Page 5 of The Naiad's Wish

“You did, hmm? The whole hour that I have sat here and admired you as you drifted and dreamed away?”

I stood tall, tightening my abdominal muscles and dropping my chin to send him a sultry look from beneath my lashes. “Yes. The whole hour.”

He was still amused. “Because I thought I surprised you.”

“You did not.” I strode through the shallow water towards him.

“And I only got here ten minutes ago.” He was openly laughing at me now.

I didn’t care that he’d caught me out. I smiled back at him. I couldn’t help it. I loved to see him laugh.

I loved the way it made his beautiful dark eyes gleam. I loved the way his happiness wound around me, drew me in.

I came out of my lake, stepped easily up over the low bank that the willow—and Erik—sat upon, and slowed as I walked to him.

I wanted to rush.

I wanted to snatch him up, throw him to the ground and have my way at once. Cover his beloved face with kisses. Cover other parts of him with kisses. Have those laughing, rich-earth eyes look up into mine as the laughter faded and was replaced with passion.

But I would control myself. I was a master ofthis, at least, if not of Erik.

I closed the distance between us with all the seductive grace at my disposal, and eased between his legs. I touched his chin as he tilted his head back, and I kissed him softly, coaxingly.

He hummed, then pulled away and said, “No.”

“Mm?” I said, following his lips blindly. “What?”

He caught hold of my wrist and drew my hand out of his breeches.

I stared down at it. I didn’t recall putting it there.

I didn’t recall putting Erik on his back, either, and yet he was sprawled over the wide willow trunk and I was arched over him, with one hand planted beside his head and the other, until he removed it, in his breeches.

I blinked.

Whenhad I done all that?

Howdid he make me lose control so easily?

“Yes,” I said on principle. “Oh, yes.”

He sighed and pushed up to his elbows. “I should have waited at home,” he complained to the sky. “Then—when you eventually realised I was here—you’d have come to find me, and we’d be doing this in comfort.”

My Erik was not fond of making love outdoors. At least, not when it was cold.

Last year, we’d had some successful trysts in the meadow at the end of a long hot summer day, or on an unseasonably warm autumn morning. In general, though, Erik liked the privacy of his own home.

“I knew you were here,” I insisted.

He didn’t reply, but his smile grew.

I scowled and tugged him lower on the trunk, closer towards me until his thighs were spread around my hips and I could feel his heat sinking into my bare skin. “Very well. I did not know you were here. But I was thinking of you.”

“You were?”

“Yes. I have done nothing but think of you since you left me.”

He reached up and held my sides. “I came home. I will always come home.”

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