Lukas peers around the bow at the dock. I squeeze up next to him wrapping my arm around his chest. I look back at the dock just over the outline of his shoulder.

While I’m here I lick it softly. Why not, right?

Three police officers are shining bright lights across the water. Good thing Lukas dragged me over to this side. If I had emerged on the other side of the boat, the light would be shining right on me.

Lukas turns and looks behind us. There is another similar cabin cruiser another hundred yards behind us.

“Next boat,” he says. “Same thing.”

“Okay.”

My smile must be huge because he smiles back.

Gotcha! Made you smile big, you dark, beautiful god!

I really don’t care if he tells me we’re going to swim to the next thousand boats. This is too much fun. Hell, I’ll swim all the way back to Miami. Fine by me, as long as this man is by my side.

A big inhale and down we go.

At the next boat, we both come up on the far side and check the situation. A police boat with a big searchlight has entered the small harbor from the ocean side.

Damn. The boat must have been close by, and the cops on the dock radioed him.

I feel like I’m in a movie. I’m glad the only offense was a little public lewdness, though. A deviant part of my brain laughs at the thought of my mother seeing it in the paper. Not that she would ever read anything from down here.

Lukas turns and glances over to his right. Maybe a hundred yards behind him is a huge yacht. I’m talking billionaire huge, with a big round Art Deco window with slatted jalousies just like one of the neighboring buildings on James Avenue near the Redmond Apts.

“One more,” he says. “Far side of that one. Ready?” I nod and inhale. “Go!”

This is the farthest swim yet.

My muscles are aching by the time we reach the far side of this monstrous beast.

Once we emerge on the far side, Lukas looks at me and makes the shhhh signal with his finger. I nod, feeling like a little kid playing hide and seek.

I follow him as he swims toward a ladder.

Yes, the yacht is big enough to require a ladder. I told you it was rich.

Lukas turns and looks at me, then nods toward the ladder. He climbs up it.

Shit, really? Are we really going to sneak onto some rich person’s yacht?

Whatever. I follow commands. It’s what I do.

As I climb, I notice my arms have returned to normal skin color.

Shit, the salt water has washed away the body paint completely.

Now, I’m just a naked girl who could lose a few pounds.

Fuck.

Hope that doesn’t disturb the magic.

Lukas doesn’t seem to notice. He’s too busy trying to be invisible as he hits the deck. The first thing I notice as I join him is that his feet are bare. He must have ditched his shoes in the water.

He grabs me by the waist and pulls me down onto the deck of the boat.

Shit, it’s big. We’re on one of those outdoor corridors surrounding the living area. A warm glow emanates from inside the jalousies.

As we lay huddled on the deck, I make a silent prayer for this moment to last forever. Not only am I with a man most women couldn’t even begin to fantasize about . . . a man who has repeatedly told me I’m stunning . . . I’m in the middle of an adventure that has my adrenaline pumping all over the place.

Not only am I being pursued by the local Bahamian police, I’m also sneaking onto some billionaire’s yacht.

Fuck it.

If I go to jail, I go to jail. What girl gets to live this adventure? Really, what girl?

After a minute or two of assuring himself that we have sneaked aboard without being noticed, Lukas grabs my hand and motions for me to follow him. Ducked down, we travel the length of the large boat to an opening in the cabin area.

He presses me up against the wall as we stand up. He peers around the corner of a corridor.

I assume there is nobody there because he drags me down it. Now we’re way deep inside this yacht, in a hallway that looks just like any hallway in any house with bedroom doors on all sides.

Stealthily, like he’s done this a hundred times, Lukas Thorn looks around, his muscles flexing, as he tests the handle of one of the slatted wood-stained doors. It opens.

He only opens it an inch, and then peers inside.

Apparently satisfied, he pushes the door open and drags me inside. Once we’re in, he sticks his head out and looks around. Then, he ducks back in and silently closes the door, locking it behind us.

We’re in a stateroom that’s bigger than anything I’ve ever seen on a boat. The bed in the middle is vast.

He rips the covers off the bed and tosses them onto the floor.

“On the bed,” he says in an even tone. “On your back.”

“If it pleases you, Director.”

Chapter 17

He expertly scrunches up the sheets into a makeshift rope. “Hands over your head.”

My pussy jumps to life. “If it pleases you, Director.”

Then, he ties my hands together, binding the sheets to large hooks on the wall. He removes a pillowcase and uses it to bind my feet together. He takes another one and ties it around my mouth, effectively gagging me.

He jumps . . . no, leaps is a better word . . . on top of me.

Lukas Thorn spends a good solid minute looking down into my eyes. The electric connection is almost unbearably intense at this close range.

At that moment, the police boat moves alongside us. The red and blue lights flash as the low rumble of the outboards chug by.

“Shhhh,” says Lukas, never breaking the stare. “It will pass. Nobody saw us.”

The surreal strobe flashes catch his eyes, making him vampire-like in the darkness as his hard body presses into me. The wispy ends of his hair, still wet from the water, fall forward in messy dangles.

The rumbling passes and the lights fade.

Soon, we’re back in near-darkness.

But it’s more than that. So much more than that. The way he looks at me. The way he commands me.

“You’re mine now,” he growls. “You dirty girl.”

I squirm and grunt as I bite down on the makeshift gag, his hardness pressing into my naked crotch.

He snaps his head down to my neck with a lick that causes my entire body to buck upward, like it’s trying to fuse with him completely.

I grunt louder.

“Shhhhhh,” he says.

Right. We’re on somebody else’s boat. I forgot. That’s going to be tough.

He moves back to my face and plants his roughly on my mouth. He bites my lower lip, dragging it with his teeth while growling.

I buck again. Can’t help it.

He lets go of my lip. “Do you want to get fucked, dirty girl?”

I nod yes while making a mmm-hmm sound. I try not to be loud, but it’s difficult. I want to scream Mmm-hmm! as loud as I can . . . because I never meant it as much before.

“So beautiful,” he says as his hands move down to my breasts, stroking my fully-hard nipples lightly. “Such a beautiful body.”

His hand grazes my body all the way down to my crotch. His fingers dance all over my folds.

Yep, I grunt again. You knew I would. I can’t help it.

“Shhhh,” he says again, his fingers working their magic.

Seriously, how does he expect me not to make a sound? This is too much!

“Now remember, you may not come until instructed so. Nod.”

I nod.

“Remember, I took control of your orgasms. They are mine. I own them, just like I own this pussy.”

A finger slides up inside me.

Oh!

He lightly tussles the head of my clit with his thumb as his finger . . . I’m betting his middle one . . . curls up inside me and hits the spot.

Gah!

Oh fuck!

Oh fuck! Oh fuck! Oh fuck!

My body bucks in a full convulsion at that, but doesn’t come.

“See?” he says. “I own your pussy. It is mine. It does as I say. It’s my toy.”