chapter 9
“YOU HEADING BACK to Atlanta when your stint is up here?” he asked as she shrugged into her light daypack. His was already on his back.
“It’s nice to reconnect with Skye and this seems like a great place, but yeah. I’ll be heading back to Atlanta in September. I understand myself well enough to know that I won’t be able to take the winters or the isolation.” Packs in place, they set off down the gentle slope leading to the tranquil green-tinted water.
“I hear you on the winters.”
She nodded, the waning sun highlighting a smattering of freckles across her nose and the fine hairs along her jaw.
“But all of that aside, I won’t let my former employer get away with this. I’ll regain my life in Atlanta, which includes a solid career. I’m not going to be run out of town with my tail between my legs. The dust will settle. I’ll have a new reference and I’ll have my life back. He and his wife can kiss my grits.”
Her Southern drawl became more pronounced on the last bit. It was cute. He admired her spunk. “Atta girl. That’s the spirit.”
She slanted a sideways glance his way. “Most everyone back in Atlanta said I was crazy.”
She was bringing out protective instincts in him he didn’t even know he had. Maybe it was her independence, her need to handle her own problems. Or because she’d tapped into his situation and therefore he felt equally tapped into hers. It was more likely good old-fashioned testosterone because Lars was itching to put a beat-down on that jerk of a doctor.
“Maybe it’s time for you to find a new set of friends.”
She smiled. “Maybe it is.”
“So, there’s no boyfriend to kick that doctor’s ass? You didn’t leave a brokenhearted man behind in Atlanta?”
It shouldn’t matter what she’d left behind. He was out of here at the end of the week. He didn’t want to think too hard about why he needed to know so badly.
“No. It’s hard to talk about dating when my career was swirling down the toilet. But I left a fish with my sister.”
A fish? Lars cracked up.
They’d reached the lake’s edge and stopped. Delphi looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “What’s so funny about a fish?”
“It was the lack of transition. I asked about a man—” he was incredibly glad there wasn’t one “—and you told me about a fish.”
She laughed, her eyes sparkling. “I guess that came a little off the cuff. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that life isn’t predictable. I certainly never saw myself in this situation.”
Lars wasn’t sure whether he was just lucky or behind the curve, because he was precisely where he’d planned to be. They began walking along the shoreline, accompanied by the water’s rhythmic lapping. “That’s the same thing Liam said. He was madder than hell at the time, but he swears it’s all worked out for the best. Something about one door closing and another one opening.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard that, too. It’s kind of hard to swallow, though, when you’re in it. Do things ever take you by surprise?”
He’d been caught off guard once, but he’d learned quickly. “Not anymore. I can’t afford any surprises in my work. So I’ve learned to be thorough and anticipate every possible angle.”
“So, what exactly do you do in the Marines? What’s your job?”
“I’m a demolitions expert. If it’s designed to blow up and hasn’t, I go in and either blow it up or defuse it.”
“No margin for error there.”
“Exactly. That’s why I work hard to ensure no unanticipated events.”
Delphi uttered a sound of delight. “Oh, Lars, look!”
For a moment he stood transfixed by the look of childlike enchantment on her face. It reflected unguarded, unfettered joy. Hard to believe this was the same woman who’d been so closed off on the plane the day before. “The dragonflies—aren’t they incredible?”
He dragged his attention away from her. A dozen dragonflies, give or take a few, skimmed the water and flew in figure eights over the bank. “That’s too cool. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen dragonflies.” They simply hadn’t been part of the world where he’d been.
“It’s almost like magic,” she said, a breathless note in her voice.
He almost laughed, and then something about the place, the woman, the moment, struck him as otherworldly. As if she, this, was some kind of magic. He shook his head slightly to clear the notion. He’d obviously needed more of a recharge than he’d realized if he was susceptible to that kind of thinking, even momentarily.
“Yeah.” Magic didn’t exist, but chemistry was a very real aspect of his world. The chemistry behind explosives. The chemistry between him and Delphi. That was real and tangible. The sexual response arcing between them, drawing them to one another, even now, was real and physical. So, the dragonflies were nice but he wasn’t buying into any magic thinking. “Since this is a magical spot—” the look she shot him said she knew he was indulging her and scoffing a bit but she’d indulge him because she was right “—we can watch the sunset from the shore. Or did you want to go for a swim?” The sun was steadily sinking toward the horizon. It wouldn’t be long before it was dark. “I brought a couple of towels. We can sit on them if you go with option one, or use them to dry off afterwards if you want to check out the water.”
She wore a slightly dreamy expression, her face bathed in the glow of the last vestiges of the day. And he knew the same way he’d known with Liam that he was seeing a glimpse of the woman she’d been before her trust and career had been wrecked. She’d been a stranger before, because he knew. That knowing rattled him.
Delphi slid her backpack from her shoulders. “I think the water would be nice. It’s not every day that you can swim in a thermal lake at sunset in the middle of Alaska with dragonflies dancing around you. Let’s go for it.”
He’d thought they were just flying around doing what a dragonfly did, but okay. She began to undress very matter-of-factly. By the time Lars dropped his backpack and pulled out the towels, Delphi had her shoes and socks off.
He shouldn’t stare, but he couldn’t seem to look away as she unzipped her jeans. Her bright green panties surprised him, but it was her pale shapely legs that knotted his gut. She stepped out of her pants and pulled her T-shirt up and over her head in one fell swoop. Damn!
“Voilà,” she said with a bit of a smirk.
Once again, she’d caught him by surprise. She stood there in a modest one-piece bathing suit. He had been expecting a bra and panties and the little devil knew it.
That blew his “anticipate and not be caught unaware” mantra all to hell.
“I thought you didn’t have a bathing suit with you.” Somehow it was disappointing to think that she’d lied to him, even if it was just a trivial matter of clothing.
“I didn’t.” She flashed a smile his way. “I borrowed one of Skye’s.”
“Ah.” She was talking about her friend, the town doc. Skye was the redhead married to the pilot. “It’s very conservative.”
It was the same cut competitive swimmers wore, no plunging necklines or ruffles. And oddly enough, that made it all the more of a turn-on. It didn’t scream look at me, which made him look all the harder. She was compact and not exactly thin but curvy. He fisted his hand by his side, trying to keep from reaching for her. If he touched her now, they’d never make it into the water, and she wanted to experience the lake.
“It is fairly conservative, but that’s Skye.”
“What about you? Would this suit be what you had if you’d packed your own?”
“No. This isn’t anything like my bathing suit at home, but it’s probably not a bad idea to dial myself back.”
He knew she was talking about her experience with her former employer. For the short period of time he’d known her, he was already positive that none of the blame had been hers. “You have to be true to whoever and whatever you are.”
“Agreed.” She dipped her toe into the water. “Although sometimes things get so mixed up, you lose sight of just who you are.” She circled her foot into the lake, sending ripples farther out. “Ah, this is nice.”
A breeze kicked in and she crossed her arms as she waded out, moving tentatively. “I’m thinking there’s a drop-off...yes, here it is.” She began to tread water. She slipped below the surface momentarily and then emerged, her already short hair plastered to her scalp. She turned to him, laughing, exhilaration shining on her face. “Aren’t you coming in? This was your idea, after all.”
Lars stood, drinking in the sight—her laughing eyes, the smile curving her lips, her sleekness surrounded by water and highlighted by the setting sun. He snapped out of his momentary stupor. “It was my idea, wasn’t it? I guess that means I should go in.”
He pulled off his T-shirt and Delphi turned her back to him, facing the open expanse of water and the opposite shore. “What are you doing?” he said as he took off his shoes.
“Giving you some privacy.”
“I’m coming out in the water with you.” He shucked his jeans.
“I know, but—”
“You’re a nurse.” He pulled down his jeans. “Haven’t you seen it all?”
“But you’re not in a bed—”
“Why didn’t you say so sooner?” He cut her off, deliberately misconstruing her comment, teasing her, as he joined her in the lake. “That can easily be arranged.”
They both knew a bed was where they were going to wind up. The way she’d returned his kiss, the look in her eyes...
She laughed. “I meant a hospital bed. In an exam room.” She splashed him, yet one more time taking him unawares. He hadn’t counted on her playfulness. Her aim was surprisingly good—the water caught him on his lower face and shoulders.
“You’ll pay for that,” he said, as he wiped away the droplets, joining in her game.
“You’re going to get wet anyway.”
“We’ll see how you feel about that in a few seconds.” He advanced on her.
She backstroked farther out, watching him. “But I’m already wet, so there’s no need for you to do anything.”
Everything tightened, thickened and quickened inside him at their double entendre exchange. “Oh, but I want to make sure you’re really wet.”
Her glance challenged him. “I’ve taken care of it.”
“It’s just not the same. Be ready.”
“You have to catch me first.” She glided out away from him, toward the center of the lake.
“No problem. I was a competitive swimmer in high school.”
She stopped, treading water. “What? Are you serious?”
It was just the edge he needed. He caught up to her. “Nope. Psych.”
“That’s not fair.” Despite her protest, her eyes smiled at him.
“I know.” He caught her and pulled her to him. She put her hands on his shoulders, holding on. Wet skin against wet skin, her curves fit against him, causing his breath to catch.
“You’re shameless.” She, too, seemed breathless and he knew it was him, them, not the exertion.
“I like that,” he said. “Shameless goes right along with amoral. Now prepare to get wet.”
“Look. See. Already wet.” She pointed to her hair slicked against her head, as well as the fact that she was immersed in water up to her shoulders.
Nonetheless, he tightened his hands on her waist. “Take a deep breath. On three, you’re going under. One...”
She looked up at him, laughing, daring him to follow through. “You wouldn’t—”
“Two...”
“Lars—”
“Three.” He dunked her. She squealed just as she went down.
He pulled her back up. She broke the surface spluttering. “You really—”
“Uh-huh. I told you.”
She swiped the water away from her eyes. “I thought you were just psyching me again.” She pursed her delectable lips in a pout.
“You aren’t really mad, are you?”
She slid her hands to the back of his neck, cupping her palms. “I should be.”
“But you aren’t, are you?”
“I’m trying to decide.”
Good God, but he wanted her. He’d been pathetically happy simply to rest his hands on her waist, to feel the flare of her hips beneath his fingers. How could he not kiss her, here in the lake, at sunset in the middle of Alaska, a place neither of them belonged? “Well, if you’re waffling, I guess I might as well go ahead. It’ll probably tilt the scales, one way or another.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. She wrapped her legs around his waist, which brought her in even closer proximity. “If you dunk me again, you’re going under, too.”
He was already under her spell. Maybe the idea of magic wasn’t so far-fetched after all. With one arm wrapped around her, he managed to do a one-armed backstroke until he felt the lake bottom beneath his bare feet. “That wasn’t what I had in mind.”
As with the dunking, her eyes widened as he lowered his head to hers.
* * *
WARM WATER, CRISP AIR, hot kiss.
She sighed into his mouth and kissed him back. Once again, it was like kissing in a dream, but this was real. It was the most incredible experience, buoyed by the water, floating weightless, the heat of his mouth, the press of his body. Just when she thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. This kiss was like no other.
His skin was sleek beneath her arms and legs, his chest hard against her breasts. She curled her fingers against his neck, feeling the prickle of his short hair beneath her fingertips. His tongue, like a warm velvet probe, teased against her lips. Hungry for more of him, she opened her mouth. She feasted on his taste and the stroke of his tongue against her own.
Finally they broke apart, both gasping for air as surely as if they’d been underwater.
“We missed the sunset,” he said, as he swept his hands down her back to cup her buttocks.
She didn’t care. For the first time in a long time, she felt free to enjoy her sexuality. For the first time in a long time she wanted a man, this man in particular. “It seems that we did.”
The column of his throat was strong and tanned. Droplets of water clung to his skin. She leaned in closer and licked the moisture from his neck.
A shudder rippled through him and his warm breath stirred against her cheek as he sighed. “Delphi...”
He’d apparently moved far enough back so that his feet touched the ground. Hers, however, were still suspended, but he held her up.
She rested her head against his broad chest and shoulder. “This is nice.”
She felt peaceful and content in the moment. She felt like a desirable woman, something she hadn’t felt—or wanted to feel—since that episode with DeWitt. Even more important, she felt very real, very hot desire for the very tempting, very temporary Lars Reinhardt.
Something that had been dancing in the back of her consciousness ever since their embrace. She ran her hand down his side and sure enough, sleek skin gave way to fabric. Bathing suit trunk fabric. She laughed as she shook her head. “You told me you didn’t have a bathing suit either. Was that another psych?”
“I was teasing you.” He squeezed her buttocks, lifting, separating, and she felt the warm water against her bottom. He’d wanted to make sure she was wet. She definitely was.
“I see.” She dipped her finger beneath the top band of his trunks.
“Are you teasing me?” he said, even as he pulled her bathing suit bottoms up to meet in the middle, a temporary thong. He filled his big hands with her bared cheeks.
“It depends on your definition of teasing. If you’re asking am I toying with you? Not yet. Am I being playful? Absolutely. Am I insincere? Not in the least.”
“That sounds good to me.” Lars kissed her shoulder as he continued to knead and massage her skin.
His hardened penis pressed against her, between her thigh and her belly. “Actually, that feels pretty good to me....”
She hadn’t flirted like this since the incident. But she’d questioned herself a hundred times—had she said or done something that DeWitt had misconstrued? Had she possibly led him on?
Now it was as if she’d found a part of herself again—the fun-loving, flirtatious Delphi. That had been why she’d been so annoyed by Lars on the plane. She’d wanted to stay in her funk because her funk was safe, but Lars was clearly anything but safe. And now that she’d accepted that, it felt good to get back to the woman she really was. And he felt good, all six feet plus of him.
She pushed aside all the thoughts of DeWitt and the incident and brought herself firmly back to the moment.
He kissed the length of her neck and at the same time slipped his finger past the elastic of her bottoms and along her desire-slicked channel. Heat exploded inside her. She moaned and dropped her head back and to the side, giving him more access, even as she pressed downward on his marauding digit.
“And that feels really good,” she said.
Delphi was momentarily bereft when he withdrew his finger but was quickly mollified when he took her breasts in his hands.
As he rolled her nipples between his fingers, a sweet heat that had nothing to do with the lake and everything to do with the man and his touch coursed through her, culminating into a sleek want between her thighs.
The thought floated through the back of her head that she’d just met him yesterday. But it was quickly chased by the thought that it didn’t matter. All that was important was how wonderful this felt, how alive and vibrant she felt with his hands and mouth and big hard body on her and against her.
She reached between them and cupped his erection through his trunks. His breathing grew even heavier, his touch more intense.
The medical professional in her surfaced. “Lars, I’ve tested safe and I have a birth control implant. If you have issues, then let’s find a condom.” It wasn’t a deal breaker, they just had to take precautions.
“No issues. All my tests are clear.”
“Then let’s take off our suits,” she said. “Can you throw them to the bank from here?”
“No problem. Let me help you get yours off.”
“You’re so thoughtful,” she said, laughing.
He slid the straps over her shoulders. “That’s my personal mission, to be thoughtful and helpful.” He tugged them down farther and she pulled her arms out. He left it at her waist and cupped her breasts in his hands. Fire raced through her, stoked by the sensation of his calloused palms and the smooth-as-silk lapping of the lake.
Taking a deep breath, he sank beneath the water and tugged the suit down and over her hips, skimming it down her legs. She raised her right foot to lift it out of the suit. Lars braced his hand on her hip and propped her knee on his shoulder, opening her thighs.
She nearly came when he exhaled, sending air bubbles rushing against her *. It was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Another onslaught of bubbles rushed against her but this time he followed it with an intimate underwater “kiss.”
Delphi gasped and arched against his mouth. He pulled the suit down and off of her left foot and then resurfaced.
She could barely find her voice. “Lars...” She was at a loss for words. She gathered herself and said, “I can help you with your trunks but I don’t know that underwater trick.”
“Hold on.” He pulled off his swim trunks and within less than a minute both bathing suits had landed on the shore with a wet thunk. “Now...”
He skimmed her shoulders with his hands and pulled her to him. She fit against him perfectly. His hard nakedness, along with the warm water, created a sublime arousal unlike anything she’d ever experienced.
Cupping her scalp in his big palm, he found her lips with his while he wrapped his other arm about her waist. Their mouths fused together, their tongues stroking, exploring. Delphi couldn’t get close enough to him. She sucked on his tongue as she wound her leg around his lean hip, rubbing herself against his erection.
“Mmm,” she moaned into his mouth, straining against him.
He moved his hands to her hips and nudged at her slick opening with the head of his penis. Oh, my God, he felt good. She wrapped her other leg around him, taking him inside her, stretching to accommodate the width and length of him.
Delphi was frantic for more. She felt elemental and raw. Wanton. He thrust into her and she ground down onto him. His grip on her tightened and she dug her fingers into his skin, nudging him deeper and harder inside her with her feet against his backside.
A storm of desire raged inside her. Every fiber, every cell needed him to satisfy the craving he’d awakened.
Higher, tighter, she felt it coming. Her orgasm crashed through her, over her. And as if he’d been waiting for her, Lars followed.