Page 38 of Never Bound

“Well, whatever you do, don’t smile. Smiling while naked is not allowed.”

Obviously, it was too late. I was laughing. And so was he.

“You’re still glowing red, young lady,” he said. Hell yes, I was. Not only could I feel myself blushing, I could feel my pupils dilating, my breath quickening, my body preparing. The entire beautiful and complex machine of my body was shifting into overdrive for him. “In fact, I think you’re in danger of overheating. We’re gonna have to do something about that.”

“And just what would—oh, shit.” I should have seen it coming. And I’d seen no better evidence of his reflexesandstrength than the way he, all in one swift motion, snatched me up and tossed me into the tiny, frigid pool like releasing a handful of flower petals. I shrieked as the icy surface of the water shattered like broken glass all over the goose bumps already covering my skin. I came up gasping and shivering.

“Shhh. You’ll wake up Erica,” he scolded me, standing at the edge of the pool with his arms casually folded and a smirk engineered to infuriate me. He wasn’t evenwet. “And if she has to come out here, given what I’ve seen of her, I have a feeling you won’t be coming back up for air.”

“Fuck you,” I said, flipping my hair back in one smooth motion, my limp curls falling in ropes down my back. I made a desperate grab for his leg but didn’t even come close. “Now get in here and help me warm up again.”

“Nah. Not until you say it.”

“Say what?”

He only had to raise an eyebrow.

“Oh, for—fine,” I ground out. “I’m overheated. I’m glowing red. I’m on fuckingfire.”

“And why might that be?” He gestured lazily.

“Uh, because you’re standing over me naked and I’m not blind?”

“And?” His infuriating smirk had graduated to a full-on grin.

“And also because your cock is the single most beautiful organ I’ve ever seen and I want to climb it like a flagpole?” I mumbled, my cheeks on fire. “Satisfied?”

“Hey, I just wanted you to tell me you think I’m cute,” he said, shaking his head with a sigh. “Youalwayshave to take it too far.” He plunged in with hardly a splash. In fact, the cold didn’t seem to bother him at all. He’d grown up above the 50th parallel, after all. “But yes, I’m satisfied. Or, at least,” he added with a tilt of his still-dry head, “I will be soon.”

I growled and directed as large a wall of water at him as my two hands could manage.

“That’s pathetic,” he said, grabbing me and dunking me under the water again. I responded with another shriek—Erica or no Erica. The second time I surfaced, though, instead of retaliating, I stopped. Stopped just to look at him in the blue light. Now, at last, the splashback had sent water streaming down his broad shoulders in rivulets and his thick strands of hair adhered haphazardly to his face. And that blue light shot up from some untraceable place below, turning his entire body a shimmering silver-blue. Quite honestly, so far, I was aware of no light that had ever touched him that didn’t seem to adore him. If only the rest of the world would catch on.

He managed to shake some of the strands out of his eyes and pulled me toward him to keep me from floating away, while I wrapped my legs around his waist tightly, our girl and boy parts jammed right up against each other, noses nearly touching, chests heaving up and down in perfect rhythm as the droplets rained down. Enveloped in all the heat and strength of those gorgeous, sleek muscles now in relief, I was convinced there was no way I could ever feel the cold again.

“Up close, am I still prettier?” I teased.

“Even prettier than I imagined the first time I saw you,” he whispered.

“Thank you. And now just why were you imagining me naked the first time you saw me?”

He gazed at me with no trace of irony. “Because my imagination was the only place I thought I’d ever see it.”

“Oh.” This conversation about hardcore nudity had just become unexpectedly touching.

“And to tell you the truth,” he added, “it was even before I saw you.”

“The intercom,” I said, not quite ready to admit that our brief conversation had caused me to wake up the next morning to a throbbing, gushing river between my thighs. The very thighs that were currently anchored right up against his hipbones, the ones that seemed to pulse electrically in response to the memory.

“Your voice was so sexy,” he said. “I had it in my head all the next day.”

“I threatened to have you whipped!”

He laughed. “Yeah, but even then I knew you’d never do it. And as usual, you’re proving me right. So far, anyway.”

“But why did you think I wouldn’t do it?” I pressed. I knew he was really thinking about it.

“Because I could tell you had a good soul,” he finally said. “There. Happy? I said the S-word.”

---