He felt the water tremble just before she touched his leg. She wound a small hand around his calf, lightly tracing the contours of muscle and bone with a featherlight touch before letting the tips of her nails drag across his skin as she pulled away. Her head broke the surface, and she found his gaze. The world outside of the lake ceased to exist, leaving only the sensation of cool water and heated skin. She took a breath before diving below again.
He controlled his breathing and waited.
The next touch was a brush against his back, winding around his body to caress him in the most sensitive places. Heclosed his eyes and tried to identify the drag of her nipples across his back, the faint brush of her belly over his ass, two hands sliding up the front of his thighs while he stood still. It was erotic, mysterious, seductive. Slow, liquid fire burned in his veins.
Amber's head popped up through the water, her hair slicked back, a wicked grin still on her face. She disappeared before he could reach her. Suddenly, two hands gripped his cock, bold and firm, giving him a hard squeeze that made him groan. His breathing quickened, his chest rising and falling as if he were the one holding his breath under water. She circled her thumb around the round head of him, rubbing and stroking him with wicked hands. Theo felt her hand slide down and cup his balls, gently pulling and stroking them. “Fuck,” he swore.
He reached for her, pulling her body up out of the water and flush against his, from breasts to hips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and fitted herself tightly against him, rubbing against him under the water. He could feel her tight nipples pressed against his chest and heard her breath hitch at the contact. His cock nudged insistently against her stomach, pressed tight between their bodies. He gripped her waist and lifted her up, lining himself perfectly into the even hotter cleft between her thighs, where she tightened her thighs around him.
"That escalated quickly,” she whispered. Her breath came in short, shallow pants in the silent lake.
He gripped her hips tighter and rocked firmly between her legs. Her head dropped back, exposing the tender skin of her throat. He bent his head, grazing her skin there with a possessive kiss. “You keep underestimating me,” he murmured against her skin.
"I think we keep underestimating each other," she said. "I wonder why that is.” She looked down at the water. “Do you think the worst of me?"
He tipped her chin up with a finger until he could see her eyes. She wasn’t smiling now, and it was the hint of uncertainty that made his chest ache. “I think the best of you, and as soon as you stop underestimating yourself, the whole fucking world will too.”
“Do you think I’m—” she stopped, and he could see the emotions play over her face. Hopeful, like she wanted to believe him. Scared that he could be wrong.
He waited for her to finish, willed her to fill in the blanks of her version of herself, but she stopped. Her chin lifted out of his hands almost like she was steeling herself. It made him ache. “Yes,” he said, simply. Quietly. “Yes, to everything you’re thinking. I think you’re wickedly sharp and incredibly talented. Gifted. I think you know things about people they don’t even know themselves, and you show them so they can shine right alongside you. You’re funny as hell. Loyal. Hardworking. Gorgeous.”Mine.
The sudden boom that echoed across the lake made her jump, and she bobbed up in the water against him. Above them, the first sunburst of brilliant blue splintered the sky, reflected on the water, and floated slowly down.
“The fireworks are starting,” she said, turning away from him. Her eagerness for the distraction was palpable. He needed it too.
He turned her around in his arms, and they floated like that, looking up at the sky. While she watched the colors exploding in the sky, he watched her and wondered how this woman, this outrageous, bold, tender, and beautifully uncertain woman had woven her way so deeply into his heart.
All too soon, the faint sound of “God Bless America” began, and Theo reluctantly let her go. The carnival would clear out now, and inevitably others would be drawn to the lake on a hot summer night. Theo had come a long way in the risk department,but getting caught skinny dipping with his assistant wasn’t something he could chance.
"We have to go.”
"Val will be looking for me," she said regretfully.
"Come on. I’ll take you back."
Chapter Twenty-Five
The heat was gettingto him.
Theo turned the cold water of the shower off, and stood there, dripping wet and still boiling hot. His insides were hot, fiery hot with lust and desire, a pounding, physical need that pulsed in his veins all day long.
It was Amber. Even now, closing his eyes, he remembered the feel of her body in the water last night, the sensuous slip and slide of her body along parts of his, teasing, stroking, rubbing. Her body leaning back against his, weightless in his arms except for the heavy words he had spoken.
Mine. He had wanted to say it, but he knew she wasn’t ready to hear it. He wasn’t at first, either. On paper, they didn’t make sense, but that had ceased to matter.
And now they had crossed an invisible line.
He towel-dried his hair and shaved methodically, going through the motions, rationalizing each step of the way, like it was a puzzle he could solve if he fit the pieces together just right.
But there was only one solution.
He wanted her. There was no more playing or teasing.They had teased each other long enough with their silly truth or dare games, and he felt with a deep certainty that something had to change. He couldn’t continue like this, and they couldn’t go back.
Not when he knew the shape of her body intimately.
Not when she had shown him what his life had been missing.
It was almost laughable to think he could resist her. He had met her on likely one of the most unpleasant nights of her life. Every protective instinct within him had surged at the sight of her walking down the road alone.
