A tiny moan of pleasure leaked from her throat.
A louder one rumbled from the chest of the man sitting on the rock. “Ah, fuck it. Just tell me.”
Turn around. See where my hand is. Where I want yours.
But to say it felt far too intimate, which was odd since her mouth was trained for boldness.
“I’m trying to wash my back.” She was fully aware of how dumb that sounded, how romantically manipulative, but since she’d been conditioned to own what she said, she let it hang there.
His back straightened. “Don’t strain yourself. The wound could open up again and bleed. Here, let me help.”
Yes. Her hand tightened on her breast, the nipple hard in the center of her palm. She held her breath, wanting him to turn, to strip out of those clothes, and slip into the water right in front of her. Wanting his hands on her. Her eyes drifted closed with the fantasy, with anticipation.
Then something did touch her—something cool and wet and refreshing—but it wasn’t Griffin.
Her eyes flew open to see the waterfall pulling away from the rock face, defying gravity. Scant droplets turned to a steady shower as the small waterfall poured over her spot in the center of the pool. She stood up, rising above the surface, and let the water rain down, flattening her hair down her back and sluicing over every inch of her body. It beat down upon her, cleaning her and making her feel impossibly dirty within the same second.
She felt Griffin’s presence within the water that cascaded over her, even if it wasn’t him exactly. Smiling, catching a mouthful of water, she looked over at him. He sat motionless, his back still to her, hands on his knees. His magic literally surrounded her.
Just like when he used to move inside her, and she and her magic had surrounded him.
“If you can’t see me,” she said, “how do you know where to send the water?”
“I can always feel you. Remember?”
Oh yes. She remembered.
The thought of it pulled her out from under the enchanted waterfall and sent her feet sliding across the slippery stones at the bottom of the pool. Toward him. The surface of the water only touched her mid-thigh, and when she reached the edge of the pool, she was markedly aware of her nakedness. She was Chimeran, where the body in all its faults and beauty was revered and never shamed, but just then, standing behind a clothed Griffin as he stared ahead at the curtain of mist enclosing them, she wanted to be noticed. By him and only him.
Standing this close, she observed things about him she never had before. The series of short white scars above his left elbow. The freckle above the neckline of his T-shirt. It nestled in a paler strip of skin that seemed to have been exposed by a recent haircut.
The urge to reach up, run her hands over his scalp, twist his head around, and claim his mouth with hers was so powerful she had to clasp her hands behind her back.
“I’m done,” she said.
He jumped and swiveled, only to see her standing naked and dripping not two feet away. The magic waterfall slapped back against the rock, sending a brand new splash across her bare back. The mist veil wavered. He pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand and made a face like he’d been kicked in the gut.
“Didn’t meant to scare you.” She cocked her head. “I thought you could feel me.”
As his hand dropped, he looked into her eyes. “I thought I might’ve just been imagining you getting closer.”
“Because you wanted me to be?”
His Adam’s apple made a long, slow undulation in his throat. “Yes.”
To his credit, he never once looked away from her face, and she found that more erotic than almost any brand of touch or kiss or dirty word.
The waterfall splashed and gurgled behind her, a soft, tantalizing sound.
“Your turn to get in?” she asked. “I promise I won’t look.”
His eyes searched her face for two seconds, and then three, and then she lost count.
Suddenly he popped to his feet, towering high above her, her eyes level with his knees. Quickly, nearly frenzied, he whipped off his shirt, not caring that it landed in a puddle. Keko felt her breath catch, her fire flaring in response to the sight of the stunning, sweat-streaked chest above. Then he pushed his hands into the waistband of his shorts and shoved them and his underwear down. They pooled around his ankles and he just stood there, gloriously dirty and naked.
And undeniably hard.
With the tiniest of shrugs, it was as though he dared her to take him all in. He seemed to say: See what you do to me?
“How very Chimeran of you,” she said.
The excitement of seeing him again in this way swept through her body, cranking up her desire to a wild blaze. Heat pulsed below her skin and small tendrils of steam curled around her body. The sight of the steam made his nostrils flare and she couldn’t deny how much she enjoyed his reaction.
Before, three years ago, they’d grabbed each other and fucked whenever they’d had a moment alone. A swift attack, hands everywhere, quick and furious penetration. Intense, fiery orgasms. Now, however, they were just . . . looking.
He threw a pointed glance at his erection. “The second I get in that cold water, this’ll die.”
One corner of her mouth curved upward. “I can help with that.”
She turned, sinking shoulder deep into the water and resting her back against the rock. Taking a Chimeran breath, she stoked her inner fire and released all of it through her skin. The water instantly warmed, but she had to keep feeding it heat because of the waterfall.
She lifted her face up to Griffin. “Bath’s ready. You don’t want to touch me though, unless you want to get burned.”
“Maybe I do.”
But as he stepped down into the pool, he gave her a wide berth. To remain true to her word not to look, she gave him her back and set her forearms and elbows on top of the rock.
She wouldn’t look, but she would listen. And she would imagine.
The sound of him moving through the water, the rasp of his hands over his skin and the stubble on his face, the trickle of his element through his hair, made her desperately want to be Ofarian. To give up her fire just for a minute. She would swirl all around him, tease him, taste him in new ways.
Maybe that was exactly what he was doing to her now, because the easy touch of the water surrounding her body suddenly felt different. Controlled. Absolutely sensual. She closed her eyes and gave herself up to it, imagining that it was actually Griffin’s liquid fingers slowly coiling like rope around her ankles and calves. Moving up, up, up to the parts of her thighs that made her quiver with want. Running back and forth across her clit. It was Griffin’s liquid hips that lapped against her ass. It was Griffin’s liquid hands that slid around her ribcage and stretched for her nipples.
The water promptly stilled, as no churning pool of water below a fall ever should. The seductive ebb and flow over her body receded, and she bit back a small sound of anguish in the wake of its absence. The mist still shifted and shimmered overhead, but it was the complete silence, punctuated only by Griffin’s harsh, ragged breathing, that had her spinning around in the water.
He was a hard statue made of bronze and dripping with the element he owned. Any tease or denial had vanished from his eyes. His mouth was set with clear intent.
“Turn off your fire,” he growled. “I’m coming for you.”
• • •