NOTHING COULD BE MORE PERFECT…UNTIL IT ISN’T

Piper is one loved-up woman after her romantic getaway with Jack on Catalina Island. Given all they’ve been through, she’s amazed their love has thrived…and continues to sizzle. While heading home on Jack’s yacht, he receives a distress call from an old friend, which leads to trying to free a trapped, massive blue whale that turns into a dangerous struggle for life or death – their own. Top it off with one shocking discovery, and suddenly the word “forever” seems all too real.

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Exclusive excerpt into The Longer They Last (warning, NSFW):

Chapter One

Piper’s mother often said the smallest things can cause the biggest problems. Of course, her advice was in reference to attitudes and letting go of gripes in general, but never did the phrase ring truer than this morning. Jack had hopped in the shower in their hotel room, and Piper spotted his tux jacket on the back of a chair. She lifted the jacket and hung it in a suit bag. As she zipped the bag closed, a small black object fell out. She retrieved it and gasped at the closed, velvet ring box─ threat-level Pandora in the palm of her hand.

Piper shook herself out of her daydream and released the docking line from its cleat on the back of the cruiser yacht. She’d returned the ring box to Jack’s jacket as soon as she’d found it, without so much as a word about it. But holy hell, the concept of him proposing terrified her. He wanted to get married this soon? They’d barely gotten back together. She’d get her head around it later. Right now, they needed to set sail.

“Last line’s cast off, Jack,” she called over her shoulder. Jack hollered back in response, and she took one last look at the pretty shoreline of Catalina Island. In stressful times, there were certain places one could visit in one’s imagination, special memories that brought peace or a wistful smile to one’s face when the sights, smells, and tastes were recalled. Catalina would forever be such a place for her, wherever her road in life with Jack took her.

She turned around and walked through the semi-shade of the deck lounge to the helm where Jack stood and checked their bearings. Despite the uncertainty of what she’d found this morning, a pleasant warmth spread inside her at the sight of his impressive muscular frame beneath the outline of his loose white shirt. She rubbed a little hand sanitizer into her palms as he reversed out of the dock. He glanced at her, and she kissed his cheek. “Greatest holiday ever. Thank you for kidnapping me. Now, back to reality.”

Jack’s thick brown hair lifted with the light breeze as he turned the boat. “Bah. Reality’s overrated. I did a sweep of the entire yacht, every nook and cranny. I’m pleased to report no runaway convicts or stowaways aboard.”

“Thank God. Though I have to admit, Diego did ramp up the excitement. It wouldn’t have been the same without him.”

“Oh, come on. Is sex with me really that bad?”

She shook her head and grinned. “Yes. Anyway, we’ll have to send him a cupcake in prison when we get back.”

“As long as it doesn’t have a nail file in it.” He winked. “I love it when you wear your curls loose, by the way. It looks nice.”

She rewarded him with a radiant smile. He’d made it his mission to please her in every possible way since they’d come to Catalina, and it left her feeling pampered and relaxed. “Thank you. I like this open-throated pirate look you’ve got going on.”

“I wonder why.”

“No idea.” She slid her palm over the warm flesh of his broad chest.

He kept his gaze on the ocean but rubbed the tops of her fingers with his free hand.

“The waves are calm. I didn’t expect that. Ready for your New Year’s broadcast tonight?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess. I’ve watched the ball drop on TV, but I’ve never taken part in a countdown before. We’ll broadcast intermittently, but it’s still pretty exciting. You’ll come to the company get-together before my segment at eleven-thirty, right?”

“Of course. Wouldn’t miss it. You’ll do great, Piper.”

“We’ll see.” She watched the waves in the distance. “I’ll do better with you there, even if it’s off to the side. After how blissful it’s been the last couple days, I don’t want to separate and go back to the real world yet.”

He met her eyes. “Who says we have to?”

She kissed him and cupped his jaw with her palm. It was remarkable how a love you didn’t know was absent from your life could enter and take it over so completely and in the best of ways. She drew back. “You gonna let me steer again? I promise not to crash.”

The corner of his mouth lifted, and he reached over to a peg near the helm and took down his white captain’s hat. He fitted it onto her head and gave her a little salute.

“Ship’s all yours, Cap’n.”

He stepped aside, and she took the wheel.

“Very good, Mr. Spencer. How does the hat look?”

“It looks yare.”

She laughed. “Now there’s a word I haven’t heard in a long time. Isn’t it from that old Katherine Hepburn movie? I didn’t think people still said it.”

His finger stroked down the length of her arm as she steered, and a sweet tingle spread through her body at the feather-light touch.

“My dad was old-school, and he liked to turn a good phrase or two. I’m serious. I like the cap on you. I’d love to see what you look like in it and nothing else.”

Her pussy tightened at the raw need in his gaze, and she grew wet. “Be careful what you wish for, Captain Spencer. You just might get it. Take over the wheel for a second. I need some water. Are you thirsty? Can I get you a glass?”

He took the wheel from her, and his eyes gleamed with lust. “Yeah.”

She skimmed her fingers along his and rounded the corner to the kitchenette area. She poured a glass of water from a gallon container and toyed with a wicked idea. Over the past few days, she’d learned she could be as playful as she wanted with Jack, and he responded precisely how she needed him to. She looked down and tugged at her nipples, the mental image he’d painted a moment ago fresh in her mind.

She bit her lip and set the water down as her pussy throbbed. She ran her hand between her legs to soothe the ache. She shed her shirt and the rest of her clothes and left them in a pile on the wooden floor. Her body had grown attuned to his, and she needed his touch.

They’d made love once this morning when they awoke, but they were alone out here on the open sea. Her time in Catalina with Jack had taught her that if she asserted herself and showed him what she wanted, he gave it back to her tenfold. And right now, she was ready for it.

She fixed the brim of Jack’s captain’s hat over her brow, picked up the glass of water, and sashayed toward the helm. She cleared her throat. “Would you like your water now?”

***

When Jack turned around, he sucked in a breath. Sweet Poseidon.

Piper strode toward him, stark naked with her magnificent curves and ethereal face, dazzling in the sunlight. Angelic. He took in her long neck, full, pouty lips, and wide-set dark eyes, and he went hard as steel. The sight before him was what poets wrote sonnets about, why Greek sculptors spent days working each delicate curve, why the Taj Mahal had been built. He put a hand to his racing heart.

“Oh my God. You’re…exquisite.” The word seemed inadequate to describe her beauty, like calling a majestic sunset simply okay. He’d liked to have framed her image, to capture it on canvas or film or any goddamn way he could. Coupled with her confident nature, her natural loveliness rivaled Aphrodite’s, and he thanked God that this sacred moment would belong to him and him alone. It was like a universal offering, a holiday present. Her image would be burned into his brain until the day he died.

He generally tried to behave, but with Piper, primal instinct liked to kick him in the balls and leave his propriety curled up on the floor in a fetal position. Within a mere second, the sight of her luscious body, his hat perched on her head, with that naughty look she wore, did him in. His cock took over.

He darted his gaze to the helm board and checked their surroundings. The ocean was calm, with no ship in sight. They had a little time to themselves, and he intended to make the most of it. He engaged the reverse thrust and reached out for Piper as the boat slowed down.

She stepped out of his reach.

“Not so fast. Stop the yacht, and meet me at the tail end.” She took a sip of the water and licked the rim of the glass before she turned away.

He cursed beneath his breath and willed the yacht to fucking stop already. When the engine idled, he set it to drift. The ocean was flat as glass, the waves quiet. Unlike his heart, which pounded against his rib cage as it gravitated toward Piper’s magnetic pull. He moved through the aft deck, kitchenette, and shaded lounge until he came to the open end of the boat. Piper stood near a red-cushioned sofa in the open sunshine with her back to him as she gazed out at the waves. She’d set the glass of water down on a deck table, and he took a moment to watch her.

Her dark curls tumbled down her back against her lily-white skin. The vivid blue of the sky, white rails, and darker blue of the ocean enveloped her in a perfect frame. She was a damn fine work of art. He clenched his fists and breathed deep.

“You’re beautiful, Piper.” He stepped close as she turned around and tilted her head up to him, her face alight with desire. He touched her collarbone and glided his fingertip across its elegant line. “I don’t know where to start first. Here.”

He pressed his lips where his fingers had been and licked a path along it. She shivered, and her slim hand caressed his shoulder.

“Here,” he murmured, licking her nipple. He tested the weight of her other beautiful breast as he enclosed it in his mouth and softly sucked. He ran his free hand along the small of her back, smoothing it upward.

He straightened, released her breast, and lifted her chin to peer into her eyes. “Or here,” he whispered. He took her lower lip between his. God, the sweet taste of her. The kiss was heavy, stretching, and drugging. He stroked the back of his finger down her side, over her breasts, and down the curve of her hips.

Piper paused between kisses, her beautiful brown eyes shining. “Take me. Make love to me right here, Jack, with the sun and wind on our backs, the salty smell of the ocean. I want to remember this forever. It’s the perfect spot.”

Jack’s breath rattled as he ran his palm around the curve of her bottom and possessively squeezed it. “Oh, trust me; you’ll have a lot to say about the perfect spot in a minute.” He crashed his mouth down onto hers and took her fervor for all it was worth. Piper was a gold mine of passion, and he’d learned to dredge every last morsel of it. They’d been together countless times on the trip, but each time made his love for her grow, knowing she chose to be with him after their rocky start. She fit him like a glove, soft as silk and hot as fire—uniquely Piper.

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