‘Because you don’t want to sleepwith me?’
‘I don’t want to have this conversation. How on earth would we ever be able to carry on working together if we…if we…?’
This time he did face her and Erin’s pulse raced at the absolute seriousness on his face. The very face she had longed to touch for so many years.
Her lips parted and her treacherous body took a step towards him. She saw just the ghost of a smile on his face. It should have been a signal for her to break the electric connection between them, but she couldn’t.
He wanted her.
No misreading of signals, no imagination playing tricks on her.He wanted her and she wanted him right back.
She knew the dangers. She’d listed each and every one in her head a million times but crushing desire made a nonsense of all those rational concerns. Crushing desire was already making an argument for doing exactly what they both wanted, was telling her that this was just lust, that lust couldn’t end up hurting her or derailing her hope of finding love with the right guy.
She trembled, her breath hitching, as Raffaele lowered his head, and the cool feeling of his lips on hers kick-started a cyclone of pent-up arousal inside her. She moaned into his mouth and stepped closer to him, her slender body pressed against his hard, masculine, much bigger one. She reached up and sifted her fingers through his dark hair as he continued to send her senses into spinning meltdown, first with his mouth, his invading tongue lashing against hers, and then with his hand, moving underneath her top and finding the cup of the swimsuit she’d worn under her clothes.
‘This is too much,’ he growled. ‘We have to get a room.’
‘Raffaele…’
‘Come… I know where we can go… Jesus, I’ve never felt so turned on in my life before… I can barely get my thoughts together…’
Erin followed him blindly. He was saying something about the ledge he’d found behind the waterfall when he’d been on one of his earlier journeys of discovery.
The noise of the waterfall thundered around them. Sure-footed and agile, he held her hand as he led the way to the smooth, cool ledge behind the falls, big enough to sit and have a picnic with friends. Hidden from view by the wall of water a mere handful of feet away.
This was peace, privacy, a cool, misty respite from the stifling humidity.
There was nothing cool between them, though. Erin was burning up.
Her clothes were sticking to her like glue.
She began stripping off. Part of her could scarcely believe this was happening. Another part revelled in it, revelled in the freedom of being reckless for the first time in her life.
The ledge, smooth and flat, should have been uncomfortable, but it was lovely and slippery and cold underfoot. Erin found herself wondering how many couples had sneaked behind this waterfall over the decades to do exactly what they were doing now.
They didn’t speak. The sound of cascading water feet away from them would have drowned out their voices anyway.
Erin liked it that way because she just wanted to feast her eyes on Raffaele and enjoy him in perfect, blissful silence.
When the last of his clothing was off, her mouth fell open. He’d worn swimming trunks underneath, black and navy blue, and as he kicked them to the side, to join the rest of his discarded clothes, she breathed in sharply and trembled.
He was impressive and there was no mistaking the fact that he was turned on.
She had begun undressing already. Now she couldn’t wait to get her clothes off completely. She scrabbled at them while he stood exactly where he was, watching her with his hand resting idly on his erection.
She had never been so turned on.
He walked towards her and then held her. Their bodies glistened with perspiration and spray from the waterfall. She could smell the humid air and the scent of earth.
It felt as though time stood still as he began touching her, exploring her nakedness slowly with his hands while he kissed her. She had to reach up to him, half on tiptoe, her hands wound around his neck so that she could pull him tighter towards her.
Her breasts pressed against his hard chest. She felt the scrape of his hair against her nipples and rubbed herself against him so that the sensation was amplified.
He cupped her rounded bottom and massaged it, ran his hands along her waist and felt her shiver and then curved them around her breasts, inching slightly away from her so that he could rub the stiffened peaks of her nipples with the abrasive pads of his thumbs.
‘I don’t want to rush this,’ he groaned. ‘Would you rather we take this to a bed in one of our cabins? Although I’m not sure I can make it that far…’
‘I want to stay here.’
