He pushed the door open and his heart stuttered. She was sitting on the floor, still in her bath towel, legs kicked out in front of her crossed at the ankle. Her face was a little blotchy, but other than that, there was no evidence of tears. She was tough. A fighter.
Towel still around his waist, he sat across from her and leaned back against the cabinet. “I’m sorry.”
She held her hands up. “No.”
“Stop. You wouldn’t let me apologize last time at your apartment. This time, you’re going to hear me out.”
Her mouth snapped shut.
Oh shit. He had her attention, but what the hell could he say that didn’t fuck things up worse? He hadn’t planned this out; he’d acted on impulse…like she had. That’s it. She’d spoken from her heart and he needed to do the same. “I need to explain my reaction out there.”
When she took a breath and opened her mouth, he held a finger up and she fell silent.
“I know you think it’s because I don’t want to go with you or because it’s too rushed, or I don’t like you enough, or whatever lame excuse you have for me cooked up in your head, but you’re wrong.”
He reached out and put his hand on her slender ankle next to his thigh. “There’s only one reason I won’t go…can’t go.” He rubbed his hand up to her knee and back down to her ankle before crossing his arms over his chest. “Egypt is a fucking desert. I can’t do deserts, Claire.”
Her brow furrowed, but she didn’t say anything.
“I want to be with you. It’s why I brought you here. You and I both have acknowledged this is special, am I right?”
She nodded.
“But no matter how special this is, going with you is out of the question. I swore if I got out of Afghanistan in one piece, I’d never set foot in a desert again. Well, I got out. I was lucky, but I can’t go back. Even with you.”
“Oh, God, Will. I hadn’t even thought about that.” She may not have been crying before, but whether from relief or compassion, a tear breached the rim of her eye and slid down her face. Will kissed it away and pulled her into his arms.
“This trip to Egypt is a pilgrimage for you and I think it’s important you go. The internship is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It’s not like you’re being deployed and will be cut off from email and cell coverage. Hell, you’ll probably get sick of hearing from me within a week.”
She laughed. “I doubt it.”
He took her face in his hands. “Thank you for asking me. I can’t even tell you how much that means.” He stood and helped her to her feet. “But I’d like to show you. How about joining me for a swim in the ocean?”
Will sighed with relief when she wrapped her arms around him and nodded.
Chapter Fifteen
Claire leaned back against Will’s chest while the water lapped over her legs and the last waves of passion subsided. The moonlight danced over the water in fragments, like her thoughts, pulling themselves back together after bliss had short-circuited her brain.
Will moved his hands up her body and wrapped her in his arms, pulling her higher on his lap. He ran his lips over her ear, his breath sounding like the wind off the water. His erection pushed against her back.
She shifted to look at his face. “I feel selfish.”
He barked a laugh and squeezed her tighter. “You are so self-sacrificing, you border on having a martyr syndrome. The fact that you let me focus on you and bring you pleasure is not selfish. You’re not taking anything away from me.”
He bit her shoulder and she squealed, body twisting, water splashing in all directions. The bite didn’t hurt, but it surprised her, and caused a jolt of excitement to zap right down where he’d touched her only minutes before.
“Don’t worry, Claire.” He pulled her back against him and nibbled on her earlobe. “Soon, I’ll be taking, and you’ll be giving.”
She shuddered as a pulse of desire flooded through her.
He chuckled. “You like that idea, don’t you?”
Nodding was the best response she could conjure. Her mouth was too dry to speak.
“So, pending your approval, of course, since we are equal business partners here, I propose to you that I prove that I can take as well as I can give. What do you think of that, Miss Maddox?”
His lips tasted like salt water and heaven as she turned in his arms, loving the feel of his wet, muscular body under hers. “I think we work well together, Mr. Anderson.”
Never in her wildest fantasies, even before everything went wrong in her life, had she imagined feeling like this. Relaxed, happy, sexy… Free. As they stood to go back to the house, she stared out across the water, trying to catalog the memory for later. Without her glasses, she could see fairly well, but things were a little blurry around the edges—sort of like her conviction to leave everything behind.
One thing she knew for sure was that nobody knew what the future held. For now, all she could do was live for each moment and enjoy Will to the fullest and let events unfold naturally.