Page 52 of Flirty Thirty

“What?”

“I’m okay with that.” I lift my arms out of the water and wrap them around his shoulders. “In fact… tell me again.”

His fingers dig into my back, clutching me close to him, his smile full and almost disbelieving. “I’m falling in love with you, Maya. It cannot be helped.”

I bite away a grin. “Damn it.”

His brows pull in, and he flings his hand up and out of the pool. “Youtoldme to say it!”

I bat his hand back down. “Iknow. I was saying… damn it, you win.”

Confusion looks good on him, too. “I win what?”

“I really did try to stop it,” I tell him, trailing a finger over his shoulder. “But you have to be so cute, so charming, so fun and funny and sexy and honest and real and I’m falling. Damn it, I’m falling for you, too.” I let my voice take on the best impression I can of his. “It cannot be helped.”

He stares at me, his eyes wide with shock and his lips slowly turning up as everything I said sinks in. He lets out a long sigh of relief, his body collapsing as he reaches for the edge of the pool behind me for some sort of sturdy ground. With one arm tight around my waist and the other propping himself up, he presses a pattern of kisses up and down my neck, over my cheeks, on my nose, my forehead, my lips. He nips at my ear and kisses away the specks of water on my chest. I can feel his beaming happiness in every press of his lips, in every stroke of his tongue. It lights up under my skin, making me just as anxious to kiss and touch him.

I did this. I made him this happy, caused such a loving and joyful reaction and it is powerful, exciting,humbling. And my trepidation for a family, for a husband and kids is gone from my head. I want to give him all of that. I want to see him this happy always. I would give up everything I’ve ever wanted just to see this look on his face again. I’ve never… I’ve always thought of myself… and he’s making me want things for him… and my brain is losing its power as his hands and lips touch me all over in the heated pool water.

I pull myself up on his hips, grateful for the way water makes a person feel weightless. His hard length presses against me, and I ache to push away my shorts, to pull down his boxers. I want to make love for the first time in my life. I want to love him like no one ever has. I want to look into his eyes and tell him that they are the only ones I want to look at during sex from now on. I want to tell him how lucky I feel, how I want to give him everything he’s ever wanted, how I’m so glad that he took a risk on me.

He must want me naked just as much, his hands skating up my ribs and wriggling my wet camisole up and over my head. It slops against the edge of the pool, the sound oddly arousing. I cradle his face in my hands, words never finding their way to the surface as I look into his eyes and hope and pray he can see my every thought. He covers my mouth in a seductive, hot kiss that sets my entire world on fire.

I’m in love with him. There is no falling—that part is done and over with. I’m deep in the pools of love and I don’t ever want to crawl my way back out.

He pushes me up on the edge of the pool, his fingers tucking into my shorts and I frantically try to help him pull them off. He flings them behind him, and the land somewhere in the water as I scramble back along the floor, watching the water drip and pour off his muscular, lickable body when he pushes himself out. He drops his boxers, kicking them into the pool alongside my bottoms before he sticks his hand out for me.

I tuck my fingers in his palm, and I severely underestimated his strength. He pulls me to my feet, bends his knees, and a giggle escapes the back of my throat and echoes around us as he hoists me over his shoulder. I get a glorious view of his ass—and smack it for good measure—while he walks me over to the hot tub. Thank heavens we aren’t walking too far away; I want him inside me asap.

He lowers me in the center, and for once in my life, I’m not too concerned about how much flab is going on. He doesn’t mind it, and really… I don’t think I do either. Not when he’s looking at me like he is.

“Come here?” he asks, slowly sitting in the hot water and hitting the jet button on the side. I love that he asks, that he’s a guy who knows what he wants, but respects what other people want, too. I slide onto his lap, slipping him inside as I settle.

I hate being on top. There was always that self-conscious bug that bit me every time. I’m too much boob, too much hair, and my cardio and stamina is not anything to write a book about. But Iwantto be on top now. I want to show him just how much he means to me. I want to keep that look on his face for as long as possible.

I rock my hips, the first satisfying rub sending a tingly flush under my skin. His own body is red, wet, and the steam rising around us only adds to my arousal. But it’s the joy in his eyes, the loving caress of his fingers on my jawline that is making me feel so good.

I make love to him for a lifetime, yet not long enough. When I feel myself tumbling over the edge, throwing my head back in ecstasy, a small part of my mind is sad that it’s almost over. Cooper is saying something, his voice muffled through the clouds in my ears. There’s pressure on my hips, on my thighs, and as I blink myself into coherency, I realize he’s pushing me from his lap, desperately shoving against the stone grip I had on his waist.

“Maya, I—”

I kiss him as hard and strong as I can in the aftermath of the orgasm. His hands are still urging me off of him.

“Maya,” he says around my lips. “You’ve gotta… you have to get off.”

My head is still foggy, and I grasp for the reason for his request. It can’t be my weight, can it? I’m light in the water, and he picked me up without breaking a sweat.

But as he softens inside of me, the realization hits like a sobering bucket of ice water and I all but leap off his lap. We’ve been making love for so long that the jets have stopped, and I can see his release in the water. My heart trips and heat rushes through my cheeks.

“Maya…” he says, his eyes polar opposite from the joy that was in them not ten seconds before. He reaches out to me, and I easily go back to him, wanting to feel the comfort of his skin as my body starts to shake with panic.

“I pulled out as fast as I could,” he tries to comfort me, but I can feel the evidence between my legs, and I don’t know if its him or if it’s just the hot tub water. “It’s gonna be okay. I heard… I’m pretty sure you can’t get… not with the hot water.”

I shake my head against his, silently letting him know that I don’t need him to comfort me with words. I don’t want this moment ruined by a lapse in judgment. I press my lips against his, soft and gentle, but hard enough to let him know that I still have fallen for him, that this isn’t going to change how I feel.

But I wonder if he can sense how scared I am now. Ineverforget a condom.Never.

He wraps his arms around me, and he pushes us up and out of the hot tub. We sit on the edge, wrapped up in each other until finally sleep takes me over.

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