When it’s hard, it’s filled with promise, arousing and visually stunning, making me hot for him, needing sex.

When it’s soft, it’s cute, like a puppy without fur, floppy and strange.

As I stare at it in the semi-dark of the covers, it goes soft, the process like watching a hot air balloon after it lands, the shrinkage a little sad, like something beautiful’s been lost, tucked away for another time.

“Hello,” his penis says.

Huh. It’s never talked before.

“What are you doing?” Declan rips the covers back, exposing our naked bodies.

I am, er...eye to eye with his appendage.

“Watching your penis.”

It twitches.

“I see that.”

“You have a muscle that does that? Can you make it bob up and down?”

“Would you like me to make it wave to you, like the Royal Family on the balcony at Balmoral Castle?”

I sit up and start clapping. “Yes! You have a royal penis!”

He laughs. “And you can be a royal pain.”

It deflates. I don’t respond.

“I’m a little nonplussed here. Do you often stare at my cock while I’m sleeping?”

“If I say yes, will you divorce me?”

“No.”

“Will you tease me mercilessly?”

He snorts. “Yes.”

I weigh it all out. Eh. Why not? “Okay, then yes.”

He smiles. “You know, I do the same thing when you’re sleeping.”

“You watch my penis? I thought I had such a good tuck job.” I pout. “You found it.”

Tracing my finger along his inner thigh, I stroke the soft skin, like collapsible lambskin. He starts to harden. I kiss my way to the tip, then take him all the way in my mouth.

He inhales sharply, hands sinking into my tangled hair, the feeling of power complete.

“I married you for your heart, but your mouth’s a close second,” he says with a groan. I take him in deep for two or three strokes before his arms go corded with tension, stopping me.

I look up, mouth still on him.

Our eyes lock.

“Not like this,” he says.

I remove my mouth. “Then tell me how you like it. I want to please you.”

“Oh, hell, Shannon, you always please me. You’re doing it right. Trust me,” he moans, cupping my jaw with his hand. “I just don’t want to come this way. I want to be in you.”

I move up his body. “That can be arranged.”

“Not here.”

“If not here, where?”

“I have an idea. Ever had sex outdoors?”

“You mean, on the beach?” I snuggle up to him, licking his elbow, peppering his arm with kisses. “The bed is so inviting. Let’s just have sex here,” I purr.

The look on his face tells me he’s torn. I suck hard, then nip at the sensitive spot above his wrist. He groans, but gives me a naughty look.

Declan peers out the window, where a stunning view of a volcano fills the air. “My idea’s even better.”

Chapter 10

“You do realize you’ve left me with rubber bands for legs after all that sex yesterday,” I call out, huffing as we hike up the zig-zagging trail. Declan’s got this bright idea that a mid-afternoon hike up the side of an inactive volcano is a great way to spend part of the day.

Aside from being able to get a beautiful view of his muscular calves, taut with effort at every step and stippled with dark, thick, springy curls like a baby’s first locks, I’m pretty sure this level of exertion should only be expended in bed.

“Good! Then I did my job.” He laughs, the sound carrying back to me. I can’t help but smile. When he’s happy, I’m happy.

We’re multiply happy right now.

Halfway up the non-active volcano trail, we’re hundreds of feet in the air, the views of the ocean breathtaking. It’s like Hawaii is ours, a private paradise for just the two of us. We’ve turned the land into a sacred space for our love, too.

“Here!” he calls out. “Up here!” There’s a small clearing, the ground covered with lush, wide leaves that form a blanket. We’re about two hundred feet from a stark cliff. We walk close to the craggy edge, my fear of heights clicking as we get closer to the dropoff. I stop at the border of my comfort zone.

Black jagged hills to one side. The sun above. The ocean in all its shades of green and grey, blue and turquoise, spreads out like a panorama designed for us.

“It’s beautiful.”

“So are you.” Declan peels his backpack off, pulling mine from my shoulders, and the kiss is heated, fast and perfect. I’m wet and warm, blood pulsing to all stations, the sex from yesterday priming the pump. I want more and more and more.

But here?

“You want to make love here?”

His mouth is red from so much kissing, a day’s worth of stubble giving him a casual, wild look I don’t see often in him. His eyes flash with passion. “Yes. Here. I want to see you naked and free, your body under the sunlight, and make love in rhythm with the ocean. We can become part of nature here. I want to forget the rest of the world exists and become part of it at the same time, just with you. In you.”

As he speaks, he’s pulling on my shirt, yanking it up, freeing my breasts, his mouth on one, hand on the other, my throat tight with pleasure, skin on fire. I slip his shorts down, freeing him, and he gently nudges me to the ground next to our backpacks, on the giant green leaves that welcome us, whispering encouragement.

Be here. Be with us.

Be free.

This is so forbidden. Dangerous and exotic. We don’t need foreplay because I’m wet and trembling, aching to have him inside me again. Once this insatiable quality is unleashed, it seems, it cannot be undone.

“This is amazing,” I call out as he enters me. We’re half clothed, half crazed, and the wind carries the ocean’s tune to us, a sound like nature’s symphony as he pushes into me, our bodies the conductor, the ocean the melody.

“You are so hot,” he groans, looking over my head, then back to me, my fingers clenching his ass, encouraging him. He twinges, startled, but presses on, each stroke feeling better than the last. “I never thought I’d find a woman like you.”

I’m loving this side of him.