Sprawled on the sand, I was helpless but to enjoy as he knelt between my legs and spread my thighs wide. Dan gave me one big grin, and I didn’t have time to feel embarrassed by the fact I hadn’t managed to get that bikini wax, before he pushed his tongue inside me and rendered me incapable of thought.

A few minutes later when Dan hit me with a smug smile, my body felt thoroughly sated, yet I still desperately wanted to have him properly. My hands reached urgently for the button on his jeans. ‘You let that out and …’ He sounded choked.

‘And we’ll have sex?’ A ripple of anticipation shot through my body. ‘Don’t you want to?’

‘More than anything.’

Relief flooded through me. ‘Then what are you waiting for?’

And that was all the go-ahead he needed.

Moments later, with all clothing between us gone, Dan surged into me, filling me so wonderfully and completely that I screamed in pure ecstasy.

‘What even was that?’ I asked when I finally caught my breath. In twenty-two years with Adrian, I couldn’t remember ever having sex that good. It had taken years before he’d ever managed to get me to orgasm at the same time as him. But what we’d just had … that was the stuff I used to read about in romance novels!

Dan pushed up onto his arms and looked down at me. ‘I’m so sorry that was over so quickly. That wasn’t the way I intended our first time to be.’

‘Don’t apologise, that was amazing,’ I said, squirming as I felt sand in places it really shouldn’t be. ‘If anyone should be saying sorry it’s me—I may have been a little eager, but it’s been a few months between rodeos.’

And much longer since I’d experienced such desperate need and the kind of desire Dan invoked within me.

He dropped a kiss on my nose. ‘You were more than perfect. I’m surprised I managed to hold out that long myself. It’s been years since I last had sex.’

‘Years?’ What were all the single women in Ragged Point thinking?

He laughed at my shock.

‘So was Tessa your last?’ I asked.

‘No. After Tessa left, I tried to fix the pain by sleeping with one girl after another, but after a while I realised how meaningless it was and the thrill of getting my rocks off with just anyone lost its shine. I decided to wait for someone special.’

The way he was gazing down at me made me feel special. A feeling I now realised had been absent in my life for a long time.

‘So, Dan …’ I walked my fingers up his bare chest, smiling mischievously. ‘How long exactly have you been thinking about our first time?’

‘From that first moment I saw you on the beach.’