Page 10 of Reaper and Ruin

But it hadn’t changed the outcome. That I’d had to watch Whip’s head go under the water over and over while I fought against the waves to get to him.

It had taken too long. He’d gone under so many times it made me feel sick to think about.

I was sure it was going to be his dead body I dragged from the ocean.

This time, the full-body shudder was mine.

And it was Whip who was there to catch me.

I clutched him, my fingernails digging into the tawny muscles of his back, holding him tight like if I let go the ocean might take him from me.

I kissed his shoulder, and then his neck, working my way along his jaw until my lips hovered over his.

Our gazes met, and this time, it wasn’t just heat and attraction between us.

It was something so much more.

Something I didn’t have it in me to label so I just kissed him instead.

He kissed me back softly, the touch assuring both of us we were still here and not resting in some watery grave.

Words I couldn’t say to him burned my tongue. His lips were soft, our tongues meeting in the middle and finding a natural movement together that only emphasized the feeling inside me.

Fucking hell.

I could have lost him tonight.

I couldn’t tell him how that made me feel.

But I could show him.

4

WHIP

Levi and I stood in that shower kissing until the hot water ran out. I probably would have stood there longer, not caring about the icy water droplets that splattered my skin, but it was all too reminiscent of that ocean.

I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to swim in it again.

I switched off the water and blindly groped around the shower curtain for a towel, not wanting to remove my lips from his. My fingers found purchase on one hanging from a rail, and I clutched it, drying him off the best I could just by feel.

Levi practically growled into my mouth and walked me backward, out of the shower and through the bathroom, water still sluicing down my body in a river from my hair.

Puddles formed at our feet on the tiles, and Levi’s tongue ran down my neck, chasing the water droplets. I clutched him to me, head tipping to one side to give him better access, my dick so fucking hard between us because his mouth felt so damn good.

“Levi,” I groaned.

But I didn’t know what else I wanted to say because he was taking the towel from me and dragging it down my body as he got on his knees. I’d been so exhausted I had barely been able tostand, and yet lust had me forgetting everything except him. His hot mouth was around my cock in seconds, a welcome change from the cold water my brain seemed so fixated on. He sucked and licked me, and I let myself have that for a few minutes, staring down at the tattoo just beneath his eye that had become so familiar. My cock pushed in and out of his lips, his tongue working the veined underside of my erection so perfectly I could have come right there, buried deep in his mouth.

But we both knew that whatever crackled in the space between us was more than just a quick BJ on the bathroom floor. We’d been there, done this, and there was an urgency in our movements tonight that hadn’t been present before.

Something had changed in that ocean. Something neither of us could walk away from.

On the verge of coming, I urged him up onto his feet. “Not this.”

His gaze connected with mine, and even though the words didn’t really make sense, he knew exactly what I meant. His mouth slammed down on mine again, his lips tasting of salty precum that reminded me too much of the ocean, but beyond it was the taste of him. One I’d come to crave, especially when the entire world felt like it was falling down around me like it had tonight.

He felt like a lifeline. One I needed so fucking bad it was killing me.