Page 29 of The Naiad's Lover

Sayan held my chin again and murmured into my mouth, the vibration of his words and the feel of his damp lips against mine making me shudder. “I want you now. I need to be inside you. Let me in, my Erik. I want to feel your body take me?—”

Gods. I got a hand between us and clamped it firmly over his mouth. I couldn’t do anything about the way he was very obviously working his hips against mine.

He sighed.

“It’s…I’ll…it’s…” Ral’s words were tumbling over themselves. “Go. I’ll go, because you’re…uh.”

“Sayan,” I said sharply.

His hold on me fell away. He sank down, gliding backwards in the water. He didn’t say anything, just kept his large green eyes fixed on my face.

Ral was already splashing out of the lake.

“I will come back to you,” I said to Sayan.

“I will wait.” His words were patient. His face was not. His brows were low and his gaze went from me to Ral. His eyes narrowed to glittering slits.

I followed Ral onto the shore, where he was doing his best to scramble into his clothes while still wet. He hadn’t even stopped to dry himself off using one of the towels I’d brought down.

“I’m sorry, Ral,” I said.

He squeaked and almost fell over as he turned away to shield the erection which was painfully obvious in his wet, clinging drawers. He hauled his breeches up over his arse and fumbled at the fastening with an impatient huff. “Nothing to apologise for!”

“Actually, I think there is. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable and have you see anything you didn’t sign up for.”

He straightened and began to button his shirt. “Oh, I signed up for whatever, Erik.” He shot me a cheeky grin. “Don’t you worry about me.” He yanked on first one boot, then the other. “Same time again next week?”

“If you’re still happy to do it?” I didn’t need his assistance the way I had when we began, but if I was honest, I preferred to havehim with me, his presence acting as a buffer between me and Sayan’s enthusiasm.

“More than happy,” he said, bouncing up to his feet. He grabbed his coat and pulled it over his broad shoulders, leaving it unbuttoned.

“I’ll see you the same time next week, then, unless we meet in town before that.”

He beamed and hurried off.

I bent down and swept up one of the towels to dry my face. Something tickled the arches of my bare feet and whispered over my toes. I didn’t have to look down to know what it was. I was already smiling when I turned to face the lake.

Sayan had slipped beneath the water again, but he’d sent a shallow sheet of it up the gentle slope of the beach to tease me.

I stared out at the small waves, using the towel now to dry my chest.

The lake whispered up to meet me again, lapping around my ankles. A faint tugging sensation pulled at me. I waited for it.

The water level rose to curl around my knees. The tug was more noticeable now, as if someone had wrapped strong hands around my calves and was drawing me towards the lake.

I squeezed out my shoulder-length hair.

Sayan rose dramatically to his full height ten yards away and locked eyes with me. His face was tight with impatience and he held out a demanding hand.

I tossed the towel behind me and waded for him.

The water took me at once. I didn’t fight it. I let it sweep my legs out from under me, let it cast me up against Sayan’s hot body.

Ral had been right. It had never been swimming itself that I needed to learn. It was how to let myself be pushed around in the water by an insatiable and amorous naiad.

Sayan had always been a challenging lover. From the very first, he had pushed. He adjusted his behaviour as soon as I pushed back—he would never trespass where he wasn’t wanted—but his hunger for me seemed without end.

He scooped me up as soon as I reached him, winding an arm around my waist and whisking us hundreds of yards out from the shore.

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