SPICY EXCERPT FROM SWIM AND SLAY…

The storm didn’t feel the way Kat expected. As it whipped her hair and stole her breath, the wind enveloped her body like an embrace. It didn’t push her backward like she thought it would. Instead, invisible forces wrapped around her body and, along with the deluge of water, bathed her in wonder.

It was exhilarating.

She felt Max’s attention bolstering her courage. Somehow, she knew he would let nothing bad happen to her. Beside him, she was indestructible. When she lay her hand on his chest, it felt like destiny to face the storm together.

“Come,” she whispered from her heart, needing to share the moment with the man who suddenly and with no warning felt essential.

That’s what he was. Max was essential to that moment.

Although she did not know what tomorrow would bring, standing on a balcony and facing the torrent together was as unavoidably significant as a storm tearing through an island.

He touched her cheek, the warmth of his palm so unexpectedly pleasurable that she moaned. He stepped closer and wrapped an arm around her back. She lay her head on his chest and circled her arms around his waist. They embraced, looking outward and confronting the storm together.

She didn’t know how long they held each other. It could have been two minutes or half an hour. Time hardly mattered. At a certain point, she realized that whatever the storm offered was nothing compared to the sensation of Max’s body against hers.

As swiftly as she had opened the sliding door, Kat closed it.

She looked up. Max blinked to clear his vision. When his gray eyes refocused on her, they were devastatingly gorgeous.

“That was amazing,” she uttered, using the back of her hand to push hair away from her forehead.

Max tenderly cupped her jaw in his capable hands, his long fingers supporting her neck and his thumbs moving wet strands away from her face.

“I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.” His voice was solemn.

“Can you believe it?” she gushed, unsure how to express disbelief and gratitude and exhilaration. “Can you believe we got to see that?”

Max shook his head. “I’m not talking about the storm. I’m talking about you. Katerina, you take my breath away.”

Her heart stopped. “Max please don’t—”

“I know I shouldn’t, but let me say it once, Katerina. You’re the most astounding woman I’ve ever met,” he blurted. “That’s it. I’ll stop and stay away, but I had to say it once.”

“You didn’t let me finish,” she blurted, thrilled by his words and eager to respond.

“I—”

“Max,” she interrupted, “I was going to say please don’t look at me like that unless you plan to kiss me again.”

His eyes widened and warmed. “Are you sure, pretty Kat?” he urged huskily.

“What do you think?” She spoke despite the churning force of her emotions.

His smoldering gaze seized her. “You want to know what I’m thinking?” His voice turned gritty. “Are you sure?”

“Tell me,” she dared.

He met her dare with a blaze of ravenousness.

“I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you. And tonight I want to fuck you so hard you won’t even notice if the walls were ripped away by that storm outside. Because the only storm that’s going to matter is the havoc between our bodies when I finally have you under me.”

It took enormous effort for Kat to keep her knees from buckling. She clung to his shirt, then spread her hands to caress his pounding heart.

Max’s eyes were unusually dark, gray with specks of onyx, and she imagined they were the eyes of a panther before it leaped to eat its kill. The thought of being his prey didn’t incite fear. She didn’t want to run away.

She felt her blood, thick and afire, rush to her face. And she felt her arousal, wet and aching, at the apex of her thighs.

Kat closed the gap between them, pressing her breasts against his chest and clinging to his shoulders. He wrapped his arms around her and gripped her bottom. His slight pull lifted her easily, and she wrapped her legs around his hips. He walked further into the room and stopped at the foot of the bed.

“You better be sure, Katerina. Because this time, when I see you on that bed”—he paused, his Adam’s apple working—“I won’t be able to stay away.”

“I’m sure, Max. I want you. Please,” she moaned.

“Fuck, I need to hear you say that all night,” he grunted before crashing their lips in a scorching kiss.

Max laced his fingers against the wet, tangled hair at her nape and angled her head to kiss deeply and thoroughly. Their lips seized pleasure that skirted the edge of delirium.

Their kissing paused long enough to rip at each other’s tops, coveting the skin beneath. His lips, hot and wet and skilled, trailed her neck, her jaw, and her collarbone as if Kat’s body was nourishment to a starving man. And when his mouth found the diamond-hard nipple of her eager breast, Kat thrust her head back in ecstasy. The soft texture of his lips and the savoring motions of his tongue were enough to turn her into a throbbing, heaving mess.

She had been straddling him at the edge of the bed, pressing her soaked core against his steel erection. “Too mm-many clo-clothes,” she stuttered as he sucked and licked newly found erogenous zones.

His warm chuckle tickled her ear. “I’m about to fix that.”

Kat scrambled off his lap and stood before him. She was panting while looking down at him, his mouth trailing down her stomach and finding the edge of her tiny shorts.

As he teased her belly button with his teeth and tongue, his hands roamed up from her calves to the back of her thighs. He massaged higher, slipping fingers under her shorts to grab her butt cheeks in each hand.

“I’ve wanted to do this for so fucking long,” he rumbled before looking up.

Still staring at her, he pulled the shorts down rough and quick. She jerked in surprise at his urgency. She was now bare to him, defenseless with arousal and excitement. Kat could hardly stand.

He continued to hold her gaze as he jutted out his tongue to find the very top of her wet seam. Teasing, tasting, though never offering the pressure she craved.

“Please, Max. I need you.”

In a swift motion, she felt herself lifted and placed on the bed. Max stepped away and ripped off his pants. When he stood over the bed with only his boxers barely containing the thick length of his erection, Kat nearly choked on the onslaught of lust. With the storm still raging behind him, Max looked like a god. His muscles flexed as he pushed his boxers down. Taut abdominals and the deep V of hip bones led her eyes to his engorged shaft. She licked her lips.

“You’re not really gonna make me beg, are you, Max?” she asked, helpless with delirium.

“Katerina,” he stated with a deep and sexy chuckle, “you have no idea.”