He squinted at me, searching my gaze before he laughed.
“Yes, there are. They leave you alone as long as you don’t bother them.” He cradled my cheek. “You didn’t just go city girl on me, did you?”
I narrowed my eyes. “No, I’ve gone in the water before but just, like, to here.” I pointed to my feet. “Close enough to cool off but safe from any fish bites.”
His fantastic chest rumbled with a laugh as he shook his head.
“I see. So, I think,” he began as he eased closer, pulling my body flush to his. My gaze drifted up to his mouth as I parted my lips on instinct. “Since you’re going to live here, I need to break you in on a few things.” He skimmed his hands down my arms and over my hips.
“Break me in?” I tried for snark, but the words came out too breathy to have any bite. A shiver rolled down my spine when he sank his fingertips into my thighs. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He leaned in as if he was about to devour my mouth and lifted me up by my waist. I yelped when he hoisted me onto his shoulder and jogged into the lake.
“What are you doing?” I asked, clenching my eyes shut from the splashes of water hitting me in the face as Jude ran in.
“There we go,” he said once the water reached his waist. “Stay with me,” he rasped, turning me around to face him as he waded into the lake.
The water was cold, but I had no choice other than to acclimate quickly as Jude plunged me in.
“Okay, you made your point.” I clutched on to his shoulders. “But not too far, please. I want to cool off, not get taken out with the tide,” I said with a nervous chuckle as I clasped my arms around Jude’s neck.
“I’d never let anything happen to you.” He grabbed my legs underwater and wrapped them around his waist.
His eyes burned with lust and a sweet affection that scratched at the back of my throat.
“I trust you,” I said, tracking the swipe of his tongue across his lip. I pressed myself into him, gripping his waist with my thighs as my body gravitated toward his under the water. I couldn’t get close enough, but that had been my problem on land too. Whenever I was around Jude, I couldn’t stay away—even when I’d thought he didn’t want to be near me.
Now that I knew the truth, I couldn’t get enough.
“Just so you know—” he grabbed my ass with both hands, yanking me closer to where his huge erection was probably tenting his swim trunks under the surface “—that poke you feel right now. That’s not the fish.”
I chuckled, tracing the seam of his lips with the tip of my finger. “Well, thank God for that.”
I grabbed the back of his neck and slanted my mouth over his. I sifted my wet hands through his hair as he moaned into my mouth. This kiss was just as ravenous as the ones before, but slow, both of us taking our time to explore and taste each other without an interruption or denial to make us stop.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he mumbled into my neck as he dragged kisses across my chest, peering up at me with a crooked smile as he traced his finger along my collarbone.
“Back at you,” I said, loving the growl erupting from his throat when I grazed my teeth along his bottom lip. “I could kiss you all day.”
“Now you get the reason for the private part of the lake.”
He dipped his head and trailed the tip of his tongue across my collarbone and up my throat.
“Do you know how long I’ve wanted to kiss you right here?” Everything below my waist became one giant throb, and I forgot all about the fish, who could see us, or anything else in existence besides Jude’s mouth.
“Collarbones do it for you?” I teased as I tipped my head back. Jude kept his arm around my waist and skated his other hand over the triangles of my bikini top, slipping his finger under the top of one of the cups and dragging it back and forth.
“On you, fuck yes. That dress you wore at dinner drove me crazy. All I wanted to do was taste you right here.”
I moaned as he dragged openmouthed kisses across my chest, sucking and biting up the sides of my neck. I didn’t want to leave the lake with hickeys, but Jude could taste and touch anything he wanted. I’d wear a turtleneck in August if I had to.
“So, you didn’t hate me after all… Oh God, right there…”
I trailed off when Jude sucked on my nipple through my wet top, the warmth of his mouth even through the material almost making my brain short-circuit.
His brow furrowed when I squirmed away, concern etching his features as he studied me.
I did a quick sweep of the sand behind us. I saw no one and nothing except what we’d brought with us and a couple of birds flying and waddling over the space. When I turned back to Jude, I pulled down one of the cups of my bikini top until I spilled out of it. His eyes went wide with the same want and anticipation sizzling in my veins.
