Page 112 of Beautiful Exile

Arden tried to swallow her laugh but was only half-successful. “What do you think I’m wearing, Cowboy?”

Fucking hell.

Just the mental image, the promise of what lay under the surface, had my dick stiffening. “Vicious, out of the water.”

Those gray-violet eyes danced. It was the sort of mischief I hadn’t seen from Arden in weeks. And damn, it was good to see.

She flipped to her back, her perfect breasts breaking the surface of the water. “What are you going to do about it?”

That challenge. The fire. My dick pressed harder against my zipper. “Spank that ass for scaring the hell out of me.”

Arden’s eyes flashed—a different kind of fire in them now. Sheflipped back to her stomach and swam toward me. “That sounds a hell of a lot more like a promise than a threat.”

Everything in me tightened at the pure temptation swimming toward me. “Why don’t you come out of the water and find out?”

Her gaze was liquid purple now as she swam closer to shore. She didn’t stand, not yet. She seemed to be weighing her options and power moves. And it was hot as hell watching that beautiful brain work.

Arden’s hands balanced on the sandy bottom. She was close enough now that I could see all of her, and the globes of her ass peeked out of the water. My hands fisted around nothing, wanting to touch her so badly.

She saw the shift. And that’s when she stood, seeing that I was at my breaking point.

It wasn’t slow or timid because that wasn’t Arden. She stood in one fluid movement, beauty in motion. There was no bashfulness or hiding. Because that wasn’t her either.

She stood in full ownership of her body as the water slid down her in what seemed like endless rivulets. Her hair slicked around the perfect breasts my hands ached to palm as those streams continued their journey, coasting down her stomach toward the tiniest dusting of hair at the apex of her thighs.

Thighs that were tan, curved with lean muscle, and dipped into calves painted the same. But it was her face that held me rapt. Those lips I knew tasted like cherries. Eyes that always welcomed me home. Ones I could lose myself in forever.

But now wasn’t the time for tender. My girl wanted to play. And I always gave her what she wanted.

“On your knees.”

40

ARDEN

The cold waterhad already tightened my nipples to the point of pain, but at Linc’s husky command, they twisted so tight my knees nearly buckled.

Linc’s eyes darkened, the green turning stormy, practically swallowing the gold altogether. Like a lake in the middle of a hurricane. “I said, on your knees, Vicious.”

A shiver racked me. But it wasn’t one of dread, it was one of promise. My mouth curved. “Shouldn’t you have to work for it a little harder?”

Linc took one step and then another, his powerful thighs straining against his jeans. “You don’t think watching you sit on that horse for hours wasn’t torture enough? Watching those breasts move with each step? Staring at those thighs clenching?”

My lips parted on an intake of breath.

“But you love knowing you torture me, don’t you?”

My mouth curved. “Maybe.”

Linc shook his head as he stepped closer, venturing into the water and not giving a damn that the bottoms of his jeans were gettingsoaked. He moved so slowly that I wasn’t prepared when he struck with the speed of a viper, his hand sliding into my hair and pulling on the strands so my head was tipped back and my neck exposed.

Then his mouth was there, tongue running down the column of my throat. “You live to torture me. It’s only fitting that I return the favor.”

I could barely suck in a breath before Linc was moving again. He took me with him this time. I stumbled, trying to keep up with him, and it was just the off-balance upper hand Linc needed.

He dropped to the log near the shore, taking me with him and folding me over his lap, where I landed with anoomph. The air fled my lungs through force and excitement. My thighs pressed together as the air swirled against my overheated skin.

There was no warning before his hand came down hard on my ass cheek. A sting, then heat. Heat that pooled and spread. My thighs started to clench again, but Linc wrapped my hair around his hand, pulling hard as he made a tsking noise. “No relief for you. Not yet. A little torture before your pleasure.”

---