Page 25 of Immortal By Morning
“It does, does it?” she asked, arching one eyebrow.
“It does,” he confirmed, taking another step closer in the water.
Abril shrugged with feigned disinterest, and commented, “Well, if you don’t mind sitting around buck naked with nothing but a towel on while your pants are drying, then I guess it’s all good.”
“Would you mind?” he asked, his voice softer... and deeper and a bit husky.
Abril swallowed, and found herself licking her lips. He was awfully close now. Just inches separated them in the water. They were so close that she had to tilt her head up to meet his gaze, her body naturally arching as she did.
“Would you?” he persisted.
Abril blinked in confusion. She had already forgotten his question and was, instead, thinking about the fact that, if he moved one inch closer, their bodies would be brushing against each other. She almost wanted to lean forward that one inch herself.
“Abril?” he whispered.
“Yes?” She was staring at his chest now. He looked like a marble sculpture, and she found her hand rising to flatten itself on his chest to be sure he was flesh and blood.
Abril thought she heard a small groan slip from Delacort at her touch, but she wasn’t certain because she was busy struggling to suppress the moan she herself wanted to release at the rush of sensation thatran through her own body at that simple act. The man was beautiful. He wasn’t huge or overmuscled. He was lean with well-defined muscles and had beautiful pectorals that she just couldn’t resist brushing her hand over. Oddly enough, her body was just responding again when Delacort’s hand closed over hers, stopping its movement. Her gaze shot up to his face.
He didn’t look angry or upset in any way. In fact, judging by his heated gaze and hungry expression, anger was definitely not what she’d stirred in him. Even so, she offered, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t—”
Her words died abruptly when his mouth closed over hers.
As had happened when he’d kissed her earlier, passion exploded between them. When he released her hand to wrap his arms around her, Abril did the same, sliding her arms around his neck as she kissed him back. It wasn’t until her legs began to drift a bit, rubbing against his, that she realized that she was no longer standing on her own feet. He’d raised her slightly out of the water to claim her mouth without having to bend his head too far.
Not wanting him to think that she was deliberately rubbing herself against him, Abril wrapped her legs around his hips and hooked her feet behind him, but that was even worse. She was no longer brushing back and forth against him under the water, instead her position left her groin perched firmly against his. For one moment, she considered letting her legs drop from around him again, then Delacort deepened the kiss, distracting her. She stayed where she was and responded to his hungry devouring.
Completely consumed by the heat and sensationpouring through her body, Abril made a sound between a moan and a growl of protest when Delacort broke their kiss.
“We need to get out of the water,” he muttered against her skin as he trailed his lips down her throat.
“Okay,” Abril gasped, letting her hands wander over his back, feeling the hard muscles shifting as he began to caress her too. The hand he’d placed on her bottom to lift her slightly out of the water began to squeeze and knead the flesh while his other hand moved to her breast and began to do the same. The excitement those caresses sent charging through her body had her unconsciously arching and shifting her hips against him, grinding herself against the hardness she felt there. She then threw her head back on a cry at the surge of excitement it sent through her.
“Out,” Delacort moaned against the skin of her throat as he buried his face there, his lips and tongue sending more tingles through her as he lathed and then suckled at her skin.
“Yes,” Abril groaned, although it wasn’t to the word he’d spoken so much as the way his body shifted against hers as he began to walk through the water. Wrapped around him as she was, every step was a caress across her entire body, his chest moving against her very erect and tender nipples, and his groin rubbing on her extremely excited core.
Mounting the steps, however, took it to another level. Perhaps it was because he’d tightened his hold on her, presumably to prevent dropping her, or perhaps so he could look over her shoulder and down her back to the steps he was ascending to avoid tripping. Whatever the case, the fine cord of tension that had beentightening with each kiss and caress snapped on perhaps the second or third step. Abril wasn’t sure which, and didn’t really care as her orgasm overtook her. She didn’t even really notice when Delacort stumbled and started to fall forward with her, his own roar of release filling her ears as he too came. She was so wrapped up in the sensations charging over her, that she simply tightened her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist when he released her to reach out to break their fall.
Ten
Crispin woke up on Abril, his head hanging over her shoulder, his forehead in the water up to his eyebrows. Lifting his head at once, he glanced in a panic at Abril’s face. Much to his relief, he had managed to get her far enough up the stairs that while her head was lying in the water on the top step, it only covered her to her ears. Her face was above its surface.
Thank God for that, he thought, and then moved them both up the last two steps to rest on the concrete surrounding the pool so that only their legs from the knees down still hung over the lip into the water. Crispin then shifted to lie next to her and raised her to rest on top of him so that her head was tucked under his chin. He was quite sure that must be more comfortable than the cold, hard steps had been.
He was just letting his eyes drift closed again when Abril made him aware that she’d woken up by asking, “You aren’t married, are you?”
Crispin froze, then lifted his head to look down at her, but her head was still lying sideways on his chest, her face turned away from him. It was how he’d settled her on his chest, but now he regretted that and reached out to put a finger under her chin to tilt her head upward. Once their gazes met, he said solemnly, “No. I would not kiss and touch you the way I have if I were married.”
When Abril nodded, not hiding her relief before relaxing and closing her eyes again, he asked, “Are you?”
He assumed that Roberts would’ve told him if she was married, since the other man could read her mind, but still, it was best to know for sure and hear it from her own lips.
Much to his relief, she met his gaze with the same solemn expression he’d given her a moment ago, and assured him, “No. I too would not kiss and touch and allow you to kiss and touch me as we have been doing were I married.”
Crispin nodded, and then let his head rest back on the cold concrete again, only to lift it once more when she asked, “What do I call you?”
He stared at her with confusion for a moment, before saying, “I do not understand. You can call me what you wish. You can use my name, or an endearment... sweetheart,” he ended with a grin, using an endearment himself.
