“You’re sopping wet,” I murmured, tilting my head as he kissed me deeper, and his fingers found their way into my hair.
“And you better be too,” he whispered, hot and dark. “Because I’m sure as shit hard.”
A lash of lust travelled from my heart to my core, tugging on strands and sensuality, preparing my body for whatever he wanted. “All you have to do is smile at me, Ren, and I’m wet.”
He attacked me with unbridled need. His kisses were pure velvet violence. “Don’t say things like that. I want this to last, not be over in seconds.”
“Then stop seducing me so well.”
We laughed together even as his hands stroked skin sore with cuts from last night’s war. His palms explored my back and spine, fisting handfuls of my ass as he yanked me forward and onto the straining erection in his jeans.
“Do you know how often I’ve stared at this?” His fingers kneaded me. “How I’d dream of seeing you naked and in my bed?” His lips parted wider over mine, directing the kiss from shallow hello to deep dance.
I moaned as he kissed me like all women wanted to be kissed—hungrily, fondly, passionately.
We kissed all night.
We kissed for a second.
And as we kissed, he rocked up into my bare core, his zipper as cold as the river, his hands holding me firm.
We were in perfect alignment for sex.
Pity he was still so encumbered.
Our thoughts vibrated to the same frequency—just like always—because he pushed me down his lap, giving him room for his hands to fumble at his belt.
“Let me.” I panted, partly from cold and mostly from need.
He clenched his jaw as I found his buckle and unthreaded the leather. I didn’t tease; I was just as starving as him. Popping his button and drawing down his zipper, my hand vanished into his boxers before he could push me away.
Steel-covered satin and sheer power. Holding Ren so intimately was like being given the keys to immortality.
His head fell back on a groan, nostrils flaring, hips rocking, granting me all the magic in the world.
“I’m always so damn close with you.”
“Is that a bad thing?” I gasped as his fingers trailed over my goose-pimpled thighs and dug into my flesh.
“Bad that I find you unbelievably gorgeous and can’t help how much I want you?” He kissed me with a twist of silk and softness. “Never.”
Rearing back a little, his arms criss-crossed as he grabbed his hem, and with eyes dripping with chocolate promise, yanked his sodden t-shirt over his head. With a grunt of strength, he tossed the wet material toward the shore.
“Thought you’d wash your clothes as well as yourself, huh?” I snickered as he gathered me to his hot, naked chest. His cock wedged against me, making both of us hiss in that deliciously depraved way.
“Everything about me is filthy, so yeah.” He smirked. “Just trying to cleanse myself from needing you so badly.”
“I don’t think the river will help with that.” I melted as he kissed me again, adding bruise upon bruise, rasp after rasp from all the other kisses we’d shared.
“I think you’re right.” Pushing me away, he ordered. “Go get the soap. Let’s see if that works.”
I swiped hair from my eyes, the ends floating in the water like kelp. “Now who’s being bossy?”
“Only because I want to stare at you while you get it.” His eyes glowed. “Go. Before I change my mind.”
Burning up from the desire between us that even the chilly river couldn’t douse, I turned and waded back to the shallows. Self-consciousness descended as water sluiced off me, preferring to stay with its friends than on my skin.
With my spine straight and belying the nervous butterflies in my stomach, I swayed my hips, revealing my back and bottom to Ren.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen me before, but this…it was different.
Without a backward glance, I headed toward the bags standing sentry at the tent’s entrance. It only took a second to unzip the side pocket where painkillers, toothbrushes, and soaps lived, then spin to face the only man I’d ever love.
His arm was above his head, cocked back to toss his soaking jeans to the bank.
They landed with a loud splat beside me, his boxer-briefs on top, letting me know he was as naked as I was.
My heart fluttered as I stepped into the water.
Ren bit his lip, his right shoulder rocking up and down. I knew exactly what he was doing, and it made yet more lust bubble in my belly.
Reaching him, I kneeled and ducked my fingers beneath the surface. Sure enough, his right hand was latched around his cock, stroking himself. “Couldn’t wait?”
He didn’t even look ashamed, more like tortured. “You are far too stunning for mere mortals. Are you truly mine?” He took my hand, wedging it beneath his on his stiff cock. Squeezing both of us, he grumbled, “Feel what you do to me, Della? See what I’ve been hiding from you for years?”
I couldn’t catch my breath at the raw honesty in his tone. The knowledge he’d hurt just as much as I had. The shared pain we were well acquainted with.
I’d seen Ren naked so many times.
His body was as familiar to me as my own.
But this was entirely new.
He’d shed the brotherly side of himself, allowing me to see him as a man and not just my protector.
He couldn’t be any more handsome or tempting, and I wrapped my fingers tight beneath his, making him half-groan, half-snarl.
Desire snapped and crackled, making its way to form a fireball in my core.
Ren surrendered to my touch, wrapping his arms around me, dragging me close. “Come here.” Our skin slipped and slid over each other as I floated onto his lap, and my legs wrapped around his waist.
Releasing his erection, I moaned as he rubbed against me, and we both almost buckled with pleasure. The soap in my left hand wasn’t wanted as Ren purred into my mouth, rocking against me, fucking me even though we were still apart.
His fingers threaded through my hair, tugging my head back as he broke the kiss and nipped his way down my throat. He didn’t let me go as my back bowed and water lapped over my head, drenching every inch of blonde.
His mouth was hot as he trailed kisses down my chest, then latched onto my nipple with furious need.
I cried out as he wrapped one arm around my waist, driving against me as his tongue swirled and teeth teased, slipping from one nipple to the other.
“God, please…” I writhed against him, needing him inside me.
Now.
But he didn’t bow to my command. Instead, he sucked my breasts one more time before kissing his way up my throat and ending at my mouth with the longest, sexist kiss I’d ever been given.
I gave up trying to figure out what he would do next.
“Turn around,” he murmured. “Turn around so I can wash you.”
With a quick inhale, he unwrapped my legs, then spun me on his lap, pushing me outward until I floated on the surface. Gathering the thick weight of my hair, he lathered the soap and ran his strong fingers over my scalp, massaging gently, breathing a little easier thanks to familiar pastimes and recognisable comforts in the sex-storm we lived in.
My body didn’t know if it should orgasm or melt. I was tangled with lust and trust, remembering all the other times Ren had washed me, tended to me, cared for me.
It made my heart burst and tears prickle as I whispered, “That feels so nice.”
“And you feel too perfect to be real.” Lathering more bubbles, his large hands worked over my shoulders, under my arms, over my breasts, and down my belly.
“Kneel,” he ordered, pushing my body deeper into the water so I switched from floating to kneeling. “Turn to face me.”
There was something so erotic about following his curt commands.
Once I faced him, he rubbed the soap once again, then trailed his hand through the water to the curls between my legs.
I jolted as he washed me gently, the slipperiness of soap washed away by the river, leaving me so much wetter than before.
Never looking away from me, he spread me apart, then inserted two fingers inside me.