“Are you sure about this?” He slipped his finger under her panties, her moisture inviting him in all the way.

She gasped, closing her eyes at his touch, and nodded. “The kiss on the deck . . .” she said, her eyes remaining closed. Abel stared at her lips as she continued to speak a little more breathlessly with every caress of his finger to her silky wet skin. “The elevator . . . This . . . It’s exciting. I’ve never done something so . . .”

Nellie stopped to swallow, licking her lips, and Abel kissed her before she could finish. She didn’t have to. Suddenly the need to make this happen for her, make this experience with him be one she’d never forget, took over. It was just an ego thing. That’s all it was. What guy didn’t like knowing he was a woman’s first anything?

Abel reached for his wallet, but his lips never left hers. She kissed him back just as urgently, her hands grasping the front of his shirt. She gasped harder at the sound of his zipper opening. So he stopped and looked at her wide eyes. “I’m sure,” she said before he could ask again, pulling him to her, and he groaned against her mouth.

Working fast, he got the condom on and reached under her sundress, pulling her panties down. When they hit the floor, he lifted her easily off the ground. “Wrap your legs around me.”

She did and he adjusted her, groaning loudly as he entered her. Kissing her harder now as he f**ked her against the door, he tried in vain to stifle his moaning, but it felt so damn good to be inside her. He’d been under the assumption that a woman who had been married, especially for several years, wouldn’t be this tight. She was tighter than some of the younger women he’d been with, and it felt just too damn good to finally be doing what he could only fantasize about up until now—so good it was almost alarming.

With her arms tightly wound around his neck, she began to pant with every thrust, and he went even harder, her panting growing more frantic as he felt her begin to pulsate around him each time he slid into her. Just as her entire body began to tremble with pleasure, he felt her arms tighten around his neck as she pulled her mouth away from him to breathe and cry out. Abel couldn’t hold it any longer either. Groaning again, he came in an explosive climax. Sinking deep inside her, he pushed his body against hers, burying his face in her sweet neck. Nellie clung onto him for dear life, gasping for air.

“We’re, Nellie started to say before stopping to catch her breath, “still going back to my room, right?”

Abel smiled, squeezing her naked behind and looked up into her somewhat embarrassed eyes. “You bet this hot little ass we are. That was just an appetizer. I hope you have all night, because what I have in mind is gonna take that long.”

Her eyes sparkled now with excitement, and she nodded. Hot damn! She was going to be more fun than he’d expected.

Chapter 1

To Nellie’s surprise, since the cruise had been over a week ago, Abel had come by her place twice already. She hadn’t been sure if their fun-and-run agreement on the ship meant he’d be running just as soon as they docked and came back to the real world. Apparently, their agreement extended even into their life off the ship. Still the stipulations stood—no strings attached—no promises, no demands, and no hurt feelings.

With a young stud like Abel—someone Nellie never dreamed would show an interest in her—she most certainly could deal with that, even if her best friend Roni didn’t seem to think it was a good idea. She was on the phone with her again as Roni continued to voice her concern about the whole thing.

“You’re gonna get hurt,” she insisted. “You’re not this type of person, Nellie. I know you. You don’t do the f**k-buddy thing.”

“Need I remind you that I’m no longer the same person I once was?”

Her ex-husband and sister had taken care of that. The old Nellie no longer existed. She’d since discovered taking risks, such as the one she and Abel had taken on the cruise, could be fun—more than fun—absolutely thrilling. She wanted to explore and enjoy this side of herself a little further. She agreed with Roni that, before the hell she’d gone through with her ex, she never would’ve dreamed of doing what she was now doing with Abel, but she was enjoying it. And since they’d set boundaries, they each understood this was just for fun. What they did when they weren’t together and with whom wasn’t the other’s business. She had no expectations of anything more than a physical relationship.

Besides, it was what she needed right then: to be free to explore this and all the other sides of herself that had been dormant for years while her bastard cheating husband so often neglected her needs. She’d ride Abel literally and figuratively for all he was worth, and when it was over, there’d be no looking back. No regrets. What she didn’t want to regret was passing up the opportunity to experience something this tantalizing because of the fear of getting hurt. Nothing could hurt Nellie more than what her ex and her very own sister had done to her.

“You’re not gonna stop dating other guys, right?” Roni asked anxiously.

Roni was worried because she knew Abel would be free to fly in and out of Nellie’s bed and into others’ beds—and he was known for doing plenty of flying around—while Nellie sat around, waiting exclusively for him.

While the offers weren’t exactly pouring in, she’d had a few. Nellie assured Roni she wouldn’t be turning any down because of Abel. She did leave out the part that, while his visits continued, she wouldn’t be sleeping with anyone else until she was ready to cut Abel loose. That is if he didn’t cut her loose first. Sleeping around with more than one guy at once was something she wouldn’t be exploring. It had nothing to do with being faithful either. She owed Abel as much as he owed her—nothing. It was a morality issue for her. While she wanted to enjoy her newfound freedom, she wanted to feel sexy and reawakened, not dirty. Still, she was sure this would only worry Roni further by confirming that, in fact, she wasn’t the f**k-buddy type. So she kept this bit to herself.