A low gurgle sounds in her throat as she starts to come. The quake of her orgasm causes the heat surrounding my fingers to intensify. My breathing grows heavier with excitement.
I want more.
My fingers slip further, sinking lower into that warmth until I find—
Her head pops back up, eyes wide as she stares at me in shock. The first probe of my middle finger causes her to gasp.
So she is a virgin.
“Dime.” I growl. “Tu nombre.”
At this point, I want her to give me her name more than ever.
Her only response is one heavy exhale through parted lips.
I press harder, testing her. Although her eyelashes flutter like the wings of a butterfly, she sucks in a breath rather than talk. In fact, her thighs press harder into my waist. Her fingers dig into the lower part of my neck where she grips tight.
I break the threshold, slipping into the tightness beyond.
That earns me a gasp of shock.
“Dime. Quién eres?”
I sink further in, and feel her body go taut. When I gradually force another finger in to join the first, she hisses in pain. Her insides clench around my fingers, vibrating against the intrusion with tiny quivers.
My body is just as reactionary, but I stay focused. I can sense that I’m on the cusp of…something. My thumb comes up, returning to her clit, just to add more incentive.
Although her mouth releases a series of noises, none of them are coherent enough to give me an answer.
I curl my finger inside of her, massaging at just the right spot. Combined with my thumb-work, her cries are louder now, enough to sense her losing control. She rocks her body against me, moving in waves that rival the ocean.
“Dime,” I urge when I feel the first wave about to break.
She opens her eyes wide, and as the orgasm hits her, her lips part just enough to say one word, whispered into the air.
“No.”
Chapter Sixteen Leira
I let go of him, even as he grips tighter.
But that one word was enough to temporarily weaken his strength. I’m able to kick away from him, swimming for the shore again.
Stupid, stupid!
He’s quick though. In no time, he catches up to me, reaching out to grab my arm. The feel of his touch seizes me, causing my body to react almost as hard as it did when that hand was between my legs.
I still feel the mild ache of what he did throb in dangerously sensual pulses throughout my body. It’s a delicious kind of pain that only hints at a promise of what the real thing would feel like.
I hate myself for wanting it so badly.
The sangria still flowing through my veins doesn’t help. It only spawns more confusion in my head, sending my thoughts sideways and upside-down. I don’t know what’s right or wrong or what I should and shouldn’t want anymore.
I’m in shallow enough water to stand up so it only reaches to my waist. I jerk my arm but now his grip is tighter. He uses me as leverage to stand up, then twists me around to face him.
He’s angrier than ever now.
Funny how one word can do that.
But I don’t miss the way his eyes involuntarily flicker across my breasts, then down where the clear water reveals the area he just violated.
Something about that gaze has me heady with pleasure and power. No wonder Dad had me hidden away at a convent. If just looking at a woman’s body can make a man this weak and senseless, it’s a dangerous thing.
My father is the perfect example of a man’s need for control.
That thought irritates me enough to try escaping the grip this man has me in. I’m so sick of having my actions dictated by the opposite sex—dictated by anyone.
“What is it?” He hisses. “Who are you hiding from?”
That question quells my struggle. I stare at him in surprise.
How the hell does he know?
“Just as I thought,” he confirms.
I scowl at him.
The sangria. That’s why he plied so much into me. I know for a fact that I didn’t say a word, but he obviously picked something up in response to that incessant line of questioning.
“I can’t keep you safe if you don’t tell me.”
I sneer at him, making damn sure he understands the hypocrisy of that statement.
“You’re stuck with me,” he warns. “You can either be stuck and protected against whoever is after you or you can make us both vulnerable.”
This time my expression gives him a firm, thanks but no thanks.
I twist out of his grip and wade my way back to shore. I’m filled with anger and frustration and other emotions I’d rather not think about, but not enough to miss the reaction of more than a few sunbathers.
When I stripped down to my underwear, I made sure I was close enough to the water not to catch anyone looking at me. I didn’t want it to erode my confident determination to follow the example of the topless girls on the beach.
Now, even they stare at me with open awe as I emerge from the sea. The stares cause my skin to prickle and my nipples to harden again. Recalling what just happened with Ricardo in that water, our scandalous actions hidden just beneath the surface, just causes me to shudder with self-disgust and wild pleasure. The mixture is enough to make me come all over again.
What the hell is wrong with me?
I snatch up my bra, and that’s when my eyes drop enough to see that my underwear, normally as chaste and modest as, well, a nun’s, are now perfectly transparent. My dark skin only makes it more obvious. I can even see the slit that Ricardo’s fingers slipped past to explore virgin territory.
No wonder everyone is staring.
I drop the bra and quickly scramble for his shirt instead. I fumble my way into it, turning to face the safely nonjudgmental waves of the ocean as I do. My face
