels down her body and into her heart. She pushes his board shorts past his hips. She’s desperate to have him inside her. Desperate for him to fill her.

“You’re perfect,” Nathaniel whispers against her skin. “You’re perfect for me.”

His eyes meet hers. And then he sinks inside her body.

Ash gasps. So good. So fucking right. Their bodies like ley lines. Connected. Moving toward one another in a course bound for the heart.

“I could stay like this forever,” he rasps. “With you.” He grazes her throat, brushes a hand over her veins, her pulse, her skin. “My morbid little beauty.”

She swallows back the emotion crashing inside her. “Me too,” she whispers. “Me too, me too.”

Silence falls. Nathaniel moves inside her, his breath warm and pulsing. He grips her neck, brings her mouth to where he wants her. She lets him. Own her. She’s never wanted anything more.

“Ash.” At the plea, she palms his face, rakes a hand through his hair.