against the thatch of golden hair.
As Willow’s glance followed Caleb’s, she realized that she might as well be naked from the waist up. From the waist down she was concealed as he was. Most of the time. She looked down, then glanced up in shock when the hard proof of his passion was revealed by a shift of the current.
«Easy, honey, don’t panic now. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to. Hell,» Caleb said roughly, «just kissing you is hotter than having another woman. You go to my head faster than whiskey.»
Willow took a breath, saw the narrowing of Caleb’s eyes as he watched her breasts, and remembered how it had felt to have his hands and mouth caressing her. She knew he had also enjoyed it, yet he made no move toward her now. He simply held her and looked at her with a hunger that made her weak. Despite his obvious need, he was in control of himself.
I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.
With a virgin’s serene misunderstanding of the power of passion, Willow decided that she could venture more deeply into the compelling currents that swirled between her and Caleb.
«Does that mean you want to kiss me again?» she asked, her eyes luminous.
«Yes,» he said, drawing her slowly near, «I want to kiss you, Willow.»
She tangled her fingers in his hair with a hunger she didn’t understand, impatient to feel the intimacy of his kiss once more. All he did was brush his open mouth over her, caressing her without claiming her, tasting her eyebrows and hair and cheeks, but not the lips that trembled with desire.
«Caleb,» she said finally, «I thought you wanted to kiss me.»
«I am kissing you.»
«Yes, and it’s very nice, but that kind of kissing makes me, well, restless.»
He smiled slowly. «Does it?»
The very male smile sent another lash of restlessness through Willow.
«You’re teasing me,» she accused.
«God, honey, I sure hope so.»
«But why?»
«Because I’ve never known anything sweeter than holding you like this with the water all wild around us. So if you want more than I’m giving you, you’ll have to spell it out for me. I don’t want to scare you away, Willow. I don’t want this to end for a long, long time.»
«I don’t want it to end, either,» she admitted, tracing the line of Caleb’s jaw to his chin, nuzzling the newly revealed dimple with her fingertip, then sliding down to test again the power and resilience of his shoulder. «You feel so good.»
Caleb closed his eyes and wondered how much he could take before he lost control and frightened Willow away.
«Tell me, honey. Tell me what you want.»
She looked at the harsh lines of his face, felt the tension drawing his body taut, and whispered. «Don’t you know?»
His eyes opened. The passion in their depths was like twin candle flames burning. Carefully, he bent down and bit her lower lip, making her shiver and arch closer to him, her breasts brushing his chest and her hips so close that he felt control slipping away again. Ruthlessly, he clamped down on the hunger that made his whole body rigid.
«I know what you want, but I don’t know how much,» Caleb said, biting Willow’s lower lip again. «If you ’re too shy to tell me, show me. Do whatever you want to me, however you want it. Anything, honey. Everything.»
The temptation was extraordinary, the lure irresistible. She rose to it gracefully, coming closer to the instant when escape would be not only impossible, but unwelcome.
«Whatever I want?» Willow asked huskily.
«However you want it.»
«I want it…all,» she whispered, looking at Caleb’s mouth.
With a groan, he pulled her closer and gave her what she had asked for, taking her mouth even as she took his. The kiss was like the pool itself, hot and constantly changing, teaching her how intimate a kiss could be. She pulled herself closer and yet closer to Caleb’s body, making soft sounds and flexing her hands rhythmically on his arms, testing his male strength with a hunger she couldn’t explain.
Restlessly, Willow combed her fingers through the dark hair on Caleb’s chest. When she brushed over his nipples his kiss deepened even more. Instinctively, she returned to the sensitive nubs again, intrigued by both the changing texture and the tangible response she drew from him.
Then Willow felt Caleb’s hands on her own breasts, felt him coaxing her nipples taut. Sensual lightning coursed through her body, making her moan. When his hands released her, she made a hoarse sound of disappointment.
«What?» he said against her mouth. «Tell me, Willow.»
«Again.» The word was broken, as hungry as the pink nipples pressing against the fragile fabric of her camisole. «Oh, Caleb, again.»
Long fingers moved over the ribbons on Willow’s camisole. The transparent cloth parted, floating up on the seething water.
«Lift up your hair, honey.»
She gathered up the floating strands and pulled them behind her head. When her arms lifted, her breasts were visible through the turbulent water. Caleb’s eyes narrowed hungrily as he looked at her. His lips parted, showing the white edge of his teeth, and she knew that he wanted to kiss her again, differently. She remembered how it had been to feel his tongue teasing her breasts, his teeth gently caressing, his mouth tugging on her as she changed to meet the sweet demands he made.
«Caleb,» Willow said huskily.
He looked up, afraid he would find fear in her eyes. Instead he found fire.
«Will you…kiss me the way you did this morning?» she asked.
Slowly, Caleb’s hands tightened, lifting Willow from the water until one of her breasts brushed against his mustache. He felt the shivering that went through her, tightening her nipple until it nuzzled against his lips. His tongue flicked out, circled her, drew her in, loved her until her breath broke and her fingers dug heedlessly into his shoulders. He smiled and closed his teeth around her with exquisite care. She gasped as she arched against him, twisting slowly, knowing only his mouth and the wild singing of passion deep within her body.
Caleb ached to tangle his fingers in the dark gold at the apex of Willow’s thighs, to test the sleek depths of her, to know if she needed him as much as he needed her. But when he had touched her like that before, she had panicked and begged him to stop. Now she was on her knees in front of him, astride the clenched power of his thighs, her hips moving with the rhythms of his mouth on her breast. Now he couldn’t bear to have her turn away.
His teeth closed gently on her velvet nipple once more, making her cry out with pleasure. He released her and looked at the transformation passion had wrought in her body. Her breathing was as rapid as his, her creamy breasts were flushed with heat and the loving marks of his mouth, her lips were red, trembling, and her pupils had dilated until her eyes were nearly black.
She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
«C–Caleb?»
He closed his eyes because he could not bear to look at Willow any longer without touching the silky flesh hidden between her legs.
«I–I want — more. But I don’t know — what.» Willow shivered with soft violence. «Help me, Caleb. Helpme.»
His eyes opened and a stillness came over him as he realized that Willow was telling the simple truth. She was stretched on a rack of passion and had no idea how to find release.
«The kind of touch you want from me made you panic once before.»
Caleb saw the moment of understanding break over Willow, saw her shudder and close her eyes. For the space of a long breath they remained closed. Then she took her hands, put them over his, and slowly pulled them down her body, drawing them from her breasts to her waist, skimming the deeply indented curves of her torso.
