Page 40

She held out her arms and sucked in fast shallow breaths. I could see how cold the water was from the face she was making—and also the tight nipples that pushed out the fabric of her wet shirt.

“Fuck me,” I muttered under my breath.

“You pushed me in!” she shouted as she kicked up a trail of water and splashed me. “This is all because I said you had a tiny penis, isn’t it?” Her mouth lifted into a smile and I was relieved she wasn’t upset.

“It was the ‘cute but not cute enough to leave everything’ comment, actually,” I retorted.

This back-and-forth with her was becoming thrilling.

I never knew what to expect from her; one minute she was violently bludgeoning an army of men with a key, and the next second, she was twirling in a field of flowers while she pet wild birds. It was exciting and fun.

She smirked. “I knew I should have kept that one close to the vest. Look what it got me.” She splashed me again, this time soaking me.

I let out a mock gasp and jumped into the water, making certain that my splash covered her.

She let out a yelp and tried to move away.

Before she could, I grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up, tucking her under my arm.

“How cute do you think I am, then? Because you already admitted that you think I’m cute…

” I continued talking while I cradled her in my arms, leaning us both over so that I could dip the top of her head into the knee-high water.

“Cute like a kitten or cute like I want to see if he has a hairy chest or not before I make any further decisions?”

She let out a peal of laughter. Her hands were gripping my shoulders even though I held her tightly. “Well, whoever cute-enough-to-leave-everything-I-have is, he is obviously equipped with a full chest of hair. Sorry, you’re out, Baby Chest.”

“Baby Chest!” I guffawed and immediately set her down so I could assess my chest situation.

I peeled my wet shirt off in one motion and turned away from her to look at my chest. Several blond hairs glittered against the sun’s warm light.

“The reason is clear now why you find me irresistible,” I said with a straight face as I turned to show her my follicle- induced manliness.

She bent at the waist and laughed so hard she wheezed.

“Okay, calm down.” My character slipped and a few laughs came out before I got it together again.

“It’s not that funny.” I grabbed her hand and put it on my chest to feel the hair .

“Your chest is as hair-free as mine,” she said as she made a big show of squinting to look for stray hairs.

“Prove it.” I grinned.

She peeled off her tight wet shirt and stood in front of me with nothing on but black pants that were so thin I could see the line of her underwear beneath them and a light pink bra that matched her hair. My grin fell and my cock hardened.

“See?” she whispered coyly as she grabbed my hand and placed it in the center of her chest, palm down.

I didn’t stare at the pebbled nipples poking through her bra or at the mounds of glorious, soft flesh that taunted me.

I instead kept my heavily lidded eyes on hers.

The excitement that danced behind them, waiting to see what I would do, was more intoxicating than her breasts…

only slightly, but enough that I couldn’t bring myself to take my eyes off of them.

If she moved another step closer to me, I was going to throw all of my pride out the window and really make a mess of things—as if what was going on between us could be any more confusing.

Her eyes darkened and I could feel her wanting me to take control and move my hand to a more dangerous location.

It was deliriously tempting—somehow I was still resisting.

She placed her palm back on my chest. The cold water that ran off her hand down the ridges of my stomach sent chills over my skin.

Her fingers moved, slowly feeling the skin of my chest. I felt her breathing deepen under my palm as her cleavage rose and fell.

In an effort to not be a complete rake and get too swept up in what was happening, I moved my palm up a few inches to her clavicle.

She stepped in closer—and I was fucked.

Her barely covered, sopping-wet body pressed against mine and was met with the evidence of how aroused I was. I expected her to back away or move to the side. She pressed herself closer to me and I was lost. There was only so much resistance I had.

I couldn’t catch my breath. Slowly I moved my hand from her clavicle to the underside of her jaw.

It was alarming how small and dainty her neck looked with my large hand around it.

Her own hands were moving across my chest, their movements speeding up as her breathing picked up.

I leaned closer and pulled her face to mine.

I was only a breath away from kissing her, our faces mere inches apart. My thumb glided over her cheek.

If I could have frozen this moment and remembered the look on her face right then forever, I would have.

She let out a small sigh and moved her arms around my neck; her fingers landed on the chain, curling under it.

We both froze.

She could have ripped it from my throat right then.

My heart pounded in my ears as I searched her eyes.

I couldn’t move away. If any of this had been an act on her part, now was when it would all end—when I would know.

Our eyes remained locked. There was no way she wasn’t playing me this whole time like a fiddle just to get what she wanted.

Everyone did it to me. Why would she be different?

I braced myself to grab it back from her and run.

My eyes closed. Her lips hovered so close to mine, I could feel her heavy breath across them. I blurred everything out and focused on her fingers wrapped around the necklace and the proximity of her lips. Adrenaline surged through my body. Then it happened. The moment everything changed.

Anna uncurled her fingers and threw her arms around my neck as she moved in to kiss me, but I was too fast. The second I felt her hands move, I pressed my needy mouth to hers and kissed her with a passion that had been building since I had first touched her lips in Eromreven.

The kiss was wild and intense. My arms pulled her body closer to mine as my lips tasted and teased her sweet mouth.

She scrambled to pull herself up onto me.

I bent to lift her up and wrap her legs around me but slipped on a rock and fell into the water, twisting so that I would take the weight of the fall and not her.

I sat up in the stream and Anna adjusted herself so she was straddling me, only our upper bodies out of the water.

She wrapped her hands around my neck again and kissed me, slow and unhurried this time.

My hands tightened around her waist, and I moved her back slightly so I could look at her.

“We can’t,” I whispered reluctantly. “This will only make me want to get you to Moirai more. I will not give you the pendant like this, Anna. What are we doing?”

Her eyes darted back and forth on mine before she slowly leaned in and kissed me.

Her soft lips explored mine, and there was something more behind this kiss than I could possibly explain.

She pulled back slightly, just enough to look into my eyes.

Her brows pulled together as if she were confused.

“This—this isn’t about the pendant,” she said before kissing me again.

I grabbed the back of her head and lost myself to her kiss.

Had the cool water of the stream not covered my lap, it was quite possible it would have burst into flames from how fuck- ing worked up I was.

It was as if someone had poured flaming oil across my body the way it zapped with electricity from touching her.

I knew it was because of the tie, but I didn’t care.

I needed her in a way that only a man tied to a woman he’s barely touched could need her.

Lifting us both up to stand, I kept her wrapped around me as I shoved through the cold water.

A little ways to the right was a magnificent waterfall that poured from a shelf of rocks high up a wall.

I pulled back from the kiss. “Hold your breath,” I whispered as I carefully walked us through the heavy curtain of water.

On the other side, the space darkened. The water reached up to my waist in the area that surrounded the waterfall.

I lifted Anna to a ledge in front of the wall of solid stone.

It felt like I was in a dream as I helped her steady herself.

Her legs dipped into the water, but with most of her body out of the water like this, I could see everything.

She put her arms around my neck, moving for me to hold her again.

I shook my head. “Stay there, I want to take you in.” My eyes roamed over her body.

She smiled slightly but then tucked her arms around her stomach as if she were feeling uncomfortable. I let her. “There’s not much to look at,” she said with a low voice.

My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe the words she was saying. Had she ever seen herself? She needed to know just how beautiful she was. I moved closer to her, slowly sliding my hands up her thighs. “I don’t want to hear you say things like that,” I said. “You’re a goddess.”

“I’m not a goddess,” she said. “You only feel this way because you’re tied to part of my magic. You can’t even help it.”

I kept my gaze locked on hers with a stern look. She was stunning and glorious, and I needed her to know that. I leaned in so I could kiss her. The moment our lips touched again, we were both lost.