Love?
Chapter Eighteen
Kestrel looked around at the lake surrounded by rocks and trees. Water dropped in a frothy white column emptying into the misty basin from a cliff bathed in sunlight. A family of falcons flew around it, soaking in the spray.
Only a man like Nicholas would know of a place like this. Only he would thrill her just by being with her. No other man would do. But she couldn’t be in love with him in less than a fortnight. Could she? She’d sworn off men, of which, he was one. Sooner or later, the jerk side of him would rear its ugly head.
Still, if she was staying, and it seemed as if she was, she didn’t want him to leave her. Needing him for safety wasn’t the only reason she’d consider staying with him.
She watched him, drenched in sunlight, begin to strip down to his bare and very fine ass. She didn’t have time to admire his long, shapely legs or the scars lacing the masculine flare of his shoulders. He bore scars everywhere, but before she could begin to take them all in, he dove from the basking rock into the water. Should she follow? Naked? Sex would complicate things. And she didn’t want them to be complicated.
She walked to the edge and smiled at him wading in the blue water. She began to undress. She knew she didn’t have some voluptuous body with which to bewitch him. She was thin and rather “stickish”. She could have saved for some breast surgery, but she figured a guy should love her for who she was—a woman comfortable with herself. Not because of her boobs.
She pulled off her overdress, and then her slippers while he waded in a small circle, eyeing her beneath the shadow of his brow when he came around again.
She stepped out of her chemise and stood on the basking rock in her bra and matching panties.
He looked surprised and very happy at the sight of her in her underwear. She didn’t think the lace would last much longer. It wasn’t meant to be washed every night. But the pair was all she had.
Today, it would serve as a swimsuit.
She dove into the glittering water and swam to him when she came up.
“What is this?” He slipped his wet finger under the shoulder strap of her bra. He seemed mesmerized by the elastic.
“It’s called a bra. It supports my boobs.”
He looked into her eyes and smiled. “Your boobs?”
She nodded, cupped them both, and then swam away. He swam after her and caught her by the foot.
Laughing, she let him pull her close in his arms. His gaze was warm and his smile, sensual. He didn’t say anything, he just looked into her eyes and dipped his head to cover her mouth with his.
His lips ravished her with mastery and hunger, claiming every inch of her mouth with subtle curiosity. He didn’t try to grab her breasts or squeeze her ass like so many others—but he wasn’t like any of the others.
That didn’t mean she should let herself succumb to his raw sensuality and passionate kiss.
His arms closed tighter around her as his kiss deepened, becoming more needful. His mouth broke away and he slipped one hand behind her head, cupping her neck with his long, broad fingers. He tilted her head back, spilling her liquid locks over his hand, and exposing her throat to his ravaging mouth.
She ran her palms over the sleek muscles in his arms. He felt like solid rock, yet he molded to her like a caress.
He kissed the column of her neck and then flicked his tongue and teeth against her pulse.
Her nipples hadn’t been this tight and hard in her life. She thought he must be able to feel them pressed so closely to him.
She could easily lift her legs and wrap them around his hips. He was big and strong. He could support her. She wanted to. She wanted to feel his hardness against her. She wanted to pillage him a little, too.
But she didn’t. This wasn’t her time, where people hooked up and it didn’t mean anything. If Nicholas got her pregnant and then died in battle, where would she go? What would she do? Her father wasn’t here to help. Neither were her friends. She had to try to keep a clear head.
Thankfully, he wasn’t trying to pull her out of her panties—though the thought of it made her heart accelerate. She was able to break away without a fight from him.
If he’d given her a fight, she would have left. Finding a place to live in the fifteenth century wouldn’t be as hard without a baby.
“Nicholas,” she said with a worried frown. “I don’t want us to have sex.”
“Ever?” he asked with a disheartened look of his own. “Or yet?”
“Yet,” she reassured, even as his disappointment reassured her that her wishes would be granted.
Now! she wanted to beg.
He nodded and began to swim away, then sank when she leaped on his back. She squealed with laughter when he rose up, lifted her in his arms, and flung her into the small waves.
She came back up laughing and swiped back her hair. “Let’s swim to the falls.”
He was up for it. She didn’t doubt he would be. There didn’t seem to be much that frightened him.
When they grew near, Nicholas said something, but she couldn’t hear him over the water crashing into the basin. They swam into the frothy mist and kissed some more.
“You are beautiful to me, Kestrel,” he whispered with his mouth pressed to her ear.
“And you are beautiful to me, Nicholas,” she answered, but she wasn’t sure he heard. He took her hand and pulled her away.
They swam back to the rocks and Kes heaved herself up first. Nicholas followed and disappeared behind a bush to pull on his breeches.
She was glad for the bright sun to warm her almost naked body. She might
