I open my arms, and gesture for her to come closer.
“What are you going to do?”
I let out a groan, pretending to be annoyed. “Do you think I’m going to hurt you? Give me a little credit, Natalie.”
Her front teeth sink into her bottom lip as she considers whether I’m friend or foe. I can’t help but smile the moment she decides to trust me. Her small hands are warm as she places them on my shoulders, yet a shiver rips through me, going straight to my balls.
“I’m going to lift you, okay? Wrap your legs around my waist.”
“Oh, no. You don’t have to. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
Is she serious? “Natalie, I’m dead. I can lift a car and toss it across the driveway. There’s no way picking you up would hurt me. Got it?”
She nods, a hesitancy in her gaze that disappears when I haul her out of the water. She wraps her arms around my neck, and I breathe in her strawberry shampoo as I grip the back of her thighs. As she crosses her ankles at the small of my back, I forget what the point of this was.
I had a plan of some kind, didn’t I? Now that she’s in my arms, and I feel her nipples scrape against my bare chest, feel the heat of her pussy against my lower stomach, I can’t think about anything other than pressing my lips to hers. Tasting her. Learning her. Branding her skin with my mouth.
“Now what?” she asks, shaking me from the fog of lust.
“Right. Okay, in three…two…”
“Wait, what?”
Before I reach one, I let my corporeal body fade into the misty shadow I became the moment my heart stopped beating, disappearing beneath her grasp.
Her arms flail as she plops into the water, and a second later, she snaps back up, spluttering with laughter as she wipes water from her eyes. “Christ!” she shouts, looking a little angry, but mostly amused. “That was so strange.” She pushes the wet hair off her face as she continues to look at me in awe. “It wasn’t like diving into a pool, where, for half a second, you feel like you’reflying. This was…” she trails off. “I mean, you were holding me, then I just dropped straight down, and even though it wasn’t from high up, it felt like my stomach was going to shoot up through my throat.”
I laugh as she looks from the water to me, back to the water. Her grin turns gleeful as she places her hand on my forearm.
“Do it again.”
Knowing how easily she intoxicates me, I move quicker the second time, not allowing the heat of her core to settle against my stomach, but rather slipping into mist as soon as her heels touch my back. We continue this game twice more, with her giggle increasing in volume each time. My chest puffs a bit at the sight of her so carefree, knowing I gave her this. This brief respite from pain.
Our chests heave as we stand there, still chuckling about our silly game. Perhaps that’s why we don’t notice our bodies moving closer together of their own accord. Soon, I can feel her soft stomach pressing against mine. We’re out of breath and smiling like idiots as her arms wrap around my neck.
I don’t know if she leans up, or if I lean down, but the distance closes between us, the forest fades away, and our lips find their way to each other at last.
Chapter 11
Natalie
The kiss is slow at first, sensual, but there’s clear hesitancy coming from both of us. Did I kiss him? Or did he kiss me? I can’t remember how it happened, but I’m screaming on the inside that it did. Every part of him steals my breath, and for once, he’s not actively trying to piss me off. He’s been sweet and protective.
I wasn’t expecting that.
Winston’s tongue swipes along the seam of my lips, and I let him in. He tastes like bourbon, with a hint of vanilla. I wonder if that was the last drink he had before he died.
Then the kiss shifts from sweet to scorching. His hands are rough as the left grips my hair and the right splays against the middle of my back. I moan against his mouth, and he jerks back, giving me a look I can’t decipher.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, worried he regrets this and is about to end it.
He smiles, his eyes heavy-lidded with lust as he says, “Absolutely nothing, sweetheart. That sound you made. It’s the most beautiful fucking thing I’ve ever heard.”
I can feel the blood rushing to my cheeks, but before I can get embarrassed, Winston crushes his lips to mine once more, his mouth rough and hungry as he hauls me against him and into the air. I promise myself that I’ll punch him in the dick if he chooses this moment to disappear and drop me again, but that never happens.
At one point, he strides deeper into the water until it reaches my shoulders, then he removes one arm from around my waist and cups my cheek so tenderly I feel tears prick behind my eyelids. I don’t think I’ve ever been kissed like this before. I’ve never felt so desired and cherished at the same time.
He nips at my bottom lip, and I suck in a breath, my chest arching into his. My hands find their way to his hair, and I revel in the silkiness of each strand as my fingers run through it. “You have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to do this,” he rasps.
