Page 123 of Girl in the Water
“You swear.”
“I’m an ex-alcoholic ex-soldier with anger management issues. You are a brilliant woman, a lady with class.”
Her heart swelled. He’d been saying things like that to her since they’d met, treating her as if she was someone good and precious.
And then he was all surprised that she’d fallen in love with him.Men.
He helped the dress off her. She let her arms drop, didn’t try to hide herself from him.
Others had told her before that she was pretty or beautiful. He didn’t.
He gave a strangled laugh. “I’m so hard, I’m going to embarrass myself any second now, and I’m still thinking you’re too innocent to touch the way I want, that I have no right to put my hands on you—”
She slipped out of her bra, then took his hands and put them on her breasts.
He ran his thumbs lightly over her nipples. The sudden pleasure was so overwhelming, she let her head drop back and arched her spine, her breasts pressing into his touch.
He gave another strangled laugh. “Maybe we should put your top back on. I don’t know how long I’m going to last like this.”
She rocked against him.
“We should take this slow,” he rasped.
She looked at him. “Could we take your clothes off?”
He was watching her as if she was some kind of miracle. “Yeah. Sure.”
He let her go, moved out from under her long enough to strip. She lay down on the bed and watched him, her body clamoring for him to return to her.
He lay down next to her on top of the covers.
She kissed his collarbone and let her hands explore the wide expanse of his chest. She was enjoying this, just playing, so much more than she’d expected.
But soon an urgency overtook her, and both of them grew more serious, needing, wanting, then finally, joining. And then the pleasure built inside her into a giant wave, like rainwater rushing down from the jungle, and the water broke over her like a river, floated her into bliss.
Afterward, she lay soaked in happiness, tucked into his arms.
He kissed the top of her head. “Are you crying?”
She reached up to touch her cheek, felt moisture on her skin.
Ian came up on his elbow to look at her, worry in his gaze. “Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head. “It was amazing. Beautiful, and a lot more than I imagined. I want to do it every day.”
He gave a quick bark of a laugh. “I might grow old eventually.”
“I want us to grow old together,” she said.
He kissed the corner of her mouth, then whispered against her lips, “We will.”
Several minutes later, as she lay with her head on his shoulder again, she said, “You’re right. I’m a new woman. But you’re a new man too. You’re not the angry, drinking Ian that you were after Linda.”
She expected him to shut down the conversation, but he said, “I’m still angry over Linda and the boys. I shouldn’t have left her. I didn’t understand that she was feeling so bad. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive myself for not grasping that. And I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive her.”
His chest rose as he drew a deep breath. “You know, the VA sent me to a rehab place once. Hope Hill. It’s in a small town in Pennsylvania. First day there, my counselor looked me in the eye and said that I was an alcoholic with anger management issues and self-destructive tendencies.”
Daniela pressed tighter against him, holding on to him.
