Being the one to make Shep groan in ecstasy.
And right now, Ireallyloved the seclusion of the jungle.
Why? Because while I was laid out on our rooftop deck in my birthday suit, Shep was swimming laps in the pool beside me wearinghis. And trust me when I say there wasn’t a person on the planet who wouldn’t want to trade places with me to take inthatview.
It was amazing what a few weeks could do to one’s perspective, not to mention their dating status, when an incredibly attractive man who seemed hellbent on “getting toknow me” whisked me off to a safe house in order to save me from certain death.
Usually, I’d find that kind of thing annoying, maybe even slightly suffocating, but when it came in the form of my tall, controlling second-in-command, the only thing I found it…was hot.
I’d gone from resenting having a bodyguard to wanting him guarding my body twenty-four seven. And if he could do it as he was dressed—ornotdressed—that would be preferable.
But it went beyond that and, if I were being honest, had for a while now.
The time we spent naked and tangled with each other was sexy and fun, but it was the timeoutof the bed that had been the true shock.
I wasn’t easily entertained. As a prince, I had anything and everything at my fingertips, so keeping my attention was difficult—something past lovers had found out quicker than they would like. But with Shep, I found myself enjoying the quiet moments as much as I did the ones full of action—and with our lives, there was plenty of that.
“You didn’t fall asleep up there, did you?”
I lifted my head off my arms and reached for my glasses, drawing them down my nose until I could eye him over the top of them.
“Non, just baking my buns to perfection.”
Shep ran a hand through his damp hair, then made a show of looking past me to said buns. “Be careful, you don’t want to burn them.”
I glanced back at my oiled-up cheeks to see they already had a nice tinge to them. “They’re fine. I’m keeping an eye on them.”
“So am I.” Shep planted his hands on the edge of the pool and hauled himself out. As I turned back to see the water sluice overhis body, my jaw hit the ground. “But maybe I should look a little closer.”
As he straightened in front of me, the water ran down the delicious V of his pelvic bone to his strong thighs, then to his calves, and I couldn’t help but lick my lips.
“Be my guest,” I said, and wriggled my ass in the air as he strolled alongside me, stopping when he reached my backside to shake his head.
I gasped at the feel of the cool water spraying all over my hot skin.
Shep moved down to his knees on the towel beside me and trailed his fingers over the curve of one of my cheeks. “They’re a little pink. I think you should turn over.”
I chuckled and shifted to my side, to see him grinning at me. “Why, Mr. Winchester, are you trying to get me on my back?”
Shep moved to his hands and leaned in to brush his lips over mine. “And if I am?”
I rolled to my back and placed my hands behind my head, giving him a full, unobstructed view of my naked body. “I’d ask what took you so long.”
Shep chuckled, his eyes roving over me and leaving a scorching path that was hotter than the sun. “I keep asking myself the same thing.”
My stomach tightened at the serious line of his lips. When Shep got like this, so focused and zeroed in, it was all I could do to stop my heart from skidding to a halt.
He was so intense, so different to me in the way he approached things, including us. Where I was all about the tease and the cheekiness of a moment, he was all control and potent sex appeal.
