Chapter 12 #2
But when my fingers reached the edge of her bikini bottom, her body jolted.
I looked at her.
My thumb slid under the thin edge of the fabric and Kelly’s body arched like the touch had gone directly to the center of her.
I kissed the sound out of her.
She tugged at my shirt, impatient now, so I stepped back enough to yank it over my head and toss it somewhere useless in the cave.
Kelly looked and the heat in her expression was a problem all on its own.
I leaned in again. “You’re staring.”
“Not enough.”
That got me a breathless but then her hands were on me again.
I caught her wrist gently and brought her palm flat over my chest, over the place my heartbeat had gone from steady to a problem.
Her eyes met mine. “Good.”
I let her hand go and dropped to my knees in the wet sand before she could decide whether I’d overstepped.
Kelly stared down at me.
The cover-up hung open now. Her hands loose at her sides like she wasn’t sure whether to stop me or hold on.
I looked up at her and said, “Lift this.”
Her fingers tightened on the fabric.
For one second she didn’t move but then she grabbed the hem and raised it.
The sight of her nearly broke what remained of my self-control.
I breathed once through it and slid both hands up the backs of her thighs, slow, deliberate, watching her face the entire time.
Kelly was trying so hard to be steady. Her reactions made me want to be careful and ruthless at the exact same time.
I kissed the inside of one thigh, then the other.
Her head fell back against the rock again. “Xerses.”
I smiled against her skin. My name in her mouth was becoming dangerously addictive.
“Still okay?”
She nodded.
I hooked my fingers lightly in the sides of her bikini bottoms and looked up for the final question. “Tell me.”
Her eyes met mine.
She sighed and said, “Please,” in that low, breathless voice, I chose her wanting first.
I pulled the bikini bottoms aside and touched her.
Kelly cried out, soft and responsive that it nearly undid me on contact.
She was tight and her moans were clear.
She wanted this..
I stroked her once, slowly, and Kelly’s fingers slammed into my hair hard to sting. The sound that left her was pure, helpless need.
My body reacted like it had been struck. “Tell me if it’s too much.”
“It’s not,” she said, and this time the urgency in it was not simple reassurance. It was plea. “Please don’t stop.”
God. I didn’t stop.
I moved my thumb over the place that made her body jump.
Kelly reacted like no woman I’d met.
Because everything in her was immediate. Unfiltered.
I needed to be careful.
My fingers moved through her slowly.
When I added one finger inside her, the reaction that tore through her was so sharp I stopped dead.
Kelly gasped and her eyes flew open. I looked up instantly. “What.”
For one terrible second she looked like I’d caught her stealing.
Desire flooded back over it so fast anyone less attentive might have missed the first expression entirely.
“Nothing,” she said.
I felt it then. Her body was so responsive it bordered on startled.
I withdrew my hand.
Kelly made a shattered sound and looked down at me in open frustration. “Why did you stop.”
“Your body changed.”
“That’s what bodies do when—”
“Not like that.”
Silence.
“You don’t get to read me that closely,” she said.
“Yes, I do.”
“Why.”
“Because I’d rather stop and be wrong than continue and miss something.”
I rose because if I stayed on my knees with her body still open like that in front of me, I was going to make a very bad decision based on wanting and call it romance later.
She stared at me, flushed and breathing hard. Damn she was irresistible.
I adjusted the side of her bikini back into place carefully, hands shaking once with the effort of what I was not doing.
“Because,” I said, voice rough, “you’re not telling me something.”
The cave went dead still around us.
Kelly’s mouth parted. Then closed.
Her face tightened so quickly it would have been almost impressive if I’d not been trying very hard not to drag her back against the wall and forget the conversation entirely. “That’s not fair.”
“You don’t know that.”
I turned to her. With anyone else I would have taken what I wanted but with Kelly I needed more.
She folded the cover-up closed with shaking fingers. “You’re making this into a thing.”
“What thing?”
“No.” Her voice sharpened, embarrassment and desire and frustration all tangled together now. “You’re deciding there’s a thing because you stopped and now you need a reason.”
That almost made me laugh.
I stepped closer again. It was clear to anyone I wanted her. I was hard and ready, but I swallowed. “Kelly. You want me.”
She glared. “That is not exactly breaking news.”
“I know.” My voice stayed level. “Your body wants me. Look at me. I’m hard and ready. But something doesn’t add up between your kisses and your touch.”
Color climbed into her face all at once.
She looked away first, toward the mouth of the cave where the sea flashed silver-black beyond the rock.
Her eyes misted.
“Do you think,” I asked quietly, “that I’m stopping because I don’t want you.”
Her eyes focused back to mine so fast it felt like impact. “No.”
“Good.”
She swallowed.
“I need you to trust me.”
Silence.
Kelly’s eyes were bright now. She rocked like she wanted to say something but swayed back. She shook her head. “No. I can’t,” she said finally.
Whatever the truth was, it was vulnerable and raw.
Maybe I was wrong. I hoped I was and I could haveh er.
But she was still flushed and breathing hard. I brushed one knuckle lightly over her cheek.
She shivered.
“I’m not asking you to tell me here,” I said.
Kelly’s lashes lowered once.
“You are making this difficult,” she whispered.
I almost smiled. “You started it.”
Her laugh came out broken and disbelieving. “I did not.”
“No?”
“I wanted-“ Her mouth opened. Heat flashed again.
Whatever was happening, she knew I burned for her but I bent, grabbed my shirt, and pulled it back on because a conversation like this was hard enough while half naked and actively aroused in wet sand.
Kelly watched my hands on the buttons. Her body still hadn’t fully come down.
By the time I was dressed, she had her cover-up closed and her breathing under better control.
I stepped back once more, giving her enough space to believe in it.
“When you want me again,” I said, “tell me the whole truth of whatever you’re holding back first.”
Her eyes met mine.
That one she believed.
I saw it in the way her body went very still.
We left the sea cave separately enough to keep the arrangement from looking ridiculous if anyone happened to glance our way from the house. She went first. I waited thirty seconds, then followed.
The path back up to the compound felt longer now. Every step full of what had almost happened and that almost had not made it less real.
Taking her in the cave was everything my body wanted but my heart whispered I wanted far more than just sex with Kelly. I wanted it all.