Whirlpool (Cutter Cay Book 6) Read online

  He hissed in a sharp breath and caught her wrist. "I won't last ten seconds if- Jesus, woman." As he locked their lips in another punishing kiss, she slid the zipper down. One. Tooth. At. A. Time. Finn shuddered, pushing against her fingers. Eventually, the hard length of his velvety penis jerked free and Peri was able to take him in her hand. He was huge, rock hard, and pulsing. Better than she remembered.

  Without breaking the kiss, he nudged her legs apart and gripping her butt in both hands, half lifted her to plunge to the hilt, deep inside her.

  Peri came apart in his arms.

  "Breath," Peri begged on a meager sip of air as the first climax shook her. Instead of stopping, his hips continued to pound against her, building a rapid succession of escalating peaks, threaded like pearls on a string, culminating in a climax that felt as though it lasted to infinity.

  Limp and out of breath, she attempted to suck air into her starving lungs. "Mercy! I'm melting like an ice cream sundae. Wait until I get back to solid form before you--"

  "You drive me crazy." Reaching between them he touched her clit. Her back arched as a shudder of pleasure raced like fire along her nerve endings. "Can't get enough of you."

  Her entire body felt as live as an electrical current. “I can't come again.”

  She was wrong. Swells of pleasure cascaded through her in a fresh wave as he stroked her. The man had the stamina of a lion.

  This time the climax was short and sharp, plunging her into a dark void where she couldn't hear, think, or respond as her body took on a life of its own.

  When she could move, and as small aftershocks tightened and released deep inside her, she dropped her forehead to his chest. She breathed in the intoxicating smell of hot skin and sex. His damp shirt smelled pleasantly of musk and starch and clung to his skin. His chest rose and fell in counterpoint to her own. His body was hard and heavy as he pressed against her with his delicious, full weight.

  Drunk on the feel and smell of him, she loved that he was as sweaty and out of breath as she was. "Can a person die from pleasure?"

  Finn crooked a finger to lift her chin, then kissed her softly on her swollen mouth. "I’m willing to work at it."

  She managed a choked laugh as she adjusted her ankles in the small of his back for a better hold. Not that she needed anything more than her legs, since he had her pinned like a butterfly against what she presumed was a refrigerator. "You locked the door, right?"

  "You mean between the time we slammed it behind us and now? No." He kissed her neck just under her ear, sending a ripple through her body. Deep inside, his penis responded to her reaction and her body clenched around him.

  "So, anyone could just walk in?" She angled her head so he could better reach the juncture of her neck and shoulder, which gave her the opportunity to taste his skin. Salty. "Where are we anyway?"

  "Pantry." Finn cupped her breast, his thumb leisurely tracing her turgid nipple.

  Now that she knew where they were, Peri could smell the savory hint of the spicy tapas they were serving at the party, and a trace of booze. "We have everything we need. We could live in here for a month."

  She felt his smile against her jaw as he kissed her neck. "I think people would miss us."

  They'd miss him. No one knew who she was. No one would notice if she went missing. Her brother never knew where she was for months on end. He was used to her disappearing. The thought was a bit depressing.

  "We didn't use a condom." In Buenos Aires when they'd depleted the dozen in the mini bar, he'd called down for more.

  "Too much of a hurry, and I wasn't prepared. I guess I'm not that good of a Boy Scout after all. I have a clean bill of health—"

  "So, do I, but still—"

  "It's extremely hard - hard being the operative word here - trying to think when you do. . .that." His thumb glided over her painfully hard nipple making her tremble. She used her teeth on his shoulder and slid her fingers into the hair at his nape.

  "All the booze is in here, too, right?" Came out almost breathlessly. How was he still standing? If he wasn't pinning her against the fridge, she'd be a puddle at his feet… An interesting possibility she'd explore later.

  "Makes it more exciting."

  "To have wait staff to-ing and fro-ing while my dress is up around my waist and you have your pants down around your knees? Sure." She was only being half sarcastic. "Way more exciting."

  "Damn it, Persephone, I couldn't find you. You left without giving me your real name or any contact information.”

  "I like when you call me Persephone when you're inside me." Peri had given him her real name, Ariel was the lie. "Do you want me to call you Leo when we make love?"

  "You can call me any damn thing you like, as long as I have you like this. You didn't say goodbye. I went to the airport, car rental places- tore the city apart looking for you. I wasn’t ready for our weekend to end."

  She'd driven the five hundred miles back to her house in Patagonia with heart palpitations and sweaty palms. Hoping, but also dreading, that the man who’d introduced himself as ‘Leo’ would follow her and ruin what had been a magical time by allowing reality to intrude. "You said no names, no reality. I figured you'd also want no goodbyes."

  "Changed my mind."

  At least he admitted, albeit tacitly, that had been his original intention. "Nothing that hot could sustain," she told him.

  "Well if we'd left it there, we'd never have had the opportunity to find out, would we?" He nipped at her lower lip, then stroked the sting with a sweep of his tongue. "Now we do."

  "I'm on the oversight committee." Peri combed her fingers through his thick, dark hair. She wished she could see him, read his expressions, but there wasn't a scintilla of light in the room. She had to settle for the feel, taste and sound of him. It was almost enough. Certainly, enough to keep this lovely fantasy alive a little bit longer. "That's a conflict of interest."

  "I don't give a flying fuck." Pausing to push her hair over her shoulder, he lingered to rub a strand between his fingers. "If you quit, would they send someone else?"

  "Of course." She started unbuttoning his shirt. Theo would come out every few weeks or months to see what was going on. But Peri knew him. He wasn't the most conscientious Minister of Antiquities she'd ever encountered. He was happy to sit in his office in Buenos Aires, or at his sheep farm in Patagonia, playing fantasy soccer on his computer, raking in the government’s percentage of the findings, taking some on the side, and going to nightclubs until three every morning.

  Pushing the edges of his shirt clear, she buried her face against his hard chest, inhaling the smell of his skin.

  "Quit. I’ll pay you to take a holiday.” Slanting his mouth over hers, he kissed her with raw, ravenous hunger. A perfect reason for her not to respond to the offer.

  Still erect, and deep inside her, Finn lifted her, his hands under her butt. Peri wrapped her legs more tightly around his waist to maintain her balance. He moved through the darkness, apparently knowing what might be in his way to trip him up. After a few moments, she was set on a cold flat surface.

  "Do people eat on this table?"

  Gently lowering her so her back met another metal surface, he kissed his way across her chest. Caught between the cold stainless steel and the furnace heat of his body, fresh waves of arousal stole her breath. He sucked her nipple and her entire body arched into him.

  Cool air caressed her where his mouth had been, an indication he was looking up at her in the pitch darkness. "No," he murmured against her breast, his breath as ragged as her own, “but it'll get cleaned after the party anyway."

  That sounded highly unsanitary to Peri, and she tried to close her legs and squirm off the table. "With industrial strength--"

  Finn repositioned himself between her spread knees as he readjusted her hips. He moved slowly, deliberately, until she didn't give a damn about the table or anyone entering the pantry without warning.

  "Everyone must be wondering what we're doing in here."<
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  He chuckled. "No one has any doubt whatsoever about what we're doing in here."

  “Then let's exceed their wildest imagination.”

  “Let’s.” He laughed as he pulled her against the blazing furnace of his naked chest. His grip was unyielding, as if he feared she'd disappear the second he released her. "You don't know any of them, why do you care?" His voice was rich with amusement as he stroked his hand down her hip, urging her even closer.

  "Good point." But she did know Theo, and very soon she'd confront the Cutters. Having Finn in the mix was guaranteed to complicate everything.

  It had been three days since Peri had fled Blackstar. Her cheeks still flamed hot remembering how, when she'd opened the door, two security guys had stepped aside to let her pass. No wonder no one had come into the pantry while they were having wild, unprotected, monkey sex. It was a little too freaking late to hope that the room was soundproof.

  She'd had to return to the party, but made no eye contact with anyone. Grabbing Theo, she'd insisted they return to the mainland because she had a headache.

  A six-foot-four-inch, silver-eyed headache.

  Finn Gallagher was a complication she couldn't have anticipated. Three days away from him hadn't been sufficient time to figure out just how she was going to weave yet another complicated thread into an already overly complicated tapestry.

  And maybe she shouldn't. But then she'd have to stay on one of the Cutter ships, and that would prove a whole hell of a lot more awkward. Or she could scrap this whole crazy plan, say to hell with it, and toss seven years of trying to get their attention into a file labeled, Massive Waste of Time and Energy. Negative energy.

  She could ship their artifacts back to them anonymously, and be done with the whole ill-advised freaking mess.

  She'd had a nightmare that night when she'd gotten home. She hadn't had one in years, but that night, after being with Finn, the old nightmare had followed her into a restless sleep.

  The hard grip of her mother's fingers grabbing her arm as she dragged her from her hiding place in the hall closet, had hurt physically. The slaps, the screams, the sobs, hurt emotionally. Her parents yelling, always the same indistinct jumble of angry words.

  Her high-pitched, "Daddy, take me with you!" The slam of the front door as he left without a backward glance, always jolted her awake.

  As she always did after a nightmare, she woke, chest heavy, heart racing, clammy with sweat. Being told, repeatedly that she was unwanted, had carved a deep psychological scar that never went away. She carried a hollowness inside her, sleeping or awake. No wonder she was lousy at maintaining relationships. Other than her brother, there were few men she trusted. No wonder she'd been a willing participant in anonymous, unemotional sex where she'd had zero expectations other than exquisite pleasure.

  She'd been five when their father left. Adam was twelve and Rydell fifteen. Ry became mother, father and brother to her and Adam. He was her anchor in a rocky sea as their mother had become increasingly unavailable. A year later their father committed suicide.

  She wasn't the only one with scars. When he died, their father left his salvage ship to Ry. Rydell had been barely sixteen when he'd taken the dive boat out on his first salvage. She'd tried to understand, but at that age, all she knew was that her beloved brother was leaving her behind, too. Ry had worked his ass off to keep the company afloat. He succeeded, and then some, making his first million at the age of twenty. He'd also secured a name for himself in the salvage circles.

  But every two steps her brother took forward in the salvage business, the Cutters beat him back one.

  Paying the Cutters back for every shitty, underhanded thing they'd done to her family was Peri's way of silently compensating her brother for their rough childhood.

  Zane, Nick, Logan and Jonah Cutter would get back every damn artifact she'd taken from them. Cleaned, polished and curated. But not before she threw who she was, and what they'd done to her family, in their smug faces.

  Ironic that Finn had caught her at the museum as she was saying a final goodbye to the pilfered Cutter artifacts. Of course, she hadn't known who he was, nor his connection at the time. But if she had, would things have turned out any differently?

  Probably not.

  The heat between them was off the charts. There'd been no stopping the inevitable.

  She couldn't put off returning to Blackstar much longer. In her official capacity, they'd expect her there, doing her job. So would Theo.

  But for today, she could enjoy seeing her brother and have the pleasure of showing him their wreck for the first time.

  She was about to blow his socks off.

  Last night, unable to sleep for the second night in a row, she'd looked at the black moonlit water through her powerful telescope from her vantage point on top of the bluff.

  The lights from Blackstar cast a halo effect around the enormous ship. What was Finn doing now? Had he also been too restless to sleep? Was he thinking of her, and as horny as she was? The ache she felt between her legs and the tenderness in her breasts didn't diminish because he wasn't touching her. Just thinking about him, turned her on unbearably.

  This was crazy.

  She was on hormone overload exactly when she needed her wits about her.

  South of Finn's ship, the lights of Logan's Sea Wolf, Zane's crazy, Decrepit, Nick's ship, Scorpion and Jonah's Stormchaser lay at anchor, lights twinkling on the black water. The Cutters and Finn shared the salvaging of the other three wrecked carracks. Nuestra Señora del Marco, Santa Ana and El Crucifijo.

  The three Spanish ships, accompanied, oddly, by her Italian Napolitano, had been loaded with gold, silver, precious stones and artifacts bound for the return trip to Spain. Shortly after sailing from the port of Buenos Aires on the 8th of November, 1489, they'd disappeared without a trace.

  Peri, through diligent research, and following the tiniest leads, had discovered the wrecks, hundreds of miles south of where anyone had ever looked for them, forty miles off the coast of Patagonia. Hundreds of miles south of where anyone had ever looked for them. They'd been untouched, undiscovered for over five hundred years.

  She resented like hell that the Cutters had made the same discovery several years later. It pissed her off that, probably due to Finn's incredibly deep pockets, they'd been financially able to secure the rights to three of the four wrecks.

  She'd love to see the look on the Cutter's faces when they learned that their nemesis was about to join their ranks.

  Hours later, she'd watched her brother's ship Tesoro Mio, slip into position and drop anchor near Napolitano. She'd barely been able to wait until dawn to leave the house to see him.

  Action would get rid of this hollow feeling.

  She'd figure it out. But for now, she'd enjoy time with the two people she loved most in the world.

  "Ahoy maties!" Peri called out as her runabout bumped the edge of the dive platform on Rydell's ship. After the hour and fifteen-minute water commute from her house, her clothes and hair clung damply to her skin from the sea spray and early morning mist rising off the silvery surface of the water.

  The sky was a pale milky wash, and the air still retained the night's chill. She shivered, more from anticipation than the cold.

  Holding hands, Rydell and his wife Addison waited for her on the dive platform. Peri imagined cupids and little cartoon hearts popping up around them. The two were dissimilar, yet so perfect for each other. They'd had a hellish couple of years, and Peri's heart swelled with love seeing them again - together.

  Love had won after all.

  Ry had cut his hair since she'd seen him almost three years ago. He was tall, dark and no longer brooding. Addison was as beautiful as ever. Wearing a yellow maxi-dress and wrapped in a large beach towel to ward off the chill, her strawberry blond hair swung to her shoulders in a glossy bob. She gave Peri a big smile of welcome, motioning her to hurry so she could give her sister-in-law a hug.

  Family.

 
; It was impressive that Ry and Addy had salvaged their love, despite all that had happened between them. Peri couldn't comprehend a love so powerful it could withstand the storms that had struck them.

  Rydell stepped to the edge to meet her. "Hey, Magma." Emotion deepened the slight British accent he'd never lost. But then he'd lived in England longer than she had.

  Seeing his unshadowed smile as he called her by her childhood nickname, made Peri's own grin widen. No matter where they were, Ry would always represent unconditional love and a sense of homecoming to her. Ten years older, he'd borne the brunt of their dysfunctional family on his shoulders. He was one of the good guys. Her example of all that was good and right in the world.

  As she grabbed her bag and prepared to board, she was suddenly overwhelmed by all she'd done in the last seven years. It was like flipping a black page to a white page. What she'd done was cheap and tawdry, and flew in the face of all the principles he'd tried to drum into her as a kid. A hollow nasty swirl took hold of the pit of her stomach. God, she hadn't felt this guilty since she was nine and Ry had caught her stealing a comic book out of Adam's room.

  It wasn't as if she didn't know her day of reckoning would come. And now that cataclysmic event was tangled up with reconnecting with Finn. Once the cat was out of the bag, he'd know she wasn't at the museum in Buenos Aires as a visitor. He’d know exactly who the benefactor was. How would he see her when he discovered the truth? Not in a favorable light, that was for sure.

  She’d been living in denial for years. One glance into her brother's clear blue eyes told her she’d painted herself into a corner from which she would not escape unscathed.

  "It's so good to see you guys," Peri put a lilt in her voice. "I've been pining. Here, catch." She tossed him the bag holding her gear. Once he dropped it to the deck, she threw him the rope to secure Witch Craft, to the platform.

  After efficiently tying it off, he extended his hand, hauled her up beside him, then pulled her into his arms for a tight hug. "Missed you, too, monster child," he murmured against her hair. "Something we'll discuss in depth later."