Medusa’s Master

feel macho.”

“Oh. Sorry.” She commenced panting loudly.

He inserted a specially coded magnetic key in the lock and glanced up at her, grinning. “Take it easy on that heavy breathing or the guys on the other end of the surveillance cameras are gonna wonder what we’re up to out here.”

She glanced around sharply. “I didn’t see any cameras-”

“They wouldn’t be hidden if you could see them. But trust me. They’re here.”

The sound of voices erupted behind them and he spun to face this new threat. A group of a half-dozen tourists had staggered onto the beach. The three young couples looked drunk off their asses. Their raucous laughter drowned out the ocean behind them.

“Hey!” one of them called out. “There’s some locals. Watch how frien’ly they arrre…” he slurred, weaving purposefully in their direction.

Jeff cursed under his breath. The last thing they needed was to get tangled up with a bunch of drunk kids. He needed an instant distraction. Something that would drive off the intruders-or give him an excuse to drive them off.

He turned to Kat and swept her up in his arms. She went tense, prepared to do him bodily harm.

“Roll with me on this and don’t kill me,” he muttered. And then he leaned down to plaster his mouth against hers.

She gasped as their lips touched…but then, so did he.

If he’d thought Cupid’s Bolt had slammed into him like a brick before, this time it bowled him over like a rushing freight train. She was exactly right for him. Perfect. A sense of destiny washed over him. This was the woman he was meant for. He sucked in another surprised breath, and then inhaled her. She tasted like berries, tart and fresh and sweet all at once, and suddenly he was starving.

Her body hummed, as tense as a bow against his, and then all at once she gave way, melting into him, pressing into him as if a wave of need shoved her against him whether she willed it or no. Her hands clutched his shoulders for balance, and his arms tightened around her convulsively.

She sucked hard at his lower lip, pulling him down to her, seeking his tongue and finding it with hers. Her hands crept up to the back of his head while his crept down to her buttocks. They both used their not inconsiderable strength to draw closer to one another. Good didn’t even begin to describe how she felt against him. Delicious, succulent, opulent images raced through his brain, and none were adequate to describe her or the cravings she evoked in him.

He backed her up against the wall and she wriggled in his arms, straining toward him as hard as he strained toward her, wild in her need. He drank in her desire, as greedy for her as she was for him. Avidly, he absorbed her essence, learning the delicate but iron-strong feel of her, savoring the faint floral scent that seemed to hang around her, touching her satin hair and the softer satin of her skin.

“Hoo, baby! Look’ee at ’em goin’ at it! You go, guy!”

Jeff lurched as he abruptly remembered the drunks behind them. He tore his mouth away from hers to glare over his shoulder. “Can’t you see we’re busy? Go find your own dark corner to neck in. This one’s occupied.”

“Well, daa-amn, I guess so, dude. Youze two’s throwin’ sparks all the way to Miami. Git out the fire extinguisher, Roscoe!” one of the drunks caterwauled back.

He continued to glare at them steadily, letting overt threat infuse his body language. In his experience, it took strong signals and a few extra seconds for drunks to perceive peril. He held his pose, a promise of violence glinting dangerously in his gaze.

Finally, sluggishly, the group registered the menace he posed. One of the girls grabbed a guy by the arm. “C’mon,” she whined. “I wanna swim in the ocean.”

Another girl piped up. “I wanna skinny-dip. First guy there gets to take off my bra.”

With a whoop, the young men took off running, tripping and stumbling in the sand, the girls trailing behind. Their laughter faded into the roar of the waves. Jeff watched until they disappeared around the point, and then he turned back to Kat.

“Now, where were we?” he murmured.

“What’s happening?” Kat whispered. “What is this between us?”

“This, my dear, is grandmama’s bolt. Hits ya kinda hard, doesn’t it?”

“Like lightning,” she grumbled.

He laughed quietly. “Nothing to do for it but to sit back and enjoy the ride.” He pushed a lock of sable hair out of her eyes. “Who’d have guessed you’d be the one? Never in a million years did I expect you.”

She tensed in his arms. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Not a blessed thing. You’re perfect.” He leaned down to show her how perfect she was, this time kissing her gently, letting his lips slide across hers, letting their tongues play lightly, sipping sweetly at each other. The pounding lust of a minute ago was less hurried now, still driving spikes of need deep into his gut, but with quiet assurance that time to explore this thing between them was near at hand.

“I’ve never…” She hesitated.

He prompted, murmuring against her lips, “Never what?”

“Never…felt like this before. What are you doing to me?”

“This is commonly referred to as kissing. Or necking, or canoodling, if you want to be old-fashioned. It’s when a boy and a girl mash mouths together and swap spit while fantasizing about doing much messier and more intimate things with each other.”

She laughed, a breathy wisp of humor that shot straight to his groin. “Thanks. I got that part. How is it that of all the guys I’ve ever kissed, you make me feel like this? I mean, like you said, a kiss is just mashing mouths and trading saliva.”

He jerked back far enough to look down at her. “How many guys are we talking about, here?”

She blinked up at him, startled. A slow smile spread across her face. “Enough to know you’re the best kisser I’ve ever gone out with.”

“Honey, I’m the last kisser you’re ever going out with.”

Skepticism shone in her gaze, but he ignored it. “So, you like kissing me? I like kissing you, too. You taste like blueberries.”

“Blueberries?”

He nodded, dropping light kisses across her neck to her cheek and back to her mouth. “You never know when you bite into a blueberry if it’s going to be sweet or sour, but it tastes uniquely like blueberry either way. When I touch you, I don’t know if you’re going to toss me on my butt or kiss me till my hair catches fire, but I know I’m gonna love it either way.”

That garnered several owl blinks out of her. “You like me tossing you?”

“Actually, it hurts. A lot. But I love the fact that the woman I’m going to marry can plant me on my butt now and then. Not that you’ll ever need to. I’m going to spoil you so bad you’ll never need to lift a finger.”

“M-marry?”

As he closed the inches between them for another lingering kiss, he murmured, “Mmm-hmm. It’s fate, darlin’. Cupid’s Bolt always strikes true…”

And then all thought of bolts went right out of his head as Kat kissed him back. They might just have enjoyed a gourmet meal, but darned if she didn’t make him hungrier than a bear in the spring. He wanted more of her. A lot more.

Both of them were breathing hard when Kat slid right, holding his hands, to draw him away from the porch.

“Ow!”

His senses went on to instant alert. Who or what had hurt her? “What’s wrong?” he replied quickly.

“I banged into something sharp…” She turned in his embrace to examine the wall. “It’s this knob.”

Knob-oh, Christ. The H.O.T. Watch intercom. The summons to the bunker. They’d been standing out here trading lungs, and the folks downstairs were waiting for them.

A horrifying thought popped into his head. Had they been pressing on the intercom button all this time? Transmitting their steamy kiss to an audience below? He closed his eyes in despair. “Did you just bang into the button now, or have you been leaning on it?” he asked reluctantly.