Who Needs Mistletoe?

could live a lifetime on Suaneva. But they couldn’t survive on passion alone. And though their desire might feed the soul, it didn’t go very far to feed the body.

“AREN’T YOU UNCOMFORTABLE in those?” Sophie asked.

Trey glanced down at his shorts, the khakis still wet from their swim in the lagoon. “Yeah. I guess. I suppose I could wear my boxers.”

Sophie shook her head. “Take them off,” she ordered, levering to her feet from her spot beneath the shelter. “Go ahead. As long as we’re staying here for a while, you might as well dress like a native.”

Regarding her suspiciously, Trey stripped out of his shorts. She pointed to his boxers dismissively and he skimmed them over his hips and kicked them aside, too. Though they’d already been intimate more than once, he felt a bit exposed running around the island naked.

“I’m not sure I like this,” he said.

“It doesn’t feel good?” she asked.

“Well, yeah. It feels really good. But I’m not used to running around with all my bits and pieces showing. Something might bite me.”

“I promise I won’t,” Sophie teased. “Besides, you don’t have to be embarrassed.”

“Well, you’re dressed and I’m not.”

She glanced down at her outfit, his shirt tied beneath her breasts, and the flowered pareu knotted around her waist. “I think you need to get rid of your inhibitions,” she suggested. “No one is going to see you…or your bits and pieces, except me. And I’ve already seen you naked.”

“There are times when I’d prefer to hide my reactions, if you don’t mind.”

She let her gaze drift down below his waist and then back up again. “It’s a perfectly natural thing,” she said. “It doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I find it flattering.”

“It kind of takes all the mystery out of things, don’t you think?” He paused. “I mean, I might as well have a big neon sign on my forehead that blinks Horny every time I get aroused.”

“I don’t need a neon sign to know when you’re aroused,” she said. She unknotted the pareu from her waist and wrapped it around his, fastening it low on his hips. “How is that?”

Trey wriggled, enjoying the feel of the thin fabric on his skin. It felt much better than the damp khakis or his boxer shorts. “The breeze just blows right up beneath it and makes everything very…pleasant,” he said.

Sophie giggled. “You look nice in a skirt. Not many men can carry it off, but you can.”

“And what are you going to wear now?” he asked.

She was dressed in just the shirt and her thong. Sophie picked up his boxers and held them up. “We are a little short on clothing. I could wear these.”

Trey shook his head. “No, I think I like you just the way you are.” The thong was sexy as hell, showing off the sweet curves of her backside. And the shirt was thin enough that he could see her breasts through the fabric. Any fewer clothes and he’d be walking around with a perpetual hard-on all day. Any more and he’d be depriving himself of his one true pleasure-looking at Sophie’s delicious body.

Sophie wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, arching against him as he held her close. “See, already you’re starting to adapt to the ways of the island.”

“I’m wearing a skirt,” Trey said, looking down at the brightly flowered fabric.

“I know. But it’s practical. When you want to swim, you just untie the knot. And if it gets wet, it dries very quickly. It’s the perfect thing. You’ll want to buy five or six of them for yourself when we get back to Pape‘ete.”

Trey chuckled. It was a fair swap, but still, he liked the way she looked dressed in his shirt. It made him feel as if she were his and his alone-at least until they got off the island.

She grabbed her bag from beneath the shelter and rummaged through it until she found a brown plastic bottle. “You should put some of this on.”

She handed it to him and he screwed off the top and sniffed. He recognized the scent from her skin. “What is it? Your perfume? First a skirt and now perfume?”

“It’s called monoi. It’s for the sun, to keep you from burning. It has coconut and sandalwood and jasmine in it. And citronella for the mosquitoes. They can get bad at night.” She glanced around. “Although, they shouldn’t be too bad on an atoll like this.”

“Why?”

“There’s not a lot of standing water. And it’s always pretty windy. But it is the rainy season and they’re at their worst when it’s damp.”

Trey sniffed it again. He liked the way she smelled, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to smell the same. “I think I’m all right.”

Sighing impatiently, Sophie grabbed the bottle and squeezed some of the oil into her hand. As she began to rub it into his chest, Trey started to believe in the benefits of the oil. Her touch was like a narcotic, relaxing him, yet exciting him all at once. The scent of the oil filled the air and he pressed his hand to the small of her back, pulling her closer.

“That feels good,” he murmured.

She smoothed her palms over his shoulders, then circled around behind him to rub the monoi on his back. Did she have any idea what her touch did to him, how deeply it stirred his desires?

With Sophie, even the most benign things became seductive. She could wiggle her toes in the sand and he got turned on. Or she could lick her bottom lip and he’d lose himself in a fantasy about how those lips might feel on certain parts of his body.

When she was finished with his back, she put the cap on the bottle and tossed it on the blanket. “There. You’re ready to go,” she said.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” she replied. “Since we didn’t have any luck at fishing, we’ll have to find dinner. And I know the perfect place.”

“Are you asking me on a date?”

“A date?”

He slipped his arm around her waist as they began to walk. “I think you just asked me to dinner. Before we go, I want to make something perfectly clear. I don’t kiss on the first date.”

“I see,” Sophie said, giggling. “That’s good. Because neither do I.”

As they walked along the lagoon to the south end of the atoll, Trey wondered what other delights he and Sophie would share before the night was over. Once they settled in for the evening, there was nothing else to do but amuse themselves with sexual activities.

But then, there was always conversation. With Sophie, Trey enjoyed that almost as much as sex. This time together had proven one thing-they enjoyed each other’s company. For Trey, that was saying a lot.

There were very few women he’d met that he’d wanted to spend an extended period of time with. Mostly, he enjoyed their company in bed, and that was about it. The women he’d known had usually been silly and shallow and interested in only one thing-his money.

But Sophie didn’t seem to be aware of who he was, or of the life he’d led. Their acquaintance began in the hangar at the airport and she didn’t care at all about what had come before.

“Tell me more about this resort you want to build,” Sophie said, wrapping her arm around his waist as they walked. “What would it be like?”

“Luxurious,” he said. “But primitive.”

Sophie frowned. “How is that possible?”

He’d been turning the idea around and around in his head for such a long time that Trey was almost afraid to talk about it, afraid that if he did, the idea might not hold up to scrutiny. “There’s a segment of the population, a very wealthy segment, that’s looking for a completely unique vacation. I want to find a location so secluded that they can feel safe enough to relax and enjoy themselves.”

She didn’t say anything for a long time, but he could see she was thinking about what he’d said. “It will be very expensive to build on an island,” Sophie warned.

He shrugged. “Money really isn’t a problem.”

“What about the other things? You’ll need electricity and fresh water. A way to get materials on and off the island. A way to get guests back and forth to a major airport.”