“Stay where you can be seen,” Denny said, and when everyone looked at him, he turned to face them, looking unusually tense. “For safety.”
“I’ll stay in view,” Cadence said, and took off running on the sand.
Dorie felt as restless as Cadence, and she left the campfire, too, walking toward the forest, where she’d seen Christian vanish a few minutes prior.
“Hey,” Denny called out.
“Waterfalls for a shower,” Dorie called back. “I’ll scream if I need saving.”
Brandy’s gaze said she knew exactly why Dorie was going to the “shower” and who was already there, but that didn’t stop Dorie from making the climb up the rocks anyway, following the now obvious trail to the waterfall. Beneath her feet, the earth was soft and springy. No crunching leaves. Here, everything was wet and giving. Lush.
She’d come here to shower yesterday after her fall. But she’d felt too out in the open, so she’d slipped behind the waterfall. Either that hadn’t occurred to Christian, or he didn’t care, and she had to admit as she came into the Edenlike clearing and took in his long, leanly muscled body, gleaming from the soap he was spreading over himself, he didn’t have reason to care.
The man had it going on.
Being a doctor wasn’t particularly physical, but being part of a sailing crew was, and he’d honed every single muscle on his body to hard, sinewy perfection. She could have looked her fill forever, watching him gliding the soap over his torso, up and down his arms and legs, and-
She should look away, to give him his privacy if nothing else. If someone had been watching her, she’d have been mortified, but she couldn’t move, she could only stand there, tongue hanging out.
When he caught a glimpse of her, he tossed the soap to the edge of the water and put his hands on his hips. She tried to turn away, she really did. But her gaze had a mind of its own, and took itself on a happy little tour down the front of him, past his soapy, glistening shoulders, past those six-pack abs… The man really did have a world- class bod, and asinine or not, she wanted him. She could tell herself it was simply a physical reaction, or even more understandably, an adrenaline rush because of all they’d been through, but it was so much more than that.
Without a word, he turned and dove into the water, just beneath the waterfall, and she let out a long, shaky breath, fanning her face.
Didn’t help.
Then he unexpectedly surged out of the water near her feet like a merman, making her squeak in surprise and fall backward to her butt into the shallow water.
“If you wanted to join me,” he said. “You only had to say so.”
Sputtering, the cold water seeping into her clothes, she shoved her hair from her eyes. The water was only a foot deep, but sitting in the soft sand beneath it like she now was, it lapped just beneath her breasts. “You scared me.”
“Really? Because you don’t look scared, you look turned on.” He glided in, only his head out of the water as he slid his hands up her legs, opening them so that he could swim between them, gaze level with her belly.
She opened her mouth to remind him that hey, they weren’t doing this, but he spoke. “Your head okay?”
“Better.”
“Where is everyone?” His shoulders held her legs open to him as his hands skimmed up to her waist, then up her ribs…
“Um-”
“Occupied?” Dipping his head, he used his jaw to nudge down the skinny strap of her top, while his hands slid beneath, warm against her drenched skin.
“Um… yes. Occupied.”
“Good.” His fingers fisted in the thin material of her tank, and then tugged.
Her breasts popped out. Palming them, he smiled, then gently scraped his beard-roughened jaw over a bared nipple.
He opened his mouth on her, his tongue hot, a sharp, sensual contrast to the cool water.
“Look at you,” he murmured, bending his head to take in his own long, tanned fingers on her pale, pale breasts. “So beautiful.”
As she’d noticed before, when angry or aroused, his French accent deepened, and she had to admit, his voice alone could make her weak in the knees. She was so weak in the knees now, she couldn’t have stood to save her life.
But apparently, standing wasn’t going to be necessary. Mouth still on her breasts, his hands slid down her legs, and then back up again, taking the material of her wet and clinging skirt with them.
“Christian.”
He didn’t answer. He was too busy scooting her back so that only her legs were in the water, then slipping his thumbs in the edging of her panties.
He tugged, then tossed her underwear aside, where they landed next to the soap.
He lifted his head and met her eyes. “Yes?”
At the look in his eyes, her toes-still in the water-curled in anticipation. “Um…”
Again he bent his head, kissing her inner thigh, her hip.
Low on her belly.
Then ground zero. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she gave herself up to the sensations of being taken… cool water, warm sun, hot tongue…
And when he’d drawn her right out of herself with shocking ease, she lay back on the bank of the lagoon, blinking up into the sky, blown away by what he did for her.
To her.
She rolled to her side and found him lying next to her on his back. Turning his head, he met her gaze, his own hot and hungry.
“I still have the condoms in my purse.” He was hard, jutting straight up into the sky she’d just been studying.
“I’m really starting to love that purse.”
“I’ll get them, but first…” Smiling, she leaned over him.
He stared at her. “I like that expression.”
“Good.” Bold in a way she’d never ever been before in her life, she ran a finger down the chest and abs she’d wanted to nibble at. And then indulged herself, replacing her fingers with her mouth.
As in most things, she felt clumsy. A little uncertain. But bolstered by the way Christian’s chest rose and fell, as if he’d been running for miles, she thought maybe she was doing okay, so she kept going, spreading open-mouthed kisses from one hip to the other, and then…
In-between. She ran her tongue down his hot, silky length and then back up again, and with a low, rough groan, his hands embedded in her hair, he rocked his hips to her rhythm.
He liked it. Good to know. She decided to see what else he liked, and opened her mouth on him.
Another one of those low, rough groans escaped him, and again his hips lifted.
He liked that, too.
Maybe she was getting the hang of it after all…
“So much for not doing that again,” Dorie managed.
Christian’s response was a wordless groan.
They were both lying beneath the waterfall. He’d pulled on a pair of board shorts. She’d straightened her wet clothing. Her heart was finally slowing to its normal pace after a very aerobic workout that hadn’t involved exercising so much as more of that yummy, wild, island sex.
Which, she figured, was even better than a typical workout, because it’d left a stupid grin on her face. No gym ever did that.
