‘It’s not often I’m lost for words,’ he says, his mouth quirking to one side.
‘You and me both.’ I step forward and smile, offering out my free hand and praying that my other, which clutches the rest of my clothing to my chest, is covering enough of my body beneath the sheer fabric. ‘I’m Faye. I’m here for the wedding.’
He eyes my hand, then my face, before slipping his fingers around mine and giving me a grin that steals my breath anew. His jawline really is bold, chiselled and, oh, so masculine. His facial hair is angled in such a way as to draw attention to his lips, all sensual, full and... Oh, my God, I just licked mine. I flick my eyes up. Did he notice?
Yes. Yes, he did!
There’s amusement in his depths now, amusement and fire, and his continued grasp around my hand is all warm and firm and I’m tingling everywhere. I lower my gaze and take in our handshake, that shows no sign of ending, and his torso just beyond which is as naked as I feel and dappled with hair. Manly hair. Hair that thickens as it disappears into the waistband of his trousers... I want to wet my lips again. He’s utterly delicious, and I’m practically eating him with my eyes, and—
He’s not some bloody piece of meat, Faye!
‘And you are?’ I say over my mental admonishment, forcing my eyes back to his.
‘The owner.’
‘The what, now?’ I blurt, expecting a name, not a... Oh God, he’s the owner, and I’ve just been caught swimming naked in his pool. This can’t be happening.
‘The owner...’ he repeats, releasing my hand to wave it about us, his eyes not once leaving mine ‘...of this pool, the land, the castle.’
I nod. It’s all I can manage as the embarrassment swells. But then...he doesn’t seem to mind. If anything, he’s still looking at me as though he wants to wet his lips. And I want to wet them. Their luscious curve makes me want to taste, to probe, to do all manner of X-rated things that I haven’t been inspired to think of, let alone act on, in so long.
I surprise myself by smiling, surprise myself even more when I step a little closer, a fire I’ve missed so much coming alive deep inside. ‘You have a lovely place here.’
I watch his throat bob, watch as his eyes do their little trail over my body again, and I know by the raw hunger I see flaring back at me that the damp, sheer robe has me as good as naked. And it’s not embarrassment that runs hot through my veins now, not even close...
Boring I am not, Bobby darling.
Starting right this second, I’m throwing off reserved, stuck-in-a-rut Faye. No more feeling blanketed and oppressed by Bobby, by life’s cruel twists and turns. I’m giving my instincts free rein and it feels so good.
‘Seems you can’t sleep either?’ My voice is all throaty, my inner seductress making the most of being given airtime at last.
‘I’ve not long since arrived.’
‘Been out of town?’
‘Si.’
‘Needing a swim to wash the day off?’ He’d been on his way here, after all, half-naked.
‘You could say that.’
‘Well...don’t let me stop you.’
‘I...’ He stalls, his grin slow to return, and when it does warm little flutters take off in my lower belly. ‘Okay, grazie.’
He turns away. He’s going to swim and I... I lower my arms and toss my cami set back on the cabana bed. ‘You mind if I stay a while?’
He’s midway to stripping off his trousers as he flicks me a look, his eyes burning into the robe that now clings to every damp stretch of skin. ‘No.’
He gives that grin again and nods to the bottle of fizz I’ve been nursing, and which I’ve left at the foot of the bed. ‘Make yourself at home.’
He goes back to stripping off his clothes. It’s only when his hands hook into the waistband of his boxers that I realise he’s about to be as naked as I was.
I swallow and turn away. It seems Bobby’s wife is still too close to suppress entirely, and I hear him give a soft chuckle seconds before the break of water echoes around us.
His chuckle works its way through me, teasing the old me, coaxing out the new. Hell, why did I turn away? I’m not Bobby’s wife any more. I am me. I am the person who skinny-dipped, the person who walked up to him wearing no more than this robe, and wet her lips like some needy vixen... Oh, yes.
I round my shoulders and take a breath, then turn, my eyes seeking him out. My mouth is agape and it doesn’t quite close again. I’m too caught up in the delight of a man as fit as the god Poseidon himself, slicing through the water, and he’s bronzed all over. No shame in bathing naked for this man. But then, if you owned a place such as this, why wouldn’t you swim naked when it feels as good as it does?
I smile as I make myself at home, just as he suggested, and watch him as avidly as I would any movie.
Swimming shouldn’t be a turn-on. Dancing in a club, the gyrating of hips, the roll of a very sexy body—yes. But right now...with the music of nature, the scent of the Tuscan vines, the herbs, the sea...swimming is as sexy as a striptease from the man of your dreams.
And I’m settling in for the show. My very private, one-on-one show. And wherever it will take me.
The old me, the new, they are one and the same. Bobby’s Faye is long gone.
Faye!
As in Faye Davenport, my little sister’s best friend Faye!
I speed up my stroke, swimming harder and faster as I let it
