He cleared his throat and looked up at the headboard. His answer sounded far off, as if from a distance. “Would that make it better?”
“It’s just too late,” I said, unwelcome tears spilling from the corners of my eyes. “I did this to myself. But I don’t know how to make it stop. It—it hurts to be away from you.”
His face folded, and he cupped my cheek. “So don’t be away from me.”
I curled under the shelter of his broad shoulders, hiding my face from him. “You don’t know what you’re saying,” I said, holding in the tears with everything I had.
“I know exactly what I’m saying.”
“No,” I said resolutely, clutching the pillow.
But it hurts so much.
He enclosed around my quaking shoulders, littering my hair with kisses until I fell asleep.
15
Iwoke abruptly and shot upright in a very big bed in the middle of the night. The breathtaking city sprawled around me, but I didn’t care because I was alone. I eased out from between the hotel’s silky sheets and stood slowly. Through the sliding glass door, the pool glowed turquoise as David did laps, his lithe body slicing through the water.
I slipped into an oversized terrycloth robe and stepped out into the night.
Hanging my toes over the edge of the pool, I watched David complete a lap. At the edge, he whipped his hair off his face to look up at me. “Did I wake you?” he asked from below. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“No.” I shook my head dreamily. Steam spiraled upward from the water. I dizzied just from the way the glowing pool backlit his wet, glistening body.
“Why are you smiling at me like that?” he asked.
Had I been smiling? If not for my surroundings, I would’ve sworn tonight had all been a vivid, wonderful dream.
I sat and dipped my feet into the warm water. I reached out to push wet hair from his forehead. He moved between my knees and skimmed his hands down my calves to shackle my ankles. Leaning back on my palms, I closed my eyes at the feeling of his skin against mine.
Our rooftop was completely silent; only water splashed as his hands glided back up, over my thighs and underneath the robe. My breath quickened as he pulled the tie open, grasped my waist, and slid me to the edge. His head buried in my lap while I fingered his dripping, inky hair. He eased my thighs apart to nuzzle me. My moan was barely an exhale.
With his first firm lick, my arms buckled. He tasted me slowly, stopping now and then to suck and kiss. With an ankle in each hand, he guided my heels to the edge so my knees bent, and I was bared to him. His arms wrapped around my hips, securing me to him. When his nose nudged into my clit, I jerked against his firm hold. He inserted and spread two fingers to open me wider. His tongue probed inside of me quicker, with more pressure, and my legs began to shake.
I fell back onto the concrete, my thighs shaking. With his mouth working its magic and his thumb on my clit, he coaxed me into a rippling, full-body orgasm that had my back bowing off the ground and my throat surrendering to soft moans.
As I lay limp, he pulled my arms from the robe and lifted me. He slid me down his body and into the pool. I kept going until I was completely submerged. When I resurfaced, David touched my face for a deep, penetrating kiss that tasted like me and like him. Despite the cool night, the heated pool made my head spin.
“Look down,” David said.
I gasped. He’d swum us to the overhang, and I instinctively clung to him. “Wow.”
“It’s safe,” he reassured me, but he held me close. A thrill spiraled through me as I peered down at the city. His feet planted firmly on the glass bottom, but I knew I would be treading water if I let go.
He looked at me strangely. Something fiery, but deep and sensual. “You’re so beautiful,” he told me softly. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?” I wanted to look away; it was too much—but his burning brown eyes, his dripping wet lashes, his razorblade jawline . . .
He was so arrestingly beautiful in that moment.
He licked his lips, curled a hand into my wet hair and pulled. “Christ,” he murmured. “I need you now.” Hearing him voice his desire turned my insides to liquid. He devoured my neck with hard, unforgiving kisses that strayed over my shoulders and up to my earlobe.
He cut us through the water and carried me out of the pool, to a lounge chair. With an outstretched hand, he lowered me onto the cushion.
“Cold?” he asked, breathing heavily over me.
“No,” I replied, because when I was underneath him, I could never be anything but warm. I wrapped my legs around him, and he dropped his hips. I cried out as he drove into me with a grunt.
His face fell into the curve of my neck, and he stilled. “You feel amazing wrapped around my cock,” he panted. “You’re so warm.”
