Anticipation warmed Laura's stomach as she searched for signs of his approach. She felt a stirring below the surface,
a subtle undercurrent, then a brushing against her thigh. She turned immediately in that direction, but heard a splash on her other side.
She whirled in time to see his head submerging again. A light pinch on her bottom startled her. With a breathless laugh, she tried to catch his arm, or leg, or whatever body part she could grab, but he was too fast and slippery. She considered launching across the pool to evade him, but she wasn't that great a swimmer...and she wanted to be well grounded for the next swim-by assault.
Another teasing pinch caught the back of her knee, sending a shiver up her leg. She lunged sideways and grabbed hold of slick skin, but he slipped from her one-handed grasp and bobbed up for air a short distance away.
“Hey,” she cried, “you want a pinch? Iâ²ll give you a pinch!”
He slid beneath the silvery surface again. She held her hand and pinching fingers poised in readiness. Turning in cautious circles, she watched for vague outlines beneath the darkened water.
Hands ran up her legs in a long, winding caress. Warm sensation careened through her, and by the time she remembered her defensive-pinch strategy, he'd retreated. The water around her swirled and lapped at her suddenly sensitized breasts as she tried to imagine what would come next.
A bite nipped her inner thigh. A delicious tingle radiated upward, and her heart kicked into overdrive. All thoughts of defense fled.
So did he.
A series of bites soon nibbled at her other thigh, while his hands skimmed over her bottom...and his fingertips brushed along the sensitive crevice in a downward curve....
Her breath left her in an audible rush.
And he was gone.
She struggled to drag air into her lungs, feeling light-headed, hot and sensually charged. The next bite landed on the wickedly sensitive muscle between her thigh and pelvic bone. Her mouth opened in a silent cry. His hair floated like silky seaweed against her abdomen, and she trapped his face between her handsâthis time to stop him from leaving.
He surfaced for an instant, just long enough to catch a breath, then ducked back down. A flurry of bubbles rose against her torso and breasts like a rush of fine champagne. Splayed hands gripped her backside beneath the water, and random bites rained from hip to hip, thigh to thigh.
She shut her eyes and dropped her head back, holding his taut shoulders to steady herself. The bites grew sensuous and lingering, inching ever closer to the most intimate part of her. She tilted her hips in compulsive reflex.
His rigid tongue dipped between her legs and glided upward in one hot, steady stroke. Sharp, erotic pleasure blazed through to the very core of her.
He ascended from the water like a sea god rising, and she clung to him in a breathless, sensual daze. Water streamed from his hair and down his dark, arresting face, now etched in silvery shadows. His skin radiated virile heat His chest expanded with hard inhalations, and his fiery blue gaze sought hers.
Intensity pulsed and burned between them. He uttered not a word, not one word, but his stare said it all.
I want you. I want you!
Her heart drummed the same need to every fiber of her being.
I want you.
She dug her hands into his wet, sinewy
neck, shoulders and biceps, craving the feel of him.
I
want
you!
But the limit they'd set loomed solidly between themâan obstacle they could not breach.
He ground his teeth and clutched her hips to his, trapping his arousal between them. A moan rolled from her throat, and for a momentâa wild, decadent momentâhe rocked and she gyrated in hot, dangerous friction.
His grip convulsed at her hips; he released an explosive breath, and his body shifted, dislodging the velvet-smooth, steel-hard column from between them. “Ah, Laura,” he rasped in a tortured whisper, a muscle throbbing near his jaw. “God
damm
it.”
She reached for him, and he hungrily kissed her with deep, sexual thrusts. She strained and rubbed against his chest, her nipples raking through wet, matted curls. His hands coursed down her back and buttocks, then around to her breasts... savoring, claiming, possessing.
His arousal whispered across her thigh. She rubbed her knee along its thick, smooth length. He groaned and broke from their kiss. Gripping the underside of her thighs, he hoisted her higher, above harm's way, and folded her legs around his waist.
Which brought her breasts to his face. He took full advantage, swirling his tongue round and round until he filled his mouth; sliding his lips up slowly to catch the hardened crest. Tugging...suckling...driving her steadily into that feverish zone where nothing existed, nothing mattered, but sensation and pleasure and hot, clawing need.
Hot kisses trailed to her other breast. She closed her eyes and arched her back in sensual awe, her heavy hair dipping into the water behind her. She heard him groan as her legs locked tighter around him, and she felt the rigid muscles
of his abdomen clench against her intimate feminine softness.
Her hips moved independently of her, it seemed, and she knew she'd passed the point of caution. She needed... she wanted...she moved.
With fierce pants of breath, he plunged his hand beneath the water, between his abdomen and her. And he made love to her with his fingers.
Pleasure blossomed between her legs with red-hot intensity. Every slow, forceful thrust tightened the coil of need. Water churned and lapped between them from the motion of his hand. Lights flickered behind her eyelids. Pressure built to an unbearable pitch.
And then the thrusting stopped. His fingers halted, yet remained inside, hard and long and virile. Teetering at the very edge of completion, she gasped and undulated, constricting her inner muscles to force him back into motion.
An arm banded around her writhing body, and a hoarse, urgent whisper scalded her ear. “I want to be inside you in every way I can.”
Her bottom lodged against something hard. The steps. He'd settled her onto a step, where the water barely reached the underside of her thighs, his fingers still wedged inside her. His dark face wavered before her eyes, his gaze hot and fierce.
Slowly he withdrew his fingers.
Before she could even cry out at the desertion, his mouth took over. With the languorous licks...feather-light jabs... hot, suctioning swirls, pleasure blinded her. Her body arched. Her legs curled around his massive shoulders. And his tongue drove deep, launching her into hot, explosive contractions.
The force, the heat, the acute pangs of pleasure propelled her to another dimension, one she'd almost forgotten
existed. Her inner woman hadn't forgotten. He'd driven her here so many, many times before.
Masterful arms gathered her close as quivering aftershocks racked her. She needed the nearness, the warmth, the kisses he feathered across her eyelids, temples and jaw. The trembling gradually decreased. The haze slowly lifted. And when reality filtered back, she realized he'd submerged them again in the warm, soothing dark water.
She nestled in his arms, curled against his chest, pressed her face to the side of his wet, muscle-corded neck. A powerful tenderness for him overcame her. “If that's what you call
playing
, Cort Dimitri,” she said in a low, husky murmur, “you must throw one hell of a pool party.”
He didn't answer, but tightened his arms around her. She noticed the tension in his body and the thunderous beating of his heart.
Of course. He hadn't found
his
release yet.
Languidly she slipped one arm around his neck and brushed her lips across his mouth, her breasts against his chest...and delved her hand into the water to rake her fingers up the front of his naked thigh.
His eyes shut and a small groan escaped him, but he caught her wrist and held it. “Laura,” he uttered heatedly through his teeth. “As much as I'd like to keep doing this with you forever, it's time to call it quits.”
“Quits?” She found his hard, pulsating arousal with her thighs and rolled it between them. He hissed in a sharp breath, and she gazed deeply into his hot, chaotic eyes. “You said you want to be inside me any way you can. There's still another way.” She angled her face, sucked on his earlobe and murmured, “But we have to get out of the pool, or I'd probably drown.”
With a tortured groan, he removed her arms from around his neck, slid his erection out from between her
thighs and gently eased her onto her feet in the water, surprising her into silence. He looked almost angry, yet she sensed no anger in him; only frustration, desire and inexplicable conflict. “You're enough to drive a man crazy, you know that?”
With those hoarse, mystifying words, he swashed by her, climbed the steps and strode alongside the poolâwet, naked and unmistakably aroused.
Stunned at the rebuff, then distracted by the lean musculature of his powerful body, Laura watched as he grabbed a towel from the chaise lounge, vigorously rubbed his face, neck and chest dry and then slung it around his hips. She hadn't seen him naked in fifteen years. He'd only grown more Adonislike; a prime, breathtaking specimen of manhood.
“Cort?” she finally called, rousing herself from a stupor. “We can...you know...continue this upstairs, if you'd like.”
“Think I'll turn in for the night,” he said on his way to the door.
She gawked at his retreating back.
Turn in for the night?
“Cort, wait.”
He didn't wait.
She hurried out of the pool, grabbed the remaining towel, wrapped it around herself and rushed after him. What the hell was going on? Had he been hurt somehow? Had he taken ill? She raced across the glassed-in walkway, through the house and up the stairs, heedless of her wet body and hair, or the chills racing up her spine.
She caught him in the corridor between the bedrooms. “Cort, what's wrong?” She searched his face for signs of pain or distress. “Are you okay?”
“I'm fine.” He glanced down at her towel-draped form
in some surprise, although he himself wore only a toweL “You're dripping wet And shivering.”
“Oh.” She glanced down at herself in mortification. “Oh, I'm sorry.” She suppressed a shiver. “I didn't mean to drip on your carpet.”
“The hell with the carpet.” With strong, warm hands on her arms, he ushered her into a bathroom. Snatching a decorative white towel off a rack, he briskly dried her face, then squeezed the towel around random handfuls of her hair.
She watched him in growing bewilderment. She'd been ready to believe that he'd been stricken by some physical ailment, yet he looked perfectly robust. Tense and distant, but robust.
Never had he puzzled her more.
“Cort.” She set a gentle, staying hand on his forearm. “I don't understand what happened. Why you...turned me down. And left me.”
“Left
you?” He seemed to object to her terminology.
“Yes, left me.”
He stared at her for a long moment, the intensity again building in his gaze. Then he glanced away and tossed the damp, decorative towel aside onto a long marble-topped vanity. “We can talk about this some other time.” He made a move to leave the bathroom.
She insistently blocked the doorway. “It's been an incredible evening for me, Cort. You've made me feel things that I haven't felt in a long time.” Heat leaped again in his eyes, and her stomach warmed. “But I didn't want to leave it a one-way thing. I wanted to...to take care of you.”
“You mean, like...” he tilted his head “...I do you, and you do me?”
Stung by the crudeness, she regarded him in uncomprehending silence. Intensity simmered just beneath his surface,
and she had no idea why. “I suppose you could look at it that way.”
His lips slanted almost imperceptibly. “Can't say it's not a square deal.”
Anger sparked within her. “I've obviously said or done something to offend you. I don't know what it was, but you can be sure it won't happen again.” She pivoted to leave the bathroom.
He caught her arm and turned her to face him. “You think you
offended
me?”
“What else could I think?”
“You can't offend me, Laura.” His hands moved on her arms. His gaze played over her face. “Not when it comes to anything sexual between you and me.”
Her pulse pounded; her temperature soared, and she realized that some troubling intensity simmered just beneath her surface, too. “Then what happened? Did you get tired, or bored?”
“You know damn well I didn't.”
“Then tell me what. It's not fair that you should close yourself off to me when I've been so...so open to you.”
He tipped her chin up and submitted her to close, hot scrutiny. “Are you open to me?”