Page 63 of Tempt Me

“Yes.” My pupils were huge. Her eyes were so dark I couldn’t tell in the mirror whether hers were too, but the way her gaze roamed over my body told me she was very, very interested in what was under my bikini.

She untied the strings at the back, then the ones at my neck, and the top dropped to the floor.

“Ooh, baby girl. You missed a spot.”

She was right. I hadn’t gone under the swimsuit like she had in the back, and the sides of my breasts each had a strip of pink where the bikini top had shifted.

“I’ll get you some aloe for that after you shower.”

“After I shower?” I tried to meet her gaze in the mirror, but hers was fixed on my body. I hoped she could ignore my sunburn and concentrate on the parts of me she wanted to touch. “I thought we’d shower together.”

Her gaze zeroed in on mine. “What would Jackson say if we did that?”

“I told you Jackson doesn’t get a say in my love life. Neither does my mother,” I added, more for my sake than hers. “Besides, I don’t talk to him about it. It wouldn’t come up.”

“You mean what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him?”

“Exactly.”

She bit her lip, the way I wanted to. No, the way I would. I turned, stretched up on my toes, and kissed her with all the hunger that had built up on the beach, exploring the sweet taste of the balsamic reduction on her tongue. Then I nipped her plush lower lip.

She groaned. “Strip. I’ll meet you in the shower.”

“I’ll wait.” I shimmied off the bikini bottoms and stepped out of them.

She scanned me all the way to my toes, then licked her lips. She grasped the hem of her cover-up and tugged it over her head. I took a mental picture of her in the white bikini, memorizing each curve, including the way her hips flared slightly over the high-waisted bottoms.

“Turn around,” I said, my voice husky. “I’ll get the fasteners.”

I released the top hook, then the one in the middle of her back and tossed it to the floor. I set my hands on her hips. “Can I?”

“Yeah.”

I hooked my thumbs into the bottom half of her suit and shimmied it down her legs. Taking a deep breath, I circled back in front of her. I took in the brown nipples that topped her small breasts, the flawless line of her taut stomach, and the trimmed triangle of hair above her sex. I wanted to explore every inch of her bare skin.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s shower all that sunscreen off.”

“And sand. Don’t forget the sand.” Why the heck was I talking about sand when I had a naked Jamila beckoning me into her huge, steamy shower?

“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll get every grain from between your toes. Hey, do you have a clip or something for your hair?”

“In my bag…” It seemed very far away at the front of the house.

“It’s okay. I’ve got you.” She pulled a shower cap from a hook on the wall, then she grasped my hair into a ponytail and coiled it on my head. It tugged a little, and I winced.

“Sorry, your hair got tangled in the wind. I’ll brush it out later.” She set the cap over my hair and tucked it behind my ears.

Grasping my hand, she led me into the shower. I turned my back to the main shower head so I could face her. She made an adjustment, and the body sprays kicked in, cold at first but quickly warming. She slid a sea sponge and a bottle of bodywash from a shelf.

“Wait. I, uh…” I dropped my gaze to the sponge.

“Is this another lobster situation? Seriously, these things are harvested sustainably. They’re more like plants than SpongeBob SquarePants.”

I wrinkled my nose.

“No problem.” She set the sponge back on the shelf. “I’ll use my hands.”

She squirted the unscented liquid into her hand and rubbed it into a lather. She started with long strokes down my neck. I shivered at the slight pressure.

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