We stared at each other, Eva’s chest falling as she let out a shaky breath.
I swallowed. “Do you want me to kiss you there?”
A helpless sound slipped out of her. “I… I don’t know. I want you.”
“You can have me. Any way you want.” The truth of that scared me a little. I’d never felt beholden to any kind of divinity, but kneeling between her thighs felt like worship. I’d do anything she commanded.
“You have me, Ev,” I said again, more softly.
A flicker of vulnerability clouded her expression. “I’m not supposed to want that.”
“Bullshit.”
She laughed wetly.
Seriously, who had told her that? I hated seeing her embarrassed when she had no reason to be. Maybe neither of us had done this before, but I knew with every beat of my heart that it wasn’t wrong. That loving her, learning her, couldn’t be wrong.
I threaded my fingers with hers and bent to press our foreheads together. “It’s just you and me, Ev. Nothing else matters.”
When her lips parted, I watched something change behind her eyes. So I asked again. “What do you want?”
Without breaking my gaze, Eva slowly drew our intertwined hands to the hinge of her thigh. “Kiss me here.”
Heat flamed inside me at the gentle order. I pressed a butterfly-soft kiss to her hip bone, then paused, awaiting further instruction.
“Here.” Eva trailed a fingertip down her leg. She was meant to be savored, and I tried, Itried. But the line of stretch marks on her inner thigh pulled me in like a drug.These thighs.I eagerly kissed a path down to her knee, then higher and higher up the other side.
Eva’s breaths turned ragged. “Where do you want to kiss me?”
“Everywhere, Ev.”
Snarling her fingers in my hair, Eva dragged my face up to meet hers. “Truly?”
“Every inch of you.”
Slowly, her trepidation eased into a smile. Eva bit her lip, then reached between her legs. “Here,” she said softly.
When I closed my mouth on her, the wildflowers lining the bank burst into bloom. I wrapped an arm around her upper thigh and lost myself in skin, in sighs, in summer.
The pond lapped at my toes. Something green brushed my arm, but I couldn’t focus on anything except her. Eva canted her hips, and I muffled a groan against her skin.
No. Not wicked at all.A rush of validation swept through me. This was worship of the softest kind, a prayer made of touches, an altar of flesh. Her sounds were benediction. When she pulled my hair, I kissed my way back up her body—the dip in her waist, the crook of her neck—finally sealing my mouth to hers once more. I loved that she kissed with her teeth. That I, too, was something to devour.
When I broke away, Eva laughed, breathless. “Wow.”
“Wow.” I grinned down at her.
Like this, our bodies were almost perfectly aligned. Eva’s bright expression changed, growing more heated as she set her palms on my hips and urged me closer.
“You sure?” I whispered.
Before she could answer, the sound of voices in the trees startled us both. Eva and I jolted apart. They were coming down the path to the pond. I identified the low rumble as Jack Moreau’s voice.
“Shit.”
Eva pulled me back into the water. “Under the dock!”
We didn’t have time to dress. Bubbles licked my ears as we submerged, surfacing beneath the dock’s gooey underside. A green film dripped water onto my nose. “You didn’t mention the slime,” I muttered.
