Page 5 of The Naiad's Lover

“It is warmer after midsummer,” he said.

I saw the coward’s way out and was about to run for it by suggesting that we try again in another month or two, but the sweet expectation on his face…

I couldn’t.

Bracing myself, I said, “I’m sure it will feel less cold once I am submerged.”

“Of course,” he said with a mischievous smile.

Well. I’d as good as asked for it, hadn’t I?

I caught my breath as the water level rushed from my knees up to my chest and over my shoulders, stopping short of my chin. I yelped with surprise and flailed backwards, going under with a splash.

I broke the surface, gasping, and Sayan’s happy laugh rang out. He scooped me up against his hot body and grinned as I clutched him. “Less cold?”

Narrowing my eyes, I drove a hand between us and grasped his hard shaft. Mine was trying to follow my balls as they did their best to crawl into my body for the warmth. His, as always, stood proud.

His eyelids fell and he grunted, flexing his hips up into my grip.

I opened my fingers and let go before he could thrust more than once.

The water level sank, and returned to lapping around my knees. Keeping an arm looped around my waist and his eyes on my face, Sayan drew me deeper into the lake. Pebbles shiftedbeneath my bare, stumbling feet. It actuallywasless cold now. In fact, the parts of me submerged were the warmest; the light breeze that blew strands of Sayan’s hair around his lovely face sliced over my damp skin.

I hurried him backwards, eager to get the water up over my shoulders again for what protection it offered.

He was more than happy to oblige.

Only he kept going until my feet lost contact with the lakebed and I grabbed at him desperately.

He halted, attention going from my face to my neck, where my pulse beat frantically.

He’d probably sensed the vibration of it in the water.

“You are afraid?” he said, his voice lifting.

“Yes!” I clutched his shoulders.

“You have no need to be. My lake will not hurt you. It would not dare, even if it wanted to. Which it does not. You are safer here with me than you ever have or ever will be on land.” His big hands drifted down to settle on my arse. He lifted me and held me tighter against him. “Do you not trust me?”

“Of course I trust you,” I snapped. Water lapped at the nape of my neck and I fought the urge to wrap my thighs around his hips and cling on like a child. “I just don’t know how to swim, Idoknow that men drown easily, and it is hard to believe you when you say the lake won’t hurt me, because I have no idea what that actually means if I were to drop below—aaaah!”

He’d released his grip on me in preparation, I can only imagine, to let me beneath the surface, but at my appalled shout, he snatched me close again, his eyes wide.

I locked an arm around his neck, hooked a leg around his hip, and clung on. He shook against me with laughter. I bit him on the shoulder. Hard.

Sayan groaned, and then nudged me back towards the shore. He was not, I was disappointed to realise, taking us back ontodry land. He stopped in shallower water and held me close until I had tentatively touched down and regained a sense of balance.

Then I shoved him.

His upper body swayed as gracefully as a young silver birch in the wind. He pursed his lips in an effort not to smile, but the sparkle in his eyes gave him away.

I wanted to turn my back on him, march up onto the shore, and keep going until I reached the cabin.

Unfortunately, more than I wanted that, I wanted Sayan to be happy.

I stood my ground and glared at him instead.

He held the back of my head and ducked down to give me a warm kiss, keeping our lips pressed together as he murmured, “Do not be afraid, my Erik.”

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