Chapter 60
Daniel
Day 8
He awoke to the smooth slope of her shoulder rising and falling gently. He couldn’t resist pressing his lips against the nape of her neck. She let out a contented sigh and pulled the hand that was resting on her stomach up to her own lips. They lay there for an indescribable length of time.
Ore stirred, lazily clambering out of sleep, and the movement of her body, the slight repositioning of her hips, stirred something else. Suddenly he was wide awake.
He trailed his finger down from her mouth, over her neck, her chest and down her belly, bringing it to sit on that restless hip of hers. Her breathing changed almost instantly. Spurred on by her immediate response, he reached between her legs, which she parted obligingly. The wetness against his fingers set him alight. She moaned softly as she turned onto her back, to give him better access. Her eyes fluttered open, and he wondered if the want in his eyes was as carnal as the hunger he saw in hers. When she called his name, and convulsed under his touch, he wondered how he would ever let her out of his sight again.
When he sunk himself inside her, lost in the folds of her, he felt the shift, away from running, to chasing, and hoping one day to have. His body tightened, and every inch of him felt hot – her touch, her smell, pulling him towards release. A flash of ecstasy at the summit and then they plummeted together, landing back in a tangle of sheets. He never wanted to let go.
He came back to himself in a daze, and she snuggled into him. ‘I for one am very glad you changed your mind …’ she said between a smattering of light kisses across his chest. She propped herself up on her elbow, gazing at him.
‘I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to sleep without you again,’ he said quietly, and she gave him a sad smile. She made to get up and he pulled her back. He needed another taste of her. She giggled against his mouth and then leant back. ‘Don’t fly away just yet please,’ he added.
‘Fly away?’
‘Like the magnificent seabird that you are.’ He was giddy, talking nonsense.
She laughed. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, but we do probably need to get out of bed at some point. She reached for her phone. ‘It’s like nine o’clock.’
Shit. He was late. She had a habit of throwing him off schedule. ‘I’d better go.’ He was flustered suddenly, rushing out of bed and pulling on his discarded pyjamas. She watched him, head cocked to the side, curiously observing.
‘So where do we go from here, Captain? I doubt any of this is part of your big plan?’ She was cross-legged on the bed, and Daniel found it hard to concentrate on getting ready while she sat there naked, let alone think beyond the next day. She was right; none of this was part of his plan.
‘Come to my cabin tonight?’ He had already thrown his caution to the wind; why stop now? What was it Carlos had said? Something about things that have always worked, not working anymore, and changing? He couldn’t remember exactly but he understood the gist of it now; denying his feeling for Ore just wasn’t a viable option anymore, so it was time to change tactics.
Ore grinned. ‘Great, I’ll see you later.’
He leant in for one last kiss, and then hurried out.
